Category: Hawaii
Butters, Creams, and Preserves
K’s friends are having us over for dinner this week. They live close by so I thought it would be nice if we went outside of Kailua/Lanikai to find something to bring with us. I’ve been wanting to visit Made in Hawaii in Pearl City ever since I read about their Mochi Strawberries. I knew they sold something special called Lilikoi cream cheese which I thought would be easy to keep until we go over for dinner in a couple of days.
The shop is teeny tiny–just a little front space of an outlet/factory. The woman who greeted us was very helpful and gave us samples of their jams, fruit butters, and cream cheeses. I learned that Lilikoi is yellow passion fruit. Delicious! I was disappointed that they only had Mochi Strawberries from Wednesday to Saturday which she recommended ordering in advance. But we’ll go back another day for that. Everything in the store is made in Hawaii and they produce their own jams and preserves under the label Island Preserve. We ended up choosing Strawberry Guava Cream Cheese, Pineapple Blueberry Jam, and Lime Butter. This place joins the list of great places for gifts to bring home.
Frog Warriors
This afternoon I walked out to get the mail and see if UPS had come by. As I walked by the pond in the front yard I was surprised by the sound of frantic splashing and the sight of something huge in the water. It looked like a big meaty disembodied hand slapping the surface of the water. When I looked more carefully I realized it was two fat frogs with round bloated bellies, their arms wrapped around each other in a bear hug. I watched for a few seconds as they turned around and around in the water as if they were fighting over some girl-frog’s honor. I turned and ran back to the house to get my camera so I could capture it to share. It seems passionate frogs are camera shy and not amenable to exposé videomaking.
Killer Cookies
Girl Scouts were selling cookies outside of Foodland. I asked them which ones were their favorites and one cutie told me Samoas. So we got them and I can’t even bear to look at the nutritional information.
I love you Plate Lunch
K said that his friend Josh loves Keneke’s in Waimanalo. So naturally we wanted to try it for lunch after my yoga class. I was ravenous. I needed a smoothie. It’s crazy how good my last two lunches have been. I can’t even take it. I feel like I should skip lunch tomorrow just to restart the machine. Because lunch shouldn’t be so dang delicious.
It gets even better. K said we should go through the car wash so I could put my ganesh sticker on. So we ate our lunches in the car wash with out fruit smoothies. There are few things that make me feel so content.
Manny No Monkey Tree
I dragged myself to Bikram yoga in Hawaii Kai this morning (with K’s help). I’m so glad because it was the best Bikram class I’ve taken so far, better even than many of the non-Bikram classes I’ve taken. The key is the teacher Manny. He’s very tough but for all the good and right reason.
The class is at Koko Marina Shopping Center and it’s the only studio on the island that uses infrared heat. I was resistant to going because it’s thirty minutes away and lately I’ve had to summon up a lot of energy to travel just five minutes to the Kailua Studio because sometimes it can feel like a chore. The Kailua studio is the only Bikram place I’ve ever been to prior to this. So, in fairness, my realm of comparison is limited.
To preface what I have to say next I should explain that people sweat buckets when doing Bikram yoga. It’s the reason people do it. There’s a standard classroom design for Bikram studios which includes carpeting. Buckets of sweat, wet carpet, humidity, heat…it’s a recipe for some stinkiness. With that said, the basic difference between the two Bikram studios is that Kailua’s smells like a big foot (as I’ve heard most Bikram places do) and Manny’s studio is clean, peaceful, beautiful and it smells nice–like semi-sweet crayons. Kailua isn’t awful. The environment is supportive and I really like class with Kathryn. I think maybe Manny’s class was just really great.
I figured today since I was going to a new class in a new town with a new teacher, I would use my new stuff including my barely used yoga mat bag:
I’ve been too embarrassed to actually bring this bag into classrooms because it’s kind of fancy. So I’ve been leaving it in the trunk of our car. Today I brought it in with me and it was fine, no one’s eyebrows went up.
Manny started out by talking to four of us that were new to the class in the lobby. He is very insistent about how you behave in his studio. He didn’t want us holding any of our stuff while he spoke to us. And even if you’d done Bikram before he wanted to go over breathing, stance, and doing the asanas with grace. After a couple of minutes he let us in and class started shortly after.
Like I said, he runs a tight ship. One of the other new girls kept making little indignant noises every time Manny would say something like ‘your job is to keep the floor around you dry…etc etc….I don’t care what happens in other studios, this is how it is in this studio’. I just giggled because I’d heard and read online that Manny, to some people, seems very eccentric but I found him charming. Another great line: “please no chatting, it’s not that i don’t care what you have to say, it’s that others don’t” That made my stomach clench because it was so funny. The thing is, as I’ve said, his studio is so well kept that it’s a pleasure to be there. Also, Manny keeps such tight control of the class that it makes you feel like you can relax and just worry about yourself. It’s very liberating.
Pretty much every Bikram teacher I’ve had before him keeps up this relentless prattle through the 26 poses. I understand that it’s part of the style or method of keeping you in the moment but most times it just makes me anxious and distracted. Manny speaks in a low gentle voice and he shares information (which is why I also like Kathryn at Kailua). My favorite thing he said today was that Bikram Yoga helps you sleep–not because you end up so physically tired but because it helps you learn to quiet the monkey in the tree.
Brilliance. I’m sold.
Frogs that sound like Cows, on our turf.
Hawaiian Warrior
This afternoon was fantasy city. K and I got to meet BJ Penn at Ala Moana. He was signing autographs for two hours at Nordstroms. It was a decent crowd but not a long wait. There aren’t so many people I would be excited to meet but BJ is one of them. Getting closer to the front of the line we could see him hug and give everyone a paternal rub on the back. Everything about his persona is warm and welcoming. It’s nice to believe that someone can be a superhero.
After Ala Moana we had lunch at Nico’s. My FAVORITE. Ahi Furakake. Dreamy Plate lunch:
I feel like Homer Simpson….FU RA KA KEEEEEE
Reading is for winners!
DonorsChoose.org is beyond cool. For K’s birthday, his brother gifted him with a donation to the site. The website is a menu of different projects that are in need of funds. K chose a donation of books to a local grade school which would give them the opportunity to read about a different cultural perspective. In this case it was the book Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortensen and David Oliver Revin–the story of a man’s mission to build a school in Pakistan and how it turned into fifty-five schools. Yesterday K got a package of cards from the kids. What an awesome gift!!
Popcorn plus plus
We got this at the Kahala movie theater but then didn’t use it because I didn’t know what to do with it. Apparently it comes with a plastic bag inside and you mix your popcorn with the pouch ingredients like a shake and bake. The mix has nori flakes and crispy cracker things. Made in Kaneohe. It was pretty good. I’d say it would be BETTER if they added something sweet to it like bits of chocolate covered marshmallows. Or lucky charms.
Three One Nine 