by Shirley Tong Parola and Lisa Parola Gaynier
illustrated by Jill M. Ault
book cover design by Michael Parola
250 Scrumptious Recipes
Full Luau Menu
| Hawai'i: The Islander Group 269 Pali'i St. Mililani, HI 96789 Phone: 808.676.0116 |
Mainland US: Baker & Taylor (not yet confirmed) |
For interviews, contact Lisa Parola Gaynier:
216.470.3366
lgaynier@diamondhawaiipress.com
ANN ARBOR, MICHIGAN
Diamond Head Cafe is back by popular demand
Shirley Parola and Lisa Parola Gaynier, the mother-daughter team who brought Ann Arbor a "Taste of Aloha" through the former Diamond Head Cafe, have returned with a book containing all the wonderful dishes from their menu: pineapple macadamia nut muffins and waffles, somen salad; mochi chicken and malasadas to name but a few..... all framed in a delightfully entertaining portrait of life in the Islands.
Responding to requests for recipes from former customers, Parola and Gaynier share their love of Hawai'i and the secrets of its foods in REMEMBERING DIAMOND HEAD, REMEMBERING HAWAI'I. Born in China to Chinese-Hawaiian parents and raised in Hawai'i, Shirley shares 40 years of cooking experience as well as insights and memories of growing up in the Islands. Gaynier, Shirley's daughter and manager of Diamond Head Cafe, contributes to the tale, recounting her role in the Parola family's initial entrepreneurial adventures..... first a teriyaki booth in front of a summer stock theater, later a take-out restaurant in Bloomington, Ind., in which she helped prepare won tons and other goodies.
REMEMBERING DIAMOND HEAD, REMEMBERING HAWAI'I provides more than the Island recipes that form the basis of what has come to be called "East-West Fusion Cuisine." It traces the evolution and melding of the diverse immigrant tables into the varied fare that comprise the foods of Hawai'i. What is Hawaiian food? Need luau tips? A royal palace in the United States? Hawai'i—almost a Japanese protectorate! Cowboys in Hawai'i? The cookbook memoir contains interesting stories plus over 250 recipes including the menu from the cafe they ran for seven years in Ann Arbor's Kerrytown Market.
Throughout the years of DIAMOND HEAD CAFE'S operation, Gaynier and Parola practiced Fusion cooking—developing new dishes based on familiar ones. Each tested and tweaked until a new ingredient, a new taste, a new texture, a new flavor, finally a new dish was perfected. Hence there are recipes in REMEMBERING DIAMOND HEAD, REMEMBERING HAWAI'I for dishes that do not appear in any other cookbook.
Introductions to each chapter of the book, from pupus to haupia, appetizer to dessert..... with sidebars on every page, instruct the cook on everything from locating and selecting ingredients to the preparation and preservation of them: How do you select, prepare a mango? Ginger in gin? How do you keep vegetables crisp and green for stir frys? Answers to these and other provocative questions that you didn't know you needed answers to.
There are also tried and true family and menu favorites, such as Mom's (Shirley's) Awesome Potato Salad, Mu Shu Pork, Teriyaki Chicken, and the world's best Banana Cream Pie. Additionally, many of the recipes are heart friendly, emphasizing stir fry cooking methods, tofu, and lots of vegetables. Others were rendered more healthy with the help of university nutritionists.
REMEMBERING DIAMOND HEAD, REMEMBERING HAWAI'I is not only a valuable guide for cooks interested in Island cooking; it is also a delightful take on Island life, past and present.
July 13, 2004
Remembering Diamond Head, Remembering Hawai’i, A Cookbook Memoir of Hawai’i and its Foods written by Ann Arborites, Shirley Tong Parola and Lisa Parola Gaynier, garnered 1st Prize in what Writer’s Digest Magazine’s editor, Kristin Godsey, called ‘particularly fierce’ competition in the magazine’s 2004 International Cookbook Contest for Self Published authors. The announcement appears in the August, 2004 edition of the magazine which awarded the authors a $500 prize and distribution through a major book distribution company.
One judge cites the “down-to-earth, friendly tone…[which] makes reading it feel as warm-hearted as a face-to-face chat over a cup of Kona coffee.” A reviewer praises the “excellent job of answering the question ‘What is Hawaiian food?’” And another describes the book as containing “the best narrative writing found in a cookbook.”
The book contains 250 recipes ranging from puu puu (appetizers) to haupia (dessert) with occasional wine recommendations. And the memoir portion of the book, not only looks back on an Island girlhood, but a judge touts it for the “depth of information it provides in both full-page and sidebar explanations of key ingredients and preparations” as they are set against the panorama of the Islands’ six ethnic tables and the historical development of Hawai’i’s cuisine.
This delightful cookbook is based upon the popular Ann Arbor restaurant, the Diamond Head Café, formerly located in Kerrytown.
Remembering Diamond Head, Remembering Hawai’i is available at all mainland bookstores and on the web at amazon.com.
