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James Morioka

Pritchett photo 300 dpi square

John Pritchett

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Christian Shimabuku Headshot

Christian Shimabuku

Sports

World Wrestling Entertainment, better known as the WWE, is coming back to Hawai‘i in October. The organization will hold a pair of shows in the Islands for the first time since 2019 and hopes it leaves with its next crop of future stars. 

The WWE will hold live shows at the Neal S. Blasidell Center on Oct. 16 and Oct. 17. Prior to each event, the organization will hold tryouts for athletes and characters who hope to become a part of the world's most prominent wrestling organization. 

WWE executives, recruiters and coaches will be present at the tryouts, which will involve athletic conditioning testing, character and promo work, training in the ring and more. 

Before he became the WWE's senior vice president of talent development, Shawn Michaels established himself as one of the organization's greats. Also known as the Heartbreak Kid, Michaels is a former WWE champion and current Hall of Famer. 

Now 61, Michaels is paying it forward as an executive in the organization. Always willing to search far and wide, he knew the organization needed to make a stop in Hawai‘i. 

The organization's success with wrestlers from Polynesia spans decades. During the interview, Michaels spoke of his fondness for High Chief Peter Maivia, who joined the World Wrestling Federation in the 1970s, as well as Rodney Anoa'i, also known as Yozozuna, who joined WWF in the early 1990s after winning the Universal Wrestling Association's trios championship with the Hawaiian Beasts. 

, who spent his childhood on O‘ahu before moving to the Mainland and eventually rocketing to global superstardom, a journey that was ignited by his presence in the WWE.

"Everybody's thrilled to be having the opportunity to come back to Hawai‘i," Michaels told Aloha State Daily in a recent interview. "From a recruiting standpoint, nothing would thrill us more than be able to find the next Rock or the next Roman Reigns on this recruiting trip out to Hawai‘i."

While factors such as athletic ability and charisma are natural advantages to possess during the tryouts, Michaels says there truly is no one-size-fits-all candidate. 

"You need to be durable. You need to have confidence," Michaels says. "But at the same time, there's also been people that don't come from an athletic background. They might be on the (independent) scene out there and not having that many opportunities. You may have watched it your entire life, but you've never known how to actually make it happen, it's like, 'How do I become those guys that I want to see on TV?' Well, this is your opportunity, and so we're looking forward to everybody coming out and giving their best. You never know unless you try."

The opportunity to present oneself in front of WWE decision-makers is one Michaels certainly wishes he had back when he was eager to make a name for himself. 

It comes in so many different forms and fashions. If you talk to 10 different WWE superstars, they can give you 10 different paths they took at the WWE," Michaels said. "All I can tell you from personal experience is that it's given me a life unlike I ever possibly imagined I could have, for both myself and my family, and so nothing would have thrilled me more than to have a pathway to have been able to make that happen for me. It was much more difficult in my time, and I'm so fortunate for everything and the way that it worked out. 

"But now there is a real pathway through our recruiting system, and I just have to tell everybody: if you've just ever thought about it, or you believe that there's something in you, this innate presence that you have that you feel like you want to do this, I say, man, you might as well give it a shot."

WWE flyer

<title>WWE to hold tryouts prior to October live shows</title>

The pro wrestling organization will hold a pair of live shows at the Neal S. Blaisdell Center in October. Prior to those, it will host tryouts for prospective athletes, who must register online by Sept. 15 before showing up.

WWE to hold tryouts prior to October live shows

Kelli Shiroma Braiotta Headshot

Kelli Shiroma Braiotta

Food & Dining

[{"type":"text","text":"There’s a new Japanese sake pub in Honolulu."}]

 is tucked away within Up Roll Café Kaka

ako. The pub opened at the end of July and is currently open from Thursdays to Saturdays from 5 to 10 p.m. (happy hour is from 4 to 6 p.m.).

The pub is inspired by traditional drinking culture called Kakuuchi, where people can casually enjoy sake and small bites in a neighborhood liquor store. Maniwa strives to bring this concept to Hawaiʻi in the form of a Japanese sake pub.

