Ono grinds,
made from scratch.
Real Hawaiʻi comfort food — plate lunch, potluck, and okazuya classics — written the way local families actually cook them. Free, always.
See da recipes
Real Hawaiʻi comfort food — plate lunch, potluck, and okazuya classics — written the way local families actually cook them. Free, always.
See da recipesThe collection
12 recipes
Rice, hamburger patty, brown gravy, fried egg. Break da yolk and mix 'um.
Fall-apart chicken thighs simmered in sweet shoyu — the smell of Sunday at Grandma's.
Smoky, salty, shredded pork — the imu flavor without digging a hole in your yard.
Shattering panko crust, juicy chicken, and that sweet-tangy katsu sauce.
Sweet-garlicky grilled short ribs, Korean-style, Hawai'i-adopted.
Shrimp-truck style: buttery, garlicky, lemony, and eaten in a parking lot if possible.
Crackly, sticky-sweet fried chicken bites dusted in mochiko. Gone before they hit the table.
Pork and salted butterfish steamed low and slow in taro leaf and ti leaf. Unwrap it and it falls apart.
Thick, faintly sweet chili over rice with cheese and a fried egg. The ultimate local diner order.
A thick beef patty smothered in onion gravy — the plate lunch answer to Salisbury steak.
Tomato-based beef stew, thick with carrots and potatoes, spooned generously over rice.
Thin-sliced beef glazed in a quick sweet-shoyu sauce — a fast weeknight plate lunch staple.
5 recipes
Fresh ahi, shoyu, sesame oil, limu, sweet onion. Don't overthink it.
Cold, briny, tomato-bright salmon relish — the lūʻau side that cuts through everything rich on the plate.
Sablefish marinated in sweet miso and sake, broiled until the edges caramelize into something close to candy.
A sesame-furikake crust, a hot pan, and a rare red center. Restaurant-style ahi at home.
Crispy fried bonito, deeply seasoned and old-school — the fish dish your uncle grew up on.
6 recipes
Hawai'i's own noodle soup — dashi broth, curly noodles, char siu, and green onion.
Ham hocks, Portuguese sausage, kidney beans, cabbage, macaroni. Rainy-day law.
Fall-off-the-bone oxtail in a peanut-and-star-anise broth. The slow Sunday dish worth the wait.
A light, savory breakfast soup of soft tofu and egg in a gently seasoned broth.
Saimin's dumpling-loaded cousin — the same clean broth, plus pork won ton for good measure.
Slippery glass noodles in a gingery chicken broth — the lūʻau dish that quietly steals the show.
5 recipes
The official snack of every beach day, baseball game, and gas station in Hawai'i.
Soft macaroni, lots of mayo, a little carrot. The quiet hero of the plate lunch.
Furikake, arare, and butter tossed through popcorn until every piece is coated. Impossible to stop eating.
Sweet fried tofu pockets stuffed with seasoned sushi rice — the potluck item that vanishes first.
Hawaiian-style beef jerky — sweet, salty, pan-fried strips that disappear before they hit the table.
8 recipes
Chewy, custardy, coconutty squares. The potluck dessert that disappears first.
Portuguese doughnuts, no hole, rolled hot in sugar. Worth every minute of the wait.
Cool, clean coconut pudding squares. The lūʻau dessert that asks for nothing.
Fried mochi balls with real poi folded in. Crackly outside, impossibly chewy in, faintly purple.
Soft, lightly sweet pastry wrapped around a lima bean (or ube) filling — a potluck-box classic.
A chocolate custard layer under cool coconut haupia, in a graham crust — Hawai'i's answer to cream pie.
A bright pink, guava-soaked sheet cake with cream cheese frosting — the loudest dessert at any potluck.
Okinawan fried dough balls — denser and less sweet than a malasada, with a deeply toasted crust.
Talk story