SuzySushi

This is a wonderful description of how you're making family traditions and food traditions, and well, making memories. ...So well put, I love it. And ohana is my new favorite word. To catch up and to finish up your blog Suzy, take all the time you need, as long as you are willing. Many, many thanks! ← Susan, thank you for your so kind comments. I've never considered myself a lyrical writer, so to hear that you consider my blog "beautiful," with "wonderful description" warms my heart.

I'm delighted to see you blogging this week! I'd been wondering why you were living in Korea, and then Vietnam, but was too polite to ask! Now I can satisfy my curiousity.

However, I can post photos of some local foodie spots where we stopped a few weeks ago, when I was scouting locations for this blog. Several coconut stalls dot the roadside between Haleiwa and Kahuku. Wendy wanted to stop at one for some "young coconut juice." Their roadside sign And the stall itself. You can see some crafts, including "tapa cloth" (traditionally pounded from tree bark) to the left. Coconuts, a local avocado, and apple bananas. They grow all their produce in the field behind the stand. I think the folks at this stand are Samoan. This lady is real pro. Rotating the coconut in one hand, she expertly tapped the husk with a machete, like opening the shell of a soft-boiled egg! Stick in a straw, and it's ready to drink. Young coconut juice is the almost-clear liquid that's inside a green coconut. (Coconut milk is a different product, made from grated mature coconut flesh that's squeezed out with water.) After we finished drinking the juice -- this coconut had enough for all three of us! -- the vendor cracked open the coconut and used a trowel-like tool to scoop out the "spoon meat." Young coconut flesh is very nutritious (it can be fed to babies) and has a mild flavor with the consistency of slippery Jell-O. Coconut "spoon meat" -- or in this case, a fork In honor of eGullet, we made a pilgrimage to another North Shore landmark, Ted's Bakery, home of the award-winning Chocolate Haupia Cream Pie. Ted's products are sold in supermarkets around Oahu, but there's nothing like getting them freshly made from the source. The famous pie consists of a layer of chocolate custard made with coconut milk, topped with a layer of haupia (coconut pudding), and finally whipped cream topping. We settled for sharing one slice Wendy got the first bite We also scoped out the famous shrimp trucks in Kahuku. Kahuku used to be a sugar mill town. The sugar mill closed 35 years ago, but Kahuku has become an active shrimp aquaculture area. I don't especially like Kahuku shrimp. To me, they taste watery and flavorless compared with wild varieties (and even the aquacultured frozen shrimp I buy from Thailand). But this truck made for colorful photo.

