Since this year marked the 3rd Annual Hawaii Food and Wine Festival and since Bro was visiting specifically to attend several events hosted by HFWF 2013 and since the marquee wine tasting for 10 vintages of Harlan Cabernet Sauvignon would've set me back about $324 per person, I decided to just attend Saturday's marquee event at the Hawaii Convention Center's Rooftop Garden dedicated to the Farm to Table approach of modern cuisine, Taste our Love for the Land. It featured dishes from 18 different chefs - about 2/3rds right here from the 50th - and it also included cocktail and wine stations as well as live music.
At last year's Festival we only attended the Krug Champagne tasting which was well worth the $200 cost. Since this year's Harlan upped that ante by more than 50% (and it's not like I would go out and purchase a bottle of Harlan after the tasting since the recent vintage is $800 right out of the winery), I decided to skip the wine tastings. I normally don't really enjoy these large food and wine events because 1) you usually have to dine standing up and also find a way to carry both a plate and a wine glass, 2) the food lines are usually very long and congested and 3) the Convention Center's rooftop garden isn't enclosed so if it rains, you'll get soaked. But since Bro said he would be attending, I decided to pull the trigger. And you know what? It was a very enjoyable event! We secured 2 tables making sure at least one person "guarded" the table while others went out "foraging" for their food and wine. The food lines also weren't very long and the wines poured were all very good wines - no cheap supermarket hooch at this event. And the weather was quite pleasant.
Here's a sample of dishes - hopefully I accurately remembered which chef created each dish...
Local Abalone with Local Mushrooms by Hiro Sone of Terra in Napa Valley. This was one of my favorite dishes of the evening.
Lomi Salmon by Sang Yoon of Lukshon in Los Angeles. Like an Asian inspired salmon poke.
Assorted cocktails created by Tony Abou-Ganim
Local Abalone with Poached Egg under Local Mushroom Foam by local chef Chris Kajioka of The Vintage Cave. Another of my faves. Why? You guessed it, runny egg yolk with mushroom flavor.
Smoked Local Lobster with Potato Salad by local chef Jon Matsubara of Azure. Almost like lobster lox with barely cooked sweet lobster.
Soft Fried Egg in Pai'ai by Grant MacPherson of Jade range and Scotch Myst in Las Vegas. These paired nicely with the assorted Pinot Noirs being poured.
Cold Local Lobster Salad Asian Style by Chris Cosentino of Incanto. Since one of the chefs created a goat dish, I assumed it had to be the bad boy of offal but no, Chef Cosentino created great cold salad that was kick _ss spicy. I would have had several plates but profuse scalp sweating in public isn't so becoming...
Local Ahi Bowl by local chef George Mavrothalassitis (simply known as Mavro locally) from Chef Mavro. I wonder if this was a last minute substitution as though it was a good poke bowl, I though Chef Mavro would have created something unexpected.
Local Beef - the girls foraged this plate so I'm not sure which chef created this dish.
Goat - again, the girls picked this up so the chef is unknown. it didn't have any gaminess which I would have expected from billy goat...
Panna Cotta with Uni and Local Abalone by Mourad Lahlou of Aziza in San Francisco. Rich cream, rich sea urchin, sweet abalone. Died and gone to heaven.
Local Beef Bruschetta by local chef Keoni Chang of Foodland Supermarkets
Pressed Local Octopus - foraged by the girls so chef unknown.
Another of Tony Abou-Ganim's cocktails
Gourmet Smores
I can't even tell you what this is... I'm not sure if it's a dessert or a savory... too much vino at this point...
So I think I speak for all that participated (on our 2 tables at least), the Taste our Love for the Land was a resounding success and enjoyed by all. My only regret is that I didn't sample ALL of the wines poured but that may have been lethal anyway and that I didn't photograph the actual descriptions of each dish. But even if HFWF 2014 is another year away, I plan on attending again!
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