A recipe is a terrible thing to waste. Or lose. This is the simple truth behind “By Request,” a weekly column that originated decades ago in the Honolulu Star-Bulletin and continues today in the Honolulu Star-Advertiser’s Wednesday Crave food section. Newspaper readers send in their requests for recipes for old-school comfort foods, for restaurant favorites, for new things they just want to try. The mission of the column has been to hunt down those recipes.
Writer Betty Shimabukuro inherited By Request in 1998 and continues to field requests and solve those mysteries.
By Request Highlights compiles top recipes from Betty’s first two books— By Request – The Search for Hawaii’s Greatest Recipes and By Request 2 – The Continuing Search for Hawaii’s Greatest Recipes—and adds more than thirty new recipes. The collection covers plate lunch standards, long-gone classics, signature restaurant dishes, and dozens of other dishes celebrating that cuisine we call “local.” It may not have a clear definition, but we know it when we taste it.
The opening chapter is a salute to the foods of the Hawaii’s school cafeterias. The following chapters cover breakfast foods, dishes for both meat lovers and vegetarians, and desserts. The final chapter is for the advanced motivated home cook who has the time and wherewithal to take on more complicated dishes.
School Lunch
- Lunalilo School Spaghetti
- Turkey Corn Scallop
- School-Kine Spanish Rice
- Spanish Green Beans
- Punahou Beef Stew
- Punahou Chicken Stew
- Iliahi Elementary Portuguese Sweet Rolls
- McKinley High School Lavash
- Kapalama School Peanut Butter Coffee Cake
- Frosted Flake Chocolate Chip Cookies
- ‘Ānuenue Elementary School Peanut Butter Cookies
- Kailua High School Shortbread Cookies
- ‘Aikahi Chocolate Shortbread Cookies
- Kahuku High School Cherry Crisp
- Peanut Butter Brownies aka Peanut Butter Chews
- Rolled Oats and Raisin Cookies
- Grandmother Cookies
The Breakfast Club
- Sandy Kodama’s Oatmeal Cake
- Agnes’ Portuguese Bake Shop Bread Pudding
- Kaka‘ako Kitchen Banana-Poi Bread
- Big City Diner Oatmeal Cakes
- O‘ahu Country Club Bread Pudding
- Paul Chun’s Pancakes
- Jean’s Bakery Danish Tea Cake
- First Lady’s Fresh Apple Spice Cake
- Kālua Pig and Green Onion Hash
- Crispy Soft-Boiled Eggs
- Not-Too-Sweet Tamagoyaki with Furikake
- Hobbit Seed Cake
Meat Lovers
- Big-Way Burger Sweet-and-Sour Spareribs
- Yen King Spareribs in Orange Peel and Honey Sauce
- Hale Koa Paniolo Beef Stew
- On On Salt-Pepper Pork Chops
- Punahou Portuguese Bean Soup
- Queen’s Hospital Beef Stew
- Junkyard Chili
- Beef with Pickled Mustard Cabbage
- Herb’s Scout Stew
- Golden Dragon Mongolian Lamb
- Crouching Lion Slavonic Steak
- Oceanarium Kalbi-Glazed Pork Belly
Chicken ‘N’ Seafood
- L&L Drive-Inn Chicken Katsu
- Chicken Assaggio
- Aloha Aina Cafe Turkey Chili
- Popo’s Bar-B-Que P-Nut Chicken
- Kengo’s Kumamoto Dango Jiru
- Rainbow Drive-In Shoyu Chicken
- Gai See Mein
- Chicken with Lychee Sauce
- Waialua Chicken Wings
- 3660 Catfish Tempura with Ponzu Sauce
- Hou See Soong
- Harpo’s Linguine with Clams
- Gindara Kasuzuke
- Olive Tree Fresh Fish Souvlaki
- Tzatziki (Yogurt Sauce)
- Butterfish Niitsuke
- Butterfly Shrimp with Bacon
- Hari Kojima’s King Crab Dip
Meatless Meals
- Broiled Portobellini
- Fresh Soy Bean Salad with Feta Cheese
- Parc Cafe Fried Tofu Salad
- Parc Cafe Charbroiled Eggplant with Miso Dressing
- Dashi
- Hiroshi’s Kilauea Tofu
- Diner’s Macaroni Salad
- Rainbow Drive-In Macaroni Salad
- Orchids Scalloped Potato Gratin
- Jicama Stir-Fry
- Jicama Slaw
- Rajmah Masala (Kidney Bean Curry)
- Aloo Gobhi (Cauliflower and Potatoes)
- Mediterranean Couscous Salad
- No-Mayo Creamy Coleslaw with Apples
- Carrot Dogs
- Warm Black Rice Salad with Garbanzos
Sweet Endings
- Arare Cookies
- Mochiko Butter Cookies
- Coconut Macaroon Pie
- Happy Birthday Prune Cake
- Chocolate Coffee-Toffee Pie
- Waioli Tea Room Date Bars
- Chinese Tea Cookies
- Nori’s Chocolate Mochi Cake
- Liliko‘i Cake
- Halekulani Macadamia Nut Cream Pie
- Whopper Brownies
Worth The Effort
- Chicken Alice’s Wings
- Ryan’s Grill Cajun Chicken Fettuccini
- Toong Mai
- Chile Verde with Pig Feet
- Cisco’s Nacho Grande
- Japanese Rice Crackers
- A Little Bit of Saigon Twice-Cooked Chicken
- Joyce Fasi’s Spaghetti and Meatballs
- Kahala Moon Banana Mac-Nut Praline Tart
- Royal Hawaiian Pink Haupia Cake
- Guava Chiffon Cake