Ono Grinds

New York is the mecca of cuisine--you can get everything from Chinese Take-Out to Egyptian Fine Dining (is that a paradox?). Yet, as many different types of food items you can find in New York, there is something to be said about going to the actual place and having food from the source. In Hawaii, we've got dishes and desserts that cannot be justly described in words like shave ice. Take sushi, for example, or anything in that Japanese cuisine genre. My friend, Lori, and I had dinner at California Beach Rock N' Sushi on Ward Avenue. It looks like your typical sushi restaurant with a bar and tables and cases of Kirin lining the walls. But take a look at the menu and you have a plethora of items that you don't really get on most sushi menus. I'd most liken it to a trip to Nobu in New York but easier to get in and easier on your wallet. You have your typical appetizers like edamame and agedashi tofu, but travel on down to the last item and get the Seafood Dynamite--a seafood and vegetable casserole type dish with the freshest scallops, fish, shrimp and baked with a masago mayo topping that is to die for.

The sushi menu is pretty standard with pieces of yellowtail, tuna, eel, shrimp sushi or sashimi pieces as well as cucumber and spicy tuna rolls. The special rolls, however, gives any East Roll in New York a run for its money. The Tarantula Roll (some are more familiar with the Spider Roll) is soft shell crab that's been fried rolled up with lettuce, avocado, cucumber, and kaiware. But unlike the Spider Roll, the legs sticking out of this one really looks like tarantula legs. Having grown up eating weird items like tripe and chicken feet, I couldn't turn it down and it was crunchy and delicious. Not to be left aside, the Stuntman Roll is a must get for the spicy tuna roll lover who likes a little more tuna--it's a spicy tuna and cucumber roll with layers of seared ahi on the top, garnished with green onions and tataki sauce. The tuna, might I add, was so fresh, I barely had to chew it.

For your main entree, I recommend the Supreme Salmon which is pan fried filets of this healthy pink fish with garlic butter soy sauce. The salmon, like everything else in this restaurant, is so fresh, you could swear there is a river running right behind the restaurant. More into turf? Get the New York Steak (you can take the girl out of New York, but let her eat steak) which is charbroiled and served with a delicious teriyaki sauce that puts any bottled mainland grocery version to shame. All entrees served with rice and salad and miso soup (with fresh and real tofu).

After filling up on all the ono ("good tasting") food, you might feel like dessert and what better dessert to have than a Multiple Orgasm? Too much too soon, how about the more innocent mochi ice cream. Take a drive to University Avenue and go to Bubbies. You'll notice that you won't find the MO online because, well, they want to be family friendly--they renamed it Relationship George for you Republicans. It is a layer of Espresso, Oreo, and Kona Coffee ice creams topped with a layer of fudge and sitting on an Oreo cookie crust--it deserves its proper name. If it sounds too rich, get the mochi ice cream in a trio of flavors ranging from strawberry, vanilla, chocolate to the more exotic mango, lychee, guava. I'm a fan of the chocolate mochi with mint ice cream filling and the lychee. Mochi, for the culturally void, is a Japanese dessert that is soft and sticky sweet--often made for the New Year for good luck. It is usually filled with red azuki bean and eaten at room temperature. Some ingenious person decided that ice cream would make a more interesting filling, hence the hardened and sticky mochi ice cream. It is best eaten with some hot cocoa. And if you want to have a perfect date, Bubbies is a great place to go and talk about the interesting names of their desserts ("Eat My Balls" and "Come Here Little Girl").

I could go on about the L&L Drive-In plate lunch or the excellent Hawaiian food at Ono Hawaiian Foods on Kapahulu (yes, real kalua pig and laulau), but I'll stop this food talk on the note of malasadas. Leonard's Bakery on Kapahulu Avenue makes the best malasadas: a Portugese donut, more or less, that has been coated in granulated sugar. It sounds so simple, right, but for some reason, I'd rather have one malasada than a dozen Krispy Kreme donuts. There is something about a freshly made malasada that a Krispy Kreme donut cannot beat. Whether it is the sumptuous softness of the dough or the strange taste of the crisp shell covered in sugar, the malasada is a must have. They have become more daring recently and now coat it in cinnamon upon request or fill it with custard (chocolate or vanilla or a fruity flavor of your choice). All, once again, fresh and made to order.

