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Salt Kitchen and Tasting Bar, a closer look
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Aloha!
7/14/11 - "Charcuterie, huh? 'Know I've heard of it before, but what exactly was it now?"
Big Al's been around the dining scene for quite a while, so he's kinda my go-to guy when it comes to certain foods, especially higher-end stuff and varieties not commonly found here in Hawaii. When it comes to dining, as well as everything else in life - the more I know, the more I know I don't know. Not that I'm particularly ashamed of my own culinary exploits, though, here or abroad. I mean, I've been to distant locales and gained experiences most of my friends would never have dreamed of, and am reasonably familiar with most major food types here in the islands. I wouldn't exactly say I'm a slouch. It's just that when a word like charcuterie, not to mention frisee, mortadella, and crispy head cheese gets bantered about as easily as a Toastmaster President toying with a freshman speech class, it is I, myself, who is left feeling very much like a first-year student late for an exam.
Salt Kitchen and Tasting Bar, on Waialae Avenue in Kaimuki, is the creation of chef Kevin Hanney, who has quietly built and prospered the very popular 12th Avenue Grill, itself located just steps away and behind Salt Kitchen. While his first venue is described as contemporary American cooking, it does pull influences from the Italian/Mediterranean side as well, a side exponentiated much, much further in his most recent undertaking. Here's a shot from its Waialae Avenue entrance, sandwiched between BC Burrito and Coffee Talk (even in-person, the sign hanging above its door is lettered so thinly, it's difficult to read):
Since no reservations are taken here, our crew of 5 made sure to arrive only minutes after its opening of 5pm. Believe you me, you don't want to arrive much later than 5:30 or so, as it gets really, really packed after that, with folks standing around everywhere waiting for a seat.
Here's a couple of shots of the packed main quarters as we left, which hosts bar seating on one side and a row of counter seating on another:
It's a great way to squeeze a whole lotta people into one tiny area, that's for sure. The only actual tables are found upstairs:
Most definitely, waaay cool of a place. It's got this San Fran/Downtown loft kinda thing going. Nice people-vibe, too, with a generally more mature crowd of seemingly educated folks mingling perfectly with a smattering of young'ns.
Though it doesn't say the word anywhere on the menu, I think it's pretty safe to say this place is basically a tapas bar, and it's about time for us here in Hawaii. Besides burgers and sandwiches, a few of which we'll be getting into later, everything else consists of either small plates of a single item and a few large platters of charcuterie and cheeses meant to be shared amongst several people. It's the Spanish version, at least originally, of an izakaya!
Just a word of warning from here on out - we loved this place so much, we ordered almost every item on the menu! Following is a looong list of dishes that may bore you, but they all had such distinct and interesting attributes, I couldn't help but talk a bit about each and every one! To begin with, here's a pickled eggplant and one of their great salads:
I would have been extremely disappointed if our first item, a simple pickled Italian eggplant ($6), were overly drowned in vinegar or super-soft like typical canned veggies. Of course, with a chef like Kevin Hanney, I never expected it to be, actually. The fleshy eggplant slices were very firm (a good thing!), even a bit chewy. The vinegar and accompanying flavors were perfect and, judging by taste, probably pickled in-house. The salad platter ($10) was a mixture of arugula, manchego, marcona almonds, white anchovies, grape tomatoes, and a douse of sherry vinaigrette - excellent! If you haven't tried those Spanish marcona almonds yet, you don't know what you're missing. Though almonds are one of my least favorite nuts, these marcona's, especially with wine and cheese, are among my favorites! You can find 'em at Costco and Whole Foods now, and we've often purchased a can or two for wine nights at our place. And those white anchovies? Incredible! Vinegared, briny, and slightly fishy in a good way, these would kick-up any dish just like that!
Next was a small bowl of marinated shrimp with garlic, Nicoise olives, and dried tomatoes ($9). Full of citrus zest, fresh herbs, and Mediterranean flavors, it was a simple yet elegant starter:
And who can visit a tapas bar without ceviche somewhere down the line?
