Chef Roy Yamaguchi at Roy’s Beach House, a restaurant he opened at the Turtle Bay Resort in August 2016. He celebrates 30 years of cooking in Hawai‘i This year.

Photo: Catherine Toth Fox

I remember the first time I ate dinner at Roy’s Hawaiʻi Kai.

I was in college. We sat near the window. I ordered the meatloaf.

It must’ve been a special occasion—an anniversary, maybe—because, back then, dining at Roy’s was a big deal. This was fancier than Tony Roma’s.

Over the years, Roy’s had become my go-to spot for special dinners. When I got my first full-time job at The Honolulu Advertiser after graduate school, I took my entire family there to celebrate. The bill exceeded $300 and I remember partly feeling sick and partly feeling like a baller. And after my husband and I got married—on the beach, no guests, no one knew—we celebrated with our families that night there, too.

You could say Roy’s has marked some of the most important milestones in my life.

So it would seem fitting that I would help chef Roy Yamaguchi celebrate one of his: 2018 marks the 30th anniversary of Roy’s Hawai‘i Kai, the restaurant that launched his career in Hawaiʻi. Three years after he opened the restaurant, he joined 11 other Hawaiʻi chefs to start Hawaiʻi Regional Cuisine, a culinary movement that blended the diverse flavors of the Islands with an emphasis on local ingredients. Two years after that, in 1993, Yamaguchi became the state’s first recipient of the prestigious James Beard Award. He went on to open more restaurants, here and elsewhere, and co-found the Hawai‘i Food & Wine Festival, heading into its seventh year.

Yamaguchi kicks off his 30th Anniversary Hawaiʻi Food Tour series on Thursday, Feb. 8 with a special dinner at the original location in Hawaiʻi Kai. Ten of Hawai‘i’s top chefs, including Alan Wong, Chris Kajioka, Ed Kenney and Andrew Le, will be cooking alongside Yamaguchi. (The event is sold out.) There will be more dinners and parties throughout the year, including a big end-of-the-year celebration in December, the month he opened 30 years ago.

We caught up with Yamaguchi the other day to find out what he’s got planned this year and what he’s learned over the past three decades.

Photo: Courtesy of Roy Yamaguchi

HONOLULU MAGAZINE: You opened Roy’s Hawaiʻi Kai on Dec. 23, 1988. Why in the world would you open two days before Christmas?

ROY YAMAGUCHI: Well, it wasn’t that we wanted to open up on that day. It’s just how it kinda fell into place. I remember trying to figure out a Christmas dinner on the 23rd. I actually still have the menu somewhere.

HM: Why did you open in Hawaiʻi Kai instead of, say, Downtown or near Ala Moana?

RY: What happened was my cousin, who was a realtor, was living in Portlock. She and her husband would drive to town every day to their office. And every day, on their way to work and on their way home, they would drive past this building. It was basically an office building, and it was empty. She would think to herself, “I bet you this would be a good space for a restaurant.” So she called me. I was in L.A. at the time, running 385 North [in Hollywood]. She said, “Roy, you should really come to Hawaiʻi and take a look at this spot.”

HM: What did you think when you saw the space?

RY: When I flew out here, the building only had about two or three tenants … The space was just concrete and there was this outside lānai area. I found a broken office chair—it had four wheels and no real seat—and brought it up to the second floor and took it out to the lānai area. I sat on the chair and kept rolling it back and forth, sliding the chair from one end of the lānai to the other. I did this for about four or five hours. I felt great about the space. Something about restaurants is that when you walk into a space, you feel like something good can happen. It was that kind of feeling I had. Everyone told me not to open a restaurant here because I’ll never make it. Not many restaurants made it in Hawai‘i Kai … But this location just felt good.

HM: And now look. You’ve been there 30 years!

RY: At the end of the day, I’m very humbled and happy that, after 30 years, we’re still here—and especially because my whole intent was to build a restaurant in a neighborhood. That was extremely important to me 30 years ago. I didn’t want a restaurant in town. I really wanted to be part of a neighborhood and I wanted people to associate me with that neighborhood, and Hawaiʻi Kai was it.

Photo: Courtesy of Roy Yamaguchi

HM: Were you successful right from the beginning or did it take time?

RY: We did fairly OK from the beginning. But after a month or two, it really caught on and the rest is history. We were very fortunate because we opened in 1998 and in June of that year, Bon Appétit had run a 13-page story on me with recipes because I had a restaurant in L.A. and we were doing some good stuff back then that was different from everybody else. So Bon Appétit had already contacted me about doing a story on my cooking. Long story short, I was already closing 385 North and making plans to open in Hawai‘i Kai … So the magazine came out in June and said that I would be opening a restaurant in Hawai‘i Kai later that year. People were already looking forward to us opening. It was a good thing that happened. We did well from Day 1.

