Moon and Turtle Café
Moon and Turtle Café
When Mark, Soni and Tedd Pomaski opened Full Moon Café, it was always their intent to name their restaurant Moon and Turtle.
I remember Tedd telling me it has to do something with Mark being the moon and Tedd being the turtle. By the time you read this column, Full Moon Café will be renamed Moon and Turtle Café. It is the same great food and different from anything around town.
Chef Edwin Goto from Village Burger loves to eat there when he is in town, which tells you a lot about their food. Using locally sourced products, Chef Mark has come up with some interesting dishes, such as the opakapaka sashimi topped with roasted Hamakua mushrooms tapenade with inamona or kukui nuts or the seared ahi sashimi, momoji oroshi, kalamansi ponzu “pearls” and topped with scallions.
The Locavore Store
Arthur and Katarina have moved their store, The Locavore Store, from Pahoa Village to Downtown Hilo, at 60 Kamehameha Ave. It is located in the Koehnen’s Building, so if you start at the entrance, at the street light, and walk toward Wailuku River, you will find this unique store.
Two-thirds of the products sold must be locally sourced ingredients. There is a min-fruit stand with fresh fruits such as papayas, bananas, lemons, limes, Okinawan purple sweet potatoes, tomatoes, pak choi and lettuce. In quart-sized jars are a variety of fruit roll-ups, a good assortment of salts, honeycomb and honey, each labeled with the flower source; a nice assortment of Big Island Goat Dairy’s cheeses; and whatever else comes through their doors that are seasonal.
Big Island Goat Dairy cheese varieties include mozzarella, feta and flavored chevre cheeses.
Salves include a beef tallow salve mixed with wonderful herbs.
AlohaMexico’s Nona Empanadas
The Locavore Store also sells AlohaMexico’s Nona’s Empanadas in their freezer.
These empanadas are a tribute to Robert Moller-Roll’s grandmother, Gilda, who was from Greece and would always have borekas waiting for them. Nona, or grandmother in Greek, would use filo dough for her crust. Her filling would be traditional cheese, spinach and beef.
The variety of sizes of empanadas include 6-inches, selling for $43 a dozen, with the choices of Big Island Grass Fed Beef, Five Cheese and Spinach, and Fresh Pineapple and Ginger.
There also are 4-inch pupu and bite-size, 3.25-inch sizes. Special orders can be taken with two weeks advance notice, depending on current production, and payment is required.
Sushi Ebisu
Opened in early December, at 179 Kilauea Ave. in the former Oasis Café location, is a new sushi restaurant, Sushi Ebisu. The owner, Yasuhiro Muramatsu also owns Shimaichi Restaurant in Kailua-Kona.
I talked to the sushi chef, Akio Kudo, formerly of Tokyo, who lived more than 20 years in Los Angeles and Hollywood, working at various sushi restaurants. Most recently, Chef Akio worked at Sasabune Restaurant in Honolulu.
Sushi Ebisu is open for lunch and dinner and closed on Sunday. Hours for lunch are 11 a.m.-3 p.m. and dinner is 4:30-9 p.m., with the last seating at 8:30 p.m. Chef Akio suggests calling for reservations at 961-6840.
Restaurants in the works
I am watching with interest at least three new restaurants that should be opening soon: Café Ka‘ai is being renovated in the former Sophie’s Yogurt location on Keawe Street; Ocean Sushi in the former Pescatore’s location looks like it is ready to open; and in Volcano Village, where the former Kiawe Café was, next to Volcano Store, is being worked on presently. A handicap ramp was just completed and I see owner Tom Smith there, working with the construction crew.
Small bites
Robert Moller-Roll wrote me that it is thought the empanada originated from Spain, then brought to Turkey, which was known as a “borek.” The Spanish feminine “a” was added to become “boreka.” This handheld turnover became popular throughout Mexico, Argentina and Chile and is called “empanada” there.
Foodie bites
Happy holidays to my readers! If you are going to The Locavore Store to buy some Okinawan purple sweet potatoes, here is my Christmas gift to you — a recipe for Okinawan sweet potato cheesecake with haupia topping.
Okinawan Purple Sweet Potato Cheesecake with Haupia Topping
Crust:
3/4 cup finely chopped macadamia nuts
3/4 cup graham cracker crumbs
1/2 cup or one stick melted butter
Mix all ingredients together, pat into 9-inch springform pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes. Cool.
Cheesecake:
Okinawan purple sweet potatoes, steamed till very soft, to measure 1 1/2 cups
2 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese
3 large eggs
3/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Combine all ingredients and mix until blended well. Pour into prepared pan, bake for one hour. Cool completely, top with haupia, spreading evenly on top.
Haupia:
2 cups coconut milk
1 cup sugar
2 cups water
1/2 cup cornstarch
Mix together all ingredients in saucepan, cook over low heat, stirring constantly, until haupia is thick. Make sure you make this just before you need to spread it on top of the cheesecake as it will start to set as it cools.
Email me at audreywilson808@gmail.com if you have questions.