Ceviche is available in a charred citrus version or as shown above, where it is tossed in a Kahuku corn creme fraiche. Fresh dill, red onions, tortilla chips, Kahuku corn, and that almost yogurt or raita-like creme fraiche was a take on ceviche I haven't really seen before, but we all found it an extremely classy and refreshing dish.
We were also very impressed by a small, lively bowl of olives, coming in several different shapes and sizes ($7):
Luckily, I am fortunate enough to have a flight attendant sister who regularly packs a few tins of olives in her bag directly from Spain herself. And while there are a few varieties from Whole Foods and Foodland Farms in Aina Haina that do come pretty close, those pictured above ($7) were altogether in a separate class. They were very firm in texture, came with seeds intact, served toasty-warm, and seemingly, pulled fresh from the tree (not really, actually, as olives picked fresh are extremely bitter)! Each drupe was absolutely bursting with a flavorful tossing of citrus zest, fresh rosemary, and whole garlic cloves. The colorful, wholesome presentation was so natural, so traditional, so, I dunno, folksy-pleasing, that it just made you feel good on a much deeper level. I mean, when you present ingredients fresh and true to their natural attributes and qualities, along with a few subtle enhancements just to accentuate, you can't help but feel good inside!
The same stands to reason for their blistered shishito ($5), except perhaps in a more subdued, less dramatic fashion. These Japanese peppers, also popular in izakaya's, were simply sprinkled with the right amount of smoked salt and blistered, arriving with a light, thin-skinned crunch. A perfect healthy snack!
Another type of pepper available is piquillo, which, though small, doesn't cary much of any heat at all, instead coming very much on the sweet side. And they didn't come alone:
That's because hidden from view is a stuffing comprised of the same smoked ahi mix chef Hanney has used with much success at 12th Avenue Grill. A very pleasing combination of ahi, mayo, tiny crunches of onion, and a strong, pronounced smokiness, it was like some sort of glorified tuna sandwich mix, only, I wouldn't treat this particular stuffing as anything near brown paper bag material! I savored every bite, thinking also about how great it'd be spread on crackers, with a few cheeses on the side as well.
Meanwhile, did I mention drinks yet? For sure, there's a full bar with a heavy emphasis, of course, on wines. Tapas bar, you know. Cocktails are available, but a bit expensive at $10 each, and a bit small, portion-wise. After one of my all-time favorite beers, a Sierra Nevada Pale Ale ($6 per 16 oz. draft), Big Al conversed in a wine jargon-filled consultation with our waiter, after which they settled upon a Girard Artistry Red 2008, Napa Valley ($12 per glass; $48 per bottle):
Gorgeous. We loved this wine so much, we ordered it again a few nights later! A combination of cuvet, cab sauvignon, cab franc, malbec, merlot, and petite verdot grapes, it was full and fruity like I love a wine to be, and very much non-tannic, with a short but sweet tail. Just one word of advice on all red wines but especially on this one - it really makes a huge difference to "Open it up" by twirling and oxygenating it. The first night, I opened it up before having a sip, but on the second night, I had a taste before doing so, and it was a completely different story. Maybe it was the glass. No, really. Maybe it was the glass...
I had no idea what an Eisch wine glass was, but Bruddah Nels and Big Al were duly impressed after spotting the tiny logo on the base of their glasses. I mean, there are ergonomically designed beer mugs that supposedly make beer taste better, so I shouldn't be surprised that the same would apply to wine. Apparently, these pricey glasses are produced in a way that permanently arranges the molecular structure of the glass itself, allowing the wine to "Breathe," or "Open up," as mentioned earlier. The company claims that wine allowed to breathe in their glasses for just 2-4 minutes will show the same signs of aeration as wine allowed to breathe for 1-2 hours in a normal glass! Fo' realz? Maybe I'll go buy a kit and put them to the test one day!