HM: You have always emphasized customer service at your restaurants, even winning Hale ʻAina Awards in that category. Why has that been such a focus for you?

RY: From before we opened, my whole thing was about servicing the guest. When I had a restaurant in Los Angeles, we fell short. I fell short. It didn’t click, it didn’t work. When I came to Hawaiʻi, in all honesty, I wanted that whole setup from Cheers, where bar friends would meet people in a comfortable setting, a place where everybody knows your name. That’s the kind of environment I wanted.

HM: How were you able to maintain such a high standard for service?

RY: Customer service is extremely important. It’s not really unique to Roy’s, but, at the end of the day, it’s the simple stuff, the stuff that people tend to forget, that makes a difference. We really take care of each other. We take care of our staff. We take care of our guests. Then everything falls into place. Knowledge is also very important to me. Not only do our chefs and cooks know the menu, but everyone, from the bus boy to the server assistant to the server, understands and is knowledgeable about everything we do.

HM: What dishes have been on the menu since the beginning?

RY: The blackened ʻahi, the hibachi salmon, the meatloaf. The chocolate soufflé came later and the short ribs, too.

HM: Was there a dish that you served that surprised you in how it was received?

RY: Actually, for Christmas Eve, for the longest time, we used to do a roasted goose. I just thought it was a pretty cool dish to eat. People enjoyed it.

HM: I remember seeing you cook at Roy’s sometimes. Do you still do that?

RY: I was just helping [executive chef] Jason Peel this morning for breakfast at Eating House 1849 [at the International Market Place]. All the Polynesian Bowl football players are in town this week. I was making eggs and cutting fruit and cooking bacon.

Yamaguchi still cooks at his restaurants.

Photo: Craig Bixel

HM: What’s the weirdest thing you’ve served at Roy’s?

RY: I would get ingredients like snake or ostrich, but only very small orders, like 10 or 12. If I didn’t sell it, it wasn’t a big deal, but I had the pleasure of making it. What I used to do was, instead of putting it on the menu—I didn’t want to throw people off—I would have the server tell certain guests, “By the way, we have something very special that Roy wants to prepare. Very limited quantity. It’s a snake dish.” People would order it or they wouldn’t.

HM: So… how would you prepare the snake?

RY: What you do is you put it in hot water, real fast, to take the skin off. Then you get the meat and sauté certain portions of it in a little olive oil and butter and herbs. Then you serve it. It was usually an appetizer. I would boil the skin for a long time, then marinate that in a little soy, ginger, garlic, ponzu. I would end up eating it because no one would order it. (Laughs.)

HM: What makes this anniversary, your 30th, so special?

RY: It’s great that Hawai‘i has all these great restaurants now. There’s a lot to choose from. I just think that it’s really vibrant. And the great thing about Hawai‘i is that chefs like to help each other out. It’s such a great environment to be in, where everybody helps each other … We’re all friends and we all care about each other, which is cool. That’s what makes this so special for me. It’s great to have been here for 30 years and to have all these relationships with other chefs and with the community. It’s just a great feeling.

HM: What do you have planned for the next 30 years?

RY: For the next 30 years, I’m hoping to continue to build that bond and trust and friendship with everybody in the community … I know that I can overcome anything. I’m just hoping I won’t be wearing diapers!

royyamaguchi.com

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Ryan and Heather Mohr, and their Australian shepherd pup Andy, started Keiki and Plow, an organic farm in Hawai‘i Kai.

Photos: Nicole Oka

Some call her Superwoman.

In addition to raising her family of five with husband and business partner Ryan, organic farm Keiki and Plow co-owner Heather Mohr is busy with entrepreneur workshops, agricultural conferences, grant writing and prepping for a talk at Whole Foods. What else this week? She’s chaperoning her youngest’s field trip on top of her daily duties caring for 4 acres of farmland with their 45 chickens, two rabbits, a cat and the latest addition to the farm, Andy, an Australian shepherd pup. She and her ‘ohana only moved to this plot of land in June, hoping to immerse their kids in a nature-integrated, kid-friendly environment.

They’re not farmers—Mohr was a preschool teacher and her husband an entrepreneur. But now they run Keiki and Plow, a family-friendly organic farm behind Kaiser High School. After moving from California to Hawai‘i 12 years ago, they lived in Waikīkī. For Mohr, it was a good experience. She could take her kids to the zoo and the aquarium, and they were in the middle of all the hustle and bustle. Following the birth of her third child two years ago, the family moved to Kuli‘ou‘ou, resulting in their first foray into community gardening. “We had a 10-by-10 plot,” she says, “and we loved it. Our kids wanted to share everything we grew with friends and teachers.”

The view from the couple’s 4-acre farm behind Kaiser High School.

