Last week, I had the opportunity to dine at Alan Wong's King Street restaurant to experience their special Farmer Series Dinner, "You Like Beef?"--featuring meat from Kuahiwi Ranch on the Big Island. What a treat!

In this time of social consciousness, when we are trying to do more to buy local and achieve greater sustainability, it's important to get to know the people behind the business. Kuahiwi's Al Galimba and daughter Michelle are also trying to get to know their customers, as well. Their cattle are grass-fed up until the last three months, at which point they are given the option to eat natural grain, which helps the meat's flavor & texture (pure grass-fed beef tends to be a little tough or dry due to lower fat content).

With this in mind, we tried the beef.

When we tasted regular beef and Kuahiwi beef side by side in patty form, the Kuahiwi definitely had more character. I don't want to say "flavor," because the regular beef did have flavor; it just wasn't very exciting.

We then had a tasting of 5 small samplers. Oh, did you want to see a close up?

Joe Wilson's Kona Lobster with Old Fashioned Creamed Corn. Tender, sweet, and luxurious.


Kuahiwi Ranch Beef Carpaccio on Parmesan Cheese Crisp. This married a surprising blend of sensations, from sweet and mellow to crunchy with a rich flavor. I think it was the beef that evoked the sweetness!

Fresh soy milk panna cotta with Ma'o Farms Swiss chard ohitashi. This was an awesome contrast of salty (the two roes and Swiss chard) with the gentle milkiness of the soy panna cotta. This is my kind of food! I was bummed that there wasn't a whole saimin bowl full of it.

Ahi lumpia, seared ahi, soy mustard. I have to be honest, it's hard to describe this because it was gone in a flash. I remember that it was yummy, but the moment passed so quickly. Perhaps I need another one.

Ron Weidenbach's North Shore farm raised tilapia, smoked, with an edamame horseradish sour cream. That's right, tilapia. And you know what? This was the winnah of the five items. It was tender & moist, unfishy, with a subtle smokiness. In fact, I'm salivating as I write about this dish. You don't ever think of tilapia as a delicacy, but it's farm raised, so it's clean and fed right.


Hilo farm raised sturgeon.

The Pacific Aquaculture & Coastal Resources (PARC) is UH-Hilo's new research & development center in Keaukaha. Sturgeon is one of the many seafoods raised there in hopes of creating new industries for Hawaii and increasing our sustainability. This sturgeon--not an attractive fish--was beautiful to eat. It's another moist fish that melted with Alan Wong's umami butter (soy, parmesan cheese, thyme, tarragon, and lemon zest) and was a good contrast to the sweet Ho Farms baby tomatoes and salty Marine Agrifuture sea asparagus.

Kuahiwi Ranch Rib Eye "Two Ways"

You can't see the meat on the left under the chiso leaf, but it was soy braised. It fell apart on the fork and was incredibly soft. The other slice was more traditional, but still very tender and beefy. Both were accompanied by an ume natto red wine sauce, which was really interesting! I like natto, but I'm not sure what people who don't eat it will think. Nevertheless, they were both great with the Hamakua mushrooms.

Wong Way "Banana Split" with Kahuku Farms Bananas

The banana ice cream is wrapped in freshly-made strips of mochi, then topped with three ice creams to depict a deconstructed banana split. This was the perfect ending to the meal--light, refreshing, and a taste of Hawaii.

Freshly baked mudslide cookies from the chefs. Warm, chewy, chocolatey goodness.

Matcha and Kona coffee truffles.

Alan Wong's has a Farmer's Series dinner every quarter, each featuring different local farms and their offerings. You get to meet the farmers and talk to them about everything you want. It's an eye-opening experience--if nothing else, it gives you a better awareness of buying local and helping the movement toward sustainability. And yes, it's worth it.

Alan Wong's
1857 S. King Street
Honolulu, HI 96826
808.949.2526
www.alanwongs.com

If you're big into the nightlife scene, you already know that he V Lounge has an addicting menu of 12-inch, kiawe wood-fired authentic Neapolitan-style pizzas. I didn't know it. Why? Because they were previously only available in the bar from 10 p.m. to 3 a.m. nightly!

Wassap wit dat!

Well, now the coveted pizza is available from 5 p.m. every night except Sundays so that people like me can enjoy it, too. I went to a pizza tasting last night so that I could see what the younger half of the population was eating!

Alejando "Aker" Briceno, the man with the mojo behind the pizza, was born in South America, graduated from culinary school in Spain and lived in Italy for a bit before moving to the United States. He worked as a pastry chef with Nobu and helped open the San Diego and Mexico restaurants before leaving the Waikiki location for the V Lounge.

I couldn't get a good shot of the traditional wood-burning stone oven, but trust me, it's the real deal. I didn't know anything about the pizza crust when I bit into it, but I could tell immediately it was different. There's a delicious chewiness to it (not tough), and a unique taste due to the kiawe wood flavor infusing into the dough as it bakes. I was told that it's not just the oven, but the special "double o" high-protein flour that Briceno uses as well.

The way to measure pizza quality across the board is to order the margherita style ($12) so you can taste the purity of the dough, tomato sauce, hand-pulled mozzarella and basil. Briceno's margherita pizza is pretty darn pure, all right.

I fell in love with the Prima pizza ($14), which features Pancetta di San Daniele, locally grown sweet onions, Hamakua Ali'i oyster mushrooms, thyme, parsley, homemade hand-pulled mozzarella, and...get this: they crack an egg over the top and drizzle it with truffle oil. The contrast of fresh and tangy flavors combined with the mellow and rich ingredients marry perfectly in your mouth. It's midnight and I want another piece, now that I'm fantasizing about it again.

Kaimana Pine, shown here, works with Ma'o Organic Farms in Waianae and explained that the V Lounge tries to use local products whenever possible. They do have other items on the menu and can create party plates for special events, which is where they can really showcase Ma'o Farms' produce. In fact, I had one of the most awesome salads last night, courtesy of Ma'o Farms, but I couldn't get a good shot to share with you!

Anyway, I hope you get a chance to try the pizza at the V Lounge, now that it's available at a decent hour. Please note that they're only making a finite number of pizzas per night, so if they run out of pizza by six, that's it--when it's gone, it's gone.

V Lounge
1344 Kona St.
Honolulu, HI 96814
808-955-2640

www.vloungehawaii.com