Now that is a Bloody Mary
October 30, 2016
The Battle of the Brunch – definitely my favorite event of all the HFWF events. This year, Susan who we met on our trip to Japan joined us. She lives in Hawaii and she joined us for this event. She shared with me that it was at this hotel (Outrigger Reef) that she and her husband spent their honeymoon. I was glad she joined us!
This year the brunch was at the Outrigger Reef hotel. I liked the change of venues, it felt like there was more room and the layout made better sense. In addition to the “Battle of the Brunch” there was the “Battle of the Band” We had two really good bands perform local music.
I started with the Bloody Mary Bar, where you pick your salt, pick the booze, pick the type of tomato juice and then you garnish it with all sorts of things. I am not talking about a piece of celery and an olive, they had, shrimp, sausages, pork, and even sliders, That is my kind of Bloody Mary! Instead of the champagne brunch with a salad bar, how about a Bloody Mary bar?
This being the “Battle of the Brunch”, three teams of two chefs that put out two dishes. After trying all three, everyone votes for their favorite. I like this event because it is smaller, it is during the day and the atmosphere is fun. This year defending champions Lee Anne Wong and Sven Ullrich again won the competition. She made Rum-Honey Cakes with Big-Island Fruit, lilikoi and coconut creme. Sven made Chicken Crepes with Taro-coconut compote, and a Maui Onion Ring.
The other two teams also served up some great food. Everything was good but the Lobster BLT stood out for me.
As with previous years, the event was hosted by Adam Richman. He was the host of Man vs. Food. I thought Adam did a really good job of hosting the event in previous years, this year something was different. He spent a lot of times making jokes and rambling on about various topics. I wondered if he wasn’t trying to break into comedy. It all seemed weird and at one point, someone at the table said, “When is this going to end?” I was wondering that same thing myself. She added “I can deal with offensive, I actually like it if it is clever, this is not!”. I had to agree. I like Adam but but maybe it is time to give Guy Ferrari or Anne Burrell an opportunity to do this next year!
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