A must-stop in Haleiwa is a local landmark, Matsumoto Shave Ice. Shave ice was originally brought to Hawaii by Japanese plantation workers. Although shave ice looks like a mainland "snow cone," it's made with ice that is finely shaved by a small countertop machine rather than crushed. Almost every day summer and winter, a queue of tourists and locals snakes out the door. Matsumoto's serves about 1,200 portions daily and offers 29 flavors of homemade syrups. Their most popular flavor combination is the Rainbow, consisting of strawberry, pineapple, and lemon, chosen more for its lurid colors than flavor compatibility. My favorite combo is more exotic: lilikoi (passion fruit) and lychee. You can also get popular shave ice variations with ice cream or sweetened azuki beans at the bottom (the latter, a traditional Japanese way of serving this icy treat), or condensed milk poured over the top. A small cone with up to three flavors costs $1.50, a large $1.75 (more for add-ins or a flower-shaped plastic cupholder). People sit on a bench or hang around outside the store to eat. Like many other old stores in Haleiwa, Matsumoto's began as a tiny grocery and dry goods shop serving plantation workers. When waves of surfers, hippies, and tourists began flooding into Haleiwa in the 1960s, the store switched to selling shave ice, T-shirts, and souvenirs. T-shirt display in Matsumoto's store Matsumoto's is not the only shave ice game in town -- there's also Aoki's just down the road. That's where we usually get our shave ice because Aoki's lines are shorter and it's the only place on Oahu that offers a shave ice with a choice of sugar-free syrups. This photo of Wendy was taken there a couple of weeks ago -- she was in seventh heaven! Notice the sign in the window with the store hours. Across the road from Matsumoto's is the pretty, New England-style Queen Liliuokalani Protestant Church. Hawaii's last monarch, Queen Liliuokalani had a summer home in Haleiwa. She was also a songwriter, and composed the music and lyrics to Hawaii's plaintive farewell song, Aloha `Oe. In the park across from Jameson's, we spotted this guy with his custom-made Harley-Volkswagen, which he's taken on a road trip around all 50 states. (No, he didn't drive to Hawaii -- he had the motorcycle shipped by boat from Alaska, which took 17 days.) He has a sign out asking for "photo donations" to help defray the cost of his trip. A few weeks ago, there was an article about him in the local newspaper, but I can't find a link. He's been sleeping in his car here because it's so rainy at night. No one likes packing up a wet tent. The girls got to pose on the motorcycle, too. When surf's up like it was on Thursday, the two-lane Kamehameha (Kam) Highway around the North Shore draws bumper-to-bumper traffic with both tourists and locals out to see the waves. These waves are bigger than they look in the photo -- probably about 20 feet. We only made it a mile-and-a-half out of Haleiwa to Laniakea Beach. From everything we heard, the road was safe ahead of us, but by this time, it was getting close to 5 p.m. and the sun goes down by 6 in the winter. With traffic just inching forward, I knew we couldn't make the approximate 10 miles to the Turtle Bay Resort before sunset. The resort has long been controversial because people who live around here consider it overdevelopment (and the resort plans to expand its facilities). A lot of cars and trees are plastered with stickers reading "keep the country country" or showing a "no turtle" logo. But I've always had a soft spot for the Turtle Bay Resort because that's where Michael proposed to me 16 years ago. We also celebrated New Year's Eve there at the dawn of the New Millennium. For the holidays, the lobby is decked out with a huge Christmas tree composed of tiers and tiers of potted poinsettias. Sigh. Another time. We also missed seeing the waves at the North Shore's most famous beaches: Waimea Bay, with its high overlook and horseshoe-shaped sandy shoreline. Shark's Cove, notable for its underwater caves, which experienced divers can explore when the surf is low in the summer. The Banzai Pipeline and Sunset Beach, where professional surfing competitions are held. I read the next morning that the wave-viewing had been less than spectacular because northerly winds caused choppy seas.

Our next destination was the historic town of Haleiwa (pronounced hah-lay-EE-va). Established over a century ago by missionaries and later developed by a railroad magnate, Haleiwa retains a "Wild West" flavor, with wooden clapboard storefronts in the middle of nowhere. The town was revived during the "hippie days" of the 1960s as a haven for surfers, and it's still laid-back and funky, chockablock with a colorful hodgepodge of surf shops, art galleries, boutiques, and low-key eateries. A surf shop in Haleiwa (yeah, the weather was getting overcast). We usually like to dine at Jameson's by the Sea, where we love the ocean view and "old Hawaii" atmosphere -- chintz-cushioned rattan furniture, potted palms, lazy ceiling fans, a garden fountain complete with tiki torches and cavorting dolphins. Off-topic, but I just have to show you this car that was in Jameson's parking lot! Back on-topic, Michael had a craving for chiles rellenos, and voted for Rosie's Cantina, a Mexican restaurant that's been around Haleiwa since 1981. The restaurant was packed, even at 2 p.m., and we lucked out getting a table. Rosie's Cantina, all decorated for Christmas Wendy and Nikki at Rosie's. Nikki came home with us for a sleepover after Caryn's party. To Michael's great disappointment, however, the chiles rellenos were sold out! We switched our order to pork-filled tacos de carnitas, which Michael (who grew up in Los Angeles) pronounced "too gringo." The platter was huge -- enough for the two of us. The girls had quesadillas, cheese for Nikki, chicken for Wendy. The girls had spotted a Malasadas stand in the parking lot, and clamored for those as dessert. Malassadas spelled with two s's) originated in the Portuguese Azores and were brought to Hawaii -- along with Portuguese sweet bread -- by the Portuguese immigrants who came here as plantation workers circa the 1880s. Like their cousins Dutch oliebollen, French beignets, German krapfen, Israeli sufganiyot, Mexican sopapillas, and Polish paczki, malassadas are doughnuts without holes. They're typically dusted with granulated sugar (though cinnamon-sugar variations are also available) and served hot from the fryer. If they cool off, they're leaden. Several bakeries around Oahu specialize in malassadas, with Leonard's on Kapahulu Avenue probably being the best known. Malassadas are also popular at outdoor fairs, particularly the Punahou Carnival that is held as a fundraiser by the Punahou private school every February, when several hundred thousand! are sold during the two-day event. Recently, some malassada shops have also begun offering versions filled with haupia (coconut custard), chocolate pudding, or other custard fillings. This malasada stand is run by a sweet Korean lady. She also sells kalbi plate lunches and bubble tea (country of origin: Taiwan). I think we can safely say that Hawaii is a melting pot! Here's a close-up of a malasada (or malassada). It cost 75¢.

