Regal Bakery: not your ordinary donuts

By • May 31, 2011 • Food

There aren’t many bakeries in Hawaii where you can find blueberry cream cheese donuts with a white chiffon crumb topping or red velvet cake donuts with a creamy cream cheese icing.

But you can find these flavors — and more — at Regal Bakery, which opened in April near the airport.

It’s probably the only stand-alone donut shop on Oahu now and the only one I know of selling such unique flavors as peppermint-iced cake donuts and guava-glazed yeast donuts covered with toasted macadamia nuts.

I mean, who does that?

Jessie Salvador does. He’s the 34-year-old manager and mastermind who comes up with these interesting flavors, including the flavors of the month. (In June it’ll be a rocky road donut; in July a blueberry-raspberry version with white chocolate icing.) And this Friday — National Donut Day, if you didn’t have that marked in your calendar — you can get one free donut when you visit the shop.

“I think timing was everything,” said Salvador, who has been working at Regal Foods (the shop’s parent company) for four years and has been in food service for 16. “We decided to do a donut shop because other bakeries were shutting down.”

His interesting spin on donuts — the flavors, the decorations — has lured a steady stream of customers, all eager to try something new. It’s no Krispy Kreme — which I find on the overly sweet side, anyway — but these donuts can stand on their own. And when you visit, try the apple fritter and old-fashioned donuts, too. Trust me, these are worth the drive to the airport.

Here’s what his shop has to offer:

Outside Regal Foods

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Regal Foods is the parent company of the bakery. It also runs Island Manapua and the Pizza Shop. So folks have been coming here for takeout lunch — now there are donuts, too.

Regal Bakery, 3040 Ualena St. Hours: 5:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m. Monday through Friday, 8 a.m.-2 p.m. Saturday. Phone: (808) 834-4423

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Oahu: Biking along Pearl Harbor

By • May 30, 2011 • #CatTravels

Most people don’t realize there’s a bike path that runs from the Halawa landing near the USS Arizona Memorial Visitor’s Center and ends in Waipahu.

But it’s there. And it’s definitely a hidden gem in Central Oahu.

I first heard about it when I was a reporter covering the area. The Friends of the Pearl Harbor Historic Trail had envisioned a multi-use shoreline path that would run 18.6 miles from Halawa Landing to Nanakuli. The goal was to reinvigorate the community, upgrade the existing path, improve the environment, and create economic opportunities for area businesses. Maybe the old railway could reopen and take visitors along the coastline, stopping at various shops and eateries in the area.

It was a great goal — but expensive and not a high-priority project for the state. I’m not sure what’s happened to the plan.

So we decided to bike down the path over the weekend, just to see what it was like. And honestly, we were pleasantly surprised.

Here’s what our bike ride looked like:

Ready to roll

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Even though the trail officially starts at the Halawa Landing, we parked at Blaisdell Park to ride our bikes toward Waipahu.

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Today’s happy shot

By • May 30, 2011 • Happy Shots, The Dog Dish

Indy dropped his ball in a crab hole — again!

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Weekend Dish: Chocolate trifle

By • May 29, 2011 • Food, Weekend Dish

I was at the dog park this week, chatting with my girlfriend who grew up in Oklahoma.

She mentioned she was craving a banana meringue pudding dessert popular in the south. It’s so easy to make, she said, it’s not that popular anymore.

That didn’t make sense at first — until I though about the trifle.

This centuries-old English dessert is exactly what my girlfriend was describing: it’s easy, it doesn’t require making anything, you don’t even have to turn on your oven or stove. Who wants to bring something like that to a potluck?

Me, actually.

The trifle — similar to the parfait — is a layered dessert, which traditionally calls for cubes of sponge or pound cake, often soaked in alcohol, fruits and vanilla custard. The taste is almost as important as the appearance, and this dessert even has its own trifle dish — glass and easy to marvel at.

