Mele Kalikimaka

Mele Kalikimaka to Everyone!  (Hawaiian for Merry Christmas, in case you haven't heard this song or phrase. . .)

luggage carts

Although I can't speak for my state, I can say that I'm sorry and slightly embarrassed that my state does this.  I can hardly believe that they charge $4 for luggage carts at the airport.  I've been traveling around Asia for the last ten years, and everywhere I go the luggage carts are free.

Bruno Mars to Perform at Superbowl XLVII

See the article here.

I don't know nearly as much about Bruno Mars as a lot of other people I know seem to know.  Just read about him on Wikipedia and found out that he went to Roosevelt; I can't believe I never heard that before.   Now that I think about it, I haven't talked to many of my Hawai'i friends about him..  I know a lot of people back home who like his music, mostly girls I guess--I think that's true pretty much wherever I go.  I think a lot of local people are proud of him for his success, but I'm not sure if he's seen by everyone as exactly representing Hawai'i, since he's taken things so far past his local roots, past the Hawaiian music scene.  I wonder how he feels about it. 

To tell the truth, I don't know his music very well, but I'm glad he writes his own songs.  It's also great that he likes Hendrix.

Waimānalo camping

I've been beach camping a few times, most recently on the Waimānalo side.  A great place, never overly crowded, clear water that reflects a fine blue, and soft sand.  Not far away is Kailua, which was the first beach that showed me powdery fine sand, I think back in the seventh grade, on a school trip.  Waimānalo is more out of the way for most people, and so a bit more secluded.  

We pitch tents, BBQ, swim (this beach isn't the best for surfing or boarding, but if you want to do those things, Sherwoods is down the road), go crab-seeking at night, and sleep with the ocean next to us.  When we wake up the air and water usually seem a little cold or at least cool, our sleepiness becomes laziness, and we often don't want the bother of getting wet and needing a shower afterwards; but whenever we do push ourselves from tent to water, we feel that it was worth it.  The morning swim here is very fine; the sun rises on this side of the island.

Liliha Bakery

I've been going to Liliha Bakery for the coco puffs for, I don't know, twenty or twenty-five years, but I'd never eaten in.  This week I had a chance to sit at that counter.  It was 1030am on a weekday but there was already a line snaking back to the refrigerated goods, and it was a bit of a put-off at first.  (When I'm in Tokyo and see a line like that, it usually sends me on my way.  I get that it's exciting for a lot of people to wait for something popular and that the wait builds anticipation, but not so much, for me.)  

Part of the reason that the line gets so long is that the eat-in area is all counter and when single spaces open up, customers who have come in twos and threes will often opt to endure until adjacent seats are vacated, that their group can eat together.  A system exists to accommodate this situation; a waitress will ask if there are any lone customers standing down the line who would like to be bumped ahead and make use of the single empty counter spots.  If there are no such lone patrons, the space goes unfilled for a little while.  It's one of those things that can't be helped; in any case, the line moved and the waitresses (there was no host/hostess to seat people) were very alert in monitoring the line.  We got to sit down after twenty minutes.

 

Liliha Bakery, parking lot

the counter

When we asked for menus, our waitress slapped them down in front of us without looking at us or saying anything, and this caused me to have a bit of a cautious first impression, but she (and everybody) turned out to be really nice.  They were busy but tried to look after everybody.  The stoves are in open view, which I quite like, in general.  I tend to like places with open stoves.  I like watching how they cook things, how they prepare ingredients, what bits of shorthand they might use in their on-the-job communications.  Maybe another part of me feels assured in being able to witness the sanitary conditions.  (This place was quite clean.)

the kitchen

The food was pretty good.  The butter rolls were great.  I chose toast when I ordered but saw someone else's rolls and changed my mind; our food servers were nice about it.  Definitely, go with the butter rolls.  The jelly's great too.

blurry picture of the butter rolls

 The country-style omelet with fried potatoes didn't really look like an omelet to me.  At first sight I did not find it appetizing because I love the way omelets usually look.  Something about the color, the soft visual texture and fluffiness.  But this omelet was tasty; I chose bacon for its meat ingredient (you can also choose from ham, pork sausage, Vienna sausage, Portuguese sausage, hamburger patty, and of course Spam).  Additional ingredients were round and green onions, diced tomatoes.

