If this was a magazine, tonight would be the Pineapple Issue.
Tonight’s dinner is pretty much brought to you from the Hawai’ian Islands and the nice people at Dole. Well… It’s probably more of what the folks on the mainland envisioned Hawai’i to be rather than what it really was. Madison Avenue was selling us Hawai’i the same way they were selling us Ford’s, Oldsmobile’s, and Speedy Alka-Seltzer. And we all know how Madison Avenue sells illusion rather than truth. That’s the show we’re watching!
My first visit to Hawai’i wasn’t until 1973 – and while I was only there for about 8 hours, it definitely was different than I had expected. It was actually a lot better. Granted, I was weeks before my 21st birthday and I was highly intoxicated the entire time I was there, but it really was a lot nicer than I had imagined. I was on a Pan Am 747 that was flying from Saigon to San Francisco. Problems in Hawai’i kept us on the island for many Mai Tai’s.
But back to the mainland and the 1960s…
Chicken and pineapple and teriyaki sauce were all the rage for the backyard luau on the lanai. So for this one I started off with Auntie’s Teriyaki Sauce. It was probably Uncle Tommy’s, but…
Auntie’s Teriyaki Sauce
- 1 cup soy sauce
- 1/4 cup water
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 1 tbsp ground ginger
- 1/4 cup bourbon
- 2 tbsp oil
- pinch black pepper
Mix all ingredients. Use for chicken, beef, or pork.
So tonight, I made chicken ka-bobs. Anything on a skewer was a kabob – I didn’t learn the word brochette until I started working in restaurants. These were alternating pieces of tomato, pineapple, marinated chicken, onion, and red bell pepper. Grilled to perfection.
They were served atop a Rice and Noodle Pilaf. Shades of Rice-A-Roni! My mom used to make homemade variations of Rice-A-Roni all of the time. This is a classic – and it worked perfectly with the ka-bobs. In fact, it worked really, really good. I’ll be making this again.
I halved the recipe and still had way too much, but it will make great leftovers…
And then, because I wanted to stay with the pineapple theme, we had Pineapple Carrots.
These were merely okay. They weren’t stellar, but they didn’t suck, either. They might work better with brown sugar and a splash – a very small splash – of rum… I’ll get back to you…
And I figured I really should show a picture of Aunt Dolores and Uncle Tommy. Here they are in Honolulu in 1958 having breakfast with their driver on their last morning before heading back to California.
They vacationed in Hawai’i several times…
And then we have dessert – which will get its own post after we watch Mad Men. Aloha Pineapple Cream Squares.
These promise to be interesting…