Customer Reviews

Best of the Best from Hawaii: Selected Recipes from Hawaii's Favorite Cookbooks (Best of the Best State Cookbook)

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is a great book. It's not original/new recipes but compilations of the best of the best local Hawaii cookbooks up to the date of population. I own a cramp load of local Hawaiian cookbooks, and this is the one of the two (the other one is 50th Anneiversary Best of Our Favorite Recipes 1946 -1996 by Maui Association for Family and Community Education )I grab for when I want to make a local dish. I have also bought and mailed copies to my friends on the mainland, who have left Hawaii.
Anther local cook book I just picked up you want to try once Amazon starts carrying it, is Jean Hee's Best of the Best Hawaii Recipes by Jean Watanabe Hee. Hee is one of the top local Hawaii recipe book writers. You might want to check out her other books that Amazon dose carry.

I am so happy with this book. Brings up lots of memories of wonderful food growing up in Hawaii. I have made several receipes from the book and have many more book marked to make.

I have very mixed feelings about this cookbook.

I gather from the introduction that this is one of a series based on visiting different states and putting together a cookbook to "preserve their food heritage". How the authors plan on summarizing the entire culinary experience of a state with such an interesting history, mix of races, and emphasis on FOOD is answered by what you get: a compilation of other cookbooks. So on the plus side, many of their sources are really good. (The entire Honpa Hongwanji series are great and are in my mother's, grandmother's, aunt's, etc collection. They're sort of dated, but have a lot of classic everyday food.) On the negative side taking a few recipes from other recipe collections gives you very little coherence, understanding of where that recipe came from (time period or heritage), or understanding of the ingredients. Plus, the selection of these recipes are just sort of strange. Spicy Garlic Eggplant and Pork (pg 128) and Spicy Szechuan Eggplant (pg 100) are basically the same recipe with minor changes from 2 different cook books. Several recipes are for poke, but the authors don't seem to realize they're related, or, at least, don't explain what it is. I have to wonder if they actually cooked these recipes at all or just leafed through the other books.

Pictures are chosen to be more atmospheric with tourist photos of the authors, scenic places, and some line drawings (not of the food). The photos of people in "native garb" (at tourist sites) also contrast with the recipes, which are largely modern pot luck sort of food. (In particular, there's a cringe-worthy vintage photo near the front that must be just for nostalgia's sake because no one I know in Hawaii would be caught dead looking like that.)

Besides the food, there are also little tidbits of information peppered through the book that are supposed to give you an idea of island life. My question: Who exactly told the authors that curry is often served at parties? What a strange generalization. They also commit the faux-pas in the preface of calling their friend a second generation Hawaiian. Hawaiians are like American Indians; you can't call yourself one just because you've moved somewhere.

So, there are definitely some good recipes in here. It's just that you stumble upon things that are just plain wierd if you're from Hawaii.

I recently bought this cookbook in a gift shop while on vacation in Hawaii. It was very informative, with helping me figure out what I had just eaten. And some of the recipes I am able to make too. The ingredients aren't too weird. It'll be impossible to be as good as what I had there, but it isn't like I can grow pineapples and bananas in my wintery back yard. But if I decide to throw a beach party, I can try my very best to recreate the experience with this cookbook.

My husband and I went to Kauai on our honeymoon and since then I have wanted a cookbook that specializes in Hawaiian cuisine. There is so many neat recipes in this cookbook. I just wish there was a little more for Wahoo. Oh well : )

After seeing this book in Hawaii, I knew I wanted to try some of the recipes at home in Ohio. Every one of the recipes I've tried is delicious. I highly recommend this book!

Good book, good food and simple to prepare.
It is likely what the locals eat, rather than the restuarant food, which is what I wanted.

The receipe directions are vague. It's a good book, but just not a party book.

I was complete taken back by the yummy recipes from the islands