One relative under-performer, at least around our table, was the arancini ($6):
Not that they were bad or anything. It's just that most people really love their arancini, and this one was perhaps not quite up to the hype. For sure, they were perfectly fried with a delicious panko coating, but the lemon and fried egg puree, as well as the risotto inside, even with a melted chevre, were just a bit under-flavored and lacking in punch for us, especially for something deep-fried. The ingredients, textures, and execution were all presented extremely well, but once again, the only thing lacking for us was pure flavor:
One of the dishes with mixed reviews was the grilled tako (octopus) bruschetta ($9), with charred peppers, soft poached egg aioli, and fine herbs:
2 thumbs down, 2 ok's, and 1 fabulous! Our 2 thumbs down said the tako was a bit mushy and so-so in taste, while the single fabulous, me, said it was soft, tender, and deliciously infused with essences of herb! You'll never know until you try it yourself!
Foie gras is one of my favorite things on earth, but I didn't order it here for two reasons. Not only was it the most expensive small dish on the menu at $16, but it is also prepared torchon-style, which is actually not my favorite means of enjoying foie gras. I'll bet it still tasted great, but we instead continued our trek with the second most expensive item, a clam dish, at $12:
Portuguese clams, that is, with their own house-prepared chorizo made from Shinsato pork, as well as leeks and a butter and fat-rich cava broth we all couldn't get enough of. Ever seen a grown man milking every bit of broth he can with a crisped piece of bread? I'm particularly glad Kumi ordered the dish, as I was very interested in trying the pork sausage (also chorizo) sandwich, but didn't get to. While the chorizo turned out smoky-great and the clams were delicious, the latter contained meat that was a bit on the smaller side, being a shade over-done. Taste-wise, though, you can't go wrong with this dish.
Speaking of sandwiches, there are currently 3 types available, including the pork sausage ($8) just spoken of, a Shinsato pork belly ($10), and a soft shell crab po' boy ($12), shown here from two different sides:
The two faces of grilled bread were slathered with Old Bay mayo and adorned with a smoked ham hock/mizuna salad, pickled shallots, and a luxuriously rich, deep-fried, soft-shelled crab. Maaai-goodness! I'm gonna let the pictures speak for themselves - the combination of such great ingredients, all presented so well, should be more than enough to persuade anyone out there, yes?
But even more impressive to us were their burgers. The basic version ($10) comes with lettuce, tomato, onion, and aioli. A step-up of manchego will cost a dollar more, while two other versions are priced at $12. The first of these comes with an addition of morbier cheese, red onion jam, and Alii mushrooms, while the second arrives with taleggio cheese, guanciale bacon, and arugula. We chose the latter:
Doesn't that look fantastic?! You have no idea! Utilizing grass-fed, ground-daily Maui Cattle Co. beef, this is one beefy-tasty, high-quality, absolutely delicious burger. It was done perfectly to a pinkish medium center and, with such thick patties, it's easy to see why the beef itself was the overwhelmingly dominant force here. Check out this cross-shot of a single quarter, my portion of the whole:
And what better with a burger than fingerlings? Or at least that's what it says on the menu - crispy fingerlings with aioli, for $5. At first, I didn't know if they were talking about baby trout, salmon fry, or carrots! Luckily, they were fingerling potatoes, the perfect burger side! Where's the ketchup?
One of the most enjoyable items on the menu, at least for me, was their fried egg ($5). I thought it would consist of a pan-fried egg, sunnyside up, but this one was served as an intact, whole egg, deep-fried with a panko coating:
Also served with a calabrian chili aioli, grilled slice of bread, and frisee, or curly endive, the real fun starts after you slice this bugg'er open. That's because one of the great ways to impart a silky, rich, sophisticated finish to any dish is to include a soft, running egg yolk. Both the syrupy yellow's and the just-solidified white's of the egg matched extremely well with the crunchy, deep-fried crust, while the chili aioli added its own well-balanced, creamy zing to it all. The crisped bread, of course, was used as an edible mop! I'm still dreamin' about this one! Absolutely gorgeous!
Our last small plate for this particular Closer Look was an interesting one. What is it, you ask?
