PICS: Taste of Kapolei

Photos by Aaron Yoshino
Special to the Star-Advertiser

Photos from the “Taste of Kapolei” on Saturday September 18th.

Chef Nobu holds cooking demonstration at MA’O farms

Photos by Craig T. Kojima

Chef Nobu and his buddy Chef Yasuhiro Sasajima, right, will be touring MAO Organic Farms and cooking there. Chef Sasajima was tasting the greens.

By JOLEEN OSHIRO
joshiro@staradvertiser.com

World-famous chef Nobu Matsuhisa took his culinary buddy, Kyoto sensation Yasuhiro Sasajima, to MA’O Organic Farms for a cooking demonstration Thursday. The dynamic duo took a short tour of the farm and then commenced to cook in MA’O’s new outdoor kitchen and recently completed earth oven.

Their menu was dazzling: Local Crudite with Kalua Pig Bagna Cauda, featuring a pureed pig and anchovy dip for the freshly picked veggies; Eggplant Trio, comprising grilled eggplant with honey anticucho sauce; Nasu miso; and roasted aubergine with dashi Ponzu and bonito; Crispy Tofu Skin (aburage) with Gazpacho Sauce, featuring WOW tomatoes that provided a refreshing,high-impact flavor; and Ahi and Salmon Donburis, which presented the fish poke style ‹ raw, cubed and seasoned, then mixed with ogo, veggies and roe, and spread atop rice in proper donburi fashion. It was hearty and simply delicious.

Matsuhisa’s in town to present a special Omakase menu ($130) at Nobu Waikiki today and Saturday.

The menu features eight courses, alternating between dishes from Matsuhisa and Sasajima. They include Matsuhisa’s Trio of small bites, comprising Big Eye Ahi and Boton Ebi ‘Pomegranate,’ Uni Tiradito, and King Crab and Heart of Palm Mini Taco with Wasabi Salsa, and Sasajima’s Wagyu Roast with Hanapape salt, oxtail and potato fricassee and poached egg.

Sasajima, owner of Il Ghiottone, Il Ghiottone Cucineria, Trattoria Bar Il Ghiottone and Il Ghiottone Marunouchi, is famous for his Italian-Japanese cuisine and use of local vegetables. Sasajima makes innovative leaps within Shojin tradition, a vegetarian style of cooking established by Buddhist monks.

Matsuhisa calls his friend’s food ‘a revolution.’

Call 237-6999 or visit www.noburestaurants.com/waikiki/index.html.

‘Munch’ at Apartment3 matches cocktails with food

Photos by Jason Genegabus / jason@staradvertiser.com

Apartment3 co-owners Flash Hansen, left, and Matty Hazelgrove, third from left, pose for a picture with executive chef Bob McGee, right, and Better Brands mixologist Joey Gottesman following the inaugural edition of “Munch” at the Century Center restaurant and lounge.

By Jason Genegabus
jason@staradvertiser.com

More than a few restaurants in Honolulu offer special wine dinners, pairing different wines with each course of the meal. Less often, you’ll come across a beer dinner — which, you guessed it, is just like a wine dinner, except beer is the beverage of choice.

At Apartment3, however, executive chef Bob McGee opted to partner with Better Brands’ master mixologist Joey Gottesman and launch “Munch,” a new, monthly three-course meal that matches McGee’s food with Gottesman’s cocktails. The featured liquor at last Thursday’s kickoff dinner was rum; next month’s menu will focus on tequila, while vodka will be the booze of choice in October.

According to an e-mail about the dinner, the cost is $45 per person — plus tax and 20 percent gratuity, which comes out to $56 per person — with a 48-hour cancellation notice and no-show fee in effect. Dinner “starts promptly” at 6:30 p.m. and only 25 seats are available. Call 955-9300 for reservations.

Along with photos from the first meal, click the links below to listen to audio clips from the evening. For more details about “Munch,” visit Apartment3’s website.

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PICS: A tale of two burgers (and a sandwich) on Beretania

Photos by Jason Genegabus / jason@staradvertiser.com

By Jason Genegabus
jason@staradvertiser.com

Honolulu residents should consider themselves pretty lucky to have a number of new options for hamburgers made with quality ingredients in recent years.

Gourmet burger shops like Burgers on the Edge and The Counter have joined longtime favorites like Kua Aina, W&M Burger and even The Pineapple Room (Alan Wong makes a pretty mean burger, you know). If you’re true carnivores like us, then you’ve probably tasted the offerings at Kailua Town Pub, The Shack, Gordon Biersch and 12th Avenue Grill, too.

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PICS: Don the Beachcomber Mai Tai Fest preview

Photos by Jason Genegabus / jason@staradvertiser.com

Some of the entries in the second annual Don the Beachcomber’s “World’s Best Mai Tai” contest, held last Saturday at the Royal Kona Resort on the Big Island.

By Jason Genegabus
jason@staradvertiser.com

It was a whirlwind of a Saturday last weekend, getting dropped off at Honolulu International Airport just after
8 in the morning for a flight to the Big Island to cover the second annual Don the Beachcomber Mai Tai Festival.

