Maui Film Festival: A Taste of Chocolate and A Taste of Wailea

I suppose it's telling of our life that we couldn't tear the camera (and our grubby little hands) away from the spread at the food events at the Maui Film Festival long enough to take pictures of the celebrities. That and it's especially hard to approach a celebrity to ask for a picture when you just know you've got chocolate smeared all over your teeth.

Throughout the weekend, it was a tough call of what was more beautiful...watching movies under the stars, or the food.

I have a weakness for ice luges. Or maybe it's just things sculpted from ice.

Sweet & Sour glazed island fish in lettuce cups with Macadamia Nuts and Ginger Vinaigrette from Spago

Filipino Lumpia with Chicken and Hamakua mushroom Tempura Oishi Sushi with Spicy Ahi Grilled Miso Tiger Prawns on Buckwheat Soba from Ko


Sous-vide Lamb Loin, creamy quinoa, hibiscus reduction from Bistro Molokini

Overlooking the Celestial Cinema screen and the sunset.

Food Sovereignty Conference

With another busy weekend looming, I've just now begun to sift through notes and pictures from the last weekend. Last Friday was spent at Mohala Farms in Waialua as part of the ‘Aina Ho‘ōla o Ma‘ilikukahi conference, a food sovereignty movement that MA‘O first started five years ago.
(‘Aina: land, Ho‘ōla: restore, Ma‘ilikukahi: a great king of O‘ahu; during his rule, the land prospered and there were enough resources to sustain its people.)

Broadly, the movement is about educating youth and community in land stewardship so that we may feed ourselves. To help make the lessons more tangible, attendees worked at one of five farms/one fishpond to see the projects that people are currently working on to make O‘ahu sustainable, and to gain some practical experience. At Mohala Farms, some of us worked with Evelyn Giddings, composter extraordinaire, making compost piles and learning what goes into compost (everything she can get her hands on, including other people's rubbish). Mark Hamamoto shared the struggles in acquiring ag land, getting water, and fighting off bugs as an organic farmer. I like the experimental attitude at Mohala and the delight they take in working the land. It's amazing...Evelyn and Kathy Maddux are over sixty years old, but in the fields, they're lithe and strong.

My big question, though, after leaving Mohala Farms, was: how do we make farming economically viable for farmers? How do we expect farmers to farm organically, to plant diversified crops for O‘ahu's people rather than seed to be exported for large ag companies, when the latter is what pays the bills? How do we expect to win the fight against unsustainable development if it's more profitable (not to mention much easier) to sell the land to developers than to farm it? I admire all the small farmers on O‘ahu who have strong ideals and the extraordinary will to see them through, but for the rest of us, we need a little more assurance before we take the plunge.

These were questions I hoped to have answers for on Saturday, when we all convened in Kahana Valley and attended panels like Viability and Food Advocacy. But of course, if the answers were so easy to obtain, perhaps we wouldn't need a conference in the first place. The very simplified answer appears to a combination of policy changes, education, and just doing it. The personal problem, then, becomes what can I do that will make the most impact? There's only one of me, where do I direct my energies?

I have to come clean...while I'd like to say the most memorable part of the conference was hearing from engaged youth, or talking with inspirational people, really, the hedonist in me says the best part was the kalua pig for dinner on Saturday. A whole roasted pig killed and stuck in the imu the day before, the whole thing, head and all, shredded into juicy, flavorful pork...it's quite possibly one of the best things I've ever had. If you could give people a piece of that and tell them that this is what we're fighting for...I bet you could convince a lot of people to join the fight.

Strawberry Frozen Yogurt

When I was younger, I relished everything that was new...probably why I was filled with insatiable wanderlust. These days, whether it's the extra years or having the good fortune to live in Hawaii, I find myself just as excited to be back home after travels. Whether it's stumbling across new exotic things at home (an invitation to a "mountain oyster" sampling), revelling in seemingly mundane new events (Nalo Greens at Whole Foods! Finally!), or welcoming the return of old friends (lychees and mangoes flooding the stalls in Chinatown), it's great to be back.

Right before we left, in an effort to preserve a carton of local milk in the fridge, I made yogurt. With the hot, summer weather in mind, I picked up a box of Kula strawberries and blended them with Maui raw sugar and yogurt and churned the mix in my ice cream maker for frozen yogurt. There's no place like home...or maybe more accurately, the kitchen.

Strawberry Frozen Yogurt
adapted from David Lebovitz's cookbook: The Perfect Scoop

1 pound (450g) strawberries, rinsed and hulled
2/3 cup (130g) sugar
Optional: 2 teaspoons rum (for an all-local fro-yo, try Maui Rum from Haleakala Distillers)
1 cup (240g) plain, whole milk yogurt
1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice

Slice the strawberries into small pieces. Toss in a bowl with the sugar and rum (if using) until the sugar begins to dissolve. Cover with plastic wrap and let stand at room temperature for 2 hours, stirring every so often.

Transfer the strawberries and their juice to a blender or food processor. Add the yogurt and fresh lemon juice. Pulse the machine until the mixture is almost smooth.

Chill for 1 hour, then freeze in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer's instructions.

Makes 1 quart.

Some Images from Norway

We were in Norway for the past few weeks, hence the silence on the blog. Here are some of our favorite food-related pics from the trip. Okay, the above is one of our many scenic pictures from Norway (an extremely photogenic country), but just out of the frame is a small fish farm. The interesting thing about Norway is how they manage to tuck their farms into every seemingly inaccessible and hidden (well, not so hidden, since we found them) corners of Norway. And they're everywhere. For a country that seems to have largely non-arable land, with long, dark winters, Norway manages to produce about half of their own food, from what looks like small, family run farms. Next time we go back to Norway, I'd like to go through WWOOF (Worldwide Opportunities on Organic Farms). I imagine there's a lot we could learn from them.



Another thing Norwegians do well: bread. Any grocery store or bakery in the larger cities had at a minimum, twenty different types of fresh-baked loaves, made of walnuts, spelt, oatmeal, graham, or rye...and more than Google Translate could translate for me. Even gas stations and convenience stores carried at least a few loaves of fresh bread and had small ovens where they could bake off boller throughout the day--soft, sweet, round buns sometimes studded with raisins and cardamom, or chocolate chips.


In the Lofoten Islands, above the Artic Circle, dry cod is a huge industry. The islands smell of the drying fish, hung by their tails, with mouths wide open on these wooden racks all over the islands.


Fjord trout, slightly pinkish like salmon, but with a milder taste.

A restaurant that sells only one cut of steak with a choice of sides like asparagus, cauliflower, or baked/boiled/mashed potatoes. This chalkboard outside proclaims its commitment to only the best meat from the best suppliers ands details some of their steps in preparing the best tasting steak.


Strawberries, so beautiful, glossy, red, and perfect that when I put them in our shopping basket, Ben wondered why I was buying plastic strawberries. How about the taste? Some of the sweetest we've ever had.