Further north along the highway, some of Dole's former pineapple acreage has been converted over to Dole's Wailua Coffee Plantation, the only coffee commercially grown on Oahu. Pine trees are planted in rows as windbreaks to protect the neat rows of short coffee trees. Oahu's North Shore is world-famous for surfing, but further inland it's still farm country. Bales of hay Horses in the field Surf's up!!! The waves must be really big if we can see them like this from miles away!

And now back to our regularly scheduled blog. . . To avoid confusion, I'll continue from where I left off, in chronological order starting with our trip to the North Shore on Thursday. We live about 10 minutes away from Dole Pineapple Plantation in Wahiawa. The area used to be the center of Oahu's pineapple industry, but except for some pineapples grown for tourists and local consumption, over the past two decades, most of the pineapple production moved offshore to countries like the Philippines, Thailand, and Costa Rica, where labor is cheaper. Last month, Dole's chief competitor, Del Monte, abruptly shut down its century-old pineapple operations here, two years earlier than planned, throwing more than 550 employees out of work. Now Dole is Oahu's only pineapple grower. When I first moved to Hawaii and we lived on the other side of the island in Waikiki, we'd make Dole Plantation a pit stop on our "circle island" expeditions because its small plantation house offered clean restrooms, DoleWhip sorbet cones, and free samples of pineapple juice (the latter, alas, no more). There was also an experimental pineapple garden in front, and a horseback trail through the pineapple fields in back. Dole Plantation has since been expanded into a major tourist attraction with the World's Largest Maze. The average length of time to navigate the maze is about 45 minutes, but several people have made it in just 6! Here's the maze entrance. The plantation also has a botanical garden that showcases the fruits and flowers grown commercially in Hawaii. I'd never been through this garden before, and thought it would be a good opportunity to take photos of Hawaii's famous agricultural products all in one place. Banana plant (strictly speaking, it's not a tree because it does not have a woody trunk). The "hand" of bananas is growing facing up. BTW, this is a size comparison between regular (Williams) bananas and the small "apple bananas" that also grow here. I like apple bananas. They are not quite as sweet as the regular kind, and the peeled bananas don't oxidize as quickly, making them ideal for fruit salads that can be prepared in advance. Papayas A coffee tree. When I was growing up, my mother had a coffee tree as an indoor houseplant. It had pretty, shiny, pointed leaves. It never produced any beans, though. Coffee beans. When they turn bright red, they're ready for picking. (I think I may have posted the photo sideways, but can't figure out which way is up! ) Rows of coffee trees in the center of the photo Starfruit. If you look closely toward the top of the photo, you can see the long pale green fruit hanging vertically from the branches. This was the first time I'd seen starfruit growing. Breadfruit. Each is the size of a large grapefruit. We don't eat it much in Hawaii, but other South Pacific islanders do. When breadfruit is baked, the inside tastes like freshly baked bread. Rambutan. Like hairy lychees. The skins turn red when they're ripe. Red ginger. Hawaii produces most of the fresh ginger sold in the United States. This is not the edible kind -- it's grown for the showy flowers used in floral arrangements. We also grow white ginger, whose fragrant flowers are used in perfumes and leis. Surprise! There's a beautiful landscaped fountain in the center of the botanical garden. Kalo, the Hawaiian word for taro. There are several types of taro -- wetland taro, and the dryland taro seen here. Both the root/tuber and the leaves are used for food. The root is pounded to make poi, Hawaii's infamous starchy staple (more about this later in the blog), or it can be cooked like a potato or ground into flour. The leaves are cooked as a vegetable and taste like spinach. You can't eat them raw -- too much oxalic acid. A gecko descending a bamboo tree. Bamboo grows prolifically in Hawaii, but as far as I know, the shoots are not harvested for food. Pineapples don't grow on trees! They're bromeliads and each plant produces only one fruit at a time. Here are examples of some of the more unusual varieties grown around the world. A red pineapple from Brazil. A peculiar gourd-shaped pineapple. Wanna grow your own pineapple? Check out the instructions here. The gift shop was expanded tremendously in the past year -- it's now more than triple its former size. Many of the souvenirs are made in the Philippines, but the gift shop also offers a coffee bar serving the Wailua coffee, and a cafeteria-style café with lanai seating. We bought a tray of fresh-cut pineapple to take home. And in the interest of eGullet research (what an excuse! ) I felt compelled to try this: A Pineapple Cream Puff, which proved to be filled with a seductive pineapple custard and tidbits of pineapple.