Making the jump from a backyard plot to a 4-acre farm, however, came with its challenges. It took countless hauls to the dump and perseverance in cutting back the brush and weeds to shape the property into a farm. They came every weekend to the property beginning in February to clear the land and haul away trash, not knowing if they’d even get to lease the land. It was tough, but it gave the Mohrs time to come up with a game plan for their vision. “We had the opportunity to take a piece of land that was mistreated and help it grow into something nurturing,” says Mohr.

She’s quick to thank everyone else for their success. “It’s not just me,” she says. “I don’t want people to think I’m doing it on my own. This is something that takes a team, and it’s really because of my husband, my kids, our family and friends that Keiki and Plow is a reality.”

The Mohrs spent months cleaning up the property to create the farm. Now, the couple posts the veggies and herbs available every week on the farm’s social media sites.

“When Ryan and I looked at how we wanted the next 20 years to go, our hearts agreed on one word—slower. Purposeful work, connected work—to each other, to the ‘āina, to our community,” explains Mohr.

A semifinalist in this year’s Mahi‘ai Scale-Up agricultural business competition held by Kamehameha Schools and the Pauahi Foundation, Keiki and Plow has grown from a dream into a reality. The business plan competition is open to tenants on Kamehameha Schools-owned lands who are farmers as well as other agricultural producers and educational collaborators interested in growing food for Hawai‘i. With $30,000 in prize monies at stake, it’s a big jump for any smaller farm or agricultural business. To the Mohrs, it was a valuable opportunity to get engaged in the local ag community. They prepped intensively, studying up on which irrigation methods were best for their crops and reworking their business plan over and over.

Despite not winning, they’re happy. “We’re really proud of what we did. We wouldn’t change a thing about the way we presented our ideas and our business plan,” reflects Mohr. “If anything, it made us believe in our farm even more.”

Produce offerings vary each week in response to what’s available for harvest. Mohr posts the available produce on a weekly basis to the farm’s Instagram and Facebook page, where folks can message her directly to purchase. Those interested in picking their own produce can always stop by the farm during harvesting days. The produce on rotation includes Swiss chard, Toscano kale, butter lettuce, sweet corn, radishes, green onion, dill, thyme, carrots and beets. She even grows a variety of Hawaiian plants, including kalo, kō (sugar cane), ‘ōlena (turmeric), ‘uala (sweet potato) and mai‘a (bananas). Their most popular products, however, are the large, organic eggs that come in a spectrum of colors, including an eye-catching robin’s egg blue. Mohr’s free-range chickens are raised on organic, GMO-free feed and veggie scraps from Whole Foods Kāhala, resulting in eggs that often yield golden-orange double yolks. Recently, the farm sold out of its weekly organic egg packages for the first time.

Mohr inspecting the kale growing on her farm. she grows a variety of produce here, including butter lettuce, radishes and beets.

The farm’s most popular products are the large, organic eggs that come in a spectrum of colors from these free-range chickens.

Some of the bounty we harvested that day.

What distinguishes Keiki and Plow from other organic farms is that activities are keiki-centric. Even your littlest ones can enjoy picking their own veggies with the help of Mom or Dad. The farm is open from 9 to 11 a.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays for u-pick harvesting, chicken feeding and other keiki activities in a nature-inspired play space. “It’s a great way for keiki to experience interacting and caring for farm animals, including 45 organic chickens and two cuddly bunnies,” she says. Families are encouraged to bring a basket to harvest organic vegetables at reasonable rates ranging from $5 to $15, depending on how much is picked.

The farm also hosts a family-friendly volunteer work day and potluck every first Saturday of the month. Volunteers complete a range of projects for all skills levels, including weeding, clearing and helping with the mulch.

Veggies and eggs from Keiki and Plow.

Photo: David Croxford

Eventually, the Mohrs would like to offer community programming and keiki gardening classes. Mohr gestures to the large, unfinished terrace in front of us. “We plan to have a Keiki Discovery Garden here and conduct workshops for kids and their families,” she says, smiling. “We want to have a farm café here, too. It’ll go in that back corner.”

They’re waiting on permit approval for a commercial kitchen, too. “Wouldn’t it be great for kids to come here and prepare meals with their family using fresh, organic veggies that they picked?”

587 Pakala St., open to the public from 9 to 11 a.m. Tuesday and Thursdays. A visiting donation of $5 per family is requested for animal feed costs. Families can volunteer from 9 a.m. to noon every first Saturday of the month. For more information, connect with Keiki and Plow on Facebook and Instagram. (808) 208–2740, www.keikiandplow.com

Farm Friday is an occasional feature that highlights Hawai‘i’s vibrant and diverse agricultural industry. Every month we will visit farms, talk to food producers and discuss issues that affect the community from which our food comes.

Steak with chimichurri sauce.

Photos: Catherine Toth Fox

It may sounds like a crazy move for the second-generation owners of Ethel’s Grill in Kalihi to open in the snack shop of the members-only O‘ahu Club in Hawai‘i Kai.

