Courtney Love just served me a Bellini. Okay, she just looked like C-Love, but her attitude was more Cobain–salty, sexy and full of don’t-piss-me-off.
The open road of drive-by delicacies (what we’ll affectionately call “highway food”) can consist of anything from a lady selling pickled mango out of her trunk to the guy popping Kettle Korn passenger side. More often than not, we’ll just drive right past these institutions and leave them in the dust as we watch their humble reflections grow faint in our rearviews because really, who’s in the mood for that one little fill-in-the-blank they’re selling?
Da Spot 2469 S. King St., 941-1313 Eating in a garage on King Street isn’t exactly my dream dinner spot.
SALT Kitchen and Tasting Bar is not Kevin Hanney’s dream restaurant. It is, as he calls it, his “second plan B,” with 12th Ave Grill being the first.
Kaiseki is a formal, almost ceremonial, Japanese cuisine devoted to a series of small courses. It’s as much about taste as it is the textures, the colors of the food, the vessel it’s served in and the seasons reflected in each menu.
We don’t have a little Italy here, but we do have more than 41 “Italian” restaurants on the island of Oahu. We don’t have an Olive Garden either, but we do have ye Old Spaghetti Factory.
Honolulu is not an ice cream town. San Francisco, despite summer days being a full 30 degrees cooler than our average day, seems to open a new ice cream parlor every season, exploring flavors from salted caramel to secret breakfast (cornflakes and bourbon).
In 2004, the açai phenomenon began. First there was the super-berry, multi-level marketing campaign that sold the juice for $40 a bottle (and never stopped charging peoples’ credit cards).
Madre Chocolate, Uncle Clay / A recent glance at food projects on crowdfunding sites like IndieGoGo and Kickstarter yielded a slew of micro-breweries waiting to be funded from San Francisco to Louisville, Kentucky to Denton, Texas. Sites like these give entrepreneurs a medium through which to gather public support and funds for nearly anything imaginable.
Umami Cafe, Tango Market / I’m a fairly easy casual diner who doesn’t need arse-kissing. I don’t need someone to wipe my crumbs or applaud me for ordering bruschetta while pronouncing it correctly.
San Francisco / This is an article about San Francisco and its current dining scene. This isn’t to say that I couldn’t find anything to write about in Honolulu–quite the opposite, really.
Kahuku Farm's Country Store / The legacy of the vanilla bean goes something like this: An Aztec princess flees to a forest with her lover. Forbidden by her father from marrying a mortal, she and her beloved are eventually captured and beheaded, and when their blood touches the ground, vanilla planifolia grows.
Shawn Steiman’s mother apparently wasn’t worried about her son rocketing off the walls from heavy caffeine dosage. Her lax regulation of his coffee intake–starting before fifth grade–led to his life as the coffee world’s equivalent of a sommelier.
Let Them Eat Cupcakes, Cake Couture, Hokulani Bakeshop / Do cupcake shops keep opening because we actually keep eating those indulgent, conveniently-shaped treats? While the delicate texture and vibrant colors of macaroons have become a staple, and the cake pop even shows up once in a while, few people will refuse a cupcake solely on the grounds that it’s no longer in vogue.
For those of you who rarely make it past the first few paragraphs, know this: I am about to write a rave review about a place you probably haven’t been to yet. I can actually say, that after one meal, I’ve been inspired.
Anne Burrell / With her bleached, spiky blond hair, Anne Burrell is Food Network’s female version of Guy Fieri. She has her own series, Secrets of a Restaurant Chef, and co-hosts Worst Cooks in America, which puts home cooks through culinary bootcamp.
Food & Drink / What are you having for lunch today? Are you going out to buy a meat jun plate?
Cinco de Mayo / Sure, Cinco de Mayo is a fabricated American holiday, created in the same vein as St. Patrick’s Day–an excuse to party and eat “ethnic” foods and drinks that make us as sloppy as an enchilada.
