PCC’s Pounders restaurant redefines dining in Laie
Pounders, our Hukilau Marketplace restaurant named after a nearby bodysurfing beach, brings a whole new level of dining to Laie, one that’s totally different from our more traditional luau and buffet meals. Pounder’s serves familiar foods with a Pacific twist for lunch and dinner, including:
• Fresh fish, chicken, beef, delicious salads and even hand-made fresh pasta. • Daily farm-to-table fresh specials. • Hawaiian pizzas baked in a wood-fired brick oven imported from Napoli.
Consider ordering from among these fun and flavorful menu items:
- Roasted Garlic Rib-eye Steak
- Buttermilk Fried Chicken
- Mahimahi
- Shrimp
- Poke (Hawaiian-style seasoned raw fish)
- Kalua Pork Quesadillas
- House-made Taro Chips
- Crab Cakes
- Great sandwiches
- Kicked-up Fried Rice
Also available:
- A beverage selection of coffee, espresso, cappuccino, tea, herbal tea and Pepsi® soft drinks.
- Sumptuous desserts from the menu, or order from our neighbor, Aunty Emily’s Polynesian Bakery.
There’s also a kids menu.
Reservations are accepted. Enjoy air-conditioned dining inside, or relax on the covered, open-air lanai.
Come on in, and let the wave take you.
Story and pictures by Mike Foley
Mike Foley, who has worked off-and-on
at the Polynesian Cultural Center since
1968, has been a full-time freelance
writer and digital media specialist since
2002, and had a long career in marketing
communications and PR before that. He
learned to speak fluent Samoan as a
Mormon missionary before moving to Laie
in 1967 — still does, and he has traveled
extensively over the years throughout
Polynesia and other Pacific islands. Foley
is mostly retired now, but continues to
contribute to various PCC and other media.
My husband and I were there this year and had a late lunch at Pounders one evening. We both order Pounders Boneless Kalbi and it was the most tender yummy piece of meat we’ve ever tasted. I was wondering if you would tell me what cut of meat you use to make that dish? The marinade was wonderful also, I’m assuming it’s a Korean BBQ for Beef marinade. I’d love to try to make it at home here in Nashville. Thanks so much
First off, let us apologize for the long delay in responding. We loaded our blog into a new program, and suddenly we were inundated with spam posts. It took quite a while to get this all settled out.
We really appreciate your question and are very pleased to provide you with a response directly from Chef Felix himself:
We are very happy to hear you and your husband had a good dining experience, this is what we hope for every guest that walks into our restaurant and our food is carefully sourced. The cut of meat you had in that dish was a boneless short ribs. I am proud to share with you that this particular beef cut comes from a program called sterling silver that only produces the top 12% of high grade steaks. This USDA certified program also uses only grade prime and higher choice with abundant marbling for the degrees of grading and maturity level of A and B, which helps contribute to the flavorfully tender effect.
Half the work of a great food is procuring excellent product and the other half goes into excellent cooking technique and skills which is another factor we are proud to have. We use a slow and low technique, firstly seasoning this already aged beef with butcher’s cut pepper and kosher salt and searing the meat to lock in its fullest flavor followed by braising it in au jus for 5 hours at a very low temp, this slow and low technique is key. When the beef Is ready, we portion it and finish it ala minute which is emulated from the same way it was prepped by bringing it up to temp in its own au jus and glazed with our Korean style Kalbi glaze that has 12 ingredients and is done with a slow and low technique as well.
I wish you luck and the most important ingredient you may give your dish is love, otherwise known as “Aloha” here. if you ever come back to visit us, we hope to see you again! Thank you for visiting and dining with us, we appreciate your comment.