Plenty ‘Awa and Even More Aloha

Rows of tropical delicacies lined the fair tables

by Nani Anderson


E inu I ka ‘awa Ikaika ka makani:
“Drink ‘awa to make the spirit strong”

This past Saturday, the Upper campus of the University of Hawaii at Manoa was transformed into a place of sharing, community, aloha and plenty of ‘awa, a very different scene than the usual hustle and bustle of students on their way to class.

Slow Art Friday

June 18 - Friday - 6 to 8 pm

Pauahi Street Party

Live acoustic music on the awning of Marks Garage

High above the crowd a slack-wire acrobat the extraordinary Bike Valet

Hawaii Public Radio 

Organic food & wine - local desserts from...

Otto Cake, Slow Food Oahu representatives, & did we mention Bike Valet!

Chana Masala (Punjabi Chickpeas)

Recipe tried, photographed, and eaten by Ty Tanji.

(serves 4)

Chickpeas are the shit.

Cheesy Chicken Casserole

Recipe originally from Miss Gibby
Submitted by Laura Douglas

6 chicken breasts, cooked, boned and cut into bite-size pieces
2 10-oz. packages broccoli pieces, boiled until crisp-tender
2 cups milk
16 oz. cream cheese
1 tsp. salt
¾ tsp. garlic salt
1½ cups grated parmesan cheese

Preheat oven to 350°F. Place broccoli and chicken in 9"-by-13" pan. Blend milk, cream cheese, salt, garlic salt and ¾ cup of parmesan cheese. Spoon mixture over broccoli and chicken. Top with remaining parmesan cheese. Bake for 30 minutes or until bubbly on top. Lastly, enjoy with friends!

The Grinds: Nori-Wrapped Mochiko Chicken

Recipe and photo by Wendee Augustiro

Glazer’s Coffee: Come Over to the Dark Side

Review by Cynthia McCoy

Watery espresso makes your blood boil with rage. Anyone who’s had it at a gas station or airport vending machine knows the feeling. For coffee addicts, it’s more like medicine than gratification; for aficionados, it’s a pointless pursuit for satisfaction. Almost always, finding a good cup of joe in a city is trial and error. Enter Glazer’s Coffee, on King Street near University Avenue. If the rest of what you read sounds like an advertisement, it is. There’s no reason not to go to Glazer’s. Even if you live in ‘Ewa, drive to town and treat yourself. The blend (no pun intended) of assets this little coffee shop contains is a rare mix indeed. But there is good and bad news.

Spicy Mexican Pasta

Recipe tried, photographed, and eaten by Cynthia McCoy.

Details: All the ingredients are versatile – you can use them in tons of other dishes, so it’s worth it to buy them if you don’t already have them. Chipotle sauce is awesome on nachos, tacos, and burritos. Balsamic vinegar is as essential to pastas as olive oil. Buy it!

Servings: 2

Time: 15 minutes

Ingredients:
4-6 oz. thin spaghetti
3 Tbsp. olive oil
3 Tbsp. balsamic vinegar
3 oz. black olives
3 tsp. chipotle sauce (Mexican hot sauce)
salt & pepper to taste

Directions:
Boil pasta according to directions. Drain pasta; return to pot. Pour olive oil, balsamic vinegar, and chipotle sauce over pasta. Stir well. Add salt and pepper to taste. Bust open a can of black olives and use half the can (around 3 oz.). For whole olives, chop them if you want it to look nice, crush them between your fingers if you don’t care. Mix together and enjoy.

Veg Pledge Week

Article and photography by Loraine Ho.

Ravenous students are flocking to Campus Center nightly this week, to participate in the Veg Pledge and shovel down free vegetarian dinners. The UH Vegetarian Club has been concocting the gourmet delights in the squeaky-clean food lab at the Agricultural Science building.

Club members rushed about in chef jackets, hats and gloves preparing Tuesdays’ “Living Lasagna,” layered with zucchini, tomatoes, a pine nut spread, and a savory pesto made with basil, pistachios, and olive oil.

Satura Cakes at Ward Centers

Review and photography by Phuong Do.

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I have never tasted any dessert quite like the chocolate tiramisù at Satura Cakes. It took me by complete surprise. Anything that looks so chocolaty must be very sweet, I thought, recalling the blueberry cake I could not finish (even with coffee) at Starbucks – or should I say the giant blueberry sugar lump. I don’t have much of a sweet tooth. A bite of the choco tiramisù was an explosion to my taste buds.

The unsweetened cacao powder on top of the tiramisù ($4.50) is the chief source of the powerful flavor. Magic is created when it is combined with the creamy middle layer and the coffee-soaked sponge cake at the bottom. A serving is quite enough for one.

Cakes originated in medieval Europe, and Japan picked it up from Portugal in the 1500s. During the Japanese economic boom several decades ago, a large number of chefs went to France and Italy to study baking techniques. Later on, they altered the formula to the Japanese taste. A new distinct type of cakes emerged. In 2002, Japan won the Coupe de Monde (baking world cup) in Paris.

Satura Cakes serves Japanese-style pastries less saccharine than your typical tooth-rotting snacks. They pledge to bake their cakes from scratch daily, using high-quality ingredients like real butter and milk fat, rather than artificially hydrogenated oil.

The coconut an-nin ($4.50) combines almond coconut gelatin and local fruits to create a refreshingly mild and sweet taste.

The "Salty Chocolate Cookies" ($3.95 for five) are hardly as salty or sweet like the name may suggest. Baked with Hawaiian salt, macadamia nuts, and chocolate, they are dry and crumbly, like British biscuits. These cookies have a pleasantly strong, nutty cacao smell.

The cream puffs ($2.75) come in the usual vanilla cream flavor and an innovative caramel crunch. It has a crispy texture, topped with Bavarian cream. You could ask the staff for a sample.

Corones ($2.75) are similar to cream puffs and come in green tea and chocolate-banana flavors. The pastries are thinner, and the cream is lighter. Be nice and you could ask for another sample.

Satura’s unsweetened pastries such as sandwiches, croissants, and briôche are not as spectacular in flavor and appearance, but they are quite palatable and organically healthy.

Their coffee doesn’t have a burnt taste like Starbucks or Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf. My hands were still twitchy three hours after a small cup. Espresso is made on order. They use fair-trade organic coffee and real tea leaves.

So when you want to indulge your taste buds with fine desserts, head over to Satura Cakes. Free wireless is available at every store. Don’t forget to charge your laptop.

Satura Cake Locations:

Ward Centers (across Borders)
1200 Ala Moana Blvd. Bldg. 6, Suite 601, Honolulu, HI 96814
Tel: (808) 537-1206
Sun-Thu: 9 a.m. - 10 p.m.
Fri-Sat: 9 a.m. - 11 p.m.
Parking: free Ward Centers customer parking

Harbor Court Business Tower Lobby
55 Merchant St., Suite #110, Honolulu, HI 96813
Tel: (808) 537-1206
Mon-Fri: 7 a.m. - 6 p.m.
Sat: 9 a.m. - 3 p.m.
Parking: Harbor Court garage, entrance on Bethel Street. Partial validation.

Royal Hawaiian Shopping Center
2233 Kalakaua Ave. B106A, Honolulu, HI 96815
Tel: (808) 537-1206 Fax: (808) 537-1208
Mon-Sun: 8 a.m. - 10 p.m.
Parking: the Shopping Center's garage. Partial validation.

www.saturacakes.com

Coconut Butter Mochi

Recipe tried, photographed, and eaten by Loraine Ho.

Details: Classic local snack popular at church gatherings, potlucks, and questionable house parties. This mochi is so heavy, it uses an entire whopping brick of butter. Best to consume if you seem particularly emaciated. Makes enough to feed an army.

Vegetarian Ziti with Tomato and Olive Sauce

Recipe tried, photographed, and eaten by Cynthia McCoy.



Details: This is an absolutely delicious, remarkably quick bombshell of a dish.  Impress blind dates and mob bosses alike with its high-class Italian façade. The goat cheese adds a wonderful false sense of superiority. Ghetto tip: you may buy olives and garlic separately, but I find it cheaper to buy garlic-stuffed olives. It will also save you time in preparation by chopping both at once, not to mention they taste rad. All ingredients can be found at any ol’ grocery store.

Cost: About $10-$15

Servings: 4

Time: 25 minutes

Difficulty: A breeze. Only chopping, mixing and boiling are involved.

Ingredients:

8 oz. ziti or mostaccioli pasta (even penne will work)

1/2 cup olives, drained (black or green – your call)

1/3 cup thinly sliced basil (fresh is best, boxed is next, chopped and canned are gross)

1-2 Tbsp. olive oil

2 Tbsp. balsamic vinegar

2-4 cloves garlic

4 medium to large tomatoes, coarsely chopped

Crumbled goat cheese

Salt and pepper to taste

Optional capers or red pepper flakes for flourish

Directions:

Cook pasta to package directions. While the pasta’s doing its thing, grab a large mixing bowl. Combine olives, basil, oil, vinegar, garlic, and any flourishes. Add tomatoes to the mixture and toss well. When the pasta has completed its metamorphosis from dry to cooked, drain and add to the mixture; toss well. Add goat cheese and season with salt and pepper to taste. That’s it. Who knew good Italian food could be so easy?

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Altered from a recipe in Low Fat and Fast: 150 Easy Meatless Recipes by the Vegetarian Times.

Tea at 1024

Review and photography by Phuong Do.

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"We could have high tea," I suggested to a friend.

"It's too girly," he laughed, then curled his pinkie and mimicked sipping tea.

So my quest for a tea comrade continued.

I do not see why tea is considered such a feminine activity in this country. It is believed that Anna Russell, the seventh duchess of Bedford, invented afternoon tea in the 1700s. At the time in England, lunch was rather light and often left people hungry before dinner – hence the in-between meals enjoyed by the privileged. Low tea is an afternoon snack, while high tea (or meat tea) is a full evening meal. High tea sometimes refers to a formal gathering of women in the U.S. Some people believe that this usage results from a misconception of the term "high" as "formal."

On December 12, a brave soul was discovered. Accompanied by Loraine Ho, then-Ka Lamakua editor in chief, I headed to Tea at 1024. Located in the bustling urban area of Chinatown on Nu‘uanu Avenue, it is a pleasantly unusual shop.

We arrived early and were seated at the front window, the most popular spot. This area includes two wicker chairs secluded from the other tables, but the glass window left us exposed to pedestrian gazes. We returned their stares with funny faces.

Pastel art and translucent cloth decorates the ceiling and wall. The combination of air-conditioning and bright sunlight created a very calming atmosphere that morning.

Full service ($15.95) includes your choice of tea, a house salad, two sandwiches, and pastries. My favorite dish was the salad, fresh baby spinach and sweet slices of strawberry topped with feta cheese. I had English Breakfast tea, which was very mild, and it could have been warmer. The crustless sandwiches were neatly quartered into mini triangles. They tasted light yet surprisingly delicious. We had chicken curry, crab and olive, cheddar cheese and tomato, and egg salad. The assortment of pastries came with an ample amount of clotted cream and jam.

The waitress was friendly and considerate, and did not overtly invade customers' space. Meticulous care went into the preparation and the delicate setting, making me feel quite cultured. "I feel like Alice in Wonderland," said Loraine. One can even borrow frilly hats and colorful boas from the shop's extensive collection, to make the experience even more fabulous.

Tea at 1024
1024 Nu‘uanu Ave.
(808) 521-9596
Opening hours and menu items can be found at:
www.teaat1024.net

(It is always a good idea to place your reservation ahead of time, due to the shop's popularity and small size.)