We did a quick errand at Ala Moana and since we already made the trek over the Koolaus, decided to have lunch at the Center. The Mrs first choice was Mariposa (it's always her first choice) but alas, huge wooden double doors totally covered the usual store side entrance with a note - Closed for renovations until November 10th. Ai yah! Where to now? Second choice I guess so she selected The Pineapple Room. There was a 15 minute wait for tables so we just took a seat at the bar. She started with the Plantation Iced Tea while I picked the 2011 La Posta "Cocina" Malbec from Argentina - rich ripe red fruit like your typical Napa red.
We then moved on to the Bruschetta though the barkeep informed us that they didn't receive their daily shipment of bread (just go to Shirokiya and pickup some baguettes... oops, St Germain isn't there anymore) and that they were using the sliced foccacia. Fine with us!
As you see, it's create your own bruschetta with tomato jam, basil pesto, goat cheese and tapenade in each corner. It reminded me that another recipe on my bucket list was to create a good tomato jam.
I also ordered a glass of 2010 Hess Select North Coast Cabernet Sauvignon to go with my "New Fashioned versus Old Fashioned" or a pork hash slider with lotus root chips (New) along with the usual beef slider with grilled mushrooms and onions with traditional fries (Old).
Both sliders were very good but the epiphany were those lotus chips lightly dusted with five spice. Better than the fries and better than most potato chips!
The Mrs sampled the Kim Chee Reuben with fries.
It actually was a nice change of pace since we usually have lunch at Mariposa... especially those lotus chips...
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