Saturday, October 29, 2011

Hawaiian Micro Brew Coffee Spot - Beach Bum Cafe


Andrew and Dennis
Beach Bum Cafe
I haven't blogged about Beach Bum Cafe in several months.  I know I've tweeted and facebooked photos many times since my 1st blog about them back in February 2011, but those are a little difficult to search or compile so I thought I'd write another blog to help and do just that.

If you are a true coffee lover, you must have Hawaiian coffee at Beach Bum Cafe if you are in Oahu.  I will admit that their location, in the middle of Hawaii's business district, is inconvenient even for most of us that live here, but that doesn't keep me away.  If you need parking, I suggest parking at the Iolani Palace lot and paying the meter for a couple of hours of parking.  I believe that parking there is the most affordable and it is only a couple of blocks (5-10 minutes walk) away.  In fact, if you are a tourist, I suggest planning to go on the Iolani Palace tour and walking over for coffee after purchasing your ticket for the tour that begins later in the day.  Don't forget to feed the meter if it's running out of time.  The maximum you can pay at once is 4 hours.

Rusty's Red Caturra
Natural Process
Pour-over Sock Pot
You can also visit the Hawaii State Art Museum located in the middle of the walk from Iolani Palace to Beach Bum Cafe.  The King Kamehameha statue is also located across the street from the Iolani Palace.  Including Beach Bum Cafe in your plans to tour this area would be ideal for coffee lovers and people looking to purchase the best quality Hawaiian coffee beans as gifts.  Believe me, this is not the stuff labeled, "100% Kona Coffee", that you can buy in department stores or is being served at your $500 a night hotel with your $35 breakfast buffet.  I can barely drink that stuff when it's served free.

Anyway, on to the true topic of today's experience...

Affogato treat!
This morning's experience is not the normal experience that you should expect at Beach Bum Cafe, but I felt like sharing it on my blog.  Beach Bum Cafe only serves the best quality Hawaiian coffees.  In addition to having my cup of Rusty's Farm Yellow Caturra, we were able to experience Andrew's (@MAndrew808) personal roasts of a single harvest, El Salvador grown bean that was processed 3 ways; wet, pulp-natural and dry [Sweet Maria's Glossary].  It is always amazing how the cupped coffee flavors vary so much just by the different processing and roasting techniques.  The consensus of the group that was there sampling this morning seemed to prefer the wet process then the dry followed by the pulp-natural.  This coffee had a fruity or wine like flavor to it and that was most noticeable in the dry process.  The wet processed batch probably had the best balance of flavors to most of us while the pulp-natural seemed to lack the kick of any significant flavors.  Dennis, the owner of Beach Bum Cafe, sometimes does these special tastings for us as a Saturday treat and we love treats!  =)  Speaking of treats, Dennis finished up with a surprise affogato made with Tahitian Vanilla ice cream and his special Beach Bum Cafe espresso blend! 8) 8) 8)

The 3 different processes brewing.

The 3 processes ready to sample.

All samples gone!
Our Rusty's Kau Yellow Caturra
French Press
I think my preferred method of brewing for this coffee is the vacuum pot.
If you enjoy coffee, I hope you get to visit Beach Bum Cafe.  Below are some links to my and other friends' past photos or blogs about Beach Bum Cafe.



Friday, October 7, 2011

The Good Table at Ola Restaurant at Turtle Bay. A Fundraiser for Lanakila Pacific Meals on Wheels.

October 6th at 6pm, 2011, the annual Lanakila Pacific fundraiser dinner for Meals on Wheels took place.  The event is called The Good Table and it takes place at about 50 different restaurants around Oahu at the same time.  The Chefs at each restaurant prepares a special menu for the guests of The Good Table making this a very special dinner for everyone.   The goal of this annual event is to raise funds that will be used to supply thousands of meals to seniors (Kupuna) throughout Oahu and spread awareness by way of the social dinner and the use of social media by the diners.  Read more details about Lanakila Pacific Meals on Wheels and The Good Table at their website: http://lanakilapacific.org/.

I am a Lanakila Pacific volunteer and I deliver a Meals on Wheels route on Monday mornings in the Nuuanu/Downtown area.  I was lucky to receive The Good Table at Ola Restaurant  in the Turtle Bay Resort and I invited a few friends of mine that would be able to help Lanakila Pacific spread the word about Meals on Wheels over social media.  

Chef Fred DeAngelo, the chef at Ola, prepared a special four course sampler menu and dessert with wine pairings for this The Good Table dinner.  Here is a group shot of us [flickr].  Chef Fred was definitely cool, as documented by @RickyLi99's Tweet.

1st Course [Photo]- Butter Poached Lobster & Caviar, Spicy Scallop & Ahi Poke, Alaskan Snow Crab Claw w/ Lilikoi Butter.  Paired w/ Lunetta Prosecco.

2nd Course [Photo]- Big Island Hearts of Palm Salad w/ Pupukea Field Greens, Grapefruit, Watercress & Calamansi Vinaigrette, Grilled Hamakua Mushroom Salad in Parmesan Crisp w/ Blue Cheese & Toasted Walnuts, Oven-Dried Hau'ula Tomato & Fresh Mozzarella in Basil Oil.  Paired w/ Ferrari Carano Fume Blanc.

3rd Course [Photo]- Misoyaki Butterfish w/ Wilted Baby Bok Choy & Kabayaki Butter, Chef's Signature Togarashi Glazed Salmon w/ Okinawan Sweet Potato Puree, Ginger Crusted Lehi w/ Lomo Tomato Relish.  Paired w/ Pacific Rim Dry Riesling by Bonny Doon.

4th Course [Photo]- Grilled Australian Lamb Chop Gremolata, Manoa Honey Glazed New York Strip, Five Spiced Braised Beef Short Rib w/ Kahuku Corn Relish and Natural Jus.  Paired w/ Simi Cabernet Sauvignon.

Dessert Course [Photo]- Tahitian Vanilla Scented Creme Brulee, Lilikoi Cheesecake, Rasberry Sorbet.  Paired w/ Dow's 20 year old Tawny Port.

We (included other The Good Table diners) took a whole bunch of photos and most of them can be found here http://www.flickr.com/photos/thegoodtable/page3/.

@StarletShay has a YouTube video up.  Check it out, it has each of us introducing ourselves during the dinner and lots of great scenes of our The Good Table.  http://youtu.be/fyHVKMkWqQY

@RickyLi99 managed to capture a lot of great photos of our dinner despite him finishing up the bottle(s) of wine our courses were paired with.  Many of those linked photos are taken by him.

I think we all enjoyed our The Good Table dinner.  It was fun night at Ola with @KelliNakama, @WorldWideEd, @RickyLi99, @StarletShay & @MegsDriveIn's Jess.

Some of our other friends were enjoying their The Good Table on the other side of the island at Kai.  You can read about their dinner at the Nonstop Honolulu blog: "Peek at The Good Table".

If you are curious about volunteering for Lanakila Pacific Meals on Wheels, drop me a comment, email, tweet or whatever.  :)

By the way, all these photos about The Good Table had another purpose too.  Aside from spreading the word about The Good Table during the dinner, there is also a photo contest.  The winning photo will be the photo with the most Facebook "Likes" at the end of the contest, October 14, 2011.  Check out the photos and like some.... Hopefully you "like" the ones with Ola and us in it!  :)  https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150865459645077.749454.138499950076&type=1