Ryan's Table

Ryan Tatsumoto Hawai‘i Herald Columnist After experimenting with a number of smokers I’ve picked up over the years, I realized that each has its own upsides and downsides. For instance, only one of the three smokers can cook a full cut of beef brisket, and only one does not need a fan to circulate the....

Ryan Tatsumoto Hawai‘i Herald Columnist The Japanese celebrated the “Year of the Boar” earlier this week. In a little over a month, however, the rest of Asia will celebrate the “Year of the Pig.” So, to be all-inclusive, let’s just say that 2019 is the “Year of the Porcine.” No matter that they are the....

RYAN'S TABLE BY Ryan Tatsumoto The Mrs. and I have been on a sushi binge for the past couple of months. About three or four times a year, we head over to Mitch’s Fish Market and Sushi Bar in the airport industrial area for a couple of reasons: their super-fresh seafood and their BYOB policy,....

RYAN'S TABLE BY Ryan Tatsumoto The local food movement known as Hawaii Regional Cuisine started almost 30 years ago. Some of its principals are just as well-known today as they were back in the day. For example, if you told a colleague that you planned on sampling the cuisine of a chef named Roy, nearly....

RYAN'S TABLE BY Ryan Tatsumoto “Time to light a fire . . .” That’s what celebrity chef Roger Mooking proclaims on every episode of “Man, Fire, Food” as he is about to light the coals. Although nature’s thermostat has moved several degrees higher these past few months, that is the only proclamation I need to....

RYAN'S TABLE By Ryan Tatsumoto As Andy Warhol said in 1968, “In the future, everyone will be world famous for 15 minutes.” Well, my time in the spotlight lasted a little more than 15 minutes. Actually, it lasted for two 30-minute sessions at the eighth annual Northern California Soy and Tofu Festival. If you didn’t....

RYAN'S TABLE BY Ryan Tatsumoto No, this column isn’t about trekking deep into the rainforest to pick pohole, those succulent fiddlehead fern shoots on a Saturday. Nor does it involve hiking the Jackass Ginger trail in Nu‘uanu for fresh pepeau (wood ear mushrooms) and takenoko (bamboo) shoots. It does, however, involve that dreaded drive over....

RYAN'S TABLE BY Ryan Tatsumoto The end of April marked the beginning of a new story — a story about the realization of a dream that took root more than two decades ago. Long before his career took him on a triangular journey between the 50th; Seattle, Wash., and the Bay Area, Chef Kelly Degala....

RYAN'S TABLE BY Ryan Tatsumoto What condiment do you find on dining room tables in Hawai‘i almost as often as shoyu? A good guess would be home-concocted chili pepper water — you know, that suspension of ground Hawaiian chili peppers mashed with salt or sometimes fresh garlic or vinegar and usually stored in either a....

RYAN'S TABLE BY Ryan Tatsumoto When I look in the mirror every morning and spot another white hair in my goatee, or notice that the hair atop my head looks a bit thinner, or when I wake up with body aches from unknown causes, I always chalk it up to the unwanted consequences of aging.....