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

"There wasn't much refrigeration in the islands early on," he notes. Thus, early Polynesian and Hawaiian cuisine incorporated marinades and salts to cure foods, he says, referring to such traditional Hawaiian dishes as lomi lomi salmon, which is chopped, cured with sea salt and mixed with tomatoes and onions.

The Polynesian and Hawaiian styles of cooking are very family oriented, in terms of sharing food, Window says. "We also have this tapas sharing style at the restaurant," he notes. "About 70 percent of our food sales are tapas, and people often share entrees."

One of the best sellers at the restaurant is a Polynesian crab stack layered with mango pea shoots, cucumber, tomato, red onion, peanuts and avocado and served with spicy ginger-lime dressing.

"Pacific Rim cuisine is geared toward a California diet," Window observes. "The preparations are light and refreshing, and the flavors aren't too overpowering."

In Milwaukee the fine-dining restaurant Sanford has found that "Asian-region dishes have become huge sellers for us," according to chef-owner Sanford D'Amato. "That's just the way that people are eating. It's lighter and a little more focused on disparate regional tastes." says. "They call up as they're coming in on the boats with mahi mahi or whatever they've caught, and I'll tell them to come right into the dining room with the fish, right in front of the customers," McDonald says. "People like to know the fish they're getting is fresh."

At Pacific'O the best-selling dish is the "coconut-and-macadamia-nut-crusted catch," fresh fish seared and glazed with a light sweet-and-sour sauce and served with Thai peanut-coconut sauce and tropical fruit salsa. "It's been on the menu for 10 years, and it's still the most popular dish," McDonald says. "People just go gaga over it."

Other customer favorites include crispy coconut-rice rolls filled with seared scallops, arugula pesto and yuzu-lime sauce and a seared fish salad that is served over wilted arugula and bean sprouts and topped with warm avocado, Maui onion salsa, goat cheese, macadamia nuts and soybacon vinaigrette.

D.K. Kodama, the Hawaii-based chef-restaurateur of Sansei Seafood Restaurant & Sushi Bar, who operates several units in the island state, describes his food as "Japanese-based Pacific Rim cuisine" that is "ingredient-driven, not oversauced or overseasoned." (Continued on bottom of page 96)

The "contemporary ethnic" cuisine at Sanford "represents different countries and regions, but we don't cross-culturalize the food," D'Amato says. Recent offerings include a lavender honey roasted pig with spiced banana puree, a pea and shrimp dumpling served over chilled green papaya salad and green curry dressing, and garnished with glazed long beans and plantains. In another dish, Pacific pompano is marinated in sakemirin glaze and seared until the marinade caramelizes. It is served with chilled soba noodles, greens and toasted-sesame dressing.