Monday, July 7, 2008

Restaurant Review: L&L Hawaiian Barbecue

By Donna Chen of Donna Cooks

Exterior of L&L Hawaiian Barbecue

In your typical foodie world, adventurous eating is the equivalent of building your foodie resume. For carnivorous American foodies, this often means exploring tasty animals/animal parts that are exotic and, well, not white-meat chicken. Growing your dining "experience" means embracing an "I’ll try anything once" attitude and watching your dining companions cringe as you consume something right out of the pages of Fergus Henderson's The Whole Beast: Nose to Tail Eating or an episode of Andrew Zimmern's Bizarre Foods (guilty confession: I am personally not a huge fan of offal or Andrew Zimmern). But as mainland USA foodies continue to embrace sweetbreads and thousand-year eggs, one protein that remains unloved is the infamous, "eat only in case of natural disasters and extreme food shortages," mystery-meat Spam.

The canned, processed wonder is the butt of countless foodie jokes. Residents of Austin have gone as far as hosting an annual April Fool's spoof festival with a Spam cookoff challenge, "who can make Spam edible!?!?" In fact, I’m pretty sure simultaneously having Velveeta and Spam present in your pantry permanently disqualifies you as a foodie in mainland USA (I am almost 100% sure that my pantry has never had both of these items present at the same time… uh huh).

As mainland foodies eat Velveeta mac and fried Spam and egg sandwiches in the privacy of their own homes in fear of judgment, residents of Hawaii continue their public love affair with Spam that started during World War II. Spam is so popular in Hawaii that it's served at McDonald's, and since 2007, also at Burger King. In 1999, L&L Hawaiian Barbecue (open in Hawaii since 1976) brought the love of Spam in forms of musubi, saimin, grilled and topped with egg, along with other Hawaiian BBQ specialties to the mainland via California. In mid-March this year, Texas gained its very first L&L location in Lewisville.

The famous Spam musubi at L&L Hawaiian Barbecue

L&L offers counter service with affordable plate lunch options, all under $10 and with choice of mains like BBQ (chicken, beef, and short rib), fried seafood (mahi mahi and shrimp), pork (lau lau and kalua), chicken katsu, and loco moco. A la carte items like Spam musubi and shrimp tacos are also available. In addition to the slew of Hawaiian specialties, this Texas location also features more familiar "Texan" items like pulled pork and BBQ chicken sandwiches, cole slaw, baked beans, mashed potatoes, etc. In short, there’s something on the menu for everyone in the family.

On our first visit, we started off with the famous Spam musubi ($1.75). A slice of grilled Spam smeared in a teriyaki-like sauce atop a chunk of white rice, all wrapped in nori. The whole thing was too big to eat easily (a little too much rice?). Grilled Spam has a completely different taste than uncooked, cold Spam and is actually tasty with the sweet-ish sauce.

BBQ Combo Plate ($7.95) is like a typical plate lunch, with two scoops of steamed white rice and one scoop of passable macaroni salad. It’s a heaping pile of grilled meats that could easily feed two. Teriyaki grilled beef and chicken didn’t bring anything new to mainland tastebuds. The only standout in this combo was the short ribs, thinly sliced so that upon grilling, the fatty trim gained a crunchy outer exterior that exploded with richness when bitten into.

Pork Lau Lau and Kalua Pork at L&L Hawaiian Barbecue

Pork Lau Lau and Kalua Pork ($8.25). The kalua pork with cabbage was a little salty on its own, but mixed in nicely with the steamed white rice. The dark ball of mystery in the upper left hand corner of the photo is pork lau lau, pork roast wrapped in taro leaf. The taro leaves added an element of exoticness for mainland tastebuds and gave the pork a subtle smokiness. The texture was that of a southern BBQ pulled pork shoulder but more moist. The wilted taro leaves tasted like cooked spinach but were much denser and mushier. The taro leaves, when eaten by themselves, almost had the consistency of dense mashed potatoes. This little bundle of mystery turned out to be my favorite item of the day.

A few weeks later, I returned for a quick bite in the form of two mahi mahi tacos ($2.75 each). The mahi mahi was nicely seasoned with a perfect golden batter. However, the cabbage slaw inside the taco was too dry and the tortillas tasted like they’ve been sitting out of the package for too long.

With its fast counter service and slightly exotic cuisine, L&L Hawaiian Barbecue is a great addition to the suburban Lewisville dining scene. With affordable prices and an expansive menu, the restaurant is perfect for families looking for a quick bite but don’t want to resort to fast food. And if you’re ever craving hamburger patties topped with brown gravy and fried eggs or just a simple slab of grilled Spam, L&L might be the only place in the area that can satisfy that fix. Spam-lovers, here’s your chance to show some public affection.

Pegasus News content partner - Donna Cooks

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Comments

Scott Doyle Verified

Grilled Spam has a completely different taste than uncooked, cold Spam and is actually tasty with the sweet-ish sauce.

I refuse to believe this.

3 months, 1 week ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )

bobdon000 Anonymous

How much more hype can one place get?

I have seen reviews of this place all over the dallas food blogs. Can't we get some more original stuff reviewed?

And what is it with Donna Cooks. Her web site is more like Donna Doesn't Cook, but travels, eats out, and talks about other peoples cooking.

3 months, 1 week ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )

Billusa99 Anonymous

"The taro leaves added an element of exoticness for mainland tastebuds..." ... "[The] Wilted taro leaves tasted like cooked spinach but were much denser and mushier."

Yea, exotic... like bayou algae in Natchitoches in July. Makes us all want to really go there soon.

3 months, 1 week ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )