I have two things to report: First, our annual “By Request” Top 5 recipe offer earned just over $6,500 for the Honolulu Star-Advertiser’s holiday charity. Second, it’s time for some new recipes.

More than 1,000 people sent in $5 each for a collection of the best recipes from this column in the last year. Several added extra cash — up to $100 more — and all the money went to the Good Neighbor Fund, which provides help to families in need through Helping Hands Hawaii. Thanks to everyone for your generosity. Orders received after the deadline of Dec. 14 were filled last week, so if you didn’t get your set by now, call me and I’ll send you another .

THE RECIPE TRAIN CHUGS ALONG

Moving on, this column survives on a back-and-forth with those who read it. Often the best recipes come from home cooks who have a recipe I just haven’t been able to find myself. Last year’s furikake animal crackers fell into that category — it was the latest in the Chex Mix style of snack foods but hadn’t yet entered my orbit. Several readers came up with the recipe and after it was published I got more requests for reprints than for any other recipe in 2018 (it made the Top 5, of course).

This year I have another recipe mystery that I am sure someone out there can solve. It’s for a Filipino rice cake topped with butter mochi. Sarah Sugimura wrote that she had some at a funeral and bought some at a craft fair. “It is delicious and I was wondering if anyone had the recipe and would be willing to share it,” she wrote. She even included a picture.

I haven’t seen this dessert at a funeral or anywhere else for that matter, but something tells me it’s going to ring a bell with a home baker out there. Please get in touch.

MORE MYSTERIES WORTH SOLVING

My inbox is full of requests for recipes that hark to restaurants long gone. I offer a cookbook from our Crave stash to anyone who can come up with one of these long shots, or can direct me to the old owners:

>> The Barrows family, emailing all the way from central Tennessee, frequented the old Waikiki Lau Yee Chai when they lived in the islands, and always ordered the Chinese chicken salad. They’ve tried many Chinese chicken salads, but say Lau Yee Chai’s had a unique flavor — “so different and a very clean taste.”

>> Another reader recalls fondly the salt and pepper pork chops served at Lung Fung Chinese Restaurant in Niu Valley (she also recalls that the hostess was named Marlene). The chops came with a sweet, vinegary sauce “so yummy you could have eaten cardboard with it.” Lung Fung was a mainstay in Niu Valley for 40 years, changing hands twice. It closed last year. Our anonymous reader says the dish changed over time — she is looking for the version with the sauce that was on the menu in the 1990s.

>> Clyde Hirata misses the macaroni salad served at Washington Saimin Stand, which closed in 2003. “It had bits of carrots, cabbage, some round onion and always came in that little silver bowl.”

>> Sheri Luke seeks to re-create the okara served at Hata Restaurant, a Japanese spot in Moiliili that closed last year. “They made the best,” she said.

>> Shelley Choi says the oyako donburi served at the now-shuttered Your Kitchen in Palolo was the best she’s ever had, although she can’t quite pinpoint the seasoning that makes it so special.

>> Charlene Smith says she is desperate to re-create the haupia cake she bought in the 1990s from Craig’s Bakery in Kailua. She’s tried many other cakes and recipes but can’t match the simple white cake with haupia filling and frosting — and no shredded coconut. “It’s either too gelatinous or lacks that creamy consistency and flavor that Craig’s had.”

Write By Request, Honolulu Star-Advertiser, 7 Waterfront Plaza, Suite 210, Honolulu 96813; or email requests to bshimabukuro@staradvertiser.com.