Hawaii’s
Back yard
Cheryl Chee Tsutsumi
Food festival
features meat
raised in HawaiiFirst, an explanation for the uninitiated: Mountain oysters are the parts of a bull's anatomy that make it, so to speak, the equivalent of a man. For foodies who can get past this, they're also an edible delicacy.
So claims Gene Erger, one of 50 volunteers preparing for the eighth annual "A Taste of the Hawaiian Range Food Festival," set for Sept. 26 at the Big Island's Hapuna Beach Prince Hotel. The event will bring together more than three dozen of Hawaii's best chefs for a culinary extravaganza that showcases the island's forage-raised beef, veal, lamb, mutton, goat, venison, pork and poultry.
And, oh yes, its mountain oysters. If you haven't tasted them, this is very likely the only opportunity you'll have to do so because they're not available at any local restaurants, supermarkets or delis.
COOPERATIVE EXTENSION SERVICE
Chef Wilhelm Pirngruber of the Hilton Waikoloa Village Resort serves up a taste of the range.
"Everyone, and I mean EVERYONE, who's tried them raves about them," asserts Erger. "I've heard comments ranging from 'They are excellent!' to 'If a restaurant served them, I would order them.'
"The mountain oysters can be prepared many ways, including ground as meatballs in sauces; made into pâte; battered and deep-fried; marinated and grilled on a barbecue; sliced very thin, marinated and served on toasted cornbread; and so on. Most times, people don't know what part of the cattle they're eating, and when they find out, they're full of compliments for the chefs."
This year's event will honor three culinary wizards who've won the prestigious James Beard Foundation Award for Best Chef Northwest/Hawaii: Roy Yamaguchi (1993), of Roy's Restaurant; Alan Wong (1996), of Alan Wong's Restaurant; and George Mavrothalassitis (2003), of Chef Mavro. Other local participants include Amy Ota, of Oodles of Noodles; Daniel Thiebaut, of Daniel Thiebaut Restaurant; James McDonald, of Pacific 'O; and Beverly Gannon, of Haliimaile General Store. Guest chef Chris Albrecht hails from the MGM Grand Hotel's Craftsteak Restaurant in Las Vegas, which serves Kamuela Pride beef from the Big Island's Habein Ranch.
FILE PHOTO
Alan Wong will be among the stellar chefs participating in "A Taste of the Hawaiian Range Food Festival."
TO MAKE THINGS interesting, the chefs are assigned a meat and Big Island-grown produce just a few days prior to the event, then must decide how they're going to use those ingredients.
"We try not to give the chefs the same product they had the year before," explains Erger. "They could get something familiar like filet mignon or rack of lamb, or they could wind up with something exotic like heart, tongue or oxtail. But whatever these talented chefs work with, it's guaranteed the end result will be wonderful!"
In addition to paying for the cost of staging the event, proceeds provide help to various groups including Kona-Kohala Chef de Cuisine, a regional organization of culinary professionals and food service businesses that promotes the profession; the Big Island's 4-H youth livestock program; and Hawaii Community College. Eventually, festival organizers hope to support scholarships for students of agriculture or the culinary arts.
"A Taste of the Hawaiian Range" is the brainchild of Glen Fukumoto, county extension agent for the Cooperative Extension Service, the outreach educational arm of the University of Hawaii at Manoa's College of Tropical Agriculture & Human Resources, and Milton Yamasaki, manager of the Mealani Research Station in Waimea. Mealani is one of 17 CTAHR facilities on the Big Island, Oahu, Maui and Kauai that conduct studies in tropical agricultural fields such as agronomic crops (including sweet corn, forage corn, grasses and legumes), floriculture and beef cattle.
COOPERATIVE EXTENSION SERVICES
Mealani Field Day was created as an educational event presented in support of the islands' grazing industries.
In the early 1990s, Hawaii's cattle industry lost two critical infrastructure components on Oahu: the feeding facilities at Campbell Industrial Park and the slaughter and processing facilities on Middle Street. Because of this, it became cheaper for local ranchers to send their cattle to feed on the mainland rather than bring feed to the cattle. At about the same time, the sugar industry was winding down on the Big Island. Fukumoto and Yamasaki saw the potential of raising cattle on the soon-to-be-fallow sugar acreage.
"We asked ourselves if these lands could be used for cattle production for the first time in over 100 years," says Fukumoto. "Could we keep more cattle on the Big Island and make that venture profitable?"
Mealani Field Day was created as an educational forum targeting the grazing industries (initially beef cattle, dairy and sheep); related businesses that support ranching, such as supply, livestock pharmaceutical, fertilizer and equipment companies; and government agencies, including the State Department of Agriculture, USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service, USDA Farm Service Agency, the Department of Land & Natural Resources and the Department of Health.
"We realized if there was going to be an increase in forage-based production, we needed to educate consumers," Fukumoto says. "This spurred the development of 'A Taste of the Hawaiian Range Food Festival' -- a community celebration designed to show consumers the high-quality produce and forage-based meats grown on the Big Island.
"The County Department of Research & Development funded a small grant for the educational program, and the food festival started with a budget of zero, a dozen restaurants, six food service vendors and lots of hope."
CTAHR's first Mealani Forage Field Day and "A Taste of the Hawaiian Range" were held on Sept. 13, 1996, in Waimea. About 100 participants attended the field day, and approximately 350 guests enjoyed the food festival.
Today the festival attracts a crowd of 1,200 Hawaii residents and visitors. "We've had college students from culinary schools on the mainland attend with their instructors," notes Erger. "They've had the opportunity to talk to local chefs, farmers and ranchers about the foods produced here. What a valuable learning experience!
"'A Taste of the Hawaiian Range' is all about fabulous food. And nobody complains about the tab. Where else can you eat all you want of an incredible variety of gourmet fare prepared by Hawaii's top chefs for around $30, and learn something to boot?"
An event for carnivores
What: "A Taste of the Hawaiian Range Food Festival"
Place: Grand Ballroom and Courtyard, Hapuna Beach Prince Hotel, 62-100 Kaunaoa Drive, Kohala Coast, Big Island
Time: 6 to 8 p.m. Sept. 26
Admission: $25 per person, pre-sale, through noon Sept. 26 at Cook's Discoveries and Kamuela Liquor in Waimea, Kona Wine Market in Kailua-Kona and at the Cooperative Extension Service's offices in Hilo and Kealakekua. Thereafter, tickets will be available at the door for $35 per person.
Call: 808-322-4892
E-mail: gfukumot@hawaii.edu
Note: The Hapuna Beach Prince Hotel is offering a special overnight rate of $145 for "A Taste of the Hawaiian Range" attendees. Book by calling 808-882-6060 or going online at www.hapunabeachprincehotel.com.
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Cheryl Chee Tsutsumi is a Honolulu-based free-lance writer and Society of American Travel Writers award winner.
