QUICK BITES
Go see what's Made in Hawai'i
By Wanda A. Adams
Advertiser Food Editor
Worth an excursion this weekend is the annual Made in Hawai'i show Friday through Sunday at the Neal Blaisdell Center. The show features daily cooking demonstrations by Hawai'i chefs.
Admission is $2 per person, and free for children younger than 6. You can get dollar-off coupons at First Hawaiian Bank branches around O'ahu.
Many exhibitors from the Hawaii Food Industry Association will be on hand offering samples of their wares and selling goodies, too.
This is a great place to find out what the food trends are and to pick up gift items at reduced introductory prices.
The schedule:
- Friday: 2 p.m., Mark Ellman of Maui Tacos and Penne Pasta Café; 4 p.m., Khamtan Tanhchaleum, Ko'olau Golf Club; 6 p.m., Bill Bruhl, Ryan's Grill.
- Saturday: Noon, Glenn Chu, Indigo Eurasian Cuisine; taping of Hawai'i's Kitchen with Brickwood Galuteria, featuring Troy Teruya of the Catch of the Day Sushi; 4 p.m., Mike Irish, Halm's Enterprises; 6 p.m., Ivan Pahk, Sansei Seafood Restaurant & Sushi Bar.
- Sunday: Noon, Elmer Guzman, Sam Choy's Diamond Head Restaurant; 2 p.m., Steven Ariel, The Pineapple Room.
Hours for the show are noon to 9 p.m. Friday; 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Saturday and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Sunday.
Among the vendors' products you will encounter tropical butter spreads, Liko Lehua Products of Hilo; Moloka'i breads, cookies and lavosh from Kanemitsu Bakery; marinated fresh fish products by Ohana Seafoods; seasonings by Som' Good Things and Hawaiian Kine; macadamia cooking oils by Oils of Aloha; chocolates by Sweet Aloha Chocolates, Hawaiian Host; fruit curds and scone mixes by Planted by the River; sausages by Uncle Louie Sausage Co. of Maui; cookies and party mix by All Butter Dreams; microwave mochi by Happy Foods; Hawaiian herbal tea by Big Kahuna, baked goods from Angel Café and more.
It's how you say it that matters
A letter from a reader, R. V. Taibbi of Honolulu, asked how it could be that a waiter in a popular Chinese restaurant here had never heard of moo goo gai pan. Well, that would be because moo goo gai pan is the westernized name for a dish, mah gu gai pin, which is said to mean fresh mushrooms cooked with sliced chicken.
Versions of the dish are very popular in Chinese restaurants in the eastern United States — one suspects, in part, because the name sounds funny to Western ears. It certainly seems to be a favorite of comedians.
Recipes vary widely in complexity and subtlety but the central ingredients are always strips of boneless chicken, marinated (often in wine, a soy-ginger blend or a cornstarch mixture) and then stir-fried with button mushrooms, often bamboo shoots or water chestnuts and other crunchy fresh vegetables finished with a soy/oyster sauce/ginger sauce.
Stalking elusive licorice powder
A frustrated reader called a while back asking where she could find licorice powder.
I suggested quite a few stores that deal in specialty ingredients, but she'd tried them all; I was stumped. Then, playing around on the Internet, I found the answer: Our own Jade Foods, the one that makes crack seed here in Hawai'i, sells licorice powder. Jade's food products are available all over the Islands, but not all stores carry the full line. However, you can buy directly from them at 94-476 Ko'aki St., Waipahu. They're open from 7 a.m. to 3:15 p.m. Phone 678-8886.
Another source is www.dcimports.com, which offers Swart Wit Salmiak Powder, licorice powder imported from Europe, in a tube for $1.29. In the course of my search, I was intrigued to find that licorice is beloved seemingly the world over. One site, www.licoriceinternational.com, stocks licorice confections from eight European countries and the United States.
I learned, too, that licorice powder comes in both sweet and spicier forms. Licorice purists, I learned, are fanatics about the difference between products made from real licorice root and those concocted from artificial flavors.
Send items of culinary interest to Wanda Adams, Taste, Honolulu Advertiser, P.O. Box 3110, Honolulu, HI 96802. Fax: 525-8055. E-mail: taste@honoluluadvertiser.com.
