Ebinomi - Back Stories

This is not a page easily accessible so if you are here then you must be genuinely curious about us and/or the dishes.

Of course our menu lineup is based on perceived demands, but there is a back story to almost everything we chose to offer on our menu....

Hungarian Short Ribs

This is one dish we perhaps get more questions than any other dish we offer....

What makes our Hungarian Short Ribs 'special'?

Our short ribs have 4 major components: the beef, the potatoes, the carrots, and the sauce. Each of these has to be prepared and cooked differently to ensure a final product that meets our standards:

the beef

We use premium USDA Choice grade boneless short ribs. First we season them, then we slow cook them 48 hours to tenderness without losing all the fat that contributes to the taste.

the potato and the carrots

We use organic potatoes and carrots from local farms. These are cooked separately to make sure they are cooked "just right" - tender but not mushy, and retain their unique flavors. Carrots taste likes carrots. Potatoes taste like potatoes.

the sauce

We use tomato sauce with wine, brown sugar and vinegar the major ingredients (we don't use 'ketchup' so there is no HFCS in the sauce).

then these components are cooked together before serving to our customers.

We are a shrimp shop, what are we doing with a "beef " dish?

EbiNomi started operation at the worst time possible - Covid-19. People were mandated to stay home, so we had to offer dishes that would sit right on the dinner table. With our EbiCurry and Chicken a la King being well received, we were also asked by many guests to offer a beef dish. So here we are.

Why do we have different "versions"?

Whereas the unique recipe of our Hungarian sauce remains the same, the different "versions" have to do with the cuts of beef we use for the stew and the way they are cooked.

Different cuts have different taste and textures, and we have been experimenting with them as well as testing their popularities with our guests.

We have finally decided that the boneless beef short ribs give the best combination of lean vs. fat.

Ver 1	Bone-in short ribs	Great flavor and textures; but the bones make it a low meat to weight ratio therefore not the best value for the money.
Ver 2	Beef stew (round)	We cook it till tender but the lack of fat makes this dry and rough to the mouth. This version is for guest who doesn't like any fat in their meat.
Ver 3	Drop flank	Great flavor and best texture. The flank meat is the part of the meat that gives it the meaty texture. The tendon, will become soft and gelatinous and the silver skin will hold it all together. We transform this to an incredibly soft and delicious cut of meat.
Ver 4	Boneless short ribs	Good flavor, some fat but not as dry as Ver 2. This is our current offering.
Ver 5	Beef shin	The shin, or the shank, is the front lower leg muscle of the cow. It offers a mixture of lean and gelatinous meat and great flavor and texture. We slow cook this for 24 hours to tender.

What is the history of this recipe?

It was 2017 we were traveling through Eastern Europe, we were in this beautiful, fairy tale kind of town named Český Krumlov, a city in the South Bohemia region of the Czech Republic.

Dinnertime came around and we followed our noses to a small but quaint restaurant named Le Jardin, which specialized in Czech and French food. The special that night was "hovězí krátká žebra" (Beef Short Ribs).

We took a real liking to it as we complimented the chef. After dinner, he came out and we chatted for a good half hour. It turns out he is Hungarian and the dish is from his home country of Hungary. He saw that I liked it so much he was nice enough to let me have the recipe.

So from Hungary to Czechia, and now to Waikiki