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Sustainable You Hawaii – Orly’s Patisserie
Nestled in Lihue Town, Kauai, Hawaii, Orly Patisserie has earned a reputation for merging traditional French pastry techniques with the rich and diverse flavors of the island, with Orly himself being a pivotal creative force behind the operation. The patisserie has seen its share of national attention, with Orly noting, “I’ve been on the Food Network four times: one competition and three times on ‘Holiday Wars.'” This attention isn’t unwarranted, as the array of pastries offered, from croissants to cakes, encapsulate a delicate balance between skilled craftsmanship and utilization of fresh, locally sourced ingredients.
Amanda Smith, in an episode for Kauai TV, explored the acclaimed offerings of Orly Patisserie, drawing attention to several pastries that embody the shop’s dedication to culinary excellence and innovative flavor profiles. A standout, the Lilikoi Ube Cheesecake, is layered and visually striking, characterized as “light, fluffy, and airy” by Orly, and not only is it a visual delight but also one of their “top sellers.” A similar attention to delicate flavor and texture is seen in the Lilikoi Souffle, described by Smith as “creamy, fluffy, light, decadent,” with just a subtle, melting hint of lilikoi (passion fruit).
Further exploring the patisserie’s offerings, the decadently layered “Death by Chocolate” is illuminated, featuring “a chocolate ganache and over the chocolate ganache is a rich chocolate cake,” followed by “a chocolate mousse and a chocolate shiny glaze over.” Smith’s sampling of the pastry led her to note, “this is really rich,” suggesting it might pair well with “a glass of wine.” These creations, layered and intricate, provide a silent testament to the meticulous and expertly developed skills of Orly and his team, crafting pastries that are not only flavorful but visually stunning.
Orly’s journey into the artistry of pastry-making is rooted in hands-on experience and learning from renowned professionals, sharing, “When I decided to make it a career, I just took classes here and there and worked with some of the best chefs in the nation in Las Vegas.” His creations subtly echo her learned expertise and honed skills, intertwining them with the vibrant and fresh ingredients available in Kauai, producing not just pastries but a tasteful exploration into the harmonious melding of French pastry artistry and vibrant Hawaiian flavors.
Each visit to Orly Patisserie offers not only a palate of vibrant and meticulously crafted pastries but also a glimpse into the art and precision that Orly injects into each creation. As Amanda Smith quietly appreciated the “cool little details of the chocolate, the colors,” and the dedicated and precise artistry that goes into making each item “really special,” Orly Patisserie stood solidified as an establishment where every pastry is a testament to a journey where traditional French pastry meets the effervescent flavors and vibrant colors of Kauai.
Sustainable You Hawaii – D-Green’s BBQ
D Green’s BBQ, situated in Old Koloa Town, Koloa, Hawaii, presents itself as a venue for southern-style BBQ, integrated with the unique flavors imparted by local lychee wood. Chef Darren Green, with over three decades in the culinary industry, offers a menu that includes brisket, ribs, and pulled pork among other staple BBQ items, and emphasizes a distinctive, Hawaiian-influenced BBQ approach through a signature slow-and-low lychee wood smoking technique.
In a segment hosted by Amanda Smith on Kaua‘i TV, Chef Darren Green delineated the offerings and practices of D Green’s BBQ. The chef succinctly summed up his menu, stating, “We serve brisket, pulled pork, ribs, chicken, sausage, potato salad, macaroni and cheese, baked beans, coleslaw, all the staples.” His culinary approach provides a canvas to explore the confluence of traditional BBQ with local ingredients. A particular emphasis is placed on the establishment’s BBQ sauce, which is available in three heat variants and, according to Green, is an amalgamation of “all the regions of barbecue in a bottle” with “the predominant flavor [being] pineapple juice.”
One highlight of the BBQ menu, the brisket, undergoes a 20-hour cooking process and employs a spice rub consisting of around “40 different spices.” Green details the care taken to achieve a specific outcome with the brisket, noting, “you get the best of both worlds, you get a little bit of lean and you get a little bit of fatty. This will turn into like almost bacon when it’s done cooking for another two and a half hours.”
Chef Green also shared his practice of utilizing lychee wood in his smoking technique, acknowledging that it imparts a “sweet smoke” to the meats. The meticulous preparation and cooking processes culminate in dishes that Smith described as having a bacon flavor, being “definitely smoky,” and meat that “melts in my mouth, literally.”
The sauces, which notably incorporate Trinidad Scorpion peppers grown by Green himself, are formulated to deliver recognizable but manageable heat. Describing the spiciest variant, Green said, “It’s insanely hot, so I only use a small amount, just enough so that you know there’s some heat there but not enough so that it’s like, ‘Oh my god, I gotta go get a glass of milk.’”
