Month: October 2008

Ono

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I’ve been doing research on activities and luaus lately because my parents are arriving from Long Island for a little visit.  I’m very excited.  I miss them.  I hope they have fun here.  So I did some digging around online and found these:

Paradise Cove Luau

Germaine’s Luau Show

I also found something called Hawaii Food Tours run by Matthew Gray.  The Hawaiian Feast Tour sounded so perfect.  I was very excited about it but when I called today I spoke to Matthew himself and he said that there was little interest, and sometimes even disappointment in  traditional Hawaiian food so they discontinued the tour.

This from MSNBC’s 8 best islands for food:

Oahu, Hawaii
When you travel to Oahu, you have arrived at the culinary epicenter of the Pacific-Asian world. In Honolulu you’ll find Asian-based dishes with a bit of Americana (dare we say, SPAM) thrown in, as well as an island twist based on local ingredients. Join Hawaii Food Tours’ Hole-in-the-Wall Tour (www.hawaiifoodtours.com; rates from $99). It’s offered every day but Sunday and is your chance to taste the treats that local chefs seek on their day off. You might try a Hawaiian plate lunch, Chinese dumplings, pastries, Thai noodles, barbecued meat satay, Vietnamese summer rolls, Bento Boxes or crack seed, a snack of dehydrated fruit that was introduced by the first Chinese plantation workers.

Matthew Gray was really really nice and emailed me his recommendations for Hawaiian restaurants that I could take my parents to.  Here’s what he wrote:

Helena’s Hawaiian Food
1240 N. School Street
Tuesday-Friday 10am – 7:30pm – Closed Saturday, Sunday & Monday
Local Telephone: 845-8044
A winner of the James Beard Foundation Award in 2000, this classic Hawaiian restaurant is a treasure.  The pipikaula-style short ribs are awesome.
Atmosphere & Decor: A very “local” place.  Casual & bare-bones.

Ono Hawaiian Foods
726 Kapahulu Avenue
Monday-Saturday 11am – 7:45PM
Local Telephone: 737-2275
Close to Waikiki this famous Hawaiian food restaurant always has a long line of customers waiting to be seated.  It’s all good.
Atmosphere & Decor: Casual & bare-bones.

Young’s Fish Market
City Square Shopping Center
1286 Kalani Street #101
Monday-Friday 8am – 5PM Saturday 8am – 4PM; closed Sunday
Atmosphere & Decor: Even more casual & bare-bones then the rest.
Best lau lau (pork and salted butterfish (wrapped in ti leaves and steamed to form a meal in a bundle) in town.

The best luau is the Old Lahaina Luau on Maui.  Almost all the luaus are best for the show, dance, and celebration aspect.  *Leave your food expectations at the door* is what I always suggest to our guests when it comes to luaus.  One note: the Polynesian Cultural Center does not serve alcohol or caffeine; that’s why we suggest Paradise Cove or Germaine’s.

He was more than generous to share his expertise and time.  I can only imagine that he runs his tour with as much aloha.

Finally I figured out how to cook this mahi mahi dish and apparently most of the time it comes out well. The only thing is that the seafood at Foodland isn’t really so awesome. So I started looking for where to buy fresh fish and this is what I found from kaina on chowhound:

There is a wholesale fish auction, United Fishing Agency at pier 38. Kind of resembles the fish auction at Tsukiji in Japan but on a much smaller scale. There is a tour of the auction on Saturdays I believe with a talk radio dj named Mike Buck. On the Big Island there’s the Suisun fish auction in Hilo. If you’re wanting to buy some fresh fish I’d suggest going to Tamashiro Market in Kalihi on Oahu.

da aina

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K and I just got back from watching one of the last screening of HIFF 08:  Noho Hewa.  I was deeply moved by this film and feel that any American that has the opportunity to see this should.  I first heard about the Hawaiian ‘sovereignty’ ‘movement’ from my friend over dinner when I first arrived.  He was explaining to me the politics of the island because I had said that I didn’t understand why Asian American issues had no traction here. I was surprised to hear that such an issue exists. I was apt to believe Hawaii was just a happy place with lots of tan relaxed happy people.  The loose strands of politics and culture that I’ve picked up since arriving make more sense after seeing the film.  For example the stalled plans for a badly needed public transportation solution:  rail or no rail ?  The incongruous heavy military presence in stunningly lush sacred land.  Or the perception that Hawaiians don’t like change.

