Michael Mohica firmly believes that Hawaiian food goes beyond an eclectic mash up of culinary cultures.  It’s a genre.  “I’m drawing on a tradition of what we call ‘plate lunches’ in Hawaii – a mix of different ethnic foods that includes Asian, Spanish, Filipino, Japanese, and Korean, as well as Polynesian.”

While you might expect most chefs to tell you that they were born to cook, Michael Mohica, the owner of Ono Hawaiian Café, is the few I’ve met who has actually said just that.  “I was raised in a kitchen cooking with my grandmother in Hawaii, and she taught me everything I know about cooking.”  And what he learned, he brings to Ono.  “It’s the things I remember seeing, the flavors I remember, the things I grew up with.  It’s in my heart, in everything I do.”

Michael firmly believes that Hawaiian food goes beyond an eclectic mash up of culinary cultures.  It’s a genre.  “I’m drawing on a tradition of what we call ‘plate lunches’ in Hawaii – a mix of different ethnic foods that includes Asian, Spanish, Filipino, Japanese, and Korean, as well as Polynesian.”  That mix shows up in a number of Ono’s signature dishes.

Let’s start with Michael’s teriyaki steak (courtesy of our very own Snake River Farms), sliced thin and marinated in teriyaki (duh!), quickly grilled and served with coconut infused rice and macaroni salad (a traditional side dish in Hawaii).  Or how about Ono’s chicken katsu, a Hawaiian fusion take on a traditional Japanese dish of breaded chicken breast, deep fried and served with a fruit-based tonkatsu sauce.  And then there’s the kimchee shrimp: Hawaiian shrimp sautéed in Korean pickled cabbage.  Some like it hot.

And all this doesn’t even get into the presentation factor around Michael Mohica’s dishes. Those aren’t tears of joy, brah.  That’s your eyeballs salivating!

If you really want to pick up on what Ono’s is putting down island style, you need to show up on a Friday for a buffet lunch or dinner.  It’s the closest you’ll get to a luau, short of Michael’s backyard.  No surprise here, but the centerpiece is Ono’s kalua pig.  Close your eyes and listen to the gentle sounds of the surf in the background as Michael whispers in your ear, “it’s just as you would find it in someone’s backyard, cooked for 12 to18 hours, seasoned only with salt and pepper.  It’s the smokiness and steam that keeps it moist and flavorful; it falls off the bone.”  Michael, you had me at “slow cooked”.

Along with the star of the show is a supporting cast of other traditional luau favorites: homemade sweet rolls, Filipino lumpia, kalbi (a sweet, spicy Korean fried chicken), seafood dishes with bold Korean sauces, beefsteak steamed in taro leaf, a house salad and tropical fruit salad.  Did I mention dessert?  There’s halpia, a Hawaiian coconut pudding, and pineapple upside down cake, to mention just two (check out the display case at the counter as you walk into the restaurant).

On Friday nights, throw in Hawaiian dancing and the incomparable ukulele stylings of “Uncle Herbs”, and you get a bit of the island ambiance that Michael wants to deliver along with the food.  “I want to create a destination for people who have been to Hawaii and remember how great the flavors are,” says Michael.

In the Hollywood version of the Ono’s Hawaiian Cafe story, Michael Mohica brings his grandmother to Boise to join him once again in the kitchen.  His kitchen.  Reality, however, is less sentimental.  Michael’s grandmother passed away in 2008 – but not before she’d seen photographs of her grandson’s dream come true.  I know she must have been proud.

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Mathieu Choux’s culinary mission since opening Le Café de Paris in 2002 can best be described as challenging his customers’ perceptions of French cuisine. “Traditional French food isn’t flambé, fancy reductions, or rich sauces – it’s really about simplicity and bringing out the maximum flavor of food with minimum waste.”

A man whose last name, translated into English, means “cabbage” can probably be counted on to know something about food. And after seven years of treating the City of Trees to an appreciation of French cuisine gleaned from four generations of restaurateurs from the Burgundy region of France, it’s safe to say that Mathieu Choux (pronounced “shoe”), owner of Le Café de Paris, has lived up to not only his food-related name, but his family legacy as well.

Mathieu’s culinary mission since opening Le Café de Paris in 2002 can best be described as challenging his customers’ perceptions of French cuisine. “Traditional French food isn’t flambé, fancy reductions, or rich sauces – it’s really about simplicity and bringing out the maximum flavor of food with minimum waste.”

Based on this approach, Le Café de Paris follows the model of a French bistro rather than the more “hoity-toity” stereotype that Americans often have of a classic French restaurant. As Mathieu explains, “What I’m trying to do is casual French food. What I do at Café de Paris is mix three things to fit in the same place – a bakery, bar, and a restaurant. We try to do a nice presentation with our food, but it’s not overdone. Good food doesn’t have to be all fancied up.”

