Honolulu: Royal Kitchen and Nam Fong

My Father In-Law thought it would be a great idea to have the Missus' visiting cousins a taste of an "American Thanksgiving" so he ordered the basic heat and eat Thanksgiving meal from Zippy's. My job was to provide "back-up" if you know what I mean. No offense against Zippy's or any other of the heat and catered Thanksgiving meals, but they really aren't known for great flavor and quality if you know what I mean. We weren't arriving until the wednesday afternoon before T-Day so making anything was pretty much out of the question. So I dug into my "black book" looking for something that might suffice. Several folks had recommended Nam Fong in Chinatown to me, so I called from San Diego and reserved a duck and some pork for Thanksgiving Day. Nam Fong opens pretty early which worked out well as I made a nice 530 am drive from Ewa Beach to the Chinese Cultural Plaza at the edge of Chinatown in downtown. Arriving at about 6am on Thanksgiving morning I was surprised at how busy things were. There was a large group doing Tai Chi on the plaza alongside the River Street Canal. Now those that know where Nam Fong is located may ask what the heck am I doing at the CCP? Well, I drove up extra early to hit up this place:

Man, it has been at least a dozen years since I'd been to Royal Kitchen. I remember first having a baked manapua from Royal Kitchen waaay back in the early 1980's! What is manapua? It's Hawaii's riff on the Char Siu Bao which I mentioned in my post about Char Hung Sut. Why is it called manapua? Depending on what source you get your info from it could come from Hawaiian phrase "mauna pua'a", which means "mountain of pork"......now what non-vegetarian could resist a mountain of pork, eh? Or perhaps it's from the phrase "mea ono pua'a" which means something along the lines of "delicious pork thing", "mea ono" could also be translated to mean "cake" and "pork cake" would be a apt description, right? Whatever the origin, it's all good. Royal Kitchen changes things around when they started making baked manapua, they then put it sidewards by replacing the pork mixture with a whole lup cheong (Chinese sausage - my favorite) and Chicken Curry. Stuff like Portuguese sausage and kalua pork came later.

The shop is tiny and sells noodles and Chinese Barbecue as well.

 But of course, I was all about the manapua, still priced pretty well at $1.15 each. Three trips ago (circa 1999), I bought a couple of these to eat on the trip home from Honolulu. Unfortunately, we forgot the package in the rental car....man was I bummed. So to set things right, I bought a box of eight. I even called from San Diego to make sure they'd be open on Thanksgiving.

This time eating was top priority so no views of the fillings. I seem to recall the exterior to be a bit more baked. I've never considered the char siu version to be stellar and it's still not my favorite. This time around the kalua pork overtook the lup cheong and Portuguese Sausage. Who knows what will win out next time? I'm looking forward to that......

Royal Kitchen
100 N Beretania St, Ste 175
Honolulu, HI 96817

Mon-Fri 5:30 am - 4:30 pm
Sat 6:30 am - 4:30 pm
Sun 6:30 am - 2:30 pm

I packed my box in the car, walked along the canal, crossed the street, then down Maunakea Street, the heart of Chinatown. The area has been cleaned up over the years, but there are still homeless folks sleeping in the doorways and it's easy to imagine how the area must have been when the area was the entertainment district or during the post World War II era (remember all those stories about Club Hubba Hubba?) or even as I grew up in Honolulu.

I was told that Nam Fong would be opening earlier than usual and I found the place doing a steady business when I arrived at about 615am.

Though there are a couple of places doing Chinese BBQ along this stretch of road, the ducks in the window sure looked good.

 The roast pork hanging inside the shop didn't look too shabby either! There was a makshift set-up with what looked like a dozen Chinese style roasted turkeys that looked really delicious. The woman working the counter was really friendly and my order was ready when I arrived.

Anyway here's the rundown, first off the Roast Pork wasn't bad, it was moist with good flavor, but too chewy and the skin hard.

I ended up chopping up most of it and doing a saute with vinegar, chilies, soy sauce, onions, and scallions a la sisig which turned out rather good.

The Char Siu was pretty good, most places here in San Diego make it really salty and overly sweet, pouring sauce over it to keep it moist. This was mildly sweet, but not salty and I could make out the flavor of the pork for once.

A whole roast duck here costs a very reasonable $16,and while the skin is not quite up there in terms of texture, this duck was very good, much better than anything we have in San Diego. You can just tell by the look of the meat in this photo......

The meat was very tender and moist, the flavor of the duck came through. Initially, even though I could make out a mild five spice-bean paste flavor, I thought the duck too mild. Until I poured some of the jus on the duck, which immediately brought all the flavors out. It was delici-yoso!!! Thanks to everyone who recommended this place to me!

I'd like to revisit on my next trip home to see if the duck is just as good....then I'll be able to make recommendations of my own.

Nam Fong Restaurant
1029 Maunakea St
Honolulu, HI 96817

Mon-Sat 7 am - 4:30 pm
Sun 7 am - 1 pm

One thing I realized as I drove back to Ewa Beach.....I really enjoyed these morning drives....on days when there was no morning traffic.

"Round and round up and down
Through the streets of your town
Everyday I make my way
Through the streets of your town"

Streets of Your Town - Go-Betweens

Comments

[kat]

never been to nam fong but love royal kitchen

[Kirk]

Hi Kat - Now I'm craving some baked manapua too.....

[Dennis]

Hopefully next year I'll get a chance to revisit Hawaii with my food goggles on! I'll have to ask for recs then too. Thanks for sharing as always Kirk.

[Soo]

I love lup cheong too! Any tips on getting good lup cheong in San Diego?

[Mike]

Interesting - those manapua have a much more toasted "bread-like" look to them than the white "Bao-style" one's at Char Hung Sut.

[Carol]

Wow, the pork and duck look great!

[Kirk]

Hi Dennis - There are tons of places to try......you won't have to work too hard.

Hi Soo - I usually just get the same brand that I'm happy with. The Missus family do make their own Chinese sausage, but I haven't tried making them yet.

Hi Mike - It is much more "bready" and I kinda prefer it to the usual huge manapua - which you can even get at 7/11 in Hi BTW.....

Hi Carol - The duck was surpringly good!

[Beachbum]

Kirk,
This is probably the best chinese BBQ in Honolulu chinatown but still not as good as some of the BBQ place in the main land. There is a bakery across the street from Nam Fong the sell Hawaii version of peanut brittle that is very good. You should try it next time. I do not remember the name of it.

[Kirk]

Hey Beach - Happy holidays! The duck is still better than anything in San Diego. The roast pork, not so much.

[Beachbum]

Kirk,
I cheat and use google map to figure out the name of the bakery. It is called Sing Cheong Yuan Bakery. Happy holidays to you and the misses. Call me next time you come up for a road trip.

[Beachbum]

Actually, it is right next to Nam Fong.

[Soo]

Which brand lup cheong do you like? Where do you get it at?

[Kirk]

Hi Soo - I used to get it from 99 Ranch Market.....of course you could make your own, I still haven't tried it. I'll email you the brand the next time I buy some.

Hey Beach - I'll give you a call next time I'm set to be up that way.

[Su-Lin]

I reeeeeeeeeeally want to visit Hawaii for the eats! That duck!

[Kirk]

Hi Su-Lin, You'll love it there!