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Oxtail Soup
| Definitely the most popular bowl of oxtail soup on the island - Kapiolani Coffee Shop. |  |
Hawaii’s version of this dish includes such things as raw peanuts, fresh ginger, star anise, Chinese parsley, and green and round onions, although variations abound. Oxtail soup is sold at many restaurants everywhere, such as local pit stops like Flamingo’s, Likelike Drive-Inn, and even Zippy’s, but the hands-down favorite bowl comes from Kapiolani Coffee shop.
They are no longer at the City Square Shopping center in Kalihi, but are still at 98-040 at the Waimalu S.C. in Pearl City, along with another store of a different name but same owners, called Asahi Grill, at 515 Ward Ave. The original location at the unusually located spot in the Kam Bowling Alley is where this popular soup first became established, but has since closed. There, 400-500 lbs. of oxtail were cooked up every day! If you’ve ever seen oxtails before, you know how fatty they can be, but here the tails are strained, re-strained, and skimmed to get out as much fat as possible.
As with saimin and Vietnamese pho, this broth is meant to be enjoyed with condiments, which in this case means fresh grated ginger and hot mustard with shoyu. All of these hot, brothy dishes make for good hangover meals, or are perfect during those nippy Hawaiian winter nights…
