Chinatown

At the urging of a friend, Hubby and I decided to head to Chinatown in search of Mr. Zong Chen Liu, a Chinese artisan who specializes in Chinese calligraphy and brush painting, stamp carving, and a plethora of other signage and picture mounting services. We wanted to create a stone stamp custom-carved with our family name as an heirloom.

“You better go see him soon before da buggah ma-ke,” Keith told us, he got a stamp carved by Mr. Liu a number of years ago. Mr. Liu is a rare find, very skilled in his art. People have been known to come from Japan and abroad to have him carve a stamp with their name in tensho (seal script) style of kanji.

Excerpted from Takase Studios’ glossary:

Tensho (Seal Script) is the earliest form of Chinese characters that goes back to the Qin Dynasty (221BC – 206BC). The tensho script uses a single stroke width, are roughly rectangular with a height to width ratio of three to two and has a feeling of expressionless refinement. Today tensho script is used for seals that the Chinese and the Japanese use instead of a signature (these are the red stamps that appear on Chinese and Japanese art and in everything from legal forms to routine business documents).

We selected a medium-sized stone with a Chinese fu dog carved into the top of the stamp. The stone cost $90 and the custom carving was $40. $130 to create a custom-made family heirloom didn’t seem like too much to ask. The selection of stone blanks ran the gamut in pricing, from a small stone with your zodiac animal for $45, to large, ornately carved pieces that I was afraid to ask the pricing on, lest he try to persuade us to buy. Mr. Liu said it was a busy week for him, so our stamp should be ready sometime next week. We told him we would pick it up next Saturday and he assured us that it would be ready by then.

While in Chinatown, we decided that some dim sum was in order. Last night, I queried the Twitterverse for dim sum suggestions. Ryan Ozawa suggested Mei Sum which is on the corner of Smith and N. Pauahi, just a stone’s throw away from Char Hung Sut — which was also on our hit list for the day.

Admittedly, I cannot claim to be a connoisseur of Chinese cuisine, usually staying well within the realms of the common dim sum fare such as char siu bao, siu mai, fried taro, custard tarts, and the like. I definitely need to have lunch with someone well-versed in Chinese cookery so I can expand my dim sum repertoire. Nevertheless, despite the poor marks given by Ono Kine Grindz, who undoubtedly has a much more refined and educated palate than my own, I thought the food was quite good. Judging by the teeming lunch crowd that we narrowly missed, you’d think the place was giving away free food.

Chicken Manapua

Deep Fried Taro

Deep Fried Eggplant

Char Siu Bao

We also had the house specialty noodles, which I failed to photograph. It had a colorful assortment of seafood and vegetables topping the thin and slightly crispy noodles. Yum! Perhaps my favorites of the visit were the eggplant and the taro dishes. It figures that the two items that were deep fried would be the tastiest. The sad fact is that deep frying makes just about anything taste magically delicious.

A lunch for two and we managed to escape with a bill of less than $20 and obscenely full stomachs.

But, we had one more stop to make: Char Hung Sut for manapua, pork hash and ma tai soo.

Char Hung Sut is one of Chinatown’s most beloved establishments. A local favorite for manapua, pork hash, rice cakes, taro cakes, pepeiao, and my favorite ma tai soo. I haven’t found anyplace else that makes this delectable snack, so it’s a rare treat for me! Unfortunately, I was too enraptured by the experience that I failed to photograph our purchase. But, Ono Kine Grindz has an awesome review on Char Hung Sut that you simply must read if you’re a fan of good local fare.

In case you’re interested, here’s the info for the establishments that I mentioned in today’s entry:

Zong Chen Liu, Artist
Specializing in: Chinese calligraphy, Chinese brush painting, stamp carving, paper cutting, Chinese & English business signs, picture mounting and framing.
111 North King Street, Honolulu
Ph. 808.222-0292
* Next to the Bank of Hawaii, Chinatown branch. Look for the red and gold dragon columns. His small shop is in the corridor right next door, but he can often be found sitting at a table right outside selling Chinese calligraphy, jade zodiac charms, and trinkets.

Mei Sum dim sum restaurant
65 North Pauahi Street Suite A, Honolulu
Ph. 808.531.3268
* On the corner of Smith and N. Pauahi

Char Hung Sut
64 North Pauahi Street, Honolulu
Ph. 808.538.3355
* Go early for best selection, they close at 2 pm.

[tags]Chinatown, Chinese cuisine, dim sum, Char Hung Sut, Mei Sum, stamps, chops, stamp carving, Honolulu, Hawaii, culture, heritage[/tags]