Here's something you might be interested in.
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed
Big Screen — Movie commentary
Blurt — Music's inside track
Booze News — San Diego spirits
Classical Music — Immortal beauty
Classifieds — Free and easy
Cover Stories — Front-page features
Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes
Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts
Feast! — Food & drink reviews
Feature Stories — Local news & stories
Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore
From the Archives — Spotlight on the past
Golden Dreams — Talk of the town
The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it
Letters — Our inbox
Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites
Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans
Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists
Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news
News Ticker — News & politics
Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated
Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna
Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated
Poetry — The old and the new
Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers
Reading — The hunt for intellectuals
Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails
San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds
SD on the QT — Almost factual news
Sheep and Goats — Places of worship
Special Issues — The best of
Street Style — San Diego streets have style
Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves
Theater — On stage in San Diego this week
Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative
Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work
Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego
Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads
Your Week — Daily event picks
Kalei’s Kitchenette sets up shop on the island of Rancho Peñasquitos
A Hawaiian farmers market stand finds a home in the suburbs
A Hawaiian combo plate, featuring kalua pork and huli huli chicken
Into Rancho Peñasquitos I drove, for only the second time ever. There might as well be an ocean between us. I was following the trail of a farmers market vendor that has made the move to into its own storefront. Even when it doesn’t involve Hawaiian food, I always find it inspiring to witness these stories of young entrepreneurs that turn limited resources, and lots of moxie, into dreams come true. And if it does happen to involve Hawaiian food, like Kalei's Kitchenette does, I’ll probably drive a little faster.
I found Kalei’s in a strip mall, precisely next door to the Sixes & Sevens skate shop recently featured in a terrific Reader cover story. According to a sort of About Ustext mounted beside the front door, Kalei’s is named for the first child of owner and chef Andy Mangiduyos, a native of Maui. Already knowing this, I showed up on a Wednesday, mouth watering for some true, island-style poké.
Sadly, what I didn’t know is that Kalei’s only currently offers the raw fish salad on Saturday. Disappointed, I decided to nibble on a Spam musubi ($4) while I decided on my next move. Not that it could take much time to do either. Musubi’s really just a tasty morsel of spiced ham sushi. And the daily menu sticks to a handful of Hawaiian classics including teriyaki beef, kalua pork, and loco moco, the one where a beef burger patty gets topped with a fried egg (or two) and gravy.
Spam musibi
And as at many a Hawaiian joint, these entrees are served plate lunch style. Meaning that, for $13-$15, they’re paired with side dishes, usually macaroni salad and a scoop of rice dusted with the Japanese seaweed and seasoning blend, furikake; though you may swap in pickled cucumbers for either.
I would opt for a Kalei’s Plate ($17), which lets you sample two entrees. This gave me a chance to try the huli huli chicken and kalua pork. I dug first into the mac salad, because I’m a kid at heart, and next into the furikake rice, because I ascribe to the magical thinking that a tiny bit of seaweed will counter the cholesterol of all that mac salad mayo.
Next came the huli huli, a dish so nice they named it twice. Topped with green onions and sesame seeds, it’s otherwise the kamaʻāina answer to the sort of chicken suburban Americans grill every summer on our backyard barbecues. And in that regard, it reminded me of my own, too often landlocked childhood, though maybe a bit better cooked (sorry, Dad). Problem was, mine wasn’t nearly as smoky as I’ve come to expect, which may or may not be a function of Kalei’s moving a long outdoor operation, indoors. This bird wanted more flavor.
A small counter shop for an established farmers market vendor
On the other hand, the kalua pork quickly became my favorite in greater San Diego. Ironically, it’s because this kalua was a little less flavorful than most, meaning the pulled pork wasn’t super salty. Just a generous portion of savory, succulent meat, an ideal companion for both the mac salad and rice.
