I learned a valuable lesson today: when you go to a place where the burger is great, always get the burger.
I went to the Kahuku Grill for post-Temple lunch again today. This time I got the "World Famous" Coconut-Macadamia Shrimp. I will say that it was not bad; It was fine, actually, but I just didn't see what the fuss was all about.
For $12, you get five shrimp, a salad, a side of rice, and a little cup of sweet-chili sauce. The value is good: it's something that could definitely be shared between two people. The salad was a little wilty, as are most leafy things that are served alongside hot things, and was topped with dried cranberries, crispy chow mein noodles, and some type of sweet-and-sour dressing. The "lightly seasoned" rice was just sticky rice topped with the same slightly-too-salty seasoning that goes on the fries. Now for the main course, the shrimp: it was hot (deep-fried), crisp, and tasted very much like coconut. I'm fine with coconut, but it overwhelmed the rest of the shrimp, so much so that if I had been blindfolded and they had told me it was chicken, I would have believed it. The chili sauce added moisture and a tiny bit of spicy heat, but not much else.
Now I know that there are a lot of haters out there reading this and being like, "oh yeah? could you have done it better?" To them I say, "yes. I could do it better, and here's how I would do it:"
Instead of deep-frying shrimp coated with coconut stuff, I would have pan-cooked the shrimp until they were slightly under-done, and then topped them with butter, brown sugar, coarsely-chopped macadamia nuts, coconut (reduced by about a third from Kahuku's formula), and a little bit of red chili flakes. Then I would broil the whole thing for a couple minutes. So there. Hmm...I kind of want to try that at home sometime.
Don't worry, Kahuku Grill, just because I can make better Coco-Maca-Nut Shrimp than you can (in theory), I'll still come back to you.
I'll just always get the burger.
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