Other articles by Steve Petusevsky:

Finding ethnic vegetarian recipes Greece shares foods, wines with world Green vegetables, pasta make a traditional dish Little-used cardamom is undervalued; try it, then transform your kitchen For veggie meals, fresh ingredients are a thrill Web-site collection informative, broad and sometimes odd Share old-fashioned tastefulness

Education
Assessment Technology, Inc
Social Studies Content Writer General
CORT
WAREHOUSE/DRIVER Health Care
Rio Salado College
PA's/Online Instructors General
CORT
Warehouse Supervisor Construction
Komatsu Equipment Co
Mechanic

I sit at my computer after brewing a pot of Hawaiian Cloud Forest Coffee. I crunch on some fresh macnuts (as they are called in Kona, Hawaii) and dip my spoon into some very rare Hawaiian organic white honey. My breakfast ends with a chunk of 100 percent handmade Kona cacao chocolate. Actually, it ends with another spoon of honey, which is more like silky dulce de leche.

This is the breakfast of champions. One I enjoy after a recent visit to Hawaii.

As I savor all these ingredients, I feel lucky. Not many people have the opportunity to sample these products. Why shouldn't we be able to taste impeccably fresh, locally grown ingredients wherever we travel? But in many places, it's next to impossible.

That is where Matthew Hamabata comes in. He is a founder of the Kohala Center (www. kohalacenter.org) in Kamuela on the Big Island of Hawaii.

The Kohala Center is a living laboratory and classroom set in one of the most beautiful spots in the world. The purpose of this center is to generate knowledge about the global condition. Ecology, medicine, ocean sciences and cultural phenomena are studied and taught through partnerships with universities like Cornell, Yale and the University of Hawaii.

Everything from alternative energy sources and medicinal botany to the preservation of local sustainable foods is closely examined at the center. Hamabata has assembled a team of academics. He holds a doctorate from Harvard and a bachelor's degree from Cornell.

As we drive to the center, we talk about my frustration over not being able to find true local cuisine. The island, the size of Connecticut, features 11 of the 13 possible ecosystems with desert, active volcanoes, rain forest and alpine meadows, all of which can be reached within a two-hour drive. Biologists consider it one of the finest laboratories in the world to study evolution.

However, it produces very little of its own food. Hamabata explains that Hawaii is almost completely dependent on outside sources of food and energy.

We wind through acres of macadamia trees to arrive at the center that's being created on the site of a well-preserved girls school dating to the 1800s.

Hamabata explains that his center hopes to work with a network of local food producers and chefs to rebuild the local food economy. There are some amazing products here, which I didn't know existed. They are available by mail or at select markets in the continental United States.

The Volcano Island Honey is indescribable, and the organic shade-grown 100 percent Hamakua Cloud Forest Coffee has spoiled me for life.

I prepared a banana bread from the recipe given to me by the Hawaiian Vanilla Co. and realize that what I have been using for vanilla doesn't compare. At left is my version of a recipe for Hawaiian Vanilla Banana Bread.