Brad Goes on a Hawaiian Food Tour

Come on show us what you got, strut it for me baby.

[upbeat music]

Hey guys today in Goin' Places for our final episode

in Hawaii, we're gonna be doing some local picks.

You know recommendations that we picked up

from friends along the way down here in Hawaii.

One of them being out in the Big Island

was the Original Big Island Shave Ice Co.

Second we're gonna meet up with Rico's pick

Tamura's Market and do some poke.

And lastly we're gonna be heading over to k...

[clearing throat]

Let me get the card.

Ka-ah-ina.

Ka'aha'aina.

Aha.

Ka'aha.

Aha.

Ka'aha.

Ka'aha.

Ka'aha'aina.

And then lastly we're gonna be going over to.

[clearing throat]

And then lastly we're going over to--

Ka'aha'aina Cafe.

Meet up with Mark, get into some of his cooking.

It's gonna be great you know, we're gonna get

into some stuff that you're not gonna find

off the tour bus, off the beaten path.

We're gonna get on the road, drive around

and start checking them out.

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Yeah!

[laughing]

You got him?

[Cameraman] Yeah I got him.

[upbeat music]

Ah there's no thing.

There's no clip you know.

They cut that off.

You know, what you do sometimes, this car don't have it

'cos it sucks but you take the little screw cap

and you jam that right in there and it holds it no problem.

Hey no we're heading over to the

Original Big Island Shave Ice Co,

it was big dog Justin Lee's pic

and super excited to learn about it.

Never had shaved ice and can't wait to try.

So shave ice, I mean.

How is it?

How do you make it?

This is our family style shave ice.

One you're gonna notice is the cut of ice is different.

So what you'll see is

the texture of the ice, the flavoring and the presentation.

All down yeah.

So it's a fine art.

Yeah, yeah sounds it.

[laughing]

How'd you get into shave ice?

Well it all started with my mom.

She started it in 1957, 18 years old

and she wanted to be an entrepreneur

and basically her and my dad started off

with a lunch wagon that had shave ice.

Because we're part of history on the west side

with the shave ice, we're gonna keep the

traditional stuff and then add our own

natural fruit stuff and give the people a choice.

It's kinda got that nostalgia to it you know.

Yes.

It's that tradition, it's that memory.

It's our history.

It's our family, that's what it is.

It's our family.

Ah well that's a beautiful thing.

Shall we see how it's made?

Sure.

Oh how tall are you?

[Brad] Six, four.

Six, four.

[laughing]

I'll go I--

Maybe you gotta lean on the freezer,

you gotta sit on the freezer.

[Brad] All right well then I can hope in.

[Reggie] Yeah, yeah hop in, hop in.

[Brad] So it's all in the blade?

You know, how that--

It's in a lot of different stuff.

[laughing]

Could be a trade secret.

That's it, that's our secret.

[laughing]

Oh wow so this is all your different syrups?

From naturals to traditionals to some cream based ones.

Do you guys make the natural flavors?

Yes, all scratch, all scratch.

And then the specialty flavors also.

So just clean up the edges?

Yeah we clean it up yeah.

And we aerate it with some holes because ice is so fine.

Some saturation holes?

Some saturation that's it.

This is a banana.

Okay.

Strawberry.

[Brad] Look at that thing.

This here is a traditional rainbow.

I'd say so.

Plenty of those in Hawaii huh?

Plenty of those.

You know, not too much people can take a product

and do it like this on a shaved ice.

Okay.

Look how smooth it is.

It's almost like a slush. It looks so good.

Yeah.

It takes time because it's so fine.

So that's why you put a pretty good amount

and you can actually take your time to eat it.

The texture's awesome.

It reminds me growing up, I'm from New Jersey,

they have like Italian ice.

Right, right.

It reminds me like that but like the texture here

I think you guys got 'em beat.

[Reggie] Are you ready for the next flavor?

We'll put together an almond joy,

there's a scoop of vanilla ice cream on the bottom.

[Brad] That's like a monster sundae you know.

[laughing]

There ya go.

Look at that huh.

