The Hamburger Steak Hullabaloo took place on April 5, 2008. We put 8 hamburger steaks, from some of the so-called best places, through a WOW Grinds blind taste test. The results shocked me. My two favorites ended up ranking toward the bottom. Please note that scoring for this taste off was based on 3 weighted criteria: Taste worth 50%...Texture worth 30%...Presentation worth 20%.
The Manapua Madness took place on September 20, 2008. Six ancient masters of steamed manapua dualed to the death in a WOW Grinds Blind Taste Test. Who's Kung Fu was the strongest? The results and rankings are coming soon.
Just for fun. We made a short video montage to pay homage to some of the places who came out on top in the blind taste tests. Thanks for cooking up some ono grinds.
Last minute kine, we decided to do a small challenge at my house. Sorry, we couldn't invite everybody that usually judge. Poho my house too small...no can fit everybody.
The Malasada Melee will take place on Sunday, 12/7/2008. Agnes's Portuguese Bake Shop, Champion Malasadas and Leonard's Malasadas will battle it out in a WOW Grinds Blind Taste Test.
Who you think should win? Vote for you favorite malasada in the poll in the left sidebar. We curious to see if the blind judges will agree with your votes. If you think we should include another malasada competitor, leave a comment and we'll try our best to include them.
After The Kalbi Kong, we had plenty fun discussing the results and other kalbi related stuffs. Here are some of the comments and thoughts from judges, family and friends relating to The Kong.
One judge said, "I didn't have a good idea of what true kalbi really is." So what is true kalbi? Is the kalbi from Korean sit-down restaurants like Sorabol, Choi's Garden, Million, or Shillawon the "true kalbi" or is the kalbi from the little plate lunch places "true kalbi?"
Do the plate lunch places adjust the traditional Korean kalbi recipe to satisfy the taste of local folks who are more used to Japanese style teriyaki sauce? Maybe the kalbi competitors at The Kong was more like teriyaki short ribs rather than traditional Korean kalbi.
Would kalbi in Korea taste different from Kalbi in Hawaii or the mainland? Kinda like how Hawaii teriyaki taste different from teriyaki in Los Angeles and from teriyaki in Japan. What's the difference between kalbi from Korea and Hawaii style kalbi?
Some judges commented a great deal about the quality of the meat in their scoring. Is the meat quality (i.e. thickness, tenderness, fat content) what really matters in kalbi and not so much the marinade? Is the marinade just there to enhance the meat flavor or is the meat a vehicle to taste the marinade?
Many people at The Kong were surprised that Yummy's came in second place ahead of many favorite hole-in-the-wall kalbi spots. Some thought because Yummy's had expanded so widely throughout Oahu, the quality must have declined...similar to some other expansive plate lunch chains. How did Yummy's expand to so many locations but still keep the quality of their food so high?
There was lots of agreement among the judges that Kum Chee had the best meat quality while Young's Kalbee had the best tasting sauce. If the meat from Kum Chee was combined with the sauce from Young's would that be the ultimate kalbi?
How come Kiawe Grill ranked near the bottom? Most were shocked by this because plenty folks enjoy eating their smokey grilled meats. Some of the judges commented that there was some strange spices, maybe 5 spice, in the marinade that threw them off.
The control entry, May's frozen kalbi, came out near the bottom as we predicted showing the results had some level of credibility.
3 out 9 judges picked Kum Chee as their #1 favorite while 4 out 9 picked Yummy's as their #1 favorite. If we ranked the kalbi according to this, then Yummy's would be #1. I guess some judges gave Yummy's lower scores (ranging from 5.4 to 8.3) that pulled down their average score, while Kum Chee got consistently high scores (ranging from 6.3 to 8.2) from all the judges. Our stats guy did a statistical analysis that showed the standard deviation for Kum Chee was pretty low (.75) which shows a fairly strong agreement among the judges scoring. Yummy's standard deviation was slightly higher(1.12) which showed more disagreement among the judge's scores. We might say that Kum Chee's kalbi was appealing to the judge's despite their individual ideas of what kalbi should taste like. If, by chance, our pool of kalbi judges is an accurate representation of local taste in general, then would Kum Chee kalbi be appealing to local folks in general?
