Locavore Dinner at Alan Wong's

Back during my Eat Local Challenge, if I wanted to stay true to my diet of eating only locally grown ingredients, eating out was not an option. But on May 20, Alan Wong will be taking on the locavore challenge by cooking a locally-sourced dinner, all the way down to the seasonings. It's an impressive undertaking by a restaurant, one that probably only a chef as well-connected with island producers as Wong could pull off. (I imagine the town restaurant chefs would come a close, too, but would never give up their olive oil and parmesan cheese.)

One thing Wong has, though, that I didn't, is dairy products. Naked Cow Dairy, which won't officially open until the end of June, is supplying the butter and cheese for the dinner. Though I lament the loss of Oahu dairies, their extinction is giving rise to such innovators as Monique and Sabrina van der Stroom who are not only bringing dairies back to Oahu, but taking a hard look at why they disappeared in the first place. Story soon...

Above: a brown Jersey cow among the more common Holsteins at Naked Cow Dairy