A Kincaid's Thanksgiving

Kincaid's is my favorite restaurant for dinner in Hawaii. As for lunch, I love Alan Wong's Pineapple Room. We recently received a $20 gift card in the mail. Yeah, we randomly get these gift cards in the mail addressed to "Current Resident". Is that great or what? Since it's Thanksgiving, we thought we should treat ourselves to a nice romantic dinner.

One of the reasons I love Kincaid's is their garlic bread. They come out warm, soft, garlicy, and buttery. I wish I could just eat these and drink a wine without ordering anything from the menu. That would be kinda' rude...

Instead of ordering crab cakes appetizer like all the other times, we decided to try something different. We ordered the scallop lollipops. They are grilled scallops wrapped in salmon. Very juicy and tasty.

For main dish, I ordered the seared ahi. The fish was cooked to perfection. The meat came out by slices. The fresh and lightly cooked vegetables compliment the salty taste of the fish.

HappyOblivion ordered the crusted opah. I never had opah before so I didn't know what fish it was. The dish was a surprise to me because it tasted very different from what I had imagined. The fish was delicious and crunchy. Not oily at all.

We had a nice time eating and not talking during dinner. Who needs to talk and converse about relationship when you have such good food sitting in front of you. Just eat and be merry :) Talking is overrated.

Yaku-doshi Celebration

This past weekend, HappyOblivion and I attended my friend's Yakudoshi party to celebrate his birthday. Bad luck years are referred to as yaku-doshi, with yaku meaning “calamity” or “calamitous” and doshi signifying “years”. These years are considered critical or dangerous because they are believed to bring bad luck or disaster. So, people throw a big party to drive away the bad luck. Of course, this is superstition in the Japanese culture.

The party rocked, literally! The birthday boy is a musician and he plays in a couple bands. One of them is named "The Desert Sea" and they played rock music at the party. My favorite used to be "Another Movie" until I heard "Moon Rise", their newest song. The lyrics are romantic and I love how the music transitions from very quiet to blasting rock! I am sure there is a music term for what I just described...   

Food food food, lots of food! Out in the yard, there was a sushi stand and a tempura table. Inside the house were homemade food - special rice that you must eat to drive away the bad luck for the birthday boy, more fish, noodles, beef, chicken, etc. I ate so much I had to sit on the couch the last hour of the party. 

Everywhere was entertainment. Outside had the band. The TV was showing movies after movies, all Pixar. Wii games in another room. Playroom upstairs where we had loads of fun playing with random toys and pigs. We toured the birthday boy's guitar room (I lost count on the number of guitars in the room). 

Well, what about the most memorable part of the party? When we sang Happy Birthday to the special boy. He wore a traditional Japanese gown, a non-traditional birthday hat, and a Hawaiian lei. So hilarious. While everyone was singing, the daughter nibbled on a corner of the cake. I caught her red-handed with the camera! Such a happy family ey?

Hihiwai

On my last work trip to East Maui, I took some keiki hihiwai home with me. If you want to know what a Hihiwai is and why I love them so much, see my Artsy post. The following day, I went to FloraDec and bought a small glass container and some rocks to make them a home. These guys are really easy to take care of. They just need some rocks, algae, and chlorine-free water. No air filter, no food, no pump. For a couple days, the hihiwai have gathered in one corner of the container. I keep wanting to move them on the rocks. Then HappyOblivion said, "Would you want me to move you away from the couch and the TV whenever I want to?" Then, I stopped thinking about moving the hihiwai. Now, they just sit in one corner everyday, every minute, every second of the day. I miss my turtles.

Nemo

You probably know what I am going to write first but I am still gonna write it. I AM SO BEHIND ON MY BLOGGING! Whew, that was a relief. I had what my friend called it, Bloggers Block, or something to that effect. BTW, Happy Turkey Day my dear readers. HappyOblivion went to LA for a wedding so I was left alone in my lonely apartment doing some lonely stuff :( No, I wasn't lonely. I spend all day cleaning the apartment. See, I bought some new dishes (post to come) and I needed to fit these plates into my kitchen cabinents, which were all full. First, I was gonna to rearrange the two cabinents that had dishes in them. One thing led to another, and I ended up rearranging stuff in all the cabinents. Afterwards, I felt sad for the orchid that I had planned to repot a couple months ago but never had time. She was growing out of her pot and the roots were no longer growing in the media. So, I spend a good hour repotting the orchid and another half hour cleaning up the mess I made.

