Gather at Ala Moana Center Saturday for the Honolulu PokeFest, from 4 to 8 p.m. in the shaded parking area on the makai side.
Fifteen poke shops from across the island will be putting their best blends forward, including Alicia’s Market, Ahi Assassins, Tanioka’s Seafood and Catering, Aloha Poke Shop and Poke on Da Run.
All who attend can vote for a favorite, as well as participate in a poke eating contest (prize for the fastest eater is a trip for two to Las Vegas).
Admission is free; pay for your poke as you go. A portion of the proceeds will go to Sustainable Coastlines Hawaii, which works to keep Hawaii’s beaches tidy through beach cleanups and other activities.
Purchase a $50 or $35 PokePass package at honolulupokefest.com and you’ll have access to express lines at each station.
Look for the festival between Morton’s Steakhouse and the Park Lane Ala Moana condominium.
Kauai pastry chef joins ghoulish TV competition
The point of “Halloween Wars” is to turn sweets things into creepy, crawly, scary things, all in the name of competition.
Kauai pastry chef Orly Yadao joins the ghoulish fun as part of a team vying for a $50,000 prize on Season 8 of the Food Network contest. The season launches Sunday at 6 p.m.
Six teams are in the running, each with a pumpkin carver, cake maker and sugar master. Yadao, who takes on the task of sugar artistry, is the former executive pastry chef at Grand Hyatt Kauai Resort & Spa and The Club at Kukui‘ula. He is opening his own shop, Orly Patisserie, next month in Lihue.
Yadao said he was selected for the show and placed on a team based on a video that he submitted. “It was the hardest thing I’ve ever done,” he said. “It really is a war.”
Filming took place nearly a year ago, and afterward, Yadao said, it took a while to recover from the stress. “I was dreaming of making sugar, cooking with sugar, for two whole weeks.”
Still, he calls all the competitors friends, “almost like a family.”
Get spicy, then preserve, pickle and ferment
Slow Food O‘ahu explores the world of chilies and details the how-tos of preserving and fermenting foods in upcoming classes:
>> First, it’s Chili 101 with Nat Bletter, a gardener who’s growing 30 types of chilies at his home. He’ll cover everything from tending chili plants to using the hot pods in preparations. On the schedule are recipes for ajvar, a mild Macedonian roasted red pepper spread, as well as a fermented hot sauce like Sriracha and a mole poblano sauce that calls for various types of chilies plus chocolate.
The class runs 1 to 4 p.m. Saturday at a location to be announced. Fee is $42, $36 for Slow Food O‘ahu members. Go to 808ne.ws/chilies to sign up.
>> Next: a preserving and fermenting workshop series with certified master preserver Terri Langley. The three-part series covers pickling on Sunday; kvass, ginger beer and lemonade “fermentations in a cup” on Oct. 14; and sauerkraut and kim chee fermentation on Oct. 28. Classes start at 10:30 a.m. and will be held at Kaimuki Superette, 3458 Waialae Ave. Cost is $55 for individual classes, $45 members; the entire series is $145, $120 members. Register at 808ne.ws/ferment.
The hands-on pickling class covers the principles of pickling as well as techniques, and students will go home with pickles and recipes.
The fermented drinks class discusses the benefits of probiotics to health, how fermentation transforms ingredients and how to make the drinks.
In the final class, learn basic preservation through lacto-fermentation, and prepare recipes of sauerkraut and kim chee. Take home the products as well as recipes.
