Drive-by knife care on Oahu
Can’t easily slice that beautiful Island-grown tomato? Canʻt figure out how to properly sharpen a knife?
Food Box
Green and gorgeous, too
Diana Anthony doesn’t live in the islands, but in Melbourne, Australia. Fortunately, not only do many plants flourish here that do well there, the garden principles she teaches in this well-organized, beautifully photographed and illustrated book transfer well, too.
Pick up a tupig — or possibly a balanghoy; sweet if a bit odd
Southeast Asians relish a sprawling family of confections made with sweet rice or sweet rice flour (mochiko) and coconut milk. In the Philippines, there are everything fromfudges to cakes, often combined with fruit or starchy vegetables or tubers (taro, cassava).
No Need to Felafel About It
Da Falafel King, yet another source of healthy but fast food, is absolutely lovely. Two charming young women work inside the ocean-blue truck in Moiliili (the original is still in Waikiki), greeting everyone as though they were family, taking orders, even serving pita appetizers to those waiting on their orders.
Talk-story with Fishing Family
If you want to kookoo hee, you’ve got to have somebody to kookoo and a good ‘okilo ia. Got that?
First Island Taste of the Nation not another stuffy fundraiser
Alan Wong is worried about the one in four children who go to school hungry. “That’s not a national statistic; that’s a Hawaii statistic,” he said, yelling somewhat over the band entertaining at Hawaii’s first Taste of the Nation event, a link in a chain of chef-driven events across the US seeking to end child hunger.
Expect a good year for mangoes
Speculatively eyeing the rock-hard green ovals, mango lovers are asking each other. “Is it just me, or is this going to be a great mango year?” The answer is yes.
Not Your Grandma’s Grocery Store
Whole Foods already has a well-established Kahala store. Why, when you live near town, go to Kailua?
Abba Dabba Do
We can add fresh abalone to the short list of compensations for living in Hawaii. Itʻs a luxury item found not just in name restaurants (Hiroshi, Roy’s, Alan Wong’s, Chef Mavro) but also Whole Foods, Costco and farmers’ markets, said Big Island Abalone CEO Hiroshi Arai.
It’s Five O’Clock Somewhere Yet more ideas:
Here’s how to have a truly happy hour: Strong rum drinks, hand-crafted with muddled mint and plenty of lime, are half-priced at Soul de Cuba’s festive happy hour ($4-$6). Cuban music gets your shoulders rolling and hips swaying.
Let the good food roll
Oahu, once pretty much a two-note restaurant town (Asian, American) now offers a much broader spectrum, down to Himalayan and even a weekly Ethiopian pop-up. But for years, Southern cookin’, Cajun and Creole food have been scarce.
Hop-Scotch Games
We’ve had a soft spot for single malt Scotch ever since our first sip while honey-marooned for 48 inclement hours in a tent in the Hebrides. As puddles became peaty lakes, our Talisker kept us sane, even cheerful.
Keeping Passover Kosher
Jews who keep kosher in Hawaii (blessings be on their heads because it ain’t easy, with no kosher groceries, bakeries or butchers and only one truly kosher deli) already know how to acquire ingredients for Passover, a multi-day festival that begins April 7. (Kosher is a complex set of regulations governing what observant Jews eat; at its simplest, no pork or shellfish and never meat and dairy at the same meal.
IN THE GROVE
You’re picturing coco-palms fringing a moonlit beach, aren’t you? Rewind.
Haute Korean
The rumor’s been fermenting that “New Korean” cuisine is the next big thing. Now it’s happening at trendy restaurants such as the recently opened Jung Sik in New York.
The DOs & DON’Ts of Lattes and Laptops
A very real set of the working population is turning coffee shops into their go-to offices. It’s a mobile trend we’ve written about before–the coffice–that modern businesses are quickly keying into, brewing free Internet on tap as a selling point (see local cafes like Coffee Talk, R&D and Fresh Café).
Chayote Tsukem-a-call-it? Savory squash
Say tsukemono and watch people’s reactions. You’ll note the experienced tsukemono eater, particularly one who likes salt, will immediately salivate.
Lift Your (Morning) Glass!
Morning Glass Coffee + Café opened in July and now sits back, glancing at East Manoa Road. Outside tables catch a breeze.
Lights, Cameras, Ingredients
Want to see a beautiful, passionate movie about the local food movement on Oahu? Don’t miss the Ingredients Hawaii screening Feb.
