‘Braddah’ Timmy Hunt is putting an innovative spin on Hawaiian food at Pono, while keeping traditional staples.
Two years ago, “Braddah” Timmy Hunt, former co-owner of Aloha Island Grill, opened Pono Hawaiian Grill with the intention of offering authentic Hawaiian cuisine, but in a way that was healthier and uniquely creative. We chatted with Hunt about his restaurant, his special poke bowls and what makes Hawaiian food authentic.
SCW: What do you do to keep your food authentically Hawaiian, while still aiming to make it healthier?
BRADDAH: If you were to go to a traditional place in Hawaii right now that’s been there for at least 10 years, you would find it would be a lot of carbs—very heavy, greasy, unhealthy. Hawaii has very much been changing with all the diabetes that’s been going on over there, all the people that have been gluten intolerant, but didn’t know it. We’ve taken all of those things into account. We have a big melting pot of people and cultures. People started to realize, we can actually create a style, if you will, called mixed plate. It’s the availability of having each culture’s food. So our spin on it is still very traditional. We have all the staples. But we round it out by having creative salads, poke bowls, wraps. We would be taking something like chicken katsu or the chicken teriyaki, and utilizing those ingredients in a lighter style, like organic rice or fresh greens in a wrap, or seaweed salad instead of the macaroni salad. It’s pretty limitless, what we’re able to do.
Your poke bar (and poke bowls) are really popular. What is poke?
It would be like a Hawaiian-style sashimi. Poke in the Hawaiian language essentially means to slice, cut or cube. The misconception is people think it’s just ahi tuna, and it’s not. Anything can be turned into poke. Tofu can be used as poke. Salmon, scallops. Historically, Hawaiian poke, they utilized the ingredients that they had on hand when they pulled the fish from the ocean. They would cube their fish, and they would add something called inamona which comes from the kukui nut, which was almost like a salty seasoning. They would also use a Hawaiian salt. Then they would take limu, which is different types of seaweed that grew in areas, and they would mix all of those ingredients together.
What’s the dish on your menu that most reminds you of home?
Lau Lau is something that always brings me back home, because Lau Lau was something you couldn’t get very often. It was made in smaller batches. It was something they had just on Sundays. It’s a traditional Hawaiian dish that is wrapped in seaweed and taro leaf. It’s slow cooked for about 5-6 hours. You open it up and there’s spinach inside there. You eat the spinach and it has pork shoulder. It is to die for.
