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.

irony

when i went to the doctor last month, i mentioned that i get headaches all the time. she said that they sounded like tension headaches and referred me to a neurologist. well, before i can actually make an appointment to see a neurologist, i had to attend a headache management class, and the class was held yesterday.

the class was held at a different location from where my primary care provider is located. it's in a neighboring city. as i'm not much of a driver, anything requiring more than a 10-minute drive is far for me. (i usually just drive about 5 minutes away to my vanpool pickup location.) as i don't drive the freeway, i had to take side streets, though this place is close enough (about 20 minutes) so that didn't matter.

anyway, i drove to the class, trying to focus on my driving while making sure i don't get lost. i'm sure i must have been squinting (from the bright california afternoon sun) and probably clenching and just overall stressing. by the time i sat down for the class, i had a headache. i had a headache throughout the entire 1 1/2 hour class. i wasn't even really paying attention half the time.

isn't that ironic that the drive to the headache management class gave me a headache?

malaysian food

on cyber monday, restaurant.com was offering deep discounts on their already discounted certificates. i bought $250 worth for $20. but these things really have a catch--there is a minimum amount you have to spend to be able to use your certificate. for example, if you have a $25 certificate, you usually have to spend a minimum of $50, not including drinks & tip (the tip is actually a preset percentage added to the the full bill). though it's not really that great a deal, it's a good way to try some new restaurants and still save some money (even if it's only a little bit).

so this past wednesday (my designated day to provide dinner), i decided to one of my $25 certificates. we went to belacan grill right nearby. my sister had mentioned before that it's good, but i'd never had the chance to eat there. so this was as good a chance as any.

the restaurant is pretty small, but they have a good menu. it was hard to decide, especially since not all of us ate spicy food and we had kids with limited palates with us. but we actually had a good mix. for appetizers, we had crispy calamari and chicken and beef satay. both dishes were delicious!

we ordered the satay--that was going to be their dinner. though they like barbeque, i wasn't sure that they would like it because of the different spices used. but they actually really liked it. my niece liked the chicken better, while my nephew liked the beef. they looked so good that we (the adults) wanted to try them as well. so we wound up getting another order of it.

my sister loves calamari, and now i like it, too. so, we had to order these, especially since she'd already had it before and knew they were good. they used the little squid, which i like better. and they were good. the kids actually ended up eating these, too.

for our main entrees, i wanted to try the "must try" malaysian curry chicken. my sister suggested the "favorite" daging kicap manis (soy glazed beef), while my brother-in-law chose the claypot seafood with tofu.

though the menu indicated that it would be spicy, the chicken curry actually was not. my sister thinks it's because she had asked about something else being spicy, so they might have made it mild. whatever the reason, i was rather disappointed with this dish. i expected spicy, and i wanted it spicy. and i felt like this would be a malaysian signature dish, and it just didn't seem that to me. my sister thinks that maybe this tasted bland because the others were so flavorful. could be.

(addendum (1/9/09): okay, i completely change my mind about this curry. i just had the leftovers--the only leftover we had from this dinner, and it tastes as it should--rich and spicy. mmm. mmm. my sister might be right about the other flavors overpowering this dish, but i suspect that it took this time for the spices to fully steep.)

the soy-glazed beef was very good. as you can see from the pepper pieces, it had some spiciness to it, and that contrasted nicely with the sweetness of the glaze. this was probably the best out of the entrees.

the seafood claypot was also delicious. as you can see, the ingredients look fresh and cooked just right. it was very flavorful.

though we were already full, we thought that we might as well try some of the desserts. we tasted a couple that sounded like filipino desserts--we wanted to see what their malaysian versions would be like. we ordered ice kacang and pulut hitam

the ice kacang is like the filipino halo-halo, but not. it consists of "shaved ice with red beans, sweet corn, grass jelly, red rose syrup and evaporated milk." i just had a taste. i didn't particularly like it. i don't exactly like halo-halo either, but i like this even less.

pulut hitam is "black glutinous rice topped with sweet coconut cream." i thought that this might be like the filipino suman/puto, but again, it really wasn't. to me, this was just so-so. my niece said it tasted like the tapioca dessert they serve at the chinese restaurant, and i guess it did.

so, all in all, the desserts were not that great. but, overall, the food was excellent. i'm thinking of doing an apala social here.

it was rather expensive there, though (and their servings were small). when we were ordering, we were trying to make sure that we met the $50 minimum. that turned out not to be a problem. our total came out to about $95 after the 18+% tip. so, after the $25 certificate was deducted, i still paid about $75. it turned out to be more expensive than our normal dinners out (at other places and without certificates), but i was glad we went there. and, as i told the kids, now they (and i) can say that they've (i've) had malaysian food.

new year's eve

on new year's eve, we celebrated according to my sister's family's tradition. this meant chinese take-out. (i think lots of people may have this tradition, too, because when we went to pick up the food, there were also lots of people waiting to pick up their food.) we had salt & pepper pork chop, prawns with lobster sauce, crab with house special sauce, pan fried noodles, corn soup, and lemon chicken. and we had the special occasion sparkling apple cider to drink. lol.