Hawai’i contact information for distribution and retail info:
Gene J. Parola
Diamond Hawaii Press
1949 Naniu Pl. Honolulu, Hi 96822,
Phone: 808.988.8043
diamondhawaii3@aol.com
Paperback, 312 pp., Diamond Hawai’i Press,
ISBN 0-9666457-0-7 $19.95
US
Mainland contact information for distribution and retail info:
Lisa Gaynier
Diamond Hawai’i Press
2933 Berkshire Rd, Cleveland Heights, OH 44118
Phone: 216.470.3366
lgaynier@diamondhawaiipress.com
Visit us at: www.diamondhawaiipress.com
I was seven years old when my folks got this crazy idea to open a restaurant. That may not sound so crazy but they were both in graduate school at the time and had four kids!
Our odyssey began in 1960. After a flight from Hawai'i, we crossed the continental U.S. by car on our way to Bloomington, Indiana (home of Indiana University), we would stop for picnic dinners in various parks. For Shirley, my mom, picnic meant barbecue, and barbecue in the Islands meant Teriyaki. The aromas from our hibachi never failed to attract curious mainlanders who wondered what smelled so good.
Arriving in Bloomington, and sharing our meals with new friends, Mom and Dad quickly realized we had a winner. In 1962, my dad, Gene, was technical director for the summer theater in Nashville, an artists' colony a few miles east of Bloomington. Dad had noticed the lack of eating establishments, and born entrepreneur that he was, decided to fill a need. So he and Mom set up her trusty hibachi and fryer at a booth outside the Playhouse. Mom wrapped won tons right before the eyes of Hoosier farmers, who eyed them suspiciously. But the aroma of grilling Teriyaki pork shish kebobs soon won them over.
Back then Bloomington was surrounded by cornfields. Every day of that summer and into the golden autumn, Dad trundled the entire family, plus cooler, wok, and Teriyaki marinade off to Nashville for theater and transplanted Hawaiian food.
We had such a good time with the booth in Nashville that we decided to go into business in a big way! Prior to Indiana University's Rose Bowl win of 1964, Bloomington had three restaurants: a steak house, a Howard Johnson's, and a pizza parlor. My folks bought a take-out ice cream stand nestled in the hills of Cascade Park on the edge of town. It was a little cottage with no running water, but it had an apartment in back. So at the age of eight, I helped my Dad install a bathroom and a kitchen.
We called our little restaurant the "Melting Pot." It had its own well but when that dried up I'd have to run across the street to the water fountain in the park for a bucket of water. We worked under primitive conditions, cooking on an outdoor barbecue grill next to a window inside the restaurant. Dad set up a fan in the window to draw the smoke out. It worked quite well, although occasionally he'd have to put the vacuum cleaner to work to keep the fire going! He would tend the grill and Mom made fried rice. Standing on a stool I'd wrap and fry won tons. We propped up my youngest brother, Brooks, in his car seat on top of the old Coca-Cola machine so he wouldn't feel left out! Customers would eat in the park or on the picnic tables we had provided. My sister, Claudia, my other brother, Todd, and I would serenade them, from the swingset singing Beatles songs! We ran the restaurant for two summers, and by word of mouth each department at the University would discover us. One week it would be all the folks from the Theater Department, loyally supporting one of their own. The next week it would be the entire School of Ed where Mom was completing her Master's. I think the Music School faculty were our most loyal customers. But it wasn't because of our singing!
Over the years, the memory of the Melting Pot faded for me but food remained central in the Parola household. When we moved to Michigan we were active with the Flint International Institute's Summer Ethnic Festival. By then, Mom had perfected the teriyaki marinade that she had introduced to the mainland United States in 1960. While in high school, responding to a latent entrepreneurial urge, I rented kitchen space from the International Institute and baked bread to sell at the local downtown farmers' market.
So it should have been no surprise almost 20 years later, when I dropped out of graduate school at the University of Michigan and went back to my roots: cooking. Mom was the perfect partner and her recipes were the core of our menu. Our first endeavor was China on the Run, all 325 square feet, Ann Arbor's first Chinese-Hawaiian delivery operation. We served four kinds of Teriyaki meats, several varieties of fried rice, crispy won tons, and egg rolls, all made fresh daily out of the former home of Lucky Jim's Fish and Chips, which has its own legacy. The wife of the author Kingsley Amis had opened Lucky Jim's, naming it after the book of the same title which her husband had written. She moved on to other things—an art deco store being one, and we moved into Lucky Jim's with its aquamarine walls. Seven years later we moved to Kerrytown, a specialty mall on downtown Ann Arbor's northern edge, and opened the Diamond Head Cafe. Kerrytown, with its Old World feel and family-owned businesses, was a nurturing site for our Pacific Rim based menu.
For us Diamond Head was always more than a business. Saturday mornings our loyal customers savored Kona coffee, freshly baked pastries, and our plate lunches, while we enjoyed serving and becoming friends with many of them: Saturday mornings with the Farmers' Market crowd clamoring for hot malasadas, our Sunday brunch "regulars", their plates laden with macadamia nut waffles, curried chicken omelettes, and Portuguese sausage; our midweek shoppers mixing with the business crowd, not to mention our catering fans. Thank you all for sharing our "taste of aloha" in the heart of Ann Arbor.
—Lisa
Remembering Diamond Head,
Remembering Hawai'i