FOOD FOR THOUGHT
Recalling cafeteria favorites

By Wanda A. Adams
Advertiser Food Editor

Cafeteria ladies — where are you?

About half the recipe requests that have been flooding in from readers are for school-time treats.

Case in point: Jane Shiveley is looking for the crumbly, melt-in-your-mouth peanut butter cookies sold on school campuses on Maui in the 1940s or '50s at lunch time — 'Iao Middle School and St. Anthony Schools. As I was at St. Anthony in the mid-1950s, I recall these, too, and their memory is one reason I don't much like other peanut butter cookies.

Ann T. reports that she was reminiscing with her mom about a corned beef stew made from canned corned beef, onions, matchstick carrots and potatoes, long rice and a tomato broth. Her mom recalls it from Kaiulani School around 1925. She also remembers buying it at Furuhashi Store, where it was served in one of those little lu'au-type rectangular dishes. This dish, too, rings a bell with me, but I can't recall if I had it at school or at home.

Joy Medeiros is looking for recipes she recalls from Kamehameha Schools in the 1960s, and she labeled her e-mail Urgent. In red, yet. She'd like to get the recipe for the beef stew and shepherd's pie, the fruit cobblers and the white topping used on the cobblers, which was called hard sauce.

Jennifer Kanechika wants her elementary school apple crisp: a thick shortbread cookie base with cinnamon apple-pie-like filling, topped with buttery, sugary crumbs. "On those days when we were lucky enough to have apple crisp for lunch, I remember kids asking others for their piece, making trades, or even buying additional lunches just for another piece."

And speaking of apples, Rene Mitsunaga is looking for the French apple pie served at Central Intermediate in the early 1960s.

As always, if you have any of these recipes, send them to me: Wanda Adams, Food Editor, The Advertiser, PO Box 3110, Honolulu, HI 96802. Or e-mail wadams@honoluluadvertiser.com.