Isle-style menu is a hit at WSU -- but bento a bust
By Bob Krauss, Advertiser Columnist
Honolulu Advertiser daily newspaper, Dec. 25,
1988
Thanks to Myles Lee of Pearl City, members of the Washington State University football squad from Pullman, Wash., have no trouble ordering from local menus while working out here for today’s Aloha Bowl .
They’ve been chowing for two years on teri beef and chicken katsu at a place called Coconut Joe’s that serves Hawaiian plates just across the border from Idaho.
Lee, a refugee from Pearl City, runs the local establishment with his parents. He’s back in town for the game.
“You might say we’re the Zippy’s of Pullman, Wash.,” he explained. “Lotta students come in .Once they try it, they like it, but it’s really a challenge to get them to try.”
“Teri chicken is the favorite. Some things you can’t get them to eat.
“Saimin just didn’t sell. We tried bento. People asked what’s in it? I’d tell them rice, teri chicken, beef, fish and Spam.
"As soon as I said Spam that was it. On the Mainland Spam is concentration camp food. I think people in Hawaii eat more Spam than the rest of the country put together.”
“Fried noodles goes good, but loco moco never got off the ground. That’s rice, a hamburger patty with a fried egg on top with brown gravy. The only people who ate it were local kids.“
Lee said he gets steady business from Hawaii students at the university. The student body includes a Hawaiian Club with a membership of 134 students.
“Some of our counter clerks are local kids from Hawaii,” said Lee. “Our cooks all are from Pullman. They don’t have any problem but my parents and me do preparation, make teriyaki sauce and cut up the vegetables.”
Lee said most of his customers take him for Hawaiian. When he says he’s not, they guess Chinese. Then he explains he’s Korean, they say, “Oh yeah, that’s what I thought.”
He said his parents operated the Pearl City Korean Restaurant before his father retired and they moved to Pullman. Lee attended Iolani School and graduated from Waipahu High School, then the University of Hawaii and Washington State.
Lee said his mother makes her own kim chee and serves it free to anyone who wants some. “There aren’t many people in Pullman who ask for kim chee,” he admitted.
Lee said he gets steady business from Hawaii students at the university. The student body includes a Hawaiian Club with a membership of 134 students.