Hotel Review: Dolphin Lanai Room at the Kahala Resort (Oahu, Hawaii)

The Kahala Resort is supposedly the first resort in O'ahu (so says my hotel tour guide), opened in 1964 as the Kahala Hilton and cost $12 million to build.

The resort has its own private beach which, according to my tour guide, was the shore that the King Kamehameha landed when he first came to O'ahu (Wikipedia says he landed his troops at Waikiki and Waialae which neighbors the resort).

We stayed at one of the Dolphin Lanai rooms on my latest trip to Hawaii. It faces the "dolphin lagoon" and you pay a premium for the chance to be woken up by dolphins' calls and splashes.

The room itself is standard-sized, though the bathroom had two vanities.
But it isn't just a view of the dolphin lagoon. These rooms are on the ground floor and are literally right next to the dolphin lagoon. If it wasn't for the bushes separating my patio with the lagoon, I could just reach out and touch them as they swim by.
Sit long enough and you'll see one or four of them jump. I wasn't fast enough to take photos of those instances, alas.
A lot of celebrities stay here and I heard George Clooney was there when I was there. While I didn't see him, I did spot Daniel Dae Kim from LOST. Someone had to point him out to me, but I think it really was him. They're supposed to be filming Hawaii Five-O.
What do you guys think?

A Graceful Gathering: La Fenetre Wine Tasting with Chef Neal Fraser

La Fenêtre Wines was started by former sommelier Joshua Klapper, who had previously worked as Wine Director at David Myers' Sona and earned it the Wine Spectator Grand Award (we're all very sorry to see Sona shuttered). With Burgundy wines as his inspiration, Klapper strives to make food friendly wines that are affordable.

In celebration of their fifth vintage, La Fenêtre held a tasting of all their 2008 releases (and some more) at LearnAboutWine's Loft218.
We were greeted with a glass of the 2008 Santa Barbara County Rosé (their anniversary Rosé)
... while LearnAboutWine's Ian Blackburn plays DJ for the day.

The wines were accompanied by small bites prepared by Chef Neal Fraser of Grace and BLD Restaurant.

The first couple bites accompanied the rose and the white wines:
Chilean Shellfish Ceviche (left)

Crab Salad, lemon vinaigrette, mint:

We tasted a lot of wine (thank goodness for the spit bucket). Since I'm no wine connoisseur and your taste preferences may differ from mine, I'll direct you instead to their official tasting notes here. We started with four Chardonnays:

• 2008 À Côté, Santa Barbara County ($25). Crisp and clean, this was a very smooth wine with only a slight acidity at the end. It paired very well with the caviar blini as it brought the flavors together and balanced the caviar.

Salmon Tartare, chive blini, American caviar

• 2008 La Fenêtre, Los Alamos (Santa Barbara County). More acidic than the previous. I had this with the Bay Scallops, peas, aged goat cheese, risotto - a great dish and its creaminess cuts the acidity of the wine nicely.

• 2008 La Fenêtre, Sierra Madre (Santa Maria Valley). Sweeter than the Los Alamos.
• 2008 La Fenêtre, Bien Nacido (Santa Maria Valley)

We also had the chance to taste the 2004 Bien Nacido Chardonnay (his first vintage). This was easily my favorite Chardonnay of the night: smooth but with much more depth. The new releases should be heading this way too in a few years and it will be well worth the wait.

Moving on to the reds and the red meat dishes, we began with a tasting of the Pinot Noirs:

• 2008 À Côté, Central Coast ($25). Smooth and subtle, light fruit flavors.
  
• 2008 La Fenêtre, Los Alamos ($36)
• 2008 La Fenêtre, Sierra Madre ($49). This had more body than the previous two.
• 2008 La Fenêtre, Le Bon Climat ($54). My favorite of the pinot noirs. Smoother, less acidic than the others. The body is still pretty light, naturally, as it's a pinot.
  

Squab Crostini, liver mousse, rare breast, confit leg, crostini

Grilled NY Steak, farro, red wine gelee

The red wine gelee was a great complement.

• 2007 La Fenêtre, Alisos ($35). Heavier-bodied than the pinot noir, naturally. A bit tannic.
  
• 2008 La Fenêtre, Sierra Madre ($35). Lighter bodied and more tannic than the 2007 Alisos.
• 2006 Tête Brûlée, Mt Veeder ($60). This is the only wine he makes with a partner (and his only Napa wine).

We also got to taste the Timeless Palate Wines 2004 Syrah, another of Josh's first releases.
The syrah was smooth and surprisingly fruity when compared to the newer releases. It was the fruitiest of his wines yet.

You can now order La Fenêtre wines online and if you order by September 30, get 15% off with code: FALL2010LF.

Full Disclosure: I attended this event as a guest of Joshua Klapper of La Fenêtre Wines. FYI though I did end up buying two bottles of wine for myself so you can see that I liked it!

Have your (Skinny) Cupcake and Eat It Too

Cupcakes. We all love them. But I was told that a Sprinkles cupcake contains 400 calories (after google-ing, supposedly the Sprinkles red velvet has 497 calories, but the strawberry only has 131 calories).

The "skinny" cupcakes at Santa Monica's 17th Street Cafe & Bakery only have 100 calories each and are fat free. Instead of oil, they use apple and apricot concentrate.

Their flavor selection is standard but has enough for everyone: red velvet, chocolate, lemon, carrot cake, vanilla. the red velvet comes either with fondant or (fat free) cream cheese frosting.

As with all fat free desserts, we worried about whether the cupcakes would be too bland or dry. Fortunately this wasn't really the case. Our favorites were easily the red velvet and the carrot cake since they were the most moist. It was also because we all liked the cream cheese frosting better than the fondant.
Granted, it isn't a Sprinkles red velvet but for me it is more than enough to satisfy my sweet tooth and for the same calorie intake, you can eat five of these! You shouldn't, of course, that would sorta defeat the purpose.

If you want to try out the cupcakes, DealPop is currently running a deal for this place: $7 for $15 worth of baked goods, which will end midnight tomorrow so you have about 32 hours.

PS. This cafe also serves chrysanthemum tea with whole flowers. That was a first for me at a non-Asian restaurant.


17th Street Cafe & Bakery
1610 Montana Ave
Santa Monica, CA 90403
(310) 453-2771
www.seventeenthstreetcafe.com


Disclosure: I came for a free cupcake tasting as a guest of 17th Street Cafe & Bakery.