But considering Robert Urquidi—who runs the beloved hole in the wall with his wife, Minaka—grew up in Hawai‘i Kai, his chef brother lives next door to the club, and this new spot gives the family some creative license to come up with new dishes, it all makes sense.

“It’s totally open,” says Urquidi, who grew up in Mariner’s Cove. “We can play.”

Here’s how it happened: The O‘ahu Club was looking for someone to take over its café, which used to serve simple grab-and-go fare such as sandwiches and hot dogs. A friend approached the Urquidis, who were thinking about a second location, and that’s it. They signed a two-year lease and now Ethel’s Grill fans from East Honolulu can easily get their fix. Plus, this café is open until 8 p.m. on weeknights, 7 p.m. on Saturday and 3 p.m. on Sunday. (The Kalihi location is only open until 2 p.m. and closed on Sundays.)

Furikake chicken.

Urquidi enlisted help from his brother, Mark, to run the café. After about a month of cleaning up and renovating the small space fronting the pool at the club, they opened The Café by Ethel’s Grill. Despite its location in a private club, the café is open to the public; you just need to sign in at the front desk. (And the parking here is way better than in Kalihi. Bonus!)

Urquidi thought the club was going to want healthier fare, so he started coming up with a variety of overnight oats and smoothies. But no. The club wanted the grill’s mainstays: ‘ahi tataki, steak with chimichurri sauce, garlic ‘ahi and furikake chicken. (I’m lobbying to get the taco rice on the menu here.)

“I was all ready with the smoothies,” says Urquidi with a laugh.

‘Ahi tataki.

But there are daily specials in rotation—pork chops with gravy ($9.50), tofu caprese salad ($10.50), curry loco moco ($11.50) and some kind of poke bowl. While there’s no brown rice—only one person has asked for it, so far, Urquidi says—you can substitute sweet potatoes for the white rice.

Unique to this location are the breakfast (served from 8 to 10 a.m.) and dessert offerings. Breakfast items include The Big Breakfast ($10.50), with two eggs, sweet potatoes, your choice of breakfast meat, a green salad and a garbanzo-bean marinade; the toast with chopped ham, cheese and a soft-egg scramble ($9.50); and the inventive “edamamole” toast ($8.50), a combo of smashed avocado and edamame with two sunny-side up eggs.

Minaka, a pastry chef by training, whips up chocolate-banana coffee cake ($3.75), honey scones ($3.50), PB&J French toast ($8.50) and something called Unicorn Poop ($1.75), a sugar cookie glazed with frosting and rainbow sprinkles. If that’s not enough sugar for you, get the Fairy Toast ($5.75)—a slice of Breadshop’s city bread, toasted and smeared with creamy Nutella and strawberry jam, and topped with toasted mini marshmallows and rainbow sprinkles.

Fairy Toast ($5.75).

“Kids love it,” says Mark, “but parents hate it.”

On Fridays and Saturdays, the café has a pau hana menu, with $5 dishes—whatever Urquidi and his brother come up with. And it’s BYOB.

Most of the customers aren’t club members, though Urquidi says some have signed up since visiting the café. “Every day it gets busier and busier,” he says.

Inside the O‘ahu Club, 6800 Hawai‘i Kai Drive, closed Mondays, 394-2233, @thecafe_by_ethels_grill (Instagram)

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Sophie’s Gourmet Hawaiian Pizzeria, a locally owned build-your-own pizza shop, opened last week in Koko Marina Center.

Photos: Catherine Toth Fox

First, Pieology in ‘Āina Haina. Now, Sophie’s Gourmet Hawaiian Pizzeria in Hawai‘i Kai.

Where were all these pie shops when I lived in East Honolulu?

For years, the only two options Hawai‘i Kai residents had for pizza were Boston’s Pizza in Haha‘ione and Kona Brewing Co.

Then, this February, the first Pieology, a national chain of fast-casual pizza eateries, opened in the ‘Āina Haina Shopping Center, offering build-your-own pies with a slew of sauces and toppings.

SEE ALSO: First Look: Pieology in ‘Āina Haina

Then, last week, Sophie’s Gourmet Hawaiian Pizzeria opened in Koko Marina Center, in the 1,400-square-foot space vacated by Island Treasures. Like Pieology, you can create your own 12-inch pizza here, from dough to toppings. (It’s $10.95 for up to three toppings, $12.95 for up to five.)

The dough is worth noting: Both Sophie’s Original and the guava-infused dough—your only choices—are made from scratch daily. Both retain a nice, soft texture after baking in a very hot pizza oven. The result is an airy, light pizza crust that’s crispy and lightly charred—the way it should be.

The pizzeria offers four different sauces—the house red, a zesty Sriracha red, a cilantro-tomato pesto and a macadamia-nut cream—and six different cheeses—mozzarella, ricotta, goat, dry-aged goat, Fontina, Parmesan. And for toppings, there’s everything from Italian meatballs and sun-dried tomatoes to char siu and Thai curry-spiced chicken. (You can also create your own salad for $7.95.)

