Tasting Kauai Coconut Cook Off
Saturday, Oct. 1
12:30 to 4 p.m.
Kapaa Beach Park
Free admission
Add one part Top Chef, one part Chopped, and one part Iron Chef, and you’ve got the Tasting Kauai Coconut Cook Off. The event is the first of its kind, and debuts at this year’s Coconut Festival.
Eight of Kauai’s top chefs will use coconut as well as some of the island’s best ingredients to prepare dishes for five judges, and you could be one of them! Continue Reading →
There are nearly 30 canoe plants, including turmeric. Daniel Lane photo.
On Saturday, September 10, from 5 to 8 p.m., Malama Kauai will host a Canoe Plant Bingo and BBQ at Hanai Market, located in the old Kojima Store in downtown Kapaa. Proceeds will benefit the Farm-To-School Lunch Program at Kawaikini Public Charter School in Lihue.
Bingo cards are a $1 donation, and participants can win prizes such as gift certificates, jewelry, activity passes and more from local businesses including Kauai Beer Company, Hawaii Reef Guides, Olympic Cafe, Oasis on the Beach, Studio Barre & Soul, Kauai Marriott Resort, Aloha Aina Juice Cafe and much more. Locally sourced food will be prepared by Hanai’s culinary team, including Chef Adam Watten. Continue Reading →
Scott Sloan (left), president of HTFG Kaua‘i, and Ken Love, president of Hawaii Tropical Fruit Growers and vice president, Kona chapter, American Culinary Federation. Daniel Lane photo
The 26th Annual Hawaii International Tropical Fruit Conference is September 30-October 7, starting at the Kauai Beach Resort and then traveling to Oahu, Molokai, Hilo and Kona for mini-conferences. Geared to farmers, educators, orchard managers and proponents of sustainable agriculture, the eight-day event is presented by the statewide Hawaii Tropical Fruit Growers (HTFG) and open to the public. Continue Reading →
Dark & Stormy, Koloa Style with Koloa Rum. Daniel Lane photo
Starting tonight, RumFire Poipu Beach and Koloa Rum Company are on the hunt for Kauai’s Best Bartender. In the contest’s second year, the island’s food and beverage industry professionals have been challenged to showcase original Koloa Rum-based cocktails for the chance to earn the title and the $4,000 grand prize. The runner up will receive a $1,000 second prize, both courtesy of Koloa Rum. Over the 15 weeks of the single-elimination tournament, contestants will go head-to-head each week by creating an original cocktail with a mystery ingredient. A winner will be named Kauai’s Best Bartender in the final round on Friday, November 18. Continue Reading →
Greg Askew and Candace Boxer of OnoPops. Daniel Lane image.
A pan of mochi bakes in the oven and the smell of butter fills the OnoPops kitchen. Candace Boxer, wearing a blue hairnet and white lab coat, mixes local beets with lavender and strawberries. She dips a refractometer into the blend and holds it to the light. The mixture measures a mere five degrees Brix.
“We find that people are more interested in the taste of the fruit than they are the sugar,” says Greg Askew, Candace’s life and business partner. “We use Brix, which is a scientific measurement of sugar content, to know how sweet the fruit is.”
“When you buy a low-sugar product at the store, it starts at about 40 Brix,” Candace adds, while pouring the mixture into molds. “We never go higher than 20.”
The delightful results are palatable popsicles that don’t make your teeth hurt. And depending on the bar, calorie counts range from 80 to 250.
As a child, Candace was looked after by her grandmother, who was “the best cook in a family of great cooks.” In high school, she made tuna fish sandwiches and green pea soup for friends during lunch break. In 1980, she moved to Manhattan to become a chef.
Farm-to-stick OnoPops. Daniel Lane image.
“I was female, 5’2, and laughed out of every restaurant,” she recalls. “I offered to work for free and they would say, ‘Go home little girl!’ or, ‘You’re too cute to work in the back, why don’t you work up front as a hostess?’”
Eventually, a friend who owned a limousine service suggested that she become a private chef. He would deliver Candace, along with his clients, to the grocery store.
“We’d go shopping and I’d go back to an amazing apartment and make things like meatloaf, stuffed pork chops and lasagna,” she says. “I learned that nobody wants to eat a fancy meal at home.”
Candace returned to Florida, her home state, to work as a chef on a yacht. But it was when she moved to Atlanta, GA, that she hit the highlight of her career.
Beet, strawberry and lavender OnoPops. Daniel Lane image.
“My friend and I cooked for Amy Carter’s baby shower,” she explains. “They wanted things like peanut butter fluff, sandwiches and pimento cheese. President Carter strolled up, looks over the spread and says ‘It’s so beautiful, thank you ladies so much.’ He was shaking our hands and the Secret Service were everywhere. I’ll never forget when he saw the pimento cheese sandwiches. His eyes light up, he grabs one in each hand, takes a bite and says, ‘I love me a pimento cheese sandwich!’”
In 2013, Greg and Candace expanded the OnoPops brand to Kauai, which started on Oahu in 2009 by brothers Josh and Joe Welsh. Today, the couple uses more than 75 seasonal recipes to make 400 popsicles a day, with ingredients from more than 25 Hawaii farms.
Candace hand-wraps every OnoPop. Daniel Lane image.
While Greg cultivates relationships with local growers, acquires seasonal fruit and does marketing, Candace creates popsicles with names such as Pickled Green Mango; Kona Latte; Mauna Kea Green Tea and Watermelon Gazpacho. Wailua Estate 70 percent dark chocolate is used in Mexican Chocolate popsicles. Local eggs, as well as BPH-free and hormone-free milk from Hawaii Island, are used in Apple Banana Banana Cream Pie. Cream cheese from Naked Cow Dairy on Oahu is folded into Lilikoi Cheesecake pops.
Macadamia Nut Brittle popsicles include brittle, made with Maui sugar; marzipan, made with Big Island macadamia nuts; and hand-spun vanilla ice cream made with Madagascar vanilla beans grown on Kauai’s North Shore. For Crack Seed Lemon Peel popsicles, Candace rolls lemons in a house-made li hing mui powder, which does not contain artificial color or sweeter. The lemons are dehydrated then rehydrated in li hing mui simple syrup, and added to her lemonade popsicle recipe.
Each hand-wrapped pop has a story and character. Pineapple Li Hing Mui features Paps Mui, who is “an aging plantation rapscallion.” My favorite pop, Butter Mochi, tells the story of Butters Mochiko, who hates P.E. and loves math. The pop is made with Naked Cow butter, Hawaiian sea salt, Island Milk and vanilla simple syrup.
“One of our regular customers comes to the Kauai Community Market,” says Greg. “She gets the Butter Mochi and dips it into her morning coffee!”
OnoPops cost between $3 and $6 and are available at 21 retail outlets across Kauai. You can meet Greg and Candace at the following events:
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