Local Food Blogs

[skchai]

I'm a member of Burt Lum's ``Bytemarks'' Hawai`i technology and society mailing list. One of the participants is Larry Geller, who in addition to his many other activities has started his own food-related blog, named Free Range Gourmet. The theme is "Where to find the best Saturday breakfast/brunch in Honolulu", which you do find out, but the content goes well beyond this to include his research and well-informed musings about ingredient sourcing, local agriculture, and even legislator's opening-day food.

This got me interested in locating the universe of food-related blogs located in and / or about Hawai`i. Turns out that the universe (at least what's visible to me) is very small. Here are a couple of "daily eating" blogs:

Ono Kine Grindz does a nice job of chronicling one local person's adventures eating out on Oahu, complete with photographs of each dish before it's consumed!

She Who Eats is more home-cooking oriented, focusing in particular on baking experiences, including Japanese-style patisserie, and some very tempting extreme close-up photos.

And a couple of food-establishment related blogs:

Our very own Emily Hunt has a blog where she chronicles her adventures with Chris Sy as they open Hawai`i's very first wood-fired artisan bakery, The Little Blue House.

The owners of Okonomi Cuisine Kai, the new okonomiyaki restaurant near Ala Moana, have a blog (in Japanese) chronicling their experiences with the construction and opening.

All very much worth checking out. Did I miss any? Probably.

Please post and talk about your experiences reading and / or writing food-related blogs here in Hawai`i!

[ryanozawa]

One question: Where's your local food blog, Sun-Ki?

Edited July 27, 2004 by ryanozawa (log)

[skchai]

Uhh, Ryan - I'm not organized enough to have anything like a blog.

Where's your food blog BTW?

Maybe, if we can be charitable to ourselves, maybe our posts on the KauKau Korner on Hawaiithreads.com and here can count as our foodblogs. . .?

[oneidaone]

Which brings me to ask - how are Emily and Chris doing? I miss hearing about them!!! a hui ho!!!

[reid]

Hi Sun-Ki,

Thanks for giving my blog a mention!

[skchai]

You're welcome, Reid. Thanks for keeping up your great blog (Onokinegrinz).

Welcome to eGullet, hope to hear more from you!

Could perhaps tell us a little more about how you got involved in chronicling your meals out?

[reid]

Hi Sun-Ki,

Thanks for the compliment.

Sure. What actually happened was, late last year I was watching a show called "A Cook's Tour" with Tony Bourdain. He was doing a show on Singapore. I was, at the time, planning a trip there and he mentioned a shop by the name of Sin Huat Eating House.

Well, I did a quick search on the web and came across a Singaporean food blog... I started corresponding with the owner of the blog and she actually encouraged me to start one myself. That's how it started.

Most of the people that read the blog are in SE Asia or in Australia and the UK. Many of them have never been to Hawaii and wanted to know what kind of food we get here.

I've actually been following eGullet for a while before actually joining. I enjoy reading all of your posts...which by the way are very well written and descriptive...something I hope to be in another lifetime! Have you ever considered putting up a blog of your own? It's actually very simple and takes less than 30 minutes a day to maintain.

[albiston]

Reid,

welcome to eGullet! Nice to see you here.

[reid]

Hey Alberto,

Nice to see you here on eGullet too. I read on your blog that you're now one of the co-hosts of the Italy Forum here on eGullet. Congratulations! By the way, how did the nocino turn out?

[skchai]

Reid, I think you'll run into a lot of interesting people here on eGullet, including (though probably not on the Hawai`i forum) Tony Bourdain.

Would it be O.K. to ask which Singapore food blogger it was who got you interested?

As far as keeping my own blog, like I told Ryan, I'm not organized enough for that. I do post the odd restaurant report now and then, but a blog. . .

[reid]

Hi Sun-Ki,

Sure. She is Renee over at Shiokadelicious!

[skchai]

If I'm not mistaken, Renee has been a participant, now and then, on eGullet, over in the "Rest of Asia" forum. . .

[jupiter]

Hi folks,

First post here. Been reading Reid's site and others along with the forums here and that has motivated me to finally start my own blog.

http://nattokun.blogspot.com/

Hope y'all enjoy.

Jupiter

[skchai]

Great start to your foodblog, Jupiter. Will be checking it out regularly in the future, and hope other will be doing so as well. Keep it up - I'm sure along with Reid, Larry, and others, you'll have the local food scene completely covered soon!

[reid]

Hi folks,

The 2004 Food Blog Awards (1st Annual) are being sponsored by Kate at the Accidental Hedonist. Check out some of the food blogs that are nominated...and there are many really excellent ones. Representing Hawaii are Chika's blog She Who Eats, and my food blog, 'Ono Kine Grindz.

Wish us luck!

[jupiter]

Reid,

Congrats on the nominations. Good luck to you and Chika. Keep up the great work.

[skchai]

Great news, Reid! Sorry for not replying earlier as I was out of town. . .

I'm not surprised - I've noticed for a long time the number of times other, out-of-town, blogs talk about or link to your blog, so people are definitely paying a lot of attention to your work. Always impressed by how you manage to cover such a wide range of Honolulu's eating options. Keep up the great work. . .

[montrachet]

Thanks to everyone contributing to the Hawaii Forum and all the local food blog hosts.

I was able to enjoy 2 weeks of eating bliss in Honolulu before returning to Vancouver.

Some of my more memorable visits included the new Roy's at Ko Olina, ramen/tsukemen/hiyashi chuka at Taishoken and Yottekoya more than a few times for lunch, sundubu jjigae at the 2 hot places mentioned in this forum, nicely grilled skirt steak while discussing Brunellos and Barolos with Chuck Furuya at Little Vino, great fast food fried chicken in the Ala Moana Shopping Center food court and many, many more.

I tried to avoid the huge plate lunch offerings but still managed to put on about 10 lbs!!!

I'm surprised that it wasn't more as my list included: Gyukaku, Chiang Mai, Indigo, Imanas, Nonbei, the Willows and almost every eatery at Market City Shopping Center as it was walking distance to where I was staying. (the sushi place was disappointing though).

One hotel dining experience that stood out in terms of food, ambience and service was the Kahala Mandarin Oriental. The curry buffet lunch at the Veranda was so nice that I returned to Hoku's for dinner one evening for a nice romantic dinner with my wife.

My last indulgence was a fantastic spam musubi from the Fort Ruger Market on Alohea near the KCC. A perfect oasis after a nice hike up Diamond Head before returning to the city below.

Thanks again everyone and I look forward to returning soon! - m

[reid]

Jupiter and Sun Ki,

Thank you both for your kind words. While neither Chika or myself were recipients of any awards this year, it was a wonderful experience being nominated.

Thanks again for your moral support. It means a lot.

[LarryG]

Just learned that Chika (She Who Eats) has moved back to Japan. I sent some writing to the Honolulu Weekly, where (as opposed maybe to our dailies) they do some fact checking, and was embarrassed to learn that when I wasn't looking (and I should have looked), one of our best food writers and photographers has left Hawaii. So I was writing about a blog that isn't here anymore.

As long as I'm lamenting this loss, let me ask if anyone is aware of any new food blogs in Hawaii that I might check out and possibly write about. I think the latest is nattokun by Jupiter -- but I could have missed something. Please point me if so.

Thanks

--Larry

[LarryG]

Just learned that Chika (She Who Eats) has moved back to Japan. I sent some writing to the Honolulu Weekly, where (as opposed maybe to our dailies) they do some fact checking, and was embarrassed to learn that when I wasn't looking (and I should have looked), one of our best food writers and photographers has left Hawaii. So I was writing about a blog that isn't here anymore.

As long as I'm lamenting this loss, let me ask if anyone is aware of any new food blogs in Hawaii that I might check out and possibly write about. I think the latest is nattokun by Jupiter -- but I could have missed something. Please point me if so.

Thanks

--Larry

[LarryG]

I wonder if other food bloggers could consider mentioning the sustainability conference coming up. Please see my blog, freerangegourmet.com for the details.

I don't see much publicity for this worthy endeavor. If it fits the style of your blog, perhaps you could put in a mention. It's ok to link the documents from my blog. They don't have the info available on the web that I am aware of, though I could have missed something.

Thanks!

--Larry

[skchai]

Thanks for mentioning this, and for uploading the relevant information for the meeting to your site. This meeting really deserves a large turnout, and is a novel, perhaps unique, attempt to bring together the various stakeholders for sustainable ag in Hawai`i under one open sky, along an explicit teaching component to it as well.

You're right that there isn't really any info out there about this. If found this short announcement at the CTAHR website, but nothing else. So you're doing a real service by making this available.

For those unfamiliar with the Wai`anae Community Re-Development Corp., here are a couple of background articles from the Star-Bulletin on the MA`O farm and the Aloha `Aina Cafe.

[reid]

I wonder if other food bloggers could consider mentioning the sustainability conference coming up. Please see my blog, freerangegourmet.com for the details.

I don't see much publicity for this worthy endeavor. If it fits the style of your blog, perhaps you could put in a mention. It's ok to link the documents from my blog. They don't have the info available on the web that I am aware of, though I could have missed something.

Thanks!

--Larry

←

Hi Larry,

I tried to post a link to this on my site, but for some reason you don't have a permalink set up that will allow me to create a link directly to that particular post. When I update my Advertiser and Star-Bulletin links on my site tomorrow, I'll be sure to link your website as well.

[LarryG]

I'm going to change the hosting for my blogs soon, and maybe all the permalinks and things will work better then. So my apologies.

The event docs can be found at:

http://freerangegourmet.com/Docs/CFSAgenda.pdf

http://freerangegourmet.com/Docs/WorkshopSummaries.pdf

http://freerangegourmet.com/Docs/CFSGenInformation.pdf

http://freerangegourmet.com/Docs/CFSAdult_Reg.pdf

and the image I cut out of their docs is at:

http://freerangegourmet.com/Graphics/hands.jpg

I have no connection with this event, just I noticed that there isn't much publicity. I wish them great success, it looks very worthwhile.

Please feel free to link directly if you wish, I'm not having bandwidth problems. The entire server was down much of today and I see that they are re-connecting themselves gradually to the rest of the world, but I mention this in case something stops working for a while.

Thanks and regards,

--Larry