Along with a “World’s Best Mai Tai” competition — worth $10,000 for the winning bartender’s recipe — the second day of the two-day event featured a “Battle of the BBQ” contest, live entertainment by local musicians Eric Gilliom and Henry Kapono, a lecture on Don the Beachcomber by Jeff “Beachbum” Berry and an intimate concert by mainland rockers Third Eye Blind.

We’ll have more pictures from the barbeque and Mai Tai contests tomorrow — until then, here are some images posted to the Twitter account for TGIF while everything was going down on Saturday.

(Click on the panoramic shots for larger versions of each image.)

You can see all the posts by searching for the Twitter hashtag #DonsMTF.

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Mango stars during ‘Mangoes at the Moana’

Nadine Kam / nkam@staradvertiser.com

By Joleen Oshiro
joshiro@staradvertiser.com

The Moana Surfrider was bustling last Saturday as the resort kicked off a monthlong festival celebrating the epitome of summer isle fruits — the mango.

Moana’s mango recipe contest invited home cooks to share their unique and delicious dishes with a cheery panel of judges, including myself, Honolulu Star-Advertiser restaurant critic Nadine Kam; Hawaii News Now “Sunrise” anchors Grace Lee and Steve Uyehara; KHON2 “Wake Up 2day” reporter Manolo Morales; Inside Out Magazine managing editor Simplicio Pragas; Melanie Kosaka, co-founder of the foodie website Share Your Table; and Hawaiian Grown TV host and chef Grant Kawasaki.

Host of the event was food writer Wanda Adams, who also contributes monthly to the Star-Advertiser’s food section.

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Take a Bite: Alan Wong’s ‘Eggscellent Recipe Contest’

Star-Advertiser Staff
tgif@staradvertiser.com

August is Egg Month at Alan Wong’s restaurants, where the search is on for cooks to enter an “Eggscellent Recipe Contest.”

Recipes will be accepted in three dinner menu categories: Appetizer, entrée, and dessert. Recipes should be original and must use fresh island eggs as a main component. Entries will be judged on their taste, presentation, use of eggs and originality. The key word is “creative,” rather than typical breakfast or brunch items. Read more

Take a Bite: Abuzz at Alan Wong’s

By Nadine Kam
nkam@staradvertiser.com

Alan Wong’s restaurant was buzzing with energy July 14, when the chef hosted the latest in his Farmer Series Dinners. The subject: “Bee Sustainable.” The special guests: A handful of members of the Hawaiian Honey Bee Co-op, whose honey was present in every dish served.

Dinner guests were first welcomed with a drink menu, which included ice tea and about four cocktails made with honey. Then before the meal was served, guests were able to compare a honey trio in a side-by-side tasting of Kam Highway A5 and Tropical Blossom honey from John Dalire and Linda Kawamoto’s All Hawaiian Honey, and Enchanted Lake honey from Rhea McWilliams Jr.’s Rhea’s Hawaiian Honey.

They really put people on the spot by asking, “Which is your favorite?”

They thought I was being politic when I said I liked all three, but I pretty much speak my mind, so I don’t think anyone who knows me would ever call me politic. I meant what I said. They were all very different, with the Kam Highway A5 and Enchanted Lake honey being mild, and the Tropical Blossom honey being heavy and intense. But as with a lot of ingredients, you pick different ones for different reasons, whether for different interplay with other ingredients or your mood on a certain day. The one thing most clear, they were superior to general supermarket brands. Read more

Take a Bite: Price is Right, Good to Grill style

Photos by Nadine Kam / nkam@staradvertiser.com

Members of the food press were put to the test during a “Price is Right” style challenge at Good to Grill July 15.

By Nadine Kam
nkam@staradvertiser.com

Good to Grill took a novel approach to introducing the food press to its new, lower lunch prices with a “Price is Right” challenge that took place July 15 at the Kapahulu Avenue restaurant.

Members of the media were challenged to come up with the correct prices of 10 lunch dishes presented, with the notion that these prices were going to be lower than comparable dishes around town. Read more

Take a Bite: In the kitchen with Titus Chan

Photos by Nadine Kam / nkam@staradvertiser.com

Chef Titus Chan, right, in the kitchen with former China House chef Kwok Chow Lam and Loretta Wai.

By Nadine Kam
nkam@staradvertiser.com

Before the Food Network existed , there was Titus Chan, one of the original TV chefs along with Julia Child and “Galloping Gourmet” Graham Kerr in the early 1970s.

As one of the trail-blazing stars for PBS, Chan’s popularity led to a national promotional tour of many of its network affiliate cities. He appeared as a guest on “The Mike Douglas Show” as well as “The Merv Griffin Show,” and his success led the way for another Asian-American celebrity chef, Martin Yan (“Yan Can Co0k”). The two remain friends and in 2007, presented a cooking event for 500 guests at Harrah’s in Reno, Nev.

Chan hosted a dinner party for a few dozen friends in Portlock on June 26. But the chef who built a career on teaching the nation how to cook Chinese cuisine, through local and nationally broadcast series such as “The Chan-ese Way” from 1972, “Cooking the Chanese Way” in 1975, “The Flavors of China” in 1977, “The Art of Chanese Cooking” in 1981, and “Aloha China,” acknowledges people have moved on to fusion and other cuisines. Read more

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