peace out 2012!

holy moly.  new year's eve already???

i've been pretty occupied with work, meeting and "projects".

the great thing about my job now is meeting a lot of key, powerful players.  it's very encouraging and inspiring to talk to them.  it feels good to meet new people and make connections that will benefit both parties.

the latter part of 2012 has been amazing.  i'm excited for 2013.  i hope to live more frugally, work hard and be in love.

pa'a is making his bomb baby back ribs tonight and i made jello shots for everyone to enjoy.  we have a karaoke machine tonight so we're going to SING in the new year!

xoxo.

hello new chapter in my life!

it's now been two years since i decided to leave la..  wow, how time has gone by!  it's interesting how a year ago, i was a bit hesitant about my life here, but today i can't be any happier.  :)

i have some shocking news...  i left roy's.  for realz this time.

i've been given an opportunity to work full time for the hawaii food & wine festival!!  i'm the new development manager for the festival, working under the mentorship of denise hayashi (who happens to be roy's wife!)  it's definitely a new challenge, lots of things to learn but most of all, i'm excited for my future.  i'm finally taking my next step in life, doing something else.  do not get me wrong, i LOVE working for roy's and roy - he's the man. he's the shit.  but it was time.  and i'm fortunate enough to have roy vouch for me for this new position.

i'm also in a good relationship - a real one.  lucky me, he puts up with me, takes care of me and he likes me!  ;)  whose gagging??  hahaaa.

anyway, wish me luck on my new job!  

and come to the festival next year!!!  

save the dates and plan your vacation around it!  

september 5-8, 2013  

you've officially have been given 10 months notice!

shinsato hog farm visit

seems as though i've been doing lots of "farming" things lately!  honestly, this LA girl has changed.. ha!  i have no plans to be a farmer by any means, but it's definitely interesting to learn about their business and how it applies to our daily lives (whether we know it or not).

i had an opportunity to visit shinsato hog farm, a visit organized by higa meats - they're a retail outlet for these porks on oahu.  myself, roy's koolina chefs, and jackie got a tour of the farm with several other industry people.  shinsato farm is located in kaneohe, on the windward side of oahu.  very interesting, owners, glenn & amy shinsato's parents bought the farm back in the 40's for like $5000 - seems so "cheap" now, but back then, $5000 was a lot for them!  they currently have several sheds (not sure what they're really called) where the pigs are raised indoors until slaughter. 

upon arrival, you're greeted with this sign, it made me smile for some reason...

anyone need a pig?

using my photojojo fisheye lense, i was able to capture a moment where glenn and amy are sharing with us about their history, where they get their pigs and how they are raised.  i love that you can see and understand the passion glenn and amy have for raising these pigs with total care to ensure the we get the best quality pork out there.

check these guys out... kurobutas, berkshire pigs = yumm!

gorgeous day in kaneohe! seriously, look how green and blue it is!

that's one of two mama pigs and her litter.

this is mama pig #2 feeding her litter.  i learned that the mom makes this snoozing noise to let her babies know that its feeding time.  it looks sad that the mom is caged up, but it's to protect her babies from getting smashed under her!

i got to hold this little baby!  it was like holding a bunny or a cat because it seemed like it was going to jump out of my arms! it kept squealing so i gave it back!  isn't it crazy - that little piggy grows up to be that ginormous mama pig??  wow!

these babies were just born four days prior to our visit!

moving on... this is in the shed next door - these pigs are about 3-4 months old.  they're compounded in a small box, each containing about 14-15 pigs each.