the country-style omelet, $7.99

My aunty, who lived in Alewa for many years, used to like the hamburger steak.  It was good. 

the hamburger steak, $9.39

A few days later I went again.  I had the vegetable omelet (mushrooms, onions, tomatoes, and green bell peppers), which is pretty good, if you like those kinds of vegetables.  We also tried the 2-egg breakfast with corn beef hash (good stuff!).

the vegetable omelet, $7.99

2-egg breakfast with corn beef hash and fried potatoes, $7.39

I was surprised to find out that this place is open 24 hours from Wednesday to Saturday.  There aren't all that many places in Hawai'i (outside of Waikīkī) that are open 24 hours, and this one is in kind of a residential location (not far from Chinatown/downtown if you're driving, and close to Kuakini hospital, but mostly close to houses).  They close early on Sunday (counter 730pm, bakery 8pm), are closed all Monday and open at 6am on Tuesday.



http://lilihabakeryhawaii.com/

Sizzler and others things that disappear

It wasn't my favorite steak place, but now that it's closed down, I'm sorry to see Sizzler go.  They announced bankruptcy last week Wednesday, I think.  Well, it isn't Sizzler closing down, but its locations on O'ahu, all of which had already changed in name from Sizzler to GoKo Steak and Salad Bar.  Sometime back in May this year, GoKo bought the restaurants and renamed them, but from what I hear it was largely a continuance of the establishments.  But  now those are gone.  One of the inevitable things about living abroad is coming home to find things disappearing.  It is of course a sad occurrence, but especially so when they're things that you consciously look forward to seeing again.  You might think about them right after you've booked your flight home, anticipation building as the vacation ahead starts to materialize, as you start to visualize. . .Or perhaps in the middle of a hectic workday, you might long for these creature comforts, buoyed by the assurance that you'll return to them in a matter of months or weeks.  For me, the biggest blow was when all the Borders closed.  (May the Force be with Ala Moana's Barnes & Nobles--please stay with us.)  Sizzler's closing is an end to one of those things that I can't remember ever not being there.

Growing up, I lived near a Sizzler and used to go past it every day on my way to and from school.  I interviewed for a job as a teenager and even had a chance to work there; only, I declined because they said I'd have to wear black slacks and dress shoes every day, and I didn't want to do that.  I had kind of an attitude during my teen years, and it was sometimes unfortunate.  After moving to Tokyo, I had a few Sizzler experiences there--the steaks there are thinner and the salad bars have fewer options, although the produce is quite fresh--which made me appreciate our island versions more.  In recent years, I'd pay a visit to the Pearlridge Sizzler salad bar at least once a trip.  I will miss it.  I also started going to the one on Dillingham every now and then for breakfast.  It seemed like a lot of retirees were regulars who will no doubt feel the absence of the senior specials.

My sympathies to the employees. . .

Hawaii News Now - KGMB and KHNL

url link 
http://www.hawaiinewsnow.com/story/22986362/www.hawaiinewsnow.com?autoStart=true&topVideoCatNo=default&clipId=9153374

P.S.  If you're ever in Tokyo, there are Sizzlers in Shinjuku and Odaiba.

on the difference Hawaiian food and local food

This comes up a lot because, in Japan, the Loco Moco is probably the most well-known, best marketed dish from Hawai'i.  Naturally, people think of it as Hawaiian food.  Generally though, Hawaiian food is the term for food that native Hawaiians were eating in some form or other, a long, long time ago, pre-Captain Cook.  They did not have beef on the islands back in those days, so there would have been no hamburger on which to place the egg in a loco moco.  White rice was also to come later.

