Indulging in the signature haupia cake from The Pineapple Room at Ala Moana Center.
One of my girlfriends recently confessed that she’s paying thousands of dollars a year for football clinics, workshops, equipment and personal training for her son.
He’s not even 12.
The goal, she hopes, is a lucrative professional football contract in 20 years. A full-ride scholarship to a Big 10 school is a nice consolation prize, too.
While her intentions are noble — hey, who doesn’t want their kids to get a college education and make millions of dollars in Nike endorsements? — the cost is overwhelming. She and her husband aren’t rich. They live in a modest townhouse and make a modest income. And like most parents, they want the best for their son — who, by the way, loves playing football. But when does it become too much — and what happens when it’s not enough?
The New York Times recently published an article about parents who sacrifice to provide these opportunities for their kids — from tutoring to horseback riding to summer camps with professional athletes. Some have even take out loans, borrowed money from their families and maxed out credit cards just to pay for all these experiences they feel their children can’t miss — or feel guilty about denying.
But here’s the thing: there’s no evidence that shows these experiences will pay off in the end.
“It’s easy to take a look at the more successful kids and assume that all the activities are why they are more successful,” said Bryan Caplan, an economics professor at George Mason University. “But research doesn’t bear that out.”
When I was growing up, both my parents worked — and they didn’t have time to take me to soccer practice or piano lessons. I grew up fending for myself, signing up for volleyball and basketball on my own in fourth grade — I was good at forging my mom’s signature — just to kill time before my parents could pick me up after work. We didn’t have the means or the time for the kinds of extracurricular activities kids today have.
Sometimes I wish I had done more, started earlier, learned a foreign language or played an instrument. And I wonder if I’m going to be one of those parents who give their kids all the opportunities I missed out on.
Then again, I actually played during my summers growing up. I went to the beach and hung out with my friends. Playing, to me, is an essential part of childhood. (Well, even adulthood, but that’s another blog.) I don’t think I would change that, either.
My girlfriend is making the best decisions she can for her son. She wants to provide him all the opportunities she can that will help him succeed in football — and life. I admire her commitment and devotion. And I know even if her son woke up one morning and said, “I’m over football,” he will have learned a lot from the experience.
Let’s hope he remembers to pay his mom back!
Watching Sunny and Indy have fun at the Hawaii Kai dog park makes even the worst day at work tolerable.
It’s not often you get to attend the kind of wine-tastings held for only industry insiders.
But for the third year in a row, Roy’s Hawaii Kai, along with JMD Beverages, the only locally owned fine wine distributor, opened up this special brand of wine-tasting to the public last night.
About 250 people attended the sold-out event, which boasted more than 100 wines from 21 wineries, including Amuse Bouche Wine, Handley Cellars, Au Sommet, Rombauer and Duckhorn Vineyards. Wines with a Hawaii connection — Lanai Tabura’s Look Me in the Eye label and Kaena Wine — were also pouring.
The coolest part about last night’s event was the opportunity to meet the various winemakers and experts. We chatted with Milla Handley of Handley Cellars, who told how to pair her 2009 Gewurtztraminer “Anderson Valley.” And we also met the uber-cool Heidi Peterson Barrett, who has been responsible for some of California’s most notable cult wines and runs her own winery, La Sirena Winery. (She’s a member of the Barrett family who owns Chateau Montelena, famous for winning the white wine section of the historic Judgement of Paris wine competition and fodder for the 2008 film “Bottle Shock.”)
But wait — there was food, too.
And Roy’s was smart: not only was there a food counter — featuring nosh such as ahi tartare, Szechuan baby back ribs, sous vide lamb leg parmigiano, Thai pesto shrimp — but there were food stations in every nook and corner at the event. It wasn’t one of those wine-tastings where people go hungry. There was a lot of food — and a lot of opportunity to eat it.
Here’s what last night’s event looked like:
When I was living in Chicago, I got asked once, “So what do you folks eat in Hawaii?”
I paused — not because I didn’t know the answer, but because there seemed to be so many answers.
I could start with the traditional foods of Native Hawaiians — kalua pig, lau lau, pipikaula, haupia.
Then there are those ethnic dishes we can’t seem to live without — saimin, pork adobo, manapua, ahi poke, malassadas, meat juhn, katsu curry, Portuguese bean soup, andagi.
And how can I forget the iconic plate lunch, with two scoops of white rice, some kind of meat-based entree — barbecue pork, chicken katsu, teriyaki beef — and a nice dollop of macaronic salad — heavy on the mayo — and gravy all over? I mean, isn’t that as local as you get?
Then there are the category-less foods: shave ice, guri guri, garlic chicken, dry min, crack seed and, of course, the Spam musubi.
The list goes on.
I was thinking about this recently when a reader from the Midwest e-mailed me, saying she was coming to town — and wanted to know what and where to eat.
Where do I begin?
I would tell folks to hit Rainbow Drive-In in Kapahulu for a plate lunch, Agnes’ Portuguese Bake Shop in Kailua for deep-fried malassadas and either Ailana Shave Ice near Ala Moana or Uncle Clay’s House of Pure Aloha in Aina Haina for some innovative shave ice.
And if they’ve never been to Hawaii before, I’d highly recommend a Spam musubi. My picks are from Tanioka’s Seafood in Waipahu or any 7-Eleven.
For poke, try Alicia’s Market in Kalihi. For Hawaiian food, visit Helena’s Hawaiian Food in Kalihi. For local-style saimin, go to Shige’s Saimin Stand in Wahiawa.
These must be my picks for iconic Hawaii foods.
So I’m throwing it out there: where do you tell out-of-towners to eat and what do you consider iconic Hawaii foods?
