Sham Musubi, Since This Is the Four Seasons I Am Here to Serve a Version of Working As a Line Cook at Turtle Bahrain Bay, After All

EDITOR: D E. Clarke Reilly / [email protected] / 529-4742 SUNDAY 4/26/20

SIGNS OF HAWAIIAN LIFE A roundup of reader photos who captured reminders of home while on the road >> D8 ——— ON THE SCENE >> D3 PUZZLES >> D4-5

Prettified and de-porkified, Hawaii’s favorite musubi is adapted for halal fine dining

Story and photos by Kiki Aranita Special to the Star-Advertiser

BAHRAIN >> Omarzu adds, “Bahrain has a y day begins with large Filipino population and a Kona coffee other cultures that eat pork.” espresso and a val- The Four Seasons only serves M iant replication of halal meat and no pork, so the poke made with exquisitely kitchen had to figure out a Spam cooked and cubed beets that substitute. Their version com- mimic ruby red ahi. Given that I bines chicken thigh, wagyu beef co-own and operate a restaurant and chicken fat. The mixture is in Philadelphia called Poi Dog, seasoned with white pepper, gar- which serves fresh ahi poke, plate lic, salt, sugar and paprika, then lunches and musubi to a solid placed into molds to be poached customer base comprised of and, finally, cooled in an ice bath. many homesick Hawaii people, In this case, the molds are emp- there is nothing unusual about tied and cleaned Spam cans. my meal. I consistently gravitate “The biggest challenge was get- toward foods that remind me of ting the mixture to bind properly, Hawaii. since we’re using rendered I grew up on Oahu, where my fa- chicken fat, not pork fat. These ther’s side of the family lives. Every don’t have the same texture,” day in Philadelphia, I am sur- Omarzu said. “You have to get rounded by Hawaiian ingredients, those molecules to bind properly. all of which abate my own home- It took a lot of trial and error.” sickness. But today, I’m seated in The working title is “Sham.” the lounge of the Four Seasons Ho- Chefs Luke Omarzu and Ari Miller get ready to slice into their tel Bahrain Bay, in this small island MINNESOTAN Omarzu lived pork-free “Sham,” molded in Spam cans. At top, a gold leaf and nation in the Arabian Gulf. from 2004 to 2008 in Haleiwa while ﬂ ower-decorated Sham musubi, since this is the Four Seasons I am here to serve a version of working as a line cook at Turtle Bahrain Bay, after all. Spam musubi at re/Asian Cuisine, Bay Resort. “I grew up in a small a Wolfgang Puck restaurant in the sistant restaurant director, de- rain has no local pork. town and wanted the biggest Four Seasons, as part of a collabo- clares, “The funkiest menu I’ve “You can order pork from a ven- change that I could find. So I ration dinner headlined by execu- seen so far.” dor or buy it from certain super- moved to Hawaii, the farthest tive chef Brian Becher and Ari Meat such as beef, lamb and markets. There’s a ‘no-no section’ away I could think of. I get there Miller, chef and owner of Musi in duck imported into Bahrain must at these supermarkets with Pop- and everyone is eating Spam from Philadelphia. Re/Asian chef Luke be halal certified, or prepared ac- Tarts, Lucky Charms, Vienna sau- Minnesota,” he said. Omarzu and pastry chef Fourkou cording to Muslim law. Imported sage and Spam. It’s essentially the “It’s hilarious that Spam is made Abderrazik are also working on a pork is exempt because it is obvi- American section,” Becher ex- menu that Rumena Martin, the as- ously “haram,” or forbidden. Bah- plains. Please see MUSUBI, D6 D6 >> HONOLULU STAR-ADVERTISER >> SUNDAY 4/26/20 DETOURS

