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Lilikoi Cafe: Hawaiian Food In North Portland
M
any Portlanders go home
to Hawai’i. Checkout all
our smiling faces at the
far end of PDX Gate D. Hawai’i is
home to original kanaka who long
ago navigated twin-hulled sailing
canoes by distant constellations,
but she’s also home to families
from cities and seashores all along
that grand sweep of Pacific wind
and wave that have always carried
starry-eyed families from chilly
Korea and packed Japan; from
unkind Mother China and
Vietnam’s divided brothers; ambi-
tious families from Guam and
Tonga and a thousand more pearly
shells in a knotted string across
our deep blue sea.
So when we do score a ridicu-
lously cheap ride on a Boeing
jumbo, with a nice movie and two
light meals in between, in tight
triage here’s what we do: hold
tight our tutu, muscular matriarch
of 19 souls conceived in 4 coun-
tries and 4 American states; pause
humbly by our passed-on opa’s
empty kitchen table chair; lay
orchid lei at the statue of
Hawai’i’s last monarch, Queen
Liliʻuokalani.
That done, we nip quick as
Ko’olau wild piggies over to
King’s Bakery for an armload of
Hawaiian Sweet Bread, sliced as
thick as you want. Then and only
then do your tense state-side
shoulders drop down from around
your ears, and you’re ready to
draw a deep-deep fill of windward
ocean air. Paradise.
get it here
Now, here’s the cool thing about
living in damp-to-da-bones
Portland, Oregon: much of what
we miss about home, you can buy
here. Right here, on the conflu-
ence of Rivers Willamette and
Columbia and all our circulating
Pacific wind and wave.
Many things we believe scarce
Their
commitment is
16 hours every
day and night
except Sunday.
By lunchtime
Monday, they’re
at it again
on our chaotic new continent, are
actually abundant in River City’s
recent arrivals. As our elder aun-
ties never tire of saying: Always
cultivate whatever precious little
soil you hold, because all those
things we miss, we grow in peo-
ple. In us.
Take my Minimum Daily
Required Allowance (MDRA) of
Hawai’i soul food. How do I top
my tank? Easy. I fill up at Lilikoi
Café. Lunchtime, dinnertime, any-
time six days a week.
“Hawai’i comfort food,” owner
Dekin Hom calls it. Dekin’s a
Kailua local boy who washed up
on Western Oregon University
Page 8 The Portland Skanner June 8, 2011
campus almost 15 years ago.
Lucky for North Portlanders, his
family’s here now.
Every time I walk hungry and
homesick onto their café’s lanai,
under their billowing Oregon blue
tarp: there’s Deke, outdoor-
grilling and stir wok-king. His
wife Veth pats my back, she
knows what I want. Deke says
she’s the brains of the operation.
Veth is my wife’s kind of home-
girl; Veth’s family fled pulverized
Laos after those crazy Commies
marched in. She fell for Dekin at
college. Today their combined
resumé includes their son Aveh
(always busy making more art for
their walls), and their café Lilikoi.
We know what to do
Like I said, Veth knows I need
my MDRA of soul. Though she’s
got a full menu of savory sand-
wiches and wraps, fried noodles
and fried rice – I’m here for her
hot Signature Style Sandwich.
Carlton Farms Kalua pork piled
like Mt. Kohala on top of two
grilled squares of Hawai’i Sweet
bread. Secret recipe. Bread that
can bring the baddest NFL
Samoan to tears. Creamy Asian
coleslaw on da side. All that,
plenty for my wife and me (two
average-size ricepickers) to share.
All that for five bucks.
Little Aveh brings us frosty
lilikoi ice tea, then a heavenly
slice of haupia. Passion fruit
drinks and a coconut jello dessert.
Lilikoi, the place, is on N.
Killingsworth, just east of
Interstate Avenue. Lilikoi, the
PHoto by brIaN StIMSoN
by Polo Catalani,
Special to The Skanner News
idea, is Veth and Dekin’s commit-
ment to closing that circle of opti-
mistic communities round and
round that grand sweep of deep
blue sea described earlier.
Their family commitment is 16
hours every day and night except
Sunday. By lunchtime Monday,
they’re at it again: cultivating cul-
ture, rich as Willamette Valley
soil. Recreating home. A bigger
house for all of us.
Lilikoi’s success is our city’s
success. If this family thrives –
Portland thrives. Of course
Portland, the city of leafy side-
walks and streetcars without a
whiff of carbon in their tidy
wakes. But also Portland, a city of
people. People making this place
and keeping their commitments.
What goes around, goes round
and round.
Lilikoi
Café:
1324
N.
Killingsworth. (503) 964-8434.
Full menu and lots of reviews at
lilikoiportland.blogspot.com.