Page 3 - Dining Out - Feb 20, 2022

Restaurant Insider with Anne Lee
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Nami Kaze
1135 N. Nimitz Hwy., Honolulu 808-888-6264 Instagram: @namikaze.hi 8:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.
1. Fried Ginger Chicken, Fried Chili Shrimp and Goteborg (prices vary)
2. Sashimi Salad ($18.95)
3. Wasabi Ginger Scallion Poke (market price)
4. Pickled Beet Hapa Boy Poke (market price)
5. Ume/yukari musubi, furi/Goteborg musubi, Spam/nori musubi and nori musubi (prices vary)
6. Triple Garlic Miso Mayo Poke (market price)
and protein (salmon, hamachi, naka- ochi, pickled beets and fried tofu). We have four different hand-
made musubis (prices vary): simple nori musubi, Goteborg musubi (popular on Kauai) with a cured sausage similar to salami, the infamous Spam musubi and our ume musubi.
The two nostalgic items are the Ginger Fried Chicken and Fried Chili Shrimp (prices vary). This is my take on my memories on eating at Hanamalu Café. When
I was growing up on Kauai, we would go eat at the teahouse. The kids are now running Kono Hiki, and they have the ginger fried
chicken there.
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it.“Wind”and
“wave” made
sense because
of our location
since we’re right on
the pier. Right now, we
are a base okazuya. We cook
it fresher and a little bit different, incorporating fresh vegetables and different options than your traditional okazuya. In the next few months, we want to be able to open up the izakaya (focusing on vegan/vegetarian) and sushi bar (offering really fresh seafood, led by my longtime friend Shane Tonokawa).
AL: Tell me about your
team.
JP: My wife is cur- rently the pastry chef at Hau Tree, and she will be also helping me make in-house breads and special tarts with Asian influences and incorporate Asato
Family’s ice creams.
Brandon Nakachi is my general
manager, who I’ve known forever. My assistant manager is Sammy. For our kitchen team, I have two of my former students, Binh and Reed. Davin is working with our sushi team, and he’s on the road to become a great sushi chef.
AL: You’re well known in the cu- linary industry. Tell me about this journey.
JP: I didn’t have any interest in cooking until my 20s. I came to Oahu for school, and I went to Uni- versity of Arizona for aeronautical engineering. It wasn’t my thing. I
came back to
University of Ha-
waii at Manoa and
wanted to do some-
thing with my hands and
create. My friend Rich Miano was opening up a bar and grill, and that’s how I started cooking. I grad- uated from Kapiolani Community College and met Ian Russo who was the executive chef at Michel’s at the time. I worked with him and became sous chef in less than a year and a half.
AL: You earned that title of sous chef at 23 years old. How did you become an instructor at Kapiola- ni Community College?
JP: Working at Michel’s was a re- ally great foundation for me. I then went to work with Roy’s in the kitch- en, and I wanted the flexibility to go back to UH for teaching. I wanted to be able to offer that lifestyle to my son, as being in a restaurant, you work a lot of hours. About three
years later, I ended up taking a position at Roy’s as I realized that I really didn’t like school, sitting in a classroom. I was able to open Roy’s Waikiki as exec- utive chef and was there for eight years. That itch to teach was still there, and I went to KCC for six years as a culinary instructor in the third-year program at CIP, as well as teaching the competition team.
AL: Tell me about some of the items you prepared for us today. JP: We have four different kinds of poke (market price): Triple Garlic Miso (like our California with av- ocados and Thai chiles to giveitakick);Hapa-style
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Poke (basic Hawaiian style with Thai chil- es); Wasabi Ginger Scallion (with kizami wasabi); and Spicy Ahi. These are also available in different styles of fresh fish
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AT THE KAHALA
RESERVATIONS
808.739.8811 KahalaResort.com
THE PERFECT PLACE
Curry Lunch Buffet
LIMITED SEATING
RESERVE NOW
for Every Occasion
12-2:30 p.m. Wednesdays, $45* per person
*Does not include tax & gratuity
Dining Out
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February 20-26, 2022
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