A Week of Eating Local--Eat Local Challenge: Day 4--Featuring "Guess That Produce Item"

Here's my Day 4 recap for the Eat Local Challenge I am taking part in this week. Yesterday was a challenging day since I was out and about at meetings and things most of the day. This causes me to grab lunch from my neighborhood natural foods store, Kale's Natural Foods. They are participating in the Eat Local Challenge in their deli but not as rigidly as I was trying to. All of the vegetables in the stir-fry I purchased were local but the rice and seasonings were not. Oh well! A girl can only do her best.

Breakfast: On the go--two small apple bananas and a hard-boiled local egg. No time for photos!

Lunch: The above purchased stir-fry with beet greens, bok choy and other assorted Asian greens. I ended up bringing it home and eating half of it with some of my leftover Thai-spiced Maui ground beef from yesterday's lettuce wraps on top. Very filling.

Pupus: I did a demo at Whole Foods, cooking two all-local dishes. I made a version of yesterday's Thai lettuce wraps--done pupu-style on mini lettuce leaves and grilled Maui pineapple drizzled with Waialua Extra-Dark 70% Cacao. Both went over really well. Unfortunately I got busy cooking and answering uestions and the samples went really fast so no photos but I did manage to snag one of each to try. If you haven't ever grilled slices of pineapple and drizzled it with dark chocolate, i insist you do so ASAP. It is ono! (delicious)

Dinner: I bought some local fish--Opakapaka, which is Hawaiian pink snapper, at Whole Foods and just cooked in in the pan with a little macadamia nut oil, sea salt, and a squeeze of local lemon. Served on top of salad greens with tomatoes and cucumber it was perfect. The fish was moist and so flavorful. Opakapaka is considered to be a ocean-friendly, more sustainable seafood choice, and although a bit more expensive than some of the other fish in the case--well worth it.

Dessert: a Pots Au Chocolat (see yesterday's post).


Notes/Results: Another delicious day of eating. Though it was nice to not cook lunch and to pick up a mostly local dish from a participating business, it is much easier to control the "localness" of my food when I make it myself.

Can you identify this produce item?

My friend Natalie, the marketing person at Whole Foods suggested we try this brown, potato-looking item in the Thai lettuce wraps we demonstrated. We used my julienne cutter to cut it and cucumber and put it on top of the hamburger mixture on the lettuce leaves for some crunchy texture.

Any guesses as to what it is? This one was grown on Oahu. I brought the the portion in the photo that we didn't use home--we used the last one in the store until the next delivery comes in this week. I had heard the name before but it was not familiar to me. It can be eaten raw, or cooked and discolors quickly when cut unless coated with something acidic like citrus juice. And that's all I am saying. ;-) Leave a comment with your guess and I'll tell you tomorrow what it is if no one gets it.

Tune in tomorrow for the Eat Local Challenge: Day 5!

Aloha,