Aloha mai kakou, welcome to a new episode of What School You Went? We start every conversation with this question because that's we connect here in Hawaii Nei. I'm Ron Mizutani, and today we're going to be talking about the Molokaʻi or Molokai hot bread run. It's a dimly lit alley, red door marks one of the hottest nightspots in sleepy Molokaʻi it rises to the occasion, if you will, with yeast, and you can take some dough and can leave with some
dough. The nightly hot bread run is where locals and visitors meet every night except Monday. That destination is Kanemitsu Bakery in Kaunakakai. I want to welcome my old friend back to our studio, Lanai Tabura, to this conversation. Lanai, good to see you my friend. Thanks for coming back.
Thanks for having me, man.
Dude, busiest guy I know.
I guess you couldn't get Augie? (laughs)
He's too busy making laws. God bless him. I remember the first day he told me "braddah Ron, I think I going run for office." And I said, "come on."
He told me this 25 years ago.
He told me this about 15 years ago.
He always wanted to.
And you know what? "People tell me I should go, you know?" I was trying to do my best Augie impersonation.
We had lunch two days ago in LA.
Oh, no kidding.
Yeah, we just decided to have lunch somewhere cool. So we went to LA.
No kidding. Must be nice being a councilman. Anyway, no, I'm proud of him. And good things he's doing for the community out there in ʻEwa, and good brother. Hope you're not listening, Augie. And if you are, what school you went? Anyway, what school you went?
(singing) Lānaʻi High, our Alma Mater, pleasant memories ne're forgot. Heaven and Earth thy sons and daughters, will thy blessings be... something like that. Lānaʻi High School man.
The pineapple lads? The pine lads?
Yes. What a dumb name. We were so embarrassed with that name for years. It was the world's largest pineapple plantation. They couldn't come up with something better?
Well, what else would you be called?
I dunno, the Lānaʻi Lions, or Panthers... or Pineapple Pickers.
Make it Hawaiian. The pi-na-po-le.
Well, pineapples are not even from Hawaiʻi. So... anyway.
It made Lānaʻi what it is. And then look at today. Mr. Ellison came in, and all things have changed. Thank you for stopping by.
Thanks for having me. I love coming here.
You know, Lānaʻi is right across the street from Molokaʻi. You say Molokaʻi or Molokai?
I've asked a lot of my friends who have lived there, born there, family, and they say either or works. But the kupuna seem to say Molokai.
Because, this is what I heard, "Molokaʻi" was created because it presented more opportunities for song. You could... not rhyme, if you will, but it was more song-friendly. The truth is, the "-kai" is the ocean. So it's interesting. But now, everybody says Lānaʻi. When I was growing up was Lanai.
That's why they call me Lanai Boy.
So it should be Lānaʻi Boy.
You know the only person who calls me Lānaʻi is
No kidding. And she is ʻolelo o Hawaiʻi too. Leslie Wilcox. Even though I was a Kamehameha Schools graduate, she would correct me. And rightfully so. "You never go to one Chinese school. God bless the Chinese, but it's not Kam. It's Kamehameha." You know, Toucan Sam used to say, "follow your nose. It always knows." What is that? Froot Loops?
Froot Loops.
Not Fruit of the Looms. That's different. That's your BVDs, by the way. But if you follow your nose in Kaunakakai, you going end up at Kanemitsu's.
100%. And especially if you're staying overnight. During the day, I don't think they're open. So you had to be staying overnight to get to that alley. Or else it wouldn't happen.
And you know, if you were to do just a Google search. And... I'm new to Google, so...
Is it on Google Maps?
Not only that, but everybody from Kansas to... they've been. If you've been to Molokai, you've been to Kaunakakai, you've been to Kanemitsu Bakery and it's because of the hot bread run. It's notorious and it has become synonymous with with our friendly isle. That is a must do.