On the poultry front, I’ve since been told the garlic chicken is a better move. Which may be true of every garlic chicken in all the cuisines of the world for all I know. My eyes always skip past garlic chicken on a menu, in favor of something like huli huli, which sounds less predictable, and more memorable. Here at least, it’s a garlicky take on fried chicken, which means I now have to drive all the way back to Peñasquitos to try both the poke and Hawaii fried chicken. At least that’s still closer than Lahaina.
Here's something you might be interested in.
Kalei’s Kitchenette sets up shop on the island of Rancho Peñasquitos
A Hawaiian farmers market stand finds a home in the suburbs
Kalei’s Kitchenette sets up shop on the island of Rancho Peñasquitos
A Hawaiian farmers market stand finds a home in the suburbs
A Hawaiian combo plate, featuring kalua pork and huli huli chicken
Into Rancho Peñasquitos I drove, for only the second time ever. There might as well be an ocean between us. I was following the trail of a farmers market vendor that has made the move to into its own storefront. Even when it doesn’t involve Hawaiian food, I always find it inspiring to witness these stories of young entrepreneurs that turn limited resources, and lots of moxie, into dreams come true. And if it does happen to involve Hawaiian food, like Kalei's Kitchenette does, I’ll probably drive a little faster.
I found Kalei’s in a strip mall, precisely next door to the Sixes & Sevens skate shop recently featured in a terrific Reader cover story. According to a sort of About Ustext mounted beside the front door, Kalei’s is named for the first child of owner and chef Andy Mangiduyos, a native of Maui. Already knowing this, I showed up on a Wednesday, mouth watering for some true, island-style poké.
Comments
Sadly, what I didn’t know is that Kalei’s only currently offers the raw fish salad on Saturday. Disappointed, I decided to nibble on a Spam musubi ($4) while I decided on my next move. Not that it could take much time to do either. Musubi’s really just a tasty morsel of spiced ham sushi. And the daily menu sticks to a handful of Hawaiian classics including teriyaki beef, kalua pork, and loco moco, the one where a beef burger patty gets topped with a fried egg (or two) and gravy.
Spam musibi
And as at many a Hawaiian joint, these entrees are served plate lunch style. Meaning that, for $13-$15, they’re paired with side dishes, usually macaroni salad and a scoop of rice dusted with the Japanese seaweed and seasoning blend, furikake; though you may swap in pickled cucumbers for either.
I would opt for a Kalei’s Plate ($17), which lets you sample two entrees. This gave me a chance to try the huli huli chicken and kalua pork. I dug first into the mac salad, because I’m a kid at heart, and next into the furikake rice, because I ascribe to the magical thinking that a tiny bit of seaweed will counter the cholesterol of all that mac salad mayo.
Next came the huli huli, a dish so nice they named it twice. Topped with green onions and sesame seeds, it’s otherwise the kamaʻāina answer to the sort of chicken suburban Americans grill every summer on our backyard barbecues. And in that regard, it reminded me of my own, too often landlocked childhood, though maybe a bit better cooked (sorry, Dad). Problem was, mine wasn’t nearly as smoky as I’ve come to expect, which may or may not be a function of Kalei’s moving a long outdoor operation, indoors. This bird wanted more flavor.
A small counter shop for an established farmers market vendor
On the other hand, the kalua pork quickly became my favorite in greater San Diego. Ironically, it’s because this kalua was a little less flavorful than most, meaning the pulled pork wasn’t super salty. Just a generous portion of savory, succulent meat, an ideal companion for both the mac salad and rice.
On the poultry front, I’ve since been told the garlic chicken is a better move. Which may be true of every garlic chicken in all the cuisines of the world for all I know. My eyes always skip past garlic chicken on a menu, in favor of something like huli huli, which sounds less predictable, and more memorable. Here at least, it’s a garlicky take on fried chicken, which means I now have to drive all the way back to Peñasquitos to try both the poke and Hawaii fried chicken. At least that’s still closer than Lahaina.