Jeramiah’s Island Fusion brings Chamorro-Cali cooking to Hawaii
HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) – The family behind Jeramiah’s Island Fusion joined HNN’s Sunrise Weekends to showcase their unique Chamorro fusion specialties and island-style grindz with flavors from Guam and California.
Brothers Jeremy and Albert Quenga started the family food business in Northern California about 20 years ago based on recipes from their parents and brought it to Honolulu in 2019. Also helping with the business — Jeremy’s children Tasi, Kekoa and Keala, friend Sage and grandparents Darlyn and Daryl.
They are a regular vendor at the “What the Truck?” event at Waikele Center, 94-849 Lumiaina St. in Waipahu, every third Friday from 4 – 8 pm To find out where to find them next, follow @jeramiahs.island.fusion on IG.
They prepared barbecue steak, pork belly and chicken for their signature “Trust Me” and “Fiesta” plates, served with their signature red rice, picked daikon and elote corn.
They also made Spam kelaguen, Guam’s version of ceviche made with a pickling marinade of lemon juice, coconut, green onions, salt and spicy hot peppers or donni, which they’ll serve at Spam Jam Waikiki street festival
How to Make Pakistani Food at Home
Pakistani cuisine is all about layering flavors. Over centuries, home cooks have used spices and techniques instinctively, each responding to generational gustatory coding honed and passed down by the matriarchs. Consider the biryani, in which translucent slices of lemon and fine slivers of sharp green chiles are layered with rice and meat curry and trapped steam is used to infuse brightness and heat through the heat, or large pot. It is much an art as a skill to draw the spice from the meat curry and cut it with the fragrance of citrus without one canceling out the other.
Learning how to do this, of course, takes both time and practice. So if you’re a Pakistani-cooking novice, “I’d recommend getting familiar with the food” first, says Sahar Siddiqi, the chef at Atlanta’s Chai Pani and a 2023 James Beard Award semifinalist. “Go out and find a Pakistani restaurant and order a bunch of food, even things you wouldn’t normally eat. This is the only way to feel comfortable with the flavor profiles.”
Because of the intuitiveness involved, Pakistani cooking can be intimidating for the uninitiated, but once you’re ready to ditch the takeout and start experimenting, a few simple spices