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Kady Pascual

Hawaiʻi Scene on Social

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<title>Hawai‘i Scene on Social: Teed up</title>

Today’s social media find comes from @76.Strokes, who’s stuck in the tee box.

Hawai‘i Scene on Social: Teed up

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Kelli Shiroma Braiotta

Food & Dining

Located in the former space of Nami Kaze, 

Thirty Eight restaurant opened for dinner at Pier 38

The eatery just launched its new lunch menu, and the restaurant is now open from Monday to Saturday.

According to chef de cuisine Daysen Masuda, the lunch menu is inspired by familiar flavors and plate lunch fare.

“I wanted to do something different from your normal plate lunch,” he says. “I feel like this menu is familiar to everyone — misoyaki butterfish, ‘ahi belly, Korean fried chicken and loco moco are staples here in Hawaiʻi — but we’re putting our own spin on it here. Here at Thirty Eight, how could we make it a little more elevated?”

Appetizers include popular selections from the eatery’s dinner menu, including maguro cabbage ($21), poke crackers ($12), calamari katsu ($17) and cabbage Caesar ($16).

The mix plate ($26) is not only aesthetically pleasing, but equally tasty. It includes a daily catch — in our case, guava chili ‘ahi — short ribs, spicy ‘ahi, watercress salad, potato salad and Spam fried rice.

“When you go out and eat a plate lunch, you want to have a little bit of everything,” Masuda says. “Especially here at Thirty Eight, we’re using really good seafood and fresh ‘ahi, so we wanted to highlight it. It’s just a mixture of flavors.

“The Spam fried rice is actually my mom’s Spam rice,” he adds. “(When I was) growing up, she made that for potlucks. I’m also a big fan of potato salad, so you gotta have potato salad. The potato salad is dusted with chermoula (a blend of spices); that’s paying homage to chef Mourad and (previously) working with him.” 

The black cod ($28) is served with shredded cabbage, potato salad and white rice. Meanwhile, the Korean fried chicken plate ($20) features a generous portion of chicken.

“We’re using the chicken quarter at dinner for the huli huli chicken, so I wanted to cross utilize that as well, but who doesn’t want a nice, big portion of chicken for lunch?” says Masuda, who notes this is one of his favorite dishes.

“It’s kind of inspired by my mom’s Korean fried chicken, but we do add a little bit of guava jelly in there,” he says. “It’s a little sweet and a little spicy.”

The eatery’s loco moco ($24) is expected to be a local favorite. The beef patty is topped with two sunny side up eggs, brown gravy and Hamakua mushrooms, and is served with rice.

“Everything starts with good quality,” Masuda says. “We’re using Prime ground beef topped with local eggs; we make grown gravy from scratch.”

The ‘ahi belly plate ($22) features local big-eye ‘ahi with ponzu butter, potato salad, watercress and white rice.

For dessert, diners can enjoy scoops ($9 each) from ice cream business Please Come Again, located in Kailua. Choose from shiso mint chip — topped with freeze-dried strawberries — and Vietnamese iced coffee, which is topped with condensed milk and cocoa nibs. Masuda notes that the restaurant is currently working on a dessert program.

“I’m excited (for this menu); for lunch down here at the pier, there’s a lot of guys that work around here, but a lot of tourists and locals. as well,” he says. “Lunch is always a little more casual; this is what I think people will like.

“That’s the cool thing about this project — we have a blank slate,” he adds. “Hawai

i is such a big melting pot of diverse cultures, so that’s why you’ll get some Korean, Japanese and Vietnamese flavors here, but it all works because that’s Hawai

Open 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. for lunch, 5 to 9 p.m. for dinner Mondays to Saturdays

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Thirty Eight Honolulu lunch spread 030626

<title>Thirty Eight Honolulu launches lunch service</title>

The new eatery, which recently opened for dinner at Pier 38, just debuted its new lunch menu. The menu features some of the most popular pūpū from the dinner menu, along with elevated plate lunches like a mix plate, Korean fried chicken, loco moco and more.

Thirty Eight Honolulu launches lunch service

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Michael Brestovansky

Crime & Courts

Two military officers stationed in Hawai‘i have been busted this week for sexually exploiting children.

U.S. Attorney for the District of Hawai‘i Ken Sorenson announced Tuesday that 22-year-old Rumaldo Valdez, former Navy petty officer, was sentenced to 97 months in prison for the possession and promotion of child pornography.

