When Tracee Hirahara started working on the menu for her new pop-up with her husband, fellow chef Brandon Hirahara, she knew she wanted to add kombu maki. Her grandmother made it for her growing up, tying little pork-filled parcels of kelp with strands of gourd. When the couple moved to the mainland, she continued to make a version of the dish at home, after shifts at Thai barbecue bar Eem. But for the life of her, she couldn’t find kanpyō — the strips of calabash used to tie the dish together — anywhere. Her mom sent her a package of kanpyō straight from Oahu, specifically for her pop-up.
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