It's been a whirlwind weekend, so I'm kind of cheating with the posts! Friday was the first day for us and it was really busy for the media folks.

One of the highlights of the day was taking a tour of the Kapalua Farms and the Maui Gold pineapple fields. Carlos, at left, and Shawn were great tour guides. If you'd like to take a tour when on Maui, you can book it with the resort.

Chef Mark Tafoya did this tour last week and did a great little video about it here. Kapalua Farms recently got its organic certification, and is now the largest organic farm in the state.

The F&B Director at the Kapalua Cafe was telling me that they work directly with the farm not just to use the produce they grow there, but to experiment with new products. He might mention to the farm, "I'm interested in maybe using this fresh ingredient in a new dish," and the farm will seek it out so they can grow it. You gotta give props to a resort that supports sustainable eating!

Then they had us pick our own pineapple. You should be impressed by this photo--it was quite difficult for me to do this in slippers!

I met Liane Thompson of Hawaii Modern Luxury Magazine, and we went off in search of the perfect pineapple. Off so much that the bus almost left without us!! Ha ha. It was fun, though.

I barely had time to check my email, when I had to go to the new Kapalua Spa, which will be opening soon. I wanted to get a lot of "sneak preview" photos for you, but much of it is still under construction.

The spa made sure that at least a few of the massage rooms were ready so they could do a test run on the media. I elected to try a ‘Awa & Cacao Lomi Wrap, since I had never done a body wrap before. It starts with me and the therapist, Carrie, doing an 'awa ceremony. Each of us drank from these bowls and clapped three times, and then she proceeded to give a lomi massage while exfoliating me with a blend of Hawaiian ‘awa, cacao, ginger, sandalwood, and oats to aid in eliminating toxins in the body.

The 'awa didn't taste like dirt! And I think it was helpful in completely relaxing me as she did the massage, because I never had such a clean, loose feeling in my muscles by the end. I don't know how to describe it because it was really a unique sensation. I highly recommend it.

That evening, the big event was the Grand Tasting at the Ritz-Carlton. The big question for newbies like me is, "What do I wear?" You can wear aloha attire or resort wear. There will be people who are dressed up, but I'd suggest you go casual. It's outdoor and the ground is uneven, so you need to be able to move about freely.

This year's theme was "Carnival," and they had New Orleans-inspired foods. Some of the dishes were spicy, like the one above, but there was a good variety of foods to go with the wines.

Look who I found!! Local entertainer Sonya Mendez, left, and Makaha Mango diva Candy Suiso. This was the first time for all of us, so we were taking tons of photos like a bunch of tourists.

My tarot card reading. Want to know what she told me?

The staff working this table remembered the three of us the next day. I guess we hovered at the brie longer than anyone else!

My trip would not have been complete without meeting Master Sommelier Fred Dame, the mentor to so many sommeliers across the country. He poured some excellent glasses of wine and was not pretentious at all. My life is complete! Well, almost.

Next: Raising Reislings from the Dead, and more.

Tags: Candy Suiso, Fred Dame, Kapalua Resort, Kapalua Wine and food festival, Liane Thompson, Sonya Mendez

This entry was posted on Friday, June 12th, 2009 at 11:28 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.