QUICK BITES
Convention center to put on bake sale
By Wanda A. Adams
Advertiser Food Editor
If you're in Waikiki or at Ala Moana Center in the next few days, and in the market for goodies to take to a party or as a holiday gift, the nearby Hawai'i Convention Center's food and beverage department has a suggestion. They're preparing Christmas puddings, baked banana gao, mulled cider-flavored rum cake and sugarplum bonbons for sale in packages with prices ranging from $3 to $8. The bake sale is open from 2 to 5 p.m. today, 2 to 5 p.m. tomorrow and 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday.
While you're there, check out Kalikimaka Castle, 26 by 18 feet and built from gingerbread.
You'll find both on the meeting-room level, third floor, mauka. Parking is $3 or free with at least a $10 baked-goods purchase. Information: 943-3500
Jackie Lau does dinner in New York
The final dinner in a series sponsored by the Hawai'i Visitors and Convention Bureau at the James Beard House in New York will feature the cuisine of Jacqueline Lau of Roy's Waikoloa Bar & Grill on the Big Island. Lau was the first chef de cuisine of Roy's Hawai'i Kai flagship restaurant, oversaw the expansion of Roy's to Tokyo and Guam and returned to Hawai'i, where she worked on Maui at Nicolina's, moving to Waikoloa in 1996. She also is corporate executive chef of Roy's Restaurants Hawai'i.
Lau is planning a six-course menu with multiple pupu. Among the dishes: opakapaka carpaccio with young ginger, kukui nuts and fried ogo, crispy Hawaiian moi with truffled daikon ponzu salad, steamed ginger chicken lau-lau, kabayaki-roasted shutome with oxtail, shiitake and escargot and Kamuela Pride filet of beef with poke onions and inamona butter. 'Ono loa!
Center gets new spot for Chinese
California Wok, a chain of Chinese take-out spots featuring dishes made with fresh vegetables, low-sodium sauce, canola oil and no MSG, has opened at Ala Moana Center, on the first level next to Macy's. The California restaurants netted a recommendation from the Zagat Survey in 1999, among "best to go" spots.
The menu is composed primarily of dishes familiar to Westerners, from both the northern and Southern Chinese traditions — kung pao chicken, chow mein, hot spicy orange flavor beef, lemon chicken, wonton soup and so on.
The restaurant details fat and calorie content on many menu items and will modify dishes to the diner's request — steamed instead of fried, no sugar or salt, without meat, and so on. Especially light and low-fat dishes are marked on the menu.
The restaurant delivers within four miles of Ala Moana with a $10 minimum order at lunch or a $15 minimum order at dinner. Information: 947-1332.
Chef Mike Barry next demo guest
Chef Peter Merriman's next guest for his monthly free cooking demonstration at Whaler's Village will be Mike Barry of Leilani's on the Beach, who will share a recipe for spicy 'ahi salad with papaya lime dressing and tropical fruit salsa.
Another feature, "Cooking' at the Village with Peter Merriman," is broadcast life from the Hula Grill Barefoot Bar at Whalers Village from 2 to 3 p.m. each Wednesday on KAOI Radio on Maui. The show is aimed at home cooks and covers practical advice and tips, interviews with local farmers and producers and recipes and trivia questions.
Quick Bites runs every Wednesday in The Advertiser's food section. Food editor Wanda A. Adams welcomes tidbits of food news. Write to her at The Advertiser, P.O. Box 3110, Honolulu, HI 96802. Phone 525-8069; e-mail taste@honoluluadvertiser.com.