I should acknowledge here that a lot of descriptions of Hawaiian cuisine, including the Wikipedia entry at this time of writing, define it not only what native Hawaiians ate back in the day, but as an amalgam of all the food that arrived to the islands along with its diversity of immigrants, beginning with the plantations in the 1800s.  I personally disagree with this definition, but I don't mean to be close-minded about it; I can see the logic in calling all things from  Hawai'i Hawaiian, as it is the adjective that one would find in the dictionary.  But doing so can be problematic in that it doesn't allow for the distinction between early native Hawaiian things and post-contact  Hawai'i.  This can be a genuine issue; for example, saying that someone is Hawaiian implies at least some native Hawaiian lineage.  In my case, I have no Hawaiian ancestry (so far as I know), so I would say that I'm a local Hawai'i boy, but not Hawaiian.  This would make a difference on a census form, and it could affect me if I were applying for financial aid to help pay my college tuition, as some loans and grants are specifically for people of native Hawaiian ancestry.  If I were to go to a record store and ask to be introduced to some Hawaiian music, I might expect to be pointed in the direction of Keali'i Reichel or Israel Kamakawiwo'ole, both artists from the islands who continue a long tradition of our island music.  But I would not expect the clerk to recommend Bruno Mars or Nicole Scherzinger, both of whom were born in Hawai'i.  So far as I know, neither of them are of Hawaiian lineage, nor are they trying to perpetuate Hawaiian culture through music.  This is not, in my view, to lessen their connection to the islands in any sense.  They are to me a homeboy and a homegirl.  But the difference is that they're going beyond the islands and taking things into a larger scale.  They're pop singers from Hawai'i.  They're not Hawaiian, but they're local-born progeny.  Hawaiian music and pop music from Hawai'i, both are good for the people who like them, and they're distinct from each other.  

So it is with food. If people begin to lump together Hawaiian food with local food, a part of Hawaiian culture will be confounded through this blurring of events.  

Below is a video of a Loco Moco.  The guy in it is not me; I just found it on YouTube.  I wanted to post some Loco Moco picks that I took myself, but I have them stored on a hard drive, and I couldn't find it--I figured this way would be faster.

This Papa Ole Loco Moco is a little bigger than the average kind.










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Hawaiian food

Hawaiian food set, clockwise from top left corner:  poi, haupia, chicken long rice, lau lau, kalua pig, lomi lomi salmon

Mainstays of Hawaiian food are:  poi, lomilomi salmon, kalua pork (or kalua pig), lau lau, poke, and the desserts haupia and kulolo.

poi with some lomi lomi salmon in the middle

Poi, made from the wetland taro (although there are dry forms of it too), used to be the main source of starch on the islands.  The taro is mashed (traditionally by a poi pounder) and mixed with water, the amount being according to one's preference of texture.  I hated poi as a kid but came to love it sometime in my 20s.  It goes well with a lot of the other Hawaiian dishes.  Since kalua pork and lau lau can be so oily, poi is provides a nice contrast.  If the taste of poi alone is too plain or somehow missing something, I've heard of people adding sugar, in other cases milk; I tried these as a child but wouldn't do it now.  If I add anything now, I put a couple spoonfuls of lomi salmon.

The taste of poi, in my view, has been evolving somewhat.  The classic taste is the Taro brand poi in a bag.  They still sell it in supermarkets; if you buy it a day old it'll be cheaper and probably have a bit of a sourness to it.  Nothing to worry about, this sourness--it isn't like drinking bad milk.  I'd take fresh poi over day-old poi most days, but there are times when I appreciate the sourness as being not better or worse, just different. 

Poi's pretty healthy, by the way, as taro has more dietary fiber and is lower on the Glycemic Index than the potato.  Taro also contains potassium, as well as Vitamins A, B, C, and E.

Lomilomi salmon (lomi salmon for short) is a mix of salted salmon, diced tomatoes, onions and green onions, and sea salt.  As I mentioned, people sometimes put into their poi, but eating it by itself, with a beer, is pretty good too.  I haven't  been able to find proper lomi salmon in Tokyo, so I started making it at home.  It isn't hard to do but takes a bit of time.  (Hawaiian  theme restaurants in Tokyo do serve it but they alter it to suit Japanese tastes.  The couple of times I had it here, the salmon was marinated and cut to look kind of like traditional sashimi.  Hardly any onions or green onions.  It didn't taste bad but it wasn't lomi salmon.)