Well, we made it to and from the North Shore!!! Lots of stories to tell and pictures to show you, but not enough time before the forum goes offline for reoganization. . . I'll be back with my blog on Dec. 31st. If I don't see you all before then, Have a Happy, Healthy, Peaceful, and Prosperous New Year!

Well, we've decided to shoot for the North Shore after all. We know we can get as far as the town of Haleiwa because the road to that point is inland. There's plenty to see and do there. We'll scope out the road after that; if we feel we can't get through and back safely, we'll forget about seeing any waves today. Since eGullet will be offline for site changes from midnight EST today, and there's a five hour time difference, I won't be able to post anything after 7 p.m. Hawaii time. We'll probably be home by then, but if not, don't worry about me -- we're not into risk-taking. P.S., "We" today includes Nikki, who came home with us last night and is sleeping over.

It was. . . different. As I said, extremely sweet. All the Japanese guests tried it, but we only could eat very small pieces because it was so rich. They much preferred the apple crisp, of which they took second and third helpings! We used to be able to get red bean haupia pie, and that was much more palatable. The red beans were more a light yokan consistency, and the whole thing was much less sugary. It only had a bottom crust.

The most common culinary uses are mixed with poke, where it adds a pleasant crunch, or as a kind of Japanese salad dressed with soy sauce and rice vinegar. It can also be added to soups and stews. Like all edible seaweeds, it's rich in vitamins and minerals. For ancient Hawaiians, limu was the third cornerstone of their diet, along with poi (taro paste), which provided the carbohydrates, and fish, which provided the protein. Here's a link from the University of Hawaii describing the different types of limu. The kind used in poke is limu manauea or ogo, the red seaweed in the top center photo. I don't know anything about limu as a dietary supplement!

There were 15 of us at dinner last night. Besides our hostess Caryn and her three kids ages 13 to 18, there were Mike, Ginny, and Nikki, and two sets of guests from Japan -- an old friend of Caryn's, along with her son, daughter-in-law, and 3-year-old grandson; and the grown daughter of another friend, who will be living at Caryn's house for a few months while perfecting her English. No formality here. These are close enough friends that they helped out in the kitchen. Some of the guests at the dinner table. The kids were at another table set up nearby. Caryn is standing in the back, wearing the green shirt. The main course was a dish normally associated with St. Patrick's Day rather than Christmas: corned beef & cabbage (or as Caryn termed it, "New England boiled dinner"). The cabbage and potatoes The corned beef There were also separate bowls of Brussels sprouts, carrots, and onions. Everything was delicious and everyone took second helpings. For dessert, my apple crisp, along with a "red bean mochi pie" Mike & Ginny picked up at a supermarket on the way over. No, none of us had ever heard of it before, either! They figured that since the guests of honor are Japanese, they might like to try a local Hawaiian adaptation of Japanese ingredients. The pie turned out to be very sweet, filled with anko (sweetened azuki bean paste) with a layer of soft mochi (a glutinous rice cake the consistency of soft taffy, without the sweetness) in between. In a blog filled with photos of my dog, equal opportunity for Caryn's cat, all tuckered out from the big dinner!