Here's something to brighten up your day if you are feeling the Black Friday Blues because you are stuck at work while everyone is out shopping. I present to you, Nemo from the Waikiki Aquarium. Enjoy!

Pub Mix Don't Lie

Look at the photo below. Do you see what's different about this particular container of Pub Mix? Do you see what's missing? Do you see what's there? Do you? Do you??? I'll tell ya - LOTS of Worcestershire Rye Chips and very little pretzels. The rye chips are the brown bagel chips. They are tasty and full of salt. We took awhile to "inspect" the stash of Pub Mix at Costco and found this one, full of the rye chips.

"A Savory Blend of Crunchy Snacks." That's what's on the box of my favorite snack. So true! PUB MIX DON'T LIE. Have you heard of the song, "Big Girls Don't Cry" by Fergie? Well, replace the lyrics "Big Girls Don't Cry" with "Pub Mix Don't Lie", and then think Pub Mix when the word "you" comes up in the song. Now you have a song made even more famous by ME!

Haliimaile General Store

I know you are bored of reading my wonderful Maui vacation adventures, but, I promise this is the last one. We finally ate at Bev Gannon's restaurant, Haliimaile General Store. Bev is the executive chef of Hawaiian Airlines. No, the restaurant does not serve airplane food. Quite the opposite, the food is pretty fancy. 

For appetizer, we had the Curry Crab Wontons. Onolicious!

HappyOblivion had the Maui Cattle Ribeye. The meat was soft and fatty. I LOVE FAT! Oh and side is some sort of stuffing but more ono than regular stuffing.

I had the scallops with the special sauce (I forgot the name of the sauce). If only there were more than three. I could eat this all day.

Ok, this is the last of my adventures in Maui. Hope you enjoyed reading them.

Linus

While we were in Maui, we made a new friend. His name is Linus and he is a piggy :) We met him at Dan's Green House in Lahaina. We had been to this shop the last time we vacationed in Maui, maybe over a year ago. At that time, another piggy was there and her name was Sherry. We were hoping to find her again this time but we found Linus instead. He was a little different from Sherry. Sherry was friendly and not intimidating at all. I could pet her all I wanted and she wouldn't run away from me. Linus didn't want to be petted. He would come lick our shoes, follow us around but when we tried to pet him, he squealed and ran away. Then when we walked away, he came back to licking our shoes. Since it was so hard to take a photo of him (because he was constantly moving and squealing), we took a video of him eating cheerios. HappyOblivion fed him first and then it was my turn. Dude, pigs salivate ALOT when they eat. Linus drooled all over my hand. After he ate all the cheerios, I looked at my hand and it was dripping with saliva. Regardless of the ickiness, Linus is one adorable piggy. 

There were also lots of parrots in the shop. One birdie greeted me with "Aaalllloooohaaa". I responded with, "Oh, hello there." I repeated it a couple times while he curiously watched my lips pronounce the words. Then he blurted out, "Oh hallo, hallo." Ha ha, so cute! He even said "bye" to me when I left the shop. We are going to make it a habit to come visit this shop everytime we vacation in Maui.

Alii Kula Lavender Farm

My friend had told me about AKL and that I would enjoy walking in the farm. Well, I DID! The farm was beautiful. Even though we went after the harvest, the farm and the gardens were still entertaining the visitors with their bubbly charm. The farm was divided in half - uphill and downhill. The uphill portion of the farm was filled with little dome-shaped lavender plants. From the bottom of the hill, the ground looked as if it was foaming with green bubbles. The downhill portion of the farm consisted of an array of eclectic gardens, some of lavender, some of other wild plants. I tried to take photos of all the weird flowers in the garden but the weather was windy, so still-shots were rather difficult. The nursery was in the downhill portion. There were keiki lavender and succulents. When I walked in the nusery, I felt like godzilla trampling on the babies. Scattered around the farm are purple benches, which I absolutely adore, and resting spots. As we were leaving, I stopped by the gift shop to see what sort of products can be made from lavender. I saw jams, jellies, spreads, perfume (of course), and bath items. Nothing out of the ordinary. Back at the car, we finished the last of our krispy kreme donuts. Despite, the cold weather, I was glad I wore my purple dress to blend-in with the lavender farm.

