Did This: 8th annual Taste of Marukai

By • April 11, 2013 • Food

IMG_1979

There’s really nothing like it.

The annual Taste of Marukai is the culinary event of the season, with dozens of gourmet small plates, sake and shochu spread over the spacious Marukai Wholesale Mart in Dillingham.

The event benefits the Japanese Cultural Center of Hawaii, the Honolulu Japanese Chamber of Commerce, the Honolulu Japanese Junior Chamber of Commerce and the Hawaii United Okinawa Association.

While there were entertainment and prize giveaways, the highlight — and the reason people pay $85 per ticket — was the food. There were Alaska crab legs, fresh sashimi, sushi, soba, grilled Kona Coast abalone and tempura. And, of course, there were tasting stations offering a wide variety of sake, shochu and beer.

No wonder hundreds of people flock to this event every year!

Here’s what the event looked like:

Marukai Wholesale Mart

Image 1 of 31

The 8th annual Taste of Marukai draws hundreds of hungry people every year. It's hosted by Marukai Wholesale Mart in Dillingham and supports four cultural nonprofits in Honolulu.

You Might Also Like

#CatTravels to NYC

By • April 10, 2013 • #CatTravels

timesquare

I’ve been totally overwhelmed.

Lots of freelance work (no complaints), a few catering gigs, a couple of mini-crises in my life, and my car broke down.

And now I’m in a quandary: I desperately need a vacation, but I don’t have the time.

Isn’t that typical, you’re the busiest the week before you start your vacation? That could be truer for me as I scramble to finish three freelance stories, update a website I’ve been working on, edit a couple of videos and get in as much surf time as possible by Monday.

Because on Tuesday I’m jumping on a Hawaiian Airlines flight — direct! — to New York City!

Here’s the backstory: I have a habit of plugging in random cities in sites like Orbitz or Travelocity, just to see if I can score super cheap flights to places like Paris or Seoul or Reykjavík. It just so happened I found a ridiculously cheap fare to NYC. It was $376. Round-trip. Direct flight. No exaggeration. That’s cheaper than going to Maui for the weekend.

So I booked it. And now I’m struggling to get everything done before I get on that plane.

One of the things I haven’t been able to do is research where to go, what to see and, especially, where to eat.

So I’m throwing it out there for everyone who’s been to New York City, who lives in New York City, or who dreams about it: tell me what I should do or see. I haven’t been back in 12 years. I need advice STAT.

You Might Also Like

Is smoking the worst problem on the beach?

By • April 9, 2013 • #CatTravels, Musings, The Daily Dish

Butt-on-Kuhio-Beach-JPG

Sometimes, in the middle of the day, I escape from work and head to the nearest beach.

I just want to sit in the sun, watch the waves, and relax. The only sound is the wind, the only smell is the salty ocean.

And I can’t tell you how many times that relaxing moment is ruined — and usually by some chatty (and loud) beachgoer on a cell phone.

But that’s the nature of a public beach. People are free to talk on their phones, to eat Doritos, and, up until yesterday, smoke on the beach.

Yes, a new law — Bill 72 — took effect prohibiting smoking at several beaches and parks on Oahu. The law, though, can only be enforced at Ala Moana Beach for now, though the bill includes Duke Kahanamoku Beach Park, Kapiolani Beach Park, Kapiolani Beach Park Center, Kapiolani Park, Kuhio Beach Park and Sandy Beach. Police can fine violators $100 for the first offense, $200 for the second and — get this — $500 for any addition offense.

That’s more expensive than not wearing your seatbelt or jaywalking.

The goal of the law is to prevent secondhand smoke and the littering of cigarette butts.

And while I’m no fan of cigar smoke and I’m not a smoker myself, I can think of far worse things that people do on public beaches than light up.

I’m not sure if a ban is going to work, especially when it can only be enforced at one beach. And does it make sense to spend time and money on combating those who smoke on the beach when there are other far more serious issues our government should focus on?

Tourism is our largest industry, I get it, so it makes sense to keep our beaches clean and to provide a positive experience for everyone. But is this really going to help?

You tell me.

You Might Also Like

Don’t judge me by my dogs

By • April 8, 2013 • Musings

20130407-220240.jpg

Before I had Indy and when I was living on Mariner’s Ridge, I would take Sunny to the Hawaii Kai dog park just about every afternoon.

This was my daily ritual, a way to socialize her while getting her outdoors and running around.

But my dog picked up a bad habit: she started to bark. And not just random squawking, either. She barked and yelped at certain dogs on the other side of the fence in an attempt to get these larger dogs to run with her. And most of them did. But the barking didn’t go unnoticed by some dog owners who, well, didn’t approve of her very normal dog behavior.

I overheard one dog owner complain to another: “Oh, there goes that dog again. Always barking.”

My dog park friends and I would talk about this all the time: do people judge us by our dog’s behavior? And do we look at badly behaving pooches and think, “Hmm. Bad dog. Bad owner”?

I had read on Cesar Millan’s blog, Cesar’s Way, that yes, the way your dog behaves is a reflection of what type of person other people view you as.

“Studies show that when a stranger comes across your pup, he or she will recognize certain behaviors in your dog, which they will link up to you. Many times, the assumptions people make about you based on your dog’s behavior are unconscious biases that we should all be aware of.”

That’s scary to me.

I have two dogs, both of whom had very different personalities. (Does this mean I’m schizophrenic…?) Sunny isn’t as energetic and hyper as Indy. And she’s friendlier to other dogs, as long as they’re not twice her size. Indy is more protective and jealous. He’s selfish and hates sharing. Sunny likes to be left alone. Indy is a snuggler and loves attention. And he loves to play. He can play all day, while Sunny prefers to find a quiet spot in the house and nap.

So what does this say about me?

I’m sure parents have the same fears about their kids, that people are judging them based on the way their kids behave. But that’s a DNA issue. I don’t share genes with my dogs. I really shouldn’t be compared to them.

So what do you think? Do you judge dog owners by way their dogs act? And dog owners, do you worry people are judging you? Because they are!

You Might Also Like

Natto? Not me!

By • April 5, 2013 • Food

IMG_5575

My mom grew up in Kona eating natto sandwiches.

Yes, natto between two slices of white bread.

And that’s why, to this day, she refuses to eat the slimy, smelly fermented soybeans.

I never had contact with the stuff growing up. My mom won’t even let it in the house.

Of course, I was curious about this legendary dish, one that made people cringe by the mere mention. They complained about its smell, its texture, the way it resemble snot.

But there were others who raved about it, pointing to its high protein content, its health and nutritional benefits.

IMG_7198And when I finally tried it — in a dessert (top) from Izayaka Naru and in the signature dish Genki Jurishi (left) from Izakaya Shinn — I had to admit, it really wasn’t for me.

The smell didn’t bother me. The texture, though, did. But I think I had built it up so much in my mind, thinking it would be either intensely disgusting or immensely delicious, that when it was neither, I didn’t see what the fuss was about. Either way.

I know this is gonna sound strange but I was almost disappointed. I wanted to love it or hate it the way everyone seemed to feel. I wanted to have the same kind of disgusted reaction I had when I first bit into a durian. (Oh, that was bad.) Or I wanted to fall in total and oblivious love with it. Something other than… indifference. Sad.

Would I eat natto again? Yes. Would I buy it from Don Quijote and stock my fridge with it? No.

How about you? Love or hate natto? Or are you indifferent like me?

You Might Also Like