Not your mama's luau: trend in Pacific Rim cooking taps regional ingredients, new preparations to update cuisine

Nation's Restaurant News, June 14, 2004 by Erica Duecy

Whether you call it Asian fusion, Euro-Pacific or regional Hawaiian cuisine, the flavors of the Pacific Rim are appearing in updated, elevated forms at restaurants around the country. The kitschy pineapple boats, deep-fried seafood and sugary sauces once popular at island-inspired eateries are giving way to fresh, authentic preparations that showcase the bounty of the region.

In contemporary interpretations of Pacific Rim cuisine, regional ingredients, including Pacific fish, tropical fruits, nuts, indigenous herbs and spices, take center stage. Even Trader Vic's, an outpost of Polynesian-inspired tiki cuisine for 70 years, has lightened up its menu to reflect the trend.

At Roy's, the 18-unit Pacific Rim-Hawaiian fusion chain, a joint venture of chef-restaurateur Roy Yamaguchi and Tampa, Fla.-based Outback Steakhouse Inc., the menu recently was expanded to include sushi at the chain's unit in Newport Beach, Calif. The updated menu features such sophisticated ingredients as truffle oil and lobster essence.

But whether such Pacific Rim cuisine is served at a chain or one of many fine-dining independents, don't call it "Polynesian cuisine," practitioners of the multitermed cooking style say. Polynesian cuisine connotes both kitschy cuisine and traditional dishes that use indigenous ingredients and cooking techniques, they note.

The Polynesian Island region is composed of the Hawaiian Islands, Samoa, Tonga and the islands of French Polynesia, including Tahiti, according to The Columbia Encyclopedia.

In its traditional context, "when people talk about Polynesian cuisine, they're talking about the food you find at a luau," says James McDonald, executive chef of Pacific'O and I'O restaurants on Maul. Luaus are the traditional Hawaiian feasts that celebrate the cuisine, songs and dances of the islands. Traditional Hawaiian specialties include slow-roasted kalua pig and poi, a fermented taro root paste that is eaten with the fingers, McDonald says.

At Trader Vic's today a core set of dishes compose 60 to 70 percent of the menu, with the remaining selections developed by chefs at each unit, says Hans W. Richter, president and chief executive of the Corte Madera, Calif.-based chain. "Even the classic dishes have been restyled with new ingredients and presentations during the past few years," he says.

One example is the Indonesian-spiced leg of lamb, which previously was served with chutney and a side of canned peaches. The dish was updated three years ago and now includes a side of curried rice noodles and grilled pineapple, Richter says.

Local additions to the menu vary by unit. Recent offerings at the Trader Vic's in Emeryville, Calif., are chili-marinated halibut wrapped in a banana leaf and drizzled with cilantro oil, Hawaiian pork chop served with Maui onion marmalade and heirloom tomato salad with Thai basil and vinaigrette.

McDonald of Pacific'O and I'O notes that "contemporary Pacific Rim cuisine is a blending of all the cultures we have in Hawaii."

In addition to immigrants from the Polynesian Islands who have populated the island for centuries, "we have immigrants who came in the early days to work in the sugarcane and pineapple fields--people from the Philippines, Japan, China and Korea," McDonald says. "The common thread these people had was cooking. So you combine that with a little aloha, a culture of sharing, and people start trying out new ingredients and new techniques."

A trademark of contemporary Pacific Rim cuisine, he says, is the fresh products that are used. Although produce is widely available on the island and can be flown in daily from the mainland, McDonald and his partners in Pacific'O and I'O operate an eight-acre farm in the hills of Maui to help ensure they are getting flesh product.

"All of our lettuces come from the farm," McDonald says. "We have 20 varieties of greens." Other crops include strawberries, snow peas, edible wildflowers, parsley, fennel and golden beets.

In addition, "I have fisherman who go out every day for me," he "The main thing is not to mess with the natural flavor of the product," he says. "The challenge is to enhance the flavor without masking it."

Some of Kodama's favorites on the menu at Sansei include a fried-calamari salad with mesclun greens tossed in chile paste vinaigrette and served in a crispy wonton basket. Another dish, the Asian rock shrimp cake, is similar to a crab cake but made with shrimp and crusted with crispy Chinese noodles, drizzled with ginger-lime-chili butter and cilantro pesto.

Stephen Window, executive chef of the La Jolla, Calif., fine-dining restaurant Roppongi, is another practitioner who has helped elevate Pacific Rim cuisine during the past decade. He worked as a chef in Hawaii and in the Philippines for a decade in the late '80s and early "90s and then under Roy Yamaguchi at Roy's in the Seattle Westin hotel, before opening Roppongi in 1998.

According to Window, "the evolution of Hawaiian cuisine has a lot to do with technological advances like electricity and jet air travel.