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Genki Sushi Kapahulu has upgraded its bento offerings to give customers choices as to what goes into the takeout container.
The new Bento to Go offers choices of protein and accompaniments. A garlic chicken bento, for instance, offers a choice of California roll or inari sushi; tofu, ocean salad or green salad; and a pick of pickled vegetables.
Previous bento combinations were set by the restaurant and cost $6.50, while the new Bento to Go choices are $5.50.
Purchase a tasty, cultural 5 days
Five couples are invited to spend five days together on an eating-drinking-learning adventure in this year’s Connoisseur’s Culinary Journey.
The Hawai‘i Food & Wine Festival is putting on the event, May 29 to June 2, hosted by chefs Roy Yamaguchi, Alan Wong and Mark Noguchi.
Key events:
>> An excursion on a double-hulled voyaging canoe off the Waianae Coast, plus an introduction to foods of ancient and modern navigators, led by Noguchi.
>> A trip to Kauai with Wong and Yamaguchi to tour a wetland taro farm and historic rice mill.
On other days the Kahala Hotel & Resort will be the site of a welcome reception, a champagne brunch and a finale dinner that will serve as the launch of the 2017 Hawai‘i Food & Wine Festival.
That last dinner, at 5 p.m. June 2, is open to the public with tickets priced at $175.
The seventh annual food and wine festival runs Oct. 20 to Nov. 5 and will bring more than 100 chefs to Hawaii for events on Maui, Hawaii island and Oahu.
Cost of the Connoisseur’s Culinary Journey is $6,995, which includes accommodations at the Kahala, ground transportation, interisland airfare and most meals.
For the complete itinerary and to purchase tickets, go to HFWF.me.
Famed chef joins Maui event
James Beard Award-winning author, restaurateur and celebrity chef Hugh Acheson will collaborate with Ka‘ana Kitchen’s Isaac Bancaco for a five-course dinner at the Andaz Maui at Wailea Resort on Tuesday.
Themed “50 Shades of Hugh,” the event is part of the resort’s Chef Bloc series. Each course will feature dishes from both chefs. One course, for example, will feature Acheson’s lamb leg dish with macadamia-mint salsa verde as well as Bancaco’s pork belly and abalone with radish umeboshi.
Additional local ingredients to be featured by the chefs in other courses include kampachi, Maui venison and paiai, or fresh-pounded poi, as well as local fruits in dessert dishes.
Tickets are $125. Call 573-1234.
Local beer is NYC-bound
Maui Brewing Co.’s made-in-Hawaii brews will be among featured suds at the James Beard House in New York on April 7.
The Calling All Beer Lovers dinner celebrates National Beer Day, that day.
Two craft breweries will provide the beers to be paired with a menu that is yet in development.
“From the chefs’ selections to the beers being poured, this dinner will be one of those absolutely amazing experiences that seem to happen when you cook in James Beard’s kitchen,” Adam Dulye, executive chef for the Brewers Association, said in a statement.
When Dulye invited Maui Brewing founder Garrett Marrero to participate, “the answer was a simple ‘absolutely!’” Marrero said.
The event will be live-streamed via the James Beard Foundation kitchen-cam.
For those who will be in New York, reservations are $175 for nonmembers of the foundation.
Hilton names a new sous
Brooke Tadena has been named executive sous-chef at the Hilton Hawaiian Village Waikiki Beach Resort.
Previously the resort’s executive banquet chef, Tadena is a graduate of Kapiolani Community College and the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, N.Y. He started at the Hilton Hawaiian Village as chef garde manger in 2009.
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