The following day, Sorenson announced a conviction in a separate, unrelated case: 44-year-old Ross Andrew Brown, a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Air Force Judge Advocate General’s Corps, was convicted on two counts each of attempted sexual enticement of a minor, attempted sexual exploitation of a minor and attempted receipt of child pornography.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Valdez"}]

In the Valdez case, the FBI was first alerted to his reported activities in 2021, when the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children submitted a tip that several people were using a Discord server to produce and share child sexual abuse material.

According to a criminal complaint, a confidential source on that server told the FBI that one user — operating under variations of the username “Duck” — had coerced an underage girl into sending him a sexually explicit video, which “Duck” then used to blackmail the girl.

The source claimed “Duck” had thus manipulated the girl into cutting the word “duck” into her arm, which she filmed. “Duck” then shared the video online — the FBI special agent who wrote the criminal complaint stated that participants in such child exploitation rings often use such media, called “fansigns,” as “trophies.”

“Duck” had also previously been tied to an online group called “Greggy’s Cult,” a ring of people that produced and distributed similar material before seemingly disbanding around 2021.

In any event, the FBI had linked “Duck” to Valdez through his IP address and Discord email by 2024. In May of that year, agents seized his computer and hard drives from the Naval Computer and Telecommunications Area Master Station Pacific in Wahiawā.

On Valdez’s hard drives agents found several encrypted files containing child pornography, including at least one involving the murder of an infant and multiple depicting a toddler being tortured.

Elsewhere on Valdez’s drives, investigators found multiple images and videos of children displaying variations of the “Duck” username.

Valdez pled guilty in October 2025 to possession of child porn. Much of the court documents surrounding his case are sealed to the public; however, a sentencing memorandum by his defense attorney argued that Valdez was a minor when he began his activities — only 15 or 16 when he first became involved in “Greggy’s Cult” — and that he had joined the Navy “to get away from the destructive online extortion that he was involved in and tried to build a productive future for himself.”

Nonetheless, Valdez was sentenced to eight years and one month in prison, followed by 10 years of supervised release.

“Let Valdez’s sentence serve as a warning to any other depraved and sadistic individuals who seek to harm and exploit children – there is nowhere for you to hide, no corner of the internet you will not be found, and no stone we will leave unturned to bring you to justice,” Sorenson said in a statement.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Brown"}]

Meanwhile, Brown’s arrest came following a sting by the U.S. Army Criminal Investigative Division.

According to a criminal complaint, a CID agent posed as a 14-year-old girl in 2023 using the now-defunct anonymous social media app Whisper. The agent’s posts prompted responses by a user who was eventually identified as Brown.

During their online conversations, Brown repeatedly made sexual comments toward the agent, believing that he was flirting with a 14-year-old.

Eventually, they made plans to meet in person in April 2023 at Schofield Barracks. The agent requested Brown bring a specific type of gum, and Brown dutifully bought the gum en route, without knowing he was being surveilled. CID arrested him promptly at the rendezvous point.

At a trial in February, Sorenson presented 38 other sexually explicit conversations between Brown and people presenting themselves as girls as young as 12 years old, including explicit images purportedly of minors. At least one of those conversations involved Brown unsuccessfully attempting to meet with a 15-year-old girl for sex at an airport hotel in 2021.

While a jury found Brown guilty of six out of the 17 charges against him, he will not be sentenced until June 23. He remains in custody, despite several motions by his attorneys for his release.

“It is a profound breach of trust to both our military community and the public we serve, when a senior military officer commits crimes that exploit the vulnerable,” said CID special agent in charge Ruben Santiago in a statement.

 For the latest news of Hawai‘i, sign up 

Courtfed

<title>Two military officers busted for child sex exploitation</title>

A Navy petty officer and an Air Force lieutenant colonel have been respectively sentenced and convicted for sexually exploiting minors online.

Two military officers busted for child sex exploitation

, vividly remembers serving tacos on a street corner in Waikīkī back in 2011.

“I started a little taco stand from 2011 to 2015,” he says. “I was in Waikīkī, making tacos from midnight to 4:30 in the morning. And sometimes I would stay there until 5 a.m.; I would take a lot of food with me.

“(Before that,) I was waiting tables and bartending in Vegas,” he adds. “When I moved to Hawai

i, I had to open my business to make the same amount of money. I opened in Kalihi Valley in 2015 on Cinco de Mayo.”

