FOOD FOR THOUGHT
Book charms but isn't quite 'Hawaiian'

By Wanda A. Adams
Advertiser Food Editor

I paged through the whole book before stumbling on a photograph of "Mama Annie" that knocked my mental picture on its ear: Actually, she is Andrea Cleall, who has been a part-time Maui resident for the past 30 years. She is blond. And, though she is a grandma, she is far from the portly, aproned figure I pictured. So much for stereotypes.

Cleall is the author of several previous books, including "The Magic Maui Cookbook" and a Hawai'i-based children's book, "Kelli's Magic Stone." She is also an artist who has illustrated this and other books. And her other home is in the California wine country.

Understandably, she gets a few things a little bit wrong here — "char sui" instead of char siu and "taka" instead of tako. But I enjoyed this slightly quirky, charming and very down-to-earth recipe collection. The dishes are the sort that real people prepare — not too fussy, not too many ingredients. And they involve foods local people love, such as Spam and long rice, although most are a little bit off-center from traditional recipes — not quite "Hawaiian."

What I most enjoyed were her little asides. The way she calls her husband "my alpha male food consumer." Her not-so-amused pique at the way her family rates her recipes (I feel your pain, sister). And the stories behind the recipes, like the one about her daughter attending the rodeo in Makawao and sharing a bag of boiled peanuts with a "regal, beautiful and state Hawaiian matron" who suddenly jumps from her seat and starts whooping when a bull wrestler is sent flying. "Mo betta da cow wins," the woman said with a big smile.

If you have trouble finding the book, which is self-published and sells for $9.95, call distributor Quiet Storm toll-free at (866) 247-0877.

Ring-bound (as all good cookbooks really should be), and helpfully tabbed so it's easy to find the category you're looking for, this collection includes more than 700 recipes — haole, Japanese, local-style, international. The index is alphabetical and by category — better than no index, as often happens with self-published books — but the ideal is alpha by recipe name and by type of food and by main ingredient, I think.

Still, not to quibble, if you want to learn how to make three kinds of strata, or 11 different toppings for chilled tofu, or breads from lavosh to focaccia, Dd's got 'em.