Good morning! Yes, it does rain in Hawaii -- sometimes for days and weeks on end. The winter is our rainy season. Earlier this year, we had more than a month of rain. People talked of the rains being "of Biblical proportions." In March, torrential rains caused the roof of the movie theatre complex in Kahala shopping mall (in a classy area of East Oahu) to collapse, flooding the mall's ground floor with ankle-deep water! Most of the stores were up and running within a few days, but the theatres were so badly damaged that they just reopened December 15th. The sun is breaking through the clouds now, so we may be in luck. . . or maybe not: We were planning to drive up to the North Shore today, but this morning's newspaper headline read "Big surf may hit 40 feet today." Not good surfing conditions -- waves that height are far too dangerous, even for professional surfers. It also means that the road will likely be bumper-to-bumper traffic with folks driving up to gawk, or the road may be completely impassable due to flooding (yes, it's that close to the ocean). I'm going to have to think about this and discuss it with Michael. We really hadn't had a Plan "B" for today. Meanwhile, here's a glimpse of the ocean on the South Shore, taken at Maunalua Bay yesterday evening as we were driving over to our friend's house for dinner. Maunalua Bay is a popular spot for diving and jet skiing. South Shore waves are generally flat in the winter. Not a colorful sunset, but stunning nonetheless.

These look quite familiar to me. Except for Macadamia nut candies - which are not traditional Chinese. Looks like they incorporated the local specialties as well? If they follow the Chinese traditional recipes, then the filling for the wife's cake (wedding cake) would be candied Winter Melon. ← Yes, the macadamia candies substitute macadamias for the usual Chinese peanut candy (which they also offer). Aha! So it's winter melon. I've been trying to identify the filling.

The apple crisp cooling on the stove. Gotta go take my shower now. . . We're leaving for the party in about an hour. Our friend lives about an hour's drive away, and we don't want to get stuck in the evening rush-hour traffic. Back later with a full report!

Yes. To prepare it for cooking, you wash it, scrubbing with a brush to get off the dirt (or you can peel it with a vegetable peeler). Then either cut it into short chunks if you're planning to cook it in a stew, or (the Japanese way), "shave" it with a knife as though you were sharpening a pencil. The shavings are stir-fried, usually with carrot shavings, for a cooked salad-y dish called kimpira. Gobo is usually seasoned with soy sauce, sugar, and maybe a little sesame oil. Some people add chili flakes to kimpira. Gobo can also be made into pickles, but I've never made them from scratch -- we buy them ready-made.

BTW, after all the feasting we've been doing, last night's dinner was a simple, out-of-focus (!) salad using what little was left of the Christmas roast beef, along with locally grown lettuce, yellow and red grape tomatoes, sliced Japanese cucumber, and cilantro, sprinkled with sunflower seeds and dressed with a bottled Asian-style (soy sauce, rice vinegar, and sesame oil) salad dressing from Gyotaku, a local Japanese restaurant. My lunch today is more leftover salad greens with some turkey that was left over from Thanksgiving (the latter had been safely ensconced in the freezer, of course). Wendy is playing at our next-door neighbors' house and is eating lunch there. These neighbors moved in about a month ago and Wendy is delighted because they have a 9-year-old girl and a 7-year-old son. Built-in friends! The kids have been switching back and forth between houses after school and on weekends ever since. I never used to keep salty snacks or junk food in the house (except for chocolate -- which isn't junk ), but now that Wendy's of an age that she constantly has friends over, I almost have to. The kids can go through the refrigerator in minutes, vacuuming up everything except vegetables. (In fact, if there's anything I want to put off limits, I hide it in the vegetable bin!)

First, the hiragana: いきいき (ikiiki), roughly "fresh, fresh" Second, the kanji: 鮮魚大特売 (sengyo dai tokubai) 鮮魚 Fresh fish 大　Big, great 特売 Special sale ← Great!!! Thanks for translating!!!

Oh no!!!! Closing Ranch 99??? I hadn't heard anything, but now will keep my ear to the ground. That'll be a real shame if it goes. Yup. Haw flakes are addictive. But you can have my share of kazunoko. Strangely enough, the only kazunoko I liked was the stuff they used to serve at Genki Sushi, but they discontinued it because it wasn't popular enough.

Thanks, Mike! I didn't really know how much I was taking on! It's not the chronicling in words that's hard -- it's posting the photos. Nope, sorry to say I do not drink Kona coffee. I find it too mild (as well as too expensive.) I like to buy and support local products, but that's not one of them. The coffee I drink is roasted in Hawaii, but grown elsewhere.