Kumi thought the pairing of Shinsato pork sausage (chorizo) with squid ($8) was a bit strange, but after one bite, she knew there was nothing strange whatsoever. Me, I thought it was a perfect match from the very beginning, seeing how a sweet pork is one of the best turf-meat matches with invertebrate seafoods like shrimp, scallop, and yes, squid. The strong, smoky taste of chorizo, however, did kinda overpower the squid when it came to taste, but the soft yet firm texture of the squid did make its own contribution to the dish. A beautiful smoked tomato creme fraiche (doesn't that sound good?) was a creamy mellower and great sauce to finish.
Of the 14 small plates available, we left out only 4 - a daily crudo (a kind of marinated raw fish), a roasted beet dish, an albondigas (a kind of Mexican meatball soup), and the foie gras. I asked if the menu changes over regularly, but we were told while they did add or minus select dishes frequently, changes occur according to what ingredients are arriving freshest and in season, just as it should be in a good restaurant!
While Kevin Hanney is chef/owner and Quinten Frye is chef de cuisine running the show on most evenings, another chef, Doug Kocol, is in charge of the charcuterie. Yeah, that's the word Big Al needed to help me with, and basically entails the world of smoked meats. And no, we're not talking Memphis ribs and backyard bbq here. We're talking mostly pork products of the age-old European tradition, first employed for preservation but now done for pure flavor and goodness. There are 2 charcuterie platters here, the cheaper of which we ordered ($14):
The more expensive charcuterie, a house charcuterie, is listed at $21 and definitely looks like something I gotta try one day. I mean, there are some wild and exotic items involved, at least in comparison to what we're accustomed to here in the islands. There's crispy head cheese, which is not a cheese at all, but small, broken cuts of sliced head meat (yes, I did say head meat, mostly from pig but also from other hoofed animals), all bonded together by a firm jelly. There's country terrine, a kind of European luncheon meat/pate mix. There's lomo, or tenderloin, of which I have no idea how it's presented here. There's duck rillette, a type of pate. And finally, there's chicken maple pate. A pate.
Anyhow, we were kinda looking for the standard charcuterie items of cured meats, and their domestic charcuterie platter ($14) fit the bill. The fact that these aged, expertly-prepared meats are prepared in-house with local Shinsato pork was reason alone for us to be impressed. One taste, and you'll see that these are not the cured meats you find in your nearest grocery store, and probably even in your nearest specialty store. The five meats included were, from top-right and clockwise, molanari salame secchi, la quercia coppa, fra'mani mortadella, fratelli sopressata, and la quercia prosciutto:
Personally, my least favorite cuts were the salame and mortadella, at 12 and 6 o'clock. The first resembled the salami I never cared for as a kid, and the latter was similiar in taste to balogna, which I've always disliked even more. Both, of course, were much better than the Hillshire Farms or Oscar Mayer versions of my past, though! The prosciutto, at 11 o'clock, was deep, smoky, slightly sweet, and excellent in every way, as a prosciutto almost always is. The coppa, at 3 o'clock, was my absolute favorite, coming with a silky-smooth, creamy-fatty, and delicate taste and texture, while the sopressata was similiar, only a bit stronger and meatier.
I love these games. Whether you're a professional critic or weekend diner, foodie or non-foodie - everyone has taste buds, and you don't have to write a weekly column to describe for yourself what things taste like to you. Don't be afraid to try, either. You'll be surprised what kinds of descriptions run through your mind when you just concentrate and let the words flow! Socrates, speaking through Plato, says most of us wander about through life, pushed from day to day in a kind of intallectual haze, not even realizing what is objectively going on all around us. Sometimes, isn't that how we act with food? We eat something, and the deepest we get is to say it tastes good, it tastes bad, or it tastes ok. If that's the case, we'll probably forget the differences and subleties that separate the handiwork of skilled craftsmen, such as those found right here at Salt Kitchen and Tasting Bar. Yes, craftsmen. Good chefs really are deserving of the title. Otherwise, chef Hanney could just order his meats from anywhere instead of utilizing a charcutier to cure his own meats! If not the examined life, at least, if even occasionally, the examined taste! The latter is much easier than the former, that's for sure!
