I’ve talked about my recent love of Hawaiian food two other times now on the blog, Kalua Pork and Spam Musubi, and these Maui-Style Kalbi Short Ribs from Alana Kysar‘s new cookbook Aloha Kitchen is definitely being inducted as one of my favorite all-time Hawaiian dishes. I usually order these exact ribs from the local Hawaiian restaurant down the street, the one I gushed about in the Spam Musubi post. However, I never knew that they were so easy to make at home. The hardest part is waiting for the ribs to marinate overnight. I’m not kidding. Serve them with white rice and Hawaiian macaroni salad or a simple green salad on the side and you’ll be good to go. Which by the way, if I could eat white rice and Hawaiian macaroni salad as side dishes to every meal, I would be a very happy man. This will quickly become one of your new favorite dinners, and you’ll want to add it to your menu rotation as often as possible. In honor of Alana’s new book and because I think we should all have a little bit of Island paradise at home, I’m giving away a copy of the book to one lucky reader! All you have to do is leave a comment below with what your dream vacation is (or would be) and you’ll be in the drawing! You have until Friday to enter, and it’s open to anyone and everyone. A winner will be picked at random and notified via email. It’s a wonderful book filled with must-try recipes, especially if you want to bring a little bit of Hawaii into your own kitchen without leaving your home!
…
I fairly recently tried the magic that is Spam Musubi, which is mind boggling because I grew up loving (and hating) Spam all throughout my childhood. I live in Pasadena and right down the street from me is a small hole-in-the-wall place called Top Restaurant, that serves Thai and Indonesian food. It’s so good! Anyhow, I mention this because when we moved to Pasadena two years ago, we tried this place and I ordered Spam musubi for the first time and it was incredible. If you’re ever in Pasadena, which I highly recommend because it’s a great city in general, then you have to take a tript to Top Restaurant (on Colorado BLVD). It’s one of the best in the city. I highly recommend the 
The first time I ate Kalua Pork in Hawaii last year was a life-changing moment for me. Sure, the great weather and the beaches and cocktails by the pool were amazing but my most lasting impression was the slow roasted pork that gets smoked underground covered in banana leaves. It’s served with traditional Hawaiian macaroni salad and white rice. It’s basically everything that would consist of my last meal. I can’t live without rice and I’m always 100% up for carbs on carbs so pasta salad served with rice is a dream come true to me. I’m no expert in Hawaiian cooking whatsoever, but I got an Instant Pot for Christmas and so I decided to give it a try for the first time ever. After I got through the fear of exploding appliances, I managed to cook this pork and now I’m never going back. 