While the pub’s sake selection is extensive, the eatery strives to make sake approachable to diners. Its sake discovery set ($15, $10 during soft opening) has quickly become a customer favorite, as it includes three sake tastings and a small bite (choose from the “umami bites” section of the menu).

The food menu features a variety of raw and cooked dishes, presented in small plates (izakaya-style) designed for sharing. The pressed ‘ahi carpaccio ($15) — drizzled with lemon and olive oil — chef’s sashimi selection (market price) and truffle dashi omelet come highly recommended.

The featured sashimi selection during our visit included maguro, ika and sweet shrimp.

The fluffy, Japanese rolled omelet is topped with a generous amount of truffle sauce.

Other popular dishes include oyster confit with toasted baguette ($15), creamy shrimp gratin ($13) and Kauaʻi shrimp bake with snow crab ($17).

The shrimp gratin features a creamy rice-and-cheese mixture with chunks of baked shrimp throughout.

The pub is still in its soft opening phase and will celebrate its grand opening in December. Direct message the business on Instagram for inquiries/reservations.

Open from 5 to 10 p.m. Thursdays to Sundays (happy hour from 4 to 6 p.m.)

Maniwa sake flight 090126

<title>New Japanese sake pub opens in Honolulu</title>

Pub Maniwa Kakuuchi opened within Up Roll Café Kakaʻako at the end of July. The eatery is featuring a discounted sake discovery set until its grand opening, with the goal of making sake tasting approachable and enjoyable to diners. The food menu features izakaya-style small plates, ranging from sashimi and creamy shrimp gratin to truffle dashi omelet.

New Japanese sake pub opens in Honolulu

Real Estate

 on Capital Stewardship elicited a wide range of comments, and many requested more background on my Neighborhood Capital concept.

For decades, Hawai'i has searched for answers to its housing crisis. Policymakers have proposed rezoning, higher density, streamlined permitting, public-private partnerships, and transit-oriented development. Yet Honolulu's urban core continues to face a persistent housing shortage where land is scarce, infrastructure is expensive, and redevelopment is increasingly complex.

The next breakthrough will not come from finding more land.

It will come from looking at existing neighborhoods differently.

My perspective comes from seeing Hawai'i from four vastly different vantage points: Growing up in Kalihi, working with major Hawai'i landowners early in my career, later spending two decades in Tokyo, where I watched entire districts transform through patient, long-term redevelopment, and currently advising families to steward their real estate portfolios.

Over time, I have come to believe that successful redevelopment rests on three pillars: Capital, governance, and stewardship. Together, they shape both real estate portfolios and cities. Hidden within those three pillars is an overlooked resource I call Neighborhood Capital — the accumulated wealth embedded in long-held neighborhood real estate and the relationships that surround it.

It is not vacant land waiting to be discovered. It is productive real estate hiding in plain sight — long-held properties that generate income, support local families, and anchor Hawai'i's neighborhoods.

Growing up in Kalihi, I watched neighborhoods evolve one property at a time. Many of those same buildings still support local families today. Drive through Makiki, McCully, Mōʻiliʻili, or Kapahulu and a similar picture emerges: Aging walk-up apartments, older rental homes, and underutilized commercial buildings that continue to provide dependable income for long-time owners. The question is whether they have greater value together than they do apart.

Most public discussions focus on zoning, permits, construction costs, and financing. Those issues are important. But another challenge receives far less attention.

Ownership. A single city block may have a dozen or more owners, each with different goals, family circumstances, and time horizons. Collectively, they may control an entire city block capable of supporting hundreds of homes, parks, improved streets, utilities, and future transit connections.

This is not merely a planning problem. It is a governance problem. Hawai'i's housing challenge may be as much about coordinating ownership as constructing buildings.

Japan demonstrates that Hawai'i's ownership challenges are not unique.

