FOOD FOR THOUGHT

By Wanda A. Adams
Advertiser Food Editor

Last year, my year-end column was a rant about things I don't understand in the culinary world (i.e., waiters who interrupt you while you're talking to see "how you're doing"). This year I'm going to celebrate Christmas with a column about what I want (not with any expectation whatsoever of getting these things in time for Christmas or any other holiday, you understand).

(Deep breath.) Here goes.

I want:

• Well-made, fresh-baked artisanal bread in every grocery store. Ditto fresh herbs, locally grown produce, organic and whole foods and a decent cheese selection. These, to me, are daily necessities, not "specialty foods."

• Wine kiosks in grocery stores where you could get information to help you choose a wine. In an ideal world, this would be a computer that would allow you to search by profile (varietal, style, body, country of origin, price) and get recommendations. Or you could plug in the name of a wine and get a description of it, its Wine Spectator rating and so on. (OK, so it would need to duplicate Chuck Furuya's brain — I bet it would help wine sales immeasurably.)

• Drive-through espresso bars all over town. Also, drive-through plate-lunch places.

• Trader Joe's, the Mainland grocery chain that wraps natural foods, specialty foods and mainstream groceries all into one outlet. I've heard from someone who has tried to interest them in this market that one barrier is that they'd need to open more than one store in order to make shipping costs feasible. I have four words for Mr. Trader Joe: Borders Books & Music. Before Borders came here, the general belief was that Hawai'i isn't a reading kind of place. Then Borders opened in Waikele and racked up first-month numbers that had the accountants' eyes popping out. I believe they could put a Trader Joe's in Honolulu, on the Windward side and on Maui and surprise themselves.

• An end to ingredient "redlining." When I moved from Makiki to Kamehameha Heights, I found that even the same grocery chains had very different product mixes based on the apparent perception that no one who cooks with Italian parsley or goat cheese would live in Kalihi. I understand why this is, but I don't like it.

• Information. I think supermarkets do a very poor job of communicating with customers. They make almost no effort to educate people about ingredients — Foodland's Island-of-origin labeling program is an exception significant for its rarity. Even in the fresh-food departments, it's difficult to find out where a particular food came from and how it's best prepared.

Shelf talkers, cooking demonstrations, information kiosks, recipe giveaways, store tours (Kokua Market does them) all could help increase sales while creating more informed consumers.What if the grocery chains had regional chefs who went from store to store doing food demos, sharing recipes, talking (and listening) to customers, doing store tours?

Dream on, Wanda.