hawaiian food

Lessa Kanani’opua Pelayo-Lozada, fellow librarian and APALA Executive Board member, dropped off some kālua pork to me this morning. Her hula hālau, Kaulana Ka Hale Kula ‘O Na Pua ‘O Ka ‘Aina, often makes kālua pork as one of their fundraising activities. I ordered a couple pounds, and Lessa was good enough to deliver.

If you don't know what it is, kālua is a traditional Hawaiian way of cooking that uses an imu or underground oven. The result is a tender, salty, smoky-flavored meat that is served shredded. Kālua pork is usually the main dish at luaus. (Go here for more info.)

When I got my kālua pork, I decided to have it for breakfast with some fried eggs and freshly-cooked rice. I don't know if they made this the traditional way, but it's very onolicious.

kālua pork, fried eggs, and rice

This morning's meal is just the latest in my current semi-obsession with Hawaiian food. (Modern Hawaiian food is a combination of the cuisines of its many immigrants -- e.g., Chinese, Japanese, Filipino, Portuguese. More info about Hawaiian cuisine here.) Quite recently, I discovered that there is an L&L, a Hawaiian food franchise, within walking distance from my house. At first, I just thought that it's something to keep in mind, especially when I want barbecue or noodle soup (saimin).

Well, lately for some reason, I've been really into chicken katsu musubi and can't seem to stop craving it. Musubi is usually made with Spam, but I find Spam too salty. But the chicken katsu version? Fried breaded chicken with a little of the sweet katsu sauce, along with the rice and nori (dried seaweed) -- yum! (I don't have a picture because I never thought I'd write about it. Plus, I eat it right away.) I've been getting the katsu musubi mostly but have also gotten the mixed plate and the saimin once in a while. While this food is delicious, it really is a bad thing that I'm so into it right now because it's not exactly the healthiest of cuisines, and I'm not very good at moderation, especially when it comes to food.

Another reason that I've been thinking a lot about Hawaiian food lately is that there's been a number of gatherings at the library in the past couple of weeks, and King's Hawaiian desserts were present at all of them. (Granted, King's is really based in Torrance now, but I still think of it as Hawaiian food.)

A couple of weeks ago, we had a baby shower for one of our medical librarians. I didn't have the energy to make anything (which is usually the case), so I just went to pick up a cake. Though my favorite is the chocolate dobash cake, I thought the colorful paradise cake--a chiffon cake with 3 flavors: guava, passionfruit, and lime--would be more appropriate for a baby shower. Here's a photo taken by one of my library IT/photographer colleagues:

paradise cake, photo by Jonathan Wilson

Beautiful, isn't it? I can tell you that it tastes just as good as it looks. If you don't know chiffon cake, it's a very light & fluffy kind of cake and, with the fruity flavors, it's almost like you're eating something healthy. It turned out that I made the right decision in buying that cake because 1) it is the favorite of our pregnant guest of honor and 2) my colleagues at the Biomedical Library already know about it and love it, and they were very appreciative of my bringing it.

Last Wednesday, for my colleague's retirement party, I again brought stuff from King's. I had intended to buy paradise cake again, but the person serving me made a mistake and gave me a haupia (coconut milk) cake instead. This is not a very good photo, but at least you get the picture (hah!).

haupia cake

I arrived at the party late (had to give an Australian library technician a tour), and that's when I discovered it was the wrong cake. But the guest of honor assured me that it's very good anyway and that she loved it.

I also brought a chocolate haupia pie because I wanted that coconut-y flavor (not knowing, of course, that the other cake was also haupia-flavored). This picture came out much better (I took it, that's why. Haha.)

chocolate haupia pie

Both desserts were very good (as were the other goodies at that party). I was just sad that I couldn't come in the next day to partake of the leftovers. Probably just as well.

On Friday, there was another retirement party. I didn't bring it, but they had paradise cake and paradise bundt cake (no icing) there.

So, as you can see, Hawaiian food has been a big part of my life lately. That's the great thing about living in California: you can pretty much get any kind of cuisine you want. And it helps that I live in the South Bay, where there is a big population (relatively speaking) of Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders. I usually don't even pay it a second thought, until someone like a fellow librarian from the Midwest mentions on Facebook that she'd probably like Spam musubi, in conjunction with an article she was sharing of a Hawaiian restaurant opening up over there. When I asked her if she'd never had it before, she said she hadn't. So, even though it's bad for my waistline, I should thank my lucky stars that I have access to such good and varied food.

shopping and creativity

Today, I just got some stuff I ordered from Niko Silvester, a friend/classmate from folklore grad school. Niko is a Renaissance woman -- she writes stories, books, and comics, binds books, makes prints, creates jewelry, does photography, etc., as well as reviews video games and gaming equipment.

Last week, I was thinking of a present to get for a colleague, who is retiring after 36 years at the UCLA Library. I happened to be wearing a book necklace I had bought from Niko a couple of years ago and got a compliment on it. Niko's book jewelries are basically very miniature hand-bound books, and I figured that book jewelry is an appropriate present for a librarian. It took me a long to decide which ones to buy, but I finally picked these:


Aren't they wonderful?

Well, since I was buying stuff, I thought I might as well order something for me, too. I have always admired Niko's works, so I bought "Liminal," a black-and-white intaglio print featuring a tree trunk and fairies (I love both!). I have to say that the pictures on her website don't do it justice. I love it--it is gorgeous! And I happen to have a frame that is perfect for it. So, I have put it in the frame and found a space for it on my bedside table.


As you can see, I have sort of created a little nature-themed vignette. In front of it are two huge grey/white conch shells that I collected on one of the uninhabited barrier islands on the Eastern shore of Virginia last summer (I went on a seashell-collecting boat excursion), as well as a Jade iron fairy.

The point of all this, aside from being very happy about my purchases, is that I am inspired to do more creative stuff. I've been feeling this a lot lately anyway, and this is just another source of inspiration. So, I am hoping that writing this post is just the beginning to the rekindling of my creative endeavors (the writing part, at least).

Postscript: I asked Niko for more info about the print, and she ended up writing an entire blog post about it. It's a detailed description of the process of creating the print with some more pictures of the print. Very interesting. Seems like a lot of work! Makes me admire it even more.