Maui Day 1 - First stop, Costco

Last week we went on a much needed vacation...

We hadn't been to the airport since our Portland trip last year and I don't remember the new sitting areas complete with outlets in the tables (nice!);

This year, we would be off to Maui for about a week...

Last stop for TORC's bday food crawl - Pavaraga

So our original first stop because our very last stop...

Once more we returned to the Bonita Paza strip mall for our second caffeine fix...

Hammond's Gourmet Ice Cream

Our scenic route included a quick glance at the corner of University and Illinois...

Aaaaaaand, I quickly parked  a block away so the girls and I could check out the new ice cream shop...

15 Favorite Food Photos

On MMM-Yoso's website, he recently posted his 10 Favorite Photos of Food., as did guestbloggers Ed from Yuma and Cathy from San Diego (but her's was 9). Well, I couldn't pick just 10, so I made mine 15. Here are my favorite food photos over the past few years. Let me add that the photos aren't gallery quality, but just my favorite by virtue of either having been memorable meals whether they were made by me, someone else or at a restaurant or food cart or whatever. Because I'm anal like that, I've included dates in parentheses, which mean nothing to the reader anyways.

Gambas al Ajillo made by yours truly. Spanish style garlic shrimp (11/1/07)
Nem Khao (Laotian fried rice) at Asia Cafe (9/15/07) An assortment of Macarons from Bouchon in the Time Warner Center, NYC (6/26/07)
Shack Burger from the Shake Shack in Madison Square Park, NYC (6/27/07)
My Mom's Pinakbet (5/28/07)
Pastelillos from the House of Puerto Rico at Balboa Park's annual International Food Fair (5/27/07)
Fries at the Belgian Frie in Pacific Beach (4/22/07)
Margherita Pizza at Bacione in Hillcrest (4/6/07)
Spring Greens with Seared Citrus Scallops at the now defunct Just Fabulous (current home of Burger Lounge in Kensington)
King Crab Legs at a birthday party (3/17/07)
Rabbit Three Ways at Laurel (2/17/07). This was actually my husband's meal, but I also had a bit of it!
Papaya Salad at the Vietnamese Tet Festival (2/11/07)
Tostones at Habana in La Mesa (9/30/06)
Dinner at my Uncle & Auntie's place in Keaau, Hawaii (BBQ chicken, kalbi ribs, grilled salmon, salad, broccoli, and Hawaiian Sun Passion Lilikoi drink(6/27/06)
Spam Musubi at the Hilo Market (6/28/06)
I could probably include 10 more, but this is it! For now!

The King and the Mongoose

*The prolific nature of these posts is brought to you by yours truly, a bored educator on summer vacation with lots of time on her hands...

And this, everyone is King Kamehameha the Great himself...The first ruler of Hawaii.

According to Wikipedia: "Kamehameha, also known as Kamehameha I and Kamehameha the Great (circa 1758 – 1819), unified the Hawaiian Islands in battle and formally established the Kingdom of Hawai'i in 1810".

This particular statue is in Hilo. The white sign you see below is for Bert's co-worker who is Russian. There's a photoshopped picture of him holding the flag of his soccer team's rival. A bit of an in-joke among the co-workers.


At the Queen Liluokalani Botanical Gardens in Hilo, Bert saw a tiny mongoose on the black lava rocks below. Look closely in the middle and you can see him.

And he's off...

There he goes!

Another creature Bert saw at the gardens that day.

A bamboo grove.
History Alert: Queen Lydia Liliuokalani was the last reigning monarch of the Hawaiian Islands. In 1898, Hawaii was annexed to the United States and Queen Liliuokalani was forced to give up her throne. Queen Liliuokalani was deposed in 1893 by a group who advocated for the Republic of Hawaii. Considered a gifted songwriter, she penned the classic Hawaiian song, "Aloha Oe".

Nuts, collon and pineapple!

We visited my aunt and uncle in Kea'au, which is a small town 10 minutes away from downtown Hilo. They wanted us to see the Mauna Loa Macademia Nut Farm. There were hundres of acres filled with nut trees.


Hey, wanna hold some of deze nutz?

After a full day of sightseeing at the Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, walking through the Thurston Lava Tube, visiting the Pana'ewa Rainforest Zoo, etc, we had a delicious homecooked dinner at their place. My uncle grilled kalbi (Korean shortribs - beef), salmon, game hen, with sides of broccoli and garden salad, plus rice of course. The soda cans were Aloha Sun Passionfruit Guava.

