mid-january hawaii weather

**i was suppose to post this in mid-january when i first wrote it, but then i thought my shiitake rice was more interesting.  :P

am i so spoiled that i get to enjoy beautiful mid to high seventy-something degrees weather in mid-january??  although, it's been pretty cold at 5:30am...

should you be jealous that i'm wearing my hot pink bikini, soaking in vitamin-d and working on my tan?

hahaha, yah you should.

this was a sunset image i captured real quick as i was driving home from the gym.

it doesn't get better than this.

i'm lucky to live in paradise~

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.

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??

lucky live hawaii.

living in hawaii, you get to enjoy some delicious things!

lychee & hawaiian flag plumeria.  this plumeria is different than the rest - see how the petals are curling in?  and they are a lot more fragrant than the other ones.  mmmm... 

these are makaha mangoes - locally grown on the west side.  so vibrant in color and sweet!

this is a homegrown coconut, freshly picked from the backyard.

so i learned something - see how the inside coconut meat is thick?  that means that the coconut is "older" which means the coconut water is not as sweet.  the thinner the meat, the sweeter the water.

this was my perfect coconut.

i feel very lucky to live in hawaii with all these fresh & delicious goods. nom nom nom.