HFWF in house at Foodland Farms for Eat Local Tuesdays

Nadine Kam photos
Hawai’i Food & Wine Festival co-founder Roy Yamaguchi was among the chefs offering a preview of the fall foodie event during Foodland’s most recent “Eat Local Tuesdays” tasting.

BY NADINE KAM

In partnership with Foodland’s “Eat Local Tuesdays” tasting series, representatives from the Hawai’i Food & Wine Festival were at Foodland Farms Aina Haina on Aug. 11 to whet shoppers’ appetites for the full-range of epicurean and wine-centric events starting Aug. 29 on the Big Island, before moving on to Maui and arriving back on Oahu on Sept. 9 through 13.

Chef and HFWF co-founder Roy Yamaguchi (Roy’s Restaurant), Keoni Chang (Foodland Supermarket), Mark Noguchi (Pili Group) and Colin Hazama (Royal Hawaiian Hotel) were paired with local farmers and food purveyors including MAʻO Organic Farms, Ho Farms, Hawaiian Crown, and Wow Farm, to offer up tasty bites, sips and curated wine pairings.

Just as in past years, the festival started by Yamaguchi and chef Alan Wong will welcome more than 100 internationally renowned master chefs, culinary personalities, and wine and spirit producers. Funds raised will support local beneficiaries committed to sustainability and cultural and educational programs in Hawaii.
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Visit hawaiifoodandwinefestival.com for the full schedule and ticket information.


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Foodland launched its “Eat Local Tuesdays” tasting series to promote local produce and products, in line with HFWF’s mission to support Hawaii’s culinary scene, farmers, food products and promote sustainability.

Roy served up curry-coated New Zealand salmon topped with crunchy bubu arare, served with WOW Farm tomatoes and shallot sambal.

Shoppers had the opportunity to sample beer with flavors such as sweet potato and banana.

Colin Hazama, who recently made the move from the Sheraton Waikiki to executive chef position at the Royal Hawaiian Hotel, shows his dish, also below, a Taste of Tuscan Twin Bridge Farms starting with ahi prosciutto, with tomato sorbet, Waialua asparagus ribbons and caponata.

Pili Group’s Mark Noguchi with HFWF development manager Aya Nishihara.

The Pili Group offered up refreshing lime and Waiola coconut water-pineapple shooters with Kohana Rum and a cloud of dry ice emanating from the blender before the pour.

OnoPops Josh Lanthier-Welch served up bites of his Kona coffee and butter mochi paletas, perfect on a very hot day. 12th Ave. Grill's Kevin Hanney was also there sharing his very popular Koko Head Foods smoked ahi spread.

Keoni Chang served up lettuce wraps, below, with grilled fish, Ho Farms tomatoes, shiso relish and cucumber dill sauce.

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Nadine Kam is Style Editor and staff restaurant critic at the Honolulu Star-Advertiser; her coverage is in print on Wednesdays and Thursdays. Contact her via email at nkam@staradvertiser.com and follow her on Twitter, Instagram and Rebel Mouse.

Foodland launches Eat Local Tuesdays

Nadine Kam photos
Aya Nishihara and Eric Newhouse have fun with props during the launch of Eat Local Tuesdays at Foodland Aina Haina.


Foodland launched its new weekly Eat Local Tuesdays program Jan. 20, with all Foodland Hawaii locations supporting the idea of buying local in support of farmers and a safe, sustainable food supply for Hawaii.

They will be making local products easier to find, tagging them with orange “locally grown” and “locally made” signs, and sharing samples from 3 to 6 p.m. or 4 to 7 p.m. depending on the store. Students from neighboring high schools will be offering free samples to customers, their participation made possible through a “Buy Local It Matters” Eat Local 2015 grant from the State Department of Agriculture.

They are also inviting customers to take the Eat Local Tuesdays pledge at checkout or online at Foodland.com, by committing to eat local at least one day a week.

Customers who take the pledge will receive double Maika’i points on the local items they purchase on Tuesdays. In addition, each week there will be a “Local Item of the Week” offered at a reduced price. You can also sign up to receive weekly notice of the Local Item of the Week, as well as recipes and information about the item and grower.

Also, on Tuesdays only, there will be a specially priced local deli offering and seafood poke offering. This week’s items were a Hawaiian plate lunch of laulau, hulihuli chicken, lomi salmon and pineapple, for $8.99, and a lomi poke bowl of ahi tossed with lomi salmon and sea asparagus, for $10.99.

For updates, follow @foodlandhi on Instagram and Twitter, and FoodlandHawaii on Facebook, and use the hashtag #EatLocalTuesdays

Kalani High School juniors Christina Shin, left, and Victoria Huynh were there to offer samples of meatloaf made with the Local Item of the Week, local ground beef, that this week was priced at $5.49 per pound with Maka’i Card.

Now here’s something I didn’t know, the River of Life Mission has its own chocolate-making enterprise, Chocolate on a Mission, to help raise funds for its support services. Learn more at chocolateonamission.com

Also offering chocolate was Amy Hammond of Aloha Chocolate Co., whose tins feature locally themed chocolates incorporating Waialua Estate Chocolate, and below, chocolate shaped like coffee beans.