That goes together pretty well.

It becomes like a whole new texture.

Different yeah.

And they just kinda like marry together.

Yeah.

Is that a traditional thing or is that a new age riff?

It was first came out, just came out with just

plain shave ice and then the scoop of vanilla came second.

Somebody comes and asks for a strawberry shave ice

with adzuki beans and ice cream,

don't pull out this natural fruit strawberry.

They want that.

They want this.

They want that traditional flavoring

that they're raised with.

Right right.

When they were kids.

It's interesting how you know, people eat

through their memories you know, and it brings them back

to being a kid or whatever it reminds them of.

Their grandma giving it to them after school or something.

So I liked root beer floats growing up.

So that's why there's a root beer float, the traditional.

So I like the traditional, old traditional root beer float.

[Brad] That's always gonna be on the menu.

That's gonna be on the menu.

[laughing]

That's me.

And that brings you back right--

That should be the Reggie.

That should be the Reggie yeah.

Well I think you should make that happen.

[laughing]

[Reggie] Do a noelani's next.

This is a creation by my wife Kim here.

[Brad] This was your mastermind creation right?

A lot of 'em.

Oh yeah.

[laughing]

Yeah I like the little--

Plants.

Yeah the little line where they meet.

Yeah.

I could eat that mango until I don't feel good.

[laughing]

So what's in the, you don't have to tell me everything,

but it's just coffee--

[Reggie] It's a raisin coffee.

Yeah.

Oh look at that huh?

Don't mind if I do.

Oh wow.

That's just a decadent desert right there.

It's delicious.

One more bite and then you can share it--

[Male] That one shut you up.

[laughing] Share it with the dogs.

It's hard to shut me up too, I'm a yapper.

[Reggie] How about the halo halo?

[Brad] Halo halo.

[Reggie] This is a famous one.

It's a Filipino desert.

And halo halo means to mix, mix, mix.

[Brad] Lot going on.

[Reggie] Yep so these are some lychee jellies and--

Is that boba?

Yeah.

When they get cold I love the texture of them.

Serious?

Yeah when they get like a little firm--

Right, right, right.

Yeah I like that.

So Reggie on a busy day, I mean how many of those blocks

do you think you can go through?

About 80 blocks.

[Brad] Wow.

Luckily I got good workers.

All family but they're all great.

[Brad] That's good.

They're fast.

[Brad] Family's hard to fire.

Yep.

[laughing]

Reggie, thank you for showing your world

and I really like how you guys have both options for,

of course these you know, delicious natural flavors

but I really dig how you guys also keep the traditional.

Like you say, it's a part of the history.

It's a part of what made you and what

got you guys to where you're at now.

To me that's what success is.

Is putting smiles on people's faces

and being happy doing what you're doing.

Yeah at the end of the day it's all about love right?

It's all about love.

Yeah.

Well thank you Reggie.

Thank you to you and your family.

Yeah.

I tell you what man I really like the Big Island.

It's got a lot of different biodiversity you know,

when we were over in Hilo you know, it was big grassy fields

and jungle and you know, big dramatic

like waterfalls and landscapes.

You know, as we crossed over, over on what was that

Saddle Road, I mean it was like another world up there

you know, the lava fields and just you can see

the big mountains and man it's just beautiful.

[upbeat music]

All right for the next...

It's not an episode.

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All right for the next erm, take three.

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For the next er...

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For our next spot for local picks we're following

my buddy Rico and we're gonna be hitting up some poke

and I asked Rico, I said, Hey I wanna go

somewhere that people from around here are eating.

Good food, simple, doesn't need to be

plated with tweezers or anything fancy.

Just a solid lunch.

And stoked to get there.

Scene two, take one.

[clapperboard clacking]

All right guys for our next stop for Goin' Places,

we got Rico's pick and we landed over here

at Tamura's Market on the west side of Oahu

and the lovely Loretta has joined me to talk poke, yeah?

[Cameraman] I'm sorry.

Oh we gotta do that again huh?

[Cameraman] Yeah sorry.

What why did you do that?