Kalua pork is made tender by burying the pig's meat underground with hot stones, letting it cook under the weight of the earth for hours, and then digging it back up.  At least that's how it was, but I don't think it's done that way most of the time nowadays.  But anyway, it's tenderness is its distinction, and its moisture.  Lau lau is kalua pig wrapped in cooked taro leaves (also nutritious).  There will be a huge chunk of fat at the center of the lau lau.  You don't have to eat it, of course, and since it's kept intact as one piece you can easily cut it out and put it aside.  The fat has to be there during the cooking process in order to distribute moisture throughout the lau lau. 

 There's also lau lau made with chicken and butterfish instead of pork.  No vegetarian lau lau, though, so far as I know.

If you have the chance to taste just one Hawaiian dish, I would say make it poke.  (That is, if you're comfortable with raw fish.)  Sushi people should like it quite a lot.  Raw fish cut into cubes, splashed with sesame oil, sometimes shoyu, and garnished with any variety of ingredients , among them onions, green onions, chili pepper, and limu (seaweed).  They sell poke mix at supermarkets and places like Longs.  Obviously, you would need to buy the fish separately, since they can't include it in the mix. 

Poke has gotten expensive over the past year.  Whereas it used to be about $6 a pound, on sale, the price has more than doubled.  Good poke can cost $18/llb. now.  As wish sashimi, the best poke has few or no grissels. 

Haupia is a coconut-flavored dessert that comes out a little firmer than pudding.  This past spring, when I was back home watching KHON news, the newscasters took a moment to ponder what might be a good official pie for Hawai'i.  One of them thought haupia would be the choice to make.  Me, I can't decide which sounds better, a haupia or Macadamia nut chocolate pie.

People's Café

Tried an old place called People's Café, next to the Pali Longs and Safeway.  They have a great Hawaiian food set, as well as local plate favorites and Filipino food.  I thought it was pretty reasonable.  I'm sorry, I forgot to make note of the price, but I'll go again and put it in this blog entry afterwards.  Anyway here's a picture

My parents used to go to this place years before I was born.  It's not hidden in a corner but not exactly out in the open.  This is the view from the sidewalk, Pali Hwy:

and this is a map


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Aloha

In the fourth grade, my social studies teacher, Mrs. Lee, asked us what the word aloha meant.  Somebody said "hello," then someone else said "goodbye."  Mrs. Lee held out for a while to make us think about it.  I don't know how many minutes went by before she told us that, in essence, it means love.  Years later, I learned how to say "I love you" in Hawaiian:  "Aloha au iā ʻoe"; in olden days, they might've said "Aloha wau iā 'oe," pronouncing the w in wau like a v.  (I should add that I don't speak even conversational Hawaiian, although I spent a bit of time studying some of the basics.  But some of my friends do speak the language, so I ask them questions from time to time).

Of course, the word is also used for hello and goodbye; it's also in the phrases for good morning, good afternoon, and evening.  Many if not most of us learn these in elementary school, in a song ("Aloha Kakahiaka").  I think it's nice that love is, was, deliberately included into all of these phrases, these sentiments. 

And then, still years later, someone taught me that alo means alo means "the bosom, or center, of the universe, and ha is "the breath of God."  I've seen it in books, too.  But the Wikipedia article makes a good point, that the hā used  for "breath" has a kahakō, i.e. is an elongated vowel, while the ha in aloha does not.  The Hawaiian Dictionary (by Mary Kawena Pukui and Samuel H. Elbert) agrees that it is hā and not ha, as would Hā: Breath of Life, the long-running show at the Polynesian Cultural Center (see http://habreathoflife.com).  So anyway. . .It's become one of those things that I'd like to resolve but am not sure how to do it.

Other usages

In 1959, Hawai'i's legislature designated it the Aloha state.  There are bumper stickers that say Live Aloha.  Local people usually say Aloha shirt, rather than Hawaiian shirt.  Sometimes when people use this as a greeting for a large crowd, they'll say "Aloooo-Ha!", the intention being for the crowd to respond in kind.  I myself kind of cringe when I see this, but I don't mean to be judgmental.  It is, after all, the most known Hawaiian word in the world, alongside our name. . .It's older than tourism, older than TV, and its essence can't be changed.