Q: My 16-year-old granddaughter will be going to Maui, Hawaii, in the middle of April, a period that includes Passover. As she is Jewish and keeps kosher, she needs to be supplied with meals. Is there an agency or group there that can help?
A: According to Steve Ostrow, founder and president of the Kosher Club, a Middletown, N.Y., group that publishes a worldwide directory of kosher restaurants, hotels, cafes and resorts, there are no public kosher facilities on any island in Hawaii.
However, that doesn't mean your granddaughter won't be able to observe the holiday. A Hawaiian supermarket chain, Foodland, has five stores on Maui and, according to a company spokeswoman in Honolulu, at least two will be stocking Passover items during April.
The two are Foodland in Pukalani, at 55 Pukalani St., (808) 572-0674, and Foodland in Lahaina, at 840 Wainee St., (808) 661-0975. Two other Foodland stores, the spokeswoman said, in Kihei, (808) 879-9350, and in Kahuluhi, (808) 877-2808, can order Passover items if requested.
And then there is Kosher on Wheels. This is a Los Angeles company affiliated with 20 of the city's approximately 50 kosher restaurants.
Its business is delivering takeout kosher meals, not only in Los Angeles "but all over the world," according to its founder, Robert Weiss.
He said a 32-page menu featuring kosher meals from a wide range of ethnic backgrounds, including Italian, Hungarian, Mexican and Chinese, could be mailed or faxed to anyone seeking Jewish food. He said a typical chicken dish might cost $10.
Overnight mailing costs are extra, he said, adding that a week's meals could be sent in one package.
A separate Passover menu will be available. Typically, he said, the double-wrapped frozen food is sent packed in dry ice to the chef at the customer's hotel, where it is heated and served.
More information: Kosher on Wheels, P.O. Box 36390, Los Angeles, Calif. 90036; (310) 652-3174, fax, (310) 652-0419.
Q: My husband and I will be spending six months in London starting in July and are interested in renting a furnished apartment. Are there agencies that handle that sort of thing?
A: London has a number of such agencies, and the British Tourist Authority has brought many of them together in a comprehensive free booklet called "City Apartments."
Individual apartment buildings are also listed in London as well as in Aberdeen, Bath, Birmingham, Edinburgh, Manchester and York.
Another section lists agencies that rent apartments throughout Britain, and under "Overseas Booking Agents" there are companies in the United States that act for British agents or compile their own listings.
Advertised rents in the booklet range from $240 a week from October to May to $4,800 a week from April to September, calculated at $1.60 to the pound. Establishments listed have paid to be included.
Many individual apartment owners, of course, do not rent through agents at all. For a sample of what's available once you arrive in London, look through the classified pages of the Evening Standard or the Times, published Monday to Saturday, and, on the weekend, the Sunday Times.
Rather than commit sight unseen to a six-month contract, you might stay in a hotel for a week while you look for something longer term.
For a copy of "City Apartments," send a self-addressed envelope with $1.01 in stamps, to British Tourist Authority, 551 Fifth Ave., New York, N.Y. 10176.