 episode of Hawaii Food and Farmers series. I'm your co-host Matt Johnson. We are here every Thursday afternoon starting at four o'clock and we are talking to Hawaii's farmers, restaurants, foodies, politicians, anyone involved in improving Hawaii's local food system. Today my co-host, unfortunately Justine is unable to make it with us today. So we have Telsen who's joining us here today instead. Telsen thanks so much for joining me. Yes, a lot. And we're going to be talking to Ignacio Fleishauer. I was actually been on the show before but had so many cool and interesting things going on that we had to invite him back again. So the newest venture that Iggy has been working on is one of the hottest new restaurants to come into Kakaako, which is called Makana, Deli and Market. So Iggy thanks so much for being on the show. Thanks for having me. It's Makana, Market and Deli. Well I'm glad I didn't disappoint. Thanks for having me on the show. I can't wait to talk about this food that you have here. But before we dig into the food, literally hopefully, talk a little bit about your new restaurant. Sure. As the name says, Makana, Market and Deli, but it's also a restaurant. You didn't think about it too. It's also, people always ask me, is it a market or is it a deli? And I'm like, it's a boat. So is it a restaurant? Yes, that too. But really it's a place to talk about food, our food system and sourcing and the farmers. I kind of created it and I use the food that's local. Doing a model that I'm hoping to try to stay close to, which is 90, 80, 90% from the islands and 80% from this island or wherever we go, hopefully, we'll end up all over the place and we'll be able to expand and then source as close to the backyard as possible, which is supposed to be the healthiest and best for you. So that's kind of the theory. And name the Makana mostly to talk about the gift that is Hawaii. It's a blessing and a gift to be in Hawaii and to have such an abundance of ecosystem that's always also in danger and growing and that's why people want to live here. But yeah, so the places talk about those gifts from the ocean, the mountains and our farmers and the hard work created and designed the place almost like a man cave, a lot of wood and a lucky car. Yeah, everything is like chill and basically the way it was when we go on the farm or ranch and everybody's eating together and talking about food and that's why I wanted the place to be as comfortable. Like you're sitting with friends and family and if you don't know the person next to you talk to them and it's been happening like people start talking about food and food resources, where it's coming from and basically all the ecosystem and what's happening when we farm and do industrial farming and when we do mass production of cattle or harvesting of animals and so those important issues are important to me and hopefully we become more and more aware of what's going on around the islands. Cool, so talk a little bit about the, so we have the food here that looks delicious kind of when someone comes into a kind of deli for the first time, what's on the menu and what can they expect? A lot of venison. He had me on the show for venison before and we're trying to expand that market so that's kind of what part of the reason why I'm doing it and also to produce my jerky and so we talk about and then we talk a lot about venison because people have questions or people are afraid of it so that's kind of why the place is also there is to like well don't be afraid of game meat there's it's good for you and it's not gamey and it doesn't taste bad and you can buy it here and then I'll show you how to cook it and use it as well and what we have here is a patchy stew which is I'm part of patchy and when go hunting or camping there'd always be a pot with this kind of stuff in there and it's a chili verde, tomatillos, a hominy, the big corn cactus and then some kind of like game meat and just what happens when you have venison back in the day sometimes it'd be bear, it'd be elk or whatever was caught and go in the pot and just be going all week long and it's better that their day so that's the number one seller in the restaurant it's spicy this is my favorite I've actually haven't been able to order anything else on the menu because I always you're like a crack kid you're always calling for that you got that stew well that's a great way to think about me okay I can always count on that for a dollar with that stew so and then bolognese we have the bolognese which is a 300 year old family recipe from Sicily and bolognese is like meat sauce is heavy meat put a lot of different spices and veggies in there to make the sauce but a lot of meat which is a quarter pork spicy pork made like Italian sausage and then we also add venison three quarter venison and leftover wine so you know people come in on the weekend it's BYOB and bring some for me yeah and whatever's left over we throw it in the pot to make the sauce okay and everything's paired with local greens which we're getting from moahu fresh yeah and so we have the greens which are coming from kaho mana farms moho farms and then also source from mohalla farms I know and so just work with a lot of the small farms and stuff like that and I'm also do some of the spices that I grow myself and some of the fruits and veggies and we got mango dressing today and we pickled the radishes you said you love that stuff so you've been pickling all that stuff and then so everything we do in there is about use reuse and so nothing gets wasted you know we make we smoke like prime rib to make chili with the venison ground venison then by Wednesday it becomes a chili mac and cheese which goes back in the smoker all morning with a bunch of different cheeses and our dressings either from fruits from yesterday and if it's not in the dressing then it goes into