CHICKEN KATSU PUPUS

PUPUS, Hawaiian snacks similar to hors d’oeuvers, tapas, and canapés,

make up the third segment of my A-to-Z Challenge theme.

I hope they will delight your palate each Thursday and Saturday. 

Pupus are so popular in Hawaii that restaurants, and even some private parties, are rated by their choice and variety. Almost any bite-sized food that can be eaten with fingers or chopsticks falls into the category of pupus. 

Chicken katzu, a bit similar to chicken nuggets, is a favorite of mine. L&L Drive-Inn serves the best in town, along with a huge scoop of white rice and macaroni salad on the side. 

Chicken Katsu from L&L Drive-Inn
Honolulu

At a party, those three food choices are served in separate, oversized aluminum pans. I think what I like most about the L&L katzu is their famous katzu dipping sauce, a blend of sweet and sour flavors that include Worcestershire sauce, ketchup, and tabasco sauce, sugar-water-salt, with a touch of chicken bouillon, garlic power, and ground pepper. It’s good for a snack or a full meal. 

Other popular Hawaiian pupus on my “C” list are just about anything made with coconut, including coconut shrimp and haupia (coconut milk based) pudding and cake. Every luau and most Sunday brunches serve haupia desserts.

Coconut Oblong Cake, top shelf
not as colorful as the Guava and Mango cakes
but just as delicious (Ono!)

Do you like your chicken huli huli style? Or would you prefer Chinatown Shrimp?

 

If the AtoZChallenge was any longer,
I'd gain 10 lbs. and go broke!

 

BAGS of BONES Mini-Reviews

Mini-reviews for my A-to-Z BLUES, PUPUS, and REVIEWS theme

appear on Monday and Wednesday.

This Wednesday is also #IWSG day!

 

Often I get stuck in my writing or start to feel less than confident with a current WIP. That’s when I like to pick up a book that will entertain me without making me feel guilty for not working on my own project. I am a sucker for any book with the word “bones” in the title. 

Admittedly, Kathy Reichs cornered the market with the television series BONES, and her novel Flash and Bones is high on my reading list. At the top of that list is Keri Hulme’s The Bone People, but several other authors with “bones” novels have also entertained me over the years. 

 

My A-list of “bones” books includes

The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold,

heralded by the Chicago Tribune as saying

“. . . there are more important things in life than retribution.

Like forgiveness, like love.” 

Jan Burke’s Bones: An Irene Kelly Mystery offers a controversial story that moves forward at a steady pace. The Bone Collector: The First Lincoln Rhyme Novel made best-seller Jeffrey Deaver a favorite on many lists. The kindle edition is scheduled for release in May, 2014. Winter’s Bone by Daniel Woodrell offers a look at poverty in the Ozarks that gives me a chill even now. 

Other guilt-free favorites are:

Bag of Bones by Stephen King

City of Bones (A Harry Bosch Novel) by Michael Connelly

The Bone Garden by Tess Gerritsen 

At a book sale, I came across Bones: A Forensic Detective’s Casebook by Dr. Douglas Uberlaker that demonstrates how bones can speak for the dead. It is a good reference book for mystery writers.

What is your favorite “BONES” title?