A Foodie’s Dream…

I don’t know if you’ve seen the movie “It’s Complicated” with Meryl Streep, Alec Baldwin, and Steve Martin, but it’s about a chef who owns a bakery, somewhere in California, and has a small vegetable farm in her house where she gets all the ingredients harvested for her restaurant. After I saw the movie that has been my dream; well at least, having a small farm somewhere in the future to be able to produce whatever I want to cook. I do not know if I will make it but, in Hawaii I had the opportunity to experience, see, and learn from something similar. One morning buying coffee at the hotel, I saw a brochure about this tour to the O’o Farm, where the hotel gets almost all it’s produce including the amazing coffee I was drinking, so being a foodie and a chef, I decided to take the tour. We made reservations for a Monday because it is only offered from Mondays to Thursdays and it has limited space available, so make the reservation ahead of time.
The farm is located in a Maui hill, a two hour drive from the hotel and the resort zone where we were staying, so it gave us the opportunity to get to know almost all the island, believe me, it is magical. We arrived at 9:45 am, and waited 15 minutes for the tour to begin just looking at the amazing view from this hill. We were received by the man who lives there taking care of the farm and everything that it has to offer, he explained us that it has 8 acres of space, and that it was created by two chefs who own two restaurants and wanted to have their own ingredients from their own farm, making everything sustainable and being able to produce whatever they want to serve, with better quality and flavor. So basically he harvests whatever the chefs want to include in their menu, that way they are not limited by their suppliers and the ingredients are local and fresh, because Hawaii is isolated from US and other parts of the world, they get to have their ingredients “from farm to table.” The tour is really informative and fun, he gets to explain how they started and how they make everything function, he gave us the opportunity to taste all of the vegetables, and some I had no idea they existed; we tasted a flower that has a garlic flavor, it was so weird but totally worth it. We also got the chance to meet one of the owners and he explained us all the ingredients he had in the farm and how can we cook them better. We picked up a couple of vegetables (arugula, spinach, lettuce) for our salads and afterwards we took everything to the chef so he could cook for us right there.
If you ever come to Hawaii and you are a foodie or like to cook, I truly recommend taking this tour; you can see how these amazing chefs do everything from scratch and enjoy a delicious meal with people you get to meet and have an incredible time. You can bring your own bottle of wine and everything is only $50 usd. For me, this was a great opportunity to taste local ingredients, have a perfect meal, and learn a little bit more about the local lifestyle. It was a once in a lifetime experience!!!!

Ratings:
Price $$
Staff: Friendly
Location: Amazing and breath taking
Overall: Definitely a must do.

When in… be locally awesome

When in NYC try to stay away from Starbucks and look for locally brewed coffee bars. Don’t get me wrong I am a huge fan of the big Seattle coffee chain, however sometimes it’s good to try something different, believe you will be satisfied!! One of my favorites is Mulberry &Vine which mantra says it all: “Eat Local, Cook Global,” it is a petite restaurant and coffee bar that only uses local ingredients to support local farmers and use them to create amazing food. They serve breakfast, lunch and dinner, offering a la carte menu and Buffett. The food is really good and the restaurant is comfy, cozy, and everything is organic as well. All of the items in the menu have their tag explaining where they come from, so you can really see they use local ingredients. The pastry is delicious and gluten free. The best part of this amazing restaurant is that you are eating healthy delicious food without harming the environment. I truly recommend giving it a try, hope you like it as much as I did!!

Cuando estén en Nueva York, traten de alejarse de Starbucks y busquen cafeterías que ofrezcan productos locales. No me mal interpreten, soy fan de la gran cadena de cafe de Seattle, pero a veces es bueno probar cosas distintas, créanme estarán satisfechos. Una de mis favoritas es Mulberry & Vine , cuyo mantra lo dice todo: “Eat local, Cook Global” (come local y cocina global), es un pequeño restaurante y cafetería que utiliza ingredientes locales para ayudar a agricultores locales, cocinando excelente comida. El restaurante ofrece desayuno, comida y cena con un menú a la carta y bufete. La comida es muy rica, todo es orgánico y el restaurante es acogedor y muy bonito. Todos los ingredientes del menú tienen su etiqueta donde indican de donde provienen, así pueden ver que realmente son locales. La panadería es deliciosa y además todo es libre de gluten. La mejor parte de este pequeño restaurante es, que producen alimentos saludables y ricos, sin dañar al medio ambiente. Verdaderamente recomiendo que lo prueben, espero les guste tanto como a mi!!!