our flavored water that's available for free to your customers so yeah cool wow awesome you're like a superstar man that's great like it's unbelievable you're doing all that you're really making that full full circle with the food transparency you know you had mentioned earlier about it being a restaurant but also a deli so could you explain a little bit about that is there a lot of like little like value added products you've created you talked about the jerky what are the things that you might have so that's the next part it's been a challenge to try to get the deli part up and going um we you know new restaurant I was saving money we bought a deli case and broke down and then we were okay we gotta buy another one should we go big or just go use and so we ended up meeting in the middle and got a brand new one but smaller one and we'll be making value added products such as um the sausages and and uh helping people you know it's it's expensive to come in and buy I want a 16 dollar steak right um but I don't know how to cook it so what we're trying to do is be in the middle and say okay well we'll help you we'll figure it out we'll put some olive oil we'll spice it up you can just take it home and put it on the grill three minutes each side and that's it eat it yeah um so we'll have like uh sausage burger steaks and then we'll also have beef we have some duck we're working on uh local rabbit um again it's just mostly with these local sources and then the stuff that I can't get like I get this duck prosciutto is coming out of New York and Oklahoma and but it's such a fine delicacy that we have to have it in the shop and um wow and then we make our own uh prosciutto and um different different things that we're playing I'm always playing with food and recipes and I always encourage people like just play with the food do your own thing get creative here's some guidelines but just be free with it and try different things and try and see what it tastes like that's that's basically the model that I follow if it tastes good I'll eat it see it sounds like you've been a real like mad scientist in there and then you've got this space and you got kind of like a lot of the foundation where you can just try different things and um I really like too what you said how it has that real kind of homey almost man cave feel when you walk in and it's true like you have more of like the the long table style where chances are you are going to be sitting next to people that maybe you don't know so you might have to interact with them but it does kind of naturally happen in there and then you have this great food for people start talking about and um I mean it's a relatively small space but I think you guys are doing a lot in there and it's it's yeah well you're probably already thinking about trying to expand we're trying to expand we're trying to see if the space next door opens up and we want to get a hopefully they're not watching don't pay attention we want to do a bar and have our own liquor license in there and and so that's part of expansion and plans and eventually get bigger mass production with some of the things we're doing everyone's begging for the hot sauce and and people are always like can I get some to take and we actually smoke habanero and Hawaiian chili pepper and carrots for six hours and then we blend it and then we make our own hot sauce and people are just screaming for it and then I'm like no no no not yet not yet wait two months because now I got I ordered these barrels and I lined them with wine and then dry them out and now finally we got our hot sauce in there so that value added products are finally kicking in and hopefully by the end of the month we'll have them ready for customers and some of the other things is coffee that's roasted at high altitude at 13,000 feet which is expensive to do but the quality is there and that lack of oxygen does something to the coffee that tastes sweet you don't need to add you know milk or sugar instead and I throw my own little stuff in there and you know whole cinnamon nutmeg in there and to kind of caramelize all these flavors as you roast it and bring it back um so yeah a little bit of mad science and and basically again just playing with the food and getting those things done are the barrel aging of the hot sauces people are so stoked on either like can't wait and the model with that is you buy a bottle you know the big bottle will be eight and the small one will be five and then you bring it back and refill for four and seven cool that sounds great um so yeah we're definitely going to kind of talk more about some of your food products and also I want to talk more about some of the other projects you've been working on this isn't just the first time you've come together and put together really good food so we're going to take a quick break and then we'll get back to it awesome. Tim Appachaw, host for Moving Hawaii Forward, a show dedicated to transportation issues and traffic. We identify those areas where we do have problems in the state but also the show is dedicated to trying to find solutions not just detail our problems. So join me every other Tuesday on Moving Hawaii Forward. I'm Tim Appachaw. Thank you. We'll talk about that and we're back to white food and farmer series. I'm your co-host Matt Johnson. Instead of Justine, we have Telsen joining us as our co-host today and we are talking to Iggy Fleishauer. Can I get it right? I've been called worse. I'm just going to have to clean. Fleishauer, Fleishauer, all kinds of things. I think that's what I said on the last one. Fleishauer, which is a flesh cutter so that butchering thing has been in the lineage for a while. Flesh cutter? That just sounds scary. Don't mess with this guy. So yeah, we're catching up with you talking about your new venture, Makana Market in Delhi. So we're kind of talking