Wat's Your Favorite?
By Braddah Lance
Da season for onolicous grindz has begun.
With Thanksgiving just a couple days away, holiday office pah-tay's and family gatherings, you just can't help yourself to over indulge in foods - most times homemade - that you normally don't eat often.
Go on and admit it. It's da foods you don't cook often if even at all.
I for one enjoy seeing all the different dishes as well as those I want to see at these gatherings cause while there's a chance I may be able to make it myself, it always tastes bettah wen someone else makes it..... at da very least someone else is doing da dishes. 
In Hawai'i, we live in a chop suey culture wea our side dishes could be - and often times has been - a main meal itself. At da pot luck table, there's always da varying degrees of chicken or beef but da sides are wea people get creative and elaborate.
We must be da only state wea at potlucks we have an "option" to make like a gazillion different kine salads and no one bats an eye. Of course, there are about a dozen ways to make da island staple of mac salad. But then we get things like somen salad, pasta salad, tossed salad, potato salad and we've all eaten just a salad as a meal before.
Then naturally of course gotta have rice. Musubi's (with or without a surprise center), nori wrapped, furikake, sushi and fried rice just to name a few.
Can't forget about da oodles of noodles from chow mein to fried udon to chop chae.
And you most definitely can't call an island style pot luck complete without poke. Das po-kay. Not po-key. Anoddah local word not being pronounced correctly.....
Wassup Wit Dat!
We've all been to da local fish department in grocery stores, or fish markets in general, and get about two dozen or so poke dishes to choose from. Get shoyu, shoyu onion, masago, limu and of course, spicy kine naming just a few ways it's prepared. Poke is made with any kine - most times - raw fish so da combinations of "sauces" are endless.
Those are just da tip of da iceberg wen we think about side dishes. We all look forward to these fantabulous "meals" especially wen we not making 'em and I dunno about you but wen I know "somebody" going be at a pah-tay, I look forward to "their" dish. And we ALL have a few people we "want" at da pah-tay. 
I look forward to Da Wife's broiled sushi (although I gotta do da dishes - WWD!), da relatives soba/spinach salad, someone always brings tako poke and my absolute absolute favorite (rogah, das absolute TWICE!), spicy ahi.
If I nevah have to share, I'd pound every single bit of dat spicy ahi and still look for more.
So for those who "always make da same thing", please no feel like it gets boring or tiring cause wen you no bring 'em, those "expecting" 'em are disappointed. It's just one of those things you're "expected" to bring no mattah wat so just suck it up and take one for da team.
Wat's your favorite pupu or side dish at pot lucks? Do you look forward to a friend or relative's dish? Are you an "expected" cook?
Go on and share..... I'll be "expecting". 
Wassup Wit Dat!
November 22nd, 2011 at 6:13 am
First!
November 22nd, 2011 at 6:14 am
Guud morning BL!
It's poke, anykine and sashimi.
November 22nd, 2011 at 6:25 am
granma's fresh oio fish cake...but i gotta catchum first.
happy thanksgiving everybodies!
November 22nd, 2011 at 6:47 am
Homemade chimichanga, burritos, Swedish meatballs, Chinese chicken salad..
November 22nd, 2011 at 7:13 am
Mom's futomaki sushi. No more anymore, so Tanioka's is the closest I can find that taste like hers did.
November 22nd, 2011 at 7:16 am
Morning everyone!
It's almost madatory for me to make "kalua pork" for people at work when there's a pot luck.
If it's a gathering with friends, they all want me to make either egg-rolls or kalbi.
November 22nd, 2011 at 9:00 am
Small kid time, I always looked forward to my Aunty's super ono shiraae.
November 22nd, 2011 at 10:41 am
Potato Salad made by my sister using my Dad's recipe. Now that he's gone...that's the nly time I see or eat it.
November 22nd, 2011 at 3:16 pm
favorites are sashimi, poke, cucumber kim chee, and tsukemomo pickled vegetables preferably miniature nasubi.
