Where do you find rare foods? | The Honolulu Advertiser

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Where do you find rare foods? | The Honolulu Advertiser | Hawaii's Newspaper

Posted on: Wednesday, January 16, 2008

FOOD FOR THOUGHT
Where do you find rare foods?

By Wanda A. Adams
Advertiser Columnist

•	A smart approach to grocery shopping

StoryChat: Comment on this story

My phone often rings with questions from readers — particularly newcomers to the Islands — about where to find ethnic foods, specialty items, seasonal ingredients and various cooking tools and supplies in Hawai'i.

Too often, I can't be of much help because even cosmopolitan O'ahu isn't over-endowed with shops that go beyond grocery basics. I'm planning a story for the Taste section that will lay bare all I know. But I surely don't know it all.

Can you help?

Among the requests I hear most frequently:

Meats. Does anyone know of a good retail butcher shop where you don't have to buy in bulk and can special-order various cuts, especially bone-in cuts? Reader Jessica Baang of Wai'anae, back from the Mainland, wrote just the other day looking for skin-on chicken breasts. I hadn't thought about the fact that these have become scarce until she mentioned it. Many people are looking for fresh turkeys, organic meats, goose, goat, rabbit, organ meats, sausage-making supplies or other meats for special occasions.

Italian/Mediterranean/Eastern European grocery items, including meats and cheeses, but also pasta, grains, sauces, condiments, etc. R. Field has some of these, as do many grocery stores, but is there a mother lode somewhere that I'm missing? Do you know of a farmer that is raising, for example, cardoons or broccoli rabe here?

Salt fish. Where do you find the best quality and prices for bacalhau and salt salmon?

Holiday goodies such as mincemeat (becoming ever more scarce), as well as various types of candies and cookies used in holiday confections (pretzel bits, chocolate wafers, toffee bits).

We are blessed with numerous sources of Asian and Pacific foods, although many of us aren't aware of all of them, so if you've got a favorite spot for these items that's a bit off the beaten path, I'd love to hear about it.

Of course, you can buy anything on the Internet; if you've found reliable Web site markets that offer good prices and reasonable shipping arrangements for Hawai'i, please share.

Do you know of sources here — or on the Internet — for less-traveled culinary roads, such as the Indian subcontinent, Malaysia/Singapore/Maritime Southeast Asia, Africa, Central and South America, the Caribbean, Arabia, Australia/New Zealand?

I'm as interested in one-liners ("Bo Wah has Szechuan peppercorns") as I am in broader information ("El Mercado de la Raza has a wide range of Latin and Hispanic foods").

If you recommend a store or site, tell us what you found there and why it's worth the drive or time spent on the computer.

Write: Wanda Adams, Food Editor, The Advertiser, P.O. Box 3110, Honolulu, HI 96802; wadams@honoluluadvertiser.com, fax 525-8055.

Send recipes and queries to Wanda A. Adams, Food Editor, Honolulu Advertiser, P.O. Box 3110, Honolulu, HI 96802. Fax: 525-8055. E-mail: wadams@honoluluadvertiser.com.

For more information about our 150th anniversary cookbook, call 535-8189 (message phone; your call will be returned). You can order the cookbook online.

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