Wanda

Honolulu getting first Portuguese restaurant in years

Despite the number of Portuguese and part-Portuguese in the Islands, Adega, opening soon in Chinatown, will be the only restaurant here to feature this cuisine exclusively.
Owner Trigo Silva, who moved to Hawai'i five years ago from his home near Fatima on the Portuguese mainland, said "adega" is similar to the more familiar Spanish word "bodega" — a wine bar.
Adega will offer both Mainland Portuguese and Brazilian dishes (most of the Portuguese in the Islands have roots in the Atlantic Islands of Madeira and the Azores but the cuisines are closely related). Silva plans to offer a lunch buffet and an a la carte dinner menu in addition to bar service music, dancing and other forms of entertainment. The restaurant is in the old Mei Sum location at Smith and Pauahi Streets. I'll keep you posted on the specific opening date.

Will it AMASIA?

Chef-restaurateur is partnering with the Great Wailea, a Waldorf-Astoria Resort on Maui, to create Alan Wong's AMASIA: small shared plates, sushi bar, robata grill, East-West focus, opening in spring, 2012. The new restaurant will have its home in the space once occupied by Kincha restaurant; a $2 million renovation is underway.

Mavro celebrates 5 in 5

For the fifth consecutive year Chef Mavro restaurant is the only independent restaurant in Hawaii, and one of only a handful nationally, to earn the 2012 American Automobile Association (AAA) Five Diamond award. See the complete list: http://www.aaa.biz/Travel_Information/Diamonds/Awards/2012/5D_Restaurants_01
2012.pdf

New food film to premiere here

"Ingredients Hawai'i," the first in what's hoped to be a film about food, farmers, sustainability and stories of the agricultural life, will premiere at 7 p.m. and 9 p.m. Feb. 4 at Mamiya Theatre. Shot by a director with whom I have worked on "Share Your Table, Bob Bates, it promises to be an occasion not to be missed for advocates of fresh food and the need to malama its production here. VIP screening at 7 p.m. includes food, $45; general admission at 9 p.m.
is $10, $5 for students. www.ingredientshawaii.com

Meet Windward farmers at mall

Every Wednesday from 2:30 p.m.-7:30 p.m. there's a farmer's market at Windward Mall. Farmers and cultural/educational institutions from nearby He'eia share a table there and you can buy things you rarely see: limu of various types, kalo in various forms. Go support these hardworking, skilled, pono (right-thinking) people. (And go early if you want the rare stuff)