AIRPORTS PROVE THEY CAN BE TASTY PLACES
Airport Restaurant Month is back at Daniel K. Inouye International Airport, with a spring chef’s tasting menu highlighting seasonal ingredients.
Restaurants taking part in the event are Makai Plantation, PGA Tour Grill and Stinger Ray’s. Dishes range from seared Atlantic salmon served with honey-roasted carrots, pesto yogurt, feta and Italian parsley to naan prima vera, the flatbread topped with marinara, mozzarella, zucchini, red peppers, onions and mushrooms.
HMSHost launched Airport Restaurant Month in 2014 to showcase its commitment to diverse cuisine awaiting travelers at more than 100 restaurants across 50 North American airports.
FIRST BIRTHDAY MEAL FEATURES LOBSTER
Tim Ho Wan is marking its first anniversary at the Royal Hawaiian Center with a couple of luxe additions to its menu, a whole steamed Maine lobster with a house soy sauce, green onions and ginger ($29.99), and steamed Kona abalone (two pieces for $14.99).
Also new are steamed vegetable dumplings ($5.80), chicken dumplings with ginger essence ($5.80), and a platter of pan-fried rice rolls with spicy XO sauce ($12.99).
To make ordering easy, the Hong Kong-based dim sum specialist has also added a set “Luxury Dim Sum” menu for two, at $35 per person. The centerpieces of the meal are the new lobster and abalone dishes, plus the restaurant’s signature baked BBQ pork buns. Also featured are shrimp dumplings, siu mai, congee with pork and preserved egg, and jelly dessert of sweet osmanthus with goji berries.
The restaurant is on the third floor of the center, building B. Call 888-6088.
5TH BRUG BAKERY OPENS IN KAHALA
Folks in East Honolulu won’t have to travel any distance for a fix of Brug Bakery anymore, now that a new shop will open Saturday near Kahala Mall.
Opening day will include taiko by Kenny Endo, samples and double stamp rewards. Free gifts for the first 200 customers will be given out Saturday and Sunday.
The site’s new 1,000- square-foot kitchen and bakery will produce small batches of more than 70 types of breads and pastries throughout the day, ensuring that customers can always enjoy fresh items.
The shop is located off the mall near McDonald’s. Other locations include Pearlridge Center, Manoa Marketplace and two stores at Ala Moana Center.
ENJOY TUTU’S FAVORITES AT SUNDAY DINNER
Highway Inn Kakaako salutes three cooks and three dishes firmly rooted in family tradition at a dinner event May 19.
The quarterly Sunday Dinner is pegged to the restaurant’s Tutu’s Kitchen program, which puts a family-favorite dish on the menu for a limited time. Sunday Dinners celebrate Tutu’s Kitchen dishes and the cooks who created them.
Featured next week will be Kristin Jackson, formerly of the Southern food restaurant Kiss My Grits, with her buttermilk biscuits and sausage gravy; Dianne Vicheinrut, a food professional turned financial adviser, presenting her mother’s Thai dessert, mango sticky rice with coconut cream; and Traci Rosado Fernandez, a Tupperware consultant, with her grandfather’s Puerto Rican chicken stew.
Dinner, at 5:30 p.m., includes family-style servings of the three dishes.
Tickets are $35, available online at myhighwayinn.com/tutus-kitchen. A portion of the proceeds will go to Les Dames d’Escoffier’s Hawaii chapter.
Tutu’s Kitchen dishes are available on Tutu Tuesdays and Thursdays at Highway Inn, changing monthly.
Highway Inn Kakaako is at 680 Ala Moana Boulevard. The restaurant also has a Waipahu location and a cafe at Bishop Museum.
To participate in the Tutu’s Kitchen program, email info@myhighwayinn.com. Call 954-4955.
Quickbites is a weekly listing of dining events. Email items to crave@staradvertiser.com.