New take on ancient utensil | Honolulu Star-Advertiser

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COURTESY CROPSTICKS CO.

A chopstick rest breaks off the bottom of a pair of Cropsticks, made of sustainable bamboo.

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COURTESY TIKI’S GRILL & BAR

Tiki’s Grill & Bar’s Scout Mint Cookie Cheesecake is a Kona coffee cheesecake with chocolate mint cookie crust, modeled on the Thin Mint Girl Scout Cookie.

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Cropsticks are disposable bamboo chopsticks with a built-in, break-off rest conceived by Moanalua High School graduate Mylen Yamamoto while on a flight to Asia in 2015.

Financed by crowdfunding, the Cropsticks are now on the market, and Yamamoto has come home for a local launch event at Eating House 1849 by Roy Yamaguchi.

Yamaguchi’s Roy’s restaurants and his new Eating House restaurants offer the diners the Grade-A bamboo utensils, considered eco-friendly compared with chopsticks made of slower-growing wood sources.

MW Restaurant also is transitioning to Cropsticks when current supplies of traditional versions have been exhausted, said General Manager John Kobashigawa.

Cropsticks are available for purchase online via cropsticks.co, at $6.99 for a pack of 25 pairs.

Yamamoto has taped an episode of “Shark Tank” to pitch her product for investment, to air at 8 p.m. April 7 on KITV.

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Erika Engle, Star-Advertiser

Scouts’ cookies inspire upscale dessert creations

If eating Girl Scout Cookies out of a box is just not enough to quench your annual cravings, see what a chef can do with a little Thin Mint inspiration.

Nine Hawaii restaurants have created desserts around Girl Scout Cookie flavors, most of them featuring Thin Mints, but with some love also shown for Samoas, Trefoils and S’Mores. A portion of each dessert sold goes to local Girl Scout troops.

Participating are Angelo Pietro, Artizen by MW, LunchBox by Pili Group, The Counter at Kahala, Tiki’s Grill & Bar and Via Gelato, all on Oahu; and Hilo Bay Cafe, Lava Lava Beach Club and Huggo’s, all on Hawaii Island.

The specials are available through the end of March.

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Betty Shimabukuro, Star-Advertiser

Feed the hungry while eating well yourself

The 11th Annual Great Chefs Fight Hunger fundraiser for the Hawaii Foodbank takes place at 6 p.m. Saturday at the charity’s Mapunapuna warehouse.

Among the 27 participating chefs will be those representing Moku Kitchen, Vino, 12th Ave Grill, 53 by the Sea, Town, The Pig & the Lady, Eating House 1849, Tango Contemporary Cafe and MW Restaurant.

The event will include a silent auction and entertainment by JazzyJay, the Osorio Ohana, the Fresh Preps and Tahiti Rey.

Tickets are $200. Call 836-3600 or go to hawaiifoodbank.org.

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Star-Advertiser staff