[laughing]

That was the best take we were gonna get.

Poke means cubed.

[Brad] Cubed?

Yes.

So poke actually became I guess a lifestyle of poke

just meaning what we take to parties,

But poke's just basically what you walk into a store

and you see it's in a chilled case like this.

Right and then.

I mean, 'cos when I think of poke or you know,

back home when anyone mentions poke,

it's always you just think about fish.

But like you were saying, it could be anything.

I see you've got tofu in there--

[Loretta] It's a wide variety of--

[Brad] Or octopus it could be so just cubed anything.

And then traditionally it's over rice?

You can have it over rice.

But some people like to just have it just like this.

[Brad] Okay.

Oh just straight.

[Loretta] Straight like this yeah.

It's kinda, it seems like there's a lot

of different flavor profiles going on.

I say you know, something that had a little kimchi on it,

is there, it's pulled from a...

How'd that all happen?

Well you got me stumped there.

Fly in mike.

[laughing]

This is Mike, he is our Operations Manager here at Tamura's.

So yeah as I start traveling around

a little bit around Hawaii and meeting different people,

I noticed that there's a lotta different cultures

and a lot of different like foods.

Almost like a little bit of a, kind of like a melting pot

of different cultures and that

kind of plays into the poke as well?

Right, exactly.

So from the beginning you know, we're talking about

the plantation days and you had all your immigrants here,

your Chinese, your Filipino, your Japanese, your Koreans,

they all came over and basically

they worked in the plantation.

And what happens is, when you go out into the field,

all you have is rice, a protein

and vegetables basically that's it.

[Brad] Right.

That's how a lot of our food in

our culture evolved to what it is today.

Maybe we should try some yeah?

I'll go round and go serve you.

Well thank you Loretta.

Let's try the Hawaiian style.

[Loretta] Okay.

[Brad] And a little bit of the red sea salt one

so that one looks good.

[Brad] Yeah hamachi and then just

a small little scoop of the sunrise.

Well thank you Loretta.

[Loretta] No problem.

So it was getting a little busy in there.

Loretta had a little bit of a lunch rush coming through

so we hopped outside, jumped on the old tailgate here

and yeah, eating Hawaiian style huh?

Oh yeah.

I mean right off the bat fish, super fresh.

Nice and cold, doesn't taste like

it's been sitting around for a long time.

Just a great little mix of flavors going on there,

I really dig the sea weed and the scallions

you know, the green onions on there.

Just good fish, good rice and then everything else

is just a little you know, just a little added jazz.

I think Rico nailed it here.

[Fool For Your Love by Sixteen Wheelers]

[beeping]

This is good this is like takes a second

to talk about the importance of tire pressure.

Oh that's [bleep] water, what do you mean water?

Why would anyone need water?

You know it's feeling a lot of people,

they don't do that,

people don't just get in their car, they drive around

you know, one of the most important things

you can do is have proper air pressure.

Pack it up before we lose air.

Got some ocean behind you baby boy.

There you go.

Who's better than us?

I've never seen the ocean where it looks like it goes up.

You know?

Nice detour.

You juggle?

Can you juggle?

A little bit.

Oh a little bit.

I don't even know where to begin.

[laughing]

Oh [bleep] you man.

[laughing]

[Fool For Your Love by Sixteen Wheelers]

All right for our last location for local picks.

We got a inside scoop from Ma'o farms

and they just set us up with this guy named Mark and he

does this stew called pastele stew, amongst other dishes

and he cooks in a community center.

Really interested in what he's got going on.

So eyes on the road, let's get going.

I completely can stop paying attention

to driving when I said that.

[laughing]

So I'm sitting here now with Mark from Ka'aha'aina Cafe

and you know, right off the bat you know,

I can't help but notice when we driving up,

this is like a community, a health center yeah?

[Mark] Yes.

[Brad] Can you tell me a little bit about how,

what that's all about, why you're up here?

It's a comprehensive health center

for the community that reaches out with different clinics

but we support our local farmers.

I use Mo'a farm's greens in my dishes.

It's a big thing to try and support our local farmers.

