“Happy cooks make happy food”
We started our day by checking out the Friends of the Library of Hawaii Book Sale in their Harbor Warehouse. It lasted from Saturday through Monday and helped to raise money for our public library system. They had a wide selection of books including thousands and thousands of long-playing records. Unfortunately the section on Hawaii books was paltry this visit, but that’s okay because their usual McKinley High School sale in the summer more than makes up for it. I did purchase a a book from the Doris Duke Collection but we couldn’t stay long to peruse because we had other book events to go to.
After the book sale we drove east to Barnes & Noble Kahala to catch Alan Wong’s food presentation and book signing. Copies of The Blue Tomato covered the back wall and as we sat waiting for everything to begin, we watched curiously as helpers began putting slices of tomato onto small paper plates that would later be dispersed to the audience. The suspense was almost too much to bear since: a) we hadn’t eaten lunch yet and b) I had already read the book and seen all the yummy pictures.
There were also a handful of students and faculty from Campbell High School’s Agricultural-Business Program there with pictures and display boards about growing local food and island sustainability. Wong started off with a brief introduction of his latest book The Blue Tomato by describing it as a book with three parts: first it’s a cookbook, second it’s a book about the history and experience of the Alan Wong restaurant–the people who have influenced it and the next generation of people who will continue to help it grow. The third part is creativity… the possibilities of food.
In his talk on local produce versus produce shipped from the mainland, Wong led the audience in a side-by-side tasting of a Hamakua tomato and a regular tomato. Some preferred the local tomato for the flavor and others preferred the mainland tomato for its firmness or because it’s what they grew up eating. Either way BOTH tomatoes were delicious once they were slathered in Wong’s li-hing mui dressing! He says it’s the most sought after recipe from his restaurant and it is in the book!
If you haven’t been able to check out The Blue Tomato or attend one of these fascinating presentations yet, we highly recommend that you do! In fact he has one coming up tomorrow, Saturday, January 22nd at Borders in Ward Centre from 2:00 pm to 3:00 pm. Visit thebluetomato.net for more event info and extras about the book.
[read our previous review of The Blue Tomato here]From the presentation we attended, here is a quick video of Alan Wong discussing how the name “The Blue Tomato” came to pass. I apologize for the quality, the helpers were passing out food and drink to the audience members and Alex ended up having to sit down and hold our little camera up in the air to get this shot:
