A Pond of Carp at Dole Plantation
I have never seen so many carp in one place for feeding. This picture was taken at Dole Plantation heading out toward Haleiwa. It is definitely a place to stop on your way out to the North Shore of Oahu.
Fun Foods at the Hawaiian Chip Company
February 24, 2011 By Leave a Comment
Our friends over at the Hawaiian Chip Company are now open to the public on Saturdays from 10am – 3pm. But rather than just eat stuff, you actually get to do stuff like season your own freshly made taro chips and a bunch of other fun stuff.
It wasn’t all fun and play of course. There were some serious things to do, like take pictures on their surfboard thing.
Goofing around waiting for coffee at the Hawaiian Chip Company
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The Chinese New Year Narcissus Flower Tradition (as told by Carmen)
February 21, 2011 By Leave a Comment
The Narcissus Flower
I still remember those days my mom and I walked all over the Macau market searching for the best narcissus bulb. I was only in elementary school, but my holy duty as her daughter was to help her to carry her groceries whenever I went to the market with her. To prepare for the Chinese New Year, her holy duty as a Chinese housewife was to buy the best flowers and plants to celebrate the New Years.
Flowers and plants are part of the traditional decoration of New Years. The amount of fruits and flowers, and the taste of the fruits have a strong bearing of how the family does in the coming year. Therefore, it is a very important task for my mom.
She will start her search for the best bulbs 3 weeks ahead of the Chinese New Year so that she would have a big pool to choose from. She has to select the bulbs that would bloom right before or at Chinese New Year. Seeking advice from experienced housewives in the market is one technique. She hardly get advice from the flowers seller unless she thinks they can be trusted. I remember in one year, there was only 3 flowers that bloomed from the bulbs. My parents was kind of upset at that time. In certain years, my mom had to do something to control the growth of the flowers so that the flowers will not bloom too earlier as she did not want the flower to wither during the Chinese New Year. That is not a good sign either. Unfortunately, I never learned that technique to teach others. My mom, through her years of experience in selecting Narcissus flower, she has become the advisor for the younger housewives in the market. Most importantly, to my father, the flowers and plants she bought for the Chinese New Years have bloomed beautifully and the fruits have tasted delicious.
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Best Version of Hawaii Five-0 Intro
February 21, 2011 By Leave a Comment
Which of these three Hawaii Five-0 intros is the best? Please cast your vote on the top right of the page.
Current Hawaii Five-0 intro
Current Hawaii Five-0 (alternate version, changed before series started)
Hawaii Five-0 from 1998 starring Gary Busey
Original Hawaii Five-0 series intro
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Chinese Clock & Interesting Architecture on Maunakea Street – Downtown Honolulu
February 19, 2011 By Leave a Comment
Maunakea Market Place - Downtown Honolulu
When you walk around Chinatown in Honolulu, there are many interesting sights. Here’s one - This tops the entry to Maunakea Market Place, where there are markets, food and souvenir shops and the clock numbers are in Chinese characters.
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Hawaii Five-0: The Best Intro of All Time
February 18, 2011 By 2 Comments
What’s the best opening credits of any TV show of all time? Hands down, it’s gotta be Hawaii Five-0, the original series. The music, the beat, the drums, the brass…they all strike a deep primal nerve. Granted, I’m a guy so certain kinds of music make me feel aggressive and manly, which is part of the appeal I suppose. Another factor is that it is also one of the fight songs for the UH football team (more aggressiveness), which reminds me of being at Aloha Stadium with 50,000 fans basically amping out. Anyway, the orginal Hawaii Five-0 intro is my favorite of all time.
But that doesn’t mean that everything else sucks. There are many other good ones. Here are my Top 5 Greatest of All Time (that I could find on YouTube). Don’t forget to vote for your favorite at the right of this page and let us know in the comments below or on Twitter or Facebook if your favorite is not even on the list.
#1 Hawaii Five-0
#2 Miami Vice – This video has some sort of weird intro graphics but after a few seconds the actual TV show intro begins.
