Taste of the Hawaiian Range Highlights

Serious eating.

The Big Island's ultimate food festival, Taste of the Hawaiian Range, was held on Friday, September 21 at Hilton Waikoloa Village.

This lucky girl won a ticket via a Facebook drawing and I can't believe this was my first time attending. I have really been missing out.

Food booths are in green. We couldn't possibly try them all, but we made a valiant dent.

Dustin and I ate our way through dozens of food booths celebrating grass-fed beef, lamb, mutton, and goat.

Utensils, cups, and plates were all recycled at the event. We made sure to reuse our forks as we ate our way through. 

Town Restaurant's shepard's pie with mutton

We were surprised to learn that blueberries are being grown in Volcano, grass-fed Portuguese sausage can be found at our local grocery, and that the gaminess of mutton can be a good thing.

I was even served by Food Network Star participant Ippy Aiona. Star struck!

The best dish of the night was served by Kamehameha Schools, tacos made with steamship round that had been basking over flames all day. Other notables were the beef heart by Aloha Mondays, and the beef cheek lau lau style by the Fairmont Orchid.

Kamehameha Schools amazing steamship round. 

Not only was it a pleasure to witness the incredible creativity of all the restaurants and chefs that participated, but we learned so much and were inspired by the efforts of our community to make eating local a priority and furthering the efforts to make the islands sustainable.

Buy local, it matters!

Other fun write-ups about this event:
Damon Tucker
A Sari-Sari Life

PS: Happy Sustainable Sunday!