Tonight we're invited to a party at a friend's house. This afternoon, I'll prepare an apple crisp, spiced with candied ginger and sweetened with Splenda, for dessert. Before the party, I wanted to tell you a little about the Hawaiian concept of family, called ohana. Ohana means "family" (as you may know if you saw the Disney movie Lilo & Stitch), but it's more than that. It means extended family, encompassing not only people who are actual relatives, but "calabash cousins" who are so close emotionally that they figuratively drank out of the same calabash (gourd bowl) as you did as children. These friends we're seeing tonight -- along with Mike and Ginny's family, who will also be at tonight's party -- are our ohana, in the absence of any of us having other actual relatives living here. We three families get together for just about every major holiday celebration -- Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter, Memorial Day, July 4th, Labor Day -- for either a meal at one of our homes, or a beach or park picnic. Another Hawaiian family concept is hanai, which means "adopted." In old Hawaii, there was a tradition of informal adoption, whereby children were given away to be loved and reared by someone other than their natural parents, often to their grandparents or a childless relative. In practice, hanai today is a verbal shortcut to define the warmth of any fostering relationship. For instance, one of Wendy's friends (who sadly has moved off-island) used to spend so much time at our house that she became our hanai daughter. (I'm an earth mother anyway!) Hanai can be used to refer to the foster parent, the child, or the process.

We also stopped by Costco yesterday (most of y'all know what Costco looks like, right?), ostensibly to pick up some fresh asparagus for today, but they were all sold out. New Year's shopping was already in full swing and the store looked like it was stripped! Thanks to Hawaii's strong Asian-American influence (according to the 2000 Census, Asians -- many of them third- or fourth-generation -- represent the largest proportion of State residents, about 42%), New Year's is a tremendous holiday here, and it's typically celebrated with family parties and reunions, not going out nightclubbing. New Year's is also a tremendous time for fireworks. The popularity of New Year's fireworks here began as a traditional Chinese custom to ward off evil spirits -- but the tradition caught on with other ethnic groups as well. In Hawaii, more firecrackers are set off at New Year's than on the Fourth of July! For several years, the City & County of Honolulu -- which means all of Oahu -- restricted fireworks for health and safety reasons, and you needed a $25 permit to buy a maximum of 5,000. This year the restrictions have been lifted, and people are really going to town. It's going to be a noisy, smoke-filled New Year's, with a haze of smoke hanging over the island, and the streets littered for days with red firecracker wrappers. At Costco yesterday, they were already sold out of the largest fireworks assortments -- a $300 (discount price) stack in a box five feet tall!!! -- and the smaller $148 assortments were going fast! Here's a photo I snuck of the display, under the watchful eye of a regional manager. Luckily for us (I hope!) every condo association here in the valley bans fireworks on their property because the houses are too close to the woods.