The Iron Waffle
Sometimes people just want dessert for lunch. If these people are in Honolulu and are geographically lucky or social network savvy, the city’s Puffettes Egg Puffs food truck is here to satisfy them six days a week.
Gluten-Freedom
When Cherisse Otsuko was diagnosed with gluten intolerance in 2009, her allergy meant cutting out her favorite local foods. “I really wanted mochiko chicken and mac salad so badly,” Otsuko recalls.
Back On the Vegan Chain Gang
Chain restaurants often call to mind relentless streams of gray burgers. Not so at Loving Hut, founded by Supreme Master Ching Hai.
A Pie Affair
Pies rotating in a diner’s glass stand, pies on the neighbor’s porch, pies proffered by friends visiting for dinner. Pie is the “aloha” staple of the Midwest–a region with a casserole-style taste that can be hard to find on Oahu.
All Good Things Come to an End?
Every season comes with it’s flavors and recipes–those signature flavors that we look forward to every year–but we eventually must also bid a fond farewell. What is it about the pumpkin spice latte from Starbucks or an eggnog-flavored shake from Jack in the Box that tastes so good?
Three Persimmons A-Blooming
In season now, the persimmon comes in several varieties. Among them is the American persimmon, native to the US east coast, and the black persimmon from Mexico.
This week
Derelict Downtown
For as long as we can remember, Chinatown has been notorious for drugs, homelessness and filthy streets. Some claim nothing has changed–and that it never will.
Sweet Ride
Bicyclists have long been overlooked by four-wheel riders on Honolulu’s congested streets. In the gleaming, armored pecking order of the road, cyclists are too often dismissed as lane hogs, hand-signaling nuisances and unfortunates who can’t afford cars.
Hoopili miss
The fate of some 1,525 acres of land at Hoopili in ‘Ewa may have been decided last Wednesday in Hawaii’s First Circuit Court. The decision might have gone differently, but the appellant attorneys’ strategy seemed to collapse as Judge Rhonda Nishimura picked it apart based on technical errors.
Housing First $
Last Thursday, May 9, the Caldwell administration revealed its action plan for solving Honolulu’s homeless problem. But at the City Council’s budget meeting the same day, Budget chair Ann Kobayashi wanted to know where the money for “Housing First” (see Cover Story, pg.
Do it Wright
The Mayor Wright Housing project has been slated for major redevelopment by the Hawaii State Housing Authority (HSHA); requests for qualifications will be going out to developers in three to six months. Nonprofit group Faith Action for Community Equity (FACE) wants to make sure the project’s tenants have a say in the redevelopment process, which could include major renovations or a total rebuild.
Street Disconnect
The Honolulu City Council held a special Committee on Transportation meeting on Tuesday, May 7, to go over its Complete Streets initiative with input from the department directors of Design and Construction (DDC), Planning and Permitting (DPP) and Transportation Services (DTS). At prior meetings, including the Moiliili workshop, community members pressed the idea of combining Complete Streets with Caldwell’s repaving projects, which Dan Burden of the Walkable and Livable Communities Institute and some councilmembers have said makes sense.
Stopping Growth
Not much to agree with my friend Doc Berry (“Limits of Growth,” April 17). None of the scenarios he posits will ever materialize.
Get it together
In your Diary of May 8 (“End of the 27th)” you reported on SB 1214, passed by the Legislature. In their nimble way, the Legislature tacked the wheel boot prohibition on a bill that was intended to abolish the Commission on Transportation.
Look both ways
On Friday, May 3, at 3:45 p.m., I was driving town bound through the Wilson tunnel on the Likelike. I was parallel to another car, and there were several other cars following closely behind me.
Thank you!
Congratulations Honolulu Weekly on the recent Pai award for investigative reporting (“Boss GMO,” Jan. 4, 2012).
Truth be told
When the biofuel guys say that costs are “confidential” (“Big-foot Biofuel,” May 8), I reply that since I am the one who is going to end up paying the cost, I have a right to know. Frankly, when everybody tries to hide the costs, I smell rat …
Nature’s beauty
The Foster Botanical Garden never ceases to inspire for an urban setting it is like a step back in time (“See the Flora,” May 8). If Koko Crater Botanical Garden contains the world’s largest plumeria collection as suggested, it may be thanks in part to the Prussian born Dr.
