Hana Hou To Go Food Truck

**** This truck is no longer in business

A couple of guys in the office like this food truck that comes by every couple of weeks.

It named "Hana Hou to go". Hana Hou means "one more time" in Hawaiian. While I'm not fully sold on the Food Truck explosion; I grew up eating from lunchwagons, so local kine food from a truck makes sense to me. So I decided to give it a try. Though I gotta say' this ain't lunchwagon prices.

I ordered the Chicken Katsu Plate ($11).

To be perfectly frank; the item I enjoyed the most was the katsu sauce; which was rather thick, but had a nice tanginess to it. It seemed between the typical Japanese style (like steak sauce) and the "local kine" (ketchup based). The chicken was fairly moist, even for white meat; though it was quite bland and cold and the breading was past the point of having very much crunch.

The kimchi was the typical "quick kimchi"; crisp, slightly spicy, but lacking in fermented flavor. I just wasn't a big fan of the macaroni salad; which was really dry; with some hard pieces, and quite bland overall. The rice? Well, that was well done, not too mushy, no hard bits. Only "one scoop" though. Which, these days is enough for me.

This was ok overall. So, thinking that perhaps it wasn't the best strategy to get something basically fried from the food truck (though Tsukenjo's made a mean mochiko chicken and Grace's started serving their chicken katsu from a lunchwagon), I decided to give them another chance. Daniel from Georgia told me to get the "Kalua Cabbage Plate" ($11), which we call Kalua Pork and Cabbage back home.

The pork was rather chewy and stringy; and there was quite a bit of cabbage. Perhaps I was being too picky since I often make this at home. I'm glad it wasn't too salty and the rice was again quite good. I kimchi had more flavor this time around, though I'm still not a fan of that mac salad. Too each his own.....

Overall, okay lunches if I have no other choices. If this was a brick and mortar shop, I'd pass.

The Hana Hou to Go Food Truck

Comments

[kat]

bummer

[Nicole @ Bento Momentos]

Nice review! I think food trucks are pretty expensive for what you get but it's a novelty right now. Thanks for sharing!

[James]

Looks like the mac salad suffers from the fatal mistakes of undercooking the mac and adding the mayo while the mac was too warm. Sigh.

[Kirk]

I was Kat!

Hi Nicole - I thought the price point was pretty high.

Probably James.

[Soo @ hungryones]

I make my own kalua pork with cabbage too. It's more cost effective. The portion size looks pretty small on your Kalua Cabbage Plate.

[Kirk]

Yes, for eleven bucks; this was pretty small in terms of portion size Soo.

[Kobi]

Love Tsukenjo and Graces. Always tempted to try food trucks but get scared away by the high prices. Hawaii lunchwagons totally different from food trucks. Lunchwagons have a variety of hot main dishes, usually a daily special, ability to create special mix and under 10 bucks. Next time I’m home I need to try Laverne’s. Follow them on instagram and plates look mean. They also have squid luau.

[Kirk]

Actually, what's served at this food truck made me think of lunchwagons Kobi....until I saw the portions and prices.