Small-kid time in the early 60's there was a food truck that used to come to our lane in Palolo that looked like this. Does anybody remember it? Was it a Japanese guy with Japanese food? That's what I'm thinking, but my memory is very vague.
It mighta looked like this. Remember?
And do you remember the Manapua Man who walked around the neighborhood carrying his dim sum in two cans dangling from each end of a bamboo pole? He would shout, "Manapua!" "Pepeiao!"
Soooo long ago . . . owww . . . I stay get da hurt feeling in my heart for bygone days. I want them baaaaaaaack. Just for little while . . .
23 comments:
I remember all of those things. I grew up on Eluwene Street in Kalihi and can still remember the manapua man walking down the road with the stick across his back. Don't miss those days when every backyard had a slop-can that was picked up every week.
Slop can, Kawika!!! I remember that can . . . but only barely. You get good memory.
We lived up in the Waipahu camp and the candy truck came every week. I would be out there with with 5 cents to buy a Look candy bar. Sigh...
There was no manapua man though. Ho da lucky you was!!!
Ummm... And I remember that maggot filled slop can too.
We didn't have a bento vendor, but there was a vegetable vendor on Kauai that came to our street, and my Obaban would buy vegetables. And yes, that stinky slop can. Us kids had a rotating duty to dump the garbage in, and I remember the maggots on the underside of the wooden lid that covered the bucket. Had to hold my breath when I was emptying the slop.
slop can??? was called buta kau kau!
Kay! My favorite candy back then was Look too! I would hit it against a hard surface to break it up into bite-size bits.
Lorna, I'm wondering if the guy sold vegetables. I kinda remember looking at his stuff and not getting excited. LOL. And that slop can . . . I only looked into it once . . . and avoided it after that. Good thing I neva have garbage duty like you guys.
Buta kau kau, Anon! That's right!
Ohh, we had a slop bucket too! But usually goes out to the pigs right at the end of the day so no maggots, just stinky. When I lived in Okinawa they don't sell things on the street but there was this little mom and pop store down my street that I went to and bought one huge sweet and sour/umeboshi for a penny : ) On the island we had a bakery van come down our street but sometimes our neighbor mom would make the local empanadas and home made air donuts and sell them to the neighbors...soooo good. Nowadays when you go to parties or get togethers people tend to just order food from restaurants or caterers. No more home cooking : ( Those were the days.
I'm a child of the 70s and I have the faintest memories of an old Japanese man who used to come with a truck peddling fresh fish.
-myra
Nice trip down memory lane, Susan. So sweet.
Oh, that's so cool, Myra.
j: we lived in an apt that was surrounded by other apts (Date St) and we had a little lane. Two days a week, one was Sat the yasai man (that's what we called him) would come down w/ his truck and toot his horn. Then all the ladies would come from the apts around w/ their purses. This was kind of before all the big supermarkets opened up all around. Had mostly mom & pop. I remember he was Japanese speaking and all the ladies also were Japanese speaking. Mom didn't like him because she said he would talk 'dirty' with the ladies in Japanese and yeah he was a leech, always leering at me and making comments. Anyway, he'd open up all the sides of his truck and uncovered refrigerated stuff like meat and fresh fish. He had a scale that he'd weigh veggies and meats on. I bought of course candies after asking my dad for money...and sometimes I'd make burgers for me and dad from the ground beef he sold. No buns those days, just sandwich bread...and also buy fresh manoa lettuce from him for the burgers. I didn't know it was called ground beef so I always called it hamburger which threw him off. I think he stopped coming around by the time I was in high school. I remember the manapua man too walking down Date St and when I hear his call again begged dad for money...but he said the food was pilau cuz it was in the hot sun all day, but dad always gave me the money. Do you remember Himuro store by Crane Park? Old lady Himuro (who short changed little kids) had the best red whips she kept in a box with was paper. ohhh those days ... N
Oooooh N, that sure sounds like it's the truck I remember, with the sides opened up. I don't remember Himuro store. What's there now? Your remark about "old lady Himuro" totally cracked me up. Hahahahaha!!!! Our go-to stores near our house were Rainbow Mart for Icee and Palolo Sundries for hamburger and saimin.
