Hawaii Tribune-Herald from Hilo, Hawaii • 14

C2 Tuesday, July 15, 2008 Hawaii Tribune-Herald GRINDS ELIXIRS From Other elixirs are Colonial American or centuries-old European recipes, Sciscenti says. "People walk out of a coffee shop strungout. Here, they walk out blissed-out," Sciscenti says. Customers in the brown-stuccoed adobe building are cosseted in rustic Mexican-made leather chairs in two rooms with wood floors and wood-beamed ceilings. John Henderson, an anthropology professor at Cornell University, says chocolate drinks were used as a social grease by cultures in Mesoamerica the region that includes Mexico and parts of Central America.

"During religious ceremonies, weddings, funerals or just when you want to impress the guests, chocolate was the right thing to serve," he says. Tere Lee, a 52-year-old landscape designer from Canoncito, says she comes to Kakawa every couple of weeks not just for the chocolate, but also the atmosphere. "You don't want to leave. You take the spirit of the place with you," she says. 'The Kakawa drinks, which are mostly waterbased, are sold under unusual names that run from 1-to-Z Aztec Warrior, Mayan Full Spice, 1644 Spanish, 1790s Jeffersonian, Zapoteca.

"I can't drink American, or Mexican drinking chocolate for that matter, because it's too milky and too sweet and not enough chocolate and not a whole lot of flavor," says Sciscenti. Sciscenti says water "allows the true flavors of the chocolate to come for- CAMP From page "They're seeing it on TV, and it continues the tradition of kids learning to cook from their parents and grandparents," says Kehrli, whose company also offers cooking classes for kids. "We've really seen a big push for it." The kids' interest has caught even some professional chefs off guard. "I don't know if it's the Food Network or what, but there are kids that show up already knowing how to make a hollandaise sauce, and 10 years ago, they wouldn't even know what that was," said Kelly Dietrich, founder of Kids Culinary Cooking Camp in Highgate, where parents spend up to $2,650 a week to send their kids to learn advanced techniques. The sleepover camp started five years ago for boys and girls ages 10 to 16, and it's so popular the camp started this summer offering higher-end skills such as growing shiitake mushrooms and raising seafood.

"We've seen a huge growth in interest" and campers coming from as far away as South Africa and Japan, Dietrich said. The trend has been noticed by traditional sum- HOLLYWOOD THEATERS Dont wist no to the movies GO HOLLY WOOD PRINCE KUHIO STADIUM CINEMAS Puainako St $6.50 BARGAIN MATINEES BEFORE 6PM MONDAY- FRIDAY BEFORE SATURDAY, SUNDAY AND HOLIDAYS STADIUM SEATING THRIFTY TUESDAYS DIGITAL SOUND 56.50 FOR ADMISSION FILMS ALL WITH DAY A IT TUESDAYS Journey to the Center of the RESERVE TICKETS ONLINE AT Earth (PG) www.gohollywood.com/ NO PASSES OR DISCOUNT TICKETS: RESTRICTIONS LIFTED MON DARK KNIGHT Daily Thursday Tickets on Sale Now! Wanted (R) Meet Dave (PG) RESTRICTIONS LIFTED Daily NO PASSES; MON Daily 11 Wall-e (G) Hellboy (PG13) Daily NO PASSES OR BARGAIN DAY: RESTRICTIONS LIFTED MON Get Smart Daily Daily 11.25-2:05-4.35- (PG13) Hancock (PG13) NO PASSES OR DISCOUNT TICKETS; RESTRICTIONS LIFTED MON Kung Fu Panda (PG) Daily Daily WE PROUDLY ACCEPT VISA, MASTERCARD DISCOVER KRESS CINEMAS Ave. 935 6777 SLOW ALL SHOWS EVERY DAY! $1.50 NOT DOGS Incredible Hulk Speed Racer (PG) This Time (PG13) Daily Daily 10:00 Forbidden Kingdom The Happening (R) (PG13) Daily Daily 9:55 www.gohollywood.com page C1 Associated Press Carrie Tafoya, left, enjoys a Chili Mesoamerican Chocolate Elixir while Mika Barrington-Bush drinks a Havana Rum Contemporary Chocolate Elixir at Kakawa Chocolate House in Santa Fe, N.M. He followed his own taste buds in mixing and matching ingredients such as cinnamon, cloves, black pepper, orange blossoms, rose or almonds. And chili.

Many of Sciscenti's drinks are slightly sweetened, mainly with agave nectar. "I wanted to mimic the same flavors that the Mesoamericans were drinking," Sciscenti says. "Quite a few of the Mesoamerican drinks or the Mayan drinks that I make do have chilies because chilies were an indigenous and traditional and universally popular ingredient in drinking chocolate," he says. The drinks usually are served hot, but can be ordered iced during the summer. Aztecs would drink their chocolate either at room temperature or cold, Sciscenti says.