No one makes trifle anymore, it seems. But it’s a go-to dessert for me, especially when I’ve got leftover cake and no room in my stomach to eat it.

So here’s my chocolate version of the English classic:

Leftover cake

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The best thing about trifles is that you can basically use whatever you want — as long as the flavors taste good. I like to use leftover cake to make trifle — to create a whole 'nother dessert. In this case, I used a leftover chocolate ganache cake — frosting and all.

Chocolate trifle
slightly modified from AllRecipes.com

Ingredients:

1 (19.8 ounce) package brownie mix (or leftover cake)
1 (3.9 ounce) package instant chocolate pudding mix
1/2 cup water
1 (14 ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
1 (8 ounce) container frozen whipped topping, thawed
1 (12 ounce) container frozen whipped topping, thawed
1 (1.5 ounce) bar chocolate candy (or mini chocolate chips)

Directions:

Prepare brownie mix according to package directions and cool completely. Cut into 1-inch squares. (You can also cut up any variety of cake, too.)

In a large bowl, combine pudding mix, water and sweetened condensed milk. Mix until smooth, then fold in 8 ounces whipped topping until no streaks remain.

In a trifle bowl or glass serving dish, place half of the brownies, half of the pudding mixture and half of the 12 ounce container of whipped topping. Repeat layers. Shave chocolate onto top layer for garnish. Refrigerate 8 hours before serving.

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Cat Chat: Hawaii-born designer Bliss Lau

By • May 29, 2011 • Musings, The Daily Dish

One day designer Bliss Lau was procrastinating from working on her suspension handbags, which features draping diagonal chains. She started pinning the chains from her bags to the model form in your New York City studio and, “Viola,” she said, “I had my first body chain.”

From there, the Hawaii-born designer transitioned in fashion jewelry — and pioneered a trend that was quickly seen everywhere.

Lau unveiled her Fall 2011 collection, “Embraced,” in February — with ballerinas on the runway, no less — and returned to the Islands to host two fashion events this weekend.

She took the time to chat about her inspirations, her career and what it’s really like to work in the celebrity-filled world of fashion. (Read more at Haute Living here.)

CT: Where did you get your inspiration for your latest collected, “Embraced”?
The Embraced collection is a combination of my background in apparel, the leather craftsmanship i learned as a jewelry designer and the recent body jewelry that I have been designing. I was very inspired by muscle structure and movement as well as the concept of creating a sort of sensual armor.

CT: Where did you get the concept of using ballerinas in your shows? And why did you want to bring that to the Islands?
Hawaii RED Magazine has been such a wonderful partner, (so) when Malie (Moran) contacted me with the idea to do a show and bring a bit of New York home, I thought it was an amazing idea, she is so progressive. We used the ballerinas to show the collection because part of my inspiration was movement. When a dancer moves each moment is intentional sensual and poised this is not always true for a fashion model, that is why I chose to put the jewelry on people who use their body as a tool for expression.

CT: What was the best advice you ever got?
Cathy Horyn of the New York Times once wrote, “The best work comes from play.” I can’t tell you how much I agree.

CT: What has been the biggest surprise for you in this phase of your career?
Designing is really such an introverted experience. I am always shocked by what it feels like to then expose that very personal project to the world.

CT: What designers inspire (or have inspired) you?
I find that so many designers have in essence invented certain ways of making things, I love Claire McCardell for using industrial hardware on handbags and Rick Owens for transforming the way cut clothing he reinvented the shawl collar and made curved-diagonal seems commonplace. I think that I most admire when a single design or designer can alter the collective perspective.

HL: You’ve done handbags and body jewelry — what’s next?
I am working to continue to expand my fine jewelry collection as well as possibly relaunch handbags (not sure yet but thinking about it) I am working to really master these two crafts and I feel like I still have so far to go!

CT: How do you want to be remembered?
As a teacher I hope to inspire and as a designer I seek to create beautiful and unexpected objects.

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