I feel so fortunate to have had the opportunity to see this film.  I feel rather complicit living in an area that is dominantly haole and that we’re paying rent that most local people wouldn’t be able to afford.  I feel this film has given me the tools to live here more respectfully.  It does what most very good films do:  they leave you feeling like a better person for having seen it.  Visit the website:  nohohewa.com.

We also saw Boogie Man: The Lee Atwater Story yesterday.  I think everyone should see this film too!  It was so illuminating.  The similarities between this 2008 election and the Bush/Dukakis race in 1988 are astounding.  It’s amazing how easily and quickly we forget our mistakes.  See the movie: boogiemanfilm.com

Afterwards we went into Chinatown in search of sang chau sauce which K uses in almost every cantonese dish he makes.  We were under the impression that it would be very hard to find but there it was in the first grocery we walked into:

For lunch we decided to pay a visit to Pho One, one of our favorite regular places to eat in Ala Moana.  Good pho and an added bonus they serve soybean milk drinks.  Yuuuuum.  Reminds me of home.

Unfortunately at the mall afterwards in the parking lot we scratched our car on a a concrete beam.  It’s really bad.  It sounded awful.  Like the car was being crunched.  blech.

recommended : timmerman paint and body shop

Redundant

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I know I’ve posted very similar photos but it’s just so pretty–late afternoon in Kailua. It came right after I watched Obama on CNN give an address in NY at an Alfred Smith Memorial dinner.  He ended his speech with an Al Smith quote:

The American people never carry an umbrella. They prepare to walk in eternal sunshine.

That’s such a nice idea.  Maybe he was in Hawaii at the time.

later that day
later that day

Aloha shirt recommended by the stylish Sarah Honda: Sig Zane

Hawaii Beach Safety!

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I downloaded the AP news app for iPhone. It’s location aware and can pull up local news.  Very cool. What wasn’t really cool was the first local story about  4 people that died in 2 days walking along a beach in Kauai.  I believe there were strenuous beach warnings about high surf but it’s still shocking.  So I searched online and found this:

 

I read on the site that you shouldn’t go out further than you can swim.  Unfortunately I can’t really swim so does that mean I should basically stay where the water meets the sand?  Or is that still not safe enough? Beaches are weird.

Learning about myself

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This is what it looks like to sleep in Kailua:

This is different from the city.  And it’s made me realize that I like sleeping with street noise and in a bedroom half lit by streetlights.  I really don’t like the dark quiet.  It’s kind of weird.  It’s what I imagine being dead is like.  I spend most of the night (after K has fallen asleep) reading the news on my phone in the dark and noticing every random noise.  I wonder if that’ll change after being here a few months.

I got an email yesterday from a poet inviting me to be on a Bamboo Ridge panel addressing Filipino diasporic literature.  I get really nervous about these kinds of things but I’m trying to think of this period living in Hawaii as an experiment.  I’m trying to push myself to re-imagine my identity, my path.  So to panels:  Yes!  I’ll do it!

Hawaii Smarts

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I had lunch at Aloha Salad with my good friend Seth today.  It’s been a nice twist of fate to end on the same island as him given that we met over ten years ago in New York and had lost touch for a few years.  He’s become a lawyer in the time that we’ve been out of contact. It’s really good to to see him here.

Over our lunch he was telling me about the US Attorney he worked for when he first got here and how he overhauled the probationary system to be a more rehabilitative process and that it was inspired by a text called Fixing Broken Windows. I found it very interesting.

The salad was good, conversation great.

JUSTICE!

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Weeks ago I got a ticket for an expired parking meter when I met my friends for dinner. It was the first time I drove by myself here in hawaii and K carefully told me how to get where I was going and where to park.  I put in enough quarters for 2 hours.  I ended up being about 10 minutes late and there was a big orange ticket for $35 waiting for me.

K wrote the check and I was feeling really bad that my first time out I get a freakin’ ticket. So I wrote a scathing letter saying that the cop must’ve been standing there waiting for my meter to expire and given the fact that my car was one of TWO cars in the whole empty parking lot that I felt the ticket was EXTREME JUSTICE.  I didn’t expect them to answer.  We even included the payment.  I just wanted to have my say.

So today I got a letter from the District Court in Kaneohe:

and a CHECK!!

I’m elated!