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Taste of Aloha, Chef Robert Alcain's Casual Hawaiian Cafe on Sulphur Spring Road and Selma Avenue in Arbutus


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The Taste of Aloha has brought the taste of Hawaii to the border of Howard County, and it's worth the drive to bring a little sunshine into your winter.

This is a small family-run restaurant in Arbutus that brings casual Hawaiian food -- with its mix of Asian and American influences, its range from light raw fish dishes through noodle soups to hearty burgers and "plate lunch."

I don't want you to go with heightened expectations, but Taste of Aloha reminds me of R&R Taqueria. It's a guy who wants to cook authentic food.  Bare-bones seating.  A short menu that changes with the ingredients.  And a real focus on making things from scratch.  Let's just say that we left disappointed that we had passed on macaroni salad because lunch made us realized that we had probably underestimated it.

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Saimin and fish tacos

First, you need to hit up Taste of Aloha just for the raw fish.  Hawaiians make these wonderful dishes called poke where fish is cubed, then mixed with vegetables and often a dressing.  There are endless varieties, and they were one of our favorite parts of vacation.

Last weekend, Taste of Aloha was serving a poke cousin called spicy tuna chirashi zushi.  A scoop of warm perfect rice surrounded by cubed tuna mixed with a spicy emulsion.  A touch of creaminess, but mostly a bright, light spiciness.  A dash of furikake gave a little salt and crunch.  As a $6 appetizer, it was one of my favorite dishes that I have eaten this year.  On a china plate, it would have been at home at a high-end restaurant.

Second, you should come expecting authenticity.  Hawaii has developed a unique culture with input from places like Japan, Korea, the Philippines and Portugal.  During out single meal, we listened to two other tables exclaim about how the food tasted just like they remembered from their time on the islands. The menu included kalbi, chicken katsu, several burgers, and kahlua pig served as a hoagie or as a big plate lunch.

My wife ordered mahi-mahi tacos that had perfectly grilled fish with a kimchi slaw and pineapple salsa.  I tried saimin, a noodle soup that starts with a mushroom-vegetable broth and then lets you add spam, shrimp, tofu, dumplings or a bunch of other proteins to bulk it up.  It was a cloudy broth and a filling soup perfect for a cold day.  I jazzed mine with a dash of soy sauce and a squirt of hot sauce.

Again, this is the vibe of R&R Taqueria where the folks take the food seriously even though they're cooking in a gas station.  We heard folks talk about how the chef makes his own sauces and marinades, including his own teriyaki sauce.  That's the kind of effort that we tasted in all our dishes and that makes me want to go back to try the kalbi, the roast pork, and maybe even the dishes made with spam.  That was also when we realized that the macaroni salad side dish was homemade -- and probably delicious.

Don't go with crazy expectations.  This is a casual place with a one-man kitchen.  But Taste of Aloha is really worth checking out because they're making an effort to do something special.  Plus, it's a unique menu that will give you a little taste of the islands without even driving to BWI.

If you're going to make a special trip, I recommend following the restaurant on Twitter or on Facebook to see when they announce poke, chirashi zushi or other raw fish dishes.

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Thanks to your blog post, I swung by today for a spontaneous lunch. I had the fish tacos, which were delicious and the kimchi and fresh pineapple really were a great combination with the mahi-mahi. Very simple but they were absolutely wonderful and plenty light to keep me going and not bog me down for the afternoon at work. I do wish that I branched out after seeing the menu items and watching various entrees coming out of the kitchen. The kalbi was sold out I believe, so they keep their inventory relatively low and if there's a run on something, it's gone. That stinks if you're going for an item, but helps with freshness. It looks like they have been open for two months, but were very busy and it seemed like they had some kinks to work out. It seemed abnormal, but it's a small two-man shop (that I saw) and I can't hate on the effort. I only did take-out so it wasn't a big deal.

HowChow briefly mentioned the mac salad....I got it instead of fries and absolutely devoured it. I'm pretty sure I ate it so fast that I don't really remember what was in it. I'll guess some sort of sauce to give it a slightly reddish tinge and some sort of spice besides the obvious celery and mayo base, but that's all I got- like I said, it didn't stick around long. The fries looked good, but I'd recommend the mac salad.

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Thanks to your blog post, I swung by today for a spontaneous lunch. I had the fish tacos, which were delicious and the kimchi and fresh pineapple really were a great combination with the mahi-mahi. Very simple but they were absolutely wonderful and plenty light to keep me going and not bog me down for the afternoon at work. I do wish that I branched out after seeing the menu items and watching various entrees coming out of the kitchen. The kalbi was sold out I believe, so they keep their inventory relatively low and if there's a run on something, it's gone. That stinks if you're going for an item, but helps with freshness. It looks like they have been open for two months, but were very busy and it seemed like they had some kinks to work out. It seemed abnormal, but it's a small two-man shop (that I saw) and I can't hate on the effort. I only did take-out so it wasn't a big deal.

HowChow briefly mentioned the mac salad....I got it instead of fries and absolutely devoured it. I'm pretty sure I ate it so fast that I don't really remember what was in it. I'll guess some sort of sauce to give it a slightly reddish tinge and some sort of spice besides the obvious celery and mayo base, but that's all I got- like I said, it didn't stick around long. The fries looked good, but I'd recommend the mac salad.

This place is especially meaningful for UCLA grads.

Can you tell I used to date someone from Lansdowne? ;)

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photo(451).JPG

Saimin and fish tacos

I tried saimin, a noodle soup that starts with a mushroom-vegetable broth and then lets you add spam, shrimp, tofu, dumplings or a bunch of other proteins to bulk it up.  It was a cloudy broth and a filling soup perfect for a cold day.  I jazzed mine with a dash of soy sauce and a squirt of hot sauce.

I have wanted to try a bowl of Saimin since I read about it, in of all places, Ball Four. Jim Bouton got demoted to Vancouver of the PCL in 1969, just in time for a long road trip to Hawaii, and often got Saimin from the concession stand while killing time in the bullpen.

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I have wanted to try a bowl of Saimin since I read about it, in of all places, Ball Four. Jim Bouton got demoted to Vancouver of the PCL in 1969, just in time for a long road trip to Hawaii, and often got Saimin from the concession stand while killing time in the bullpen.

Tried Taste of Aloha on Saturday. The Saimin was worth the 43-year wait. I got mine with kimchi dumplings. Also tried Spam musubi, a beloved Hawaiian street food. I've never had Spam in my life before this, which is probably as good a way to eat Spam as exists.

If I lived closer to Arbutus, I'd be at this place a lot.

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