Rotary Club's crab fest an annual hit

Nadine Kam photos
Dungeness crab was the centerpiece of Rotary Club of Ala Moana’s annual crab fest.

The Rotary Club of Ala Moana celebrated its annual fundraising Crab Fest April 11 in Kapiolani Community College’s Ohia Cafeteria.

Guests always look forward to this event, still one of a kind on Oahu, with a centerpiece of all-you-can-eat Dungeness crabs. The crabs are huge and just one leaves me full. Some people manage three, and I heard the maximum devoured was six, but they would not share the name of this person.

Devotées always plan ahead for this event and come prepared with their own condiments, whether vinegar, ponzu or Tabasco sauce. I like my crab plain with the drawn butter provided. The only other thing needed is Old Bay seasoning, but I’m always running around here and there, too flustered and frenzied to plan.


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And, in the everyone’s a critic department, people who know how to rip into a crab look askance at newbs or landlubbers who pound the tops of the crabs with their mallets, or let the insides go to waste. Pity.

It’s definitely an event you want to attend with people you know well, because there really is no way to eat crab without getting messy, although I always come across some lucky people have spouses or parents happy to put in all the labor of shelling and shredding.

Funds raised from $80 ticket sales and a silent auction of wines and other merchandise will go toward a number of Rotary’s local and ambitious international causes, from providing scholarships, books and supplies to Hawaii youths, to providing safe drinking water to villagers in Kenya and Indonesia, to helping to provide pre-natal care and cardiac care to people in Thailand.

Keep tabs on the organization at Alamoanarotaryclub.com

 Soy beans, and below, spring rolls, were some of the starters.

KCC students served up trays of chowder.

Those seated at premium tables had the beautiful presentation at the top of the page. The rest of us plucked our crabs out of aluminum trays. They taste the same either way.
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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.

Healthy-licious cooking with Kahala Nui and KCC

Nadine Kam photos
From left, Kapiolani Community College chef instructor Warren Uchida, KCC students Santos Quesada and Mariana Oliveiro, and Kahala Nui CEO Pat Duarte. Quesada and Oliveiro were the student winners of Kahala Nui's annual Healthy-licious cooking competition.

I was lucky enough to be invited back as a judge for Kahala Nui's 3rd annual Healthy-licious Contest, which invites Kapiolani Community College culinary students to create healthy recipes for seniors.

The competition took place Oct. 12 at the KCC Culinary Auditorium, and it's a contest I welcome, because unlike a lot of other food events around town, this one's easy on the opu and body as the students are tasked to use the most beneficial ingredients possible.

In his opening remarks, Pat Duarte, CEO of Kahala Nui, a life care retirement community, said that part of Kahala Nui's mission is to be an advocate for healthy dining for seniors.

"More people want to go out and eat healthy," he said, while noting that people often find healthy food isn't appealing.

He said the dullness associated with low-fat, low-sodium fare often gives hospital and nursing home food a bad rap and, "we want to change that perception and encourage young students to consider careers in this area."

He said diners don't want healthy dishes "to be an afterthought," like presenting a platter of plain steamed vegetables. In creating this competition, he said Kahala Nui aims to push students to create "something that will be the star of the menu."

This year, a field of 60 teams of two were reduced to four, based on submission of essays and recipes. Students were allowed to work with main ingrediens of chicken or a vegetarian protein. Scoring was based on taste, simplicity of preparation, nutrition, organization and delivery, and visual presentation.

Winners Mariana Oliveiro and Santos Quesada, who created Asian tofu lettuce wraps, will each receive a $600 scholarship.

Emcee Kim Gennaula received an assist from her "famous" husband Guy Hagi. She joked that now that she's been off TV news for five years, restaurant hostesses don't remember her, but will rush to seat Guy, and her own son doesn't recall that once upon a time, mom was more famous than dad.

All the students lined up with their awards and gift certificates for their participation.