#3 Airwolf – The show didn’t last long and it was pretty cheesy and fake (supersonic & silent helicopter,…really?), but opening 10 seconds is as good as it gets!
#4 Magnum PI – This intro has it all – great song, actions sequences and humor. By the way, we sell that shirt Magnum is wearing in the last scene.
#5 McGyver – This guy made being smart, like NERD smart, cool. Even my physics teacher liked the show. He told the class he doesn’t watch TV, but he watches McGyver.
Honorable Mention – The A-Team – I really wanted to put this in my top 5 but found the intro to be just a little bit too long. I love the song and the show though.
Favorite Foreign TV Intro – Kamen Rider V3. I know, most people probably prefer Kikaida. Afterall, that was THE show for Hawaii kids (girls too) who were in pre-school around the mid-70s. But the Kamen Rider V3 music just feels a bit more powerful.
And just for comparison, here’s the Kikaida opening. Kikaida was my favorite show of all time until I was about 6 or so.
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Presidents’ Day Special Coupon
February 16, 2011 By Leave a Comment
Is it President’s Day or Presidents’ Day? Or maybe it is just Presidents Day. Well, whatever. They all make sense to me. What we really care about is that you like our new redesigned coupon. The old one was getting pretty stale. But this new one reminds me of a yummy tropical drink.
Anyway, if you feel like getting an Aloha shirt or dress (or whatever) from us in the next few days, be sure to use this coupon so you can save 20%. I know it’s only Wednesday, but have a great Presidents’ Day weekend!
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The Making of a Jingle, Ukulele Style
February 15, 2011 By Leave a Comment
Writing a jingle. We’ve all thought about it at one point or another. Most of us greatly overestimate our capabilities when it comes to writing a simple jingle (as well as dance, sing, act and play sports). But when it really comes down to writing catchy jingle, it’s not that easy. It is certainly not as easy as Bruce Shimabukuro makes it look.
We spent a couple of days filming Bruce do a series of ukulele video lessons and it was immediately obvious that he’s quite a talent. But what really impressed us was not his playing ability (as impressive as that is), but his writing ability. Anybody can play the ukulele (except me), but composing music is a whole different ballgame. So we thought it would be cool to show how Bruce comes up with his songs and jingles. In this video, not only does he compose the jingle, but he does it in his head…on the fly…in one take. That’s pretty nuts.
He also went a little further and showed us how he wrote a song for a wedding, which I think will be included in his upcoming album. While that music is not in this video, I can tell you that the mood and sound of that song perfectly matches its purpose. The more we work with Bruce, the more we see the breadth and depth of his talent and we look forward to seeing more of his work.
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Like Natto?
February 14, 2011 By Leave a Comment
I received an email from a friend who is trying to cook healthy for her husband (hey – just thought about this – how fitting is this, as today is Valentine’s Day!).. She tried a new recipe the other day that contains Natto.. He told her that it wasn’t as bad as he thought it would be, as he reached for his glass of water! LOL!
Mmmmm... Natto!
If you visit sushi bars I’m sure that you’ve run across this as a menu item. It is a popular food item in Japan and is generally eaten with hot rice. Many of us “local” people eat it with the mustard and soy sauce packets that are now included in the packaging. It is also great with radish sprouts or grated radish.
BUT whoa – hold on.. remember I said that her husband said that it’s not as bad as he thought??? Well, for those of you who have had the pleasure of being exposed to natto – you know that natto has a very distinctive smell… and a lot of people find it very pungent and revolting. My husband will sit across from me if I have it out. My dad didn’t care for the smell as well. I can still see his nose crinkle at the sight of it.. BUT my youngest son (8 years old) loves it! Good news tho – for those who still want the benefit of Natto.. I understand that there’s now a “scentless” natto out.. oh – and not to mention that Natto is very slimy!!!!
Natto is high in Vitamin K and is high in anti-oxidants and is also considered a probiotic food.
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A Glowing Sunset in Honolulu
February 14, 2011 By 1 Comment
Sunset from Ala Moana Beach
It is sometimes hard to capture a good sunset picture.
This was taken one evening from Ala Moana Beach, and was taken at the right moment.