Aku Eats Oahu : a closer look : Cafe Oriente, a closer look

Cafe Oriente, a closer look

Hey all!

6/25/08 - Did I not tell you a couple of Closer Look's ago that I'd find a good Hainan chicken rice somewhere? It turns out a friend of mine at work is ethnically Chinese but grew up in Vietnam, and has travelled extensively throughout China and South East Asia all his life. He knew all about Hainan chicken rice, and told me that the only place he knew to find it on the island was at a certain little Chinese restaurant in Downtown (it figures!) called Cafe Oriente.

In case you don't know, Hainan chicken rice is a seemingly simple enough dish, made by boiling whole chicken in a seasoned chicken broth and serving it alongside or over a large mound of fragrant jasmine rice cooked in a separate batch of chicken broth. This kind of rice is sometimes known as oily rice, and comes slick to the touch and with the added flavor of chicken infused into the cooking process. Sauces are also served on the side, with this particular downtown location serving a ginger/oil sauce along with a hot chili sauce. The version I first saw Anthony Bourdain try was Singapore-style, which usually comes also with a soy-based sauce in addition to the two others. In China, they sometimes use an oyster-based garlic sauce.

Pessimists may discount this dish as just the familiar cold ginger chicken served everywhere, but don't say that in Singapore or Malaysia or wherever chicken rice is popular, or you may incite a mob riot. As stated a couple of entries ago, it has been voted, unofficially but proudly, the "National Dish" of Singapore, and if they booed Anthony Bourdain on stage when he didn't know what chicken rice was, it's scary to think what they may do to you and I if we begin disrespecting their beloved dish!

Meanwhile, transporting back to the islands, we found ourselves meandering through the streets of Downtown Honolulu enroute to the humble-looking entrance of Cafe Oriente, right after passing a couple of shady-looking characters that prompted wifey to grab me in a walking bear hug . Actually, we weren't really meandering - that was just for dramatic effect (but the shady-looking characters weren't!). It was actually only a 10-15 yard walk from the small, open-air parking lot we settled into, which was easily found by going Ewa on S. Beretania street, turning left on Maunakea st., and then pulling into the first public lot on the left-hand side. You can probably find cheaper rates than the $5 per hour rate charged there, but it is the most conveniently located one around.

Despite the dingy-looking exterior, the inside of the restaurant was surprisingly nice, almost to the point of a bit classy, with crisp burgundy linen under tinted-glass table-tops, well-placed lighting, and varnished wooden chairs defininitely not of your Big Box retailer variety. The two-toned walls held the perfect ratio of Chinese paintings and hanging scrolls to clean, open-white space to keep one foot in tradition and the other in modernity. It was a peaceful, refreshing little oasis in stark contrast to the often harsh world outside.

I even found the condiment tray rather elegant!

The first time we came here it was just wifey and I, but this time we invited Big Al to come along. Surprisingly, I got to a restaurant before he did! He had actually heard this place was good, but had never been here before.

One of the interesting things about Cafe Oriente is that they have a lot of dishes that you may not find at other Chinese restaurants because they may seem a bit crude for our western tastes. There are names like curry beef organ, pork big intestine with sour cabbage, pork blood jello with chive, liver and kidney sautee, and beef stew with tendon.

Skipping over these interesting treats for now, we started with something a little more tame in comparison, but still not often found elsewhere - quail w/salt and pepper. The tiny little bodies, well seasoned with loads of green onion, garlic, and hot chili peppers, held crispy skins and wing bones that could be snapped off and eaten whole (after some crunching down, of course!). The meat areas, naturally, were small, but as most of us know, meat in closest proximity to the bones are always the most flavorful, and with quail everything is pretty much close to the bone! All of us couldn't help but think how great this dish would be as a pupu for our next get-together.

I asked our kind waitress what she recommended, and she pointed to the lamb stew special written on a wall chalkboard. I wasn't too sure about that selection, so she then said the seabass casserole was a good dish. Fine by me!

