Final respects to Colin Nishida, and a last recipe

When I inherited this food-writing gig, I also inherited a pile of reader requests. A number were for the pork chops and fried rice at a hideaway I’d never heard of called Side Street Inn.

This was back at the turn of the century and I knew nothing of this place. It looked to me — I’m sorry to admit now — like a dive.

Then I met Colin Nishida, Side Street’s owner, chef and all-around godfather. And I tasted his food, quickly becoming, like so many in this town, a convert.

Colin died on Feb. 25, and I’ve been reliving that first Side Street visit in my mind since the sad news started circulating last week.

Colin let me come into his kitchen and watch him make the pork chops and the fried rice. He said he didn’t have recipes, so if I wanted one I’d have to write everything down as he did it.

It also happened to be a night when a dozen or so of his chef friends showed up to celebrate Roy Yamaguchi’s 42nd birthday. Side Street — tucked away on Hopaka Street not far from Ala Moana Center, a smoke-filled (you could smoke in bars in 1999), nondescript place — was their favorite hangout, they said. They came just about every week.

The party lasted for hours. Many shots of vodka were consumed. Yamaguchi and his buddy Alan Wong belted out “Chotto Matte Kuda­sai” into karaoke mikes. And Colin brought out plate after plate after plate of food.

I went home thinking, “Man, this job is great.”

Colin made everyone feel like his closest friend, even an ignorant beginning food writer. It was his gift. I doubt he liked me any more or less than any other media person, but I always felt special.

“He just wanted to take care of people and make people feel good, which is a great thing,” Yamaguchi told me last week.

Over the years Colin also gave me (or demonstrated) his recipes for chicken gizzards, spicy fried chicken, oxtail soup and cornflake chicken.

Once we were paired up to make a dish for a dinner at 3660 on the Rise.

Our dish involved foie gras and was delicious, which is all I remember about it, mainly because the only thing Colin let me do was tie bunches of herbs for the garnish. Well, also because we drank so much Champagne I couldn’t feel my feet.

Not that I’m proud of that, but I was proud of the dish. He showed me that night that he could make fancy food, too.

I wanted to say goodbye to Colin with a recipe, the greatest way to remember a great cook. I’m not picking the famed fried rice or pork chops — those dishes are as much about technique as they are about formula, and I doubt if you make them at home they’ll taste the same.

The one I’m sharing again is Colin’s recipe for cornflake chicken, which he learned from his mom.

“That was the first thing I learned how to cook,” he said. “You know, come home from school, you cook rice and then you roll the chicken and put ’em in the oven.”

My mother made a version of this dish, too: Chicken pieces rolled in mayonnaise and cornflakes.

“It’s the mayo, I tell you,” Colin said. “Everything tastes good in mayo.”

His bottom line, the one I’ll remember him for: “Why make life any more complicated? The simple things are the best.”

SIDE STREET INN CORNFLAKE CHICKEN

By Colin Nishida

• 8 chicken thighs (about 3 pounds)
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• Pepper, to taste
• 3 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese
• 1/2 cup mayonnaise
• 4 cups cornflakes, slightly crushed

Heat oven to 375 degrees.

Sprinkle chicken on both sides with salt, pepper and cheese. Coat in mayonnaise, then roll in cornflakes. Place on baking sheet. Bake 45 minutes, until juices run clear. Serves 4.

Approximate nutritional analysis, per serving (without skin): 550 calories, 31 g total fat, 6 g saturated fat, 175 mg cholesterol, 675 mg sodium, 24 g carbohydrate, 1 g fiber, 2 g sugar, 41 g protein. Approximate nutritional analysis, per serving (with skin): 880 calories, 64 g total fat, 15 g saturated fat, 240 mg cholesterol, 700 mg sodium, 24 g carbohydrate, 1 g fiber, 2 g sugar, 50 g protein.

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