about the deli part of it. It's kind of like the next the project. Let's talk a little bit about some of your past projects because this is kind of a, I would say, a culmination of a lot of different things you've been doing as part of your culinary career, but really doing a lot of different things around local food, getting people to eat better, supporting local farmers. You were working closely with Roots Cafe, which is another foundational type restaurant in Kalihi. Yeah, talk a little bit about that. Sure. Let's see, where do we go with that? It's funny the whole culinary career because I've always avoided it. Just like art, like I've done art and I love art and I love cooking and food, but I always avoided trying to get into the business of it because I just thought I would hate it and so I'm still trying to get out of it, though I keep going into it and I probably have a passion for it. So yeah, I started in the catering thing, doing an app about sacred places and tours and so somehow that ended up becoming like, hey, your food was great on that little tour. Okay. Would you mind doing catering? I was like, nah. And I said, oh, pay you 40, 50, 60 bucks ahead and when it depends on it, I was like, well, our app's not making money, so let's get this done. And that's how I hooked up with different folks and working with Roots and Koko Kalehi Valley, Huluaina, did different things with them and did volunteer work and then was in their kitchen for about three years. And then also work with the kids and teaching them cooking and life skills and then also hunting and using hunting and survival more as a metaphor for knowing that the abundance is already within you and all around you without having a need for something else. So I think that's really what I'm trying to get to that. There's so much here that we don't need to go bring it from somewhere else. Right. And I've always thought like, why aren't we focusing on more local cultural foods? And so this is a call out. Anyone growing Hawaiian chili pepper, I need all the ones that you have, I'll take it so grow it. We get a lot of different places looking for Hawaiian chili peppers. I mean, it's it's like one of those things everybody has a plant in their tree. It's funny because it grows easy. Yeah. Unless it's too hot. And then it also you don't need a lot of space. You can get a lot. So those kind of, you know, to me, it seems like an issue like, oh, we're going to try to grow coffee, but we're going to go and grow sugarcane and we're going to import it from someone instead of like, hey, let's make with what we've got, which is good for our environment and an ecosystem and it's balanced. And let's work with you age and the, you know, our elders and work with the new system and say, all right, there's medicine here. And our food should be looked at as medicine. And we can also sell as bottled medicine if we needed to. And let's make a land, let's do this and the teas and instead of like, oh, let's rip off the land and just tear it apart and do something different that may not work in 10 years. And then we'll just sell it as real estate. Sorry, you're going a little no, that's, that's what we're here for. But that's, that's something I've always thought about. Why aren't we doing that? And so I think the more that restaurants ask for those products and the locals ask for those products, the better it is for a farmer, farmers work so hard. And I, you know, I've gone out and found and I garden and it's not easy. It's not fun. There is a joy in seeing your finished product when you harvest. But man, that's a hard job. And so really, that's part of why I'm also doing what I'm doing is to help promote those guys. They're not out trying to market like what we're talking about. They're not out there going, yeah, you look at my carrots and you know, I'm the man, I grew these perfect carrots. And so that's what I'm hoping to showcase is what they're doing and their labor and their hard work and say, okay, let's support them, let's keep it going. That's if there's been a movement, but let's grow that movement and get it bigger and bigger and market all the little guys. There's a lot of guys getting money already grants and this there's a lot of other guys that are tiny, tiny trying to sprout and grow bigger. And that's kind of where I want to do more of and work with those kind of guys and help them get their product to the market and on a national level or international level. Today, we had Hawaii Express or a Loha Express magazine is Japanese magazine. They came in like, oh, we want to do a piece on you. And they just loved everything. We talked story and bunch of pictures. And again, we focus on where's the food coming from. It's not about me. Yeah, the food is good. And that's great. And I'm glad. And we put our Loha into it and all of our love our staff, we try to get them to express that love when they're in that kitchen and but really is to pay respect and honor the source of the food and the laborers and the land. And it's just that's really that's great. So it seems like the restaurant's really rooted in community culture and education. A little earlier, you showed us a clip. And you're mentioning about people can order in Olala, Hawaii. And you also talked about some classes. Could you talk about like these community educational projects that you're doing and cultural projects? Sure. So I've been involved in the community a long time. And with cultural practices and never really went all in to learn about language. And but now we're starting to get there and our front of the house can you can order from them in Hawaiian. And so you start to teach us a word here word there every morning, like, let's start something in Hawaiian so that we're all learning the kitchen. And, you know, I've taken hula and learning in the old old way about place and myth