The meat options for toppings include Italian meatballs, pepperoni, char siu, bacon and kālua pig.

“I wanted to take the pizzeria business up a few notches,” says owner John Kim, who worked as the general manager of Honolulu Cookie Co. for his uncle for 10 years. “Most pizzerias, and especially the Mainland brands, sadly use cheaper ingredients and typically make the same-old pizza that everyone else makes. In many ways, they are about quantity and not quality.  I wanted to use the freshest and finest ingredients and infuse my pizzas with local flavors.”

That’s evident in his signature pies, particularly the Seoul Mate ($12.95), one of Kim’s personal concoctions. This pizza is served more like a calzone—a folded-over, stuffed crust—packed with Korean bulgogi, kim chee, mozzarella, goat cheese and Maui onions. It’s finished with herb-infused olive oil, oven-roasted green onions and Parmesan cheese. It had all the flavors of a Korean plate lunch but in a pizza. Genius.

The Seoul Mate is a Korean plate lunch in a calzone.

The Hawai‘i Pie-O ($12.95) features a zesty Sriracha sauce topped with mozzarella, salami, char siu, Portuguese sausage, pepperoni, fresh cilantro and a cilantro aioli.

And the Sophie’sticated ($12.95) features the guava-infused crust brushed with herb olive oil and layered with Parmesan and mozzarella cheeses, slices of yellow tomatoes, spiced salami and fresh baby arugula. It’s finished with dry-aged goat cheese shavings and truffle oil. You don’t taste any guava flavor in the crust—the fruit is used to enhance and accelerate the fermentation process, Kim says—but the simple, quality ingredients really shine. It wasn’t hard to eat the entire pie—and still have room for a stop at Bubbies Homemade Ice Cream next door.

The Sophie’sticated pizza is topped with Parmesan and mozzarella cheeses, slices of yellow tomatoes, spiced salami and fresh baby arugula.

There’s plenty of seating inside, plus tables outside with views of the marina. The pizzeria is named after his daughter, Sophie, though Kim says it’s more about a a persona than his actual daughter.

“The pizza business, if you think about it, has a very masculine persona,” he says, referring to Papa John’s and Little Caesars. “What I wanted to do was be different and put a feminine spin on it, kind of like what Dave Thomas did with Wendy’s.”

Kim, who also worked on Wall Street and calls this new role his third career, comes from a family of food business owners. One uncle owns Honolulu Cookie Co. and another ran the popular Ted’s Drive-In on King Street where Cake Works is now located.

“Food and entrepreneurship, I guess, is in my blood,” he says. “I would regret it if I didn’t do this before I retire.”

Koko Marina Center, 892-4121, sophiespizzeria.com

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Two years ago, Kualoa Ranch started growing oysters in the 800-year-old Mōliʻi Fishpond by the ocean. Oysters are just one of several food products for sale that are grown, farmed and raised here.

Photos: Catherine Toth Fox

Kualoa Ranch is two things to me: the place where I rode my first horse and the site of Kōkua Festival.

I had never been there to eat.

Recently, though, I met up with Taylor Kellerman, the new manager of livestock and diversified agriculture at Kualoa Ranch, to find out more about what’s grown—and sold—at this 4,000-acre ranch in Ka‘a‘awa.

Turns out, the ranch will be launching a new farm-to-table immersion tour on April 18 for people who are curious—like me—about its offerings.

Some background:  Established in 1850, Kualoa Ranch is both a private nature reserve and working cattle ranch with more than 500 heads of cattle. It’s owned and managed by the sixth-generation descendants of Dr. Gerritt P. Judd, a missionary doctor who arrived in Hawai‘i in 1828. He purchased 622 acres of land here—including the small offshore island Mokoli‘i (commonly known as Chinaman’s Hat)—from King Kamehameha III, for whom Judd served as a personal adviser, in 1850.

The ranch sprawls over 4,000 acres, from the back of lush Ka‘a‘awa Valley to the 800-year-old Mōliʻi Fishpond by the ocean.

The ranch continues to produce cattle, recently shifting from a cow-calf operation, which sent its young beef cattle to the Mainland for finishing, to raising the cattle entirely here. The cattle are all born and raised here, grass-fed and processed entirely on island. The ranch sells various cuts in its visitor center, from filet mignon ($14.99 per pound) to short ribs ($5.99 per pound) to ground beef ($5 per pound).

The beef is also used in the hamburgers at Aunty Pat’s Paniolo Café, also in the visitor center.

The ranch sells various cuts in its visitor center, from filet mignon ($14.99 per pound) to short ribs ($5.99 per pound).

The beef is also used in the hamburgers at Aunty Pat’s Paniolo Café, located in the visitor center.

