Gastronomique: It must be Siegfried, because it's not Roy.
Trader Joe's has become a weekend ritual for us. We really can't admit this without shame. Weekends used to be times to climb mountains or party endlessly. Now, we must wake up early on Saturdays, or TJ's parking lot will be full.
A little evasion from our dull life--beside TJ's two buck chuck--has come lately from Hukilau, the Hawaiian place just down the street from our TJ, on Masonic at Geary. Not that the place is particularly scenic, to be true. It is rather non-descript, with TVs turned on and a large bar counter in the main room. We remember the place as an Irish pub a while ago, and Hukilau got to keep the full bar license. But the food has proved remarkably good, especially for the price, and especially when seated on the terrace.
[Ed. Note: Sorry this is a day late, folks. Entirely the fault of this editor, so don't go blaming SFist Cedric.]
On our first visit, we had the kalua cabbage ($8.50), and the chicken adobo ($8.00). The cabbage was a bit watery and the accompanying roast pork shredded a bit too thin, and we liked Tita's version better. But the chicken, oh the chicken. Three thighs had been marinated in a sweetened soy sauce until the meat had soaked all the flavor deep to the bone. It was served with some kind of vinegary sauce, which we pretty much ignored, as there was enough stimulation for our taste buds as is.
Our appetizer that day was spam musubi ($2.00): grilled spam with rice wrapped in nori. We believe it was the first time we ate spam. So far our experience with the material was limited to the Spam-ku project, a collection of haikus dedicated to spam, the processed meat.
The sushi chef rolls
SPAM in his maki. No choice
but hara kiri.
A SPAM sushi roll
With imitation pork meat
And dead fish smell too.
Not true, the dead fish smell, just poetic license. Actually, the whole thing was rather innocuous.
Our second visit saw us eat the two poke appetizers, ahi (tuna, $9) and tako (octopus, $10). The octopus was a bit on the chewy side, and the sesame oil dressing a bit overpowering.
Again the entrees pleased us: the teriyaki short ribs ($9.50) were a plateful of marinated beef cooked to nice tenderness. Hukilau offers the opportunity to combine two entrees for $10.50. We had the grilled mahi-mahi and the hukilau chicken. This last dish is fried bits of chicken breast in a teriyaki sauce with sesame seed. We were happy to have only a half order, as the sweetness became cloying, especially since we had a no-frill, grilled piece of mahi-mahi fillet to balance the flavors.
All the entrees were served on wooden platter with a default option of two scoops of rice and one of macaroni salad. We opted out on our second visit, replacing the starch with a pleasant green salad with a papaya seed dressing on one plate, and French fries on the other.
It is not grande cuisine, but it packs flavors and exoticism, and for the price, with the most expensive entree at $11 for a salmon dish, we are really impressed by the value. You can have a whole meal there for the price of an appetizer at Roy's, the fancy-pantsy Hawaiian place in SOMA. And you should.
Hukilau
5 Masonic Ave.
San Francisco, CA 94118
(415)921-6242
Also locations in San Jose and Palo Alto