Nami Kaze Is Pulling Out All the Stops for 10/13 Mrs. Cheng’s Tofu Dinner
SOLD OUT—the Hale ‘Aina Awards’ Best New Restaurant of 2023 is featuring six styles of locally made tofu with ‘ahi, uni, beef cheeks, goat cheese tomme and more.
Editor’s note: This event is sold out.
Clam and soy milk chowder with seaweed and goat cheese soufflé. Photo: Jason Peel
Tofu pudding with uni and wasabi, ‘ahi tartare on okara crackers, soy milk clam chowder, smoked tofu ravioli, beef cheeks braised in soy milk. I should have known, when I asked Nami Kaze chef-owner Jason Peel about crafting a special dinner featuring Mrs. Cheng’s Tofu, that we’d be getting all the things. And then some.
I knew Peel would say yes because Mrs. Cheng’s Tofu has been on the menu since Nami Kaze opened for dinner last fall. Like many of our best eateries, this restaurant pushes local first. It’s not just a marketing theme. It’s about supporting the people who produce Hawai‘i’s scant home-grown food supply. For tofu, Peel drives the three blocks to Mrs. Cheng’s small factory on Kalihi Street a couple of times a week. “I go in there, they stop, they get whatever I need, they go back to work. That’s it,” he says. “They’re so small. Everything’s cash. Whatever I can do to help them.”
The family-owned business is so under the radar it doesn’t have a website, let alone Instagram. And it’s being championed by one of Hawai‘i’s most creative chefs—Peel won HONOLULU Magazine’s Hale ‘Aina award for Best New Restaurant of 2023, was a semifinalist in this year’s James Beard awards and last week was inducted into the Hawai‘i Restaurant Association Hall of Fame.
His seven-course Mrs. Cheng’s Tofu Dinner at Nami Kaze on Oct. 13 is open to the public—and no, it’s not vegetarian (we’re getting all the things, remember?). The $100 price includes seven courses plus tip, but not drinks. Nami Kaze’s full bar menu will be available, along with special off-menu sake pairings sold by the bottle on this night only. Or you can bring your own sake—corkage for a 300-milliliter bottle is $15; it’s $25 for 720 milliliters or larger.
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Here’s the feast:
Beef cheeks braised in soy milk and anise. Photo: Jason Peel
Soy Milk Bread, Fermented Soybean Butter—house bread made with kinako and soy milk, with a light miso butter
1st course: Tartare, Caviar, Okara, Asparagus—‘ahi tartare with tofu mousse on an okara-tapioca cracker, with asparagus and egg yolk jam. “Kind of like an Asian-style niçoise,” Peel says.
2nd course: Tofu Pudding, Dashi, Uni, Wasabi—a light dashi jelly and mushroom stock with kizami chopped wasabi atop Mrs. Cheng’s tofu pudding.
3rd course: Clam and Soy Milk Soup, Seaweed Soufflé—“I love chowder, I love clams,” Peel says. “We’re using the soy milk and tofu to help give flavor and body to the soup. On top of that is a savory soufflé using seaweed and some goat cheese tomme on top, then we bake it and let it rise.”
4th course: Roasted Scallop, Soy Cheese Mapo—soy cheese, common in some Chinese cooking, adds texture to day boat scallops so “you get the sweetness of that and the heat of the mapo.”
5th course: Smoked Tofu Ravioli, Smoked Tomato Sauce—smoked tofu is mixed with kalo in small ravioli tossed in smoked tomato sauce lifted with a little bit of yukari, a puckery shiso condiment, and ume.
6th course: Soy Milk and Anise Braised Local Beef Cheek, Okara Porridge—“A version of an oxtail almost, but we’re gonna get it all nice and glazy with the anise flavor. There’s a little porridge with all the soy products underneath, with a little bit of ginger and a bright herb salad on top.”
7th course: Tofu White Chocolate Mousse, Soy Maple Panna Cotta, Hazelnut Chocolate Okara Crunch—dessert by Peel’s wife, pastry standout Bev Luk, is a one-off creation for this event.
Mrs. Cheng’s Tofu Dinner at Nami Kaze
Date: Friday, Oct. 13
Time: Reservations available every half-hour starting at 5:30 p.m.
Where: 135 N. Nimitz Highway
Tickets: $100 including food and tip, available online
Parking: Free on site
Shoutout to Scott Pang and Greg Sekiya, my partners in the last tofu dinner I organized (you are missed, Izakaya Gazen). It was a text query from Scott and Gregg a couple of months ago asking about another dinner to celebrate Japan’s Tofu Day in October that set the wheels in motion for this one.
We’ll see you at Nami Kaze on Oct. 13.
