Slow Food O'ahu News

Number 2015-14
Mailed December 22, 2015

Table of Contents

Slow Food O'ahu Annual Meeting - January 10 (Slow Food O'ahu event)

Hawaii Shochu Company Tour - January 23 (Slow Food O'ahu event)

Slow Food Farm Tour and Dinner at Kahumana Farms - January 30 (Slow Food O'ahu event)

The Slow Food O'ahu Snail of Approval Launches

A little bit of this and that

Happy Holiday and New Year

This is our last e-newsletter of 2015. It's been a busy year and we look forward to our events in 2016. Next year will bring many national and international events with Slow Fish and Terra Madre. Please join us to learn more at our Annual Meeting in January (see article immediately below) to learn more and offer your ideas for 2016. Meanwhile, have a festive holiday and remember to eat good, clean, and fair.

Your Executive Committee

Slow Food O'ahu Annual Meeting and Potluck
Sunday, January 10, 2016 FREE
3989 Diamond Head Rd., Honolulu, HI 11:00 a.m. - 2:00 p.m.

Please join us for our Annual Meeting to re-cap the events of 2015 and begin 2016. As is our tradition, we gather for a wonderful lunch on Sunday in January (this year on January 10) for an opportunity to share food, food policy, and plan for 2016. Slow Food member events are known for some of the BEST local food potlucks.

In addition to our lunch and re-cap of events, we will have a speaker, Hunter Heavillin, who will speak on "Permaculture in Hawai'i". For those who may have heard of the term "permaculture", this is the opportunity to learn. Hunter has spent the past few years between Hawaii and Haiti teaching and con

Hunter Heavillin

Huntsulting on projects running the gamut from disaster response ecological sanitation to homeless shelter design. He holds degrees in Agroforestry and Sustainable Community Development and has a focus on small island developing states and the application of permaculture to disaster risk reduction and response. Hunter is the lead designer of Pono Permaculture, a Hawaii-based Permaculture consultancy and planning team and is currently consulting with the Hawaii Association of Independent Schools' school sustainability program.

The meeting will be held in a classroom on the grounds of The Arc in Hawai'i at 3989 Diamond Head Road near the intersection of 22nd Avenue and Diamond Head Road (Note: It is the same location as last year). Look for our sign once you turn into the parking lot for directions to the classroom.

Although the event is free, please RSVP https://www.eventbrite.com/e/slow-food-oahu-annual-meeting-and-potluck-tickets-20133826818 to assist us with planning. Bring your own utensils, drink, cutlery, and a dish to share. We look forward to seeing you there.

Hawaii Shochu Company Tour - January 23, 2016
66-542 Haleiwa Rd., Haleiwa 1:00 p.m.

Feasting well is about more than just plates of scrumptious food - it is also about THE DRINK! Slow Food O'ahu would like to invite its members to a real slow drink experience. Hawaiian SHOCHU Company is opening its doors to Slow Food O'ahu members for a rare tour of their facilities in Haleiwa. Ken Hirata is finally distilling his own shochu out of sweet potatoes in Haleiwa. Hawai'i, it turns out, is a great place to make sweet potato shochu, thanks to the temperate weather and abundance of locally grown, starchy, not-too-watery sweet potatoes.

Shochu is not well known outside of Japan, but for about a decade now, shochu consumption there has overtaken sake. Learn how this wonderful spirit is produced right here on our island with locally available ingredients. Speak with the producer, Ken Hirata, and ask all the burning questions you kept in the vault about distillation just for this occasion. We'll have an opportunity to taste the unique qualities of locally made shochu. Bring some fixings to share your favorite cocktail recipes.

For background information on shochu and the company, check out two articles by Martha Cheng in Honolulu Magazine, a 2013 article and 2014 article.

The cost is $15 and includes tastings. The tour is limited to only 8 people. Reserve your place at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/hawaiian-shochu-company-tour-tickets-20137170820 (Note: registrations accepted after December 23 at noon)

Slow Food Farm Tour and Dinner at Kahumana Farms - January 30, 4:00 - 8:00 p.m.

86-660 Lualualei Homestead Road, Wai'anae, HI 96792

Kahumana Farm & Cafe and Slow Food Oahu are partnering to provide a farm to table event on Saturday, January 30, 2016. The event will showcase the farm and cafe as an experimental ground for island sustainability and healthy food movement. Kahumana Farm & Café are part of a large 501(c)3 non-profit organization nestled in the back of Lualualei valley in Waianae. Its mission is "to co-create a healthy, inclusive and productive farm-based community with homeless families, people with disabilities and youth."We hope you can join us and help us spread the word about this event to your social networks.

The event will begin with a farm tour that will highlight the aquaponic system, free ranged poultry, permaculture food forest, production fields, and integration of social programs on the farm. Following the 4:00 p.m. tour of the farm, there will be a 5:30 p.m. outdoor meal served on the patio with outdoor lighting and tiki torches.There is an optional covered area in the unlikely event of rain.

All of the vegetables and the poultry (chicken or duck) will be from the farm. It will be accompanied with Kahumana Kooler which is a hibiscus, lemongrass, and other mixed herb cold tea. The multi-course meal will consist of:

1. Kahumana salad with mixed carrots, watermelon radish, green onion, and beet salad with house dressing

2. 'Ulu and kalamungay soup

3. Dill and cilantro hummus

4. Farm Fresh Poultry special

5. Kahumana liliko'i cheese cake.

There is a vegetarian/vegan option. It will be a nut and veggie filled Swiss chard roulade. Please order that option on EventBrite. It will be a BYOB event.