It's very nostalgic for me, because growing up on Lanai, we played sports and we were the trifecta. Maui, Molokai, Lanai, and that was our rivals. So I played baseball, volleyball and basketball. So the whole year, we would go there, if it was playing volleyball, you went there twice, the following year, they would come twice. So you at least went twice. So I went six times to Molokai every year,
since I was in eighth grade. And we stayed in the gym because we And every sport too, by the way, not just the sports I played, couldn't stay in a hotel. We couldn't afford it. And then at 9-10 o'clock, whoever the coach was at that time would show up with a bus, we'd all pile up in the bus, straight to that alley to buy hot bread. And that was the ritual.
but softball, whatever. It was part of the thing that you did when you went to... and it was their way of showing, you know, their hospitality, you'd be like, okay, everybody pick a bread, and everyone would come out with one loaf each. This big round, dome cut in half, and mine always was either guava jelly and cream cheese, or strawberry and cream cheese. That was my thing. What was yours?
Cinnamon. Two okoles. And I say that, because that's what it
That was a good one too. is. But going back to the dimly lit alley. There was a process. I mean, the instructions were pretty direct. Right? Wait, you gotta start before that. I don't know if you experienced it, but there would be some tall, six-foot-five mahus wouuld hang out right before you get into the alley
Because they just got off Molokai Inn.
Yes. Molokai Inn was down the street. Yes.
They play music and they serving tables.
So that was the after hours spot. See, I'm not the only one. And the seniors used to make us go in first. "Okay, you guys go order the bread and then" blah, blah, blah. And there was no light. And you didn't have a cell phone to turn on a light. So you kind of had to adjust your eyes before you went into this alley. And I'm not exaggerating. If you've never been there, it's a dark alley. And you go, what, maybe 40 yards.
It's a long journey.
And then there's a door. And like you said, you got to knock on the right door, it was a red door.
Yes it was a red door.
There's no sign, no menu. The guy opened the door and goes, "what you like?" You go, "what you get?" And then they would tell you their four or five different flavors that they were making at the time. And when they open the door, though, that smell would come out.
So you knock on the door. I don't know, knock three times on the ceiling if you want me, but they would open the door. Almost like the soup Nazi on Seinfeld. "What you like?" That was their way of saying "aloha, welcome to Kanemitsu Bakery." You would give your order, they would close the door. Then you'd have to wait there not sure if they actually got the menu right. But all of a sudden, the door would open, went "voila." Right? There was your...
That's so funny, because you didn't know if they got your order. He got it and would close the door. And then you wait. Yeah. And then more people would show up. And you wait. And they wait. What a nostalgic...
And it's still going.
It's still going. I have a friend here that did a licensing deal with them to bring it to Oʻahu. So he's the distributor for Oʻahu. And then there's a truck that he works with here. Yeah, there's a food truck that actually sells the bread. But I think there's a couple stores too, now, that sells it. So I think it comes over in the morning. And then they distribute around the island.
But you cannot beat that alley.
You cannot. It's hot and fresh.
You can't duplicate it, rather.
And you have to get it at 11 o'clock or 12 o'clock at night because that's when they make it.
You worked with the late Anthony Bourdain. What was that like? I know that he featured Molokai bread.
Yeah he was amazing. You know, he was very inquisitive. He wanted to know everything, he asked everything. In a learning way, not in a bad way at all. He showed up to the house with a case of beer. He said, "I know you Hawaiians, you don't come empty handed." So he came with a case of Heineken. His crew was there. He just had his daughter. His daughter was about 9-10 months old. So I spent the day with him. His crew stayed with us till three in the
morning. And it was funny because the crew told me something I'll never forget. He goes, "this is one of the few places that we've ever stayed. We usually shoot and go home. But the hospitality here is just amazing." And the food, they said they loved the food. We made all kinds of stuff for him. We kept in touch a little bit after, but he set me up with all these other shows. So I did Food Network, Man Versus Food, Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives. I
did Food Network Asia. I just did United Plates of America. I'm doing a new show called Street Food on Netflix. All because of him. He told people that were coming to Hawaii, "hey, whenever you come to Hawaii to film, call this guy, he can help you with the history and find you those hole-in-the-wall places. You know I took them to Ethel's Grill, and came back the second time to shoot Ethel's Grill. But just a great guy. He was always been somebody I looked up to.
He recognized the value of destinations. So that's a kudos to you brother, that he recognized that you could set them in the right direction. And someone along the way told him stop by Kanemitsu for your Parts Unknown and I mean, he shared that destination with a lot of folks.
I always tell people, he'll find the arm cracks of the world. He'd find the cracks and crevices but those were the best.