Since the business’s original Kalihi store opening, it has expanded. Alvarado had a Kapahulu location for a few years — “from 2020 to 2023,” he says — and opened in Pearl City. The biz recently opened its third Oʻahu location in the former spot of Pauoa Chop Suey.

“This one is in the neighborhood, so it’s really nice that people can walk here,” Alvarado says. “A lot of people have such long-lasting memories of Pauoa Chop Suey. They’re very acceptant of us; we appreciate how warm and welcoming everyone has been. I tell them, ‘I know we have some big shoes to fill, but I’m confident my feet are bigger!’”

As soon as you walk into the restaurant, the eatery’s new Los Angeles Dodgers-inspired mural is immediately eye catching.

“(For the mural) I already knew what I wanted,” Alvarado says. “I wanted to feel like I’m going right into Dodger Stadium, and all of my favorite players had just won back-to-back World Series.

“This is a big space,” he adds, regarding the restaurant’s size. “It’s kind of bigger than what we need, but it’s nice to space some things out. Now we have more dining (seating). We had that at Kapahulu, but we don’t really have that at Kalihi.”

The menu across all three stores is mostly the same, but the Pearl City and Pauoa locations also feature churros (two for $7) and nacho fries. Nacho fries ($15) are loaded with nacho cheese, shredded cheese, beans, onions, cilantro, sour cream, jalapenos, olives, pico de gallo and salsa verde, according to Alvarado. Customers can also add a protein of their choice for a supplemental charge.

“I love the nacho cheese; I have it on the menu because I like it,” Alvarado says.

Tacos are available as three-taco combo plates — which include three tacos, rice, beans and a fountain drink — or a la carte (prices vary, depending on the protein). Five-inch corn tortillas are filled with a protein of your choice, onions, cilantro and salsa verde. Choose from carnitas, beef, chicken, carne asada or a veggie (rice, beans, cheese, onions, cilantro, pico de gallo and salsa verde) option.

The three-taco combo plate — along with the eatery’s wet burrito combo plate — are the two most popular dishes, according to Alvarado.

“For the meat choice, carne asada — the steak — is the most popular,” he says. “My personal favorite is the carnitas — the crispy, shredded pork.

“The aim is to make it like a hash brown,” he says. “You crispy it up, so that when it gets to you, it has a little crispy texture and it’s still moist. There’s a little squeeze of lime on all the tacos. It gives it this nice freshness.”

The wet burrito combo plate ($17.50-$19, depending on protein) features a 10-inch burrito with cheese, onions, cilantro, olives and your protein of choice. It’s finished with red enchilada sauce, more shredded cheese and sour cream.

“I do the carne asada wet burrito with half carnitas, so it’s both steak and pork in the same (one); that’s my jam,” Alvarado says.

The menu also features regular burritos, quesadillas, macho burritos —with 12-inch flour tortillas — Mexibowls (bowls with rice, beans and a variety of toppings) and nachos.

As the new store gets more settled, Alvarado says customers can look forward to specials, and he is optimistic about the new year. 

“I’ve been doing it (the business) since 2011 and the restaurants have been since 2015, but my workers make it all happen," he says. "I have veterans that moved over (from the Kalihi store to the Pauoa store) and everyone’s willing to take on a little more responsibility. That’s the most precious part — the growth — and everybody being a part of it. One person doesn’t make this; it’s the whole team. We’re as good as our weakest link, and we don’t have any weak links!”

The restaurant is open from 11 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. Mondays to Fridays, and 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturdays (closed Sundays). 

[{"type":"text","text":"Limited customer parking is available in the lot behind the restaurant."}]

Open 11 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. Mondays to Fridays, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturdays

Customer parking available in the lot behind the restaurant

Alejandros Pauoa owner 030326

<title>Alejandro’s Mexican Food opens in Pauoa</title>

This is the third location for the business, which opened its first store in Kalihi Valley in 2015. Customers can look forward to tacos, burritos, quesadillas, nacho fries and more.

Alejandro’s Mexican Food opens in Pauoa

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ASD Staff

Daily Smile

[{"type":"text","text":"The real reason we have security cams..."}]

Smile 26 3 4

<title>Daily Smile: Wednesday, March 4, 2026</title>

The real reason we have security cams...

Daily Smile: Wednesday, March 4, 2026

Get ready, Haleʻiwa — the cevichelada has entered the chat. This ingenious concoction allows you to eat ceviche while drinking a michelada (popular Mexican beer cocktail) at the same time. (Da Seafood Cartel’s michelada doesn’t include alcohol, but customers are welcome to BYOB).

