Nui Italian opened last week at the Hilton Waikoloa Village on the Big Island, offering wood-fired pizzas, pasta dishes and specialties from chef Gino Cipriano.
Cipriano, a native of Sicily, has worked in Italian resorts from Venice and Florence to Taormina and Rome, then moving on to Paris, Miami and San Francisco.
The restaurant is open from 4 to 10 p.m. daily. For reservations: 808-886-1234.
FESTIVAL PAYS TRIBUTE TO RICE
You can celebrate the ways that rice unites the many cultures of Hawaii, or you can stuff your face with as many Spam musubis as it can hold — or do both at the Rice Fest Saturday at Ward Villages.
The ninth annual Eat the Street-affiliated event runs from 3 to 9 p.m. on Auahi Street in front of Ward Centre, with food trucks offering a variety of rice-based dishes.
There will also be entertainment and three eating contests: poke bowls at 6:30 p.m., loco mocos at 7:30 p.m. and Spam musubi at 8:30 p.m. To enter, visit the entertainment stage hospitality tent at 5 p.m.
Food will be sold. Among vendors: Agu A Ramen Bistro, The Pig & the Lady and Burgers on Bishop.
Donations of cash and brown rice will be accepted for Lanakila Meals on Wheels, which provides meals for seniors. Admission is free.
Visit ricefest.com.
CLASS TEACHES PROBIOTICS
Fermented probiotic drinks are valued for providing “good” bacteria that help keep the digestive track healthy. Learn to make them at a workshop Saturday at Kapolei High School.
The hands-on session, part of the Workshop Without Walls series sponsored by the Malama Learning Center, will be led by food-preservation expert Terri Langley.
It will cover making “live” lemonade, nonalcoholic ginger beer and beet kvass, an Eastern European tonic.
The class runs from 9 a.m. to noon. Cost is $20 per person or $50 for families of up to three, plus a $5 ingredient fee per student.
Register through malamalearning center.org or call 305-8287.
SEEKING A CHILI CHAMPION
If you’ve got a killer chili recipe, the Maui Fire Department wants you.
Enter the 14th Annual Maui Fire Department Chili Cook-Off, a fundraiser to be held at the Maui Fair on Oct. 7.
Top prize is $250.
Contestants must prepare at least 2 quarts of chili and bring it to the fair for judging by a panel of firefighters. Dishes may include any combination of meats, peppers and chilis, with beans or without.
Registration fee is $25. Proceeds benefit the Shriners Hospitals for Children Patient Transportation Fund, which serves children injured in fires.
The deadline to enter is a week away, Sept. 26. For a registration form and complete rules go to mauifair.com.
Call 808-264-8274.
COCKTIALS VERSUS BREWSKIS
Which is better with a meal — a craft cocktail or a craft beer? Have both and you be the judge at Battle of the Booze, 6 p.m. Sept. 27 at d.k Steak House.
In the cocktail corner will be Chandra Lucariello, a Honolulu Star-Advertiser columnist and Dave Power. Both are with Southern Glazer’s Wine & Spirits.
They will each pair drinks with chef Albert Balbas’ menu. For example, with the entree of Kunoa rib-eye steak with cheddar gratin and roasted Romanesco broccoli, Lucariello will serve Making the Cut, a blend of Nikka Taketsuru pure-malt Japanese whiskey, vermouth and the bitter spirit Fernet. Power will offer Gigantic Pipewrench, an imperial IPA aged in gin barrels.
Cost is $89, including three beer and three cocktail pairings with three dinner courses, two intermezzo courses and dessert.
The steakhouse is in the Waikiki Beach Marriott Resort and Spa. Call 931-6280.
Quickbites is a weekly listing of dining events. Email items to crave@staradvertiser.com.
