Located in Kaimukī, The Pig & The Lady recently launched its summer menu. This menu will be available until September and features a variety of seasonal ingredients, especially summer produce.
Customers can enjoy a variety of new hot and cold appetizers, entrees, specialty pastas and desserts.
The Kona kanpachi crudo ($22) has been one of the more popular orders so far. It features sashimi-style kanpachi topped with toasted rice and ginger and curry leaf oil, and is served in a refreshing raspberry nuoc cham (a classic Vietnamese sweet-and-sour sauce).
Other new appetizers include the burrata caponata ($23) — sweet and sour-braised summer vegetables with lemongrass chili sa te, Chinese black vinegar gastrique and shrimp chips — and local Oʻahu farm vegetables ($20). The latter features lotus seed hummus, salsa Negra, pickled daikon and carrots, and the eatery’s house banh tieu bread for dipping.
The house banh tieu bread is like a Vietnamese pita bread with sesame seeds. You can dip it in the hummus, or open it — it’s hollow — to create a pita pocket filled with the hummus, veggies and salsa.
The eatery’s banh xeo ($24), or a Vietnamese crepe, is always a popular choice. The summer version pays homage to the popular elote, or Mexican-style street corn. The crepe features sweet corn, jicama (Mexican turnip), scallions, Cotija, shrimp, tajin, kewpie and herbs. It’s served with lettuce wraps on the side, along with Viet pickles in nuoc cham.
Guests can cut the crepe into bite-sized pieces, then use the lettuce and nuoc cham to create their own wraps.
Other new appetizers include Peruvian scallop en croute ($23) — a medley of roasted farm carrots, summer orange, cilantro and tarragon, aji amarillo and yellow bell pepper coulis — and stuffed piquillo peppers ($19) with pork and mushroom, tamarind tomato sauce, crispy squid, Thai basil and lime zest.
New entrees and pasta include the shutome filet ($38), “Vietnamese huli huli half chicken” ($37), squid ink linguine ($37) and summer squash gnocchetti sardi ($32).
The “Vietnamese huli huli half chicken” features a five-spice tare and is served with fries. The shutome (swordfish) dish comes highly recommended; it’s served with curried corn rice with aromatic coconut fumet (a blend of fish stock and coconut milk) and a celery herb salad. The flaky fish is tender with a hint of sweetness from the creamy coconut sauce.
The specialty pastas are made with fresh pasta by Onda Pasta. The squid ink linguine ($37) includes Kauaʻi shrimp, garlic, roasted shrimp head and saffron butter, eggplant, cherry tomato, chives and Meyer lemon.
The summer squash gnocchetti — literally “little gnocchi” — features bite-sized pieces of a ridged pasta. Fresh squash chunks are braised in lemongrass, fish sauce, ginger and white wine; the puree is made with green zucchini scraps, mint and basil. So far, the dish has been popular for its lighter flavor and smooth mouthfeel.
No visit to The Pig & The Lady is complete without the eatery’s iconic soft serve. A popular flavor is back for the season, according to chef de cuisine Kristene Moon.
“We had to bring back the soft serve,” she says. “We did that (sticky rice custard with mango sorbet) last year for summer.”
The P&L soft serve swirl ($15) currently features sticky rice custard with mango sorbet, topped with a salted pandan caramel. It’s a refreshing, balanced combo with the right amount of sweetness.
Other summer desserts include Laughing Cow panna cotta ($15) — topped with Hilo lychee, nata de coco, almond streusel, Aloun’s watermelon ice, li hing powder and lime zest — and corn and blueberry banh flan cake ($17).
The latter features a layered baked corn egg custard and cornbread cake with popped sorghum and salted Chantilly.
“I really like the cornbread,” Moon says. “It’s like blueberry corn bread on the bottom and corn flan on top. It’s based off a Mexican and Filipino dessert.
“We had a Laughing Cow soft serve for the last menu; we were talking about how it would be so good as a panna cotta,” she adds. “Then we kept thinking about flavors; we gotta have shave ice with panna cotta. It makes me think of a picnic.”
CONTACT
The Pig & The Lady
3650 Waiʻalae Ave., Honolulu
808-585-8255
thepigandthelady.com
Instagram: @pigandthelady
Open 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Wednesdays to Sundays, 5 to 9:30 p.m. Tuesdays to Saturdays
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Kelli Shiroma Braiotta can be reached at kelli@alohastatedaily.com.