That’s just one of the eye-catching dishes you’ll find at the 

’s second storefront location, which just opened in Haleʻiwa. Those familiar with the area will recognize the space as the former home of Poke for the People. Not to worry — the poke shop is still in Haleʻiwa and moved further up the road, across of Storto’s Deli and Nalu Health Bar & Café.

Da Seafood Cartel, which officially started in 2020, opened its first brick and mortar location in ‘Aiea about two and a half years ago, according to business owner Amanda Cordes. The business focuses on Sonora-style Mexican seafood.

“We’ve been selling ceviche since 2020 — first during Covid-19, then at the farmers markets,” she says. “We started in the thick of Covid-19 and the idea (for the name) came really fast to us. At first, I was like, ‘I don’t know if cartel has the best connotation.’ But when I looked at the definition, ‘cartel’ is someone who takes over an industry. We do want to take over the Mexican seafood space; it’s (our name’s) kind of a twist on the cartel.”

When she was exploring the possibility of opening a second location, Cordes says that she found out through word of mouth that Poke for the People were looking to move locations.

“It just really worked out,” she says. “We really love the area and we thought ceviche and the North Shore beaches really went hand in hand. We thought it was a good cuisine for people to enjoy after a day at the beach. Or, they could grab a container (of ceviche) and enjoy it at the beach.”

Similar to the ʻAiea location, the new Haleʻiwa spot features Mexican seafood, but offers several exclusive dishes. While the ʻAiea eatery has dishes like fish tacos and steak quesadillas, the Haleʻiwa one includes more dishes centered around fresh seafood.

“Some of the more exciting things we have here are our mariscadas, which is a variety of Mexican seafood,” Cordes says. “Mariscadas pretty much translates to ʻseafood dish.’ People can try a little bit of everything — ceviche, cooked shrimp, fish, scallops and octopus — if they want a variety of fresh seafood.

“We also have cevicheladas — a mix of micheladas with our ceviche — fruit cups with chamoy and tajin, a shrimp Caesar salad, a Mexican-style poke bowl and poke nachos,” she adds.

Mariscadas feature a variety of fresh Mexican-style seafood marinated in the eatery’s special Cartel sauce. It’s served with housemade chips and the “black sauce of death.”

The Mexican-style poke bowl ($18.25) features spicy ‘ahi, ceviche, soybeans, blue crab tobiko spread, avocado, mango, unagi sauce, chipotle aioli, furikake and serrano. Meanwhile, the orale poke nachos ($17.95) include chips topped with spicy ‘ahi, blue crab tobiko spread, guacamole, jalapenos, unagi and chipotle aioli.

“I grew up in Hawaiʻi; I know typical poke bowls are pretty much poke and rice,” Cordes says. “Here, it’s like a wide variety of different flavors.”

Cordes highly recommends the aguachile verde ($18.95) to customers. The dish features shrimp crudo in a citrusy aguachile sauce, and it’s topped with cucumbers, purple onions and serrano. Customers can choose from verde (green), rojo (red spicy) or pineapple habanero aguachile.

“I guess you can translate ‘aguachile’ to chili pepper water, Mexican style,” Cordes says. “The shrimp starts off raw, but it cooks in the lime. The green sauce is really good; I highly recommend the fruit one, too. If you like a sweet and spicy flavor profile, that one’s delicious.”

No trip to Da Seafood Cartel is complete without the business’s signature OG tostada. This is the business’s bestselling tostada, and it’s layered with blue crab tobiko spread, ceviche and avocado. All chips and tostadas are still housemade, according to Cordes.

If you want to take your tostada to the next level, opt for the tostada la basta, ($19.95), which features a medley of fresh seafood — cooked shrimp, shrimp crudo, octopus, mahi crudo and ‘ahi — served with chipotle aioli on a tostada and garnished with purple onions, serrano and an avocado.

Looking for a smaller snack? Check out the business’s chamoy fruit cups ($9.95) or horchata ($5.95).

Da Seafood Cartel’s Haleʻiwa store is currently open daily from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. For updates, follow the eatery on Instagram.

“We really focus on and take a lot of pride in being the only place that serves Mexican mariscos,” Cordes says. “Mariscos is the word that Spanish people use for seafood; we’re the only ones that are doing something like this right now.”

Hawai‘i Scene on Social: Teed up

Kady Pascual

Social Media Editor

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Kady Pascual

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