childhood memories for me MUSUBI that are not my own. I’m finding comfort in someone Continued from D1 else’s comfort food.” Arpita Mhatre, a guest at in Minnesota. I was made in the dinner, notes correla- Minnesota.” And now: “Here I tions between Bahrain and am in the Middle East making my diverse island home. fake Spam.” “Eating out in Bahrain is like Becher explains the devel- having the world on an is- opment of Sham Spam. land. We have Japanese-in- “We’ve de-porked many fluenced cuisine, Greek and things, like lup cheong (Chi- of course, Middle Eastern,” nese sausage) and xiao long she says. bao (soup dumplings). We The flipside to this inter- tried baby lamb instead of national mix is that the lo- suckling pig. We couldn’t get cal cuisine takes a back the fur off without destroying seat, says Hessa Al Khalifa, the skin. It made the butcher a Bahraini food writer and room smell like a barbershop chef. She speaks of her de- on fire for four days. There sire to see Bahraini cuisine are some things you simply gain an international foot- cannot de-pork, but Spam is hold. “Ask any Bahraini not one of them!” what’s their favorite cuisine As we turn to Spam’s mili- and they’ll say Japanese or tary history in Hawaii, Miller Italian. I am trying to get my pipes in: “Loof (a kosher generation excited about product discontinued in Bahraini dishes in the same 2011) was beef Spam used as way.” combat rations in the Israeli Al Khalifa’s words parallel army when I was enlisted. my own mission to repre- Loof came in a can and it was sent the food of Hawaii be- iconic. yond the islands. In a sea of “You sear it, eat with eggs misrepresentation, the or in a rice ball. This was power and allure of Hawaii’s never called ‘musubi’ but food nevertheless has rather, Loof Sushi.” reached the shores of an is- Loof gives us all hope for land in the Arabian Gulf, “Sham,” which turns out nearly 9,000 miles away. The leaner than Spam. We have salad-bar poke trend is alive to marinate it in shoyu and and well in Bahrain, curi- sugar longer than usual for ously with chicken the most the flavors to permeate the popular protein. meat. The result is spot on. The privilege of taking the It’s ready to be wrapped into humble Spam musubi so far a musubi. from its birthplace and bring Since this is the Four Sea- PHOTOS BY KIKI ARANITA / SPECIAL TO THE STAR-ADVERTISER it to such vastly different set- sons, I fancy it up with edible tings as Philadelphia and For the musubi, rice is molded into shape, to be The staff shares in a Sham musubi toast. From left: flowers and gold leaf. Bahrain is not lost on me. topped with sliced Sham and uni furikake, then Lulwa Sowaileh, assistant chef at Bahrain’s re/Asian The following morning, I wrapped in nori. Above, a mini musubi is served Cuisine; Philadelphia chef Ari Miller of Musi; Ty- THE DECORATED musubi sit down for brunch at re/ alongside a prawn xiao long bao and a piece of fried ronne Perera, Body Pernandes and Mirelle Estrada, is plated alongside a kim Asian next to a soaring view ﬁsh over a shot of cucumber juice. all assistant chefs at re/Asian; Brian Becher, execu- chee powder-dusted prawn of the capital city of Ma- tive chef of Musi; and re/Asian chef Luke Omarzu. xiao long bao and a shot of nama, owing to the restau- cucumber juice with a tiny rant’s 50th-floor location. fried fish balanced on the spent in Israel. Few members Caitlin Bias, and reconfigured transported home. lims. Miller adds, “For me, Omarzu has put a scallop rim. The menu is a romp of the Bahraini-Filipino-Indi- in Bahrain by Moroccan Miller muses, “The high- growing up in a Jewish poke on the menu. It is mari- through the experiences and an-Sri Lankan-Mexican-Indo- French chef Abderrazik. light of this experience has household, Spam was con- nated in shoyu and sesame visions of all five chefs in- nesian kitchen staff can At the close of service, we been eating with the interna- traband. I was in my late 30s oil, straightforward and re- volved. pronounce “schnitzel,” unwrap and eat the remain- tional kitchen staff, tasting when I first tasted Spam.” assuringly familiar. Making Banana blossom salad, which leads to fits of giggles ing “Sham” musubi. We meals cooks have made from Sham musubi must have scallops on a shiso pasta whenever an order comes in. stand in the kitchen, munch- their home countries.” ON THIS TRIP, we’ve en- touched off further recollec- cracker with perilla oil ice Duck-fat doughnuts with ing and nodding. For most in Halal Sham has furthered joyed Sri Lankan, northern tion of his years spent in Ha- cream. Black sesame seed- strawberry gochujang ice this diverse group of cooks, our opportunities to share Indian, Filipino and now, waii. crusted chicken schnitzel as cream, conceived in Philadel- this is their first musubi. It is flavors. Many of the line bites of Hawaii’s food. Miller Also on the brunch menu: a nod to Miller’s decade phia by Miller’s sous-chef, comforting and warm. I am cooks are practicing Mus- reflects, “These conjure up Sham fried rice.