After World War II, Japan faced many of the same challenges Hawai'i faces today: Fragmented ownership, inherited property, and competing interests that complicated redevelopment. Contrary to widely held belief, Japanese landowners were not automatically cooperative simply because of a tradition of consensus. One recent academic study makes exactly that point, concluding that Japanese landowners can be just as demanding as anyone else about what Japanese call “land readjustment” (Tochi Kukaku Seiri, 土地区画整理). That conclusion deserves careful consideration in Hawai‘i.

The lesson is not that Japan's culture is different. The lesson is that Japan built institutions that helped landowners make difficult collective decisions.

Hawai'i visitors to Tokyo are awed by new mixed-use districts in the middle of the city. Roppongi Hills — a landmark Mori Building development anchored by the Grand Hyatt Tokyo Hotel — took 17 years from concept to completion, with 80 percent of 400 rights holders choosing to participate rather than accept cash buyouts. When I arrived in Tokyo in 1991, the same site was a patchwork of aging buildings and narrow streets. Getting there required, in the words of one study, time, money, patience, and, most importantly, a committed local government.

Those words deserve careful consideration in Hawai'i.

Alongside government policy — a topic I will take up in a future column — Japan's model rests on a different set of questions:

Rather than simply selling, landowners can remain invested and share in the value created through coordinated redevelopment. Hawai'i needs a new kind of convener — an independent institution capable of bringing neighboring landowners together long before architects draw plans or developers seek permits.

Traditional redevelopment often gives landowners only two choices:

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"Sell."}]

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"Don't sell."}]

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"Japan introduced a third:"}]

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Participate."}]

That shift — from selling land to creating value — is profound.

In Hawai'i, we often talk about where housing should be. Yet we spend far less time asking who owns the land—and whether those owners have practical ways to work together. Most long-time owners are not opposed to redevelopment. They simply lack a practical framework, trusted partners, and an organizational structure for working with neighboring owners.

Unlike institutional investors measured by quarterly performance, Neighborhood Capital is patient capital. In many cases, it has remained invested in the same communities for generations. Their priorities are often preserving family wealth, generating stable income, and leaving assets to future generations — not maximizing short-term returns.

The future of Hawai'i housing lies not in asking these families to become developers, but in creating trusted pathways that allow them to become partners in thoughtful redevelopment. It may require neighborhood landowner associations, independent facilitation, coordinated infrastructure planning, and governance models that allow families to retain long-term ownership while participating in larger master-planned communities.

Hawai'i's housing debate has focused, appropriately, on land use, regulation, and financing. But another conversation deserves equal attention: 

How do we help neighboring landowners become partners in creating the next generation of urban neighborhoods?

Hawai‘i's next housing breakthrough may not come from finding more land. It may come from helping neighbors unlock the value they already own — together. That is the promise of Neighborhood Capital.

ay Tsuchiyama’s series explores one central question: How does Hawai‘i use the wealth and land it already has to create its next economic future? He can be reached at 

I Stock kaimuki 020626

<title>Neighborhood capital: Unlocking Hawai'i's hidden housing resource</title>

Redevelopment in Hawai‘i has typically forced landowners into one of just two decisions — sell, or don't sell. But there is a third choice, one where current landowners, by the dozens or the hundreds, could participate in coordinate redevelopments that could renew entire neighborhoods.

Neighborhood capital: Unlocking Hawai'i's hidden housing resource

Higa headshot white shirt square

Sterling Higa

Civil Beat has begun a series on meth in the Islands, and it opens with the dead.

, with a selected few arranged as a series of vignettes. Some died of overdose, others of heart conditions caused by their meth habit.

One of the deceased was Christopher Woodard, the chief planner for the state Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism, making $139,860 a year. He was found on his apartment floor with a glass pipe in his lap.

John Hill has written about these people with care. He calls them 

It’s a sentimental start to a series of articles on meth that Hill has promised.

Meth is not deadly at the same scale as heart disease, cancer, or stroke. But its impacts are wide ranging. Meth use often tears families apart. It frequently comes paired with mental illness, and it may accompany other forms of disorder, including lying, theft, and violence. The consequences of meth can be seen on many a street corner. For this reason, meth looms large in the social imaginary.