The best places are those little holes in the wall. And if they happen to have a red door, just make sure you knock on the right door. Or you gonna be in deep kimchi. You know, I'm gonna go back to Molokai because you talked about your years of being an athlete at Lanai high school. And then that was your rivalry. So you knew you was gonna play at least six games. But we had a Molokai Farmers once hosted a basketball tournament. So was Molokai, Nanakuli and Kamehameha
What year?
1982.
Okay, it's pre-Jarinn Akana.
Thank God. Oh, dear Lord, that guy could shoot the ball. All the Akanas could. But yeah, they weren't of Jarinn Akana's status yet. But no, the cheerleaders picked up the Kamehameha boys. So long story short, with all due respect to Leslie, they said, "oh, you guys like go to the wharf?" So there was three of us kolohes on the basketball team. And we're like, "oh yeah, we like go wharf" because that's the place to be. We didn't know it was a wharf. So we were there for business.
We're there to play basketball.
You're on Molokai right? So is this the one you're talking about across from the gas station?
Yes, the wharf.
Okay. (laughs)
Okay. So, they said, "go across the street to the coconut trees. We'll come pick you up at 11 o'clock." We think we going disco, to the Sheraton or whatever. So we dress up in nice clothes, three of us. I won't say their names. Ikaika. And so we sneak out of our dorm. By the way, we stayed at a church, because we couldn't afford the hotel, so we're all sleeping on cots. Ran across the street. Jumped in the truck. Kolohe. Senior year. We pull up
to this wharf. And we're like, going, where are these cars coming from? I'm not kidding, Lanai. They were probably at least 100 cars lined up on the wharf, literally. And they pulled over and they said "we're here." And it was one big paʻina.
I've been to a couple of those.
Good, fun. Good fun. And we did a late bread run.
That's so funny.
Good fun. Good times. We came back to the dorm. And we saw the little cherry of a cigarette outside the front of the church. Coach was smoking his cigarette, telling us, "how you doing ladies? You guys are in trouble." Shaved my head, like you.
Really?
I came home, my girlfriend wanted to leave me. And we got benched. Needless to say, we didn't play against the Molokai Farmers. But you know what, as they say now with the kids these days hashtag worth.
Did you get to see the cheerleaders after?
That's another podcast.
I think Lanai and Molokai had good athletes because there's nothing to do.
And you say that with all due respect.
Yes, all due respect, you either trained hard, you worked hard, or you were drinking and having kids. It was one of the two, there was no in-between. So you know, my mother was an athlete. So we played every sports just so we wouldn't get in trouble. But it's funny, because you say the wharf. Lanai had the post office. Everybody parked at the post office or Dole Park and that's where we partied.
At the post office. I love it.
It was the gathering place. Did you play on
No, never did. I have my classmate, I shared with Lanai at all? you last time you stopped by, Jimmy Fernandes and the Yagi family. Just tremendous athletes. The guy had a motor that was amazing.
The physical fitness team would beat the Marines. They had no one to challenge in Hawaii. So they would automatically get sent to the East Coast. And they were like, always top three, women's and men's, and I think the women's won a few national championships and the men's won a few national championships as well. It was so good, not that I was any good, but I never made the team. It was tough.
No, I know that. The guy was just probably the best athlete...
I think that's how he got to Kamehameha. There was six boys, six girls on the team too. So it was very competitive. It was a hundred Push Ups 200 Sit ups or something like that within a minute. And then you had this run.
I think it would take two weeks to do that.
And then you had to do 100 Pull Ups. And the pull ups were this way. They didn't do this way.
Like they can see us in the podcast.
You can't see us but your wrists were on the pole. So you were making your arms shorter. And anyway... can you do a hundred?
Dude, I can't even do one right now. I'm not kidding. My shoulder would pop out and you guys would have to call 911. But yeah, just tremendous memories of Lanai and Molokai.
Gosh, I wanna eat Molokai bread now.
You're right, though. You know, when you think about all the delicious things each island brings to the table. Maui get more than just potato chips. Maui has all kinds of goodies and Molokai bread is...
It's one of the top 5 I think you must try. You remember won ton chips? Of course. That was Big Island. I was thinking it was Molokai at first.
Yeah, Molokai is... besides the deer....
