L & L Hawaiian BBQ

Whenever i get a craving for some distant memory of a food, and that craving won't go away.... i start whining. So it was yesterday. I had been sitting all day with my cravings for real Hawaiian food for what seemed like weeks. I decided to commiserate with a friend who had grown up in Hawaii. I thought it might make it better. It was worse. I started off telling her how i sure could use a big bowl of Saiman for lunch, and didn't laulau and kalua pig sound good? Pretty soon we were both drooling for lomi lomi salmon and manapua. I was ready to run all the way across town to Mesa.

"Oh, my friend exclaimed, Why don't you go to L & L?"

I thought she was kidding. Sure, I'll grab a flight to Hawaii this afternoon....

"No, There is one at Happy Valley and I-17, across from the Lowes."

Needles to say, I spent the rest of the day planning my route home. I would have to go about 10 miles out of my way, but there wouldn't be traffic.....

L & L doesn't have haoli Hawaiian food, they have REAL Hawaiian food. I walked in to hear the woman ahead of me order a loco moco plate lunch. There was a big poster advertising that laulau has only 1 carb, and a paper plate hanging on the service pass through proclaiming "Linguica special" in blue magic marker.

This place has it all. They have Saiman (a Hawaiian version of ramen but the noodles and garnishes are more fun), Musubi (even with spam), manapua (steamed or fried pork roll), haupia (thick coconut cream desert), Poi (pounded taro root), poke (raw tuna seaweed salad), lomi lomi salmon (chopped raw salmon rubbed with chili and onion served with chopped tomatoes), BBQ short ribs, and all other sorts of Hawaiian favorites.

I had a plate lunch. A traditional plate lunch has a scoop or 2 of rice made with an ice cream scoop, a scoop of macaroni salad made with lots of mayo and Maui onion, and one or 2 main dish items. Mine were laulau and kalua pig. Laulau is pork, butterfish and ti leaves with Hawaiian salt, wrapped up in taro leaves and steamed til it can almost melt in your mouth. Kalua pig has to be simulated because the traditional cooking method used to achieve the smokey flavor cannot be approved by the USDA. Traditional method is a rock lined pit. The pit is then lined with leaves and the meat (a whole pig) is lowered in then covered with more leaves. It is then covered to keep the heat in. I have no idea how they do it, but there is probably smoke flavoring, Hawaiian salt, and a large amount of ti leaves involved. The Kalua Pig is delicious.

I loved every morsel, and today I have a little leftover vacation to the islands waiting for me at lunch time.

L & L is located at:
2501 W Happy Valley Rd
Phoenix, AZ 85086
(623) 434-4119