Despite the scale of Hawaiʻi’s meth epidemic, there is little local journalism on the subject, except for reports of arrests and prosecutions. So a series like Hill’s will shape the state’s policies in dealing with meth. This makes it worth asking what the author assumes about his subject.

Every remedy rests on some account of the sick man. Begin with the wrong account of man, and we will spend a great deal of money on cures that cannot work.

 at contingency management, a policy the state is trialing. The idea is to pay people for clean drug tests, in gift cards or small sums of cash. Advocates claim that contingency management is more effective than other treatments. At least that’s what experts and some academic studies suggest, with all the normal caveats about the quality of experts and academic research.

Grant the point that the treatments work, and ask why.

In part, contingency management works because some men will stay clean for $50. Should our state be in the business of paying these drug addicts to stay clean?

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"And why doesn’t Hill call them addicts?"}]

 that most newsrooms follow. Writers are steered away from words like 

 are off limits. Journalists shouldn’t call people who use drugs 

, though they can describe people’s drug 

 with select adjectives permitted (e.g., 

Hill is willing to skirt the rules, as he calls his subjects 

But the guide goes further and offers to redefine words: addiction is “a treatable disease that affects a person’s brain and behavior,” brought on by genetics and mental illness and other factors. 

According to this definition, addiction is something that happens to a man, like the flu or chickenpox. The Stylebook’s definition has no place for the man’s will.

The idea underneath this definition is older than the Stylebook. Rousseau taught that man arrives in the world basically good and is then spoiled by civilization. This thought is taken for granted today. It is like water, and we are fish swimming in it.

If corruption comes from outside the man, then the cure must be applied outside him. Adjust his surroundings and he will improve. Nearly every drug policy of the last 50 years has been some version of that hope.

The gift card is the gentle version. The hard version uses incarceration to reform the addict, controlling his environment to change his behavior. But it is the same anthropology in a different uniform.

Both remedies work on a man’s circumstances because neither can account for his will. One offers a reward and the other a threat, but neither engages with the whole person.

Are humans good by nature or fallen? For the answer, we can look to our children.

Leave 10 toddlers alone in a room and no social contract emerges. The result is chaos.

Anyone who has taught toddlers knows that they often defy instruction, sometimes seeming to revel in disobedience. We tell ourselves that small ones are only testing the boundaries, and perhaps they are. But this explanation cannot account for their behavior later in life.

Some people may use meth because of mental illness. Others may use meth because they’re forced to. Many people don’t know the full consequences of meth use when they start. But a few know full well that meth is illegal and harmful, and they use it anyway.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"Why do they transgress?"}]

The professional with a house and a pension does not take up meth because his surroundings failed him. The husband who cheats is not always short of affection at home. The teacher who molests a child knows that his behavior is wrong.

The simplest explanation is that man sins because it is in his nature to sin. Augustine stole pears when he wasn’t hungry and then threw them away. He didn’t want the pears. He delighted in sin for sin’s sake.

And meth use is sin, plain and simple. Scripture is filled with cautions against inebriation, often connecting sobriety to spiritual discernment. “Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.”

A Christian can say that meth is evil and still feel love for the man smoking it. These are not rival claims. He can pray for the man’s soul, that he would come to faith in Christ and have his sins forgiven. And he can also say something the reporter cannot — that there are some things worse than death.

A journalist keeping his objectivity must treat death as the worst outcome, so his stories end with the funeral and the surviving family’s GoFundMe.

But there are worse things than dying. We used to be able to say so without lowering our voices.

The state should bear the sword against the man who sells poison for money. And the state should stop people from smoking meth on the sidewalk and in public parks. These are proper tasks for government.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"But government cannot reform a man."}]

The state makes no provision for the role of the family and church in helping the addict because the state wants to displace the family and church. But the cures available to the state are clumsy, limited to what can be easily administered and quantified. Hence, gift cards.

