Tokemoana’s in Redwood City Is Teaching the Bay Area to Love Tongan Food | Eater SF

"In a bright yellow storefront on Middlefield Road in Redwood City, I found Tokemoana’s tucked into a very small space (about 100 square feet in the front with a kitchen twice that size) where customers bustle in and out, phoning in orders, picking up takeout, and browsing coolers stocked with root vegetables shipped from Tonga and Polynesian mango and banana drinks. One year after opening just before the COVID-19 pandemic, the business is doing well enough that owner Fusi Taaga is planning a second location, and it stands out as one of only five Polynesian restaurants in the Bay Area and the sole option on the Peninsula. The menu is largely traditional Tongan food — taro cooked in coconut milk, braised turkey tails, lu pulu (corned beef in taro leaves and coconut cream), lu sipi, feke (octopus in coconut cream), povi masima, kale moa, sosisi, and sapasui — with root vegetables and coconut as cornerstones and meats made tender by long braises; Taaga sources taro, cassava, and yam from her father Tokemoana’s farm in Tonga, which she presents as part of his legacy. I noticed some nontraditional additions too, like tuk/sinaloa loaded fries and chicken katsu, and that fries in particular draw younger Polynesians who often bring food back for older relatives; on weekends the kitchen turns out 15–20 trays of popular dishes and customers travel from the Central Valley and Monterey to stand in line. The operation began as a wholesale and catering service in Utah and emphasizes authentic Tongan flavors (though the coconut cream used here is canned from Thailand rather than fresh-from-the-coconut as it would be in Tonga), and the family-run kitchen — led by Taaga, her brother Kalolo Mahafutau, and Vanessa Mahafutau — starts work as early as 3 a.m. to serve the community. I see Tokemoana’s not just as a restaurant but as a bridge to Tonga and an invitation for non-Polynesians to taste home, and it’s open Wednesday through Sunday, 11 a.m.–5 p.m., at 3102 Middlefield Road." - Ray Levy Uyeda