Sunrise at Sea

When the Superferry was first launched, HappyOblivion and I bought tickets to Kauai. The tickets were on sale for $5 per person and the same for a car. Great price for two pake people. But, the unexpected happened - protest by a bunch of environmental enthusiasts. The ferry was canceled and we got three vouchers, one for the car and two for us. The ferry didn't make sail for probably 6 months or so. When it was re-lauched, the ferry would only sail to Maui. So, we used the vouchers to go Maui. I know I know, with all these work trips to Maui, why would I go Maui for vacation? Well, simple answer - I HAD NO CHOICE BECAUSE THE VOUCHERS EXPIRES IN 2 MONTHS! [Ok, calm down]. This past weekend, we sailed and sailed away. 6:30AM was the departure time and we had to arrive to the port by 5AM. The ferry looked so big on the outside. Heck, it was gigantic! However, the part where people sit (the top of the ferry with the windows) was only a fifth of the size of the ferry. Driving into the ferry was fun. On the way to Maui, we parked at the bottom level. On the way back, we were shuttled to the top level right in the middle of the U-bend, which was more crowded and chaotic.

Vacation began when the sun rose behind the city and the clouds, dressing the sky with colorful shades of orange glow. Watching sunrise at sea was different from watching it on the beach. In the ocean, you are dancing with the clouds, the colors, and the sun. The farther the ferry sails away from the island, the glow from the sky becomes softer yet captivating. It was a different kind of romance. Let me take you through the sunrise.  Hopefully, you can sway with the colors of the sky and feel the love the island has to offer. Here is sunrise over Honolulu as we were sailing out of the pier.

Sunrise over Diamond Head. My favorite photo. 

The glow faded away as we sailed further from the island.

Last of the glowing sky. Hawaii is awake. 

About an hour into sail on the way back from Maui, we saw Lanai and Molokai. The photo below shows Lanai. Look at the clouds hovering the island. Beautiful weather.

This is Molokai. The difference between Molokai and Lanai is that Molokai is a very long island. In this photo, I tried to stand as far back as possible on the railing but I still couldn't capture the entire island.

As I was swaying with the ferry and enjoying the ocean mist on my face, I looked at the vast ocean and felt a sudden loneliness. I had the urge to jump into the blue, daring my mind and body to be so alone with the ocean. I couldn't, but I kept watching and wondering...

So, this was our Superferry experience. We had a blast! Stay tuned for more posts from this trip. By the way, my Artsy Blog has been updated.

Hiking in Makiki

Since I work for the State, I had Election Day off. Yipee! I really needed the day off as I was still recovering from the Maui field visits. Guess what I did to help me recuperate? I went hiking. STUPID Choo! Back in July, we hiked the Makiki Valley Loop Trail. This trail and many others (17 total) are part of the Honolulu Mauka Trail System (see map below). The highlighted areas indicate trails that HappyOblivion and I have already hiked.

The colors indicate separate trips. If I remember correctly, we hiked the Waahila, Puu Pia, and Kolowalu Trails shortly after we moved to Hawaii. Then, we hiked Manoa Falls and Aihualama Trails maybe 3 years ago. In July, we did the Makiki Valley Loop Trail. This past Tuesday, we decided to tackle the three trails that overlook Nuuanu Valley. I loved the hike. There were couple places where we needed to use a rope to help us climb over gigantic rocks. Fantastic views at the top. See for yourself. Make sure to read the notes for each photo.

Crab Croquettes

I was motivated to cook a really nice dinner today. Maybe it was the swimming with a sore arm, or the joy of savoring a couple sweet guavas. Either way, I was looking forward to spending some quality time in the kitchen. Just a side note, my arm is still sore from the flu shot on Monday.