Hawaiʻi does have a drug problem, and it does have a meth problem. But the problem won’t be solved by bribing drug addicts with gift cards.

We ache for those who drug themselves to death because we know that they too are made in the image of God. Marred as that image is by sin, it shines through. But getting sober will not make us clean. A man can be sober while his soul is still black.

The problem is sin, and the solution to sin is Christ. The Associated Press can never tell you this, for they have sworn not to.

Meth pipe i Stock 104737541

<title>Hawaiʻi meth deaths and the wrong account of human nature</title>

A state planner earning $139,860 a year was found dead on his apartment floor, a glass pipe in his lap. ASD opinion columnist Sterling Higa on how every remedy for meth rests on some account of the man being remedied.

Hawaiʻi meth deaths and the wrong account of human nature

Business & Tourism

doing away with its main cabin complimentary meals

 and moving to a pre-order, pre-paid program for in-flight meals on domestic flights between Hawaiʻi and the Mainland (except for those to JFK International Airport in New York City, which will continue to receive a complimentary meal

Guests can pre-order their in-flight meals through the Alaska Hawaiian mobile app or website two weeks in advance and up to 20 hours prior to departure.

The new main cabin menu was developed by Maui-based Sheldon Simeon, the chef/owner behind Tiffany’s Restaurant & Bar and Tin Roof Maui.

One of the most important decisions we made during this process was picking the right partner,” says 

Alisa Onishi, managing director of Hawai‘i marketing for Hawaiian Airlines

. “We were looking for a few things: a local chef that has represented Hawaiʻi well around the world in their career; someone who really aligned with our principles of featuring local products and supporting local businesses; and someone who would something warm, inviting and comforting on the aircraft. Chef Sheldon knows what it takes to make an amazing recipe and amazing dishes, and to bring those to life on an airplane.”

At Monday’s media event at Tiffany’s Restaurant & Bar on Maui, Aloha State Daily got a preview of the new Hawaiʻi-inspired menu. The menu features elevated takes on local favorites and comfort foods.

Prices for each meal range from about $11 to $17. For breakfast (flights departing between 6 and 9:59 a.m.), guests can choose from corned beef hash and eggs ($15.99), Island-style French toast breakfast ($15.99), banana pancake breakfast ($15.99), and coconut overnight oats ($10.99).

The corned beef hash and eggs entree features crisped corned beef hash served over roasted breakfast potatoes, topped with a poached egg and Hollandaise sauce.

“We’ve done a ton of tests, and we actually got the perfect poached egg in there,” Simeon says. “The Hollandaise sauce is right over the top, and we got some peppers and some onions in there.”

The banana pancake breakfast comprises three pancakes filled with mashed bananas, served with Portuguese sausage and scrambled eggs. Guests will also get Simeon’s specialty banana bread syrup.

“We took home-baked banana bread and we turned it into a syrup, so you get that fresh-baked flavor when you drizzle it over the top,” Simeon explains. “I think that banana bread is one of the best-smelling things in the world.”

He adds that the French toast and banana pancakes are reminiscent of Sunday morning breakfasts.

“I use the line that ‘Somebody is already thinking of you before you wake up,’” Simeon says. “When you get to have breakfast, I wanted something that’s going to feel like that.”  

For lunch and dinner (flights departing between 10 a.m. and 8:29 p.m.), choose from crispy mochiko chicken and garlic noodles, teriyaki cheeseburger, barbecue teriyaki chicken bento, grilled chicken banh mi sandwich, cheeseburger mac and cheese, sweet and tangy tender greens, and an Italian sub.

“Kamaʻāina that are flying are going to see familiar choices,” Onishi says. “Now, more than ever throughout our cabin, we have more local ingredients sourced in Hawaiʻi — not just in our Island airports, but also in kitchens across the continent. We’re excited to feature as many local flavors from local vendors as much as possible.”

The crispy mochiko chicken with garlic noodles features a crispy, rice flour-coated chicken thigh served with garlicky noodles. It’s accompanied by Simeon’s mac salad, signature spicy-K mayo, sweet teriyaki sauce and his crispy toppings bag.

