- OK.

Starting in 1996, we here at WQED got to make some national programs for PBS and we got to go around the country, celebrating small businesses and lots of wonderful people... - For who?

- Public television.

- Oh no!

...who agreed to talk to us.

And we're gonna celebrate some o£f those folks again right now in a program called "People From Everywhere" with the subtitle, "May Is Asian-American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month."

We're gonna start in 2010 when we got to gather footage for two "Breakfast Special" programs.

And we take you with us, often to some very interesting places.

And if you're lucky, tomorrow you will wake up hungry in the town of Hilo on the big island of Hawaii and you will find your way to Ken's.

- The location is perfect.

Near the airport, near the hotels.

Everybody's gotta pass Ken's.

- Yeah, we're gonna have breakfast for sure.

- A man named Ken Pruitt opened this pancake restaurant in the early 1970s.

Then he sold it to Ric Maiava and his family in 1990.

- And when I came here, I thought I stepped back in time, and with the orange Naugahyde and the counter booths and counter seats and things like that, it was just something I haven't seen in Honolulu for years.

It was, it was a good decision.

- Because breakfast is good and you get a lot of, a lot of food.

Basically, you know.

- It's not just breakfast.

We work mostly breakfast, but we do serve lunch and dinner also.

It's a 24-hour restaurant.

Everything's available 24 hours.

How can you go wrong?

- It's a lot of local food.

I'm not gonna say Hawaiian food.

I'm gonna say local food.

Local style food.

- How's it, auntie?

- Everything's good.

How you guys doing?

You need a few minutes?

- Oh yeah.

- We came to Ken's because Beverly and James Rubio suggested it as a great spot to try the Hilo specialty called "loco moco."

James has been writing a food blog with lots of pictures since 2005.

- Oh, the name of my blog is "Big Island Grinds."

Simply Big Island, and "grinds" is what we say when we eat.

So it's like, oh, we go grind.

Let's grind.

I wanted to start a blog just about loco mocos, but I figured might as well expand and try do other new things.

So that's how Big Island Grinds started.

Well here's the original loco moco and that's the, the traditional one to get.

- Never tried it.

I'm gonna give it a whirl.

- The Original Loco Moco - Sounds good.

Yep.

- This is what's called a loco moco.

This one is done with eggs over easy.

Okay.

Underneath there you'll see a patty, hamburger patty, with gravy on top of it and underneath that two scoops of rice.

- Loco moco and a good strong coffee.

- Loco moco.

- Yeah.

- All right.

- All right.

- Oh loco moco.

First we drop these five-ounce patties.

These are first off.

This is our loco five-ounce patties that goes on the broiler.

They're gonna come with two scoops of rice.

Two scoops of rice right here.

So these locos patties top it off with gravy.

- You can order hamburger patty with gravy, eggs and rice.

But it all comes in the bowl: the loco moco.

- Pop these bad boy off.

- Yeah.

I'm always taking pictures.

Taking pictures.

My friends will get irritated 'cause I have to take pictures of everything, all their food.

- It's kind of interesting.

I never knew anybody that actually would take pictures of their food and then write about it.

(laughs) - Garnish it with a little bit of green onion.

And that is our daily orders of loco mocos, my friend.

- From that one loco moco, the original hamburger patty, we spread out to corned-beef hash, teri-beef, spam, mahi mahi... - On top of the loco moco, I like it sunny-side-up with a little bit of Tabasco or Shoyu, depending what you feel.

- Oh, that's so good.

- I like it nice and yolky.

So when you crack the yolk, it's, it just goes all over.

Makes it really good.

- And we also do what we call the Sumo Moco now.

- The Sumo Loco is six scoops of rice... - They ring this bell when they, when you ordered the anything Sumo.

- ...two beef patties... - It's, it's something that's huge.

- ...two eggs and then gravy.

- They, they bang this gong, and then everybody just yells, "Sumo!"

- Ding, ding ding.

Sumo!

Then dong.

- (bell) Ding ding ding!

- (Everybody) Sumo!

- (gong) Dong!

- Here's your Sumo.

- Woohoo!

- And the customers think it's a fire drill.

- It's a big noise.

- Sumo!

- They think it's the tsunami thing.

Yeah, it's funny.

The tsunami thing is right there.

- We tried sharing the sumo moco once, and we couldn't even, we couldn't even do it.

- It's pretty monstrous eating.

- It's funny, when you ring the bell, they're watching if anyone's running, you know, running towards the door.

It's funny.

I'm telling you it's funny.

