Culinary Arts brings big aloha to the campus

The fifth and last series of Culinary Arts' themed restaurant for the fall 2011 semester featured A Taste of Hawaii from December 6 to 8.

The first course was Hawaiian salad with coconut flakes, water chestnuts, and plantains with pineapple tahini dressing. Toasted coconut flakes, chestnuts and plantains provided different textures to the dish.

The second course was beef skewers with bell peppers and pineapple. Beef marinated with soy sauce, vegetable skewers and sweet and sour sauce created a wonderful harmony of flavors.

Following that came Kalua Pig. Juicy pork seasoned with salt and pepper corns was wrapped in banana leaves and baked to the tender perfection. Complemented by a scoop of rice and mac salad, the dish recreated the island flavor amazingly well.

The fourth course dish was grilled mahi mahi with mango salsa, coconut rice and bokchoy. Fresh mahi mahi was grilled to the medium rare perfection and sweet mango salsa provided refreshing aftertaste to the fish. A great example of fresh ingredients prepared simply.

The dessert course was coconut chiffon cake, coconut meringue with pina colada ice cream. Ciffon cake was full of coconut flavor and paired with ice cream it created a heavenly contrast of textures and flavors. Toasty meringue was super light and melted in your mouth.

Students explore various regional cuisines in the world and learn cooking and food preparation techniques as well as restaurant management. If you haven't taken advantage of the five course series yet, it is highly recommended that you try and see what the students are learning. Both of the weekly menu and the themed restaurant series are open to the public.