Almost Kay's Lunch Center: Fried Sesame Chicken

Perhaps it was blog reader BrendaC who is responsible for my wave of nostalgia.  Perhaps it could have been triggered by Kikukat Dad who said he had dinner at Restaurant Kenichi.  Perhaps I equate the Super Bowl with partying.  I don't know.  But whatever it was, I've been bitten by the nostalgia bug.

If you spent some time in Hilo during the 1990s and the first decade of the 21st century, you likely had a meal at Kay's Lunch Center (today the location is occupied by Restaurant Kenichi).  Kay's Lunch Center served local, Japanese, and Korean foods.  They were best known for two things:  fried chicken and blueberry cream cheese pie.

The blueberry cream cheese pie was alright.  I'm really not a fan of that kind of thing.  I am usually put off by the icky gooey goop of canned pie filling.  And the cream cheese layer in a round pie just seemed too thick for the amount of topping.  You can have all the blueberry cream cheese pie you want.  I will pass.

It was the fried chicken that brought me back to Kay's Lunch Center time and time again.  Sometimes I would eat-in, but many times, I did the take-out...chicken in the cardboard box with the pointy lid.  I loved the mild shoyu-sugar flavor and the random sesame seeds strewn on the coating. 

Kay's Lunch Center closed up a few years ago.  As I was watching the Super Bowl yesterday, I couldn't help but think about all the parties missing the cardboard box with Kay's Lunch Center chicken.  I know I was missing it, especially since the Seahawks lost (No, I am not much of a Seahawks fan, but having lived in Seattle, I feel a little guilty if I don't cheer for them if they are not playing a team I like more).  So if you are like me and have a hankering for Kay's Lunch Center fried chicken, you can go ahead and make your own. 

Now I realize there are two divergent methods one might try for making the chicken.  I've seen recipes which call for flouring and frying the chicken and then dipping it into a sauce.  I call that "Korean Chicken", and I will share the recipe in a separate post.  But I never noticed any green onion bits on the Kay's version; I only noticed sesame seeds.  My method for making the Kay's Lunch Center chicken calls for marinating the chicken overnight and then frying it.  It seems to be less messy and more straightforward than the alternate method.

And if you happen to have leftover fried chicken, you can do what Kay's Lunch Center did. . .pull all the meat off the bones and use it to top a salad.   Mmmmmm.  

click on recipe title for printable recipe

Fried Sesame Chicken

     5 lbs chicken wings

     1 c cornstarch

     1/2 c flour

     1/2 c sugar

     1 tsp salt

     6 tbsp shoyu

     2 tsp oyster sauce

     4 eggs

     4 stalks green onion, thinly sliced (optional)

     2 garlic cloves, minced

     4 tbsp sesame seeds

Cut each chicken wing into 3 pieces (tip, flat, drummette).  Discard tips or save for stock.  Combine remaining ingredients and place in a ziploc bag.  Add chicken pieces.  Turn bag to coat evenly.  Allow to marinate overnight.  Deep fry wings until golden brown.

Kay's Ono Spaghetti

birthday girl

Before I start bitching about my weekend, I'd like to wish D1 a happy birthday.  Somehow, she manages to do well for the 7-hours of each  weekday known as "school", but ask her what animals you'd expect to see in Alaska and your head will start spinning with the answer.  She drives me mental, but I love her dearly.  The full day of labor and years of recovery (still recovering!) she put me through was worth it.  I'd also like to wish happy birthday to Aunty Betty (of corned beef hash fame), who shares the same birthday as D1.  They are indeed two of a kind.

I worked hard this weekend trying to avoid the Christmas crowds.  While some people know me as a "shopper", the truth is, I find crowds daunting.  I'd rather spend a few more $ to shop on the internet (in the privacy of my own home, sitting in a comfy chair, sipping a Coco Rico) than brave the awful crowds at PKP, WalMart & Target; unlike me, D1 went shopping on Black Friday and came home with an armload of gifts.  Unlike D1 and sadly for those on my gift list, most of the internet shopping I accomplished was for myself. . .pffftttthh.  Maybe I'll be up to braving the crowds next week.

I've also been doing some intense research on a dish called "Hainanese Chicken Rice", which is supposed to be THE unofficial national dish of Singapore (introduced by, who else, the Chinese).  But I'm trying to avoid going to the market now.  The KTA Puainako parking lot is nuts, especially with the cordoned-off area for Christmas trees.  For the moment, meals need to be planned around what we have on hand.  Spaghetti happens to be one of those meals.

This is one of those recipes where you begin to wonder why I'd post a recipe for spaghetti.  And you would not be alone.  For most of my life, spaghetti was something you made at 5:00 pm, when you ran out of other ideas.  It was as simple as browning a tray of ground beef and adding a jar or can of spaghetti sauce.  I'm not sure why I decided to change things up a bit, but I did.  I came across a recipe for spaghetti sauce and thought I'd give it a shot.  It seemed simple enough and it was made with ingredients I usually have on hand.  I wasn't prepared for what I started.

The first time I made the recipe, I loved it from the first bite.  The kids said it was "okay", but ate at least 2 bowls of noodles with just the sauce.  No meat.  Just sauce and noodles.  Then came the grumbling about how there wasn't enough sauce.  So with a bunch of adjustments, I fixed the recipe to the point where the taste was pretty much the same as the original recipe, but there was more of the savory sauce for the sauce-only eaters. 

That was years ago.  Since then, I've made this recipe for occasions from large family dinners to birthday parties.  Cousin LA (a fantastic baker who can make all the cookies in the Martha Stewart cookie cookbook look better than the pictures in the book), requested the recipe.  Wow!  In fact, the grumbler of grumblers, Dad, actually asked Mom to call me to get the recipe for "Kay's Ono Spaghetti" so she could make it for him instead of the jar sauce du jour she had planned to use.  This request did not go over well, and he ended up eating spaghetti made with jar sauce.  Poor Dad.
Oh, crap!  Garlic bread is a MUST when eating spaghetti.  I guess someone will be going to the market after all!

click on recipe title for printable recipe
Kay's Ono Spaghetti

     1 lb ground beef

     4 slices bacon, chopped*

     1 c Portuguese sausage, diced

     16 oz tomato sauce

     1 can (4 oz) mushroom pieces, drained

     2 c catsup

     1/2 c chopped celery

     1/8 tsp black pepper

     1/2 tsp dried oregano leaves

     1 1/2 tsp garlic salt

     2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce

     a dash of chili powder

Brown all meats.  Drain fat.  Add rest of ingredients and simmer for 45 minutes.  Makes enough sauce for 1 lb of pasta.

*You may also used 4 tbsp of pre-cooked bacon bits.  If you do this, give it a few good pulses in the food processor to break up large chunks.