D Green’s BBQ finds its ethos rooted in a harmonization of traditional Louisiana and southern comfort food with Hawaiian culinary innovation, providing a gastronomic exploration of both familiarity and novelty. Smith noted the establishment’s atmosphere as a “barbecue oasis” and encapsulated the perceptible aroma, suggesting, “we should bottle that bacon, just sell it as perfume.” This suggestion, while ostensibly lighthearted, underscores the deeply ingrained nature of sensory experiences in memory and familiarity, an element inherently tied to the act of dining.
While the segment on Kaua‘i TV concludes with a palpable enthusiasm for the dishes sampled and a spirited endorsement from the host, it nonetheless provides an unscripted and firsthand account of the offerings at D Green’s BBQ, illuminating the culinary philosophies and practices therein. The establishment, through a careful marriage of traditional and innovative practices, seeks to carve out a distinctive space within the culinary tapestry of Hawaii.
Sustainable You Hawaii – The Musubi Truck
Nestled in Kapa’a town, the Musubi Truck has garnered attention for its unique spin on a longstanding Hawaiian staple: the musubi. SPAM, a protein that found its way into the diets of Hawaiians during the 1940s wartime, evolved into a culinary mainstay, and by the 1980s, it was being crafted into SPAM musubi by local innovators like Barbara of Jonihana, after whom the Musubi Truck is affectionately named. As Nicolette, one of the craftspeople behind the Musubi Truck, shared with Amanda Smith, host of Kauai TV, “Spam came to Hawaii in the 1940s during wartime, and it quickly became the main staple protein for locals.” Nicolette illustrated how the truck has shifted from the classical SPAM, rice, and nori composition towards something more gourmet, yet still anchored in tradition.
While the Musubi Truck pays homage to the traditional SPAM musubi, known colloquially as the OG Spam musubi, its offerings veer into innovative territories. An example of this innovation is the Ahi Katsu Musubi. Nicolette detailed the process, stating, “We got fresh fish from local fishermen. We have a slew of them that keep in touch with us. It’s panko’d and fried and then tucked into the rice and wrapped with the nori with a little furikake again on top and a katsu sauce.” The meticulous crafting of each musubi, from careful rice pressing to adroit nori wrapping, yields a harmonious blend of crunchy and soft textures, warmly enfolding the palate.
Contrastingly, their Ahi poke bowl, which Nicolette described as having “cold, crisp Ahi on the warm rice with the furikake, Hawaiian salt, just a touch of it so that you taste it every other bite,” is a different kind of culinary experience yet still revered by both tourists and locals. The juxtaposition of the cool Ahi with the warmth of the rice provides a notable variation, establishing the Musubi Truck not just as a one-note wonder but a place where tradition and innovation harmoniously reside side by side.
The truck, while primarily a food service entity, extends its influence beyond the culinary realm through community involvement, particularly via their “Feed Our Keiki” program. Nicolette shared with Smith, “Since we’re close to the skatepark and the middle school, they all come flowing through here, and we’ve really become a place for them that’s safe.” Through the program, children in the vicinity, either from the skatepark or the school, are provided with a nourishing meal, comprising of the original Spam musubi, chips, and a drink. The initiative is not just about feeding the youth but also about providing a safe and welcoming space, weaving a tapestry where sustenance and community converge.
In a realm where food, tradition, and community interfuse, the Musubi Truck finds its niche, offering not merely a meal but an experience, a connection to the roots and evolution of Hawaiian culinary arts, and a warm embrace to the community it serves. This synthesis of culinary innovation, respect for tradition, and community integration delineates a unique path in which the Musubi Truck navigates, meandering through the tastes and spirits of Kaua’i, crafting not just food, but narratives enveloped in nori, sprinkled with furikake, and imbued with the essence of aloha.
Sustainable You Hawaii – Nani Moon Mead
Nani Moon Mead, positioned in Kapaa, Kauai, Hawaii, underscores its expertise in crafting mead—an alcoholic beverage originating from fermented honey. The business integrates a diverse assortment of local ingredients, prominently Hawaiian honey and various indigenous tropical fruits, spices, and herbs. The resultant beverage is a reflection of the Hawaiian terroir, enriched by the locale’s characteristic biodiversity. An apparent commitment to sustainability and the reinforcement of local agriculture echoes through the meadery’s practices, given their exclusive use of Hawaiian honey and local produce in crafting their meads.
In a conversation with Amanda Smith, Stephanie from Nani Moon Meadery elucidates, “Basically, what mead is is an alcoholic beverage that’s made from honey. We make mead because we can get all of our ingredients locally. So we get honey from our own hives and fruit and spices from our local farmers, so you’re left with a product that’s 100% Hawaiian and tropical.” This underscores the meadery’s intent to embed itself in practices that favor local production and sustainability, whilst producing a beverage intrinsically tied to its geographical and cultural context.