Keep them in business.

What am I eating?

What am I looking at here?

It looks so delicious.

This one right here is local made pastele stew.

It's a Puerto Rican dish.

Pork with vegetables, some spices,

got achiote spice, cumin--

Is it olive?

Some olives, cilantro.

One of the important ingredients inside is bananas.

[Brad] Okay, oh really?

Green banana dumplings.

Oh wow.

It's very delicate.

It's pretty amazing.

It's got such great flavor.

Thank you.

That banana dumpling, I can't get past it.

It almost reminds me, you say like a dumpling

but like, it's super tender almost like it was

like a ricotta dumpling or you know, like--

Yeah.

There's no gumminess to it at all.

Garlic or no?

Garlic yes.

Always yeah.

Mike what's, can you talk to me about,

I keep you know, putting my eyes on this.

This beautiful green color.

What's this dish?

We call it beef luau, it's like a vegetable.

The top part of the tarrow, the leaves,

we cook the leaves down until it's soft and tender--

[Brad] Gets spinachy almost?

Yes.

Oh that's delicious.

I keep eye balling that you know,

looking like a desert over there.

What's that hanging out on the plate?

This is our bread pudding that everyone knows us for.

Sauce is a caramel butter sauce.

Oh that's delicious.

Is bread pudding a popular desert in Hawaii?

Yes.

Yeah?

If we go out into the community and we do

special events, everyone knows us for it.

Oh yeah.

They see our name go up, they

already know bread pudding is there.

The secret is if you love what you do, it'll taste--

Right and it comes through in the food.

Yeah.

I gotta say thank you you know,

I think you're doing really awesome work out here

and you know, I hope that you can inspire

other folks to do more and just you know,

just looking around too, just seeing you know,

families and folks coming in and eating.

I could really tell how much you love doing it

and yeah, I just wanted to say thank you man.

Thank you very bro. Yeah yeah

this has been great.

Thank you.

I'll have one more bite huh?

The three of us we hiked up,

what's the name of the mountain?

[Male] Ka'ala.

Ka'ala?

Yeah we walked up to the top.

What?

Yeah I almost died Mark.

No way.

All the way to the top.

You guys went to the top?

Yeah Billy goat Ben brought us up.

And he goes, You wanna go, we're gonna

take a little casual hike up the mountain?

You know, it's only 2000 feet ba ba ba,

it's a six miles round trip.

You can wear sandals if you want.

No he didn't say that.

But man it was a good hike and the views were unbelievable.

Oh yeah man.

Okay guys I hope you enjoyed this trip of

Goin' Places down here in Hawaii as much as I did.

From the folks we met out in the

Big Island through the folks here in Oahu.

Man, just doesn't get much better than this.

You know, from the people we met, the love we found,

the food we ate you know, that's what it's all about.

You know, it's a full circle of all that

and couldn't be more thrilled with this.

So thanks for watching guys and bon appetit.

[upbeat music]

Great yeah so we uncovered the pig, man smells awesome.

Couldn't be happier about this.

Couldn't be happier to do it.

Couldn't be happier, couldn't be happier,

couldn't be happier, couldn't be happier.

Couldn't be more stoked to get there.

Super stoked.

Couldn't be more stoked, couldn't be more stoked,

couldn't be more stoked, couldn't be more stoked.

Super stoked, couldn't be more stoked,

couldn't be more excited about it, super stoked.

Super, super excited.

Couldn't be more excited, couldn't be more excited

couldn't be more excited, couldn't be more excited,

couldn't be more excited, couldn't be more excited,

couldn't be more excited, super excited,

I'm super excited.

Couldn't be more excited.

Super excited.

Couldn't be more excited.

Okay bro.

Couldn't be more excited.

It's used to be this one guy at the Mobil.

Old guy, looked like Hulk Hogan kinda.

And he had this big mustache and he was fried like eggs

and he was, Oh how's it going brother.

you know, and he'd come over and he goes,

Ah I hear you brother, you know,

Monday brother back on the grinding wheel.

Oh I hear you brother.

[laughing]