This Sunday the pop-up dining series Hungry as F*ck will take over Kimski—a Bridgeport restaurant that normally serves Korean-Polish street food—for its Hawaiian-inspired Ono Brunch. Organizers Amy Lecza and Kelly Ijichi are creating takes on Hawaiian classics that include butter mochi, kalua pork, lomi-lomi salmon, and ube pancakes. It’s their third event, but the first that isn’t ticketed, which opens it up to a wider audience. “Anyone off the street, anyone that typically goes to Kimski for brunch will see us and eat our food,” Ijichi says. It’s also the first event where they’ll be serving deep-fried Spam musubi—but in a way, that musubi is what led to the series in the first place.
As for the Hawaiian theme, Ijichi says that while all of their menus have had an “Asian backbone,” there’s no other uniting factor among the themes of their meals. Neither chef is an expert in Hawaiian food, but Ijichi has visited the state a couple of times and is Japanese. “A lot of [Hawaiian] cuisine has similarities with Japanese food,” she says. “I grew up eating Spam musubi at every family event; my mom makes it. A lot of people aren’t familiar with Spam, or they’re grossed out by it. This is a really absurd take on it, but something I think people will really enjoy.” The Spam gets a teriyaki marinade before it’s surrounded in rice, then gets a coat of tapioca starch and panko breadcrumbs and is finally deep-fried. “It’s pretty quality health food,” Lecza says. It’ll be served with a “secret sauce” similar to a spicy mayo.
