Remembering Diamond Head, Remembering Hawai'i
"...a cookbook called Remembering Diamond Head, Remembering Hawaii, with recipes for the cafe's muffins, somen salad, mochi chicken and 248 other wonderful dishes, interspersed with family stories and entertaining history of Hawaii's multicultural cuisine."  --Ann Arbor Observer, Oct, 1999"In her part of the narrative, Parola takes pains to explain what Hawaiian cuisine is, and what it is not.  It's not just the traditional dishes of ethnic Hawaiians--the roast pig, coconut pudding and poi...it's the original Pacific Rim cuisine reflecting all the ethinc groups and races that have settled there."  --Flint Journal Nov. 15, 1999"Particularly impressive is the friendly tone; as warm-hearted as a chat over a cup of Kona coffee." --Writer’s Digest Self-Published Book Awards” (2004)"Some of the best narrative writing I've ever read in cookbook... highly interesting, entertaining and educational.'  --Jim Barnes, Managing Editor, Independent Publisher Online"The best narrative writing found in a cookbook." --Midwest Review of Books, 2000...goes to great lengths to explain the peculiarities of a cuisine that mixes American and Asian cooking styles... --Detroit Metro Times, May 3, 2000Long before Hawaii Regional Cuisine, there was Shirley Tong Parola, who taught Midwesterners to love crispy won tons and teriyaki sticks. Later they were on the menu at her Diamond Head Cafe in Ann Arbor, MI. Parola has co-authored a cookbook with her daughter Lisa Parola Gaynier. "Remembering Diamond Head, Remembering Hawai'i," is part culinary history, part nostalgia, part community cookbook. Born in Canton, China, raised in Hawaii, Parola focuses on Chinese disches, but her tastes encompass all of the ethnic variety Hawaii has to offer. Her father was a Chinese paniolo on Molokai, and her mother Chinese-Hawaiian.  Parola moved her family to Indiana for graduate school and then to Flint, MI., where she chaired the Flint International Institute's Summer Ethnic Festivals. Her booth, where she sold two won tons for a quarter and teriyaki sticks for 25 cents each, was among the biggest moneymakers. Lisa left grad school to open the Diamond Head Cafe. The book began as a! n outgrowth of customer requests for recipes. --The Honolulu Advertiser by Joan Clarke, Advertiser Food EditorLong before Hawaii Regional Cuisine, there was Shirley Tong Parola, who taught Midwesterners to love crispy wontons and teriyaki sticks. --Joan Clarke, Food editor, Honolulu Advertiser