Get your hands sticky at Saturday’s Rice Festival at Hawaii’s Plantation Village in Waipahu.
The event — a tribute to Hawaii’s favorite staple food and its importance to plantation life — will feature a free musubi make-and-take.
Carol Takahashi, a Plantation Village board member, volunteer and docent, will explain how to shape and wrap perfectly formed onigiri rice balls. Make one yourself (and eat it).
But consider that just a starter.
Volunteer cooks will be preparing and serving rice dishes reflecting the culture and cuisines of the village. On the menu: Momoko Maniscalco’s Korean chicken with rice stuffing, Larry Toro’s Puerto Rican gandule rice (with pidgeon peas), Eileen Yamamoto’s Okinawan kandaba jushi (with sweet potato leaves), Reggie Pagaduan Espinas’ Filipino adobo fried rice and Wilma Boudreau’s Portuguese rice pudding.
For $5 you get three tastings; $6 buys a full serving of one choice. Hang around to talk story and perhaps you’ll pick up some cooking secrets.
Once you’re full sit down for the movie “Under the Blood Red Sun,” the story of a nisei boy’s experiences after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. The 2014 film was partially filmed at the village. The screening, at noon, is free.
The festival runs from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the village, 94-695 Waipahu St. Call 677-0110.
STRETCH IT OUT AT SALT
Get flexible in the new year as Salt at Our Kakaako launches a monthly Yoga & Brunch at 9 a.m. Sunday.
Instructor Brooklynn Bosworth’s class will be accompanied by live music from guitarist Travis Cundiff, and followed by brunch by Morning Brew.
Tickets are $22.75; go to 808ne.ws/yogasalt. Each month will feature brunch from a different Salt eatery.
NEW NOD FOR CHEF MAVRO
The Gayot guide has again named Honolulu’s Chef Mavro to its list of Top 40 Restaurants in the country, the only Hawaii restaurant to make the list.
Other restaurants to make the 2017 wrapup include the prestigious French Laundry, Jean-Georges, Alinea and Joel Robuchon. Mavro has earned the designation yearly since 2010.
Gayot calls the pairing of chef George Mavrothalassitis’ skill with the fine ingredients he selects a “sublime culinary marriage.”
For a slide show of the full top 40 visit 808ne.ws/gayot40.
