On today's edition of Grandpa Gotta Eat, we answer the age old question...
...just how loco is your moco?
[Cue theme music.]
Loco Moco—I barely had enough time to take this picture before my wife literally attacked it.
The Setup
If you've ever traveled to the Hawaiian Islands, or ventured into a Hawaiian style restaurant, there's a good chance you've seen something called Loco Moco on the menu.
At it's core, Loco Moco is simplicity itself. White rice, hamburger patty, brown gravy and a fried to order egg. There are plenty of variations, mainly the meat, but this is the original way to prepare Loco Moco.
I first encountered it at a restaurant in Honolulu, on a slow night around 8 pm or so. My wife and I had been wandering around, I was hungry, she not so much, and we couldn't really decide on where or what to eat. Finally, I just said, "We're going in there!" and I walked through the door. The rest is history.
Now as simple as Loco Moco might be, I believe it is an acquired taste. Not all Loco Mocos, like other dishes, are created equal, either. The one I had in Honolulu was pretty good, but very salty. I don't mind salt. I just don't like how food tastes if there's too much on it. If it seems like I've just ran my tongue over a mile of the Bonneville Salt Flats, there's a problem.
While I enjoyed the meal, the salt kind of turned me off, and so on subsequent trips to the islands, I tried other fare.
Since then, there's been a couple of Hawaiian places relatively close to home I've tried, but none had Loco Moco on the menu.
Until last night.
The Rundown
A small cafe in a small town not too far from us actually serves a mixture of American and Hawaiian Food. My son heard of it from someone, and wanted to try it for their wedding anniversary. He and his wife invited us to have some too.
While they got Teriyaki Steak and my wife got Chicken Tenders (go figure), I decided I'd try their version of Loco Moco.
The size was large (they had a small for $2 less, which I didn't know about or that would have been ordered instead), and it weighed quite a bit. Those who have read a recent pizza review will know I was surprised and quite impressed by the weight of a Seafood and Veggie pizza I ate. Well, equally impressive was the weight of the Loco Moco container, especially when compared to the rest.
When I opened it up, I found out why. Quite a bit of rice, with a thick hamburger patty, generous amounts of brown gravy with mushrooms, and two fried eggs, over easy.
My wife, who had ordered the Chicken Tenders, found them lacking (to be fair, they looked very dry), and started to eat my food. She immediately started to rave about how good it was, and wouldn't stop eating it.
After quite a few bites, she finally did back off. The main problem was, she was using my fork to do it, so I couldn't continue eating around her.
In the end, there was just the right amount of meat, gravy and egg, but the rice was a little too much. Less rice would have been just fine.
Fun Facts
Now, I've tried to find out if Loco Moco means anything in Hawaiian. It doesn't seem to translate. If you read the history, which isn't conclusive, the first Loco Moco was served in 1949 at a restaurant on Hilo, Hawaii as a special order plate. The dish was subsequently named after a friend and patron of the restaurant owners, who had a nickname—Crazy.
As the story goes, the friend was studying Spanish at the time and suggested they use the term Loco for Crazy instead. The Moco part of it apparently came because it rhymes with Loco. However, any Spanish-speaker will tell you that Moco isn't necessarily the most appetizing choice to pair with Loco, since it means mucus, and is often understood as booger. In other words, Loco Moco in Spanish translates to Crazy Booger.
In my mind, it doesn't look or taste crazy or like a booger, but that's just me.
Did I Like This Version?
It was good, but the gravy could have used something. Not sure what, but it wasn't that flavorful, even with the mushrooms. Maybe more mushrooms, or not so much a plain brown gravy as a mushroom gravy would do the trick. At any rate, I liked it, and it wasn't super salty, either.
I will probably order it again sometime in the future. I won't be running back tonight, though. Might want to try some other things, first, though the kids weren't exactly overwhelmed with their meals, which seemed to be lacking in portion size and perhaps variety.
Everyone's meal except for my wife's came with Hawaiian Macaroni Salad, which was good, too (not too peppery, which tends to be the case elsewhere), it was just served in a cup you normally get dipping sauce or salad dressing in. So, there could have been more. By the time I was done with the rice, though, I was probably over full.
Signing Off
Well, that does it for this week's edition of Grandpa Gotta Eat. I hope you liked it as much as I had fun writing it. Especially the crazy booger part. That needs to be a freewrite word prompt.
This Saturday, we're out to Olive Garden for my youngest son's birthday, so I'll get out of cooking again, but maybe if I eat something I haven't tried before, I'll tell you about it. You never know what I'm going to do, because I don't know what I'm going to do.
Until then...
Enjoy!
Image courtesy of Glen Anthony Albrethsen
Grandpa Gotta Eat is published in conjunction with Food Fight Friday, a weekly contest and community gathering of food lovers. If you'd like to participate, simply use the fff tag, write about food, post on a Friday (wherever you are) and then check out other entries in the tag, since you might want to upvote, comment and help pick the week's winner.