Two years ago, Kualoa Ranch started selling oysters grown in its 153-acre, ancient Hawaiian fishpond, marking the first time locally farmed oysters were for sale in Hawai‘i. So far, the response has been overwhelmingly positive, with requests pouring in from local restaurants and oyster connoisseurs. Its next crop, available now, comprises roughly 100,000 oysters. These are sold live for $15 for a dozen.

SEE ALSO: Oysters from Kualoa Ranch

White shrimp and tilapia are also grown here, mostly in earthen ponds. Shrimp is sold frozen at $12 a pound.

The visitor center also sells fresh eggs, tropical flowers and produce such as papaya and apple bananas, all grown at the ranch.

Kellerman took us along the new tour route, starting at the ranch house and shrimp and tilapia ponds. Here, guests will learn the Hawaiian art of throwing nets to catch fish. Then we drove through groves of mango, cacao, guava and starfruit trees; past a section of canoe plants such as ‘ulu (breadfruit), noni and kalo; along rows of sugarcane and pineapple; past an orchard of coffee trees; and through an area dedicated to tropical flowers such as heliconia, ginger and anthuriums.

There are several varieties of Hawaiian sugar cane growing at the ranch. 

We visited Mōliʻi Fishpond, too, another stop on tour. This fishpond, with much of its original stonewall infrastructure in place, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Here, we stopped to watch workers harvest oysters, which are raised in baskets. Guests will be shuck fresh oysters and learn about modern fishpond operations.

“Our oysters don’t have a mud taste because they’re not raised in mud,” Kellerman says.

The third stop is at the Ka‘a‘awa Ag Center, where guests will learn about roping and branding cattle and try grass-fed beef. The goal is to expose more people to everything going on at Kualoa Ranch. Because there’s more than ATV rides and concerts here.

“We want to show people what we’re doing here,” Kellerman says.

To learn more or to buy O‘ahu-raised beef, oysters or shrimp, visit kualoa.com, or stop by the visitor center at 49-560 Kamehameha Highway in Ka‘a‘awa. 748-3209

READ MORE STORIES BY CATHERINE TOTH FOX

You can make your own pizzas—for just $10.95 with unlimited toppings!—at Pieology, which recently opened in the ʻĀina Haina Shopping Center.

Photos: Catherine Toth Fox

It just so happened to be Pi Day the day we walked into Pieology. A coincidental meeting of two things we love: pizza and geekery. It wasn’t long before that part of the fun gave way to the real fun stuff.

Pieology, Hawai‘i’s first outpost of a national chain of fast-casual pizza eateries, opened in mid-February in the ‘Āina Haina Shopping Center. It’s a franchise, but the O‘ahu location is locally owned and operated, and it’s the first in a planned Pieology empire that will include 15 to 20 additional locations statewide in the next five years.

We say bring it on, because if there’s something we like better than fast-food pizza that’s not from a food court, it’s fast-food pizza we design ourselves and is baked while we watch.

Pieology is to bistro-style pizza what Subway is to deli sandwiches. You pick your crust (white, whole wheat, gluten free), you pick one of five sauces (red, alfredo, buffalo, pesto, barbecue), your cheese (everything from classic mozz to gorgonzola to vegan mozz), and finally you pick from a long list of meat and veggies. Your pizza then gets put in a big, super-powered pizza oven that bakes it in five minutes. If they let us, next time we’ll ask for an extra few minutes under the fire—the crust, though thin, is still a bit doughy after just five minutes.

There you have it: your own custom pizza.

We loaded this pie up with pepperoni, spinach, mushrooms, olives and cheese over pesto and olive oil.

The pizzas are 11-and-a-half inches in diameter, which is a decent size for one person. And it’s just $10.95 for a pie you build yourself with as many—or as few—toppings of your choice. (The chain offers signature pies, such as the Mad To Meat You and Rustic Veggie, that run between $8.95 to $10.95, if you don’t want to think.)

We suggest adding a salad (that you can also design yourself) and making it a meal for two. We also suggest getting a couple of beers (or a glass of wine) and making it a party.

We love a fast-food place with a liquor license. Yes. Please.

A pizza 100-percent inspired by your beautiful mind (want to put Spam on it? Do it!), a cold Maui Brewing Co. beer and $20 in your pocket? You got this. It’s the science of smart pizza-eating, and we know better than to question science.

Pieology, 820 W. Hind Drive, ‘Āina Haina, 377-1364, pieology.com

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Fung Yang, owner of Small Kine Farm in Waimānalo, grows two different sizes of portabella mushrooms in organic compost.

Photos: Catherine Toth Fox

In the midday heat, Fung Yang, shirtless and wearing board shorts, struggles to remove a hydraulic hose from his Bobcat loader.

“You know how much it would cost to have somebody else do this?” he asks. “One hundred dollars an hour … I needed this done, like, yesterday.”

