Our collaborative dinner will be hosted by the Glass House Supper Club at Bradbury’s on February 28th. It will be a cozy, intimate six-course dinner and tickets are now available for it here. Once in Wisconsin, we’ll be sourcing our food from local farms that UFC and Glass House has established great relationships with, as well as the Saturday Farmers’ Market in Madison. We can’t tell you how excited we are to bring hapa flavors to a new region, and new, local foods, just like UFC has been doing each time they cook in Brooklyn. (Above photo: from Underground Food Collective’s winter dinner held at the Meat Hook, January 17th.)

Next stop in Madison, we’ll be serving a big group dinner for about 100 members of the Slow Food University of Wisconsin chapter. Slow Food UW has been holding Monday Family Dinner nights each week for a while (along with a host of really great sounding events – see their blog), with guest chefs often coming to create the menu and serve.

Speaking of which, those menus are still in the works and we’ll be posting more info here soon. In the meantime, you can also catch the Hapa Kitchen at the book launch party for co-founder Cathy Erway on February 18th. We’ll be making some of our favorite “hapa tapa”-style snacks, revamped for just the occasion — some ideas tweaked from recipes in Cathy’s book, The Art of Eating In, and others just off-the-wall nods to all flavors half-Chinese/half-New Jersey, like the author herself. At least, I think that’s what Akiko is up to on this… Get your tickets for that foodfest here!

Hapa Harvest
A collaboration of the Hapa Kitchen at Whisk & Ladle Supper Club
Friday, October 16, 2009
8pm

Canapes
Wonton Skin-Wrapped Mini Quiches with Napa Cabbage and Chevre
Oyster Havemeyers with Absinthe

“Boulliabasse” with Dashi, Baby Carrots, Tofu and “Seafood”

Lobster Gratin with Fingerling Potatoes, Gruyere
(vegetarian option available)

Hapa Nicoise with Baby Tatsoi, Peppercress, Arugula and Tea Leaf-Stewed Eggs

“Scallop” Sponge Cake with Carrot Syrup and Raw Chocolate “Caviar”

If some of these menu items sound mysterious, it’s true, there’s a lot more to them that we’re keeping a surprise. (You can imagine the difficulty we’re having putting this menu in words!)

Wines will be paired with each course by the dear funnyman, Jonny Cigar of the Noble Rot wine club. Specialty cocktails will be shaken up at the bar by Nick. Our vegetables will be sourced heavily from The Lone Acre farm, a sustainable, organic, one-acre farm operated by one man, Dan Machin, on the North Fork of Long Island. We will probably serve some “Hapa Jacks” (popcorn and peanuts with a sweet soy glaze) at the bar.

Dinner contributions are $60, which includes five courses, wines and unlimited cocktails. The Whisk & Ladle is located in Brooklyn, and exact location and address will be announced with your reservation confirmation email. We regret that seats are very limited for this dinner, so if you do not receive a notification we are unable to seat you at this event. Please note that the dinner begins at 8pm and dessert is served around 10:30pm. To reserve a seat, please write to rsvp@thewhiskandladle.

Oh, where did the summer go? Hapa Kitchen has been busy making “hapa tapas” for a couple private rooftop and beachside parties. But we’re back in Brooklyn, and teaming up with our friends Finger on the Pulse and Mean Red Productions again for a Hawaiian-inspired menu and pig roast at The Yard!
We can think of nothing more hapa-licious than this; the term “hapa” after all originates from Hawaii, and though we’re not all Hawaiian, we’d certainly like to be beach bums sipping from coconuts on the colorful islands about now. Thank goodness there’s always the Gowanus!

Menu is still shaping up, but we’ll be bringing it back to the homeland with Hawaiian favorites like macaroni salad but with a local and seasonal twist. There will be succulent pastured swine from Tamarack Hollow Farm that we’ll roast in a traditional Chinese-Cuban (“La Caja China“) box, sides with organic vegetables provided by Long Island’s Garden of Eve Farm, and Brooklyn’s own Sixpoint Craft Ales will be pouring their latest brews. Specialty cocktails with umbrellas, you bet.

