O'ahu writer helps Japanese tourists find local grinds

By Wanda A. Adams
Advertiser Food Editor

Hiromi Nagata enjoys malassadas from Leonard's Bakery in Kapahulu. She suggests eating at least one while it's still hot, even if you have to stand in the parking lot to do it. Jeff Widener • The Honolulu Advertiser

"It's one of the most hottie things," said Hiromi Nagata, an O'ahu-based writer, radio host and Web columnist who specializes in interpreting all things Hawai'i for Japanese audiences.

These dishes, which we think of as Japanese, aren't — at least not the way we prepare them here. And Japanese visitors are just crazy about these — to them — exotic foods.

In fact, Nagata said, Spam is the "diamond-type omiyage" right now, as are Yamasa-brand shoyu, Taro-brand poi and other Hawai'i specialties.

"They go to Costco and get a day pass and take a case of Spam back with them, even though it's heavy. In Japan, Spam is only available at the most high-priced gourmet import stores, and it's $5 or $6 a can. And if you make Hawai'i-style teri chicken with Japanese shoyu, the taste is totally different."

Nagata, a Tokyo native who first visited Hawai'i as a tourist in 1980 and moved here in 1985, writes a monthly feature, "Aloha Apron," for the Web site aloha-street.com and has shared recipes for loco moco, laulau and kalua pig. She tries to correct mistaken impressions ("Japanese people think Spam is made in Hawai'i") and show how the dishes can be made using ingredients readily available in Japan.

Must-eats in Hawai'i, according to Hiromi Nagata

Spam is a preferred omiyage gift, as are Yamasa-brand shoyu and Taro-brand poi.

By eating laulau, Japanese visitors can experience "the spirit of Hawai'i."

The texture of malassadas from Leonard's is like "biting the air."

A restaurant opened last year in Yokohama specializing in Hawai'i-style musubi. Other Hawai'i-themed restaurants are trying to re-create loco moco and other plate-lunch dishes popular here.

"They look kind of funny to me, but they try," said Nagata, drily.

Bright, charming and very tuned to the nuances of Hawai'i's local culture and Japan's eager fad followers,

Nagata studied English in school but said she mostly learned the language in Hawai'i "for survival," after she moved here.

She began by translating an article for a Japanese magazine and now does a daily news summary for aloha-street.com. She also writes regularly for several Japanese magazines.

Her latest project, from Sony Publishing, is a slick Japanese-language guide to finding local dishes, "Hawaii URA Gourmet," released in Japan in December and selling briskly at the equivalent of about $12 a pop. ("Ura" is a Japanese word meaning "back or behind," colloquially used to mean "secret.")

The book showcases 79 Hawai'i specialties from kalua pork to oxtail soup, tako poke to beef stew plate. Each is described in a two-page spread with trendily styled photos by Honolulu photographer Akira Kumagai and a flowery 500-word essay, along with data on how to get to a restaurant or shop that Nagata considers the quintessential spot for that dish.

Roy Yamaguchi styled the ultra-upscale loco moco on the cover as a favor to Nagata.

Fluent in both Japanese and English, Nagata wanted to create a book that would be fun to read, even for those who are still dreaming about their first trip to Hawai'i.

She picked 100 dishes, many of them her own personal favorites. She and Kumagai tasted and shot every one over just two weeks, then winnowed the choices down.

"I didn't want to eat any more after that," she said.

The essays have an amusing ring in English, as translated on the fly by Nagata: For a segment on laulau from 'Ono Hawaiian Foods, she acknowledges that the sight of a messy, mashed green-gray lu'au leaf might be "shocking," but urges Japanese eaters to try the dish because taro represents the spirit of Hawai'i, "nutrition from the earth" and you will be "blessed by the soul of Hawai'i."

Writing about Leonard's malassadas, she strongly suggests that readers eat at least one while it's still hot, "in the parking lot," compares the texture experience to "biting the air," and sums up, "it is so cute."

Food is a frequent topic on the radio program Nagata is co-host of here with Glenn Medeiros for InterFM radio in the Tokyo area, called "Wikiwiki Hawai'i Island Stream."

Recently, visitors have been stopping by at the show's open tapings at 6:30 p.m. each Thursday on the third floor of the

Hyatt Regency Waikiki, clutching the book and proudly reporting on how many of the places they've visited or plan to visit.

Nagata said today's Japanese tourists are not the timid flag-followers of yesteryear. They seem willing to track down any remote site she tells them about.

When she wrote a story about visiting the popular Kanemitsu Bakery on Moloka'i to sample fresh-baked bread at midnight, Japanese visitors began showing up, cameras and all, for this new experience.

"They are really adventurous-type people," Nagata said. And, like Hawai'i people, they love to eat.