Many years ago on a long trip with my father to see the great natural sights out west, we evolved a strategy of eating meals which I use to this day.  On about the third day of our western trip, tiring of Big Macs and french fries and not wanting to pay a big price, I remembered once stopping in a small town in Indiana that had a cafeteria that served the best salisbury steaks and corn souffle in the Midwest and realized that maybe all small towns might have such a place.  My father agreed and the next town we came to, a small town in Colorado, we exited the highway to the main street and asked a local where would he go to eat dinner.  He pointed across the street and we parked the car and walked into a clean well lit place that had mirrors and friendly waitresses who acted like they already knew you, which they may well have.  We ordered, and the waitress brought a house salad, fried chicken, corn-on-the-cobb, and hot dinner rolls that made you hungry to look at and was even tastier when you started eating.  We used this method for the rest of the trip and some of the places were fabulous: a crowded little restaurant in a small town in Nebraska served the best steak I have ever eaten, and somewhere in Idaho I had a pork tenderloin and baked potato that made me forget everything else.  So any time I’m in a new place or on the road I will often look for a spot that all the locals love.  And in Honolulu my son and I stuck gold at a place called Helena’s Hawaiian Food.

We met this large man named Frank Makaawaawa on a bus and he not only told us about Helena’s but decided to take us there as well.  Frank is a musician and when I told him I was Memphis we started talking about The King.  When Frank’s not playing music he is an electrician and he told me that many years ago when Elvis was staying at the Royal Hilton on Waikiki Beach, while filming BLUE HAWAII, he needed an amp repaired and it was he, Frank, who got the call and it was Elvis himself on the phone making the request.  So he went there and spent about an hour with The King and fixed the problem.  In turn, I told Frank a story I’d heard about the first time Elvis met Frank Sinatra, which is probably no more true than the one he told me.  Anyway, Frank is a very nice guy, he took us in like a brother, and he was certainly right about Helena’s Hawaiian Food.

Helana’s is a small clean restaurant in a working class area of Honolulu.  There was a line outside; Frank says its there all the time.  The wait was not long, especially with Frank telling stories (he told us about Maui and the big Island of Hawaii where they’re putting a telescope on the mountain) and once inside the place looked no bigger than outside; there was room for maybe 30 people and all tables were filled.  The food is like none other I have ever eaten, truly Hawaiian, and it is delicious.  It comes on small plates.  I started with a scoop of rice with the Luau Chicken, and the Fried Ahi; Whitman had macaroni and Luau Chicken.  The luau chicken looks like creamed spinach and is great on the rice, and the fried ahi are small tender filets of ahi fish.  We also had some short ribs (pipikaula style) and the opahi (a small shellfish that looks like a clam but has more taste).  For dessert we had haupia, which is like jello made from coconut milk and has a wonderful sweet coconut taste.

Elaine Katsuyoshi is the proprietress and we met her as we were leaving.  She is a warm smiling charming woman who takes your hand with both of hers and tells you how happy she is to see you at Helena’s.  She is the daughter of Helen Chock, who had been a cook with the navy at Pearl Harbor and started Helena’s at end of the war; at first serving Chinese food, once she had the crowd she switched to Hawaiian, which is what she liked to cook more than anything else.  Elaine told us all this after she asked how we found her place and I had pointed back to Frank and his brother, who were sitting at the next table and, judging from the way they responded, apparently knew Elaine very well.  We caught the bus back to Waikiki where we had parked our car and drove on the highway back into Kailua (pronounced Kii-lua).  I believe that for awhile I could take all my meals at Helena’s.  Aloha!