ka 'ikena

Amazing how time flies, doesn't it?  It was just February the last time I posted and now it's the middle of April.  I was sick for a lot of that time, still coughing a bit here and there, so that added to the lack of interest in blogging.

Ryan's second half of the spring semester class is "Asian Cuisine," which includes cooking for the Ka 'Ikena Laua'e Restaurant on campus in the evenings.  He took "Continental Cuisine" last fall and worked here during the lunch shift.  

According to the school, Ka 'Ikena means "the view" or "the vision."  The Laua'e is "the fern with the fragrance that suggests maile and grows towards sunlight.  In its figurative sense, Ka 'Ikena Laua'e translates into 'many minds striving towards the vision.'"  We got there for the early seating at 5:30 and got to see our "chef" before they got busy.  He had texted me earlier to say that he had made the entree special for the evening and wanted his dad to try it.  For the menu, you pick an entree and that includes a starter/appetizer, soup or salad, and the dessert buffet, which apparently they only have on Fridays (otherwise there is a smaller selection).  When we got there, the pastry class was bringing in all their creations and arranging them on the display table.  Our server was a travel and tourism student named Junnelle and while nervous, did a great job.

Service started with some yummy crusty ciabatta bread made by the patisserie class.  We were able to bring home a loaf for $4.  The first course was a watermelon drink with some kind of Indian spice and cucumbers.  Grandpa drank it but Darrell and I just had a couple of sips and passed on the rest.


















Darrell and I had the appetizer special, seared scallops with a frisee salad.  I didn't get all the ingredients (should have written them down), but it was delicious.  

Grandpa had "marinated thin asparagus with pickled sweet corn-pepper-Big Island hearts of palm salad and oven roasted roma tomato, champagne vanilla bean vinaigrette and star anise balsamic syrup."  He said the flavors were interesting and enjoyed it.

For the next course, we all tried something different.  Darrell  ordered the "vine ripened Big Island tomato salad with roasted pickled beets, kalamata olives, avocado, cucumber, slivered shallots, Big Island goat cheese quenelle and parmesan crisp, pickled plum dressing." But this was actually served to Grandpa, who was wondering where the watermelon was.

Grandpa ordered this:  "compressed vanilla infused watermelon, watercress-frisee salad with cucumber, carrots, Big Island hearts of palm and tomato, crumbled bleu cheese,  and pickled watermelon radish, shallot citrus dressing."  But it was served to Darrell, who was wondering where the tomatoes were!  He had the two pink things on his plate but couldn't figure out what they were.  I told him maybe the ones on the left were beets, since his tomato salad was supposed to have beets, but he said no they taste like takuan (pickled radish).  And the ones on the right tasted like watermelon!  Now we know why!









I ordered the soup:  "roasted curried butternut squash soup with pulehu chicken skewer, mango chantilly and toasted coconut."  I usually don't care for coconut in curry but it was tasty.  The soup had so much flavor.  I would definitely order this again.

My Dad and I both had the "grilled pepper crusted ribeye steak with Thai basil tomato salad ragout of Chinese long beans, alii mushrooms,  grilled corn niblets, carrots and blister red grape tomato, roasted garlic wasabi potato puree and sweet sour onion marmalade, red wine-port-lemongrass infusion."  Ryan knew out of all the entrees on the menu that I would probably pick steak so he said he picked one out for me ahead of time.  It was so tender and had lots of interesting flavors.

And here's Ryan's entree that Darrell had.  Cedar plank salmon with herb butter, mushroom risotto and grilled bok choi.  Darrell would not usually order salmon but said he was glad he did; he really enjoyed it.  Mushroom risotto must have been super tasty too because it was gone before I could ask for a taste.  So proud of our chef!






And then we all tried several different desserts...all so yummy!  Would have wanted to go back for more but was already stuffed.

Darrell wants to go back but I'll have to check if we can get reservations.  Ka 'Ikena is very popular and reservations are a hot commodity!

So happy to see Ryan enjoying what he is doing.