When visiting Nani Moon Mead, customers find a tasting room, where a range of meads, distinct in their flavor profiles, are available for exploration and purchase. They have meads that range from the brightly tropical to those imbued with richer, spicier notes. Mention of several meads, such as Pineapple Guava Sunset and Winter Sun, indicates a palette inspired by and derived from the local environment. Furthermore, the tasting room is not only a space for sampling but also serves as an informative stage, where aspects of mead production and ingredient details are divulged to the visitors.
Navigating through the assortment of meads Nani Moon Mead offers, Stephanie outlines, “We do have seven varieties of our commercial meads, which you’ll find on our menu as well as sometimes seasonals… We highly recommend the royal flight, and that can be enjoyed for two people or for an ambitious one person, and that’s a two-ounce pour of all seven of our commercial varieties.” A snapshot into a few of the meads—like the Ginger Spice, which “is made with Kauai honey, star fruit, organic raw ginger, and organic spices,” or the Winter Sun, formulated with “local raw honey, star fruit, and passion fruit,”—provides insight into the thoughtful fusion of local ingredients.
Moreover, the meadery is described as ensuring a meticulous blending of traditional mead production practices while engaging in collaborations and close workings with local beekeepers and farmers, maintaining a singular emphasis on ingredient quality and genuineness. The resultant mead offerings are notably crafted to create not merely a beverage but an experience that encapsulates Hawaii’s vibrant and distinctive environmental attributes.
Stephanie’s comments in the video about various meads provided insights into the myriad of options available to patrons. Regarding the Cacao Moon, she remarked it is “made with local macadamia nut blossom honey and chocolate and vanilla, both grown on the north shore of Kauai, so it’s semi-sweet and just super beautiful and smooth.” Another variant, Deviant Behavior, presents an intriguing blend, being “made with Kauai honey, Hawaiian chili peppers, and pineapple.”
She wraps up the interaction with a note that for customers who traverse the tasting journey and wish to take a piece of it back home, “We do tastings and we do full bottle purchases here, so you can either come in and buy a few bottles or you can come in for a taste and leave with bottles. We do ship to the mainland, so if you come in and want to take anything home with you, we can provide that shipping option to select states.”
Nani Moon Mead is not merely a business entity but a confluence where local agriculture, sustainable practices, and the creation of a uniquely Hawaiian beverage intermingle, contributing to a sustained local agricultural practice and a distilled, bottled experience of Hawaii’s indigenous flora.
Sustainable You Hawaii – Cozy Bowl
In Kaua’i, Hawaii, Cozy Bowl Noodles garners attention with its distinctive approach to noodle-making, particularly through the unconventional use of ‘ulu (breadfruit) as a primary ingredient. Spearheaded by Dominique Chambers, a former pastry chef turned entrepreneur, Cozy Bowl Noodles not only provides a varied selection of distinct noodle types such as Rigatoni, Lumache, and Mafaldine but also ventures into home goods and special offerings like ‘Ulu Ramen and options for customers to donate an ‘Ulu Tree.
“Ulu is so versatile,” shared Chambers during a feature by Kauai TV, hosted by Amanda Smith. Elaborating on the choice of using ulu as a staple in her pasta creations, she explained that depending on whether the breadfruit is “really starchy or very ripe,” it can be utilized variably to “alter the recipe of [her] pasta dough to achieve a different consistency,” thereby providing opportunities to craft noodles that could range from “more stretchy” to “more chewy.”
A compelling transition from her pastry chef days, where Chambers confessed she fed people “copious amounts of sugar,” her venture into nutritious, sustainable food production through Cozy Bowl Noodles reflects a conscientious effort toward healthier culinary offerings. Chambers appreciates the nutrient-dense profile of ulu, stating it is “filled with all the vitamins and minerals that a person needs to survive.” She sees merit in producing a product that not only serves as a culinary delight but also as a potential sustenance in times of scarcity.
Her offerings during the TV feature included not only the classic rigatoni but also adventurous blends such as “moringa and Okinawa spinach trigatone” and “ulu rigatoni with a kabuka squash dressing,” accompanied by a colorful array of ingredients like eggfruits, napa cabbage, kale, Ali’i mushrooms from the Big Island, daikon, and a touch of pickled onion as well as fennel. The resultant product, as tasted by host Amanda Smith, is described as “very fresh” and “easy to eat,” with a note of appreciation for the “lots of flavor” and a subtle “hint of that squash” towards the end.
While the culinary efforts and innovative approaches toward sustainable and nutrient-conscious food production by Cozy Bowl Noodles is worth noting, particularly with its use of a local staple like ulu. This niche approach to noodle-making, marrying tradition with innovation, not only underscores a potential avenue for the utilization of local ingredients in varied culinary preparations but also implicitly champions a move toward conscious, sustainable culinary practices within the locale.