(l-r from top: kokua market, earth wind and fire.. oh, and water, driving to safeway, chocolate dipped chocolate, dragonfruit, snow white orchid, margaritas nee snappers: a local dive bar)
Over the weekend my girlfriends and I joined the "Eat Local Challenge" here in Hawai'i. Nothing says local to me than a farmer's market, and the mother of all O'ahuan fm's is the 3 and a 1/2 hour mecca of goodness at Kapi'olani Comnmunity College - lovingly referred to as KCC. It gets you in touch with the people, with the culture with the 'aina. So we will begin our journey there. Through cooking I've discovered that there are no rules; it's a bit different with baking but for the sake of continuity and my sweet tooth let's put dessert under cooking as well. Chronicled here will be our thinking within the box, without the box and all other kine propositions about the box during our eat local challenge, challenging ourselves to eat local, act local and take the leap into living la vida local.
(l-r: ginger blossoms and fresh edamame, menu - da spot,
poi english muffin fish sandwich @
da cove,)
On Saturday we went to KCC to pick up ingredients... instead we ended up buying food - prepared locally (kinda the same thing right?). We had Egyptian style chicken parmesan and Egyptian Green Curry (doesn't that just sound so local?) from 'Da Spot' a local favorite here for pretty much ever. They pop-up at farmer's markets, the swap meet, random beach gatherings, you name it. My fellow lady got poi-battered fish and was asked repeatedly by walkers-by where she'd gotten it. Can somebody say 'free advertising'! haha, but it's all good - all for the sake of local-ness, right? For dessert we had THE most incredible beignets (watch out Cafe du Monde) with lilikoi sauce. The auntie at the stand is so filled with aloha that I feel we're actually related, I let my Filipina-ness slip out by accident - "Thanks Tita!" The jig is up - In Hawai'i you say Auntie, but to her it's all the same.
As we prepare to take our highly mazoku-fied bellies we see a stand brimming with sunshine.
Hybrid hibiscus from Waialua- by the Hibiscus LadySimply irresistible. With names like Wahiawa Winter and E Ku'u Morning Dew the enigmatic combinations invoke images of sunrises and debutantes, the softness of the blossoms like baby's feet, the sweet aroma of ninja rain on the wings of honey intoxicate the senses as you walk by. Jill was filled with more aloha and offered us blossoms to tuck behind our ears and take home. Mahalo Jill for your sweetness!
(l-r: A mobile tropical garden, hybrid hibiscus, poi battered fish, egyptian baklava, the hibiscus lady, local honeys)
Later that day I stopped into Waiola Shave Ice and enjoyed lilikoi/melona atop delicious, cushiony pink and white mochi balls. Nothing says refreshment in the dog days of August like Shave Ice - hands down(except maybe mochi ice creambut that's for another day).
Later that night we decided to stay in and cook a meal at home. We made eggplant parmesan (local ingredients: eggplants from farmer's market, fresh eggs, Hawai'ian sea salt) (kinda local: cheese from Hawai'i Kai Costco, sauce and French Bread (we made adorable little mini pizzas with this for pupus) from Foodland, Breadcrumbs from Safeway). Salad: (Manoa lettuce, carrots and tomatoes from Down to Earth, asian dressing and basil (the basil was a revelation and added a completely unexpected taste to the salad.
To top it off we had chocolate covered chocolate! Not exactly local but purchased from Kokua Market which is a co-op market, "owned by its customers". For the sake of education I looked up Kokua and found it means "help" or "to aid in wrong doing" - bloody fantastic - the chocolate covered cacao we got there was so good it was bad. A sidenote: It was not necessarily bad for us however, since dark chocolate has flavonoids - kinda like antioxidant soldiers that protect the body against free radicals (whenever I hear this term it conjures up images of a video game I played in college called "Tropico" the guerrilla armies setting fire to the evil dictators palace. Che Guevera running through the streets with his
okole on fire.) something that sounds just plain bad for you.
We topped the night off with some local soul food: Lilo and Stitch.
The central premise of the movie is
'ohana whether blood-related, adoptive or unintentional - the feeling of family, of belonging and of not being left behind. In a
recent article in Honolulu Magazine, Lilo and Stitch scored a 10 in 'Hawaii Authenticity', maybe because to people who have not
lived here, Hawai'i is an unattainable paradise, an animated film in the black and white landscape of 'the real world', nice to visit but wouldn't live there.
I am content to wake up to birdsong, fall asleep to the waves crash and rejoice in the moments spent with my unintended 'ohana. Frankly, I wouldn't have it any other way.
