Sam goes Cajun
Friday - February 22, 2008
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Mardi Gras Fest at Sam Choy’s BLC.
Among the popular food festivals held at Sam Choy’s BLC, the annual Rajin’ Cajun Celebration holds one of the top spots.
“Our customers really enjoy the Cajun specials that Chef Aurelio puts together for the week,” says BLC co-owner James Lee. “This is the 11th year we’ve offered our Cajun menu, and each year it becomes more popular.”
Easy to see what regulars to the Nimitz Highway restaurant and microbrewery love about the menu, and it’s easy to see that chef Aurelio loves the challenge.
“It’s interesting to always come up with different menus,” says the affable chef. And Cajun food, with its spicy, rich sauces, blackened meats and fish, and emphasis on seafood, is a perfect match for the micro-brewed beers that are a specialty at BLC.
Menu specials featured during the weeklong celebration include: fresh shucked oysters, seafood gumbo, blue crab, blackened cat-fish, shrimp etoufee and seafood jambalaya.
The Cajun specials will run from Monday, Feb. 25, until Sunday, March 2.
Sam Choy’s Breakfast, Lunch,
Crab & Big Aloha Brewery
580 N. Nimitz Hwy.
545-7979
Pagoda Adds Local Favorites to Breakfast Menu.
One thing the culinary staff at Pagoda restaurant know is the local palate.Their fried rice is consistently named a favorite among connoisseurs, and Pagoda chef Nathan Kina takes pride in letting people know that the secret to great fried rice is great ingredients. Easy to do when you serve up steak, crab and shrimp most nights for dinner.“The reason guests like our rice so much is that we use all of the best leftovers from the night before, so for breakfast you can have fried rice with prime rib, Portuguese sausage, ham, green onions, eggs, green beans - you name it and it’s probably made it into Pagoda’s fried rice at some point,” says Kina. “We go through hundreds of pounds of rice a week,“he adds.“It’s definitely our most popular item.”
And Pagoda has added a couple of other favorites to the breakfast buffet - corned beef hash and loco moco. Guests are invited to create their own loco moco each Wednesday morning, and enjoy freshly cooked corned beef on Tuesdays.
There’s also a limited early bird dining special, where guests seated by 5:30 p.m. can enjoy Pagoda’s all-you-can-eat dinner buffet for just $20.95.
Pagoda guests have been enjoying an impressive lineup of local entertainment since the return of live music on Fridays to La Salle. Recent entertainers include Weldon Kekauoha, Aunty Genoa Keawe, Piliaoha, Raiatea Helm, Maunalua and Augie T. There’s weekly entertainment at the Pagoda Waterfall, too, where hula dancers entertain guests on Friday evenings from 6 to 8 p.m.
The Pagoda Hotel
1525 Rycroft St.
941-6611
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Elua Hosts Eclectic Mix of Winemakers.
There’s a local connection between Copeland Creek Winery, Aloha Airlines and Elua Restaurant. Elua owner Keith Kiuchi explains: “At Thanksgiving, my cousin, who is an Aloha Airlines flight attendant, asked me if I’d be interested in trying some wines. Turns out her colleague, pilot Ryan Pullis, also sells wine for his mom’s winery, Copeland Creek,” says Keith.
He tried the wines and was impressed enough to bring them into the restaurant, and invite Pullis to host a wine dinner at Elua.
“The wines are remarkably good - and great value,“says Keith, “and they’re a good match for the restaurant, where Chef Donato specializes in sourcing small family wineries to promote through his company, Flavors of Italy.” Copeland Creek, a Sonoma-based winery,specializes in Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. A wine dinner featuring the wines will be held Feb. 28.
Upcoming dinners include a celebration of some of the world-class wines from the Puglia region of Italy, and a Schweiger wine dinner in April.
The restaurant also expects to feature wines from Raptor Ridge Winery in Oregon and Vinoce Vineyards in Napa later this year.
Elua Restaurant
1341 Kapiolani Blvd.
955 ELUA (3582)
www.eluarestaurant.com
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