Monday, February 6, 2012

Hawaii versus Paris: Shiro's Saimin Haven





Let's continue culinary wars for my interview with Amy Thomas, author of PARIS MY SWEET.   Paris may boast the best bread, cheese, butter, chocolate, and wine .... but Hawaii is the showcase of Asian food.   Hubby joined me for today's adventure to SHIRO'S SAIMIN HAVEN.   




From Shiro's website (at this link),


Open since 1969, Shiro's Saimin boasts over 60 different noodle combinations. Shiro Matsuo, the founder, revolutionized the image of saimin by taking a plain snack and creating a meal in itself. With his quirky imagination, he morphed saimin into an adventure in noodle dining.


We ordered the Chicken Yakisobo Saimin -
chicken breast cooked in yakisobo sauce ....
 

.... and a huge bowl of saimin noodles with ham,
vegetables, cabbage, egg and even wontons.


Shiro is known for his "positive" posters on the wall.  


Governor Lingle named Shiro as
"Hawaii's Statement of Goodwill"
for promoting the spirit of Aloha.


Perhaps you are curious exactly what is saimin.  From Wikipedia:

Saimin is a noodle soup dish unique to Hawaii. Inspired by Japanese udon, Chinese mein, and Filipino pancit, saimin was developed during Hawaii's plantation era. It is a soup dish of soft wheat egg noodles served in hot dashi garnished with green onions. Kamaboko, char siu, sliced Spam, linguiça, and nori may be added, among other additions.



I am giving away a Why Hawaii Rivals Paris gift box filled with local treats to one randomly selected commenter from all the blogs this week.  Maybe saimin will be included!  This giveaway is open to all readers. Comments are open through Saturday, February 11, 10 pm in Hawaii. I'll post the winner on Sunday, February 12.

Mahalo,

Kim in Hawaii

Next stop:  Chinatown.

Joe to Steve, "I know a great place in Chinatown."


16 comments:

  1. Whoo looks goog thanks, great pics,
    Kimh

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  2. Yum! I really want to come to Hawaii one of these years to try all the delectable treats.

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  3. The food looks very good.

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  4. Sounds like and looks like good eating.

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  5. I'll have to try the saimin noodles sometime.

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  6. Very tasty post, Kim! I love Chinese food, not so much into Japanese. Foreign food in Italy is very Italian. It's hard to explain, but it's far from original. I guess the influence is too strong. No entry for me. Good luck to everyone.

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  7. I always love photos of food. One of my facebook friends posts food photos all the time...makes me hungry. :) I'm glad you and your hubby got to enjoy a food adventure.

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  8. I'm always happy to give something new a try and there are very few foods that I don't care for. I can't remember the last time I had SPAM. I can remember having it as a young child.

    catslady

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  9. Wow that looks DELISH what I love about this time of year is warm homemade soups potato leek soup beef & Barley yes I made both on the weekend I planed to freeze some but NOOOOOOooooooooooooo Dh ate ALL the potato & leek soup he had it for breakfast & lunch, I shouldn't be upset at least he liked it, I did get a small bowl only because I took it to work for my Lunch...
    Have a good one Kim.
    Ann/alba

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  10. I would chose Hawaii over Paris any day.

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  11. Love the post! My hubbie loves SPAM! Thanks for all the yummy pics today!

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  12. I have had pancit, bihon and mein but not saimin and usually I have had my Spam fried! I will have to branch out one of these days.

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  13. I haven't had most of that food. I have had spam but that it.

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  14. It sounds delicious. How was that chicken dish Kim , was it spicy ? I've never tried any of those but I love soups. Won Ton is one of my favorites. I can remember frying spam for sandwiches as a young bride and eating it as a kid. Thanks for the pics and info.
    Carol L
    Lucky4750 (at) aol (dot) com

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  15. I game to try anything and love to experiment, but could do without the Spam. Way too much growing up!

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