Thanksgiving: The best food day of the year
Friday - November 21, 2008
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There’s no avoiding food on Thanksgiving Day, whether you’re up at 4 a.m. stuffing the turkey or making a pot luck dish to take to a family party, the aroma of the season is all around. But with so many turkeys to go, ready-made meals, supermarket side dishes and restaurant specials, is your time best spent in the kitchen, or hanging out with family and friends at a table where the food’s been cooked by somebody else and the cleanup is all taken care of?
If you’re venturing outside your kitchen this year and are looking for a memorable meal, here are a few tried, true and trusted places where Thanksgiving might not be entirely traditional, but is guaranteed to be good.
Top of Waikiki
The Thanksgiving menu at Top of Waikiki is both beautiful and incredibly good. How do I know? I’ve already eaten it.
In October, I asked Executive Chef Sean Priester to create a menu for a project I was working on, and together we tasted our way through his exquisite herb stuffing with cranberry pineapple jam, cinnamon brown sugar sweet potato raisin hash and pumpkin crème brulee. Sean’s also serving a kabocha bacon soup with mint and sour cream along with roast turkey and gravy this Thanksgiving.
“I look for inspiration everywhere,” he says. “Holidays are big in the restaurant industry, but people expect tradition so I tried to incorporate cranberry sauce, cinnamon and pumpkin and all the flavors of the holidays. And, of course, I had to put sage stuffing on the menu. Couldn’t have Thanksgiving without that.”
Anything Sean has to have on his own plate at home? I ask. “Lots of gravy. Lots and lots of gravy!”
If you’re looking for a gourmet taste of the holidays - at an amazing price (it’s $30 per person), I think you’ll be thrilled with the menu at Top of Waikiki.
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Top Of Waikiki
2270 Kalakaua Ave.
923-3877
$30 per person
Hoku’s Thanksgiving to Go.
Hoku’s Turkey to Go is the first ‘take-out” Thanksgiving dish I tried, and it makes an appearance every year on my “best of” list.
Wayne Hirabayashi is the executive chef in charge of operations at The Kahala Resort, and his local touch with turkey and the trimmings make for a delicately balanced, interestingly flavored, perfectly cooked meal.
If you’re looking to feed four or five people an extremely elegant meal and you want to pick up everything hot and ready to eat, then there’s probably nowhere quite like Hoku’s. Even the pickup is elegant, with Hoku’s staff and chefs clad in whites directing you to specially set up tents for hot meal pick-up. Usually Chef Wayne is there himself, loading up the car - it’s the little touches that make this one of the Island’s best.
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Your $150 Hoku’s dinner includes a 12- to 14-pound roasted turkey with lup cheong, wild rice, apple and chestnut stuffing, one pint of herb gravy, mashed potatoes, roasted vegetables with spiced roasted pumpkin seeds, cranberry sauce, homemade ciabatta bread, a salad of fall garden vegetables, and pumpkin chocolate pie. And if you absolutely have to have more of the gorgeous mashed potatoes and gravy, you can order all of the items a la carte.
Hoku’s Thanksgiving Complete Turkey Dinner
Orders are taken until noon on Wednesday, Nov. 26
739-8888
Panya Bakery Restaurant and Bistro.
Panya Bakery is fast becoming holiday food central. Owners Annie and Alice Yeung started their complete dinner-to-go service five years ago, and this year they sold out in a matter of days.
“People tell us that they love the homemade taste of our food,” says Alice, who painstakingly oversees each pot of gravy and each batch of stuffing. “We make our stuffing a little different, and we include a large appetizer platter, which people seem to like.”
The appetizer alone saves you hours of work - with dishes like crispy salt-and-pepper shrimp, homemade spring rolls, chicken wings and pot stickers all served on a platter large enough to feed four to six people, the pupu platter is just part of the Panya holiday feast.
And while Panya might be sold out for Thanksgiving, the sisters are taking orders for Christmas and New Year, so you might want to plan ahead and book now.
“We have two days of pickups for Thanksgiving - and this year we’ll do Christmas and New Year special menus to go,” says Annie. “It’s a lot of work, but we love it.” Panya also has a full-service bakery where orders for Christmas cakes, yule logs and stolen are now being taken.
Panya Bakery & Express
711 Queen St.
Honolulu.
597-8880
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Sergio’s Italian Thanksgiving
If you’re likely to be eating out next Thursday but don’t necessarily want to go with tradition, then there are several restaurants where the chefs are featuring dishes that reflect both the holiday and their own culinary traditions.
At Sergio’s Italian Restaurant the menu is regional, Italian and filled with gorgeous imported ingredients as well as a bounty of local fish and produce.
“We want people to eat as they would in Italy,” says Chef Alfredo Lee, “especially when it is a holiday.”
Additions to the a la carte menu over Thanksgiving weekend include homemade soup with butternut squash, potatoes, carrots and a crawfish stock, finished with crawfish and Parmesan cheese croutons, Porchetta Con Salsa di Tonno (slow-cooked pork ham with Italian spices and rosemary, finished with Nalo baby greens and a tuna sauce), and Galletto con Mirtillo (baked Cornish game hen stuffed with raisins, pine nuts, fresh herbs and bread crumbs, served with soft polenta and a blueberry sauce).
There’s no turkey on the menu, but there’s a taste of Italy. Pork lovers should try Maialino e Fagioli, a pork chop that’s pan-fried in sunflower oil and served with borlotti beans, black cabbage and garlic mashed potatoes.
Among the desserts is an irresistible warm apple tart served with eggnog gelato.
Sergio’s Italian Restaurant 449 Kapahulu Ave. 737-4461
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