Sunday brought a close to Hawaii’s Restaurant Week, an
annual fundraiser benefiting the Culinary Institute of the Pacific where loads
of local restaurants participate by offering special tasting meals and donate a
portion of the proceeds to the CIP. Because Restaurant Week starts on a Monday
(when we usually curb our outside dining due to work), we started on Thursday
evening at Prima in Kailua. Prima offered a multi-course meal that looked like
this:
Hebi Crudo
ginger,
pomegranate, grapefruit
Panzanella Salad
cucumber, tomato,
hazelnut romesco
or
Baby Beet Salad
Taleggio,
purselane, pepitas
Seafood Sausage Cavatelli
broccoli rabe,
fennel, chili
or
Mushroom Gnocchi
maitake, cremini,
pecorino
Braised Pork Belly
white bean, onion,
rosemary
or
Fall Harvest Pot Pie
root vegetables,
cabbage, potato
Chocolate & Peanut Butter S’more
marshmallow,
graham cracker
or
Pumpkin Bread Pudding
caramel, tapioca,
cream
$45/person
(plus tax &
gratuity)
byob/no corkage
fee
So basically, a five course tasting meal for just $45 and
no corkage fee! Of course, we selected all possible options with the “or”
selections since we would be sharing the plates anyway. We then uncorked a
bottle of Launois “Quartz” NV Champagne with more fruit than its siblings and a
tad less effervescence.
C also uncorked a 2010 Michel Reolde Sancerre – the herbal notes highlighting
the grapefruit, pomegranate and ginger with the amuse bouche Hebi Crudo
perfectly!
We then moved on to the Panzanella and Baby Beet salads –
we all tried guessing what the crunch in the Panzanella Salad was and the Mrs
hit it on the nose – jicama. It had a balance of textures and flavors while the
Baby Beet Salad combined sliced and quartered beets for textural contrasts.
We also ordered a pizza that wasn't on the tasting menu, a Proscuitto and Arugula Pizza with a nicely charred crust (from that $25,000 Ferrara wood fired brick oven).
I then uncorked a 2009 Brewer Clifton Cargassachi Pinot
Noir for both main courses assuming that it would complement the mushroom
flavors and balance the pork belly. The Seafood Sausage Cavatelli was a good
dish though the abundance of fennel seed did overwhelm the dish (and I like
fennel seed) and the Mushroom Gnocchi was rich and earthy and though E thought
the gnocchi weren’t that good, they were good in my book… especially with the
Pinot Noir.
The K’s uncorked a 2009 Kermit Lynch selection – a Tintero Barbaresco for the Braised Pork Belly and the Fall Harvest Pot Pie. I think the
Mrs felt like she was short changed with the Pot Pie since the server placed it
in front of her while I had the Pork Belly in front of me since it was the only
dish that wasn’t really special. Okay but nothing to write home about. The Pork Belly had a perfect balance of fat to
lean with rosemary oil and bean puree to balance the richness.
The K’s also decided to uncork one last wine (we did
leave roughly 2 half bottles with the staff to enjoy after service) – a 2004 Testarossa Cuvee Niclaire Pinot Noir - almost 10 years old but still rich with ripe fruit and a very long finish.
We then moved on to the dessert selections, a Chocolate and Peanut Butter S'More which needed a little stronger peanut butter flavor and a Pumpkin Bread Pudding - this would make a nice twist on the usual Thanksgiving pumpkin pie.
Another great meal with even better company. But that's not the end of Restaurant Week... we met 2 days later for dogs. Not just any dogs but Haute Dogs...
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