This is how Yang works. He rolls up his sleeves—or takes off his shirt—and gets to work.

That work ethic and ingenuity have helped him run, since 2008, the only portabella mushroom farm on O‘ahu. Small Kine Farm, hidden on less than an acre of land in the back of Waimānalo, supplies fresh, certified organic mushrooms to specialty grocers, local restaurants and directly to customers at farmers markets. He grows crimini mushrooms—called keiki portabella—which have a lighter flavor and crisper texture, and large portabella mushrooms—or tūtū portabella—which are at least four inches in diameter and robust in flavor.

Business is going so well, he’s planning to expand his operations, offer farm tours and host events starting next month.

Currently, he grows a few thousand pounds of mushrooms a month. And he sells everything he’s got. But Hawai‘i imports roughly 2 million pounds of button mushrooms—the same family as the portabella—a year. So he figures he’s got room to grow.

“My goal is to replace all imported mushrooms with local mushrooms,” he says.

Inside Small Kine Farm, which occupies less than an acre in rural Waimānalo.

Yang’s plans are to expand his mushroom-growing operation, run farm tours and host events here.

Yang didn’t start out as a mushroom farmer. Prior to this, he was running another business, O‘ahu Community Recycling, which offers pickup recycling services around the island. After doing some research, he discovered the bulk of the trash he was collecting was organic waste and could be repurposed as fertilizer. The waste creates a nutrient-rich, heat-pasteurized compost that makes an ideal substrate for growing mushrooms.

His teeny farm, located down a muddy road and behind a nursery that grows succulents, has an area where compost is collected and stored and a warehouse where he grows the mushrooms in climate-controlled chillers. He employs two full-time staffers, who do everything from moving compost to harvesting the portabellas.

Yang’s long-term goal is to build an automated mushroom house on a vacant plot of land next door and grow up to seven times more mushrooms using robotics. He could use the same number of employees while increasing the output.

And the market is there, he says.

Already, he supplies several restaurants, including Town, Alan Wong’s and Roy’s Restaurants. His fresh mushrooms are sold at Whole Foods Markets, Foodland, Kokua Market, Down To Earth Organic & Natural and various farmers markets on O‘ahu. And he can’t keep up.

“We pick mushrooms every day in Waimānalo,” says Yang, who enjoys his mushrooms grilled on the barbecue with just salt and pepper. “I cannot tell you how fresh they are.”

Yang grows two kinds of portabella mushrooms. These are the keiki portabella, better known as crimini mushrooms.

Once, a customer challenged him on his mushrooms, saying his pink-gilled portabellas weren’t portabellas at all.

“He said portabellas have black gills,” says Yang, who explained to the customer that most mushrooms sold in Hawai‘i have black gills because they’re not locally grown and are at least a week old. “He had never seen fresh portabella mushrooms before. Fresh mushrooms have pink gills. When you see our mushrooms, they were probably picked that day or the day before. They’re super fresh and certified organic. You can’t get better than that.”

Keiki portabella cost $80 for a 10-pound case; tūtū portabella are $45 for a five-pound case. For more information, visit smallkinefarm.com.

Farm Friday is an occasional feature that highlights Hawai‘i’s vibrant and diverse agricultural industry. Every month we will visit farms, talk to food producers and discuss issues that affect the community from which our food comes.

READ MORE STORIES BY CATHERINE TOTH FOX

Clockwise from left: Hank’s annual reindeer hot dog, chocolate peppermint cupcakes from Cake Couture and traditional stollen from The Kāhala Hotel & Resort. Get yours this week!

Photos: Catherine Toth Fox, Cake Couture, The Kāhala Hotel & Resort

Each year around this time, we look forward to cute little gingerbread people, candy canes and frothy glasses of (spiked) eggnog at every party. Here are some local treats to help you spread the holiday cheer, from traditional stollen to reindeer sausage.

BRUG BAKERY HAWAI‘I

Adorable, chocolate-covered pastry Christmas trees are filled with a vanilla-custard cream, featuring Tahitian and Madagascan vanilla, and dusted with powdered sugar and sprinkles.

$3.75, inside Shirokiya, Ala Moana Center, brugbakery.com, 973-9190

CAKE COUTURE

This boutique bakery in ‘Āina Haina has temporarily replaced some of its usual baked goods for holiday flavors this week. Seasonal cupcake flavors include chocolate peppermint ($2.75) and gingerbread ($3). It’s also selling gingerbread loaves with a lemon glaze ($8.50), an eggnog pound cake ($8.50) and a show-stopping five-layer, 5-inches-tall Chocolate Peppermint Candyland Cake frosted with creamy Italian meringue peppermint buttercream ($18.95) that can feed up to four people. (Or one hungry writer.)