And now back to our regularly scheduled blog. Yesterday afternoon was a good time to shop at Marukai, a Japanese warehouse club whose name translates to "circle club." Besides a chain of stores in Japan, Marukai has four stores in California, and two in Honolulu. Membership costs just $10 a year. Marukai also owns a chain of three 99¢ stores on Oahu where membership is not required -- they offer a great assortment of Japanese housewares. Marukai warehouse club. The main store is in an industrial area. Marukai carries a huge selection of Japanese groceries and fresh seafood, meat, and produce. The seafood includes sashimi-grade products flown in from Japan. There are premium meats like American Wagyu beef and Canadian Berkshire pork; and air-flown Japanese produce such as myoga (a ginger-like root with a more delicate taste). There's also a Japanese housewares department, Japanese dry goods, and a sizeable selection of Filipino and Korean products. The interior has a bazaar-like atmosphere, especially when it's decked out for New Year's. Here's the housewares department Japanese New Year's is a big holiday in Hawaii. Many of the Japanese-Americans living here are second, third, or even fourth generation, but a lot of families follow traditions that have fallen by the wayside in modern Japan. Even mainstream supermarkets carry the makings for kadomatsu, traditional arrangements of pine sprigs and bamboo stalks that are displayed near the entrance to the house; and kagami mochi, decorations made of two stacked glutinous rice cakes. Traditionally, kagami mochi are topped with a whole mandarin orange. Ours, which we picked up a few weeks ago at another Japanese supermarket, is topped with a plastic maneki neko, a stylized "beckoning cat" figurine that symbolizes good fortune. Here is the kagami mochi display in the other market. Don Quijote is the name of a Japanese supermarket chain. They recently bought out the Hawaii supermarkets that had been owned by Daiei – another Japanese supermarket chain that is now in financial trouble. In the upper right, you can see Don Quijote's mascot -- oddly, a penguin instead of a horse or donkey -- named Don-Pen. In recent years, as fewer people want to spend days cooking all the traditional Japanese specialty foods for New Year's, the Japanese markets here have begun offering prepared osechi ryori sets. Presented in elegant tiered lacquer boxes called jubako, these sets are extremely pricey. Shirokiya, a Japanese department store in Ala Moana Center (Honolulu's largest shopping center) advertised "Deluxe Sets" with three tiers serving three to five people for $195, and two-tier "Couple's Sets" for $135! They're available by special-order only, limited to the first 200 orders. You can see an ad for Shirokiya's osechi ryori here. That's just sliiiiiiiiiiiightly out of our price range ( ). Besides which I already own a jubako, and we don't like some of the foods (such as kazunoko -- herring roe -- which to my palate tastes too salty and bitter) even if you are supposed to eat them for good luck! So I picked up a few prepared foods we like at Marukai and we'll put together our own osechi along with other foods that I'll cook: Takenoko kombu -- bamboo shoots and kelp seaweed Ajitsuke kinpira renkon -- seasoned lotus root. In China and Japan, lotus root symbolizes the Buddhist wheel of life. It looks pretty and tastes good, too. Onigara yaki -- skewers of small shrimp grilled in their shells. I've never had these and am curious to taste them. Shrimp and lobsters represent long life because their backs are bent, alluding to an old person. Sansai vegetables -- a mixture of wild mountain vegetables such as fiddlehead ferns, sweet potato vines, nameko mushrooms, young bamboo shoots, and other vegetables. This isn't traditional for New Year's, but we like it. We usually eat it over rice. Cha soba -- buckwheat noodles flavored with green tea. These are for New Year’s Eve. The osechi ryori display. The lady in the apron and white kerchief is busy packing small plastic containers. More osechi ryori. Doesn't this look like a bazaar? Still more of the osechi ryori display. Here, you can see the kadomatsu (pine and bamboo decorations) -- as well as kagami mochi (stacked mochi cakes, topped with a fake mandarin orange) flanking the sign. Sake display. These are large bottles being featured for New Year's celebrations. The white kanji character on the blue banner in the center says "sake." Marukai's fish department. The ladies in the white kerchiefs work there. There's an old fishing boat hanging from the wall as a display. Sorry, I can't read all the red characters on the banner -- I recognize "fish" and "large" -- maybe someone who knows kanji can translate the whole phrase? Poke display. Poke (pronounced POH-key) is a local Hawaiian seafood salad, usually made raw seafood cut in cubes or slices and mixed with seasonings such as scallions, chopped limu (a branchy, crunchy seaweed), crushed kukui nuts, soy sauce, sesame oil, chiles, or other condiments. Some types are made with cooked seafood (such as octopus) or even cubed tofu. It's very popular in Hawaii and every supermarket fish counter has a large display. Going front to back, left to right, this picture shows Korean style hokkigai (red clams with chile seasoning), mussels, wasabi tako (wasabi-seasoned octopus), "ocean salad" (a green seaweed salad), taegu (Korean seasoned shredded codfish); hidako sumiso tako (baby octopus in a vinegar-miso dressing), hidako limu tako (baby octopus with crunchy seaweed), onion tako (octopus with chopped onions); tofu poke, and shrimp poke. The most popular types of poke use ahi, but they're not in this photo. Marukai offers about three times the poke selection shown in this picture. One of the favorite New Year's foods in Hawaii is sashimi, especially a red fish like ahi (the Hawaiian word for maguro, yellowfin tuna). Demand for ahi during the days before New Year's drives the price of this fish sky-high. The finest grade of bluefin tuna is priced at $40.99 a pound, with the next lower grade at $29.99! The local newspapers begin featuring "ahi alerts" several days before the end of the year. This was the lead story in yesterday’s newspaper! (Told ya it's like a small town here. ) Trays of sashimi assortments and oysters on the half-shell. Tai snapper from New Zealand. All the fish are facing the same direction, in proper Japanese manner. Japanese cucumbers (these tiny ones are flown in from Japan; the ones we grow here are larger), shiso leaves, and tiny chiles Fresh quail eggs and fresh wasabi. They're in the refrigerated case of the fish department near the sashimi. Close-up of the fresh wasabi, air-flown from Japan Beef sliced for sukiyaki and for shabu-shabu. Every supermarket here carries Asian-style cuts of meat. A large selection of fresh mushrooms Imported fresh matsutake mushrooms ($117.15 a pound!!!) and sudachi (small citrus fruits – their juice is used for seasoning foods) Myoga, a ginger-like root Gobo (burdock root). This batch measures almost a yard long! Fresh taro

