CUISINE ON A SHOESTRING
Coffee shop mixes Puerto Rican, local cuisine

Lily Yuan, one of the owners of the Kekaulike Coffee Shop in Chinatown, serves coffee during the breakfast shift. The new restaurant has retained the Puerto Rican portion of its predecessor's menu, plus added local favorites and vegetarian selections, including a few macrobiotic dishes. Photos by Jeff Widener • The Honolulu Advertiser

By Matthew Gray
Advertiser Restaurant Critic

Breakfast technically begins at 8 a.m. but can be ordered at any time of day at the eatery in Chinatown. Kekaulike Coffee Shop 907 Kekaulike St. 524-7921 8 a.m.-2 p.m. weekdays, 8 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturdays

They have kept the Puerto Rican part of the menu, adding local favorites and vegetarian food, including some macrobiotic dishes. They will continue to offer many Latin-flavored items, and they told me to "stay tuned for Cuban food" in the near future as well.

The Puerto Rican specialty pastele (pronounced pah-tell-ay or pas-tell-ay) is offered here: a casing of mashed, spiced, cooked green banana stuffed with a pork filling (matura) and spiced with oregano, cumin, cilantro and black olives. The taste is quite like a Mexican tamale — moist, dark, but not spicy, and not quite as cakey and grainy.

A pastele plate with gandule rice (similar to Spanish rice) costs $5.75. Add bacalao salad (tossed green salad with salt cod) and the price is $7.50. Salt cod, which is desalted by long soaking, is especially favored in Italian, Portuguese and Spanish cuisines.

Puerto Rican cuisine has its roots in Spanish, African and Ta’no cooking. The Ta’no Indians are the indigenous people of Puerto Rico. The main staples of Ta’no cooking are root vegetables, most notably yucca (also called cassava, from which we get tapioca), yams and yaut’a (taro corms, from which we get poi).

The Spaniards introduced wheat, chickpeas, cilantro (fresh coriander, or Chinese parsley), eggplant, onions, coconut, garlic and rum. African slaves brought plantains and okra. They are credited with developing many dishes featuring coconut that remain popular to this day.

Puerto Rican foods are fairly mild in flavor, not spicy-hot or complex as Mexican food can be, and yet they seem similar. Frequently used is a seasoning called sazon, which is primarily monosodium glutamate, a flavor enhancer made from soybeans. Other common seasonings are aceite con achiote/annato (a yellow coloring similar to saffron in color, made by cooking achiote or annato seeds in hot oil), and sofrito (most often associated with Spanish cooking), a thick seasoning sauce made from onion, green pepper, garlic and tomato sauteed in oil.

A very pleasant couple, Fang (Lily) Yuan and John Duke, own and operate this restaurant. They bring an interesting blend of experience and culture to the restaurant scene in Chinatown. Lily is from Beijing. Duke calls himself an "all-American boy" who has sailed around the world and spent time in Latin America. His colorful life lends itself more to a Hemingway-esque snapshot than to that of a short-order cook in a tiny kitchen in Honolulu's Chinatown. But that's what makes life so rich.

Since Duke is a vegan, they plan on offering quality vegetarian fare along with simple, healthy dishes. Three vegetarian plates priced at $6.75 each are offered: grilled tofu with boiled veggies, brown rice and salad; pasta and tofu with boiled veggies and salad; and a large baked potato with veggies and salad.

The spinach salad ($4.75) is rapidly becoming a favorite of the downtown lunch crowd. It comes with mixed vegetables and tofu or chicken. There's even a veggie burger ($3.50).

There are about a half-dozen tables inside, where you can have an inexpensive breakfast starting at 8 a.m. Two eggs with your choice of rice and a choice of meat costs just $4.25, as does a breakfast of two eggs, pancakes and a choice of meat (assorted sausages, Spam or bacon).

Duke mentioned that you can order breakfast at any hour, which reminded me of my favorite breakfast one-liner: I went to a restaurant that serves "breakfast at any time" — so I ordered French toast during the Renaissance.

If you feel like something different one day, try Kekaulike Coffee Shop. They're the new kid on the block in a comfortable old location.

Reach Matthew Gray at mgray@honoluluadvertiser.com.