Hapa Kitchen Luau/Brooklyn Skillshare Benefit 08-28-2009

Location: Hapa Kitchen Luau @ BKLYN Yard, 388-400 Carroll St./BKLYN Skillshare Benefit @ Glasslands, 289 Kent Ave.
Time: 7pm -
People: JLam from MeSoHungry, OSha, RB and myself

Feelings: Hapa Kitchen, an underground Brooklyn supper club had a luau at the Brooklyn Yard. For $10, we had full dinner and one Sixpoint beer. This great deal brought out a pretty good turnout despite the rainy miserable evening. The Hawaiian themed menu included dishes like pepper macaroni salad, whole roasted pig, rice with furikake seasonings, kimchee and various seasonal vegetables. Although it was a pig roast luau, they were kind to vegetarians like myself, and they had prepared eggplant substitution.

We especially enjoyed the rice, and I thought it was cooked perfectly. RB said the pork was quite moist and not too salty as roast pork can often be. It was carved and served immediately so there was little chance of it drying out. The eggplant, which I somehow thought was plantains by mistake, were little tough but seasoned very well. Hapa Kitchen brings comfort food with an Asian flair to the next level. It is nice to see a multi cultural group bringing out their backgrounds and influences to their food. That is what cooking is all about. I am especially happy to see my Japanese background introduced in such a cool yet classy way. This was one of the better catering dishes I have ever had, and I am curious to see where Hapa Kitchen will be cooking next.

After our satifying meal, we changed the location to Williamsburg to attend a benefit for Brooklyn Skillshare at Glasslands. Brooklyn Skillshare is a learning community where you can take free classes such as "how to brew kombucha," which will be held on October 10th at Gowanus Studio Space. At the benefit, Sweet Tooth of the Tiger were having a bake sale with proceeds aiding the Skillshare, so of course we had to try their cookies and cakes for dessert.

My red velvet cupcake pop, which was a round red velvet cake in a lollipop shape, was buttery, tasty and subtly sweet. It almost fell off the stick and was difficult to eat, but what I could taste was very delicious. RB's jalapeno cornbread had a decent amount of heat and good flavor, but it was a bit on the dry side. JLam had a lemon whoopie pie, which seemed was the best of all. It was soft and creamy, and I wish I had gotten it instead of the red velvet.

After watching a couple of bands at Glasslands, we finished the night at Union Pool. Everyone enjoyed some tiny tacos at El Diablo Taco Truck at their backyard. The tacos were unreasonably small but tasty. But seriously, if there is a taco truck in a bar, who would not buy one? It seems they made enough cash from drunk customers to make such a lovely website... or maybe some Bushwick kids did this for lifetime supply of their tiny tacos.