HONOLULU (HI Now) - The original recipe came from Owner Scott Shibuya’s brother-in-law and his father on Kauai, where they hunt and smoke wild pigs using the invasive strawberry guava wood, also known as wai’awi. Cold smoking is a local way to enhance the wild taste of the feral pigs and tenderize the lean meat.
Shibuya was looking to start a business after teaching high school for ten years and asked if he could use his recipe. They gave him the green light, so he quit teaching and Guava Smoked was born. He started by doing the local Farmers’ Markets and large outdoor events for the first two and a half years, renting time at an incubator kitchen for restaurant start-ups, and selling plate lunches and bowls for people to try. The response was so good that on November 2013 they opened their first brick and mortar in the heart of industrial Kalihi.
Experimenting with different meats and fish, Guava Smoked now has a menu that covers a wide range of palates and dietary needs, from pork to falafels, and shortribs to utterfish collars, if it’s fatty...they’ll smoke it!! They opened their second location in Kapahulu a month before the pandemic hit, and are still here today because of the local support when they needed it the most.
For more information, visit guavasmoked.com and on social media @guavasmoked
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