We had bought a can of crab at Costco this past weekend for making crab cakes on Tuesday (Election Day), when we had the day off. Stupid us went hiking for 4 hours and was too tired to do anything that night, except for lazying on our comfy couch. So, the crabby dinner was postponed to tonight. On my way home from work today, I stopped by Foodland to pick up butter and some veggies. I spend a good two hours preparing a delicious crabby meal. Originally, I had planned on making simple crab cakes. Then I thought, "Why not crab croquettes AND cakes? A little variety would spice up the meal." Molding the cakes was the hardest part, trying very hard to keep everything together while I cover the cakes with flour, egg, then panko crumbs. I had also made corn bread from the Marie Calendar corn bread mix we bought from Costco. I tried using real corn and corn juice just as the recipe says, but the whole batch tasted disgusting. So, plan B was to eat taro buns, also from Costco. I LOVE COSTCO! HappyOblivion toasted some buns with butter inside. He also prepared a simple salad topped with a gigantic amount of croutons :) For veggies, I fried broccoli with salt and black pepper. Ta da, dinner is served.

Kaimuki Block Party

This past weekend, we pigged out at the Celebrate Kaimuki Kanikapila Craft Fair & Block Party. You know us, where there is food, we're soooo there. We had bunches of fun. I took a picture of my twin, Pikachu. [PikaAAA!!!]  He was just sitting right outside of the Toys n Joy booth, smiling at me. So, I had to hug him and ask for his autograph. Then off to the food. We had coffee gelee, meat jun bento, and turkey plate. They were all so very ono. The gelee was my favorite. It had a layer of thick creamy coffee at the bottom, topped with whipped cream and chocolate flakes.
  
The meat jun bento was meaty. I had promised myself NO MORE PORK but I think the bento also had pork jun. Stupid HappyOblivion! We couldn't resist an early Thanksgiving meal. I was craving for sweet sweet gravy. I also really liked the stuffing because it had mac nuts.
 
Since we ate too much, we decided to take a stroll along the street. We stopped at the Taj of Honolulu booth, which was right in front of where we ate. Stupid Choo! All the T-shirts with discontinued designs were on sale for $6 each (normally $12). I had bought the Pig Out shirt not too long ago and it was one of the discontinued designs. I was so sad that I bought one for HappyOblivion, my niece, and nephew. I also bought one (with another more matured design) for my mommy. Yup, I bought 4 shirts for $20. Not only that, I also got sucked into the sweet sales talk of one of the girls there and bought a metal stencil for who knows what! I gotta say, she was good ... she could read my mind. After spending all my cash at this booth, I got tired and decided to go home. So much for a stroll.

East Maui Trip 2

Last week Monday to Wednesday, I was back in East Maui doing field work. Our crew went to the same locations to measure flows again, and again, and again ... zzzzz. WHICH IS why we had the most fun on Wednesday, when we had no agenda to follow, nobody to meet, just us and our best friend the 4WD vehicle. Since we had a LONG day on Tuesday - 7AM to 1AM (18 hour day and no kidding), we started our Wednesday at 8AM with a huge delicious breakfast (so glad it wasn't at McDonald's or 7 Eleven). I had teri loco moco with a super ono gravy. We took our time to get everything ready for our long trip to the Hana side. By 11AM, we were at Wailuanui Stream, making our way to the top of Waikani Falls. On the previous trip, we had walked down from the bridge to the stream. However, we didn't hike beyond the pond because it was getting dark. This time, we were determined to find Waikani Falls, a waterfall that all the Wailua farmers have been talking about.

The hike was treacherous. We were hopping over boulders, hoping we don’t take a wrong step and sprain our ankle. Instead of swimming across the pond, I climbed the side of the mountain to get to the other side. The photo below was taken right after I crossed the pond. Can you see me?

This was the view in front of me. Almost there, I can see the drop!

Finally! The top of Waikani Falls. The view there is amazing but scary because the drop is huge. We all took a butt load of pictures to commemorate the rocky hike.

In a week, I will be back on Maui for more field work. Different streams, different public. It will be interesting.