TODAY’S PUZZLE ANSWERS

Reclusive food celebrity DOUBLE TAKE is my quarantine queen KEN KEN By Tejal Rao New York Times

Like so many home cooks in quarantine, after I’ve used up the green tops of my scallions, I drop the white, hairy roots into a glass of water to regener- ate, feeling pleased with my own sense of thrift and pragmatism. But last week, after Chi- nese internet star Li Ziqi UP & DOWN WORDS SEVEN LITTLE WORDS posted a new cooking video 1. SOFT DRINK 1. RAILROADS to YouTube called “The Life 2. DRINK TO 2. BAFFLED of Garlic,” I wished I could 3. TO GO 3. NSYNC graduate from scallions on COURTESY YOUTUBE the windowsill. 4. GO FiSH 4. SWIFTLY In the 12-minute video, Li Ziqi lives in a village in Sichuan province and 5. FISH FRY 5. COMPELLING which already has more stars in mesmerizing food videos. 6. FRY COOK 6. CURVED than 7 million views, Li 7. COOK ISLANDS 7. SECONDS pushes garlic cloves into a Her grater is a piece of cleaver, similar to the ones patch of earth outside her metal that she punctures, she uses in her videos, as SUDOKU HIGH FIVE UNIVERSAL MONSTER SUDOKU home. A time lapse shows at an angle, then attaches well as loose Hanfu-inspired the sprouts growing, reach- to two pieces of wood. Her linen clothing, Sichuan gin- ing up toward the sky. basin is a stream, where seng honey and chile Li sautees the young, she washes the dirt from sauces. fresh green garlic shoots vegetables. Skeptics are suspicious with pork. When she har- Her kitchen is nothing of her access to YouTube in vests the bulbs, she plaits like mine, in Los Angeles. China, where the platform the stems, hanging them up But watching Li on my lap- is blocked. And though it to finish the drying process, top, I think maybe I could seems unlikely, some peo- pickling and preserving the be happy living like that, ple have wondered in the rest. too, soaking in the natural comment sections if her Li, who lives in a village beauty of the countryside, videos are propaganda. in Sichuan province and devoting myself to ex- Li’s story, as she tells it, rarely speaks to press, tremely traditional ways of is that she left home as a looks not unlike a Disney cooking. teenager to find work, but princess in her crown She is not known for tak- returned to the country- braids, wearing a silvery fur ing shortcuts. A video side to take care of her OBSERVER CROSSWORD NEW YORK TIMES CROSSWORD cape, trudging gracefully in about matsutake mush- grandmother, then began the snow. At 29, she is fa- rooms begins with her documenting her life. mous for her mesmerizing building the grill to cook Though she used to shoot videos of rural self-suffi- them, laying the bricks her videos alone, on her ciency, posted on Weibo down one at a time, scrap- phone, she now works with and YouTube. ing the mortar smooth, an assistant and a videog- For a worldwide audi- then hunting for mush- rapher. ence in isolation, her DIY rooms in the woods. In isolation, watching Li pastoral fantasies have be- The videos are deeply gather rose petals and ripe come a reliable source of soothing. But Li also roman- tomatoes, I catch myself escape and comfort. ticizes the struggles of farm thinking: Are these videos a Li tends to work in si- life, and, as any savvy influ- record of the collective lence, without the use of encer would, monetizes food knowledge we’ve al- any modern kitchen gad- that appeal. In her online ready lost, or an idealized gets. Her sieve is a gourd. shop, she sells a curved vision of its recovery?