FOOD FOR THOUGHT
Readers want help with long-lost recipes

By Wanda A. Adams
Advertiser Food Editor

I'm always amazed to find that many people don't realize what a valuable resource the Web is when it comes to searching out recipes. Just go to google.com or some other search engine and type in the name or key ingredients, followed by "recipe," and you'll generally find multiple versions of the dish. Your challenge is to figure out which one you used to have!

Still, I often get requests from folks who haven't had any luck online, or want a recipe from a long-gone Hawai'i restaurant.

One came via e-mail from "Andre," who wants the boneless Cornish game hen stuffed with wild rice and served with cranberry sauce that used to be on the menu at the Pottery restaurant on Wai'alae Avenue. I often hear people speak fondly of that place. If anyone has this recipe, send it along (address below).

Another example is an e-mailed request from "Charmaine," who wants the recipe for Chinese almond cookies made by the Coral Reef restaurant formerly at Ala Moana Center.

Hilo-born Donny Tyler, who lives in San Francisco, asks if anyone has a cookie recipe she recalls from home economics at Hilo Intermediate years ago: Palama by the Sea Foam, "something like a wedding cake cookie with coconut in them."

Shepherd Kawakami wrote to reminisce about cherry crisp from elementary-school days, a bar-type cookie. "I remember it tasting almost like an oatmeal cookie with cherries, but every recipe we attempt has too much of the raw oatmeal taste and look, and I do not remember being able to actually see the oatmeal on the bar. I know it was listed on our menus as cherry crisp, because I would scan our menu and I would look for the days that cherry crisp and peanut butter brownie were to be served."

This next request just cracked me up. I'll give it to you just as I got it, by e-mail, from Bonnie Koehler in Lexington, Ky.:

"My parents were stationed at the naval base in Hawai'i from 1967 to 1969. My mother learned to make a dish she called pupus. It was our favorite birthday dinner.

I remember it contained steak cut small, pineapple, almond slivers, and was marinated for a day before cooking. My mother died in 1998, and we haven't been able to locate the recipe anywhere! Do you know where I can find this recipe? My sisters and I would greatly appreciate it!"

I did e-mail Bonnie to explain the meaning of pupu, but it would sure be a kind act of aloha to send along the recipe if this concoction sounds familiar.

Reach Wanda Adams at P.O. Box 3110, Honolulu, HI 96802 or e-mail wadams@honoluluadvertiser.com.