Dating back to the mid-70’s, The Mayflower Community (Grinnell IA) has hosted an annual Hawaiian Luau dinner. About 15 years ago, the dinner was offered over two evenings due to its substantial demand. This year was no exception, with the special buffet dinner served on Wednesday and Thursday evenings, July 17th and 18th. Over 130 residents and their guests were served.
Diners started the evening with a “fruit table” and champagne. The fruit table included lope, dew, pineapple, strawberries, grapes, watermelon, cheeseballs, smoked salmon, shrimp cocktail, and assorted homemade breads. That was just the warm up.
The buffet meal included ribs in pineapple and rum barbeque sauce, smoked pork loin, chicken baked in peanut butter sauce, beef in pineapple and soy sauce, scallops in honey sriracha glaze, fried shrimp, mahi-mahi with mango sauce, luau rice with pineapple, coconut, and toasted almonds, and a vegetable blend. Desert was a Hawaiian cheesecake. All of this was prepared in the kitchen of Mayflower under the direction of Director of Food Services, Scott Gruhn.
So, the food was outstanding. The other highlights were the costuming (Shorts are required to be worn underneath grass skirts!) and genuine camaraderie. A Food Services staff member said the next morning, “We love doing these special events. The residents’ enthusiasm gets us excited and makes it all worthwhile.” Mayflower has this saying, “You don’t have to be nice to move to Mayflower, but somehow you become nice when you live here!” Food and nice…It doesn’t get much better.
Pictured above the Staff present the buffet table: Left to right, Sue Allen, Roxanne Wozny, Jean Lewis, Marilyn Starnes
Jack Mutti and Anne Sunday square off at the buffet line.
Walda Gustafson explores the “fruit table” appetizers
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