Last week my food blog TastyIslandHawaii.com was featured, along with AkuEats.com and BakersHours.com in The Honolulu Advertiser's TGIF section for a cover story on Progressive Dinners.
Contributing to the story was Mari Taketa, Martha Cheng, and Kawehi Haug, the Advertiser’s Entertainment Editor.
Never heard of a "Progressive Dinner"? Neither have I! In fact, approximately 9 of 10 people I asked if they heard of it, including folks from the mainland, said they never heard of a "Progressive Dinner".
Kawehi Haug explains it as “A social trend in the 1970s and ’80s, progressive dinners were essentially mobile potlucks. A group of eaters would go from home to home, with homeowners preparing and hosting different courses of a meal.”
Oh, ok, Potluck, yeah, everyone in Hawaii knows that! This is just that with a mobile twist.
So for example you and two or more neighbors would get together at one of their homes for pupus (appetizers), then come to your home for the main entree, and then all of you would go to another neighbor's home for dessert.
In the case with The Advertiser TGIF cover story, instead of going to folks homes, we were asked to choose restaurants for each course that adhered to a specific THEME.
The Progressive Dinner theme could be anything such as area (Kalihi, Koreamoku, Waikiki, Waialae avenue, Waianae, Waimanalo), cuisine (Hawaiian, Japanese, Filipino, Portuguese, Soul), food type (fried, baked, steamed, BBQ, raw), or caliber (cheap, street, hole-in-the-wall, bust out the credit card).
For my theme, I chose "A Progressive Dinner on Waikiki Beach", which I knew wasn't going to be entirely original, yet I still felt confident in my choices. Those choices were Duke's Waikiki on the Beach for pupus on Sunday afternoon with Henry Kapono, Ocean House in another Outrigger hotel on the beach just a walk away for fantastic seafood dishes as the main entree, and Michel's in the Colony Surf at the foot of Diamond Head for dessert, noting their AMAZING Pineapple Lilikoi Mac' Nut Cheesecake.
Ironically, Stanley Ehara of AkuEats.com also chose Waikiki as his theme, except his was a "walkthrough", and not specifically on the beach.
Also ironically, Edward Morita of BakersHours.com also chose Michel's as his choice for dessert! Ha ha!
Which has me thinking that I wish I had chosen a more off-the-beaten-path area such as Kalihi or Waialae avenue. Or perhaps a lunchwagon or okazuya theme.
The question I have for all you HT foodies is, if you were asked to organize a Progressive Dinner, what theme would you choose and which restaurants would YOU pick?!!!
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