This week’s preorders have been closed due to prep for a private event. 
It’s the JCI Honolulu Awards and Installation banquet. The very organization that im raising funds for with the Special Takoyaki Flavor. They have graciously invited me to sell there and you know not so casually promote my business there. Early bird pricing has been extended till tomorrow Wednesday February 8th. So sign up while you still can. There’ll be great food, games, raffle prizes and a chance to celebrate the 2022 board and immediate Past President, Cosmo Hirai. You can learn more at www.jci Honolulu.org
I’ll be bringing 4 flavors with me, Thai Curry, Sticky Icky, Takoyaki, and Bak Kwa (I might even have a special variant of Bak Kwa available after) anything I don't sell at the event will be posted on the online store!
Now for the Flavor Spotlight.
1. What Is it?
Thai Curry is a dish comprised of a protein (beef, chicken shrimp) cooked in coconut milk and red curry paste. Its spicy, comforting and more broth like compared to curries of different origins. The other defining characteristic of an actual Thai curry is how glossy it is. And thats due to cooking the coconut milk till the fat breaks away from the actual liquid. Whereas with other curries you tend to have a more homogenized look to it.
2. How did it end up as jerky?
This is a two part answer as well. One that stems from a prototype and rom a personal experience/inspiration. Lets go with the Personal experience first.
2a. One of my good friends Delle, is an amazing cook. Sometimes she’ll invite me over to her house to eat dinner, and talk story over a couple seltzers or shots. She’ll occasionally ask me to help prep some stuff (most times it’ll be a style of cooking I’m not familiar with). It just so happened that that night’s cooking theme was “South East Asian” and she was making her famous Basil Chicken .
Watching her add the first couple ingredients seemed pretty standard. Chicken (simply seasoned with salt and pepper), mushrooms, Thai Basil, and various other ingredients. The surprise was when she added coconut milk and an ingredient I’ve never seen before; Red Curry Paste. I tasted it as it was slowly simmering and was blown away by how complex everything was and yet how harmonious the end product was. I knew I had to transform it into jerky.
The idea combined with the previous attempt at creating a southeast asian buffalo sauce but I decided to drop the buffalo sauce and go all in on coconut milk.
2b.
I went home and of course turned to google to see if dehydrated coconut milk was an ok thing to do. Results said they were and so I planted the idea firmly in my head and went with it. This is another instance of where I love being a small business owner with no “real” training in the culinary world. Creativity is endless, it seems.
The first recipe that was formulated was ok, but I missed out on the curry paste. Completely forgot about it. Brought it back to Delle and Paul, and they seemed to like it. But they said one something was missing. It was the curry paste.
Second batch was made with the curry paste and the flavor was getting there. Something still wasn't quite right.
It took three batches to finally get the taste to where it is now. Its spicy, sweet, savory, creamy and completely unique. A bunch of our other friends tried it and they agreed. It was fit to join the lineup.
Out of all the flavors or concepts that have ran through my head this is probably my favorite. Partly because it opened up the floodgates as to what was possible with beef jerky, but mainly because it was inspired by a friend. This is also the only flavor I’m not sick of yet. Haha.
Despite the thought of “oooh, thai curry flavored jerky? Weird” which crosses a lot of peoples minds, it is a really good flavor. Something very unique that lingers with you. I hope you get a chance to try this. It definitely sets OoohMami apart from other brands. It’s quickly becoming a signature flavor.
P.S. the red curry paste I use is vegan and the recipe can also be made vegan and onto mushroom jerky (which I also heard “slaps”
Shout out to Sean Takehara for the picture as well!