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New Forty Niner, a closer look
Aloha!
4/21/09 - Oh, bruddah! Here I was thinking that I'd have a lot more time this month! Now I gotta go back and fix all those broken picture links, which should take at least another 6 weeks or so! Oh, well... I guess it's for the better, as when it's all said and done a month-and-a-half from now, everything's gonna be much nicer than the original set-up, and there'll even be a lot of new pics that weren't there before. What's a little more hard work? It's aaall good...
I just keep hearing positive, up-lifting songs like this one Jeff Benik sent me, and I'm not worried about a thing. It's the best version of Stand By Me I've ever heard. In fact, it's one of the best versions of any song I've ever heard, just for sheer inspiration and power! Make sure you have an extra five minutes, then relax, take a step back, and listen and watch the entire video - it's all heart and soul, lemme tell ya!
Why, not even a disappointing meal can pull me down after that song! Not that today's meal was too big of a disappointment or anything. I mean... Well... Maybe it was kinda' big... Kinda'...
The last time I was at the New Forty Niner restaurant, right after taking the Pearl City off-ramp from H-1, and right before Pearl Ridge Shopping Center, I was pretty much enjoying myself. This time, however, the story was a little bit different.
Ever since I was a little kid, when our entire family of six would jump in our old Datsun B2-10 mini-station wagon, the one that mom'd be loudly trying to start for 10 minutes every morning before taking us to school, we'd always pass by this old, forlorn-looking, small diner of a restaurant. With their new paint-job and new ownership, it's actually not as bad as it was before, when it would down-right scare me sometimes! As a wide-eyed 8-year-old, the aged building looked to me like some back-alley deep in Chinatown or a Kalihi Valley Housing Project. All those years growing-up, I never did set one foot-in until I was well into my mid-thirties or so!
As most old-time, full-on, local-local restaurants, the Forty Niner specializes in saimin, fried saimin, and hamburger sandwiches, as they'd call them. The new owners, however, have also expanded upon the theme in a huge way, bringing-in a lengthy list of breakfast items like Big Island-style smoked meat w/eggs, corned beef hash, omelets, pancakes, and waffles, along with hearty meals like Molokai rubbed pork roast w/gravy, beef cutlet, ribeye steak, sandwiches, and even a Hawaiian plate of kalua pig, lau lau, and lomi salmon!
However, mom and I stuck with the specialties of the house, at least on this particularly lovely day. I dunno, it seems that every time I've been out with mom recently, we always end-up looking for saimin, either in regular form, which is to say in dashi broth, or fried saimin, otherwise known as dry. Mom's choice was dry, and came with a generous portion of noodles made fresh-daily and in-house, along with a light sprinkling of kamaboko, green onion, and char-siu.
Despite the fact that the noodles are house-made, it still doesn't carry a guarantee of a great fried saimin. Unlike our last visit, these long strands were a bit on the softer side. Still well-seasoned and done in the old-school-style of more noodle and less clutter (other items added-in), it was nevertheless noticeably over-cooked, a big no-no in the saimin world. Like angel hair pasta, which you really gotta be careful with, I see how these super-thin noodles can easily be over-done, but still...
In fact, mine, which came in broth with cow tails all over them, were so over-done I couldn't even get myself to finish them.
On the plus side, I don't think I've ever seen tails this big, these coming surprisingly huge and meaty, with only a couple of tail portions providing more than enough beef to leave me well-satisfied. Generous slices of fresh, perfectly cooked, meaty shiitake mushrooms also provided another great and delicious aspect to this dish, while cooked Chinese cabbage and that unmistakeably herby, pungent smell and taste that can only come from Chinese parsley were placed on-top.
I think I'd have preferred just oxtail soup, the regular way, with two scoops of rice on the side instead of having it with saimin noodles. Even besides the fact that the noodles were way too soft, they also left a taste imprint that dilutes the flavor of the pure oxtail broth in a way that doesn't help-out much at all.
I don't know if there's someone else who can make this combination work, but me, I just don't think oxtail soup goes well with saimin. I mean, everything was fine while tearing into those huge pockets of beef and fresh shiitake mushrooms, mixed with occasional sips of broth from my large, Chinese-style spoon, but once I got to the noodles, it just seemed I could never get enough taste infused-in. Even this mix of freshly-grated ginger and dash of shoyu, which was added directly to the bowl, couldn't totally do the trick. Oh, well. Such is life...
Prodded by the sight of our kind waitress delivering a couple of hamburgers to another table, I quickly added a teri-burger onto our meal. Unfortunately, like the previous two orders, it wasn't quite as fulfilling as I thought it'd be. This being the second burger I've had here, both times were similiar in that the patty just seemed a little, I dunno, not-grilled enough? I mean, do you see the color of the burger itself where it's not covered with teri sauce?
It almost looks as if it were lightly steamed like a pork hash dim sum, when I'd have preferred a little more of that darkened crust, either from flame-grilling or pan/griddle-searing. For Kobe beef, yes, but for inexpensive burgers? Gimme more of that greasy, slightly papa'a (burnt) grill marks!
I dunno, like I said, the last time I came here I thought the saimin was great (although the burger experience was much the same), but this time it just wasn't happening. Yes, I do admit that I came here before being exposed to such great saimin eateries like Shige's, Palace, Nakai, and Old Saimin House, and was probably, at the time, comparing saimin to the bowls most people are aquainted with in the more-familiar local family restaurants like Zippy's or Shiro's, or even with packaged grocery store varieties, none of which are the best representatives of this dish. Hopefully, they were just having a bad day, because if the noodles were al dente, I'd probably have enjoyed myself.
Either way, I'll still always have a soft-spot for New Forty Niner, as it's such a nostalgic stop - just look at the old-fashioned counter area in the next shot! A place like this always has value. I'm sure the other menu items do, too, especially the Big Island Smoked meat that I definitely have to try one day - sounds ono for sure, and the kind of meal a place like this'd probably do-up better than anyone. Yeah, just trying to brighten the mood a bit before closing-out...
Not that I'm not telling you the truth or anything. Like I said, maybe a new Chef made an honest mistake by leaving the noodles on the burner just a minute too long. Or maybe it was I who was having the bad day and am now over-dramatizing everything. Maybe everything else on the menu is top-knotch. Who knows? They could have the best beef cutlet and meanest pork roast on the island for all I know!
As always, make sure to find out for yourself, as we all have our different preferences and views! Even if you don't have the best meal somewhere, the experience of trying a place for the first time is always more beneficial in the end, even just for the fact that it makes you more flexible and open to new opportunities. Just like stretching your muscles and joints, if we don't stay flexible, our minds becomes every bit as stiff and achy-old, yes?
Take care and aloha till next time!
Aku
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