"Often times they would have runners who would go up into the mountains and grab ice and run back with it and Bukatman has expanded her day camp to eight summer sessions, with most weeks having 14 kids instead of the 12 she aimed for. She now offers specialty weeks in pastry and ethnic cooking and special lessons during the school year. "They never learned this stuff at home. I taught. them how to dice onions the other day and they went home and taught their parents.

I mean, it's horrifying!" Bukatman said with a laugh. Just a couple days into the Deliciously Nutritious camp, 9-year-old A.J. Jones went home and started a family tradition: eating supper with his parents. He even made the pasta salad. normally, like, my dad's in the family room, my mom's standing up, and I'm at the counter," Jones said.

"Some nights, my mom will sit at the counter with me, but now, starting a couple nights ago, we're having family dinners." Another camper, 11- year-old Daina Sivilli, taught her mom how to peel a potato. "She was totally doing it wrong," Sivilli said. Parents not cooking at chop it up and pour chocolate over it," he says. Henderson says most of what is known about the oldest chocolate recipes comes from the Aztecs, dating back to when Spaniards invaded Mesoamerica in the early 16th century. The Aztecs would have added chili peppers, flowers and herbs, says Henderson, whose research indicates residents of Central America were enjoying chocolate drinks more than 3,000 years ago, much earlier than previously thought.

Drinking chocolate spread to Europe during the 16th and 17th centuries, he says. Milk was not used in European drinks until the late 18th century. No blenders. are used at. Kakawa.

Just low-tech fruit jars containing the elixir ingredients. Shaken, not stirred. "The one thing that carried over very strongly into Europe was frothing," Henderson says. "You'd grind up the cocoa beans after they were fermented, mix them typically with water, and froth that either pour it from one jar into' another or use kind of a beater stick between the hands," he says. Henderson says chocolate was such a prized commodity in Mesoamerica that cocoa beans were used as money.

"The joke in Mesoamerica that money grew in trees was literally true," he says. But making a buck is not Sciscenti's highest priority. His true passion is turning people on to fine "The chocolate is at the forefront. I love it," he says. home has led to kids needing lessons in kitchen safety and food preparation, said Shelly Cheng, who started a cooking camp in her kitchen in Lakeland, five years ago.

"Nowadays, parents are just so busy. You have two-income families and parents aren't cooking at home," said Cheng, taking a break after leading campers through Salisbury steak with mushroom sauce and chocolate-banana panini dessert sandwiches. Camp chefs say the classes are worthwhile even if the kids never go on to become gourmet cooks. "Our goal is to change the way kids think about food, so that when they grow up, they're healthier," said Owens, who like other chef instructors, requires her charges to at least taste every dish. "You only get one body, and you have to take care of On the Internet: Kids Culinary Cooking Camp: kidssummercampforcooking.com American Camp Association: ward, and all the nuanced flavors can build up into a crescendo on the palate.

on the tongue, and have a long- lingering effect," he says. Dairy fats in milk or cream coat the taste buds "and so you're not going to get as many flavors of the chocolate coming forward," he says. He says he uses only the finest dark chocolates a mix from "unparalleled" criollo or "extremely flavorful" trinitario types of cacao. Criollo's roots are Mesoamerican, grown in Mexico and Central America, Sciscenti says. Trinitario dating to about 1750 is a hybrid of criollo and the hardier but less flavorful forastero from the upper Amazon, he says.

On the Web Kakawa Chocolate House: kakawachocolates. com mer camps where culinary skills once were limited to roasting weiners or marshmallows over a fire. "Many of our camps are adding cooking as an elective," said Peg Smith, CEO of the Indiana-based American Camp Association, which includes 2,600 camps. "Kids are definitely concerned about nutrition. Cooking is a great opportunity to have fun with your friends.

And you get to eat what you make. It's not like the art project that just sits there on the shelf." And parents, worried about poor nutrition and childhood obesity, are thrilled to cultivate their kids' interest, camp instructors say. Some are infrequent cooks themselves and fear their kids are missing out on the kind of learning that once was had at Mom's side. "Parents kept saying, 'Oh, do you offer anything for said Diane Bukatman, a personal chef from the Baltimore suburb of Reisterstown who started Kids Cook camps in her kitchen. "We sort of did it as a lark to try it seven years ago, and it filled up instantly without us even advertising it." ARBY'S PRINCE KUHIO PLAZA 2 FOR $5 ARBY'S CLASSIC MELT Limit 5 sets.

