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Quick Bites: ‘Taste of Waipahu,’ Roy’s, more

Compiled by NINA WU / nwu@staradvertiser.com

Taste of Waipahu: Taste some of Waipahu’s offerings at the seventh annual Taste of Waipahu.

The festival is scheduled for 3:30 to 10 p.m. Saturday at Waipahu Depot Street and the Waipahu Festival Marketplace, near the historic Oahu Sugar Mill.

Laverne’s Catering, Kona Ice, Thai Kitchen, Ono Kettle Corn and Ono Local Grindz will be featured. Fresh seafood and produce will also be available at Waipahu Festival Marketplace.

Parking is available at Waipahu Elementary and Intermediate parking lots, with shuttle service to the event.

Call the Waipahu Community Association, 677-6939, for more information.

Pears & Pinot: Enjoy “Pears & Pinot,” a five-course dinner menu prepared by the Kahala’s chef Wayne Hirabayashi and Hoku’s chef de cuisine Jeremy Shigekane at the Kahala Hotel & Resort on Wednesday.

The collaborative menu was inspired by the Hartford Court Family Winery using a variety of pears paired with Pinot Noir from the Russian River Valley.

An amuse bouche of d’anjou pear-wrapped scallop with chocolate sauce is on the menu. The entree is roasted quail glazed with Bosc pear.

Dessert is a Mirin-poached Asian pear with pistachio streusel and ice cream.

The dinner is co-sponsored by Young’s Market Hawaii, with an appearance by Hartford Court Family Winery vintner Don Hartford.

A winemaker’s reception is at 6 p.m. Wednesday in the Waialae Waterfall Room. Dinner starts at 6:30 p.m. in the Waialae Ballroom.

Cost is $120 per person. Call 739-8760 or email restaurants@kahalaresort.com.

Old-fashioned dining: Roy’s Hawaii Kai offers diners the opportunity to travel back in time to the days when Kennedy was president and Sinatra crooned on the Vegas Strip.

The “OLD’S COOL” dinner is set for 6 p.m. Wednesday.

Start your dinner with an hors d’oeuvre of rumaki and stuffed mushrooms, followed by Clams Casino and Oysters Rockefeller, a lobster bisque and spinach salad with warm bacon dressing.

The entree is “steak au poivre” with asparagus in brown butter. Dessert is Baked Alaska.

The Original Roy’s in Hawaii Kai is at 6600 Kalanianaole Highway. Cost is $55 per person. Call 396-7697 for reservations.

Dinner series: Cactus is holding the first of its Farmers’ Dinner series on Wednesday, with guest Kimberly Clark of Just Add Water, a community-supported agriculture venture that distributes boxes of produce weekly.

Some items on the menu (subject to change) include a Nalo soybean guacamole tostada with oven-dried beefsteak tomatoes; a roasted chayote squash and green chili soup with Big Isle goat cheese and charred Kahuku corn empanada; “Bull’s Blood” beets with bleu cheese, fennel and a spicy dragonfruit escabeche; opah belly “carnitas” with Yacon slaw and Kulana grass-fed beef short ribs braised with red chilies, chocolate and red wine.

Dessert is cherimoya churros with Big Island chocolate, Kona coffee fondue and house guava jam.

Clark, a founding board member of the Hawaii Organic Farmers Association, will be on hand for the evening along with her assistant, Carley Miller, a food sciences major at the University of Hawaii at Manoa.

Menu items are available paired with wine and cocktails or a la carte. Cost is $90 for the prix fixe five-course menu plus pairings.

Seating begins at 6 p.m. Cactus is in the Davis Building, 767 Kailua Road. Call 261-1000 or visit cactusbistro.com.

–Email “Quick Bites” news to nwu@staradvertiser.com.