i spy

Last time I was home in August, I planted some papaya seeds...

Well, I'm happy to say that we have some papaya blossoms...hope to see some papaya on there before I leave.

hawaii "farms"

This is what happens when you dig a hole and throw in a pile of seeds from your morning papaya.

We need to weed out some of the seedlings but are excited to see what kind of papaya we will get.

Check back in 2 years.

UPDATE: After my grandma, who is the expert "farmer" in our family, saw my bazillion papaya seedlings all clumped together, she dug them up immediately and planted one in each of these 4 pots.

Hopefully two will take so that we can plant them....okay, now check back in 2 years...

On another note...remember that bunny? Well, in the past couple of weeks it escaped and then was found.

His owners put him into their parakeet cage where he was separated from the rest of his friends.

In the meantime, the brown silkie bantam laid an egg and takes turns with the goose to keep it warm. (they have a LOT of animals!)

The exiled bunny was recently spotted a couple feet up on top of the parakeet's birdhouses inside the parakeet cage (can bunnies fly??!).

I love walking past this house, you just never know what you will see.

hawaii remembers

What kinds of things did you have for breakfast growing up?

We were lucky because on weekends Mom used to make all sorts of things for my brother and I.

One dish in particular was her peanut butter french toast.

Make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. (Jelly preferably guava.)

Dip into milk and egg mixture as you normally would french toast and cook with butter.

The version we had recently was different from "small kid times" (childhood) because my mom doesn't buy Love's white bread anymore, only whole wheat bread.

Another nostalgic breakfast is portuguese sausage, eggs and rice.

The spiciness and texture of portuguese sausage is something that cannot be found in Japan, though some chorizo can come quite close.

The egg has to be sunny side up or over easy...anything that will ooze over the plate, picking up some of the "juices" from the sausage, and soaking into the rice.

(Don't forget some ketchup on the eggs.)

Nowadays though, mom "fries" the sausage in the oven without having to stand by the stove (gets out a lot of oil too).

Looking back on the foods we eat nowadays, they have changed considerably from when we were growing up, but the tastes and memories have not.

mmm

Been enjoying fresh papaya every morning...so delicious!

Look at this one...over 8 inches long! from a walking friend of my parents...hope it is just as delicious!

hawaii sights & revolution tea

This cute little zebra dove (I found out what it was called on wikipedia) I spotted while sitting in the car waiting for my mom...love the zoom on my point-and-shoot!

I think this is the Waianae range (please correct me if I am wrong). As seen from the bus stop near my parent's home while waiting for the bus. On a really bad voggy (volcanic fog) day, you can't see these mountains...at all.

My neighbor has a papaya tree...with lots of papaya, but up too high to reach...sigh.

In the early evenings and early mornings, we usually get a misting, sometimes a passing shower (or two), love to see these rainbows. When you live in an area where rainbows are scarce, you tend to treasure them more.

And to blog a bit about food...Revolution tea, not sure where I read about them, but was happy to find them in Japan (of all places), bought their earl grey lavender and brought it with me, it is a great balanced flavored tea. I've been sticking a tea bag into a cup of cold water and letting it sit for an hour and enjoying this iced.

What have you been enjoying this summer?

cpk & big city diner

How many times a day could you eat pizza? Me? nowadays maybe once, but in college, many times a day...even for breakfast. We would order pizza from a place called "2 for 1", you order a pizza (US$4) and you get the same type and size free.

Great for our budgets back then, and paired with a B&J wine cooler (do they still make those?). The next morning, since we had no microwave or toaster in our room, cold pizza for breakfast...ah, dorm life.

So, I re-lived that memory the other day, when I had leftover pizza for breakfast. The pizza was my leftover from the previous day's lunch. Spicy Italian sausage, pepperoni, a thin crispy crust....yum!

When I worked for Lion Coffee, my supervisor said that you could tell if something was good if you ate/drank something cold that was supposed to be eaten/drunken when it was hot and it tasted good. A good pizza is definitely good cold.

Of course, my mom, not wanting me to have all bad calories from the beginning of the day and also freaking out because I was eating the pizza cold, gave me a third of a freshly ripened papaya....so sweet, so good!

That same day, I walked with my Aunty M to Ala Moana Shopping Center to have dinner at CPK.

CPK is one my favorites when I come home and I wished they had one in Osaka, I've heard they have one in Tokyo or Yokohama.

Anyway, we tried their new Moroccan chicken salad. Lots of Moroccan spiced chicken, fresh beets, avocado, hard boiled eggs, almonds, butternut squash and a champagne vinaigrette. Kind of like a Cobb salad, but with Moroccan spices and the light dressing. I liked it but my aunty thought it was a bit messy looking. Still it had fresh flavors and was delicious.

We also tried their Pear with Gorgonzola pizza. This is my Aunty's favorite. It was my first time to try it and it was good, lots of Gorgonzola cheese, caramelized onions, hazelnuts, pear and greens on top.

I also had a Guinness but wished the cup they served it in would have stayed cold longer.

Satoshi is here for a couple of days on business, poor guy, by the time he gets adjusted to the time he'll be back in Japan.

We didn't get to see each other much since he stayed in Waikiki to be near the office, but were able to get some of the family together for breakfast at Big City Diner on Saturday.

He had his favorite...loco moco...1/2 pound hamburger patty, with an over easy egg on top and fried rice...after taking his first bite he said, "now this is a loco moco!"...then ate it all.

I had the keiki (kid's) menu...big silver dollar pancakes with choice of bacon or link sausage, I chose bacon. I also added haupia (coconut) creme sauce.

They aren't joking when they say big silver dollar...those pancakes were actually normal sized and was just the right amount. You should have seen the adult sized pancakes...the size of the plate! Way too big and too much to eat...

Lots of food over the past couple of days, hope your weekend is going well.

we're jammin' and jellin' (part 2)

Yesterday, mom made some papaya-pineapple jam, she defrosted some papaya puree, added a couple of cans of crushed pineapple, sugar and lemon juice.

I usually don't like the smell of papaya cooking, but the house smelled pretty incredible.

Today, she got a chance to finish her original project--making strawberry guava jelly. She added lemon juice and sugar to the guava juice and although, there was a small mishap in the kitchen, everything turned out okay.

Hope your week is going well.