Here's Where the Kahiki Rebuild Money Went

"The company should take the name Kahiki off of their processed products and let Kahiki live on in the kitchens and home tiki bars."

They left the Kahiki name on the new box but took off the picture of the Kahiki, changed the font from the iconic Kahiki font.
AND it looks like they added a picture of the Tsao family on the box.

I have always felt the Tsao family kinda tried to erase the real people who started the Kahiki from history.

It's all about the egg rolls that I heard they even sell to other restaurants to sell to their customers.

As I heard it there is no machine to roll egg rolls so you need people to roll each one, many times these were Asian people.

Well if you are Asian and live in Columbus and may not even speak the language that good rolling egg rolls at the Kahiki would be a good job and you would feel right at home.

This is how they started the egg roll factory as I heard it from two people that worked there at the time.

The frozen food is not that good, at the end the Kahiki restaurant food was not great.
The Tsao family Kahiki did support some tiki events here in Ohio and that prompted some in that group to say the Tsao family Kahiki is great as is the frozen food.

The Tsao family are not bad people but I feel that they have wanted to make money more than a love for the Kahiki of old.

Even Michael Tsao, or should I say especially Michael Tsao.

It's gone, He's gone, Dog gone!

Kahiki food products are sold at my local Walmart. Never tried it, but now I'm curious.

The brand has achieved quite a reach by making it so far.

Seems like I've seen them at WalMart too

Just pray THE MAI-KAI doesn't start selling "Frozen Microwave Chinese Oven Specialties" :o

I didn't visit the Kahiki until the 1990s when I was in college. Some of the food I remember was EXCELLENT...never had a bad experience with the Tahitian Mermaid, Mahi Mahi Almondine or the Rack of Lamb with Indonesian sauce. The Chicken Pineapple Kahiki, Samoan Flaming Chicken, and Hawaiian Spare Ribs were just kind of okay. I wish I ate there more often, but I was too poor back then.

The food at the Tropical Bistro was better quality it seems than the Kahiki...but then again I stuck to my favorites. There were several days when I ate lunch AND dinner there. Theang (I think that was his name) was sooo nice. I hope he found success. He had a great personality to run the restaurant...and got me hooked on Navy grog! He gave me a few swizzle sticks from the Kahiki...so I wonder if he knew the writing was on the wall.

For those of you who wish to sample the Processed food the company puts out, I hope you like SALT...because that's the only thing I taste. However, I'm not one who likes to eat processed food.

If I want Kahiki, I don't do the processed stuff...I make it myself either from one of the few recipes published over the years or try to do it from memory and if I go hard core, I might even pull out some of the items from my Kahiki shrine to drink out of.

I'm out shopping the other day when I come across an entire freezer section of Kahiki frozen food:

Frankly, I don't know if this is a new addition to the store or if I just don't buy frozen food often, but I never saw it before. I bring up my discovery because the first thing that crossed my mind was "Has tiki culture and lore of the name Kahiki permeated into national grocery store shelves?"

Breath easy. The answer appears to be no. A bit of Googling indicates that they had a change in management and some new investment a couple years back that allowed them to re-formulate the recipes and expand. Good for them, but tiki-wise, nothing to see here.

http://www.kahiki.com/news/kahiki-foods-places-bet-on-growth/

Just in case someone else has the same reaction...

You know I went to the Walgreen's that sits on the spot where Kahiki was just to get photos and went inside and asked "Do you sell Kahiki foods" I saw other brands of the same type food as the Kahiki sells.

The girl said "no we sell a better quality brand than that" Ha! it was like a company statement they gave her.

I never shop Walgreen's because of the way they do this all over the globe, take over spots of great places like the Kahiki.
Starbucks does the same thing.

I think they feel that a spot that is hot and has foot traffic will keep being hot even after the place they tear down is gone.
Maybe it's true who knows.

I went to that web site you listed for the Kahiki and a few things stood out to me.

"Closing the Kahiki was a year-long adventure that broke every sales record on the books. Every day for a solid year, customers lined around the building waiting to experience one last meal at the restaurant that had become a Columbus institution."

I had heard on the radio that the Kahiki was closing so I called the bartender Skip Davis at the Kahiki and said "hey Skip what's this about the Kahiki closing" he did not know anything about this so the employee's found out about the Kahiki closing form that call.

That was in July.
Soooo maybe the Tsaos spent a year planning for the close of the Kahiki but the employee's
had two months notice tops.

And after I heard that I went to the Kahiki even more than I did before and filmed a lot but in those films it was busy but there were not "customers lined around the building"

Heck people did not even know it was going out till July and the Kahiki was not that busy before the news of it's closing.

Kinda small points but I have found more than a few of these small points in the new Kahiki many claims.

The frozen food is not great, but heck at the end the Kahiki food was not that great.

I long for a perfectly made Tahitian Mermaid with a baked potato and sour cream!!! :)

Mahalo,
Jeff

Damn Jeff all that is, is Filet mignon with cream cheese and some fake crab meat in it with maybe some onions and salt and pepper.
Heck, make it yourself and use real crab or Lobster.

Did I see that recipe somewhere?

Soung has it I'm sure.

Here Jeff make this....

Crab & Herb Cheese Filet Mignon
Ingredients
• 1-1/2 cups fresh crabmeat, For that kahiki taste use the fake crab in rolled form.
• 1 package (6-1/2 ounces) garlic-herb spreadable cheese, divided, Cream cheese for the kahiki taste but thin a tad with milk.
• 4 beef tenderloin steaks (1 inch thick and 8 ounces each)
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon pepper
Directions
• Combine crab and 3/4 cup spreadable cheese in a small bowl. Cut a horizontal pocket in each steak. Fill each pocket with 1/3 cup crab mixture. Place steaks on a greased broiler pan. Sprinkle with salt and pepper.
• Broil 4 in. from the heat for 10 minutes on each side or until meat reaches desired doneness (for medium-rare, a thermometer should read 145°; medium, 160°; well-done, 170°), spooning the remaining cheese over steaks during the last 2 minutes of broiling. Let stand for 5 minutes before serving.
Nutrition Facts
1 stuffed steak: 558 calories, 34g fat (19g saturated fat), 197mg cholesterol, 547mg sodium, 2g carbohydrate (0 sugars, 0 fiber), 60g protein.
Originally published as Crab Stuffed Filet Mignon in Simple & Delicious February/March 2013

Thanks for the recipe Skip!! I'll definitely try it out!!

Cheers and Mahalo,
Jeff