- That was an amazing breakfast.

We have nothing like that in Canada, and that was awesome.

- Everything's done with speed here.

So you can come in and have your breakfast in and out within 20, 25 minutes.

Most of the time.

- If you're away from Hilo for a long time, first thing I like to do when you come back to Hilo is come, come to Ken's.

It feels you're back home.

- Ken's is a landmark.

Yes.

(laughs) - Ken's is a hard act to follow.

But the next morning James and Beverly insisted that we drive to the town of Waimea, heading for a Hawaiian style cafe called Hawaiian Style Cafe.

- We're right on Mamalahoa Highway.

Whenever people call, we just tell them when you're coming up the hill, we're right after the first gas station you're gonna see.

- I used to teach piano before.

So one of my piano students -- he is an adult student -- he told me about this place.

So I had to tell him about it 'cause he's, he's a foodie.

- I'm down.

I'm down for some research.

- First time I came here, somebody said, "Go to Hawaiian Style and have breakfast."

Okay.

And I sit here by myself at the counter.

- Well, you know this counter's been here forever.

- Yeah.

You can see everybody around.

It's good.

A lot of locals.

It's, it's a hangout.

- I, I love this counter.

It's, you can see everybody.

Just good energy here.

- We talk to people on a counter.

If we help out.

We know we take the plates for the waitresses.

- We just stopped in 'cause we wanted something that had a Hawaiian style to it.

And this is called the Hawaiian Style Cafe, so... - Can't get any better than that.

- Yep.

- You know, in actuality, the, the whole place here, you know, it's sort of functionally obsolete but we make it work.

- Guy Kaoo and his sister Jan have owned and run this place since 2005.

- People come in, you know, and they see, you know, our menu.

They're always asking like, oh, what's this?

You know.

- The first plate came and I was like, oh my god.

And all the people, all the locals were laughing at me.

They're like, okay, she's a new one.

- I usually get bacon, but I'm being good today.

I got fish and eggs and lettuce.

So.

- I've been hooked ever since.

I get, I get a craving to come here.

- Today we got fish and eggs.

Got mahi mahi and eggs, hash browns, rice.

- Kalani Guerrero is chef here.

He came back home after culinary school.

- The cuisine over here in Hawaii is, you know, we have PEOPLE FROM EVERYWHERE so everybody has their input.

So we try to get on our menu and our special is from everybody here.

You eat what you are.

(laughs) - I ordered the, the kalua hash.

- Right here, we have the kalbi ribs, which is a Korean type of teriyaki beef.

- It doesn't matter what you eat here, you get plenty of it, and it's really good.

- Adam and I ordered the light breakfast.

And I just had to order the fried rice on the side 'cause it looks so good.

- And pancakes.

And pancakes.

One of the biggest pancakes you can get on the island.

- I ordered bacon and eggs and hash browns.

- Same here.

- I love their loco mocos over here.

We got a good sized loco moco.

- Is that what you usually get?

- Yeah.

- Have you ever had the Big Mok?

- I might try that.

Yeah.

- The Big Mok has the Portuguese sausage and multiple meats.

- Oh, okay.

- Not just the burger.

- Oh, okay.

- This guy just ate a whole one.

- Yeah.

- Looks his plate's clean - Clean.

- You had the Big Mok right?

- I had the Big Mok.

Yeah.

And that was awesome.

Good stuff.

You know, best place right here.

- We got a lot of variations on the loco moco.

Whatever you want we'll put it on a loco.

(laughs) - I'm thinking maybe try that Mocasaurus.

It looks pretty good.

- For us, there's no rules here.

Breakfast.

You can have breakfast throughout the whole day.

If we were open at night, you can have breakfast in the evening.

- I got the Mocasaurus, and it's hard to tell us what's in here, but under there, there's some fried rice and chicken cutlet Over here, a really nice homegrown beef patty.

Spam of course.

They put two slices of spam.

Two eggs.

Good onions, green onions.

Wait.

Here: (chuckles) Kalua.

Kalua pig.

That looks good.

- That's the Mocasaurus - And your pancakes.

- Oh and, and these small little pancakes here.

(laughs) - You know, you walk outta here, you know if you're still hungry then I don't know.

- It was amazing.

It was huge.

Best meal the whole trip to Hawaii.

- It's Hawaii.

It is Hawaii.

It is aloha.

- You come here, don't, you don't, if you have something planned afterwards, forget it, 'cause you just eat and then go home, go fall asleep {laughs) - We love food here in Hawaii.

