Enrā Pantry debuted its first cooking video on YouTube in December and they are busy working on a second video. Melisa Laelan, founder of Arkansas Coalition of Marshallese, posted that Enrā Pantry will have pantry hours on Wednesdays from 9am-5pm. You do not need to make an appointment, but you will have to fill out an application for food when you arrive. It is first come, first serve.

You can watch Enrā Pantry’s Christmas special on YouTube where Chef Meliana Balos demonstrates how to make Binana Kāļāel (skip to the end of the article for the recipe).  Chef Judee Taitos also cooks brisket, roasted vegetables (mushroom, onion, bell pepper, green beans and Brussel sprouts) and Marshallese fusion mashed potatoes.  She mixes in jukjuk in binana – cooked grated banana—into the mashed potatoes.  Chef Judee plans to open a Marshallese-fusion restaurant in downtown Springdale in 2021 – Street Comfort.  She will be the first Marshallese chef to open a restaurant in NWA.

Recently, Chef Judee Tatios has been collaborating with Brightwater: The Center for the Study of Food.  They are preparing for the dinner drive through event scheduled at The Jones Center for January 13 at 6pm.  The first 300 people to arrive can get a carry out dinner: Island Chicken Fried Steak with coconut gravy, mashed potatoes on a fried plantain medallion (banana cut into circles) and roasted winter vegetables from the local Rios Family Farm.  Eldon and Anita Alik were invited to a tasting on January 5.  The Jones Center and Chef Judee posted photos on Facebook.  In one, Consulate General Alik is giving a thumbs up sign and he commented on the post: “Thank you for the invitation.  It was very delicious!”

This will be the second dinner drive through event at The Jones Center—free and open to the public.  Food for the first Dinner Drive through came from Second Hand Smoke; more than 230 meals were shared through the event.  These Dinner Drive throughs are part of efforts by The Jones Center to reimagine the campus and solicit broad and diverse community input for their design plans.  The Jones Center received a Walton Family Foundation Design Excellence Grant to redesign the campus connecting Downtown Springdale and the Razorback Greenway Trails System.  This Dinner Drive Through is Sponsored by The Jones Center, Velocity Group and Arkansas Coalition of Marshallese.  Take the online survey at https://www.thejonescenter.net/take-the-survey.

ACOM is working on another cooking video.  Watch the Christmas cooking special and try out the recipe reprinted here.  Let us know how it turns out!

Binana Kāļāel Recipe:

Directions: Bring a large pot of water to boil and add the vegetable oil.  Put the bananas, unpeeled, in the boiling water.  Boil for 20 minutes or until the peel darkens and cracks open and the banana inside is soft.  If you poke it with a fork and the tines come out clean, the bananas are ready.  Carefully remove the bananas from the water and allow them to cool.  Empty out the water in the pot.  Then peel and grate the bananas.  Add sugar – ½ Tbsp per banana or more if you like it sweeter.  Then add tapioca flour.  Mix it all together.  Roll out balls about the size of a golf ball.

Bring 2 cans of coconut milk to a boil.  And 2 Tbsp of sugar.  Simmer banana balls in coconut milk for 20 minutes.  You can split one of the balls open.  If they are done, the inside will be clear.  Serve in a bowl with some coconut milk on top.