FOOD FOR THOUGHT
Rehab's 'ohana shares recipes, tidbits

By Wanda A. Adams
Advertiser Food Editor

"The Taste of Success Recipes From Hawai'i's VIPS" ($19.95, hardback) which celebrates the 50th anniversary of the Rehabilitation Hospital of the Pacific, is a combination of the two. The theme: successful people sharing their their aloha for the Rehab Hospital.

The recipes are all over the map. I enjoyed paging through to see which recipes came from the likes of U.S. Rep. Neil Abercrombie (his mother's "Potato Chip Cookies") and Ian Mattoch ("Cajun Laulaus" that he invented), and what they would say about them.

Each recipe is contained to a single 8 1/2-by-11 sheet of the contributor's letterhead. They're simply reproduced, complete with idiosyncratic spellings.

Most interesting are the recipes that come with stories: Physician William Davis offers a pork hash recipe handed down by his mother-in-law, Gladys Kong Lyons, from her father. "It is the best pork hash I ever had!" he enthuses, after explaining how to make it and what to do with leftovers (freeze them to steam later).

U.S. Rep. Ed Case's wife, Audrey, tells how they made a delicious taro salad out of a rather dubious specimen of taro he was given at a town meeting.

Stuart T.K. Ho shares Peter Canlis' special salad and offers the comment, "Pete's salad made the best-made Caesar look and taste like a school lunch."

Garrick C.W. Lau of the Rehab board sent in a recipe for banana cheesecake with the caution "Make only if you want to gain about five pounds a week."

Board member E. Lynne Madden, who is a publisher in her non-Rehab life, helped pull the book together. She said that, in deciding who should be invited to contribute, the hospital staff first looked to the organization's core supporters: corporate donors, volunteers and board members past and present. "... we knew going to our supporters would give us a good cross-section of the community," she said.

Another reason this was an appropriate fund-raiser for Rehab, she said, is that food means love and family, and Rehab feels like a family to her. "... One reason I continue to stay on this board is truly people do give from the heart. The people who have had to use the hospital's services develop a connection with the place," she said.

The book is at Waldenbooks, Borders, Best Sellers, Barnes & Noble and the Rehab Hospital; call 566-3451 to order.