Holiday Food Guide / For the holidays, who better to turn to for food and drink gifts than those in the industry? We asked the experts (including the author, the Weekly’s Food and Drink editor) for their holiday gift recommendations.
Holiday Food Guide / Recommendation by: Dave Powers, bartender at Town Oxo graduated stainless steel jigger “A jigger is the main tool bartenders use to measure ingredients for drinks, and a bar spoon is the other,” says Powers. “The typical under over jigger, which looks like two cones squished into each other, only gives you two measurements.
Holiday Food Guide / Recommendation by: Kevin Toyama, Wine Manager and Lead Sommelier at the Halekulani Hotel. “One of the hot new books out is ‘The Pearl of the Cote, The Great Wines of Vosne Romanee’ by Allen Meadows,” Toyama says. Meadows is a formidable, passionate, well-informed voice about the Burgundy region of France.” Price: $90 Where to buy: [burghound.com] “One of the cool gadgets I’ve heard about for opening wine is the ‘Durand’ Corkscrew.
We’re of the mind that food and drink lovers are the easiest people to find gifts for. The artisan edibles and drinks market seems to be growing day by day, and with the advent of the Food Network and celebrity chefs, kitchen gadgetry for every which task imaginable (see Q) is now available for home cooks.
Abalone — Packaged as prettily as a box of chocolates, Kona Coast Abalone are perfect for your favorite seafood lover. $18 for 1.94 ounces at KCCand Blaisdell Farmers’Markets and online [atwww.bigislandabalone.com] Bacon of the Month Club — This little piggy goes straight to your doorstep, as each month brings a different artisan bacon–the pigging out doesn’t have stop once the holidays are over.
Ice cream ball — Have a ball while making ice cream. Simply fill the inner chamber of the ball with ice cream mix, the outer compartment with ice and salt, and roll/shake/pass the ice cream ball for about 20 minutes for ice cream.
Rums from Maui — Haleakala Distillers produces light, gold and dark rums made from Maui sugar–for holiday egg nog or smooth sipping. Oh, and for the hardcore boozer, they also make a 155 proof rum.
Many parents plot how to turn their children into Nobel Peace Prize winners or musical virtuosos from the time the fetus is the size of a lima bean. While this week’s guide isn’t exactly designed to churn out the next Barack Obama or David Bowie (hell, not even a Miley Cyrus, but maybe that’s a good thing), it is fun to think about what toys and activities the little ones will take to, and which ones will be pushed away with a tantrum and a stink eye.
Cultivate love of working with one’s hands, grow an appreciation for hard work, perhaps a glimpse into the life of your great grandparents’ routines in the sugarcane, taro or pineapple fields. Garden alongside your old Japanese grandfather for some quality lessons and talk story, then continue the bonding in the kitchen and at the dinner table.
Is your 5-year-old already wearing thick, plastic-framed glasses? Get the mini shoegazer started on knitting and other artistic outlets so she or he can wear his or her own sweaters already.
Sure, all parents think their kids are smart. If you want to stimulate the quantitative and inquisitive side, here are a few things to get started down that road.
This year’s all-local gift guide has an eye for style Recession, furloughs, foreclosures–these hot button topics made 2009 feel like an uphill battle, but despite the nationwide economic downturn, Honolulu is showing signs that it’s weathering this financial storm. In fact, according to Business Week, Honolulu is ranked 19 out of the top 40 strongest U.S.
Roberta Oaks / Whether it’s an elegant maxi dress or precocious baby doll, Roberta Oaks, Hawaii has a dress for every girl on your gift list. This clothing label is 100 percent made in Hawaii and constructed from eco-friendly material like bamboo and organic cotton.
INTO / The Chinatown gallery and retail space INTO has everything for the urban style aficionado. INTO, which opened four years ago, features interior design elements that mix modern metropolitan aesthetics with an island perspective.
Purotu Designs / In the Islands, it’s not diamonds that say “I love you” but rather poe rava, or black pearls. Purotu Designs is a jewelry line featuring Tahitian and fresh water pearls.
The Wedding Café / There’s only one place we know of on Oahu where you can nosh on a spicy tuna sandwich while shopping for a complete outfit. That one-stop shop is The Wedding Café, located in Ward Warehouse.
47 NORTH HOTEL ST / Fighting Eel is another locally owned label that has become an established brand, popular with locals and fashion junkies abroad. Started six years ago, Fighting Eel continues to make dresses that are simple yet sexy, with clothing that appeals to those who have an unfussy style (these dresses can be worn with heels or slippers).
Olive Boutique / One trip to Kailua can reveal a bounty of undiscovered treasures. Surprise someone with an outfit found only at the Olive Boutique.
There’s nothing quite like lacing up your sneakers, breaking a sweat and coming back home with a grass stain or two to show for it. Here’s some of the equipment you can gift that’s sure to drag your friends off of their beach towels to join you.
Of course, there’s plenty of fun to be had as a grown-up as well. While ping-pong itself is all well and good, we like the idea of buying that boozy athlete on your list a ping-pong table and custom-painting it for beer pong.
For the slightly more serious athlete on your list, we like Polar heart-monitor watches, available at any number of local sporting-good stores. Heart monitors are an incredible tool to track training progress–and it’s fun to see how many calories you burn for various activities.
KICKS/HI / Custom-designing your own shoe from mega-corps like Nike is so 2005. The sneaker freak’s latest must-have?
You can find all kinds of crafty homemade goods–some of them made by local talents, so search by region–on [etsy.com]. We like the bracelets and earrings made from recycled bicycle chains, and pendants with sporty charms like skateboards and sneakers. There are also plenty of earrings, buttons, headbands and all kinds of homemade accessories featuring various team logos.
So we’re all for playing outside and working up a sweat, but we’re also big fans of being big fans. One of the easiest presents for a sports fan is a team jersey.
We also recommend looking for ways to pad a sports fan’s bookshelves. Bill Simmons’ new book, The Book of Basketball is a no-brainer for regular Page 2 readers–and the perfect thing to read on the beach Christmas day.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Not much to agree with my friend Doc Berry (“Limits of Growth,” April 17). None of the scenarios he posits will ever materialize.
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.
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.
Congratulations Honolulu Weekly on the recent Pai award for investigative reporting (“Boss GMO,” Jan. 4, 2012).
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 …
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.
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