More local sweets came in the form of macadamia nut and vanilla nougat made with local ingredients, shared by Christian Acerogiles. The roasted macadamia nuts were so pure and intense.

During the launch, Foodland Aina Haina welcomed a sizable neighbor island contingent of farmers and food producers, including beautiful Maui Fruit Jewels inspired by French patés de fruits, fresh fruit purees cooked with pectin to create a concentrated jammy jewel candy.

Stacy Au and Jan Tsue, left, came from the Big Island to represent Na’alehu’s Paradise Meadows Orchard and Bee Farm, whose products include Hawaii’s Local Buzz honey, macadamia nuts and coffee. Tsue told an amazing story of her aunt and uncle coming to Hawaii for peace and quiet, buying some land, and after clearing it, discovering they had a farm with lime and lemon trees, macadamia nuts and coffee.

A sampling of Paradise Meadows garlic roasted- and chocolate-covered macadamia nuts.

Kokohead Foods smoked ahi spread was the hit of the afternoon, a product of Kaimuki’s 12th Ave Grill.

Naked Cow Dairy’s Sabrina St. Martin was there to share new products, including honey- and Kona coffee-rubbed Kona Buzz cheese, and Pink Hawaii cheese studded with crushed pink peppercorns. Coming up will be a squid-ink brie.

Maui Pasta Co. offered crostini with artichoke heart dip, spinach linguini with tomato cream sauce and pesto lasagna.

Lomi poke was Tuesday’s seafood special, at $10.99 per pound with Maika’i Card.

This Hawaiian plate was the week’s local deli special.

Many of love the combination of sweet and spicy offered in Ohelo’s Four Pepper Jelly.

Foodland’s seafood salad was being served on beds of aquaponic lettuce from Mari’s Gardens.

'Buy local' matters to Hawaii's teen chefs

Nadine Kam photos
Krislyn Miyagawa, a Mid-Pac junior, won the Best Cookoff Performance award for her dish of seared opah and scallops over local veggies, during the statewide “Buy Local, It Matters” student recipe and cooking contest. Surrounding her are, from left, judges Pamela Young, Sheraton Waikiki chef Darren Demaya, Dean of the UHM College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources Maria Gallo, and Sharon Hurd from the Hawaii Department of Agriculture.

If you want evidence as to how far we’ve come on the culinary front, you just need to take a look at the professional level work presented by high school students who participated in the “Buy Local, It Matters” statewide recipe and cooking contest.

The event, sponsored by the Hawaii State Department of Agriculture, took place in the commercial kitchen at the University of Hawaii at Manoa Ag Science building Dec. 5, with five finalists hailing from Kea’au High on the Big Island, Molokai High, Campbell and Mid-Pac.

The students got there by first submitting a 200- to 300-word essay explaining what buying local meant to themselves, their family, community and Hawaii. They also had to submit a recipe that included at least two locally grown or produced food items. More than 65 students entered the contest.

Molokai High School senior Kiana Simmons works on her dish of round steak roulade with bacon, Kumu Farms pesto and Molokai sweet potato mash. She brought her homegrown products with her.

The state’s “Buy Local” campaign was launched in 2007. According to Gail Hurd from the Hawaii State Department of Agriculture, and one of the judges for the competition, sustainability education is important if we are to support local industry and produce. She said that although .4 percent of the state’s budget is dedicated to agriculture, Waikiki hotels buy 70 percent of local ingredients available “because tourists want that experience,” she said, while lamenting the loss of such local produce as yellow-skinned, pink-fesh guavas that once grew on Kauai but can no longer be found.

In getting the students to think about what we lose when we rely on imports, she said the importance of buying local goes back into their communities.

For the neighbor island students, agriculture is a subject close to home. Kea’au High School senior Kenny Nguyen’s father farms ginger and potatoes, and he’s well acquainted with Big Island grown Hamakua mushrooms and Kona blue shrimp that went into his siu mai.

Molokai high school senior Kiana Simmons also brought her own Molokai beef and sweet potatoes with her, rather than asking for Dept. of Ag assistance.

As to where they’re learning to cook and plate like a master chef, Mid-Pac junior Krislyn Miyagawa said she’s self-taught from watching YouTube videos for a year-and-a-half.

“I’m an active person and play tennis, so I’m into eating healthier and cooking healthier, so that was the spark for wanting to cook,” she said, adding that adults often warn, “If you don’t take care of your body now you’ll pay for it later.”

“I don’t eat out a lot because I’m able to cook by looking at pictures in magazines and videos on YouTube. I learn from them but make it my own.”

Mid-Pac junior Krislyn Miyagawa’s winning dish of seared opah and scallops over local veggies.

The two neighbor island contestants, Molokai High School senior Kiana Simmons and Kea’au senior Kenny Nguyen, shared the Best Winning Recipe award. Sheraton Waikiki chef Darren Demaya will be putting their dishes on the Kai Market menu.