A Hawaiian feast A Hawaiian feast (October 01, 2004)

Da Kitchen lives up to its pidgin name

By Mandy Erickson

Every region has its own version of the sandwich: a cheap, find-it-anywhere meal you can chow down while you're waiting for a bus. San Francisco has the burrito, Philadelphia the cheese steak, Tennessee the sausage biscuit.

In Hawaii, the snack is Spam musubi, a slice of Spam nestled between two layers of sushi rice and tied with a belt of seaweed. Any Hawaiian lunch joint worth its salt serves Spam musubi, and Da Kitchen in Mountain View steadfastly upholds the tradition.

Spam musubi ($2.50) is on the menu, as are other Hawaiian classics: kalua pork, chicken katsu, loco moco. But don't expect any pineapple, macadamia nuts or drinks with paper parasols -- this is the stuff locals eat during their lunch breaks.

Da Kitchen, which opened in January near the Century 16 theaters, is the third in a chain of restaurants from Maui. Bill Bear, California partner of the Da Kitchen chain, who hails from Hawaii, said that because the restaurant was popular with both tourists and locals, the partners decided to try their luck on the mainland.

The food has lost none of its authenticity in the trip across the ocean. Da Kitchen's "plate lunches" are all served with two scoops of rice and one of macaroni salad. The scoops are set-in-stone Hawaiian tradition: Some say they represent good luck, but my attempts to find any historical or symbolic significance proved futile. "It's just the way it's done," said Bear.

The loco moco plate lunch ($8.75) was a fat hamburger patty seasoned with pepper, salt and onion, topped with two fried eggs and doused with onion-and-mushroom gravy. The gravy and the rice made for a good marriage, though the overall effect was fairly bland. It's a satisfying meal, though, and proved to be an effective antidote to my lunch companion's hangover.

The kalua pork plate lunch ($9.75) featured a Haleakala-sized pile of shredded roast pork topped with slices of green onion. The pork is roasted for 10 hours, during which time the fat slowly melts into the meat, resulting in a dish similar to the pork from a luau: incredibly soft and rich, salty and really good.

I was pleasantly surprised by the macaroni salad, a simple treat of cooked macaroni tossed with plenty of mayonnaise infused with onion and garlic. It had none of the acrid taste often found in pasta salads nor any distracting bits of celery or onion.

Neither of these lunches had much in the way of vegetables, so, in an attempt to reach the recommended seven servings of produce a day, I ordered a side salad ($3). It was the standard deal of romaine, carrot strips, mushrooms and diced tomato, but the vegetables were crisp and fresh. The dressing, my choice, came on the side rather than on the greens.

Another option is to substitute the side salad for the rice and macaroni. This is Da Kitchen's answer to the low-carb craze, which has engulfed Hawaii as fervently as it has the mainland.

One of the meal salads could have answered all my day's veggie requirements on its own. Chinese chicken salad ($7.75) arrived in a salad bowl large enough to serve from. The salad, a mixture of romaine, carrots, fried won ton strips, green onions and bok choy, was topped with slices of teriyaki chicken. The vegetables were tossed in a well-balanced dressing of soy sauce, sesame oil and a little sugar. Da Kitchen provided us with extra in a dish, but it wasn't necessary.

Teriyaki in a salad can be overpowering, but the cook used less of the sauce for the salad chicken, and the milder flavor let the vegetables show their stuff. One flavor I wanted more of, however, was cabbage: The bok choy ribs were almost entirely tasteless.

Da Kitchen offers a selection of Hawaiian-style hamburger spin-offs. Besides the usual burgers are teriyaki beef and chicken, chicken katsu (breaded and fried chicken thigh) and kalua pork. My teriyaki chicken sandwich ($6.75) consisted of two boneless thighs dripping with teriyaki sauce. Here, the cook didn't hold back on the sauce, and it worked. The toasted onion hamburger bun provided the right background for the sweet and smoky chicken. The side order of French fries ($2.50 small, $3.50 large), however, proved disappointingly soggy.

There are also bowls and wraps, both with slices of teriyaki chicken or beef and stir-fried vegetables -- yellow bell peppers, carrots, mushrooms and cabbage -- over rice or inside a tortilla. The teriyaki beef wrap ($6.75) came sliced in cross sections on the plate so we could see its insides. The vegetables were all well cooked and a little sweet, though not overpoweringly so. Unfortunately, I found the beef to be gristly and not of good quality.

For a Hawaiian restaurant, Da Kitchen's menu is curiously absent of fish. Bear said he has mahi mahi, tuna and shrimp specials, though kalua pork was the day's special both times I visited. Da Kitchen serves no desserts, but the massive entrees make it difficult to leave room for them anyway.

Da Kitchen could easily have overdone the island theme in its ambience, but the atmosphere is subdued with a simple decoration scheme of bright paints, flowered tablecloths and tropical plants, plus contemporary Hawaiian music. The restaurant offers seating both inside and out, under umbrellas on the patio.

Our waitress, the same one both times, was both casual and professional. For our first visit, she apologized profusely for making us wait though we hadn't been sitting that long. Quipping that Spam is "the state cow of Hawaii," she aptly described Spam musubi and the other dishes, and delivered our meals promptly.

As for that Spam musubi, I could find nothing in it more than the sum of its parts: Spam, sushi rice, seaweed. But if I had the mid-afternoon munchies and just enough time to run to a snack bar, Spam musubi would be the perfect solution.

Dining Notes

Da Kitchen
1477 Plymouth St. 960-6906
Open Monday through Friday 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.

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