The dish came in a gravy with chunks of seabass along with fried tofu, bamboo shoots, green onion, Chinese cabbage, and whole garlic pieces. The fish was actually, well, really fishy-tasting and the gravy was waay thick, something I really don't care for after having eaten every day in Beijing for almost a month a while back. For $2-$7 I had one meat dish, one vegetable, and a big bowl of rice twice a day, and the sauces were always so flavorful but never gooey-thick like you sometimes get here. Not sure why.

Despite the over-done cornstarch, the flavor of this casserole was delicious. If it were thinner, it would have been awesome over hot rice!

Poor wifey, she got a toothache from a wisdom tooth that needs to come out. We already set a dentist appointment to remove it, but for now it's still a little swollen and sore. Being very much the samurai-type, she doesn't want to take meds at all. Now, she's having to order things like the Chinese herb-infused oxtail soup! The guy at the counter said it supposedly came with a bunch of medicinal herbs, but we could barely understand what he was saying so I'm not sure what kinds they were. From the taste of things, I was actually surprised how lacking it was in any herb taste at all, even of clove or ginger or anything familiar. Maybe the healthy approach superceded the taste angle.

Come to think of it, however, I do remember that it had a very beefy but also very earthy taste - maybe from the large amount of root materials used by Chinese herbalists like dong quai or ginseng? Taste-wise, both myself and Big Al saw the dish as just ok, but wifey loved it. I'd probably eat it again just for the supposed health benefits.

And finally, it's time for you to see the chicken rice! I hope I didn't hype it up too much, as the appearance may not live up to the brilliant ad campaign I just ran over two episodes. If you ever try this dish, I encourage you to sample a few mouthfuls of rice first, as you will more likely appreciate the subtle flavors it contains and your mind will be tricked into tasting it more even when combined later with the chicken and various sauces.

The chicken meat itself is very soft and moist, as they are careful not to cook it for too long. In fact, our chicken this second time had an uncomfortable stain of red from the marrow juices seeping out, which almost brought me to the point of sending it back to cook a little longer. Not to worry, though - Big Al volunteered to eat the reddest sections, anyway, so it was all good! I called him later in the evening and he's still alive.

You may find the skins a little too rubbery and tasteless, as we locals are used to the strong flavors that come from it being fried or baked to a crisp instead of lightly boiled as it is here.

Also on the side are some chopped Chinese greens and the two sauces that complete the dish. This fragrant rice is really beginning to grow on me. I'll probably order it next time with roast duck, which I see other diner doing.

Because wifey wasn't able to get down too many solids, she ordered the sukui tofu dessert, another recommendation from our waitress. It sure was a no-frills dish, coming with no more than a bowl of tofu and some sugar-water! Wifey says the tofu was really good, tasting every bit as smooth and silky as a good sukui tofu does, and she was tempted to pour shoyu instead of the provided container of sweetener. A little natural salt, green tea powder, and/or some savory dashi broth, and it would have made a great izakaya dish instead of dessert!

The first time wifey and I came to Cafe Oriente, we came away super-impressed. Besides the chicken rice and quail, our plate of mabo tofu over rice instantly brought back fresh memories of Beijing and revealed that this was no ordinary neighborhood restaurant, even though they don't particularly specialize in Peking cuisine. I was absolutely raving about this place after our first visit.

This second time, however, kinda brought me back down to earth. Although I still think it is a great Chinese restaurant, I need a few more visits to absolutely throw it in the same league as Happy Day, Fook Yuen, Harbor Village, and the like. One thing for sure, though, is that there is a flavor and look to the dishes that is decidedly very authentic here, and it intrigues me to the point that I definitely look forward to returning and sampling other dishes. I'll just make sure to take a more balanced approach than after the first time.

For now, I am happy that I finally got to try Hainan chicken rice, although I still haven't tried it Singapore-style, or Malaysian style either, for that matter. And the fact that this humble little Downtown restaurant could possibly be the only place to find it on the island makes it even more intriguing. I know it's only a matter of time before it begins to catch on and show up all over the place.

Until then, Downtown and Cafe Oriente welcomes you!

Make it a great day! Aloha!

Aku

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