(this shed smelled really bad with lots of flies in it!)

cute huh??  haha.

another view of the farm and kaneohe!

i didn't take any pictures, but they gave us a tour of the slaughter house too..  it wasn't as bloody and gory as you'd expect, but i didn't feel ethical taking pictures of the place where bloody murder happens!  just joking.  it was really nice - the pigs are well taken care of by glenn and amy.  they slaughter every friday with an inspector.  the inspector analyzes if the pig will be usda approved or not. glenn mentioned that if at any point during the first part of stopping their heart, if the pig squeals, it is automatically deemed NOT usda approved because it's viewed as "animal cruelty"!  how wasteful of such deliciousness... :(

anyway, after they've been put down, all this stuff happens.  at the very end, amy goes through and carefully shaves every single pig close to the skin with a razor.  most slaughter houses don't do that, but since people in hawaii love to eat the skin, they do their best to make sure there's no pig hair left.

all in all, my visit was very educational and i enjoyed it.  as we walked, i talked to amy a lot and she was very nice about sharing with me the history and the future of the farm.  unfortunately, shinsato farm will probably end with her and glenn, as one, there's not much money making in farming and two, her only daughter probably won't be taking over (due to the lack of money making.. she doesn't want to put that on her daughter's family).  so i guess for now, enjoy as much shinsato pigs as much and often as you can!  :)

next up... what will this LA girl do now??

hawaii food & wine festival 2012

if you've been following my facebook, twitter or instagram, i was busy towards the end of august/beginning of september with the 2nd annual hawaii food & wine festival.  lucky for me, i was given the opportunity to help with the event this year.  :)

here are some of my favorite pictures from the week of the festival.  love love.

foraging & bounty of he'eia

couple days before the first day of the festival, we went out to paepae o he'eia where we harvested ākulikuli (costal succulent) and paula (young shoots of sweet potato) for the day time event on thursday.  this place is located in kaneohe, which is north east of where i live.

what a beautiful place, surrounded by the fish pond and mountains

with about 10 helpful hands, we were able to harvest all this all within an hour and a half!

although it wasn't planned, i had the opportunity to visit the taro lo'i at papahana kualoa which is an educational program that helps students, teachers and the community understand and appreciate the rich cultural and natural history of their hawaiian islands.

yup - look again, i'm in MUD. wtf is right!  i didn't even hesitate before diving into that mud! who am i???

part of our group in mud and with our taros picked!

after we were covered knee-high with mud, what's a better way to cleanse off than jumping into the river??

these are the taros that we picked and cleaned!

this is roy pounding poi at the thursday, day time event - bounty of he'eia.

enter the modern dragon - thursday night

this is at our first signature event on thursday night at the modern honolulu hotel.

the featured chefs for the night being silly~

(photog courtesy of my bombdigity friend, ed morita)

misc fun~

this IS roy's.

the three executive chefs of roy's in oahu, jason peel, chris garnier & darryl shinogi and corporate chef, jackie lau had a breakfast-lunch meeting at the whole ox deli

this was our refrigerated truck that was parked in front of roy's hawaii kai for a week, storing all products delivered that needed to be transported to various venues.

this was our refrigerated truck that was parked at the hilton hawaiian village before it was full!

AHHHHH!!!  yup, that's me hanging on robert irvine, from restaurant impossible.  he was one of the featured chefs at the hilton event on saturday.  he was one chef i was looking forward to meeting and totally star struck!!  i watch him on tv all the time~

after paaaaaarty - friday night

roy's team with our awesome culinary students~

this is bob - he's the owner at the whole ox deli.  bob is da bomb.

definitely one of my favs.

farm to table - saturday night

supporting the men of japan, toshi yoroizuka & nobu matsuhisa.  apparently, toshi is one of the best pastry chefs in japan right now!  cool!

the bf came with me - what a stud.

