Authentic Traditional HAWAIIAN Food!

Hey guys, aloha, it's Mike Chen, and I'm in Honolulu, Hawaii. Hawaii has been on my bucket list since, well, ever since I heard they cook massive pigs in underground ovens. So finally, today, I am here to eat it. My search for awesome Hawaiian food has brought me here to Helena's. Now, I think this place is gonna be pretty legit, because not only was it recommended to me by my local friends, it's been featured in a bunch of TV shows, and when I got here at like 3.30 on a Tuesday, there was a line out the door. And I'll tell you, this place was not easy to get to. They literally only have about six parking spaces, and there's really no parking around here, but I got lucky, found a spot, and I am ready to pig out. So let's go see what traditional Hawaiian food is all about. The menu is really simple. Everything seems relatively inexpensive. I ordered basically one of each of their popular items. I am not leaving here with food regrets. I will not have another Munich incident. Oh, by the way, the Munich incident is when I went to Munich, Germany for work, and all I ate was KFC. Worst experience of my life. Don't want to talk about it. This is awesome. I'm so excited. Thank you so much. Everything looks fantastic. This is the lau lau. Squid luau. It's the same leaf, yeah? Yeah. This is edible. And of course, our signature dish, pipi kala. Thank you so much. My food has arrived, and I haven't been this excited for a long time. This is the infamous poi. This gooey ectoplasm-looking thing. This is mashed up taro. I'm not a big fan of taro to begin with, so what they do here is they take taro, they mash it up really nicely, and they add water till it's basically a purple goo, and it ferments for a few days, so it has a little bit of a sour taste, I'm told, and it's a very, very much acquired flavor. That's why I just got this little, little bit right here. Check this out. That's definitely acquired flavor. It's not sweet. It's, it's basically soury, gooey taro, and what I was told was that this is eaten kind of like a starch, kind of like rice. You can definitely taste the fermentation in here, but I could see how this could go really well with something really salty. So I'm gonna try it with some of this nice kalua pig, and the kalua pig is the main reason I'm here in Hawaii. This thing is marvelous. So what happens is, this is cooked in the underground oven called an emu, and what they do is they dig about four feet, they put the pig in there, cover it with tea leaves and hot stone, and just let it cook. Okay, if you notice that the curtain now went up, that the staff came because they wanted a sign behind me. But anyway, back to the pig. The pig cooks for about 12 hours inside tea leaves, which are not edible, but retains all the moisture, so this thing should be juicy, smoky, and tender. Oh my god, that smells absolutely insane. I gotta try this. Oh man, I've waited my whole life for this moment. You've ever saw something so beautiful, like a shooting star, or a beautiful sunset, and that image will stay with you for the rest of your life. Well, this taste, this first bite, will stay with me forever. This, I'm not even kidding a single bit guys, this is absolutely one of the most amazing, amazing pig I have ever, ever had. That is so delicious. There's only been a couple of times in my life when I ate something and I feel like crying. One time, I don't know if you guys remember, was in Taiwan when I had the melty pork belly over rice. This is the other time. This dish is like a pulled pork, but it's more delicious by like 20,000. First of all, it is so wonderfully juicy. Okay, not dry at all. Every bite you take, you can taste that wonderful, smoky flavor, and you don't need anything on this. You don't need sauce, you don't need anything. You just eat it as it is. This is one of the most wonderful things I've ever had. Every bite you take, the juices and the oils just slowly oozes out, and this flavor is absolutely perfect. It's not overly salty. It's not sweet. It's just a nice, beautiful, fatty, piggy flavor, and I said I would try this with the poi. So I added the Kahlua pig on top of the poi right here, and see if it changes my impression of it at all. Okay, well first of all, that pig makes everything taste better, and actually it goes really well with the poi. Mmm. I can see what they're talking about. It does kind of act like a rice substitute, and it kind of balances the fattiness of the pig. Oh guys, I just discovered something. This orange thing, I didn't know what this was. They said this was chili water, and said if I needed something spicy, I should add this, and of course I needed something spicy. So let's take some Kahlua pig, and add some of this chili water. So exciting. Oh, that's spicy. Oh, that's nice. It basically tastes like what they said it tastes like, chilies and water, but it's awesome because whenever I eat something fatty, I need something spicy to balance it out, and this, this is really good. I might, I might have to come up with a recipe for this. Next, I gotta try the lao lao. The lao lao is Kahlua pig, and what looks like fatty Kahlua pig, cooked inside the taro leaves, cooked inside the tea leaves, and of course the tea leaves are not edible, but you can definitely eat the taro