Gregg Hoshida

Gregg Hoshida writes about food with a mix of obsessive curiosity and everyday practicality, focusing on how dishes and dining spots actually feel to eat at rather than just how they look. His coverage tracks what and where people are really eating, from convenience store dim sum and DIY ramen kits to old-school diners and updated rankings of local comfort classics. He brings a self-described “constantly hungry” perspective to Frolic, using it to test trends, revisit institutions and map out the small shifts in Hawaiʻi’s casual food landscape.

Frolic contributor focused on everyday eating

Gregg is a regular contributor to Frolic at Honolulu Magazine, and casts himself as Hawaiʻi’s version of Japan’s endlessly hungry Kodoku no Gurume character, signaling a persona built around steady, lived-in eating rather than occasional reviews. His work centers on food experiences where access and repetition matter: he covers convenience options like Yung Yee Kee’s famous dim sum at 7-Eleven and asks directly how the dumplings hold up to being sold from a heated case. He writes about Supreme Dumplings opening at Ala Moana Center with silky, soupy xiao long bao, treating a mall stall as a serious subject for detailed tasting rather than background to a shopping story.

The same approach runs through his ramen and noodle coverage. In a piece on Sun Noodle’s Momofuku spicy Korean ramen kit, he reports from the point of view of a home cook trying to see if the kit produces a bowl worthy of David Chang’s restaurant brand, not just if the ingredients match the label. He extends that attention to classic local dishes such as saimin, co‑authoring a ranked list of the best old-school saimin shops, framed around which place delivers the most satisfying traditional bowl. Across these pieces his through-line is clear: he treats both packaged products and casual restaurant food as things to be tested in real use, then translated into plain, sensory terms for readers who might buy or order them next.

Ranking and revisiting Hawaiʻi comfort foods

Gregg is heavily involved in the magazine’s recurring “Top 5” format, where he and fellow contributors sort through widely loved dishes to produce ranked lists with reasoning behind each slot. He co‑writes statewide rankings of loco moco, first in 2018 and then in an updated 2023 list, describing himself and his collaborator as “food nerds” and using that frame to justify detailed comparison of gravy, patties, eggs and rice across multiple locations. Those lists are positioned not as static guidebook entries but as living documents that are revisited as new spots open or old ones improve, which lets him return to the same dish in different contexts.

Beyond rankings, he singles out individual plates that embody his standards for comfort food. In a May 2023 story on Taka’s Box Lunch, he argues that its loco moco may be the best in Hawaiʻi, highlighting how perfection can come from simplicity in a prepared box meal. He also writes about long-running restaurants such as Teshima’s in Kealakekua, an almost century‑old diner he profiles through its local-style favorites and the way those dishes carry the restaurant’s history. This mix of statewide lists, one-off endorsements and profiles of legacy spots builds a picture of someone tracking comfort food across both time and geography, watching how benchmark dishes like loco moco and saimin travel from mom‑and‑pop counters to takeout boxes and mall food courts.

Street eats and niche cravings

Gregg’s reporting also dives into street eats and focused cravings, especially around Filipino and Caribbean flavors. In his coverage of SW8 Dada’s truck in Waipahu, he writes about crispy pork sisig and other Filipino dishes served in the old Arakawa’s parking lot, treating the truck’s menu as an essential stop for those who want powerful, sizzling flavors on the go. He has also profiled places like JR’s Jamaican Jerk in Wahiawā, emphasizing braised meats, jerk chicken and escovitch fish clustered near a classic saimin stand, and positioning the spot as a destination for people who chase specific spice profiles and textures.

These pieces are less about trend‑spotting and more about answering a hunger question: where to go when a reader wants a particular taste, whether that is sisig, jerk chicken or a nostalgic diner plate. He tends to anchor each story on one or two standout dishes and then sketch the rest of the menu around them, giving enough detail that someone with the same craving can decide if the place fits. It is consistent with his larger pattern of using his own appetite, and the Kodoku no Gurume reference he embraces, as a lens for deciding what to cover and how deeply to dig into it.

Product testing at home

Alongside restaurant and street coverage, Gregg occasionally writes about food products and kits that readers prepare at home. His assessment of the Sun Noodle Momofuku spicy Korean ramen kit tests not only flavor but process, describing whether a branded kit can deliver a result that feels close to a restaurant bowl. That willingness to evaluate supermarket and packaged offerings in the same voice he uses for dine‑in food helps bridge the gap between eating out and cooking in.

Across all of these formats, Gregg stands out not by chasing celebrity chefs or fine dining, but by applying a consistent, personal, appetite‑driven lens to everyday food, from 7‑Eleven dim sum and mall dumplings to historic diners and food trucks. His stories are built around how dishes taste, how they satisfy and how they fit into the larger map of Hawaiʻi comfort and street food.