After all that talk of food, I'm full. It is only 3pm and I'm itching for some place to go tonight to celebrate the New Year. There was debate about a boat on the water to see the fireworks, but it is so overcast today. There was also talk about going to the W Honolulu's Diamond Head Grill for their Black Ball--dress your darkest and come ready for hip-hop and house music. Then, rain or shine, New Year's Day is all about surfing--best to get the year started off properly. Here's to everyone having a safe and gossip-worthy New Year--Hauoli Makahiki Hou!

Back to the Beach, Salsa in the Sand

Well known for its sunny and warm climate, Hawaii is the perfect place to hit the beach and lounge around reading a book with intermittent frolicking in the ocean. Thus, a trip to the beach was required to help fade my whiteness to brown. As to whether I was successful at that is still to be determined.

Waikiki Beach is probably the most well known beach in Hawaii with a flourish of tourists. Many do not understand the art of getting a good tan and not inviting skin cancer earlier than will most likely occur with this much sun. Tourists flock to the beach to get immediate gratification--also known as "sun burn." When not on the beach many frequent Red Lobster and the locals refer to that place as "not what they serve, but who they serve." Most of the tourists don't realize that long enough in the sun for many who never see it is about one hour with SPF 50 at 4pm. However, thinking they have to get tan in a day, they sit out with SPF 8 from 9am to 6pm and turn a shade of red even Crayola hasn't thought up a name for yet. (I was thinking burnt orange mixed with fuschia.) My friend, Erin, has been stationed in Hawaii for a couple years now finishing up his ROTC post-graduate responsibilities. He came as white as an Oregonian can and now can proudly hold his head up high, tanner than me, a local girl. Yes, I envy him, I do.

When you finish baking at 450°F on the beach, packing up and heading to Waiola Bakery on Kapahulu Avenue for shave ice (think of a really nice snow cone) is a perfect way to cap off your day before you hit the clubs. Shave ice is one of those purely Hawaiian things that has put a smile on my face since I was a kid and wanted mine "rainbow." Since then, they have come up with a slew of flavors like haupia (coconut custard), li hung, mango, lychee and can be topped like ice cream with such sweeties as condensed milk.

My friend, Jano, is always asking me about what it looks like where I live and would fault my character for not showing some pictures of my neighborhood. I didn't attend Punahou School but do live on Punahou Street. Just past Central Union Church and Kapiolani Medical Center (where just about everyone I know was born), is my small neighborhood. I lived across the street from my high school, Maryknoll, and only a few blocks from my grade school of the same name. It is a quiet place with a view of the Ko'olau Mountains (and Richard Chamberlain's mansion). Not Kahala or Hawaii Loa Ridge, I grew up in a small condominium sharing a room with my brother. It may explain why I like living alone now--having your own personal space is so nice. My school is so small, our basketball courts actually also double as faculty parking. We have no cafeteria or gymnasium mostly because we're a tiny campus and utilize the free gym--also known as a nearby park or the great outdoors. I went to a school with about 500 students total and a class of about 140. It means everyone knows you and with a mouth as big as mine, everyone probably heard me at least.

The past few days it has been "storming" here which just means rain with the occassional lightning. The problems with that is flooding in Hawaii which then results in mud- and rockslides on certain parts of the island including the North Shore. If you aren't careful, the Kamehameha Highway on the North Shore will flood and you're stuck out there in your little Honda trying to figure out if you can paddle home on your surf board. What does it look like? It means we have blue-gray days because the skies are almost never completely clouded over. You can always find the sun peeking out behind the clouds, clearing a space for a burst of blue.

When it finally stopped raining last night, I headed to Waikiki with Erin and my girls for some salsa dancing at Esprit in the Sheraton Waikiki. Waikiki still has all those amazing places to visit like the International Market Place where you can purchase trinkets that may remind you of Hawaii. It is like Times Square and is fun to go visit, but like many locals, not a place to hang out--too crowded. You are also bound to see an aquarium here or there with tropical fish. There was one across Kalakaua Avenue from the Sheraton with sting rays and lots of tropical fish you might be able to find at your local pet store. They build these escalators and stairways for tourists to walk on to feel like they are swimming with the fish. As much as I should be used to these things, I never cease to be amazed by ocean life. Sometimes I think I should have gone into marine biology or the environmental sciences the way I'm so enamored with the ocean.

Once I was satisfied looking at the fishes, Erin and I headed over to the Sheraton. I've known Erin since he was first learning to social dance with me at Stanford University. After 8 years, he's become the dancing king. Whenever I am home, I know I'll be out dancing at some point with Erin--swing, salsa, waltz, polka, lindy hop, tango. While I am a most pathetic follow (that's me being the control freak), I enjoy being spun around the dance floor and Erin is an excellent lead. He entertained me and my 3 friends, but I'm sure it was a pain he could suffer through.