Helena's

What's for lunch? After 2 minutes of deliberation on Thursday, my friends and I decided to eat Hawaiian food for this Friday's lunch. It was either Young's Fishmarket or Helena's. Since all of us have never eaten at Helena's, we decided to give it a try. The restaurant is very small, the hole-in-the-wall kine. I love the homey atmosphere even though the restaurant was located in a rather sketchy neighborhood. When we sat down at our table, the first thing the waitress gave us was a plate of haupia. I thought, "This is best day of my life!" I quickly chowed down a piece and waited impatiently for the others to eat theirs ... secretly hoping they don't like haupia so I can eat them all, whoahahahahaha! We ordered kalua pig, beef stew, pipikaula shortribs, laulau, lomi salmon, and chicken long rice. Each of us ordered our choice of starch - I had the day old poi. I was thinking of 1 LB haupia for my starch but that would be a total sugar overload. Oh, the food was ONO! The pipikaula shortribs were juicy and tender. The poi was sweet and smooth. I remember I used to hate poi because it had a weird texture and it tasted sour. After trying it with different foods, I am becoming a big poi fan. Especially this poi, it was so onolicious that I practically dumped the ting down my throat at the end. Food coma followed and the rest of my day was quite unproductive. I would say the food at Helena's is more ono than Ono Hawaiian Food and even Young's Fishmarket, though that's a close one.

Video of me :)

Remember the emotional work meeting I had blogged about last month, something about making history? Well, I have a 10-minute coverage of that meeting that was shown in one of the Maui TV stations. I have not yet figured out a way to download the streaming media onto my computer. For now, please click here to view the video. This is so exciting ... I was on TV!

East Maui Trip 1

The first of my field visit to East Maui wasn't so bad. It was a lot of hiking through brush, climbing over boulders twice my size, and wading through streams where the water level was over 2 feet deep. I had anticipated all that, and was well prepared for two days of sweat and hiking with wet socks. Yeah, sounds kind of disgusting and it sure was. Despite the rough conditions, it was memorable because I had the opportunity to meet some of the community members that I had only conversed with over the telephone. Some of them hiked with us to show their support. I was happy to finally meet with them in person.

Let me share with you some of my memorable moments of this trip. Below is a photo of Honopou Stream, where it joins with tributary Puniawa Stream and continues down to the ocean. I had never before seen the confluence of two streams.

The purpose of this field trip was to select locations in the stream for flow measurement and installation of staff gages to monitor streamflow. We had found a perfect site for measuring flow on Hanehoi Stream, except for this gigantic boulder that was preventing perfect laminar flow. So, we decided to move this 10 ton boulder to the side. With the little tools that we had - a shovel and two branches that we sawed off a tree - it took us 30 to 40 minutes to move the boulder but the result was well worth our effort. 

Here I am, measuring flow while hoping I don't slip and fall down the waterfall behind me.

So, I am in Palauhulu Stream and I have to go upstream of the flume to locate a site for measuring flow. I had two choices: A) climb the waterfall on the left; or B) walk the flume. If you look at the photo on the left, the water level used to be where the faint line is on the side of the rock wall. Now with the drought, the stream has gone dry. If there was water, I could easily swim to where I needed to go. The photo on the right shows the Keanae Flume. It looks wide in the photo but I believe it is only about 1.5 feet wide. The flume overhangs 10-20 feet above the dry stream, with moving water inside the flume. With choice A, I could potentially fall into the two feet pool at the bottom and maybe break a leg. If I choose choice B, I could potentially lose my balance and fall 20 feet into a dry rocky stream and break my neck. So, choice A no doubt.
 
Here is the Keanae Flume from below. It is pretty high up.

From Hana Highway, we hiked below the bridge to get to Wailuanui Stream. The cascading waterfall (photo on the left) was the first thing we saw on the way down. Then we continued down the stream to look for a good location to measure flow. The photo on the right shows how far we went on the stream from the highway. We went pretty far out but found no good location for flow measurement. ~Sigh. The good news is, we all made it back alive :)
 

Fire at Preschool

A fire occurred at 4AM this morning at a preschool right across the street from our apartment. Although the fire burned about 50% of the school; fortunately, nobody was hurt. This was the closest I have ever been to a fire, and seeing firemen in action. It was a rather exciting scene - flares were set up, policemen blocked the road, three fire trucks pulled up, firemen running back and fourth. The street was so bright! 
I will be going to Maui tomorrow to do some field work. Then I will be going again next Monday for three more days. Wish me luck as I heard some of the sites I am to visit are pretty rough.

My Art Blog is Now Open

I am excited to tell you that my art blog is FINALLY open! Not that you have been waiting for it ... were you? Sorry, took me awhile to design the banner for the website. I came up with a couple choices but none passed the test. This past Sunday, I grabbed my handy dandy black ball point pen (that I got for free at a drug rep dinner) and began drawing, anything. I started with a baked bao, then I switched to a pig, and it all just magically came together - the bao pooping pig. Hey, I said "magically", not reasonably.

