Kimi’s Corner - Alicia’s Market

If everything goes right, something must be wrong. Leonard Kam remembers his wise mother Alicia saying these words repeatedly since opening Alicia’s Market with her husband, the late Raymond Kam in 1949.

It’s 8:00 pm and I’m on the phone with Leonard trying to conduct an interview during his free time. While asking him questions I hear the banging of pots and pans in the background and Leonard politely asks to put me on hold a few times so that he can finish up the many sauces and dishes that need to be ready first thing in the morning. He’s been at work since 6:30 am and probably won’t leave until 9:30 tonight, maybe even later with me slowing him down, so I try my best to make it quick. 

“My parents knew that with running a business, there’s always something that will go wrong. That keeps us on our toes, never relaxing,” says Leonard. He would know; he and his five sisters grew up in this business. Leonard has been working in the market since he was a toddler. His first job was stock boy and his duties included individually writing prices on all the store items with a lead pen. He recalls a customer once asking repeatedly where the cashier was and Leonard had to point to his older sister Cynthia, who was five years old at the time, and say, “Right there!”

During my visit to Alicia’s Market a few days ago, Cynthia was still upfront working the register as her son Dion took care of customers in the back of the store with Leonard’s son Christopher, at Alicia’s legendary food counter.

This section of the market consists of a warmer holding a mouth-watering selection of roast meats and a huge refrigerated poke bar. The poke bar has the biggest selection of cold seafood appetizers that I have seen here in Hawaii.  This would explain what keeps Leonard and the boys up all night. There’s everything from sweet marinated surf clams and teriyaki giant squid to smoked tako poke and dried abalone. There are also classics like limu ahi poke, their most popular item and kim chee cucumbers.   

It would be extremely hard for me to choose a favorite item from the poke bar. Each one is unique, exotic and full of flavor. On this particular day I was mostly drawn to their raw tako poke. It was both soft and chewy, with the perfect balance of sweet and salty. There was also a slightly bitter bite to it because of the tako ink that was mixed in.   

I also loved the wasabi masago ahi poke. Each bite was met with crunchy salty little balls of goodness (masago), followed by that smooth sinus-clearing rush of wasabi. I appreciated how they used different oils to flavor and glaze the poke, making it shine like a fine varnish, rather than the common overkill of too much mayonnaise, which seems to be common in store bought pokes. 

After the poke bar, I moved on to the hot items and felt like I was back in time looking through the glass warmer at long lost local delicacies such as turkey tails in both traditional and char siu flavor.  Whole roasted ducks and chickens hung side by side, sweating next to large pieces of roast beef, pork char siu and Chinese style roasted pork.   It was like looking at a treasure chest filled with a variety of gems all glistening and gleaming together in brilliance.   

I bit into the roast pork and was not only hit immediately by the wonderful crispiness of the fatty skin, but I was also blown away by the flavor of the meat. There was such a depth of taste going on-—it was almost smoky, perfectly savory and completely tender and juicy throughout every bite.   

If there’s anything to be said about Alicia’s it’s that lifetimes of love has been put into their food.   

“When customers come in, I want to give them something to make them happy,” says Leonard. “Most of our customers are hard working people and they might come into our store mad, hot, sticky or grouchy.  So I offer them a sample, and they smile—they’re happy. I like to give them something to make them happy. But they always end up buying something—simply because they like what they taste.” 

Leonard and Dion both agree that interacting with their customers is their favorite part of their workdays. To describe how nice his customers are, Leonard told me a story about how his tip jar originated.   He explained that rather than having traditional business cards made, he printed the business contact information on pogs, or milkcaps right when the big pog fad was starting to die out in Hawaii. He filled a jar full of the pogs and placed it on the poke counter for people to take from.   

“Everyone took the pogs faster than I could fill it up, and then people started putting change in the jar and everyone just started tipping. It just goes to show how nice people are,” says Leonard.

“And when we have to close the store to take a vacation, everyone says ‘good you deserve it’” 

Dion says that he loves interacting with his customers because he has known them for so long. “I’ve watched their kids grow and they’ve watched me grow up,” he says. 

When asked whether it’s difficult to work so closely with your family members, Dion says, “It can be hard working with your family everyday.  There’s bound to be disagreements, but you just have to put your pride aside and work.”  “But I definitely appreciate seeing them everyday,” he adds thoughtfully. 

When he says “everyday” he isn’t joking.  Being that Alicia’s Market is opened from Monday to Saturdays, I had to ask, “What does everyone do on Sundays?” “Sundays have always been family days,” says Leonard.  “My mom likes to get the whole family together for dinner.”  Now that’s one big dinner considering that Alicia, who is now 84 years old and looking spectacular has six children and 13 grandchildren.   

One thing is certain about this family. They know how to cook and they know how to work together through fun times and tough times. 

“I thank the Lord that we are thriving in hard times,” says Leonard.  “It’s hard to start a business right now. We’ve been going for 60 years. Businesses that have been around this long have to have a niche. Our niche is keeping people happy.”

Alicia’s Market
(808) 841-1921
267 Mokauea Street
Monday – Friday 8am to 7pm
Saturday 8am – 6:30pm
Sunday Closed