“‘Fried chicken in the plane — do you have fryers in the back of the plane?’” Simeon jokes. “No, we don’t, but we wanted to mimic that flavor and texture. When people think of mochiko chicken — and fried chicken, in general — they want it crunchy. To mimic that, we have this ‘magic in a bag.’ Dip your chicken in the sauce — the sweet soy or K-mayo — and sprinkle over that kakimochi and furikake to get that crispy, crunchy flavor.”  

The grilled chicken banh mi sandwich features French bread with lemongrass-grilled chicken, fresh cilantro, jalapenos and pickled vegetables. Most entrees come with Simeon’s mac salad.

“This is a legit banh mi sandwich,” Simeon says. “It’s a hearty sandwich; it’s going to be served warm. For the mac salad, we do it local-style, full-flavored with potatoes and extra mayonnaise.”

He says the cheeseburger mac deluxe — a twist on mac and cheese — is one of his favorite dishes on the menu.

“I grew up eating Hamburger Helper,” Simeon says. “There’s just something homey about that; it feels like a hug in a bowl.”

The teriyaki cheeseburger ($15.99) features a teriyaki-marinated beef patty topped with American cheese and housemade pickles in a toasted teriyaki-glazed bun.

“When I think of Hawaiʻi, I think of teri cheeseburgers,” Simeon says. “We make our own patties.”

Guests who want something lighter — but still filling — can opt for the sweet and tender greens ($14.49). The tangy salad is a blend of baby kale, toasted almonds, edamame, grape tomato, quinoa, li hing mango, and a salty-sweet li hing balsamic vinaigrette.

“Our sweet-and-sour salad is another fun one; it’s got a little bit of crunch and a little bit of that burst of flavor from the li hing mui with balsamic vinaigrette,” Simeon says.

He emphasizes that this is the first iteration of the menu, and guests can look forward to more exciting developments to come.

“As you can see by the menu items, it’s not the most avant garde, I’m not trying to make the most fancy (dishes),” Simeon says. “I wanted to connect the stories of what makes us ‘live Hawaiʻi.’ These stories are engrained in these recipes that might look, on the surface, very simple, but it’s deeply rooted. Hopefully, we get to tell those stories to thousands of people in the air. Mahalo to Hawaiian Airlines for letting us have that opportunity."

For more information, visit Hawaiian Airlines’ 

Hawaiian Airlines chef Sheldon Simeon 063026

<title>Hawaiian Airlines’ new main cabin menu launches July 1</title>

For in-flight meals on domestic flights between Hawaiʻi and the Mainland, guests can pre-order from a menu curated by Maui-based chef Sheldon Simeon. The menu features elevated takes on local favorites and comfort foods, and features dishes like corned beef hash and eggs, banana pancakes, teriyaki cheeseburgers, crispy mochiko chicken and garlic noodles, and more.

Hawaiian Airlines’ new main cabin menu launches July 1

, which officially opened last November, started as a way to bring Punjabi cuisine to the Hawaiʻi community, according to business owner and retired U.S. Army Captain Manbir Singh Grewal.

“Our business is known for authentic, mouthwatering Indian recipes; we want to be seen as a local hub for Indian food and as a gathering place,” Grewal says. “The name ‘Haveli Da Tandoor’ means ‘the tandoor of the haveli.’ A haveli is a large farmhouse with great food, and a tandoor is the classic Indian clay oven.

“We strive to serve vets and the community with great food and great service,” he adds.

The business offers a variety of appetizers, entrees and combo plates. Popular dishes include wagyu beef samosas ($15), tandoori chicken ($19.50) and butter chicken ($19.50).

The wagyu beef samosas feature crispy pastry triangles stuffed with wagyu beef, spices and peas. They’re served with housemade mint chutney, pineapple chutney and tamarind sauce.

“They’re crispy on the outside and these are all handmade,” Grewal confirms. “The tamarind is a runnier sauce, and we use local pineapple for the pineapple chutney.”