(honestly, he makes his shakas look so cool!)

how could we not take a picture with robert irvine??  robert was feeling pa'a's arms, comparing them to his!  i think my bf is bigger than robert, what do you think??

love this - alan seems quiet, but he's totally goofy.  to our right, that's michelle - she does his desserts.  she made my fav of the night and the best dessert~  it was pineapple shave ice with tapioca pudding on the bottom! LOVE!  (cool thing about alan, he was always walking around with one of those fancy camera and camera bag!)

cuisine of the stars - sunday night

roy's team!

oh yah - iron chef sakai and his sous chef katsuyama.  we're definitely bff's!

this was our hearts of palm churro with citrus sugar. to DIE for!

what a beautiful setting~

that sums up the festival in the shortest way possible.  honestly, one of the best experiences ever.  i got to work with some amazing people, i met some talented chefs and made new friends.  if you want to see more pictures from the festival, you can visit:  hawaii food & wine festival or my facebook!  

will you attend this fabulous event next year???

farmer's market.

ok, so living in hawaii and working in a restaurant allows me to understand the importance of sustainability and supporting local farmers, fishermen and ranchers.

i'm trying to do my part by promoting sustainability and shopping local.  i know it's a little part, but i'm trying.  i shop at foodland (local market) which supplies local produce and products, but depending on my schedule, i try to take it a step further and have been shopping for groceries at farmer's markets!

couple weeks ago, i went to the tuesday afternoon farmer's market at kcc.  i had a meeting in town at night, so i went prepared - i took a cooler and ice!  i bought a bunch of stuff, from lettuce, bok choy, okra, lime, grape tomatoes, cantelope, avocado, cilantro, jalapeño and some colorful anthuriums!  all that for less than $30!  i was so stoked!  if i had bought all that at the grocery store, it would have easily been in the $50-$60's for sure!

on saturday, i went to the farmer's market at the hawaii kai shopping center and it was the bomb!  they had everything you need - and i spent only about $20 and my fridge is full!

for a list of oahu farmers markets, visit: oahu farmer's market schedule

today is tuesday, you can find me at kcc sometime later this afternoon!  what do you usually buy at the farmer's market??

obon festival.

even when i was living in la, i rarely went to the obon.  for one, i'm not buddhist and two, i didn't play basketball.  haha.  but i do recall the obons at ocbc was fun - lots of good food, lots of games and very well organized.

a month ago, i went to my first "bon dance" as they call it here (or is that what it's called everywhere?)

it was different...  the festival was in a really small, confined space and there were no games!  i wanted to go fish a goldfish with the super thin net thingy, but they didn't have it!  :(  

but, there was this one delicious thing, called the "kimono-dog".  it was a polish hot dog with andagi batter fried!  it was the perfect combination of salty, spicy and sweet!  wish they'd sell that for $1.50 at costco!

oh well, at least i can say i went to the bon dance in hawaii!  where is your favorite obon and what's your favorite food there??

via gelato.

most of you know, my favorite part of eating is dessert.  it's definitely a curse, but my health depends on it, but frick.  i LOVE it.

recently, there's been talk about this "gelato truck".  to be honest, i've actually never been a lover of food trucks - i cannot manage my life and follow all the trucks and hunt them down.. i don't have time for that.  but this gelato truck, called VIA gelato seemed very cute and fresh.  she's definitely a believer of supporting local - i love that.

my friend lindsey (who also writes for the honolulu pulse) and i finally got a chance to go last week.  the pastel yellow truck sitting right in front of kahala mall.  

what flavors do you want to try??

isn't her truck so cute??

this is lindsey - doing an impromptu interview with melissa bow, the owner and creator of via GELATO.

i asked for something different - i asked for the makaha mangoes sorbetto and brown butter vanilla together.  melissa wasn't sure if it was going to work because of the consistency of the sorbetto, but i handled the home made waffle cone and scoops fairly well.  no drip, no mess!  all sweet goodness!

(p.s. her home made waffle cone is divine - it has the texture of those japanese cookies, light but firm, full of flavor!)

(side note: yes, my shoulder is peeling and yes, it's ugly.  yes, i should use sunscreen.)

i even bought a pint of makaha mangoes sorbetto for home.  it's mine and i'm going to eat it slowly so i can have it forever!

for flavors and location on where she's going to be, follow melissa on twitter @viagelato or on instagram @viagelatohawaii

thanks melissa for fulfilling my love for dessert with your home made deliciousness!!