and legend. But really, those myths and legends are based on something that really was happening either scientifically or things that we're seeing. And so they were expressing this way. And then how that derives into our language and the counting system and everything else. So it's interesting learning that and then we want to pass it on. So we're planning on getting folks into the space when we're not open during the week from Monday to Thursday, but we're planning on changing that. But we'll be offering classes on Wednesdays, Mondays, Tuesdays and using the space to do more culturally culturally relevant learning, including how to use the foods. I'll be doing butchering classes, cooking classes. And then I'm starting, I've started the paperwork to do a nonprofit where we take foster and homeless kids to the farm in Manoa, where we're recovering 300 acres to plant more food. And then they'll learn about the system where it comes from, not just eating it. And they get to come and have a dinner as a family because they don't have family. So our goal is to get them together to eat and sit at the table together and have that experience at least once a month. And then so yeah, I mean, that's really what we're all about is really that I feel like I've been blessed so much with what's coming from Hawaii and everyone's Aloha when I moved here. I came here in high school and though my family's from Kauai originally, it was a homecoming and ever since then Hawaii's always been home. And so we want to share what was shared with us with everyone else. So one of the things like the, you know, the actual location where you are, it's basically like Cook Street and Kawahau, yeah? Yeah, Kawahau. Kind of like a unassuming location. You kind of walk by there. It's I call it kind of like the old Kakako. It's not the area that's really, you can say it's a bus up. So how are people finding you and who who is like, I know I've been in there before and there's some offices kind of right across the street seeing them kind of trickling in. How are people been finding you and what you mentioned before too, like you're introducing, you know, venison to people that, you know, kind of debunking some missing they have about it. How are people finding you and what's what's that process been like? It's been awesome. People love it. We do like these hunter boards at night and you bring your own wine and the hunters board is, you know, everything's served on these big wooden platters or chopping boards and we have venison, dock, fish. We like the other day is what comes to the door from our fishermen. So we have like, you know, a kule that came in and so we like did some kule fried in coconut oil with a bunch of spices stuff like that. And it just gets all in the platter and we put it out there and like just it's family style. So people come in. So they love it. They've been learning that why it really doesn't taste game. You actually taste sweet and it's the way it is harvested. It's hopefully it's the love we're putting in there as well. And but yeah, the response has been wonderful and it's been growing and we're really stoked to be able to do that. And the community really loves it because it's healthy. You know, there's other food around it. It's not, but you know, when I first got into a lunch wagon, the the worst thing that I heard was, Oh, that looks too healthy. And now, but now where we're at, people are like, Oh, that's good. We're glad there's something healthy here. And so we have veggie options. We have, you know, it's not just meat and it's not just venison. We have a really good high quality beef. We're sourcing from Konoa beef and then also from my Lua meat company on Kawaii and some from Moloka'i. Then we get lamb from Kawaii as well, sometimes from Moloka'i. Um, what else we got? We're, we do different dinners. So we go out and we do fundraisers for nonprofits and stuff like that. And we plan different dinners. We just did a Fourth of July dinner under the under the fireworks. So we went on a big sailboat and we did a dinner and raised funds for a captain's club, which is a program for foster kids. We teach them sailing and stuff like that. And so those kinds of things are going on and the community loves it. Imoa Kamehameha, all the guys coming over from Kawaii, how the offices have been eating in there and bringing, you know, lots of guests. And, you know, it's kind of been like a little underground. Some, some gentlemen came in a couple of weeks ago from Washington. He's a lobbyist and he said, Oh yeah, well, the governor said, I should be here. And I was like, the governor knows about it. So that's sweet. Then, you know, people like that, the attorney general, and then they've sent people over and stuff like that. So it's, people are talking about it, and it's great. And, you know, Yelp's been awesome for us. A few little hits and misses. And we had someone complain about our hours. And it's hard, a new business, you know, to be open all the time and not have enough guests, and which is kind of hard in that area, because it's most of our traffic is dependent on the local businesses and the people working around there. And so after two, it's kind of goes down. Yeah. And, but we're hoping that will change in the next month. We're going to be on the median Hawaii TV will be piped into the hotel rooms. And we'll be on living at eight. Yeah, living at eight magazines and stuff. So cool. Very exciting. Thank you so much for being on the show. Unfortunately, we're out of time. But we'll definitely bring you back on the show again and catch up with you. Telsen, thank you so much for co-hosting. We'll definitely have you on the show again. I want to hear more about some of the projects you're working on as well. So thank you once again, Hawaii Food and Farmer series. We'll see you next Thursday at four p.m. Aloha.