I have about a week left and need to carve out a day with enough sun to go surfing. Erin, now the real local boy, has graciously offered to teach me and Lacey how to surf. We're excited about this and hope not to get our heads knocked in too much by our longboards. Hopefully this rain won't keep up and we can head out one of these days. On the agenda--malasadas, Ono Hawaiian Food, shopping, and renewing my driver's license. Oy geez--after not driving all year in New York, I have to take a written test about the road rules in Hawaii. In New York, the rules seems to be "don't get hit and don't hit anyone; if you can squeeze by, it is a lane; right of way is a relative term."

What I'm reading: "Love in the Time of Cholera" by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
What I watched: "Cold Mountain" & "Love Actually" & "Seabiscuit"
What I'm listening: I-94 (93.9 FM) & Krater 96 (96.3 FM) & KPOI: The Rock You Live On (97.5 FM) Hawaii

Mele Kalikimaka is the thing to say

Ho ho ho! That's right, it is Christmas in Hawaii. As one of my friends pointed out, holiday songs in Hawaii are rather strange like "White Christmas" and "Let It Snow" since we don't have any snow and thus no white Christmas–unless you are on Haleakala. But that doesn't mean Hawaiians don't have our own songs for the holidays. Like "Mele Kalikimaka" which means "Merry Christmas" in Hawaiian. It was written by Hawaii-born Robert Alexander Anderson in 1949 and has been sung by numerous crooners of the great songbooks including Bing Crosby who first recorded it as a B-side in 1950. And the lyrics are quite appropriate to what Christmas is really like in Hawaii:

Mele Kalikimaka is the thing to say
On a bright Hawaiian Christmas Day
That's the island greeting that we send to you
From the land where palm trees sway
Here we know that Christmas will be green and bright
The sun to shine by day and all the stars at night
Mele Kalikimaka is Hawaii's way
To say "Merry Christmas" to you.

Unlike Manhattan where you can still get Christmas dinner at Shun Lee, just about every grocery store, restaurant, mall, and lei stand is closed (with the exception of Blockbuster and the movie theatres) on Christmas as ohana (for all you "Lilo and Stitch" fans) really is the spirit of Christmas. Everyone makes their local kine grinds (that's "food") and has a big gathering with their family. It is enough to make you feel all warm and fuzzy inside if the weather doesn't do it for you.

My family, however, doesn't quite abide by those traditions. I've spent many Christmases at the movie theatre for a marathon of the lastest releases. I'm planning on a trip to Ward Centre to see "Cold Mountain" I've already seen "Return of the King" three times, so I guess I should try and spend my money on other flicks.

What is Christmas without Santa, brah? Yes, Santa arrived on Waikiki Beach this morning accompanied by hula girls in a canoe. How sexy is that? Adorned with leis and lavished with hugs and kisses, he came ashore to toss out candies and other goodies to the kids waiting for his arrival. Who needs snow and snuggling up to someone with hot chocolate when we have the vast cerulean Pacific Ocean washing onto our beaches and beautiful tan bikini-clad women and surfer men traipsing on the white sand?

Photo courtesy of Dennis Oda, Hawaii Star-Bulletin.

I've yet to make it out to the beach to join my brown-skinned brothers and sisters as I blind them with my mainland whiteness, but tomorrow, I'll take the plunge and make it out to the beach for a post-Hawaiian Christmas day with my friends, a plate of sushi, and shave ice.

Welcome to our world...

Aloha! After a long trip home (13 hours), I am now in Hawaii, on the island of Oahu, in the city of Honolulu with the warm weather and cool trade winds. 77 degrees is perfect and Santa is wearing his aloha shirt and shorts. Yes, Santa actually makes it out here and no, we don't have any pagan gods for this holiday. Friends always envy my coming back to the islands for almost 3 weeks of sun and fun. As you fly towards Honolulu, you can see various islands from the plane's windows and it is strange feeling. After hours over water with nothing but blue and cotton clouds below, to see the bluish-gray mounds on the horizon puts one in disbelief almost--wow, land! Land! You kinda feel like Christopher Colombus or whoever was the lookout for land. I'm still recovering from the jetlag and have Christmas parties and errands. Everyone here is on low in comparison to everyone being on overload in New York. You get the sense that you're too fast here and you should go with the locals. It is a learned behavior that is easier to get into once you realize you're the dimwit walking like there are hot coals under your feet. So, it is time to chill out, watch the sun set, and be with good friends.