Spend a day at Le Café de Paris and you’ll understand what Mathieu means. We could start with a simple breakfast of espresso and a butter sugar crepe (served with fresh fruit and lemon) with a glass of fresh squeezed orange juice. For lunch we might indulge in a croque-monsieur, a sandwich consisting of ham, swiss cheese, and béchamel sauce on fresh-baked country bread. Or we could show a bit more restraint and have a Salade Nicoise: seared tuna with hard-boiled duck egg, avocado, and kalamata olives with a golden balsamic vinaigrette.

You’d be thankful for any restraint you mustered during lunch when you arrive back for dinner. I might suggest starting off with a hors-d’oeuvre of proscuitto-wrapped shrimp with a spinach salad, followed by creamy tomato basil soup (although it’s hard to pass on the classic French onion). I’d throw caution to the wind with my entrée and order the confit d’canard, a pan-fried duck leg with sautéed fingerling potatoes and pan-seared apples – then I’d linger over whatever wine selection Mathieu had suggested with my meal and one of a number of cheeses on the menu.

As for its legendary pastries and baked goods, let’s just save that for another Behind the Menu installment, shall we? I’ll simply leave you with three words: tarte aux pommes. Sure, you might know it as “apple pie”, but like everything else on the menu at Les Café de Paris, come prepared to redefine your perceptions about great food.

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The first order of business for Bob Dempsey and Lisa Kugel was to return the Moon’s menu back to its roots as a “comfort food headquarters” for breakfast and lunch – and this menu would have to be based on “home scratch cooking”.

Derrick Meyer remembers going to Moon’s Gun and Tackle Shop as a boy, back in the days when local hunters would stock up on supplies before heading out in search of wild game.  While his dad bought ammo down in the basement of the old Bannock Street location, Derrick would have breakfast in the back of the sporting goods store; or even better, one of the milkshakes that Martha Moon made famous.  Decades later, Derrick still loves the food at Moon’s.  But then, he should.  He’s the head chef.

There have been only a handful of owners of the restaurant that since 1955 has served a cross section of downtown denizens ranging from sportsmen to legislators to skateboarders; but its most recent proprietors, Bob Dempsey and wife Lisa Kugel, are determined that even though their historic café has since changed its downtown address, its menu and place in the community will return to their former glory.

Originally, Moon’s just served breakfast to what was already a “captive audience” of hunters and fisher folk.  It was Martha Moon-Nelson, the daughter of founders Bernie and Cecelia Moon, who first installed the breakfast counter at the sporting goods store as a way of bringing in a little extra income for her and her family.  In time the café extended its hours to include lunch, and it soon became a favorite haunt of Idaho legislators, both because of its proximity to the Statehouse and the quality of its grub.

The current menu at Moon’s Café is a combination of breakfast and lunch traditions and “new stuff”.  Breakfast classics include “manhole size” pancakes, homemade buttermilk biscuits and gravy, and a wide variety of omelets – all of which redefine the term “large portions”.

The first order of business for Bob and Lisa was to return the Moon’s menu back to its roots as a “comfort food headquarters” for breakfast and lunch – and this menu would have to be based on “home scratch cooking”.  “We go through sacks of flour in making our own pancake and biscuit batter,” says Bob.  “We roast our own meats and chop our own vegetables – hardly anything is pre-made.”

The current menu at Moon’s Café is a combination of breakfast and lunch traditions and “new stuff”.  Breakfast classics include “manhole size” pancakes, homemade buttermilk biscuits and gravy, and a wide variety of omelets – all of which redefine the term “large portions”.  Derrick Meyer takes particular pride in the quality of his hollandaise sauce, and recommends the spicy version that adorns his spicy chicken benedict (two strips of bacon, chicken breast, and a Siracha hot sauce-infused hollandaise).

And if you think you know from corned beef hash, think again.  There’s a reason Bob calls the Moon’s version a “signature dish”.  “It’s a steamy, cheesy, meaty, gooey pile of goodness – all natural and fresh.  It’s great stuff.”  Comfort food is also the order of the day on Moon’s lunch menu, which includes hot beef and hot turkey sandwiches with mashed potatoes and gravy.  Signature lunch dishes include the Colossal Rueben (imagine an extra layer of turkey breast) and a Mile High Club that Bob describes as “three sandwiches in one”.  And of course, there is the Moon Burger and the “world famous milkshakes” from Derrick’s boyhood.

Moon’s culinary mission recently received an endorsement more meaningful than any four star review: the blessing of Martha Moon, who not long ago stopped by to take stock of the latest incarnation of the restaurant that still bears her name.  Lisa was pleased to report, “she was really happy to see that we had taken over the place and were doing what we were with the menu, which was back to what she had originally done.”  For a piece of Boise’s culinary history, that’s mighty high praise indeed.