Welcome to Hawaii

Here's a great clip from the Rock's appearance last night on Saturday Night Live. Not saying it's 100% accurate, but it definitely hits close to home.

Xmas Time Is Here...

My good friend Kelssie recently emailed me a link to a couple of ElfYourself videos. It's a marketing tool developed by Office Max that allows you to upload pictures of people's faces to be superimposed on a live action video of elves dancing. Check out our moves here and here.

Spam on the rise.

Apparently, the current economic downturn is forcing more and more people to turn to Spam to, as the NY Times put it, put "something that resembles meat on the table." The Hormel factory in Minnesota has been cranking out cans of the "gelatinous 12-ounce rectangle[s] of spiced ham and pork" by the millions non-stop since July to keep up with the demand. Who woulda thunk it given this NY Times description of the delicacy:

Spam, a gelatinous 12-ounce rectangle of spiced ham and pork, may be among the world’s most maligned foods, dismissed as inedible by food elites and skewered by comedians who have offered smart-alecky theories on its name (one G-rated example: Something Posing As Meat).

And just for the record, the Spam article does not once mention Hawaii. I guess these New England journalists just don't care about how the rise in Spam prices is gonna lead to a decline in local utility. Alonka.

Obama and Hawaii

Spam Musubi!

Sometimes when I've been away from Hawaii for a while, (borrowing a line from the ever-sad-he-moved-away-from-Hawaii singer Justin Young) I tend to long for familiarity. Having gone through a spring semester and summer internship in LA and three months in Europe, I have not been back on Maui since January, so it's nice to have some taste of home.

Without Sam Sato's or Da Kitchen nearby, I just had to make do with what was available: spam, nori, rice. This was really my first time (outside of 'Iao School home ec.) making Spam Musubi, so the recipe for preparing the spam (basically, frying it in one part shoyu, one part sugar and a splash of mirin) was sorta made up along the way. The good news: it actually tasted like Spam Musubi.

Okay, maybe Miyako Sushi is slightly better (yeah, Sandy, you're welcome), but all in all it was pretty good. And it was nice to have a taste of the islands, even though I am 8,000 miles away.

Also, The New York Times published this story about plate lunches and President-elect Obama. Go read um yeah.

Oyako-don.

I made Oyako Donburi last night, and it actually tasted pretty good. Makes me miss Hawaii/Japanese food even more though. Here's the recipe a la my mom:

OYAKO DONBURI

1Tbsp oil
1/2 tsp salt

1 1/2 cups chicken, sliced thin
1 C green onion or round onion

1 1/2 cups chicken stock
5 eggs

4Tbsp shoyu
cooked rice to fill 6 bowls

2Tbsp sugar
1 can sukiyaki no tomo or bamboo shoots

Saute chicken meat in oil. Add stock and cook until chicken is tender. Add little salt and green onion. Beat eggs slightly, pour over chicken evenly.

Cook over low fire until eggs are coddled (Cover the mixture after you pour the egg mixture on. Keep checking and if the egg mixture looks cooked then it is done).
Fill bowl two-thirds full with cooked rice. Cover with the chicken-egg mixture and pour sauce over all.
Serve immediately.

It's About Time

Comedy Central, which I have no way of watching here in Edinburgh, apparently aired an election night special co-anchored by John Stewart and Stephen Colbert. This video comes courtesy of Kelssie. Good stuff.

Hard Times.

Last week came the solemn announcement by Sen. Obama that he would be suspending his campaigning for a couple of days this weekend to visit his ill grandmother back on Oahu. According to The Honolulu Advertiser, Obama visited his grandmother at the Punahou Circle Apartments on South Beretania Street just a couple of blocks from Young Street, which I've realized is on the same block as my late grandmother's apartment. He mentioned yesterday that she may not be well enough to make it through to see her grandson get elected president, but that he was glad to be able to speak with her while she still has all her faculties. My heart goes out to Sen. Obama and his family...We all know how hard it is to lose a loved one. It's a shame that they are being forced to go through all of this in the public eye during a time of such stress on the campaign trail.