j: OMG Himuro's is still there, I did a google on it https://www.google.com/maps/place/938+Kapahulu+Ave,+Honolulu,+HI+96816/@21.2852793,-157.8134747,3a,60y,250.4h,86.18t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sZS3ZDKhX3Z3oSItKnMtmWA!2e0!7i13312!8i6656!4m5!3m4!1s0x7c006d8390f0aa2b:0x4b44a22f077b1a80!8m2!3d21.2852074!4d-157.8136539!6m1!1e1
Notice the apartments behind it, that's the old lady's one, so I could figure out why she'd short change the little kids who couldn't count. One of my bff's had a little sister and she was shortchanged five cents. Himuro looked like this tiny little obaa-chan, with the long gray cotton dress and her hair in a bun, but ooohhh she was mean. her store was mostly empty those days I just remember the candies. When I ordered the red whips, she'd go to the old old wooden shelf, take the long cardbox box out, part the wax paper then count each whip out. Was 5-cent and I'd get 25-cents worth. Then she'll coil it and put it in a small brown bag. ohh it was so good that image sticks with me. I was Kapahulu so me and my 2 other bffs that was our stomping ground. One g/f lived by Winam and Kapahulu above her mom's okazu-ya which was next to a bar on the left and Kuhio Dry Cleaners on the right. Then my other bff lived around the corner from her behind the building that houses Yakiniki Glad, near the old Lum's Market (do you remember the identical Lum twins who were one year senior of us?). So from about Date/Kapahulu to Crane Park Kapahulu we roamed all over. Oh dose dayz!! My g/f's okazuya also made shaved ice in the afternoon and I would help make them, getting free shave ice in exchange (also dropped a lot of 'em lol)-N
such cool memories:)
I remember seeing those food trucks when I was a little kid. But only while riding in the car with my parents. I would see shoppers all excited standing around the trucks. They never came by our house in Kahala.
I also remember the Manapua man with the stick over his shoulder in Kalihi. Then also in Kalihi in the 1980's we had a Balut Man! Everyday he would walk our parking lot at our furniture store and would always be yelling BALUT! BALUT! He carried a white foam cooler with a rope over his shoulder. Somehow he made that cooler hot to keep the Balut more fresh like da mama chicken was still sitting on it.
I used to buy them for our Filipino girls in our back office as a surprise for lunch. They loved the balut so much they would crack them in half right away and start slurping up!
I think I paid just $0.25 per balut egg.
How to eat Balut!
Eeeeeewwwwww! ; )
I never had the nerve to eat one.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zus73ayZiXA
OMG, N, I never went into that store. I'm curious now . . . maybe I'll go inside next time I'm in the area. I looooove your recollections. They're so vivid! I was gonna reply that no, I don't remember the Lum twins, but as I was thinking that, I got a clear vision in my mind of what they look like. So strange.
I agree, Kat!
Balut, Mark! Ewwwwwww!!! I no like even watch the video.
But get feathery wings and heads and beaks Jalna? Why not? ....LOL! ; )
I remember the manapua man! And the Japanese man with the truck - he sold all kinds of stuff but my favorite was the dill pickle that was wrapped in green wax for 5¢. I used to make long green fingernails and thought I was so cool with both my hands looking like witch's hands, cackle cackle! He also sold vegetables and stuff that I really wasn't interested in.
And the ice cream truck! We couldn't afford it except for once in a great while, but he was like the Pied Piper tantalizing a young me in Palolo on 9th Avenue.
I knew the Lum twins - their father's store made char siu.
Also had a store next to Palolo School that sold li hing mui and other see moi. Back then 5¢ could buy a lot, and 10¢ was a fortune!
I don't know if I miss those days. Kinda, but also, kinda not.
Our vegetable man (we called him that) came up till the late seventies,cool local Japanese man always nice to everyone never rushing us. We always went for candy, bags of sunflower seeds...or dried red ika legs or the flat sheets of brown cuttle fish. He had everything from nice cuts of steak and pork chops which he wrapped up in Pink butcher paper and fresh fish and veggies ...and he that white hanging scale which would swing so you'd have to duck to avoid getting hit.He usually would come in the late,afternoons and stop at the same house
and toot toot...I believe he was one of the last vegetable men in those days. I recall the nice homey aromas the truck had and all the happy kids running around trying to get their goodies before he zoomed away. I'd marvel at all the variety of things he had..and trying to reach back into the rear corner of the truck to grab my favorite candy...tome Ame the ones with the good toys..metal pins of insects or cars or those small sponge toys love those.Hed stop to drink a beer with that neighbor when we were done and talk story . I wonder if he is still alive because he was such a treasure of memories...
*gag*, Mark.
Ooooh, the pickle in green wax, Aunty! And brown paper bag full of see moi for 5 cents! But for me this memory is from when we lived on Hiram Lane before we moved to Palolo. You so creative making fingernails with the wax. Hahahaha!!!
Awwww, thank you for sharing your memories, Anon!
In Kahaluu we had the a guy that would come by on Wednesdays. We called him fishman but I think his name was Hirazumi. My bachan would buy fish, vegetables and tofu from him. We would scrape together our loose change and buy the Japanese bubble gum that had the tattoo on the wrapper or Tamoe rice candy.
Ooops I remember now, actually yes there are people selling stuff on the streets in Okinawa. It's just that our street did not have too many houses and was a dead end so hardly anyone came through. There was this man carrying a pole with two wooden buckets at both ends and he was selling food in it. Looked like pechay and tofu with some pork maybe. LOL. I remember my mom looking into his buckets. I don't remember if she bought any though.
Yup in Philippines, you can here the men yelling out balut and taho everyday! No balut for me.
Kobi, that's so cool that you remember that.
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