A more detailed menu will be coming up in the next week, but in the meantime here’s the info:

Menu
(subject to slight changes)

Five-spice duck confit turnovers with Fred’s Hot Pepper Jelly
Duck consomme “exploding” ravioli/dumplings with chilled cucumber soup
Seared duck breast with “drunken” butter sauce and baby bok choy
“Sang Lee” spring salad with crisped duck skin and plum vinaigrette
Red bean creme brulee

The meal will feature naturally raised duck from D’Artagnan, local organic produce from Sang Lee Farms, and will be paired with wines from Wolffer Estate Vineyard. We are most delighted that Jen Lee from Sang Lee Farms and Long Island neighbor Peggy Lauber of Wolffer Estate will be joining us at the table for this event.

Drinks and canapes will begin at 7pm. Please inquire at contact@hapakitchen.com with “RSVP” in the subject line if you would like to reserve a seat.

First of all, along with Finger on the Pulse, MeanRed Productions and Nicky Digital, we cannot even begin to thank the 600 people who came through the gates of BKLYNYard last night for some Hapa ‘cue. But we will in the next post. Because today is the anniversary of what many hapa and bi/multiracial Americans may not know is is the day that it became legal to wed interracially. It’s what our friend Ken Tanabe has called “Loving Day.” And without it, we may not have been born.

In 1958, Mildred and Richard Loving were arrested for being an interracial married couple (Mildred was of African and Native-American descent, while Richard was white). Their case was taken to the Supreme Court, and in 1967, the decision of Loving vs. Virginia effectively legalized interracial marriage. Since 2004, Ken has been spearheading the Loving Day Celebration parties as an opportunity for all multiracials to unite and further the dialogue on being bi- and multiracial. Obviously, the interracial ban was not so heavily enforced in other states as it was for the Lovings. But since this is the first Loving Day Celebration during the Obama administration — a dinner for the inauguration of which was really the catalyst for the Hapa Kitchen project in the first place — we’ll be at Solar One tomorrow, to celebrate. Hapa Kitchen Chris was there for the first event, in 2004, and Hapa Kitchen Akiko has been there for subsequent ones, including last year’s. We only imagine that the party grow each year in number. Come by if you can, and hope to see you there!

Event details:
Saturday, June 6
6-9pm
BKLYN Yard
388-400 Carroll St.
Brooklyn, NY (Gowanus)

Menu

Tequila-Soy Pork Kushiyashi
Vietnamese Pork Meatballs
Buffalo Tofu Skewers

sides:
Curried Potato Salad with Rosemary and Chickpeas
Honey Miso Coleslaw
Hoisin Chipotle Baked Beans

choose one main course and get all three (vegetarian-friendly) sides

We put on our thinking caps and hope to bring you the best of Asia’s flame-grilled flavors, applied to all-American barbecue favorites — on a stick. Yes, it’s really $7 per plate.

We’re proud to have all our meat provided by Tamarack Hollow Farm for this event. All-natural, pastured and humanely raised animals are the cornerstone of this small Vermont-based farm, which you can find the stand for at the Union Square Greenmarket on Wednesdays and Fridays. (For more on on this farm/farmer, see this profile on Not Eating Out in New York.)

To satisfy your sweet tooth, Treats Truck will be parked at the Yard, too, filled with hapa Kim’s desserts! We hope to see you down by the Gowanus! RSVP not required.

Afterward, taste four canapes and upstate wines beside the maypole and bonfire. Spring garland weaving and more celebration in the spirit of May Days past will ensue.

Dinner begins at 8:30. Set in the farm’s orchard the five-course dinner features local lamb from Apple Pond Farm, local wines provided by New York Wine & Grape Foundation, and very local vegetables from Queens Farm itself.

Tickets are at:
http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/63246

Directions to the farm:
http://www.queensfarm.org/hours-directions.html