Since we’re now into the third full month of the COVID-19 pandemic, we continue to support local businesses by doing weekly take-out though I also found alternative means to supporting local food purveyors.
MW Restaurant
The husband and wife team of Wade Ueoka and Michelle
Karr-Ueoka have been offering a take-out menu as soon as the Mayor issued the
stay-in-place orders back in late March. Along with a steady selection of their
take on classic plate lunches and complete meals for 3 to 4 diners, they also
offer weekly themed specials either highlighting a specific local farmer or a
specific food theme. It was during their “Bar Night” highlighting their
favorite bar foods that we decided make that drive over the Koolau’s. And it
seems that the Ueoka’s favorites leans heavily to Korean dishes so we sampled
the Kalbi Noodles with grilled kalbi on fried noodles, the American Wagyu Beef
Meat Jun with melt-in-the-mouth, light battered cutlets of beef surrounded by
an assortment of pickled local vegetable “banchan”, the Kim Chee Fried Rice
topped with two sunny side eggs and the Garlic Fried Jidori Chicken. The Mrs.
usually peels off the skin of any fried chicken but noshed on the Ueoka’s
version skin and all since it was THAT good! And of course, a visit to MW isn’t
complete without sampling Chef Karr-Ueoka’s desserts so we also sampled the
Strawberry “Pop Tart” with the flakiest Pop Tart dough I’ve ever sampled, the
Apple Cinnamon “Hand Pie”, the Valrhona Chocolate Pudding Cup which was the
best chocolate dessert I’ve sampled all year as well as several of their
Bombucha Grandma Cookies which are oatmeal-chocolate chip and macadamia nut
cookies.
MW also sells local produce from Ho Farms, MA’O Farms,
Twin Bridge Farms and Mrs. Cheng’s Tofu to support local farmers and food
purveyors. And since the County is currenting allowing sales of “adult”
beverages with the purchase of food items, I also picked up a bottle of Kin No
Bi Kyoto dry gin to support their bottom line as any wine, beer or liquor that
sits on idle shelves of any restaurant is just like letting cash sit on the
shelves that could help pay for rent and health insurance.
Makana Provisions
Founder Ignacio Fleishour started Makana Provisions in
collaboration with Hawaii Meats to provide the 50th with grass-fed,
hormone and antibiotic free locally raised beef that are also processed in a
local USDA inspected processing facility. Currently, some of Makana Provisions
products are sold in the Times Supermarket chain but due to the stay-in-place
orders, they also offer island-wide delivery for just a $5 fee (or you can pick
up at their Kapolei facility) on Fridays.
For $58 (on special) we sampled the 10lb Ohana Meat Box
which includes 4 individual 1lb packets of ground beef, 3lbs of stew meat and
3lbs of thinly sliced sirloin. I also added 1lb of ground venison (on special
for $6) and any order placed before Monday at 2:00pm will be ready for pick-up
or delivered that Friday. Five Star Transportation provides the delivery
services and the meat products arrive slightly frozen.
I immediately thawed the four packets of ground beef to create a smoked meatloaf and placed the other meats in the deep chill. I plan on eventually braising the 3lb stew meat with onions and peppers for my rendition of Italian braised beef for “sammies” and hoagies and will marinate the thinly sliced sirloin for my rendition of bulgogi while the ground venison will probably simmer with red wine, garlic and rosemary for a pasta sauce. But $58 for 10lbs of beef? Isn’t that a little expensive especially since ground beef on sale is usually less than $2 per pound? Yes, but with a caveat. That cheap ground beef sold at the big box stores comes from mainland sources and because of the COVID crisis at some of the nation’s slaughterhouse’s, some stores are limiting the quantity you can purchase. No limits with Makana Provisions and the money you spend stays in the 50th.
https://www.hawaiigrassfedbeef.com/
Pono Pork
We first met Chef Bob McGee about 8 years ago when he
held court in the kitchen of The Whole Ox Deli which has since become the
public parking structure for Salt at Our Kaka’ako. Back then, we dreamed of his
fried pork shanks, his 21-day dry aged burger topped with seared foie gras,
those Johnny Aloha potatoes and any of the house cured charcuterie that came
out of his kitchen. These days, he primarily butchers porcine raised on David
Wong’s Mountain View Farms in Waianae that are raised hormone and antibiotic
free in an environment that is… odor free. Yes, a pig farm without any of those
characteristic pig farm odors! The processed products were sold primarily to
restaurants or through Kokua Market or you could stop by his shop near Costco
Iwilei. However, Chef McGee recently started providing delivery service on
Saturdays for a $10 fee!
So we ordered the Hawaiian Meats CSA small box for $75
which included 1lb of ground pork, 1lb of ground lamb, 1lb of breakfast
sausage, 1lb of spicy lamb sausage, 2 rib chops, 2 “Porterhouse” chops, 2lbs of
stew meat and a quart of pork bone broth.
Upon arrival, I immediately placed the four chops in
vacuum sealed bags and sous vide cooked them for 2 hours at 140 degrees.
Because the chops were only about ¾ inch thick, I should have sous vide them
just for 1 hour, but they were still very tender and moist. The next day, I
defrosted the 2lbs of stew meat and braised them in coconut water with
lemongrass, Thai basil and galangal (it’s like young, spicier ginger) and shoyu
for about 2 hours for a Thai-inspired braised pork. I’ll probably use the
ground pork for local-style chow fun, the ground lamb for my rendition of
“gyros” without the rotary gyro cooker and the breakfast sausage for breakfast
muffins.
Chef McGee informed me that if he can consistently sell 30 to 40 orders every week, he may invest in his own USDA inspected slaughterhouse as well as an inspected charcuterie facility since Pono Pork currently uses the Kunoa facility which primarily is for Hawaii Meat’s cattle and Pono Pork has to remove their products once the pork carcass is fully chilled – he said pork should ideally “hang” for 3 days once it’s slaughtered.
This recipe originally called for ground veal, but any ground meat can be used. I serve this hearty “ragu” over fettucine or tagliatelle though you can use any pasta that you like.
Meat and Red Wine Sauce
1 to 3 tbsp olive oil
1 lb. ground meat
3 large garlic cloves, chopped
1 tbsp chopped fresh rosemary
1 can diced tomatoes
3/4 cup dry red wine
3/4 cup canned beef broth
½ can tomato paste
Heat oil in a Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add the ground meat, garlic and rosemary; sauté until the meat is no longer pink, breaking up large clumps with back of spoon, about 5 minutes. Add tomatoes, wine, broth and tomato paste. Bring to boil. Reduce heat to medium; simmer until mixture thickens to sauce consistency, stirring occasionally, about 30 minutes. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
So along with supporting your favorite restaurants by ordering take-out, also consider patronizing local food purveyors to reduce our dependence on mainland sources whether it’s purchasing from local farmers or purchasing local meats and when they’re delivered right to your doorstep, it can’t get any easier!
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