Smoked Loco Moco

Loco moco was invented in Hilo in 1949 for teenage athletes from the Lincoln Wreckers club who wanted something cheap, fast, and bigger than a sandwich. Both the Lincoln Grill and Café 100 sit at the center of the origin story, and the build has not changed since: rice, hamburger patty, fried egg, brown gravy, in that order, in a bowl. It is a Hilo dish, not a tourist invention.

The upgrade here is putting the patty through kiawe smoke before it ever sees a pan — 20 minutes at 250F gets smoke deep into loosely packed chuck, then a hard sear builds the fond the gravy is made from. Pack the patties loose. A dense patty in a smoker turns into a hockey puck, and the whole point is a patty that surrenders under a spoon.

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 lbs 80/20 ground chuck, formed loose into 4 patties, 3/4 inch thick, dimpled in the center
• Salt and coarse black pepper
• 4 eggs
• 4 heaping cups hot cooked white rice
• Gravy: 3 Tbsp butter, 1/2 small onion minced, 3 Tbsp flour, 2 cups beef stock, 1 Tbsp shoyu, 2 tsp Worcestershire, 1/2 tsp black pepper
• 1/2 cup sliced mushrooms (optional, common at Café 100-style counters)
• 2 stalks green onion, sliced thin
• Neutral oil for the eggs

Cook Sequence

1. Form the patties with a light hand, press a thumb dimple in the center of each, and season both sides with salt and pepper. Do not compress them — the smoke needs a loose grain to get into.
2. Run the pit at 250F with a single kiawe chunk and smoke the patties 20-25 minutes to 110F internal. They will look pale and unappetizing; that is correct at this stage.
3. Get cast iron to 450F, add a film of fat, and sear the patties 90 seconds a side to 140-145F. Move them to a warm plate and leave every bit of fond in the pan.
4. Drop the heat to medium, melt butter into the fond with the onion (and mushrooms), and cook 3 minutes until softened. Sprinkle the flour over and stir constantly for 90 seconds until it smells nutty, not raw.
5. Pour in the stock in three additions, whisking each one smooth before the next. Add shoyu, Worcestershire, and pepper, then simmer 5-6 minutes until it coats a spoon. Loco moco gravy should be pourable, not gluey.
6. Fry the eggs in hot oil until the whites are set and the edges are lacy and crisp but the yolks stay fully liquid. A broken yolk is a failed loco moco.
7. Build in a wide bowl: rice, patty, egg, then flood the whole thing with gravy — over the egg, not around it. Green onion on top, serve immediately.

Round Out the Plate

• Hawaiian Macaroni Salad — turns it into a full plate lunch
• Hot White Rice — get the base right — the rice is structural here