From Ground to Grindz — Day 5: Nobody’s Perfect

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Forbidden Fruit

Posted Thursday Sept. 30, 10 a.m.

When I arrived at my desk Thursday morning, a box of donuts from Napoleon’s bakery sat where where my laptop would normally go. All of my colleagues seemed to be deliberately avoiding eye contact, waiting for my reaction.

“Either these are made of taro,” I said, “or you guys are (expletive)s.”

Civil Beaters left this box of donuts on my desk as a prank.

We all shared a hearty laugh as I placed the box back on the break room table, tempted but not broken. Nobody has yet admitted to the deed.

My breakfast was a half-dozen whole strawberries. And I feel good about that.

Discretion: the Better Part of Valor

Posted Thursday Sept. 30, 1 p.m.

Well, it was probably going to happen eventually, if it didn’t happen already. I can no longer claim to be 100 percent local.

Because Korina and I went out to dinner last night and didn’t have any leftovers, we scheduled a lunch date today — our first since she started working two blocks from me a couple of months ago.

Armed with the knowledge I gained when I called 14 different Honolulu restaurants participating in Eat Local week to see if they had any 100 percent local dishes available, we had a tough decision to make.

We could have returned to Town, which is walking distance from our offices, serves 100 percent local options, and is very tasty. But I ultimately decided that none of you would want to read about us going to the same restaurant twice.

We could have tried Town’s sister restaurant, Downtown, also home to 100 percent local options and rumored to be very good. But driving to the Hawaii State Art Museum in the middle of the day from Kaimuki is not easy on a one-hour lunch break. So that was out.

We could have tried Zenshu in Kapahulu, which had options approaching 100 percent local. We could have asked that the dishes be prepared without any non-local stuff. But I wasn’t sure if the local items would be available during lunchtime and ultimately wasn’t sure about driving and parking.

So we headed to Big City Diner, as the Kaimuki location is just steps from our respective workplaces. When we walked in, I was immediately struck by the wide variety of clearly unlocal food being served at nearby tables. The odor, and the temptation, was palpable.

When I asked our waitress about the Eat Local-friendly item I’d heard and read about, she told me I was “the first person to even inquire about that.” She checked with the chef and returned to tell us that the restaurant didn’t have any Naked Cow dairy products in-house, meaning the oyster cream sauce was not local.

I’d already confirmed Wednesday that the dish in question — local catch of the day (in this case, mahi mahi), oyster mushrooms tomatoes and bok choy — is prepared with a non-local liquid butter alternative, so I knew heading in that I’d be making a compromise.

But I didn’t totally throw in the towel — both Korina and I declined the side of white or brown rice that came with our dish.

We discussed how ironic is it that Hawaii imports a lot of fish — even though our waters are so plentiful. “For local people, we can be pretty stupid,” our friendly server said.

The meal was good, though not great, and I admitted I was still hungry as I walked Korina back to her office.

Seven meals left in the challenge, and I think we’ll be preparing the rest of them at home.

Butter My Breadfruit

Posted Thursday Sept. 30, 9 p.m.

We went back to one of our previous successes For our third-to-last dinner: chili with Big Island beef.

This time, in addition to lentils and tomatoes, Korina included Japanese eggplant, and made enough so we’d have plenty of leftovers for Friday lunch. On the side was corn on the cob and, in one of the surprising triumphs of the week, some breadfruit chips.

I had originally planned to prepare my ulu by following one of the . The site calls for a a ripe breadfruit to be stuffed with butter and sugar, then baked. But after thoroughly enjoying Town’s breadfruit chips in our salad last night, I tried to go that route.

Our ulu was a little overripe, still somewhat green on the outside but pretty mushy on the inside, making it difficult to slice. I pulled out the stem and Korina cut the fruit in half.

One small breadfruit, cut in half. It smelled delicious.

The first half went poorly, coming out in gobs and chunks more than slices. But my technique for the second half improved, and I ended up with maybe four good crescent pieces. I brushed a pan with mac nut oil, then places the breadfruit pieces in, brushed the tops with oil and sprinkled with salt. They went into the oven at 425 degrees for 45 minutes.

When they came out, I was pretty sure they were going to end up in the trash. Some were charred and black. Others, cut too thick, seemed to be still chewy. Undeterred, I pried whatever I could off of the tray and into a small bowl, and they turned out to be pretty darn good. Dipped into the chili, they provided a much-desired crunch. And when we had some excess butter that we’d taken out for the corn, we found that buttered breadfruit pretty much satisfied our craving for bread, if only for a meal.

Dinner is served. Beef chili, corn on the cob, breadfruit chips and local butter.

The breadfruit experiment earned what has routinely become the week’s highest praise: Korina and I agreed we would buy it again, even after Eat Local is behind us.

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