Taste
Party-givers stray from typical menu
By Kaui Philpotts
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| Presentation is everything, according to party givers Karen and Leland Miyano, below. They set out a beautiful table arrangement in their home garden with fruit, soup and salad, right.
Deborah Booker • The Honolulu Advertiser Tips for your special party Master party givers Karen and Leland Miyano offer advice: Everything is in the presentation. Try to think of an unusual way to present even ordinary foods to make it more fun. Find a theme. Place the foods in unusual containers or edible ones such as individual loaves of bread. Remember that Halloween is not the only time you can dress up. Choosing unusual locations for your party is fun. Go someplace that people have been wanting to go. When parties get too big, people break up into little groups. The Miyanos think 12 people is ideal. Have guests participate in the cooking. Make things like fajitas, shish kabobs or summer rolls that they can assemble themselves. Ideas are catching. They breed other ideas in your friends. Live music can make a party. Draft a friend or family member to play Hawaiian music. You'll be surprised at the people who are soon up doing a hula. |
The Miyanos are talking about these things while enjoying the gentle rain falling around the garden pavilion at their house in Kahalu'u, sipping fresh ginger ale she has just made.
The Miyanos, renowned party-givers with diverse circles of friends, are the sort of people with that certain zest and aliveness that makes them fun to be around. They exude kindness and generosity. Their friends still talk about the Egyptian party they gave more than a year ago in their garden, for which everyone arrived in costume.
Many of their friends are artists. And, with artists, costumes are never a simple thing. The results were something of which Aida would have been proud. And then there was Karen's menu: stuffed grape leaves piled in the shape of a pyramid, red lentil soup with saffron, tabbouleh, Cornish game hens seasoned with cumin and chiles (a friend wished aloud that the fowl would arrive flaming on swords, as he remembers from the movie "Cleopatra!"), all on edible bread plates.
The couple did everything themselves. "I'm good at chopping," said Leland, a landscape designer and sculptor responsible for the look of many Hawai'i resorts, as well as the acclaimed gardens of The Contemporary Museum in Makiki Heights. He also makes the couple's costumes and tends their vast garden, which he uses as a kind of laboratory for his work, as well as a source of materials for decorating their events.
The Miyanos delight in telling about one of their more far-reaching theme parties, held at the Movie Museum in Kaimuki during a showing of the film, "Genghis Blues." Karen loves to research foods and try new things, but this one almost stumped her. "They eat things like marmot out in Mongolia," explained Leland. "You can get bubonic plague from them!" (You also can't find marmot meat in the local supermarket.)
In the end, the menu included lamb with lots of spices in dumplings, a watercress salad "made by maidens from the spring," "faux marmot," wild mushrooms "gathered from the steppes," all served in big iron pots. "Everyone was having so much fun we almost forgot to watch the movie," recalls Leland. They called their event "Springtime in Tuva."
Then there was the night they showed "A Thousand Clowns," a movie which takes place above a Chinese restaurant. The meal was Chinese take-out. Later, one friend asked that they help with his birthday party, which he staged in a Chinese retail shop downtown.
Karen, whose day job is cooking for 170 preschool children at Rainbow School, not only loves the cooking and preparation for parties but has a passion for displaying food. For one party she did with a Polynesian theme, she built a volcano made of purple mashed Okinawan sweet potato, with orange-y jams for the lava.
"It's fun to play with food. My mom always did," said Karen, who is Italian to the core, and was raised in the Little Italy section of Cincinnati. It was a neighborhood where everyone made their own wine and there were barrels of olives in the stores. Her grandfather owned a small apartment building with four units, and the entire family lived there.
"When we did anything, the whole family got involved and creative. We put up vegetables and made pasta, and never measured anything," Karen said. "When you grow up around colorful food, it never leaves you." She loves reading cookbooks for inspiration, but rarely follows the recipes, she admits.
"I wish families would cook more together, like making chutney. It's the time you spend together that's so wonderful — and you make something from it. So much joy can come from food."
A staunch believer in serving whole foods, Karen makes sure her preschoolers get lots of fruit and vegetables. "They love broccoli and garlic," she says, because she started them young on these foods that many young people scorn. She serves barley soup and borscht, and they eat 'em up. She's concerned about the health of the children, who with busy working parents, often end up eating a lot of fast food.
"Many people today don't know how to cook, and their health is compromised," she said. "They mustn't be intimated, because it's easy." When people tell her they can't find the time to cook good meals, she thinks that perhaps they need to take a closer look at their lives and make some adjustments.