Yeah.

- Hawaiians, you know, make people happy.

- We take breakfast seriously here.

- Obviously they take breakfast seriously, but food from all cultures can unite us in a most American way.

In 2015, we ended up on the West coast where we'd heard about a place that would be perfect for our program called A Few Great Bakeries.

It doesn't matter where you are, you could be in Sacramento, California, in the parking lot of a strip mall on Freeport Boulevard where there's an odd round building that houses the Mahoroba Japanese Bakery.

It opens at 7:00 AM and Alaina Fong helps get things in motion at Mahoroba.

- It opened in July of 2009.

I was one of the first hired, so I've been here a while.

Typically the bakers come around midnight or 11:00 PM the night before.

And then around 6 37 workers like me, like the front workers, we come in and we help put all the bread out into the cases and make sure everything's all set for the day.

- Everything here -- - - maybe a few arrangements -- but mainly everything is very, very traditional.

- Can I get a sweet cream cheese?

- Okay.

- And a Kobe Cream Delight to go.

- Benjamin Winterton also works here, sometimes as a translator.

He knows his boss, who speaks only Japanese, is involved in three bakeries, and he likes the sound of this city's name.

- This is the owner right there: Naruske Monguchi.

Originally, you know, his family owns one in Japan and then he opened one in Nepal.

And then from there he came here afterwards.

- (Naruske speaks in Japanese.)

- So in Japan the most famous flower is the "sakura," the cherry blossom.

And so, you know, Sacramento it was just like perfect.

- So usually Americans are very sweet.

Ours isn't so sweet where it's overwhelming, but more of like, you kind of get to enjoy the taste of it.

- So not all the pastries here are sweet.

They make savory buns too.

- Can I just get the bacon and egg please?

Just one.

Yes, thanks.

- If you go to Japan, most bakeries are self-serve over there.

You know, you get your trays, you get your tongs, and you pick out and you go to the register and you pay.

Here we try to keep it as close as possible.

So basically we have the customers come in, and they'll choose what they want, and we'll grab them for them with the tray and then we'll walk them to the register.

- Lauren Okamoto works here too.

- I first, like everyone else, came here as a customer, and I fell in love.

I ate it every day.

If I wasn't working here, I'd still be coming here every day.

So mind you, I, I love this place.

This one is the new one I got.

It's a raisin apple.

Doesn't that look decadent?

Looks good.

- Everything is so good that I try to try to get everything at least once.

And since I come here so frequently I, I tend to have to try everything.

- So this one here is the yakisoba pan.

It's got the kind of like a hot dog bun on the outside with noodles.

Got bits of pork and cabbage inside.

- I love everything.

My absolute favorite is probably the cream cheese and the Danish ones.

The sweet cream delight.

You guys, you guys are are documenting my cheat day.

This is bad.

So, so I got this for one of my co-workers.

This is the Kobe cream.

This is the sweet cream and that's the one that I like the best.

- The one here with the happy face is looks very nice, is very popular with the kids.

It's got like chocolate custard inside.

- So this is a strawberry anko cream on the bottom it has a sweet red bean paste with and then on top it has a fresh whipped cream and a strawberry.

This is very good.

I feel like it's a very good combination of Japanese and American style because red bean paste is a very traditional ingredient in Japanese pastries.

And so adding the whipped cream and the strawberry kind of like a little strawberry-shortcake kind of feeling to it, just because Monguchi has been doing it so long, and he knows it like the back of his hand.

- I'll take three Kobe creams.

- This one here is the Kobe cream, our most popular one here in the store.

It's got the vanilla custard inside, got lots of issues.

Pouring out.

Very good.

In the Japanese bakery, they actually sell 2000 of these a day.

And so it's like got to make every hour 400 of these.

- Kobe Cream Delight.

- Yeah, the the name, the Kobe Cream Delight is the place where he is from.

- Every time I have a guest come in from out of town, I bring them here.

Even if it's just for one day.

This is the go-to place for me.

- When a lot of people come, they meet new people and then they just, this just becomes the new place to meet new friends and everything.

- (Benjamin speaks Japanese) - We met Terry Irakida who comes here twice a week to meet with a group of her friends.

Only one of whom, Minnie Iseri, showed up this day.

- Anything else I can get for you today?

- That's all.

That's enough.

- We all meet here and stay about an hour or an hour and a half.

- This is our favorite place.

It has unusual baked products here, sort of Japanese and American combined, you know.

And it's really unusual.

Yeah.

- It really is.

