Great Debate: cake vs. yeast donuts

By • August 25, 2011 • Food

I’m torn.

I have fond memories of my grandfather picking me up from school and hanging me a brown paper bag containing two chocolate-covered cake donuts from Shirokiya. It was the kind of treat that make dividing decimals bearable.

But my dad loves glazed yeast donuts, and on some special Sundays, there would be a box of them on the kitchen table for breakfast. Sometimes from Liliha Bakery, other times on sticks from another bakery in Manoa.

I grew up on the fence.

A dough is basically fried dough, usually sweet and usually made from a flour dough. You can shape them into rings or stuffed them with cream, jellies and custards or top them — like the ones above from Regal Bakery — with sugar glaze, cinnamon, chocolate, cereal, marshmallows — anything you can think of. You can even bake donuts now.

Most decorated donuts tend to be of the denser cake variety. But yeast donuts have that fluffy, airy texture — like the ones from Kamehameha Bakery, shown here — that we can’t seem to get enough of.

So which is it: cake or yeast?

Or to put it in more specific terms, Dunkin’ Donuts (cake) or Krispy Kreme (yeast)?

Let the Great Debate begin!

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Terms papers, textbooks, finals — again?

By • August 24, 2011 • Musings, The Daily Dish

I try to not to do things that make me feel overly uncomfortable — or incredibly stressed.

And going back to college does both.

So you can imagine my dread yesterday when I attended my first graduate-level seminar in years.

I had never taken a class from this particular English professor, though I’ve known him since my undergraduate days at the University of Hawaii-Manoa. He’s been encouraging me to return to the English department and, well, do something. Finish my master’s, apply for the Ph.D., write. But I’ve thrown every reason — read: excuse — at him and everyone else who’s urged me to go back to school.

I don’t have time. It’s hard with two jobs. What am I going to do with a Ph.D.? Can I bring my dogs to class?

But now that I’ve got a little more time — read yesterday’s blog — I’ve considered taking one class. Just one.

I used my reporting skills to find out a little more about this class I’m taking — really, to find out what the workload was like. I talked with a couple of grad students who had taken this professor’s class last semester.

“He buried me,” said one.

“I never read so much in my life,” said another.

Apparently, he assigned something like 900 to 1,300 pages of reading a week. A WEEK! That, in the words of one of my students at Kapiolani Community College, is “like reading a Harry Potter book a week — but not that fun.”

Exactly.

So I went to the first class last night, a little nervous about diving back into midterms, homework, late-night reading and cram sessions. (It wasn’t fun the first time around.)

I sat there, wondering how I was going to keep up with the reading, if I was even going to understand the concepts we were going to discuss, if I was going to cut and run.

Turns out, I wasn’t the only person in class freaking out.

There was a woman who’s returning to school after a couple of decades. Another student who barely survived this professor’s class last semester (and is back for repeat punishment). Another who took my journalism class online several years ago and is taking her very first graduate seminar ever.

I guess I’m not alone.

So I’m going to stick it out. For now. We’ll see after reading, “Disjuncture and Difference in the Global Cultural Economy.”

Got any advice?

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Today’s happy shot

By • August 23, 2011 • Food, Happy Shots

The best part about having a bad day? Having great friends who drop off heart-shaped shortbread cookies!

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Advice for surviving a long-distance relationship

By • August 23, 2011 • Musings, The Daily Dish

I had been dreading this decision since April.

And I wasn’t even the one making it!

My boyfriend, Derek, got accepted into the Ph.D. program in history at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. (He’s working on his Ph.D. here, but this program has a stronger focus on U.S. history, which is his concentration.) But for the past few months, he’s been trying to figure out what he’s going to do. Stay and finish his degree here — or go to Madison and get a better education and perhaps increase his chances of getting a job later.

One option has better prospects. The other, well, has better surf.

So last week he officially announced — at least to me and the dogs — that he’s going to Wisconsin.

This leaves me in a weird situation: being 36, engaged and suddenly living alone with two dogs and rent I can barely afford.

I’ve done long-distance relationships before, but those were years ago and, I’ll be honest, those relationships weren’t that serious. But this is different. Now I’m older, serious about this guy and very comfortable living with him. We carpool to work and school, cook dinner together, walk the dogs every morning and evening, surf together, shop together, travel together. Suddenly, he’s going to be gone and I’m not sure what I’m going to do.

I know I’ll revert back to my single ways, where I holed up on Friday nights with Netflix and my dogs. But that was by choice; this time around, it isn’t.

We figure we’ll Skype daily and text even more frequently. I’ll fly up to visit him sometime this semester — imagine the food photos! — and he’ll be back in Hawaii during the winter break.

I’m sure the next two or three years will fly by. Still, any advice for me on surviving the 4,700-mile distance?

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Reality TV: would it work in Hawaii?

By • August 22, 2011 • Musings, The Daily Dish

Breaking news: Kim Kardashian got married to NBA star Kris Humphries this weekend.

OK, so it’s not breaking news. I mean, how can you keep a secret about a reality TV star — Kim Kardashian is actually in at least two separate reality TV shows — who’s life is basically broadcast for public consumption?

Kim is single — season theme. Kim is living in New York City and dating — new reality TV show. Kim gets married — season finale. Kim and new husband — spinoff.

It’s a cash cow.

But I wonder if a show like this would fly in Hawaii.

It’s amazing to me that reality TV juggernauts — particularly Bravo’s “The Real Housewives” series — hasn’t scouted locations here. Hawaii has perfect scenery, a a colorful cultural landscape, and enough drama to last at least a few seasons.

But would it work?

Here are some of my ideas:

• Find an engaged local celebrity — Hawaii News Now’s Stephanie Lum or KHON’s Tammy Mori come to mind — and follow her journey to the altar. Oh, you’d watch.

• Remember Brooke Lee, Miss Universe 1997? Ever read her tweets (@brooksuniverse)? You should. And you’ll know why she needs her own reality TV show.

• Co-host of MTV’s NextMovie Daily and Roosevelt High alum McKenna Maduli (@mckennalive) should move back to the Islands and just eat everything in sight. I’d watch that.

• I know a few single ladies whose lives would make for interesting prime-time TV, including a dietician who drinks two — two — 2-liter bottles of Diet Coke a day.

See? This could happen.

But would anyone watch?

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