The downhill spiral of a great restaurant…

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I never thought I’d have to write these words but it’s a last desperate plea to restore a restaurant that many visitors and locals are quickly warning others to stay away from. When we found Oki Diner in Lihue, we thought we’d struck local food gold. Sure, the rundown location was less than appealing and the snail-like service was a little irritating but you put a plate lunch of teri beef, kalua pig, fried noodles, sticky rice and a scoop of mac salad in front of us and we were happy haoles. When they moved to a new location on Rice Street that looked to be a step up, we were very excited. That excitement was short lived.

We have had nothing but bad luck with Oki Diner ever since they moved there. They no longer give you the cornbread, they refuse substitutions now and charge outrageous prices to sub out one meat for another, when I say the service is slow…I mean the diner has 3 tables of customers and it takes an hour to get your food and it’s overdone like its been sitting and then reheated. Add a rude, lazy and sometimes neurotic wait staff and you have a recipe for disaster for this former favorite. I used to recommend this restaurant to EVERYONE who was going to Kauai. I told them to ignore the hole in the wall feel and call the order in to avoid the slow service but now there’s no way I would send anyone there. I’m not the only person who feels this way, the reviews on TripAdvisor for Oki have never been great but they are now consistently negative.

All is not lost for Oki Diner though. It’s going to take owner Barbie Oki, a beloved staple of the Kauai community, throwing herself into commiting to the kind of quality and quantity she used to be known for. It can be done. I hope it WILL be done because I’ll be the first person to send people back there and would gladly amend this review to rave about its positive change. But in a business that is already fickle in the islands where long time, neighborhood staple mom and pop restaurants seem to fold like a deck of cards after years of consistently good service…how long can the open sign stay lit for the once great Oki Diner?

Just an FYI if you’re visiting this week…

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For those visiting the islands this week, please make sure you call ahead if you have plans to visit certain areas. The islands have been getting pounded by rain and some areas of the Big Island have been declared disaster areas by Mayor Kim. Landslides and road closings have been reported. Also for those visiting Kauai, the Hanalei Bridge is closed. That can change so if your accomodations or plans have you going to Hanalei, call ahead to make sure your destination is accessible.

Hawaiian word of the week

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Lei- (lay)- Neck garland of flowers, seeds, nuts or leaves

The alphabet contains 12 letters: 5 vowels (a, e, i, o, u) and 7 consonants (h, k, l, m, n, p, w). To simplify pronunciation, sound consonants as in English and break up words so they are easy to say (ie- Humuhumunukunukuapua’a would be pronounced humu-humu-nuku-nuku-apu-a-a)

Pronounce vowels as follows:

a - a in above; e - e in set; i - ee in see; o - o in some; u - oo in moon.

Pronounce vowels marked by a glottal stop (`) quickly ie- o`o sounds like oh-oh! in English.

Stress rising dipthongs (ae, ai, ao, au, oi, ou, eu, ei) on the first letter and end with a short e, i, o or u. ie- oi sounds like oy in soy, ending with a short “i”.

Swim on by the Carnival of Aloha!

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Make sure you stop by the Carnival of Aloha over at Homespun Honolulu! This is a great way to see what all of the wonderful Hawaii oriented bloggers have to share with the world!

Aloha Friday Recipe: Poi Muffins

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INGREDIENTS
1 cup poi
2/3 cup milk
2 eggs
1/3 cup vegetable oil
2 cups flour
3 tsp baking powder
¼ tsp baking soda
3 Tsp sugar
½ tsp salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Sift the flour, baking powder, soda, sugar and salt together.
Beat the poi, eggs, milk and oil together. Make a well in the center of the DRY ingredients and add the poi mixture. Gently mix until combined JUST MOIST!

Don’t over mix. Spoon mixture into oiled muffin tins and bake for 30 minutes.
SERVES 12

Recipe courtesy of AlohaJoe.com

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