Between the Vines: One woman's wine-soaked musings

Wine & Food: In Honoka‘a, Hawai‘i, it is all so civilized

During our recent stay in Hawai‘i, we made our way, with new friends Gary and Betty Burley of Warsaw, N.Y. and travel companions Karen and John Laing, to Café Il Mondo for its hand-made, delicious pizza.

This little pizza joint is on Honoka‘a's main drag, which, when you take away the palm trees and fragrant, warm breezes, reminds me a little of TV’s Mayberry. The restaurant always has a lineup, takes cash only, and you bring your own wine or beer.

We discovered we couldn’t order a bottle of wine with our meal when we ordered our food. “But,” our waitress said, “You can go across the street to the grocery store and buy your own. We have a cork screw.”

Ha! How civilized! Bring our own.

John ran out and grabbed two bottles of 2009 Big House Red, which was $9.99 at the Malama Market and is $12.99 at B.C. liquor stores.

The wine was stuffed with juicy red fruit, a bit of smoke and a pleasant earthiness that worked well with the pizza. It is a classic cheap and cheerful bottle of wine that should have some sort of international status, what with the myriad grape varieties that go into it.

(This piece appeared originally in the February 16 issue of My City, a monthly magazine within the Abbotsford News.)

Cheers, all!

Copyright © 2012 Kathleen Rake. All rights reserved.

2008 Crossbarn Russian River Pinot Noir at the forest house in Honoka'a, Hawai'i

Hello, Darlings!

I haven't posted parts three or four of my forest house chronicles yet--I've just been too busy having fun. Forgive me?

I did manage to record a brief video, however, featuring an '08 Russian River Pinot Noir called Crossbarn, by Paul Hobbs. We don't get all that much Russian River Pinot Noir in BC so I was really happy to find this one in the "little liquor store that could" in Kamuela on the Big Island. If you make your way here, please be sure to visit this store and pop in to its wine vault...you'll wonder if you've gone to heaven.

This wine is jam-packed with cherries and black raspberries, earthy notes, great acidity and a finish that lasts a good long time. I served it tonight with a beef Strogonoff and roasted asparagus with capers. Super yum!

Aloha!

Copyright © 2011 Kathleen Rake. All rights reserved.

Forest house chronicles: tales from Honoka'a, Hawai'i, part two

Tales from Honoka'a, Hawai'i / Part two, January 7 & 8, 2011

January 7

I stayed at the forest house today while Rick, Karen, John, and Michael went to Spencer Beach and then on to pick up the pork and tiki torches for our big night next week when we'll be hosting four more friends from the Fraser Valley for a night of pulled pork, Hawaiian style. Yes, we'll be using banana leaves to wrap the pork. And, I will be heading to the Kamuela Liquor Store, where I know I'll find a great selection of wines we can't get at the grocery or big-box stores.In the evening, we prepared slowly grilled chicken and potato salad and ate it on the lanai while the tiki torches and some candles offered illumination.

To accompany our dinner, we opened a bottle of 2009 Folie à Deux Ménage à Trois, a blended red wine featuring Zinfandel, Merlot, and Cabernet Sauvignon. The wine, which we bought at Costco in Kailua-Kona for just $7.99 a bottle, is full of jammy red and black fruits and, frankly, that's about it. Certainly, it's serviceable and quite amiable with all sorts of dinner fare, but it's not one I'd choose to sip solo.

January 8

Busy day!

We started with a trip up to the Waimea Homestead Farmers Market, where only local residents can set up booths and locally produced items can be sold...

Next, we travelled the Saddle Road (that's the road that runs between Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa) up to the Onizuka Center for International Astronomy at Mauna Kea (9,300 ft./2,800 metres), which happens to have the lowest snow in 10 years.

While we were visiting Mauna Kea, Michael made a snowman...

After the heights of Mauna Kea, we carried on to sea level and the Hilo Farmers Market...
 After the market and a quick tailgate lunch of left-over chicken, we drove to 'Akaka Falls State Park for a gorgeous walk...
But, hey, our day didn't end there. Over our dinner of left-over steak (that we turned into a stir-fry) and the fresh Ono Karen dipped in coconut milk, coated with panko, and quickly fried, we had a good discussion about which spa Karen and I would visit on Tuesday: the Fairmont Orchid or Hilton Mandarin Spa? Such weighty decisions. 

Until part three,

Aloha! 

Copyright © 2011 Kathleen Rake. All rights reserved.

Kathleen Rake's February wine column in the Abbotsford News

Click here to download my February, 2010 wine column featuring a short interview with Prospera Credit Union's chair, Karen Laing.

Salut!

Copyright © 2010 Kathleen Rake. All rights reserved. 

Garnacha with spicy Thai-style chicken wings and mango salad at the Forest House

We're back at the Forest House after a day out and about Waimea and Kamuela.

We had a huge and delicious lunch at Huli Sue's, then we headed to Kamuela Liquor Store where we picked up various bottles of wine, including three Garnacha, two from Spain and one from—wait—Italy (Sardinia, actually), where it's called Cannonau.

I've tasted one of the Spanish Garnacha, the 2008 Viña Borgia (Campo de Borja, DO). You can see it in the video below. This fruity wine will go well with the spicy Thai-style chicken wings and mango salad I'm making for dinner tonight. It's price ($6.99), especially for those of us hailing from B.C, makes it that much yummier.

Before you click to watch, I want to apologize to the fine folks of Waimea: I pronounced it Waime-o in the video. Oops.

Salut!

Copyright © 2010 Kathleen Rake. All rights reserved.