At a local food market in Hilo, I spied these gorgeous anthuriums.

Here are some vibrant purple skinned onions, along with taro root (which is used to make poi, a starchy paste that tastes like glue, ugh!).

This ginger flower was near our hotel, right after a brief rainshower.

Bert's breakfast: Fried rice with two scrambled eggs, topped with grilled Portuguese sausage and green onions.
At Volcanoes National Park - one of the craters near Kilauea.

This following photos are from Oahu. This was the name of a local food joint we visited one night for dinner. My friend called them before closing (8 p.m.) and asked if they would stay open for us. Fortunately, they did, but I was wracked with trepidation, thinking of that one scene in the movie, "Waiting" where the cooks are all waiting anxiously for closing time but at the last minute, customers walk in. As revenge, the cooks do awful things to their food. I would hope that didn't happen with us. The crew seemed to be nice guys and they got our food ready quickly. I'm sure they wanted to get out and go home.

My friend had a Hawaiian plate lunch. This particular entree had a scoop of rice, a cup of poi, lau lau (chicken or fish wrapped in taro leaves and steamed), kalua pig (shredded and baked pork).

Another friend had the Loco Moco, a favorite of many. You can get this and other variations of the Loco Moco at the local Hawaiian food joints in San Diego like Da Kines, Island Boy Grille and L & L Barbeque. This is rice with a hamburger patty which is smothered in gravy and topped with two eggs of your choice. He chose a side of corn as well. When confronted with the heart attack qualities of his meal, he said, "It is what it is."

A sign we saw at the ubiquitous ABC stores (think of 7-11 but on EVERY corner). Yes, there were tons of Japanese tourists everywhere in Oahu. Hey, I remember seeing a sign at the Otay Mesa Wal-Mart that said, "Aceptamos Pesos"!

Also seen at the ABC store were these cookies with an unappetizing name, "Collon" (yeah, yeah, I know it should only have one 'l').

Another shot of another ginger flower near our hotel in Waikiki.

We visited the Dole Pineapple Plantation like any other tourist.

History Lesson Alert: Filipino workers were recruited since 1906 to work in the pineapple (and sugarcane) fields of Hawaii. They were called 'Sakadas' (government contract workers) and were recruited largely to supplant the Japanese and Chinese workers who, at the time, refused to work for low wages and were on strike. The Filipinos laborers worked long hours harvesting cane and pineapple in the hot sun for very little pay. Another example of an ethnic group being exploited as a cheap labor are today's Latinos who work in the agricultural fields in California and neighboring states. (okay, I'll take off my educator hat now).

I thought this was an unusual looking pineapple. This variety was from Vietnam.

The night view from our hotel room. We were on the 22nd floor of the Renaissance Ilikai in Waikiki. We had a city view; the street below is Ala Moana Blvd. This is the hotel made famous in the opening credits of Hawaii 5-0 where Jack Lord is on a balcony looking towards Diamond Head.

Photos from Hilo, Hawaii

Photos from the Hilo Market which we visited on our last day on the Big Island. Flowers like this cost only $5 a bunch. In San Diego, this would cost about $20. These are Heliconia.

Fresh vegetables galore! Chinese celery, malunggay leaves, bananas, tomatoes, potatoes, bittermelon, taro, bok choy and some other stuff I've never seen before.

Ahh, Hot Dog Musubi...only $1.50! Actually these hot dogs looked kind of freaky because they were very red! Seems like the Hawaiian chicken musubi was a popular item. Only 3 pieces were left.

Another tropical flower you don't see much in San Diego, the Protea:

Here are some mangos, papayas, avocados and breadfruit.

This guy was hacking fresh coconuts with a large knife and selling them for $2 as a drink. We bought one and couldn't finish it amongst the three of us. My aunt kept the husk because she wanted to use the buko later (young coconut meat).

The following are some photos taken when we visited the Pana'ewa Rainforest Zoo in the Big Island on the second day of our trip. This is the state bird of Hawaii, the Nene. It seemed so sad as we walked by, crying and making a "Nay- nay" sound.


Beautiful flowers were everywhere at the Rainforest Zoo.

Interesting foliage this is. I looked it up and it is called Monstera Deliciosa, aka the Swiss Cheese plant.

Moss growing on the stone fence:

More spectacular flowers...orchids here:

I found this sign quite humorous. This was an ulo (breadfruit) tree. Funny, in Tagalog, ulo means 'head'.

Some wild pigs that were taking a nap: