We've moved!

The blog has migrated to: slowfoodoahu.posterous.com

And Slow Food O‘ahu's official site is www.slowfoodoahu.org

Slow Food Oahu Outreach

Slow Food Oahu participated in Hawaii Conservation Week sponsored by the Hawaii Conservation Alliance at the ING Cafe in Waikiki August 1. Along with approximately 20 other exhibitors committed to the preservation of Hawaii's ecosystem, Slow Food Oahu was present with literature, information, and a food tasting demonstration. Slow Food Oahu's philosophy of sustainable agriculture blended well with other groups concerned with sustainability of the environment and capped two weeks of public outreach at the Farm Fair at the Bishop Museum (July 18-19) and the Green Market in Downtown Honolulu (July 25).

Molokai Trip: Fishpond, Kumu Farms, Pu'u O Hoku Ranch

The Slow Food Oahu group at Kumu Farms.

Beautiful herbs growing at Kumu


Emanuela tells us how she finds her way to Molokai, via Italy and California.


An old fishpond...

...with the mangrove creeping in.


Ed...
...and Duke collecting opihi (which they later put back).


Jack Spruance of Pu'u O Hoku Ranch gives us a tour.






Some of the beautiful veggies from the ranch for dinner.

Tomato Patch Luncheon at North Shore Farms

Here are pictures from a beautiful day on the North Shore, on Jeanne Vana's farm with good food and good company.


Jeanne Vana's beautiful tomatoes.


Michelle and Jeanne.


Roasted tomatoes and tomato preserves that we couldn't get enough of!


A tomato bar.

Olomana Gardens

Last Sunday, Slow Foodies convened at Olomana Gardens in Waimanalo. This organic farm is a rather fascinating place--it integrates worm composting, raised bed gardening, aquaponics, and livestock raising. UH Outreach has contracted with Olomana Gardens to do most of their noncredit gardening classes.

Below, Glenn Martinez with just a few of his feathered friends...


Michelle Phillips with the biggest papaya tree anyone's ever seen.


Aquaponics in action.


A good worm moment (versus the bad worm moments when worms are escaping from my bin)

Paepae O He‘eia

Our annual membership meeting on Saturday turned out to be less a meeting than a leisurely day spent touring the fishponds, preparing our food, talking story over poi pounding, and of course, eating.

Below, Slow Foodies preparing food.


Steve, a regular volunteer at the fishponds, holds out a Samoan crab.


Keli‘i, community coordinator for the fishpond, takes us on a tour.


Daniel Anthony, speed pounder.


Australian mullet, an invasive species, and oh-so-ono!

Fish Auction

To get you excited about our upcoming Fish Auction tour, here are a few more pictures from our last trip.

Waialua, Saturday, 2/21

Hello SFoodies,
Here's our next adventure for February.
On Saturday, 2/21 we have an excursion planned for Waialua. We will need to meet at the Waialua Sugar Mill Market around 8:15 am. The market opens at 8:30. It's a small market and things sell out rather quickly.
At 9am we will do a coffee tasting at the Sugar Mill, at 10am we will visit a cacao farm nearby and at 11am we're off to see the Waialua Sodaworks.
Those who are interested can have lunch after the tour at El Palenque in Wahiawa, one of O'ahu's most authentic Mexican restaurants.
Cost is $5 for current SF members, $10 for non-members. Please send reservations with your checks to Michelle (see address below).
Once you sign up we can put you in touch with others, so carpooling will be easy.
michelle phillips
903 maunawili circle
kailua, hi 96734

Kookies Thai Restaurant

Upcoming Slow Food O'ahu event:

Kookies Thai Restaurant

1326 Middle Street (the review in the Weekly stated the address incorrectly as

326 Middle Street)

Date: Saturday, February 28, 2008

Time: 1PM

Cost: $20 per person, including tax and tip

Limited to 16 people.

Kookie will decide on the menu based on what's freshest at the market, but please indicate your spice tolerance and if there is a favorite Thai dish that you can't find in other Hawaii restaurants, Nanette will let Kookie know.

For those who enjoy beer, Sigha is excellent and readily available in supermarkets, Longs, etc. There will be no corkage fees.

Please RSVP to Nanette Geller: nanette@pamper.com

SFO KCCSF joint potluck

Sang-Ryong Park, Pamela Farris and Gida Snyder (President of KCCSF)

Fresh ahi tuna pasta sauce

Potluck January 18th

from our president
Dear O'ahu Slow Foodies,

Our first event of the year is a joint potluck with SFO and SFKCC. It will be held Sunday January 18th at 1pm at Ezio's building at 1212 Nuuanu --in the wonderful party room on the 8th floor, between the koi ponds.

Giampiero and Ezio will show us how to prepare Hawaiian ahi Italian style--marinated in olive oil and as a mousse. I will bring my pasta maker for a short demonstration of the extruding method and the use of pasta dies.

Please RSVP by January 15th with Rachael at redinger@alumni.tufts.edu so that we can get an accurate head count. We will need to supply your names to the security guard so that he will let you in. Also, please bring your own plates, utensils, etc.

Happy and slow new year to you all,

Laurie

Teahouse event

A report from member Mae Isonaga:
Members and friends gathered for a delightful bento-style luncheon at the Natsunoya Teahouse on November 9. The bento featured a wide assortment of favorites, including miso soup, sashimi, nigiri sushi, shrimp and vegetable tempura, agedashi tofu, and kinpira. Member Michelle Phillips prepared a lovely fresh vegetable platter with miso dip, and her guest Deb Christensen prepared a delicious seared ahi on shiso leaf, which were enjoyed as pupu. The group tasted a Japanese beer made from barley and rice, Koshihikari, that had a clean, fresh flavor. Kikusui junmai ginjo sake made from rice grown in the same region as the Koshihikari was passed around for all to enjoy.
Nan Geller set the stage for our gathering with her colorful description of Japanese teahouses and their place in Japanese society. We learned about teahouse etiquette, and even a little about kabuki! Larry Geller contributed his mana’o on teahouse architecture, and the style and symbolism of different components of the teahouse.
Guava sorbetto from member Chris Murai’s A Latta Gelata capped off a most convivial gathering of SFO members and friends.

Upcoming Events

Upcoming Events from Rachael Edinger:

• November 9th - 11:00 to 1:30 Slow Food O'ahu is hosting a Japanese teahouse cuisine event at the Natsunoya Teahouse. Nanette and Larry Geller, SFO members who lived in Japan and visited a variety of teahouses, will share their knowledge of this fascinating cuisine. If so inspired, bring a Japanese pupu or beverage to share!
  Cost: $25 members, $30 nonmembers. Send checks to Mae Isonaga, at 46-270 Nahewai St. Kaneohe 96744 (Make checks out to Mae Isonaga) Natsunoya Teahouse is in Alewa Heights, 1935 Makanani Drive. Ph: 595-4488
  If you have questions, please email Mae directly.
• November 17th from 5-7pm - coffee cupping conducted by Shawn Steiman, a recent PhD graduate from UH's College of Tropical Ag. The cost is $15 per person for members, $20 for nonmembers.We are limited to about ten people. More details will follow in early November.
• December 6 - we will once again conduct the Culinary Swapmeet at the Church of the Crossroads. Karen Miyano and I will be scheduling pickups at KCC and Kailua Farmers Markets for those of you who have culinary donations to make. Now's a good time to clean out your kitchen cupboards--we're looking for cookbooks, utensils, linens, juicers, pots and pans, extra mugs and glasses.

Slow Food Nation Coverage

In the Honolulu Weekly:

Digesting Slow Food Nation
Declaration for healthy food and agriculture

Fish Auction

Our president Laurie reports:
"We had a fish auction visit with Brooks Takenaka at United Fishery Agency on September 27th at 6am. Brooks went over local fishing practices and talk about the state of sustainable fishing in Hawaii."

Testing the fat...

our other fish auction guide, Dr. John Kaneko

Opah or moonfish's beautiful patterns.

One of our guides, Brooks of United Fishery.

Yellow Fin Tuna

Mahi

the SF tour group

Auction whiteboard notes on poundage

Ahi

Read A visit to Honolulu’s Fish Auction by Debbie Drickersen Cortez

Photos from Slow Food Nation

Slow Food Oahu member Martha Cheng sent a link to some photos she took at Slow Food Nation, click through to see them.

Heritage Foods: Turkey

On May 19th 2008, Slow Food O'ahu had an event, working with Heritage Foods USA, to showcase rare breeds of turkey, pork, and lamb. Chefs Glenn Chu of Indigo, Savas of the Olive Tree, and Ed Kenney of Town and Downtown prepared these unusual breeds for a tasting at Downtown restaurant.

Saving endangered species by eating them: Strange as it may sound, we can save endangered livestock varieties by putting them back on the menu. As with so much of the food available to us, our choices are increasingly restricted to a handful of genetic varieties because of industrial farming practices. Where there were once dozens of varieties (if not hundreds, in the case of potatoes) of corn, potatoes, turkeys and pork, there are now just a handful of types in our markets... Slow Food USA saw an opportunity and told the story of these heritage birds and the farmers that grew them. For the first time in years, these varieties of turkeys were marketed and made available throughout the country. Now enough people are buying and eating these birds (instead of the ubiquitous Butterball) so that farmers are able to make a living.

Little Kitchens on June 13

He'eia Fishpond March 16th

Good news,

Our rescheduled visit to He'eia Fishpond is on course for March 16th. We will meet at 8:30am at the Windward mall parking lot (makai, north shore corner of the lot), so that we can carpool to the pond. Again the cost is $10 for members, $15 for nonmembers. A number of you sent in your checks before we had to postpone this event. Please reconfirm your interest in attending by March 9th. We will have lunch at noon--please bring a pupu to supplement our poi and moi. For lots more information, see the Paepae o He'eia website.

Also, please let me know asap if you are interested in joining us for a cultural and gastronomic experience on the Windward side.

Laurie

Annual Meeting / Fishpond postponed

Aloha Slow Foodies,
We are postponing our annual meeting and the He'eia Fishpond excursion because of the less than perfect weather we have been experiencing this week. We are also going to "de-couple" the two events.
Karen has tentatively lined up the fishpond for Sunday, March 16, we should get confirmation on that very soon. We are checking around for an indoor venue for the annual membership potluck and meeting. There are several possibilities in town. We're looking for something available on Sunday, March 2nd.
Sorry for the delay,
Laurie