The acclaimed Senia restaurant will start lunch service Monday, with a prix-fixe format: two savory courses and dessert for $35.
Lunch hours will be 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. weekdays. Diners will have options for each course, and chefs Chris Kajioka and Anthony Rush plan to swap out those choices often.
Among initial choices will be a beet salad, Hirabara Farm green salad, Spanish-style grilled octopus, beef tartare and a changing selection of pastas and sandwiches.
Pastry chef Mimi Mendoza will include a pineapple upside-down cake, a chocolate peanut butter cookie and a selection of ice cream. Diners will be able to take dessert to go, if the first two courses leave them stuffed.
For those able to imbibe in the middle of the day, Senia’s wines by the glass and seasonal cocktails will be served.
Reservations are being accepted now. Call 200-5412 or go to restaurantsenia.com. Some tables will be kept available every day for walk-ins.
Cartons of eggs offer colorful variety
Aaron Walker has 300 chickens allowed to range free on his 1-1/2-acre property in Waikane. They lay white, brown and pale blue eggs, which Walker packs into cartons and sells under the name of his Kukuianiani Farm.
Walker, recently retired from the Coast Guard, started out raising just a few chickens, but he said people he gave eggs to were so high on their quality that he decided go into the egg business.
The eggs are eye-catching in their cartons, varying not just in color, but also in size and shape, some fatter or slimmer in their oval profiles, although all are at least medium in weight. Inside, the whites are clear and the yolks a vibrant orange.
And of course you can taste the difference, too. It’s hard to beat a truly fresh egg.
Buy them for $5 a dozen from Walker’s farm stand on Kamehameha Highway next to Olomana Orchids, which is at 48-464 Kamehameha Highway. He’s there only from 3 to 5 p.m. Fridays to Sundays, though. I came across them at the start of our Crave North Shore excursion, at Waiahole Nursery & Garden Center, 48-190 Kamehameha Highway. The gift shop sells the eggs for $7 a dozen and is open daily, 9:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. Or call Walker at 226-1392 to arrange a pickup.
— Betty Shimabukuro, Star-Advertiser
Beard Awards honor wine sommelier with Hawaii ties
A former Hawaii resident snagged a James Beard Award on Monday, though no Hawaii restaurants or chefs were among the finalists.
Nelson Daquip, Canlis restaurant’s director of wine and spirits, left Alan Wong’s in Hawaii 15 years ago to continue his food and beverage career in Seattle.
On Monday Daquip took the stage with Canlis’ owners as they were presented the James Beard Award for outstanding wine program.
His biography on the restaurant website canlis.com says he became the most rapidly promoted employee in the restaurant’s history, rising from server assistant to wine director in four years.
Daquip was named a best new sommelier by Wine & Spirits Magazine in 2006 and was named the city’s best sommelier by Seattle Magazine in 2008.
The Canlis brothers turned the microphone over to Daquip at the awards ceremony, and he shared his thank-yous, ending his remarks, “With gratitude and aloha, thank you all very much.”
— Erika Engle, Star-Advertiser