leaves, and after it's cooked, the taro leaves kind of looks like, looks like spinach. Wow. My mouth, my mouth is watering after that first sniff. It smells like pork belly and sauteed spinach. Oh wow. I feel like each different food item I'm trying here just keeps getting better and better. Like I said, the taro leaves, they taste like spinach right now. And the leaves, oh my gosh. And the leaves are so delicious because the pig is cooked inside it, so all the nice fatty juices have soaked into the leaves, and holy wow. When you bite it, it goes into your mouth, and the whole thing collapses, because the leaves melt, because that's so tender, the pork melts, because it's cooked in heaven, and the whole thing just does this delicious, harmonious dance in your mouth. I don't want this to get cold, and this looks so absolutely delicious. This is, um, this is the butterfish. Now, butterfish is not a fish. I was kind of confused, that's why I asked them. I'm like, what's a butterfish? This is actually black cod, and what looks like they did here, they fried the fish. Let's give this a try. Wow, holy cow. If all fried fish could be like you, could strive to be as good as you, could one day see you as the way they should be, then the world will be a better place, because this, perfectly crunchy on the outside, yet beautifully, beautifully tender on the inside. It's salty, but it is the perfect type of salty. It's like, it's salt added to the perfect degree, and you get this. And the whole thing, I think the whole thing is edible. Even the bones, it's like a little fish cracker. Oh my god. Seriously, just put this whole thing in your mouth. It's like you're eating a tender piece of fish, a fish jerky, and a fish cracker at the same time. That's unbelievable. If you guys ever want a piece of fish with the bones attached, melt inside your mouth, come here and try this fish. And now I see why they call this butterfish, because yeah, it literally melts like butter in your mouth. I'm gonna try this with the poi. I'm really trying to give this a chance here. I'm at loss of words with how good this is. Actually, whoa, this tastes really good with the poi. You know what? I'm kind of really getting to like this poi thing. Next is something I heard was really good. This is called chicken long rice. I don't, I don't see any rice. I see like, what looks like glass noodles and little bits of chicken. I don't know what to expect from this, but give this a shot. Okay, it's kind of like a less liquidy chicken noodle soup. It's got lots of ginger in here. Chicken is nice and tender. I like this. You know what? I feel like this is a good complement dish. Next, let's try the luau squid. This is squid cooked in taro leaves, and it's different because it's not cooked inside taro leaves. It's cooked with the taro leaves, so it kind of has a consistency of a cream of spinach. Okay. Oh, you know what? The taro flavor comes out very strong in this dish. There's taro flavor. Also, there's coconut flavor. So I feel like there's a little bit of coconut milk in there. It's a very soothing dish. I feel like this is just the right amount of savory and sweet where it's just, it's just really soothing. One thing is, I don't really taste the squid in here. But definitely a lot of coconut and definitely the taro leaves. And finally, this is what this place is known for. This is the beef short ribs, pipi kalua style. What they do here is they take these beef short ribs, and they soak it in their sauce. Then they hang it out to dry for about six hours, then it's fried. And I, oh my god, I'm holding in my hand like my, my holy grail. This, this is supposed to be some of the best eating ever. Like, if you look up online reviews, TV shows, everybody raves about this. And I know this, I'm slowly building this up in my head, and I'm, I can't help it. I got such high expectations for this. So here it goes, my first piece. Oh my god. Holy mother. You know what this tastes like? It tastes like a combination of Korean galbi and jerky. And somehow it's got this, such a beautiful, smoky flavor. And when I was holding this, I thought this was gonna be kind of tough. But you guys, take a look at this. I'm squeezing this a little bit, and all the juice, see all the juice coming out of this? I will miss this for the rest of my life. Wherever I go, whatever I eat will now be compared to this. I could eat this all day long. Let me ask you guys, you know instant replay in sports? Well, this is a instant eating replay. And what that means is, I ordered my favorite items from this place, and I'm gonna eat them all again. Also, what they said to do was eat the piki kalua with some onions, um, dipped in Himalayan salt. There's really no wrong way to eat this. And the fried butterfish. Here you go guys. Oh, kalua pork! I missed you in the last ten minutes that we've been apart. Wow. These are my favorite things ever. I wish I could take these home with me. I'm being honest with you guys. I travel to eat, and flying all the way to Hawaii just to eat these three things is well worth the trip. Alright, I've been talking too much. I need to go eat this, so I'm gonna go pig out. If you come to Hawaii, definitely check this place out. I have all their information in the description box. Thank you all so much for watching. Aloha.