Great Classic Eats, Vol 1
Of all the drive ins the now Ubiquitous L & L brand name has prospered over the years, and with good reason, the one over in pucks alley was the one for us during our Lokelani and Wainani days. We would go solo, zipping on our mopeds or as a group, walking down into the quarry and past the swimming pool and J hall. Everyone had a favorite, rarely changed, mine was the chicken cutlet mini plate or regular if extra hungry. There was never any let down, just the great food at great prices. In Wainani where we had to cook for ourselves, I would go to L & L two or three times a week, they had a points card where ten meals got you one free. Getting a Chicken Cutlet Mini Plate to go, I would zip off on the ped back to the Apartment where extra rice was waiting in the rice cooker, I could eat about half of the plate for lunch, half for dinner.
Later in life when I was feeling more flush with money (haha) I would splurge for the seafood combo with shrimp, fish and teri beef, it was huge. Recently I had layovers at the Ala Moana Hotel, where I could go to the L & Ls next to the Foodland Downstairs. Ahhh Chicken Cutlet with the gravy and some hot sauce, pepper on the mac salad and shoyu on the rice. Still ono. In the Bayrea, there are some copycat places called Hawaiian Drive In where legend has it some cooks from L & Ls in Hawaii came up here with the recipes and pretty much re-created the classic lineup. Yas and I go infrequently as a way to get a quick Hawaii fix.

Sidebar: Didja ever notice there are certain foods which make or break fast food places? for McDs its french frys, for do you wanna go and fry potatoes in hot oil for yourself at home? for most local plate lunch places, its the mac salad, for you could make some on your own, but save a picnic or potluck when are you going to be able to eat all that you've made? yes, the mac salad is the make or break point of a good plp, only the best places fit the right mayo to noodle ratio. oh and L & L has an outstanding mac salad...

that's it for this blog, add your own fellow bloggers: Pat and Steve, Mamma Mia's and Sanoyas await your comments, Dave, a remembrance of Kengo's would be great...
- posted by brent @ 12:32 PM