Good Wednesday morning! Fragrant papaya for breakfast. Before moving to Hawaii, I used to wonder what all the fuss about papayas and mangos was about, because the ones we got in New York were stringy, underripe, and flavorless. Now I know! (Mangos aren't in season now, or I'd show you those, too.) To answer a few questions. . . Pan: we sometimes buy Chinese candied fruit, but not that often. My husband and daughter really shouldn't be eating it because it's so full of sugar. . . and you can't eat just one! I've never seen candied apples or candied haw, although some shops here carry the rolls of haw flakes, which I love. I should take you guys to a crack seed store! Mochihead: yes, that bakery is the only place to go! -- except at the Moon Festival, when a couple of restaurants (Legend and Hee Hing, to name two) sell mooncakes. I'm not sure which char siu and roast duck place you're talking about -- we usually get ours at Duck Lee at Market City in Kapahulu. Closer to home, there's also a good place, whose name escapes me, in the food court of the Pearl Highlands shopping center, by Sam's Club. The latter also sells whole roast pigs, in case you're interested! I don't know if I'll get a chance to do dim sum during this blog -- again, so many meals, so little time! -- but our favorite places are Legend (and their accompanying Buddhist Vegetarian Restaurant just across the hall) and Panda Cuisine on Keeaumoku. We used to love Eastern Garden, and the staff knew us well there, but they're out of business now. The owners have opened a fancier new restaurant on Alakea Street, where you order the dim sum off the menu instead of choosing from carts. I haven't tried it yet. Wendy judges the quality of dim sum places by whether they make fresh mango pudding (or use an artificial mix)! :laugh: She's a real dim sum connossieur. She used to be known as "the haole [caucasian] har gau girl" -- when she was two years old, she took a liking to har gau -- delicate shrimp dumplings in translucent wheat starch wrappers -- and flagged down a waitress to reorder them! [Edited for typo]

It seems like it's taking forever to upload all the photos I took today, but wanted to recap at least part of our food-packed day. Michael and I both belong to Mensa, the international high-IQ society. Today we went to their weekly luncheon, held every Tuesday at Stuart Anderson's Cattle Company, a chain steakhouse at Ward Warehouse in Honolulu. During the school year, Michael usually attends the luncheon by himself because someone needs to be home when Wendy comes home from school. Besides which, steakhouses aren't really my thing -- I show up occasionally for the socializing, but wouldn't want to dine there every week. With its Western motif and dark wood interior, Cattle Company could be anywhere on the mainland. Or could it? Not with an ocean view like this! Today the "lunch bunch" drew seven people, us included. Michael and I shared an appetizer platter as our meal: stuffed potato skins, shrimp cocktail, and Buffalo chicken strips (we requested more potato skins instead of the fried zucchini). Children aren't invited to the luncheon, so we dropped Wendy off at Daniel's store on the way over. As I mentioned, he's a tattoo artist and body piercer and he owns a shop in Chinatown. She ate dim sum for lunch -- her favorite har gau and char shu bau (which I would've preferred for my own lunch!) -- then Daniel took her shopping and she bought this cheongsam with her Christmas money. She looks so sophisticated -- 10 going on 23. The decor of Daniel's store is reminiscent of 1930s Shanghai. This is the waiting room. Michael loves Chinese wedding cakes, so we made a quick stop at Shung Chong Yuein, a traditional Chinese bakery on Maunakea Street, in the heart of Chinatown. The store looks very old-fashioned, which adds to its appeal. In the window are candied fruits and vegetables -- mango, ginger, lotus root, squash, water chestnuts, yams -- along with peanut and macadamia nut candies. We bought several kinds of cakes and sweets (clockwise from the top): a large Chinese wedding cake filled with candied fruit (?), a banana-flavored mochi roll, a fruitcake, a mochi cake filled with what I believe is two types of sweet bean pastes -- black beans and white beans, and finally a piece of macadamia nut candy. It's after 1:00 a.m. and I'm fading fast -- to be continued tomorrow.