820 W. Hind Drive, call for availability, cakecouture.com, 373-9750

CINNAMON’S

Forget guava chiffon and red velvet—both Cinnamon’s locations are serving up gingerbread pancakes for the month. Imagine the restaurant’s signature pancake batter, but with warm, gingery spices. Feel free to cut your stack into the shape of a person and decorate it with whipped cream.

$9.25 for two pancakes, $11.25 for four, ‘Ilikai Hotel, 1777 Ala Moana Blvd., 670-1915; 315 Uluniu St., Kailua, 261-8724; cinnamons808.com

HANK’S HAUTE DOGS

Reindeer dogs are back! Hank’s imports caribou from Alaska for these special dogs that are only available once a year, so if eating Rudolph doesn’t make you cringe, try one while supplies last. (P.S. Have you tried Hank’s breakfast?)

$8.25, 324 Coral St., hankshautedogs.com, 532-4265

THE KĀHALA HOTEL & RESORT

The traditional German stollen gets a local twist with Maui vanilla sugar sprinkled on top of a fruitcake made with dark and golden raisins, preserved citrus peels, roasted almonds, aged rum, marzipan and spices. Order your loaf by phone and pick it up at the Plumeria Beach House restaurant.

$20, 5000 Kāhala Ave., pickup between 10 a.m. and 6 p.m. through Dec. 31, kahalaresort.com, 739-8760

VIA GELATO

It’s hard to predict which flavors will be available on any given day since they rotate, but recent holiday specials at Via Gelato have included eggnog, peppermint chip and gingerbread gelato. Make it an affogato ($5) for an extra special treat.

1142 12th Ave., viagelatohawaii.com, 732-2800

WING ICE CREAM

Wing Ice Cream also has some jolly flavors, including Candycane Oreo and Coco-Nog, which are vegan variations that won’t make you miss dairy at all.

1145 Maunakea St., Suite 4, 536-4929

HOLIDAY BEVERAGES

It’s not all about desserts. Try Victory At Sea’s peppermint beer at Brew’d, or certain winter/holiday ales at other bars around town. For an up-to-date list of what’s new, visit beerinhawaii.com.

READ MORE STORIES BY KATRINA VALCOURT

Oven-roasted asparagus (left) and French toast

On the Not Pizza side of the menu, there are the usual pancakes, waffles and French toast, except they’re not really the usual. The French toast ($12), made with Portuguese sweet bread, is drizzled with a berry syrup that almost tastes like li hing—giving edge to a normally one-dimensional dish. For savory dishes, find oven-roasted asparagus ($10), sprinkled with pepperoni, lemon, pumpkin seeds and crowned with a runny egg.

Kevin Lee, the opening chef of Prima who left more than a year ago, consulted on the new dishes, but he’s not in the kitchen to cook them. And with Prima’s relatively new staff, the execution is not quite as spot-on as we’d hope—the French toast a touch heavy, for example—and when we went, what should have been an hour-long lunch dragged out to two hours.

Still, when you’re seeking respite from Kailua’s liliko‘i/guava chiffon/mac nut pancakes (and the crowds), find an open seat at Prima.

Brunch at Prima, 7:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. daily, 108 Hekili St #107, Kailua, 888-8933, primahawaii.com

So what about a breakfast place that’s a fair distance taste-wise from the usual Kailua spots, but still happens to be in Kailua? We say: One more reason to stay Kailua Town.

At Cactus Bistro, the little Latin fusion joint that surprised everyone by not opening its doors in a more, um, hip neighborhood, but rather chose to keep it Kailua, the weekend breakfast menu is a welcome addition to the town’s bountiful breakfast offerings.

We love, and we mean love with a big l-o-v-e, the Nacho Libre, a giant bowl of tortilla chips tossed with Cactus’ own turkey chorizo, bell peppers and onions, and then topped with two eggs. It’s nachos for breakfast in the most appropriate way. It’s exactly what you need after a Saturday night out where your Dos Equis may have turned into five or six. Or get the deftly balanced Latin Elvis (which we wish was called the “El Elvis” because it’s so much more fun to say), a king-sized portion of toasted baguette slices spread with cocoa-cashew butter, topped with thick-cut bacon and finished with caramelized bananas and a drizzle of dulce de leche. It sounds indulgent and over the top, but it’s actually perfect. And indulgent and over the top. For a more traditional breakfast plate, the Torrejas is a take on French toast made with caramelized pineapple, custard-dipped spice bread, dulce de leche and a fruit salad topping of chopped seasonal fruit. It’s super sweet, but not distractingly so, and it makes great leftovers. We wanted to love the Argentine fry bread stuffed with guava and cream cheese, but the filling may as well have not been there, and in one of our fry breads it was absent all together. So next time we’ll just skip right to the breakfast nachos.

Breakfast from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, entrees $8-$10
Cactus Bistro, 767 Kailua Rd., 261-1000, cactusbistro.com