The Taste of the Hawaiian Range started in a humble way in the ranching town of Waimea (Kamuela) by a small group of visionaries in 1996. As a companion to the University of Hawai'i School of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources' Cooperative Extension Services' Mealani Forage Field Day event, The Taste soon became a popular feature with the public. From this modest beginning, it soon outgrew the first few years' locations and for the past few years has been held in the lanai and ballrooms of the Hilton Waikoloa Hotel in South Kohala.
The vision and mission of "The Taste" is to provide an educational venue to encourage, develop and support local production of agricultural products through social, cultural and scientific exchanges. Every event features a diverse group of talent chefs gathered from across the state to create dishes that showcase our island's bounty.
The participating chefs & restaurants were paired with different cuts of 'tongue to tail' beef, lamb, goat and pork and each was given 100 pounds of the selected meat with which to create their dishes.
The chefs & restaurants that were paired with farms and their products were set up on the water's edge lanai. All others were sharing space with agricultural products and educational display booths in the packed main ballroom.
The Taste is the ultimate grazing experience. As the public mills around tasting, word of mouth comments are made as you run into friends and, before you know it, lines quickly form in front of the most popular booths.
It is hard to get to all of them, but we try! Usually, Anthony and I split up and I go around taking photos of booth displays and he grabs samples for us to taste, then we meet by one of the bordered planters and sit for a few minutes tasting each dish.
We did not get to taste everything...I don't think it's possible, but there were several delicious entries and one in particular was my favorite.
Photo above - Leslie Apoliona manning the grill
A brand new partnership created by three friends has resulted in The Feeding Leaf, an exciting event and catering company in Kailua-Kona. I'm not sure if it was because you could see the meat being grilled on site by one of the partners, or the bubbly 'never flagging' fun personality of the other two that attracted me to this particular dish, but if I had had the time and could have gone for seconds, this was my pick of the best.
Photo above - Tracey Apoliona and Chef Scott Hiraishi of The Feeding Leaf...I tried to get a shot of the array of sample dishes on the serving board, put they were snatched quicker than I could snap!
Miso Marinated Beef Skirt Steak, served on Gingered Rice with Pickled Peach and a side of Namasu
Beef Marinade:
1 cup Miso
1/4 cup Mirin
1/4 cup sugar
1 Tablespoon diced ginger
Beef Marinade:
1 cup Miso
1/4 cup Mirin
1/4 cup sugar
1 Tablespoon diced ginger
Marinate beef overnight, and grill (medium rare)
Gingered Rice
Peeled ginger (to taste really, we estimate a finger or two)
1 cup cooked edamame
Blend in food processor until green paste forms.
Fold into 3 cups of hot cooked rice
Pickled Peach
1 cup apple cider vinegar
1 cup sugar
1 cup water
2 pieces LiHing Mui (*)
Place 2-3 fresh peaches in a jar with the pickling juice and soak for about 2 weeks
Namasu
1/4 cup dried shrimp
3 cucumbers, seeded
1/2 red onion, julienne
1/2 carrot, grated
1 cup vinegar
1 cup sugar
Mix and marinate overnight.
Miso:traditional Japanese seasoning produced by fermenting soybeans with salt and the fungus Aspergillus oryzae.
Mirin: rice wine similar to sake.
Li Hing Mui: is salty dried plum. In most parts of China it is called huamei. It has a strong, distinctive flavor, as it has a combination of sweet, sour, and salty taste. It has also been described as tart, and even tangy. Li hing mui means 'traveling plum.'
Namasu: is a Japanese dish consisting of thinly sliced vegetables and seafood, marinated in rice vinegar for several hours or overnight to pickle slightly.
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Mealani's Taste of the Hawaiian Range and Agriculture Festival provides a venue for sustainable agricultural education, encouragement and support of locally produced ag products. The premiere ag-tourism event is a partnership betweenCTAHR, Hawaii Cattlemen's Association, Hawaii Cattlemen’s Council, Kulana Foods, UH-Hilo CAFNRM, County of Hawaii Dept. on Environmental Management and community volunteers. Sponsorship also includes the Hawaii Tourism Authority, the Hawaii County Research and Development, Hawaii Community College Food Service & Culinary Program and KTA SuperStores. The quality and growth of this event are rooted in small business participation, sponsorship and in-kind donations.
For more information, visithttp://www.TasteOfTheHawaiianRange.com