Do you have a favorite thing here?

- Bacon and eggs.

(big laughs) - We have our favorites here.

- I think this is the only one.

That's why it's so popular, and he's so good.

- Is business good?

-(Japanese question) Ah, good, very good.

(Monguchi makes several comments in Japanese.)

- Everybody, A lot of people come in know that he can't speak English.

Even though I can, but they'll still say like Hi!

and stuff.

- (more in Japanese) - No, they usually stop him while he's making bread just to say thank you and hi and all that.

So - It's very nice to have an authentic Japanese bakery and have it so popular.

- Popularity can mean business and it's good when folks come to socialize at a bakery.

But socializing anywhere can make life interesting.

Even at lunchtime.

We talked to a lot of people in 2002 when we were in California working on a program for PBS titled "Sandwiches That You Will Like."

Banh mi are special sandwiches, Vietnamese sandwiches, that you can find in many cities where there's a Vietnamese neighborhood like here in San Jose, California.

- The name of the store is Huong Lan Sandwich.

"Huong" is like the smell of the flower, and "Lan" like is the name of the flower, just flower.

- That's Patrick Lam.

His parents started this business some 20 years ago.

Now they've got four locations here and in Sacramento.

Sandwiches are their specialty made here on small loaves of crusty bread which the French taught the Vietnamese to make.

- They call it banh mi.

- Banh mi is just the bread.

- Banh mi is just bread.

But you have to say what kind of meat you want or what kind of, yeah, ingredients and stuff in it.

Like if you want like chicken you would say banh mi ya.

That's like, you know, I want chicken bread.

- We put jalapenos, cilantro, onions, carrots, ham and head cheese and pate.

We got the the pork, right, guys?

- I got the barbecue chicken.

- Number seven is grilled pork.

- The grilled pork sandwich is very good.

So I like it.

- And that's a grilled pork and a little peanuts and that little onions.

- The bread, it's nice and crispy and fresh.

- They have in Vietnam the same thing.

Actually I never tasted the sandwich there.

We started from here.

- We never have this kind of sandwich in Vietnam because we were over here little.

- Well in Vietnam, I never had this kind of sandwich 'cause we're so poor.

At first they cut the bread and they put the house butter and then they put the meat in and then all the vegetable and the little spicy, you know, salt pepper and soy sauce, and wrap it up, and that's a sandwich.

- And this is like relatively inexpensive for us, you know?

So it's like a dollar seventy-five.

- It's really cheap.

Really cheap.

- All 12 sandwich have different taste, all different tastes.

So that's why we, we attract customer in because it is tasty, and it's reasonable price, and it's affordable, and it tastes good.

- Finding good tasting things as an important part of the game.

And in 2015 when we were making a program called "A Few Good Pie Places," a good friend told us about a favorite spot.

If you're in the foothills of the Sierra Nevadas, in Northern California, and you're on the old Lincoln Highway, you will want to stop at this place called Ikeda's.

- We are a roadside stand, roadside fruit stand with very fine wines, nice meats and fantastic apple pies.

- They have the best pie in all of Placer County.

- We don't live nearby so we we're always traveling back and forth to a cabin up in Truckee, so we try to stop here.

- Yeah, on the way up it was blueberry on the way back, it's Razzleberry.

- They're really the best pies I've ever had.

- Glen Ikeda has worked here since he was a boy.

- My parents started farming, oh, in the forties.

They wanted to sell their fruits to the locals.

We built this store here in 1970, but in the fifties they were actually a little wagon on the side of the road is how they started.

So it's about 50, 50, 60 years we've been here.

- Used to be a little tiny fruit stand.

And then you know the pies are still great.

- I said let's take some of that ripe fruit.

We're already making too much jam and jelly, and we've devised a way to make pies out of the fresh ripe fruit.

And from there we said if I could sell 30 pies a day, I could break even.

And the first day we sold a hundred pies.

And now we're more popular for our pies than we're actually everything else in the store.

We make the apple and the all the berry pies fresh every single day.

Everything is done by hand.

We don't do machinery.

So the pies all are done by different workers.

You'll see it.

Every person has a certain type of crimp, every person has a certain type of layout, how they put the crust on.

We grow the fruit that goes into the pies.

I think that's a very important part of why our pies are so good.

- The Ikeda Farms are just a couple of miles away, and Glen said he'd show us some of the trees.

- We are in the ranch that grows all the apples and the peaches and the berries that we put into our pies.

It's about 45 acres.

10 of it is apples.

30 acres in nectarines and peaches.