Karen is able to prepare healthy meals even on the couple's hectic schedule because, she says, she plans ahead and is always prepared for surprises. She will plan a meal and then adjust it to what she finds is fresh in the market. Another secret is a well-stocked pantry. "I'm never without capers, olives, roasted peppers, balsamic vinegar, olive oil, garlic and dried beans" — ingredients that come from her heritage.
The look of the food served is important to both Miyanos. They never use disposable paper plates or utensils, even on picnics. Instead, Karen looks for unusual, often inexpensive plates in thrift shops and markets. Her collection is growing. On an outing to the sandbar in Kane'ohe Bay recently, they served a Moroccan feast on the deck of a boat complete with grilled lamb and pistachios on blue and white tin plates. The boat was festooned with palm fronds from their garden. They are against using paper napkins too, preferring to launder cloth ones and save the environment from more trash.
Leland suggests decorating platters and trays of food with edible leaves and flowers such as nasturtiums, garlic chives, begonias, yucca, roses, orchids, hibiscus, violets, monstera, ti leaves and day lilies. "But when in doubt, don't use the plant," cautions Leland, because we have so many poisonous tropical varieties in our homes and gardens. Call an expert before placing food in contact with a plant, such as someone at the Lyon Arboretum or the University of Hawai'i.
These simple, healthy dishes are from Karen Miyano's Italian background. They were often prepared during the summer, when it was too hot to cook. The recipes also reveal her preference for healthful raw or nearly raw foods.
Summer Pasta
- 1 pound chopped ripe tomatoes
- 4 tablespoons olive oil
- 1/4 cup chopped fresh basil leaves
- 2 cloves minced fresh garlic
- 2 tablespoons capers
- 1/8 teaspoon sea salt
- Freshly ground pepper to taste
- 9 ounces fresh linguine
- Grated asiago cheese
Combine in large bowl tomatoes, olive oil, basil leaves, garlic, capers, salt and pepper.
In a large pot, cook the linguine according to directions. It should be al dente, with a little chewiness left at the core. Drain and add to the bowl of tomato mixture while hot. Toss and sprinkle with grated asiago cheese. Serve immediately. Serves 2 to 4.
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This simple soup is one you can make for a few or many.
Spinach Soup
- Spinach
- Chicken broth
- Parmesan cheese
- Pepper
- Nutmeg
- Lemon juice
Chiffonade enough fresh spinach (washed and stems removed) to fill as many large soup bowls as you wish. Top each mound with grated Parmesan cheese, a grinding of pepper and a sprinkle of nutmeg.
Heat a cup of chicken broth for each bowl, adding a squeeze of lemon for each, as well. Ladle the hot broth into each bowl and stir to wilt the spinach.
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Miyano got this recipe from the magazine Martha Stewart Living, and it has become a favorite.
Roasted Eggplant and Red Pepper Soup
- 2 large eggplants
- 3 red or yellow bell peppers
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- 2 large red onions, finely chopped
- 4 cloves garlic, finely chopped
- 1 teaspoon or more salt
- Freshly ground black pepper
- 1 1/2 quarts homemade chicken stock, or 1 quart canned chicken stock with à quart water
- Pinch cayenne pepper
- 3 tablespoons snipped chives
Heat a grill or turn on the broiler. Cook the eggplants and bell peppers until completely charred, turning to all sides — about 8 to 10 minutes.
Remove the peppers, place them in a deep bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Set aside; the skins will loosen in the warm, moist atmosphere.
Slice the cooled eggplants and scoop out the soft flesh, avoiding the charred skin. Discard skins.
Remove the pepper from the bowl and reserve any juices. Rub off the charred skin, rinsing your hands under cool water frequently. Slice peppers in half and remove seeds and stems. Coarsely chop peppers. Set aside.
In a stock pot, heat the olive oil and saute the onions and garlic until soft, about 15 minutes. Add the salt and pepper, eggplant flesh and peppers (reserving some for garnish); simmer for 15 minutes. Add the chicken stock, cayenne pepper and pepper juices; simmer another 15 minutes. Remove from stove, set aside and allow to cool.
Fill the bowl of a food processor or blender with soup mixture and process in batches until it has all been pureed. Warm the soup in a pot and season with salt and pepper. Pour into bowls and garnish with some reserved chopped pepper and chives. Serves 8.
