Last year I went to Hawaii for my first time ever! I was happy to be with a lot of my family members and finding a restaurant for a bigger group can be a challenge. We managed to stumble across a really cool brunch spot in Kihei that had outdoor seating. They were famous for their cinnamon buns but I opted for trying another dish that I had heard about (and of course stole a couple bites from a cinnamon bun someone else in the family ordered).
Loco Moco doesn’t look like much. But wow, after eating it I was left thinking why this isn’t on more brunch menus in Canada. The basic building blocks of this dish are a hamburger patty, white rice, brown gravy and a fried egg. It was the perfect combination of salty, meaty, cream; almost like a breakfast poutine but on rice. I’ve never put gravy on rice before but it makes so much sense!
So for my rendition, I ground a patty of 50/50 chuck roast and short ribs, good amount of fat content and seasoned very simply with salt and pepper. I steamed jasmine rice and cooked a sunnyside up egg and garnished the dish with scallions. Where I added my own flair to it was with the roasted cabbage and type of gravy. I cooked a wedge of cabbage in the oven with some oil and salt until it was brown and sweet. This complimented the rest of the dish because nothing else was sweet. Lastly, I made a brown gravy with mushrooms instead of just straight beef stock. You could make any type of gravy you like here but I love the umami kick of mushrooms in gravy so I went that route.
I can’t wait to make this again. Bon appetit simmerlings!
-TSP
The Simmering Pot 