Not valid with any other offer. Expires Arby's Prince Kuhio Plaza only. Coupons not reusable. 900887 KANTEN From page C1 page C1 Place in medium saucepan with the water, bring to a boil and gently simmer for 15 minutes, or until the kanten has completely dissolved. Add the sugar, stir to dissolve and remove from heat.

Pour through a fine sieve into a bowl. Add the tsubushi-an, stirring gently to prevent the tsubushi-an from settling to the bottom. When the mixture has begun to set, transfer to a 5 inch by 9 inch loaf pan. Leave to set at room temperature, if refrigerate to have a chilled dessert. When set, cut into 4 inches by half-inch slices.

Small Bites Kanten comes the Japanese words "kan" which means "cold" and "ten" which means "heaven." Agar agar is a Malay word and is the other name for kanten. In Mandarin, the word is "yangcai," meaning ocean vegetables or foreign vegetables. The Taiwan word is "chhai-ian," meaning vegetable swiftlet. Koreans call it "hancheon," Filipinos, "gulaman," Thais, and in India, kanten is called "china grass." In Burma, a sweet jelly made of agar agar is called "kyauk kyaw." Agar agar is not only eaten, but is used as an impression material in dentistry and is the medium in petri dishes to culture cells. Agar agar is mixed with nutrients, salts and amino acids to make an environment for cell growth.

In addition, kanten is a gelling agent, a polysaccharide, and a clarifying agent in brewing and is used as a paper-sizing agent. Kanten has been part of the Japanese diet for 1,200 years and made its way from China. About 350 years ago, it was discovered accidentally when Lord Shimazu had some unused tokoroten left in his garden in Kyoto. It was winter and very cold. The tokototen congealed at night, and when the sun came out, it dried out.

A few days later, Lord Shimazu found the freeze-dried seaweed in his garden. He boiled it down to melt it. It cooled and solidified and the rest is history. Today, the red algae is grown and harvested in. Hokkaido, and trucked to the mountainous areas of Japan, such as Nagano, or the Japanese Alps, where i it is dried in the snow.

Kanten is macrobiotic and should be consumed more often, not only at New Year's Day, when we traditionally add kanten and yokan on our edible centerpiece, or "osechi ryori" or as locals say, the pidgin version, "mori-mono." Think about the health benefits, the ability of kanten to make you full if you are on a diet, then yokan and kanten will be part of your weekly diet instead of Jello. Nana, our exchange student, leaves in 10 days. She has been in Hilo for a year and we all feel sad to see her leave. Many thanks to Saeko and Masahiko Hayashi, Newton and Roberta Chu, Jack and Jane Stevenson, Bobbie Barra, and Jim and Phoebe Lambeth for being her mom and dad while here. Please feel free to e-mail me at wilson.audrey@ hawaiiantel.

net if you have a question. Bon appetit until next week. How-to cookbooks will help you in the kitchen C1 Associated Press Techniques." Edited by Don't let the kids be the only ones heading back to all school this year. Check out this crop of new how-to books to help you fine tune your kitchen smarts. Too few people know how to properly use and care for their knives, arguably the most essential tool in any kitchen.

Chad Ward to aims to fix that with his exacting a and exhaustive "An Edge in the Kitchen." Ward covers it all, from buying and using them to maintaining their edge. Casual cooks might find a 230-page book on knife use a bit dense, but those who appreciate the pleasure of a well-cared-for knife will enjoy the depth of coverage. If Ward's book isn't enough knife knowledge for you, just hold on until October when Sarah Jay's "Knives Cooks Love" is released. Written in collaboration with Sur la Table, Jay covers much the same material as Ward, but casual readers will appreciate the smart, clean design 'and recipes for showing off your newly honed skills. Looking for a broader skill set? Check out "Williams-Sonoma Tools kitchen tools guru Chuck Williams, the book covers all the essentials of a wellstocked kitchen and how to use them.

The first section does a tool-by-tool summary of what each appliance and gadget is used for. Later sections, all beautifully illustrated with color photos, demonstrate how to use them (complete with recipes). BOOKS: "An Edge in the Kitchen" by Chad Ward (William Morrow, 2008) "Knives Cooks Love" by Sarah Jay (Andrews McMeel Publishing, October 2008) "Williams-Sonoma Tools Techniques" edited by Chuck Williams (Gold Street Press, 2008) Authorized Retailer has roll-over minutes! Come on in for some personal "Hilo Kine" customer service! Hilo Kine Wireless 959 Kilauea Ave. 969-9649 Located Canal Side of Cate 100 Get lost in New York City Watch Mad About You Mad About You Weeknights at 5:30 pm CHANNEL CABLE DIGITAL CABLE SEE US ON: BROADCAST CHANNEL 5 CABLE CHANNEL 46 DIGITAL CABLE CHANNEL 49 Call 808-930-8690 for Advertising Specials!.