The business’s tandoori chicken ($19.50) is a customer favorite. The tender, bone-in chicken is marinated in spices and roasted in the tandoor.

“For the tandoori chicken, it’s a thigh and a leg (that come in each plate),” Grewal says.

The butter chicken features a creamy, tomato-based curry.

“People love our live tandoor that serves up tandoori chicken and lamb lollis,” Grewal says. “We also have some of the best butter chicken on the island; it stays super tender, due to the way we make it. The recipes are all from women in my family, including my mother, grandmother and several aunties.”

Entrees come with Jeera basmati rice and raita (a creamy yogurt dip seasoned with cumin). The basmati rice includes cumin and onions, according to Grewal.

“Some people just order the rice on the side because they really like it,” he says. “It’s a flavorful rice by itself, and when you mix it with the butter chicken or any of the other dishes, it’s really good.”

Customers can enhance their orders with garlic naan ($5.50) or mango lassis ($7), or creamy mango yogurt smoothies with cardamom and Hawaiian honey.

“Most people get our butter chicken with a couple of the garlic naans,” Grewal says. “At times, we do a stuffed garlic naan that we make fresh. We’re moving toward doing a cheese-based garlic naan.”

The business’s tandoori lamb lollis are not always featured at events; the special often sells out quickly. The marinated lamb loin chops are crisped to perfection in the tandoor. Plates usually include three pieces with rice and bread.

Grewal uses a high-quality, grass-fed lamb to make the lollis.

“I always bring more and more, and I always sell out in an hour, or an hour and a half, after we start (at an event),” he says. “We cut the lamb loins apart and pound them out, then we add a two-step marinade to them.

“The lamb takes about 10 to 15 minutes (in the tandoor),” he adds. “It takes 10 minutes to get it nice and crisp. We pull it out to baste it with clarified butter, so it makes it crispy.”

Vegetarian-friendly options, like chole bhature ($19.50), are also available. This dish features a slow-simmered, spiced chickpea curry, or chole. It’s served with a golden-fried bhature bread and raita.

“It’s a popular Punjabi dish; it’s completely vegetarian, but it’s super filling,” Grewal says.

Customers can currently find the business at various events across Oʻahu, including Wai Kai on Thursdays, What the Truck?! on Fridays, and Village Night Market at Pearlridge Center on Saturdays. The business often posts its schedule for the week on social media.

“Although we are just a truck now, we plan to expand and bring the real Haveli experience to the island,” Grewal says. “We are a veteran-owned business that serves the community; we want to serve delicious Indian meals. We have also been involved in feeding more than 100 people at a time in town. We are here for the people who love our food, but even more importantly, we want to be here for those that need our food.”

Haveli business owner 062326

<title>Haveli Da Tandoor food truck serves authentic North Indian flavors</title>

The food truck features Punjabi cuisine, including tandoori chicken, wagyu beef samosas and tandoori lamb lollipops. Customers can find the truck at events across Oʻahu, including Ono Grindz & Makeke at Wai Kai, What the Truck?! and at the Village Night Market.

Haveli Da Tandoor food truck serves authentic North Indian flavors

Cheryl Tsutsumi

Cheryl Chee Tsutsumi

National Zookeeper Week is July 20-26. We spotlight an aunty who has spent half her life taking care of the elephants at Honolulu Zoo.

Honolulu Zoo Davis 01

Uncles and Aunties: Malia Davis, inspired to be an animal caretaker by her grandparents

Aloha Spirit

Dr. Martina Kamaka comes from the Kamaka family noted for music but medicine has been her muse since childhood. Now she is a professor in the Department of Native Hawaiian Health at the University of Hawaiʻi’s John A. Burns School of Medicine. Part of her kuleana is the māla lāʻau lapaʻau (medicinal garden) of native and Polynesian-introduced plants used for healing that grow in a 3,300-square-foot oasis — which you can visit yourself on an upcoming public work day in the garden.

Cheryl Chee Tsutsumi

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