Zippy’s / As the research and development chef for Zippy’s, Wayne Komamura’s approach to local is unsentimental. We were discussing how Zippy’s came to use local beef in their hamburger patties and Komamura’s answers to my questions are markedly different from other locavore chefs (not that he would identify himself as such).
Tea Farm Cafe / Sometimes it’s nice to see how the other half lives. And by other half, I mean tea drinkers.
Food & Drink / Being sustainable is an uphill battle against hundreds of years of human innovation. No wonder it’s so freakin’ hard.
Henry “Hank” Adaniya / Before he became famous for his gourmet hotdogs, Henry “Hank” Adaniya was renowned for his cutting-edge restaurant, Trio, in Evanston, Ill. Though it’s since closed, Trio was credited with launching the career of several chefs who went on to win James Beard Awards.
Eat the Street / Foodies. Chowhounds.
Downbeat Diner and Lounge / Depleted after making party faces at Next Door? Are things certainly not right with you after you got done getting right at Manifest?
Orchids at the Halekulani Hotel / Everyone, it seems, loves sustainable foods and farmers–but it’s going to take more than affection to save them. Organic comprises just 3.7 percent of all US food sales, while 86 percent of the US corn crop is genetically modified (GM); GM alfalfa and sugar beets won USDA approval this year, while fast-growing GM farmed salmon wait in the wings.
After retiring from public service in 2002, Ben Cayetano seemed to be taking it easy on the political scene–until 2005, that is, when then-Mayor Mufi Hannemann revived the long-lapsed idea of a Honolulu heavy rail project. Needless to say, Cayetano did not concur.
Last Thursday, the House Committee on Energy and Environmental Protection had a busy session hearing several controversial bills relating to geothermal energy. Chairman Denny Coffman introduced HB2689, which seeks to exempt slim-hole, or exploratory, geothermal test wells from any sort of environmental review as is currently required under Chapter 343 of the Hawaii Revised Statutes.
On Feb. 1, the Hawaii State House Agriculture Committee heard testimony on HB2703, dubbed the Food Self-Sufficiency Bill.
Mega-developer Castle & Cooke has re-filed an application with the Land Use Commission (LUC) seeking to convert approximately 768 acres of Ag land–currently in cultivation–into a “master-planned community” entitled Koa Ridge. If successful, the project will consist of two parcels–Koa Ridge Makai and Castle & Cooke Waiawa.
Office of Hawaiian Affairs holds a second round of community meetings to discuss the latest updates on the Kakaako land settlement. Stevenson Middle School, 1202 Prospect St., Wed., 2/8, 6:30pm; Waimanalo Community Center, 41-253 Ilauhole St., Thu., 2/9, 6:30pm City Council committees on Zoning and Planningand Transportation will take public testimony on agenda items.
[Feb. 1: “Kinda Kona”] The trade secret argument would fall to the wayside if it would read “10 percent Kona Coffee 90 percent Foreign Coffee,” or something to that effect.
If they are choosing the cheapest coffee from anywhere, then the “trade secret” is that they are adding crap and not a sp
[Feb. 1: “Rail Boss Wanted”] $300,000?
[Jan. 4: “Boss GMO] Dean Okimoto is a sell out and a criminal.
Monsanto is a major component of the NWO drive to reduce the world’s population in a global genocide program that includes the poisoning of the water, air and food. This criminal activity must be stopped.
Lets be real here, Dean Okimoto is not interested in anything other then keeping the status quo of industrial Ag. He is merely a puppet, playing it safe, a small game of following the money and corrupt political trail.
[Jan. 25: “Weaving the Future on Molokai”] Good luck to all those who possess the ability to balance long-term vision with short term opportunity.
[Dec. 21: “Underground Railroad”] This is, indeed, a “lunatic project,” as pointed out by a professor at the University of Hawaii.
This is such a bad idea for the overall architecture of Oahu. I visit here because my family is here and part of the charm is taking the bus or driving.
I cannot imagine how anyone can think this is a smart idea. I’ve lived in places with rail, but this Honolulu Rail Transit is stupid, plain stupid.
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