QUICK BITES
La vida loco moco
By Wanda A. Adams
Advertiser Food Editor
No. 4 on Saveur magazine's list of 100 "favorite food, drinks, restaurants, people, places and things," in its January/February issue, is Hawai'i's own loco moco. It's headlined "Craziest Island Lunch" and includes a recipe, too. Saveur ("savor a world of authentic cuisine") manages to be both serious about food and unpretentious about it at the same time. Lots of selections on the fifth annual 100 list are pretty down-home, including a source for hard-to-find soda pops, Chinese-style shrimp toasts, Royal Dansk cookies (yes, the ones you buy at Costco at Christmas), ma po tofu and panko (Japanese bread crumbs). The magazine will be on newsstands Jan. 7.
Farm featured
Terrence Shintani's Green Growers farm in Hau'ula is featured in the January/February issue of the Growing Edge, a trade magazine for farmers and plant nurseries. The cover position and four-page spread, with photos by farmer/writer Gerald Y. Kinro, discuss the hydroponic growing operation's trials and tribulations with various pests, and the techniques it's developed to tackle the critters, including crop rotation and plastic mulches. The farm produced 9,000 pounds per acre per week in the past year, up from 7,000 pounds a week in recent years.
Operatic eats
It's always a tough call: Where do you go for dinner before an event at the Blaisdell Concert Hall? The few restaurants closest to the hall are always booked. And going somewhere farther away seems risky: What if service takes so long that you miss the curtain? Hawaii Opera Theatre has kindly given all this some thought and inaugurated a fixed-price dinner arrangement with 18 Honolulu restaurants — an entree and beverage package designed to get you out of the door in one hour on the Tuesday and Friday evenings of the opera's 2003 season. (Sunday matinees are not included.)
And it's a widely varying menu: Aaron's Atop the Ala Moana, 3660 on the Rise, Brew Moon, Buca di Beppo, Cafe Sistina, California Beach Rock 'n' Sushi, Chart House, Compadres, Dave and Buster's, Jose's at Restaurant Row, Kincaid's Fish, Chop and Steak House, Mediterraneo Italian Restaurant, Outback Steakhouse, Palomino, Ryan's Grill, Sarento's Top of the I, Sunset Grill and the Pineapple Room. You should call ahead and ask about the menu and specify that you are planning to order that menu when you make your reservations. Fixed-price menus are available for the following performances: "Eugene Onegin," Jan. 31 and Feb. 4; "The Magic Flute," Feb. 14 and 18; "La Boheme," Feb. 24 and March 4.
Kona cookbook
"Kona on My Plate," the Kona Outdoor Circle cookbook that impressed me (see the Dec. 4 Food for Thought column), is now available for pick-up on O'ahu. You still have to call Kona to order to the book, (808) 329-7286, or see www.konacookbook.com, but you can pick up your book when it comes in at the outdoor group's office, 1314 S. King, Suite 306, generally open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays (but call first, 593-0030).
News of culinary interest should be sent to Taste, The Honolulu Advertiser, P.O. Box 3110, Honolulu, HI 96802. Fax: 525-8055. E-mail: taste@honoluluadvertiser.com.