November 22nd, 2011 at 3:17 pm
we're the poke people! sorry, BL... i don't usually say po-kay!
shame on me! lol. but, however i say it, it still tastes ono, right? 
that's our favorite, along with dessert. i usually don't cook... no time when we have to go to three places (and i sure as heck am not cooking for three large groups!). it's still hectic, though... and, anyway, i somehow always am the clean-up crew!
November 22nd, 2011 at 8:37 pm
BL Kim Chee
November 23rd, 2011 at 6:13 am
Guud morning BL!
Happy Aloha Wednesday!
November 23rd, 2011 at 8:05 am
Lucky 13!
I am an expected cook, which I don't mind. My favorite side dishes are poke, sashimi, sushi. I miss Thanksgivings at home with turkey AND just about every side dish imaginable, but that's with 30-40 people all bringing stuff.
Otherwise, my favorite Thanksgiving foods are pumpkin pie and those dinner rolls smothered with butter. Lose money being allergic to wheat nowadays, but I'm making pumpkin crunch (using gluten-free cake mix for da crunch) and gluten-free cornbread mix so at least I can eat those. (I can't pass up gravy, but I'm willing to be little bit itchy from the wheat in the gravy.)
November 23rd, 2011 at 8:14 am
Pumpkin chiffon pie with whipped cream!!!
November 23rd, 2011 at 10:49 am
@ Kan can't you make the gravy with cornstarch instead of flour?
Happy Thanksgiving everyone!
November 23rd, 2011 at 11:39 am
@hawaiiobsessed - I think you're right, probably can. But I think we're going to be lazy and use pre-packaged as our gravy base this year. That's ok - I can take antihistimines if I only eat lilobit wheat.
November 23rd, 2011 at 2:14 pm
@UR- mmm pumpkin chiffon pie. I have not had that in years.
November 23rd, 2011 at 2:53 pm
Whatever is on the table! Yeah, I am spoiled . . . a little bit. When I visit home Mom and my cousin's wives make all my favorites! You name, they are there.
YUM!
November 23rd, 2011 at 6:13 pm
I have several favorites - my SIL's cole slaw, da best in da world (I tried to get her to ship me some, but no can!
) I also love stuffing (from da turkey please!) and mashed potatoes wit da gravy. Warm, homemade rolls with lots of butter! Last, but not least is da turkey and maybe some sweet potatoes (not yams, please!) I think I going have starch overdose from this. 
November 23rd, 2011 at 6:28 pm
The past ten yrs I lived in a cubbyhole with a sink for a kitchen. Was the junkest ever but was cheap. This year I finally moved to an apt with a fo' real kine kitchen... got counters and gas stove even! But aiyahh, the refrig is smaller than the one in the other apt, WWD?! (make sense, puka pants)
So anyhow, I'm making a spiral ham and my fave Jello desert. Had to make sure the food in the fridge got eaten up so the pan can fit in there.
November 23rd, 2011 at 6:31 pm
In my other lifetime, when all our holidays were spent at my BIL's house in Waianae (THAT was an event!) I was expected and ordered to make the dessert (I wen' spell 'um wrong da first time yah? *shame*).
I always made a Chocolate Delight and either Jello Cheesecake or Blueberry Cheesecake. Obviously I had a way bigger fridge back then.
November 23rd, 2011 at 6:39 pm
@Sally Dat's right; forgot you moved! Enjoy da new kitchen. Oh, and a simple solution to da manini refrig: make sure everything get eaten so you no have to store leftovahs!
November 24th, 2011 at 9:04 am
Dat ALL sounds supah ono! I hope your Thanksgiving wish comes true!
@ Keoni: Da only cole slaw I know, sadly, is from KFC. I still have yet to taste a "local" cole slaw..... too much mac salad.
November 24th, 2011 at 4:14 pm
I am expected to make the potato mac salad which I don't think is anything
special but everybody likes. My favorite thing to eat
was my cousin's shrimp tempura with fishcake until I
got allergic to shrimp.