- But these trees aren't full of fruit right now.

- They're dormant, they're sleeping, and you need to have enough cold weather that they sleep for at least a month and a half.

Otherwise the fruit doesn't set as well.

Alberto is here and he's farming and getting the trees ready for the spring when they'll set with blossoms, and we will get fruit, hopefully.

We better get some water this year, Alberto.

- Yeah.

- No water.

We're in trouble.

- Yes.

- Apples that are properly stored can be used through the winter months, and here many end up coming to this wonderful contraption, not far from the kitchen.

- The unique machine made by a company called F.B.

Pease out of New York.

Literally we're working with antique machine.

You place the apple, the spindle comes up, injects itself into the apple, and then it rotates around a blade.

The spindle comes out, the apple falls down onto a lever that pushes it down to a chute that falls into the box.

- Then the apples are sliced and spiced and get mounted into sizable pies by the team of bakers here.

- And we couldn't do without them.

They know how to make the pie just right.

It looks perfect.

The look and the feel and the taste becomes part of their product.

There you go, Cella.

Sylvia, here we go.

Es comida.

Adan, you need to try it too.

- This is probably as close to grandma's pies as they come.

- Not too sweet, not too tart.

- Oh look at that brand.

- Apple pie there.

Look at that baby right there.

- Could taste the apple.

Lots of cinnamon.

Not too much nutmeg.

- That.

Feel.

It is still warm.

It's still warm.

How can you beat that?

- Cobbler?

Cobbler it is.

I won over the cherry.

- We sell a lot of pies, almost 80 to a hundred thousand pies a year.

- The best.

The best pies.

- There's nothing more American than an apple pie.

- Everybody loves pie.

And so we're happy that we're being able to be successful raising the fruit and putting in the pies.

And I think now we have the perfect apple pie.

- Beautiful pies, great people.

And we love finding unexpected beauty too.

In 1996 we were on Oahu working on a show called Shore Things.

We were driving along near Punalu'u Beach Park when we learned what Hawaiians might do here.

- As they're driving by, they see someone fishing right close to the shoreline, and they know oamas are running, and they grab their fishing poles, and they just rub shoulders, and "Oohs" and "Ahs" when the next person catches an oama, and they keep trying.

- Right now, the oama is all in this area here.

I came 4:30 this morning.

About 5:30 I found the school.

- It's a little tiny delicacy.

They're about the size of a sardine.

- And what do you do with oama?

- You fry them crispy with oil and Hawaiian salt, and they're good to eat.

- Fishing for these things is obviously a popular neighborhood activity.

- You have a lot of fun.

Even the kids are enjoying.

You see all the... Look at that little boy, he's picking them up too.

- As you see, a lot of them will just come in with just so much, just enough for their family.

Or you share it.

And that's when you'll catch more: when you share.

- That scene was unexpected.

We love that.

And for that same program, we obviously checked out some of Hawaii's beaches too.

We were just getting some beauty shots when we encountered a family celebration.

There's a beautiful beach called Kailua.

And local people like Vicky Milo know its basic charms.

- You can go fishing here, you can go sailing, you can go paddling and you can go swimming.

Besides letting out all your anxiety, - Vicky's nephew, Kam Timateo, says the family comes here often.

- That's where we have everything at.

We celebrate things here.

We, we have parties here every, every year.

- Today it's sort of a Timateo family reunion.

- We're here celebrating my mom's birthday.

My family's from the mainland, San Francisco, New York, and from all around the island.

- We always do it at the beach.

It's cool.

We like to swim.

- We have a lot of fun.

We get to meet different people, and we share what we have.

- Vicky's husband, Milo is the chef today.

What's cooking?

- Chicken.

You see?

This is a fish, but in, in our culture, we call it "umi."

For us local people, the reason why we come to the beach is: it's like part of our heritage.

It's where we feel more close with the ocean and the land.

Yeah.

It's where the food tastes better, fresher, and in the old ancient time where we come to the beach not just for ceremonial purpose, but it's also like life to bring a new life into our system.

- Well, renewal is part of it.

And relaxation.

And being with people.

There are countless reasons why we all want to be near the ocean.

And for many of us, the problem is we're usually too far from all these shore things and we wish we weren't.

And then there's that last day of vacation when you want to savor every moment, but you spend a lot of time plotting how to get back to the beach as soon as you can.

That was the end of the program called "Shore Things."

And it still seems true, but all of these clips are just reminders of how open and friendly and interesting people from everywhere can be.

We thank everyone.