For me, drinks are much more difficult to differentiate than foods. I mean, blindfold, most times, I'd have a big problem separating a cab from a shiraz, a stout from a porter, or a ginjo from a daiginjo, if that's even possible. Meats like those above? Easy. Cheeses like below? Also easy.
There's a 3-cheese platter ($14) and a 5-cheese platter ($18), shown above, both also coming with a serving of port-soaked mission figs w/Manoa honey that was unbelievably good with every cheese variety, especially the stronger, sharper ones. I thought they'd arrange the cheeses in a progression, from mellow to strong, but there was no apparent order. However, the thick slices of chevre on the bottom, despite being a type of goat cheese, carried the lightest taste and texture of them all. Not sure if trying other cheeses first had anything to do with it, but it was so neutral in taste and so crumbly-light, it almost resembled a sugarless, room temperature ice cream, if there was ever such a thing. Mancheggo, far right, was probably my least-favorite cheese, coming a bit hard and perhaps closest to "familiar" cheeses most of us grew up with. Working right to left from there, my favorite by far was the next, called St. Andre. Not only was the texture soft, creamy, and luxuriously silky, but its flavors were intense, hyper-rich, and deep without being too gamey and wild. And no wonder, too, as it is a triple cream cheese, meaning, it carries a composition of 70-75 percent butterfat! The stuff of Kings, I tell you! I know what I'm asking for next time at Vino or Il Lupino! Moving left, the easily recognizeable dark blotches of mold on the Oregon Blue cheese signifies one of the most potently-smelling and potently-tasting of the better-known cheeses out there. Historically, and also in this particular case, it is actually cured in temperature-controlled caves. And finally, a morbier, which also has a distinct visible attribute, this time a dark streak running through its center. Interestingly, this cheese was first created by sprinkling a layer of ash on a fresh layer of curds in the evening, in order to prevent it from forming a rind. The next morning, another layer of curds was added, never mind the ash!
Aaah, the wonder of exploration! This right here is one of the reasons we find life so interesting! You never know what's around the corner, and with each new turn, the fun is in finding something new and different to appreciate.
Me, I'm just happy a new tapas bar has landed in Hawaii, with plenty of opportunities to explore! I love this place, for sure! Of course, with tapas being a relatively new and yet-rare genre for Hawaii, I can only surmise, like other food themes that haven't quite reached their bloom in any given area, that there's still lots of room for improvement. I mean, there's a tipping-point dynamic reached between educated diners of a given food type and the restaurants that provide the need. When lots of educated diners are around, the competitive string is vibrant, well-tuned, and extremely taught. When diners don't particularly understand the particular concept or tradition, there's less pressure on the restaurants, sometimes resulting in a drop in readiness and execution. In Hawaii, there's a huge number of educated diners regarding sushi and Japanese foods, and thus, we have really great sushi and really great Japanese restaurants.
Not that I'd take anything away from Salt, though. Big Al is an educated tapas diner who has, for the most part, given Salt a thumbs-up, a nod also confirmed personally to me by Reid over at Ono Kine Grindz, who has experienced some of the best fine dining restaurants in the world and is definitely the most astute of all us Hawaii food bloggers regarding higher-end cuisine. I myself, however, am part of the large crowd here that have not experienced good tapas bars as you'll find in San Fran, Chicago, or New York, not to mention the motherland. What can I say...? I'm learning!
Hey, hope you're having a great and wonderful week! I'm getting ready to throw a chicken on the barbie, and I can't wait! Pure and simple, just natural salt, fresh-cracked pepper, and fire! Dass' da best!
Take care, and Aloha till next time!
Aku
Salt Kitchen and Tasting Bar
3605 Waialae Avenue in Kaimuki
744-7567
Open nightly from 5pm
Parking behind restaurant in metered lots or on street
