I like to start the new year with a review of what I didn’t get done in the old year. Keeps me humble. But it’s also a useful practice, as I often uncover help with my undone tasks.
I speak here of the perpetual recipe hunt. Every year, I collect a dozen or so requests that go into my hope-springs-eternal file, as they are for dishes served in restaurants or cafeterias long ago. I mean long, long, long ago.
Maybe I’ll find them. Probably I won’t.
This year, though, I’d like to start with a request received just this holiday season, for a party mix that apparently has been making the rounds — although no one has given me any yet.
The mix is made with animal crackers and has a furikake coating similar to the ubiquitous furikake Chex mix. If you know how to make this, or have some that you are willing to share for the purposes of recipe science, my contact information is below. I feel confident someone out there holds the key.
But now onto the harder stuff. The requests that follow came from readers of this column who’ve been yearning for dishes they can no longer buy. If you can help, please get in touch. If you don’t have the actual recipe but can lead me to someone who does, lead away. You’ll still be a hero.
But if you have a tested recipe, you’ll be a mega- hero. A free cookbook goes to anyone who provides one of those.
The mystery dishes:
>> Bread pudding served at a bakery in Manoa called Sweet Thoughts which closed a few years ago.
>> Barbecue ribs from the old Coral Reef Restaurant at Ala Moana Center, Asian in style but not char siu ribs.
>> Split pea soup or the chicken Caesar pasta dish from Scoozie’s at Ward Centre. Or, for that matter, the chicken salad or stromboli (a turnover filled with cheese and cold cuts).
>> A butter roll with a custard topping from 9th Avenue Bakery in Kaimuki. I get requests related to that bakery all the time and have never met with success, but I’ll keep asking because someday I will get lucky.
>> Mahimahi fish-and-chip sandwich from the old Flamingo restaurant (not available at the current Flamingo takeout restaurant at Moanalua 99 (formerly Ranch 99).
>> A local-style peach Bavarian cake.
These NEXT requests are in a special class, for old favorites from school cafeterias. The schools are still there, but the cafeteria managers who held the key to these particular desserts are gone:
>> Apple crisp from Royal School, circa 1959-1965.
“That was the most memorable item on the school lunch when I attended that school, and I would love to be able to make it when I attend potlucks,” writes Barbara Asato.
>> Chocolate chip cookies from Kaimuki Intermediate School, from the mid-’90s. Stacie Ige says they were pale in color, at last a half-inch thick, flaky, dense and buttery.
“It’s been over 20 years, and I can still remember how delicious they tasted!”
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