Authentic Hawaiian cuisines are a rare gem here in Chicago, I happened to stumble upon one in Linkin Park while biking, it's called Aloha Eats which is on Clark in between Fullerton and Diversy. It's only a block away from the ever so popular hot dog joint, 'The Wiener Circle'. If you haven't heard of the Wiener Circle it will be showcase in future blogs. The establishment is very small, probably seats about 20 heads. It's located in a very hip and young trendy area of Linkin Park. You'll know if you're at the right place when you see a big Surf Board sign in front but don't expect to hang ten on sand and gnarly waves in this concrete jungle.
Japanese makes up a big part of the Hawaiian population. The menu can range from teriyaki beef, pork,chicken and even spam. They also offer sample platters of seafood combo such as ma hi ma hi(Hawaiian whitefish)and shrimp. Spam is also a big part of the Hawaiian diet. The Hawaiians will cook spam with anything and everything. The Government use to feed spam to the military on the Islands. It was difficult to ship meat to the servicemen so they had to ship it in a can form. Spam basically is pork shoulder mix with ham, water, nitrate and starch to help bind it together.
I recommend that you order the sample platter which runs about $8. It consist of pork short ribs, Chicken, Beef ,sides of rice and mac salad. Mac salad is common back in Hawaii but it does seem like a weird combination to be consumed with rice. I personally think that this combination lacks culinary ying and yang. Everything I ate though was excellent especially the chicken. I absolutely think it's the best chicken I ever had, normally I don't like chicken because it's often very dry when cooked wrong. Since the place was so busy we had to take it to go so we didn't eat the food until half an hour later, even so the chicken still stayed very very moist and tender. You must try the chicken!
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I recommend that you order the sample platter which runs about $8. It consist of pork short ribs, Chicken, Beef ,sides of rice and mac salad. Mac salad is common back in Hawaii but it does seem like a weird combination to be consumed with rice. I personally think that this combination lacks culinary ying and yang. Everything I ate though was excellent especially the chicken. I absolutely think it's the best chicken I ever had, normally I don't like chicken because it's often very dry when cooked wrong. Since the place was so busy we had to take it to go so we didn't eat the food until half an hour later, even so the chicken still stayed very very moist and tender. You must try the chicken!
One particular item on the menu that caught my attention was the musubi. Musubi is a very popular finger food in Hawaii. So popular they even sell them at 7-eleven shops all over Hawaii. Musubi basically is grilled teriyaki spam placed on top of a big block of sushi rice and wrapped in seaweed. To be honest I really loved it. Inside the rice block is a filling I believe it consist of crumble egg yolk and small pieces of pork. Nonetheless it was very good and only cost $5 for two big blocks. Don't be afraid to try the spam, it's not bad as how others perceives it as. The saltiness of the spam goes absolutely well with the sweetness of the rice and whatever fillings it has inside. In fact president Obama says it's one of his favorite food. If anyone should know what's good it's the leader of the free nation. Try the spam sushi just to say you'd tried it!
Aloha Eats Menu
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