Aloha Spirit in
Monterey, California: Hula’s Restaurant
Review – Part 1 – by Savvy Mom Ruth Paget
I
queried The Monterey County Weekly
(Circulation: 200,000) to do a restaurant review of Monterey’s local Trader
Vic’s – Hula’s. I went to Trader Vic’s
when I was a student at the University of Chicago and fully appreciate how
Aloha Spirit can make you feel warm in winter.
I
noted in my query that I had been to Hawaii (Twice now in 2019) and stayed with
a Polynesian family upon returning from the People’s Republic of China in
1979.
I
thought Hula’s food tasted like the luau that Hawaii’s Polynesian and Japanese
communities prepared for the youth tour I was on before going back home to
Detroit, Michigan.
The Monterey County
Weekly asked
me to do an article, which I have modified as follows:
Aloha Spirit in
Monterey: Hula’s Wows with Great Food and Kicky Atmosphere
Hula’s
Island Grill and Tiki Room is the kind of restaurant that makes me want to
smile the minute I walk in – especially at dinner time when flickering candles
in red glass holders cast a hypnotic glow on the thatched roof over the bar and
the Polynesian wood carvings.
Blue
lights outline the bar, and colored lights frame the windows. It is fun to be seen in this noisy,
party-time restaurant that fascinates children and adults alike with its
Hawaiian-inspired décor.
My
husband Laurent and I began our meal by ordering some festive appetizers called
pupus: surfrider sticks and tiki torches.
The
surfrider sticks, which looked like surfboards sticking up in the sand, are
chicken breast pieces threaded on skewers and planted in a thick slice of
roasted slice of pineapple.
Both
dipping sauces tasted yummy: One was a
slightly sweet Thai peanut sauce and the other was a mildly, salty soy-teriyaki
sauce.
Six
miniature drumsticks that came bathed in a spicy sesame-hoisin sauce made up of
our tiki torch dish. The hoisin sauce - made
from soy sauce, molasses, and Chinese hot sauce – gave the chicken a luscious
kick. The sour cram dipping sauce made
the already rich chicken very filling.
We
drank one of Hula’s eclectic beer choices with our appetizers: Longboard lager produced by the Kona Brewery
on Hawaii.
One
of the co-owners said he likes to offer out-of-the-ordinary items to make
eating at his restaurant an exotic experience.
End
of Part 1.
To
be continued…
By
Ruth Paget, author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France
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