Something worries me ... I now have 4 blogs to maintain, plus one Flickr account. Not sure how I am gonna do it but I'll find a way. In the meantime, please visit my new art blog. The "Artsy" word on the (right end) banner of this blog will also take you to my art blog. I will only update it when I have new art to share. Well, I might have more posts initially because I want to share with you my previous artwork. Enjoy!

Splendor of China

Two weekends ago, we went to the Splendor of China Festival. As much as I would like to commend this effort of educating the public about the Chinese culture, I was a little disappointed because I felt like I was in Chinatown , well, without the dirty streets and the grocery shops (don't get me wrong, I don't hate Chinatown). Okay, there was quite a difference from Chinatown, but I didn't see anything surprising...hmm, actually I did see something surprising but I will talk about that later. I guess what I am trying to say is, the whole experience didn't WOW me...which is rather sad because, here I am, a Chinese girl walking into what is supposedly her world, but totally disinterested. Am I bored of my culture or was there really nothing to see? The culture of China, as I remember it, is grand! So much to tell and so much more to experience; yet, I didn't experience any at the festival. I was most disappointed at the food because there was a lack of authenticity. Again, don't get me wrong, I have nothing against Panda Express. In fact, I ate there the day before to get a $1 discount coupon for the festival. Oh, the orange chicken was yummy. Anyway, I just thought Panda Express and the other restaurants that were present do not represent authentic Chinese cuisine. I guess my head was wrapped around eating smelly tofu by a street stand or inhaling durian ice cream by the pier. The stuff for sale were not interesting. However, one of the shows was pretty amazing. A guy walked onto the platform dressed in a white batman costume, with a mask over his face. He stomped the floor and his mask changed color and sometimes the pattern too. At one point, he showed his face and then a mask covered it in a split second.

Despite all that, I did manage to take some interesting pictures, which somewhat summarize my experience and the goofy thoughts that persuaded me to write this post.




Ah! Here is the surprising thing that happened at the festival. Shown on the left is the same panda that I bought for HappyOblivion when we first met back in Davis, California (7 years ago). A company called Caltoy made this cutie and we can no longer find him or the others (including a hedgehog, pig, hippo, doggy, etc...). My friends bought me the Caltoy pig and I love him dearly - so soft and pink. We were so surprised to see another one of this panda because he is a rare find! From our research, these Caltoys have been discontinued a long time ago, shortly after we first bought them at KB Toys. The first time we saw this panda was in a Campbell Soup commercial. We recorded that commercial because how many discontinued toys that you own ever appear in a commercial? I am not referring to care bears or snoopy or garfield. I am talking about those that are not popular. Gosh, when we saw this panda used as a "decoration" in the miniature golf booth at the festival, we were devising ways to take this panda home with us. Who would leave this soft fluffy animal on the dirty floor, occasionally attacked by a golf ball because some kid can't aim (sorry, no offense to kids but I do love this panda). I hope he is home, safely tucked in a comfortable bed.

Mana Bu

I'd hate for my blog to turn into a food blog, as there exists a million others already. However, food is such an important part of my life that I have to blog about my somewhat "recent" memorable food encounters. Notice the quotation marks - I am pretty behind on my posts.

HappyOblivion and I had heard of Mana Bu, a cute Japanese take out place (okazuya) that sells healthy musubi's and other sweets. Since the chefs value quality and not quantity, the store sells out quickly. About a couple weeks ago, HappyOblivion and I finally visited Mana Bu. The store is very small. Wooden shelves are lined up against two sides of the wall with different musubi's neatly displayed on each shelf. The third wall has a refrigerator unit with desserts and pickled vegetables. The musubi's are made with very healthy ingredients, such as seaweed, 10-grain rice, corn and other vegetables, ume, and dried fish. Below are some of the food we bought.  Starting from the upper left and following a "Z" direction: Shiso and Wakame Musubi, Veggie Curry Pilaf Musubi, Tamago, Cold Zenzai with Mochi. We love them all. I particularly liked the Tamago - the sweetness was just right. With America becoming more health conscious, this will become a popular alternative to the American diet.