Hot tomato! Richard Ha of Hamakua Springs Farms flies over from the Big Island to join Alan Wong for a Farmers Series dinner, Jan. 26.

Or how I went to a Chinese restaurant opening and ended up eating pizza.

Not just any burger: Wolfgang’s Steakhouse in the Royal Hawaiian Center, Waikiki, has extended its $10 lunchtime burger bargain through the end of 2011.

You may never find Sushi ii. It's a new, highly personal sushi bar in the Samsung Plaza, off Keeaumoku Street. And it's more than a sushi bar, with a lively, varied menu and a congenial group of customers.

Having expanded to capacity at his JJ Bistro & French Pastry, Praseuth "JJ" Luangkhot opens J2, a new restaurant down the block--quieter, a bit more upscale, but no more expensive. The food's even better.

Two young guys turned their passion for pizza into the most casual eatery you've encountered. Excellent pizza at good prices under a tent in a parking lot.

Iron Chef winner Michael Symon talked to us from his home base in Cleveland about his upcoming James Beard Celebrity Chef dinner, Mauna Lani Hotel & Bungalows, Jan. 22.

Here's an antidote to chill in the air: local hot chocolate with a kick of spice at Blue Hawaii Lifestyle.

Iron Chef Masaharu Matsumoto's new restaurant in Waikiki Edition hotel promises "the ultimate culinary experience." It doesn't deliver on that exalted promise.

From the folks who brought you Ba-Le in Hawaii, comes a new French-accented café where the food's casual, fun, yet seriously good. Opening 1/11/11 in Honolulu, in the renovated Weyerhaeuser warehouse on Nimitz.

The new Disney Aulani Resort in Hawaii has hired Patrick Callarec, a Ritz-Carlton star chef with two decades of Maui experience, to head up its food and beverage.

At 3660 On the Rise, Russell Siu resumes his every other month cooking class on Jan. 20. Here's the menu, and it looks like a party to us.