afterwards, they played a little. then began the movie marathon. we laid out the blanket on the rug, got some throw pillows, and blankets to cover us. we watched underdog first. halfway through the movie, we had the cheesecake that i had bought earlier from the cheesecake factory--godiva cheesecake for us, plain for my nephew. (hmm. i think of godiva cheesecake as my favorite, but it was actually too rich for me. i think my favorite may be my pumpkin cheesecake after all.) after that, we watched the game plan. (are we pg or what? i think these might even be g-rated. lol.).

with only a few minutes left to the second movie, we had to turn it off, as it was five minutes to midnight. we got our drinks--cider in fancy wineglasses this time--and poppers ready. we watched the countdown, pulled the poppers, toasted each other. not much fanfare really. (no jingling money, jumping up and down, opening doors, etc.)

about 15 minutes later, we turned the movie back on. then it was off to sleep. it was a low key, relaxing evening. my kind of pace...

new year's eve day

the 31st turned out to be a great day. it started out like the other days of my vacation. i got up late. had breakfast (my brother-in-law cooked pancakes, eggs, & sausage). after breakfast, my niece was somehow wanting to clean her arts & crafts area. since i've been trying to clean the last few days, i was glad that she wanted to do that. so, we culled & organized, and it was good. unfortunately, i couldn't say the same about the top of the desk (which was full of my stuff).

while we were cleaning, my friend susan called. i had texted her earlier to see if she wanted to do lunch (i was sick of eating leftover ham from sunday evening, and i wanted to eat something else. plus, i really needed to get out of the house. since my vacation started on the 24th, i'd only been out on the 24th & the 26th, and i hadn't been out since.)

susan picked me up, and we went to sushi sumo, a small, cheap hole-in-the-wall type place that my family & i go to. we sat at the rotating bar. as usual, i ate too much. i had two plates of my favorite--the flaming joy (basically shrimp tempura roll with spicy sauce). also had a plate of tempura roll, half of the dragon roll (the one with the avocado & eel), half a shrimp/crab/roe dish. (i actually don't like fish, hence the absence of sushi in my selection).

we were really full, so i was glad when susan mentioned going to the beach (i had always told her and my other friend at work that they should come over and we could eat & walk on the beach, but i actually wasn't thinking about it on this day.). so we went back to my house, so i could change shoes, then we headed off to the beach.

we just drove down the street until we hit redondo beach, but i didn't really want to go to the harbor or the promenade, so we drove to torrance beach. it was a foggy and cold day (good thing i changed into a sweater when we went to my house, though it was still chilly.) there were a couple of surfers on the water, and a few others on the beach.


as soon as we got close enough to the water, susan saw some movement. and guess what we saw? dolphins! we could see mostly their fins as they came out on the water. there were at least half a dozen of them, and they pretty much stayed in place. (they were still there when we left about an hour later.) unfortunately, they were still too far for me to take pictures. (i took a video, but that's far, too, and you can really only see fins.) but it was so unexpected, so i was excited about it.

when we started walking, i saw these funny little birds--they looked so comical with their quick little steps. i had never seen them before. susan thinks they're sandpipers. i think she's right.

later on, we saw the more common seagulls. there were a lot of them, and they sure looked fat.

as we walked, susan began looking at the shells, and i continued to take pictures. here are a couple pics of shells and squishy seaweed.

on the way out, took pics of the bird prints.

after the beach, we stopped by the cheesecake factory so i can by some new year's eve dessert for my family. i spent $40 on cheesecake! and i only bought two small ones. that's crazy!

we also stopped by the 99 cent store. i hadn't been to one in years. i didn't really buy much, but i did get some poppers to ring in the new year.

it was dark by the time i got home (well, it was actually quite gray when we headed out in the first place). we had a great time. i don't know why i don't go to the beach more often since it's such a short drive. i always think i should go there and walk there, but i never do. it's so hard to get me out of the house once i'm here. so, good thing susan came out.

holiday party

People in my department are so busy that we just don't have time to do much other than work. When I first got here last June, there was a potluck--mostly for our student assistants--to mark the end of the school year and graduation. Since then, there hasn't been anything.

When December came and I was beginning to get into holiday mode, I was hearing other departments plan holiday parties, but not a peep from my department. Just when I thought we weren't going to have a celebration, a co-worker mentioned that our other co-worker was leaving soon for her year-long leave of absence and there was no plan for a send-off. So, I volunteered to organize the potluck and turned it into a combination holiday and going-away party.

Here are some pictures of the spread. We had some great food. By special request, I made pumpkin swirl cake again. It turned out so much prettier baked on the cookie sheet.

Unfortunately, people didn't really linger for long--everyone's just too busy--but at least, we got to gather and celebrate and be festive, even if only for a little while.