Monday, August 31, 2009

Blogging in Maui; Takamiya Markets Delicious Ribs

There is a little shop in Wailuku Maui that is listed in almost every Japanese Brochure for Maui but not so many American brochures. My wife told me they are known for their teriyaki and its hugely popular for visiting asians. Ironically, I was going to go here on my last trip to maui but when we made it to the shop it happened to be on a sunday which happened to coincide with the day the market is closed.

This time however I made it one of our musts on our list of things we absolutely had to do and I was not disappointed. Located in a part of maui that looks like its not the best, most attractive part of the island by far lies this little shop that's a dream come true for us foodies. With real cuts of meat, it could be called a butcher shop by Maui standards but not really like a butcher shop by Beef Palace Standards.

They had prepacked steaks but do some specialty cuts as well though I was really just content with getting some of the Kalbi style ribs prepacked/pre-marinated and ready to grill. My we also picked up some Shoyu Ahi Poke(raw fresh tuna cubes marinated), Kim Chee Tako(Octopus marinated in Kim Chee seasoning), mac salad(every meal in Hawaii comes with mac salad...when in rome!), and a thick delicious Maui onion we also bought. They also had a hot lamp filled with Bento and Spam Masubi and other stuff but time was semi-limited. One thing that they had that I truly have never seen was two types of marinated beef...grade B and grade C. I can honestly say that of the numerous butcher shops I have been to I am semi sure I have never seen any Grade B beef...much less Grade C. I couldnt help but think after eating the Ribs that one of my old sneakers marinated overnight would have been palatable.

I took the meat back to the condo's grill, poured myself a big plastic glass of Lindeman's Cawarra I bought a few days earlier at Costco and went about fulfilling my dream of drinking wine on the beach while BBQing in Hawaii.

Hawaiian Style Kalbi Ribs...this teriyaki was almost like a candy style glaze. The ribs themselves are cut thicker then the ribs we get in So Cal. Next time I get back I will request them to be cut thinner. Not that I am knocking up, I am just used to the more traditional style korean cut.






The Shoyu Ahi Poke and Kim Chee Tako.


Some other pics of the meal.






All in All the hoopla of this place is completely warranted. Much like the proverbial needle in the haystack, in a town that looks like time has passed it by and the time that has kept has treated it none too kindly, this place will forever be on my list of must things to do in Maui. Probably the best sweet Teriyaki I have ever had with some of the freshest, most authentic Hawaiian dishes I have ever had...of course I have only been in Maui twice so take it for what its worth. We also ate at the Gazebo, not bad for the pancakes and the Fried Rice so popular on Yelp but by that same token not in the same class as Egg's and Things in Honolulu.

4 comments:

broseph6969 said...

Makes me want to go to Hawaii! Did you hit any of the great restaurants on Maui while you were there?

broseph6969 said...

Makes me want to go to Hawaii! Did you hit any of the great restaurants on Maui while you were there?

Unknown said...

Sadly with the kids and what not we didnt get to visit Roys or some of the other places. I will be finishing off my whole hawaii story and post it here ASAP. There were a couple of other good places there but food is kind of expensive there and the selection is anything like here in So Cal.

Ill answer your other question here as well, the Swirl test. Swirling the wine is kind of a one two punch in that you can gauge the viscosity(for lack of a better word, im sure wine snobs probably have a real term) of the wine by swirling and seeing how the wine coats the glass. Some of the better wines will leave almost a syrupy look as the trail down into the glass. The Swirl also helps the oxidation process as well.

Unknown said...

Sadly didnt have time or money to hit the higher end places. Sorry Im late getting back to you on this.