In the Hawaii episode of No Reservations, Anthony Bourdain’s slightly addicting food and travel show, he visits a little place in Waikiki called Puka Dog. After watching this, Frans and I got all excited. We’d never BEEN to Puka Dog, never even heard of it! And Tony went there! And they have cool hot dogs that they stick in a toasted chunk of bread with a hole in it (“puka” means hole) and squeeze in delicious tropical sauces!
After a few weeks of meaning to go find the place, we finally got our butts in gear and biked into Waikiki for an evening of puka goodness. The store is right on Kuhio Avenue, not far from the International Marketplace. It has shiny, colorful signs. Nice clear menu. Cute tables. Cool Puka Dog coffee mugs. So far, so good. We got in line and ordered our puka dogs (veggie dog with mild garlic sauce and papaya relish for me, polish sausage with spicy garlic sauce, mango relish, and lilikoi mustard for Frans) and some lemonade, and sat down to wait for our glorious meal. Just like Tony had.
The food showed up, we each looked down at our dogs, took a big bite, and looked back up at each other, chewing cautiously. “The bread’s not that great.” “It’s actually kind of . . . bland.” “I’m not so sure about this sauce.” “Not the best veggie dog I’ve had.” “It’s the bread. The bread is awful.” That said, we finished the dogs in near-silence, with Frans eyeing the cheesesteak place across the street the whole time. We both wanted to like the puka dogs, but it wasn’t really working.
I think Frans actually enjoyed the food more than I did. He didn’t like the bread at all, but I was icked out by the whole thing. On our way back to our bikes we stopped to look at the Ono Cheesesteak menu and were surprised to find the four burly guys who had been in line in front of us at Puka Dog sitting happily around a table, munching on cheesesteak sandwiches. On real bread. One of them waved us over, holding up his sandwich. “You guys here too? This is what a real sandwich should look like.”