Molokai also has good Filipino food. There was a place called Ray's, I think it was, right in the middle, down the street from the bakery. It's like as soon as we landed, we went to Ray's to go eat Filipino food. Before we left, we ate Filipino food. I don't know why. But it was known for its Filipino food. That little town.
In my adult years, younger adult, when I paddled, I used to actually cross the channel, without the microphone, but an actual paddle. But we would do the late runs.
How many times you did the Channel?
Seven times.
That's great.
That was about 40 pounds ago. True story. The first time I was thinking about doing the channel, I was still doing commentating with Rell Sunn. My dear friend, and Rell said, "brother. Just try. You paddle already. And you talking about it? You might as well do it."
So you didn't do it first?
No, I was a commentator. In fact, when I handed over the microphone to grab my blade to paddle it, I handed the microphone to Leslie Wilcox. She commentated the men's race, and made fun of me.
Brian Keaulana convinced me to do it because we were doing these Hawaii Kai runs. And he goes, "hey, you can do this." I go, "no way." There's no way I could do it. We did a relay, took us seven hours and 50 minutes on a stand up paddle. I thought I was gonna die. For the first hour I threw up like 12 times just out of nervousness. You know, Never had that experience in my life. And I did it again the second year. I don't think I could do it again.
Should have made your way to Kanemitsu first.
I'd love to do it on a canoe, though.
Oh, it's beautiful. It's a beautiful sleigh ride.
But not on a race. I think I'd love to enjoy it.
Yeah, it's stressful. Especially when you're paddling with a bunch of guys who don't like losing.
I can imagine. And you can't really get a good... maybe you guys can, but you can't get a good night's sleep before.
Especially if you had like eight beers.
Everybody drinks the night before and there's no nice hotel. Everyone's piled up in a small house and it's not comfortable.
Dealing with mosquitoes and people snoring. You know, I cannot bring my CPAP machine with me. That is a lifesaver for many, many, many families and marriages.
Thank God I don't have to do. You probably just go run five miles a day, you can get off of it.
It's another story. But hey, you know what? Good to reminisce about stuff like this and share our memories of Molokai hot bread run. If Anthony Bourdain liked it, then...
Do you remember what he chose?
No I don't. But I just know that I remember him stopping by there and saying, "wow, you know you've arrived." Good for you that you had a chance to work with a legend like that.
Oh, yeah. I can't believe, I still can't believe it.
That's a highlight for you for sure in your career. That, and hanging out with me these last 25 minutes.
Two things I get to brag about.
Brother, you led off What School You Went?. Talking about manapuua man...
Hopefully you get some ratings. I'd like to come back. (laughs)
Yeah, I'm counting on it. Otherwise...
You really need some cameras though.
Yeah. Like I said, when I drop a few more pounds, maybe we'll throw some cameras on this, but until then.
People love to watch this stuff.
Do you think people would watch this?
Oh, of course.
I'm getting thumbs up. I got some fun ideas coming down the pipeline.
Especially the topics that you're talking about. These things need to be carried on. Number one. Number Why we leave our slippers out the door. When you reach uncle two, it's part of our history. It's our part of our culture. You know, I have young kids I'm always educating them about... I try to give them as much as I can without cramming it down status... you remember the day somebody called you uncle? their throat, but I always try to give them the history about
different things. So you gotta keep sharing. In my own nightclub!
I wanted for crack 'em. That's a deal breaker. That's even worse than
I promise you, this girl came up to me and I was like, "oh my gosh, this girl's walking up to me." You know, you can kind of tell they wanna come talk to you. And I shouldn't have even been set. It's like, "hey, how's it going? Can I buy you a drink?" She goes "yeah, uncle, you know so-and-so?" friend status. "Who's your faddah? Oh my gosh, don't tell him I offered to buy you a drink."
Well, that's for another day. Dude, Mahalo for stopping by.
Thanks for having me.
Continued success. You're like J. Akuhead used to say about chicken man. "He's everywhere, he's everywhere." Tune in next week for a new episode of What School You Went? You never know who's gonna show up, singing their alma mater.
What School You Went? is a PBS Hawaiʻi production. Until next time, a hui hou. Music by Taimane Gardner. If you enjoyed this episode, let us know on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, and tell your friends. You can find us on pbshawaii.org and everywhere you get your podcasts.