Entertainment will be provided by Lucie Lynch, a singer-songwriter with an angelic voice and wicked sense of humor. Lucie weaves original music with colorful tales from Lucie's road adventures www.lucielynchmusic.com . Help support Kahumana's long term vision and hope is to have the west-side be seen as a place of evolving local sustainability beyond organic farming that integrates the diverse communities that live here. Kahumana community is also taking an active role in this effort with other local organic farms in the region and hopefully 2016 will be a breakthrough year for all of us. Our goal for the evening is not only to share this beautiful organic farm and a wonderful meal but to generate a conversation for sustainability beyond organic farming and with the diverse communities on the west side.

Bring your shopping bags, as the Kahumana Market will be open where you can purchase fresh farm veggies and other value added products such as pesto, hummus, spicy cilantro sauce, dried herbs, and tea blends.

The cost of the experience is $70 for members of Les Dames d'Escoffier or Slow Food Oahu and $85 for non-members. To register, go to https://www.eventbrite.com/e/slow-food-oahu-kahumana-farm-cafe-farm-to-table-dinner-tickets-20067882577

Slow Food O'ahu Unveils its Snail of Approval

Slow Food O'a

hu is pleased to unveil its "Snail of Approval" to establishments on O'ahu whose food and business practices merit recognition for upholding the principles of Slow Food. A Slow Food "snail" is awarded to purveyors of good, clean, fair foods. For Slow Food, the idea of good means enjoying delicious food created with care from healthy plants and animals. When we talk about clean food, we are talking about nutritious food that is as good for the planet as it is for our bodies. It is grown and harvested with methods that have a positive impact on our local ecosystems and promotes biodiversity. Food that is fair should be accessible to all, regardless of income, and produced by people who are treated with dignity and justly compensated for their labor.

We are pleased to announce our first seven awardees (in no particular order), all of whom completed our Snail of Approval Survey. All awardees will proudly display our "Snail of Approval" at their establishment and be designated as such on our website:

Mud Hen Water, www.mudhenwater.com, 3452 Wai'alae Ave. (Kaimuki)
Kaimuki Superette, www.kaimukisuperette.com, 3458 Wai'alae Ave.(Kaimuki)
town Kaimuki, www.townkaimuki.com, 3435 Wai'alae Ave. (Kaimuki)

Grondin French Latin Kitchen, www.grondinhi.com, 62 N. Hotel St. (Town)
Puka's Bar at Whole Foods, www.wholefoodsmarket.com/stores/honolulu, (Kahala Mall)
Madre Chocolate, www.madrechocolate.com, 8 Pauahi St (Town) and 20 Kainehe St. (Kailua)
Olive Tree Cafe, 4614 Kilauea Ave. http://www.yelp.com/biz/olive-tree-café-honolulu-2 (Kahala)

If you are an establishment and you believe that you merit our "snail" designation, we encourage you to fill out our survey at: http://slowfoodoahu.limequery.com/index.php/595616/lang-en This survey has been developed and tailored through extensive research and discussion to fit Hawaii's unique food environment, while also ensuring strict adherence to the GOOD, CLEAN, FAIR philosophy that Slow Food embodies. At any time in the future, you can find our survey on our Home Page of Slow Food O'ahu.

A little bit of this and that ...

- Congratulations to Chef Ed Kenney (Slow Food Member and recipient of a Snail of Approval for his restaurants) for being selected as one of Tasting Table's top chefs in the nation for his opening of Mud Hen Water in Kaimuki.
http://www.tastingtable.com/dine/national/tasting-table-top-chefs-2015-best-restaurants-nyc-la-sf?utm_medium=email&utm_source=TT&utm_campaign=Daily&utm_content=Editoriall

- A HUGE Mahalo to our many farmers and chefs who contributed to our Taste of the Ark dinner on November 15, 2015. We had a fabulous turnout of about 50 folks who were able to share in the bounty of our Ark products as well as local foods.

Our website has been updated to include an entire page featuring our Ark of Taste representative foods. Check it out at:

http://slowfoodoahu.org/ark-of-taste/

- Check out

Local-Kine Biz: Healthier Meat for Moloka'i and Beyond, an article by Jackie M. Young, in the Hawai'i Business, to learn more about the Moloka'i Livestock Cooperative and the island's efforts to promote grass-fed and hormone-free beef.

Slow Food Leadership

Slow Food O'ahu Officers: Mae Isonaga, Chair; David Bangert, Treasurer; Sharon Odom, Secretary; Francine Wai, Newsletter Editor; Nina Bermudez, Membership and E-mail correspondent; Matthew Lynch, Board Member; Tom Sheeran, Slow Food Chinatown Tour Coordinator.

Slow Food Regional Governor: Laurie Carlson

Facebook manager: David Bangert

Webmaster: Wendy Hee

Slow Food Membership

To join, go to the http://donate.slowfoodusa.org/site/PageServer?pagename=Member_Benefits

Quick Links

Slow Food O'ahu Convivium website

Slow Food Hawai'i Convivium website

Slow Food Maui Convivium website

Slow Food USA website

Slow Food International website

Contact reservations.sfoahu@yahoo.com for information on our events.
Contact slowfoodoahu@yahoo.com for general information

Slow Food O'ahu on Facebook. Please click here to check us out: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Slow-Food-Oahu/163195710427565