Saturday, March 07, 2009
Posted at 11:59:00 AM by Laura W. Petix.
Wow! Quite the haul of weird fruit at the Farmers' Market! Here's what we got this week:
From the Tart Lady's stand:
- Two kinds of pitanga, bright red and deep purply red. They look sort of like habaneros, but aren't related to peppers and the bush they grown on looks nothing like a pepper plant. However, they smell like peppers to me and I hate it! I sampled one at the stand and didn't like the taste, either. They're sort of sweet-sour and not at all hot, but they have a pepper element to the taste which I find really off-putting. I got two to bring back and photograph, but I'm going to throw them away now so the smell won't tease me!
- Mom's Avocado Bread (two slices, which we brought back to our place). No tarts, since she doesn't seem to have them this year. :-( No meyer lemon butter either, but maybe she'll have some next week.
- Really yummy lemonade.
From the Lulo Guy's stand:
- Six nice big round Tahitian limes and eight lulos. They look really pretty together! I gave the lulo guy my new recipe (he read it and thought it sounded highly yummy) and asked him about growing lulos, so I can report back to the Gs. (I'm giving them the seeds he gave me, and they are all excited about planting them.) He said you treat it like a tomato, but space them at six feet because they have big leaves. Start in growing pots, then transplant (after threat of frost is passed). Don't need to stake, as they have strong stems. He gave me his card and wants a report back from the Gs about how they do!
From a stand with ten zillion weird things:
- Lucmo. It doesn't sound very appetizing, but I still had to get it. Hey wait a minute... I just did a search for "sweet potato" on ALB and found out that it's the same thing as that weird fruit I got at Ali'i Garden Market last year, but they called it a chesa! Because check it out: here's the article I linked to last year, and here's wikipedia's article on lucmo, aka lúcuma! SAME exact picture!
...!!! I just noticed, right above where I wrote about chesa, I talked about wanting to try calamansi on papaya! Well, at this same stand I got...
- Calamonsie, aka Filipino limes!!! I should've got more! I only bought one.
- Green sapote (looks similar to the lucmo, but is totally different).
- Bilimbi (4), a much smaller and non-ridged relative of starfruit. Has a weird waxy feel.
- Otaheite gooseberry (3). They're small and cute and pale yellow, with a similar shape to the pitanga, but other than shape they're nothing alike.
- Tropical apricot. Small and soft and round, lightly furred, with a speckled golden hue. They came in a little plastic berry box. [Edit: I tried it and it's very flavorful but tart. It doesn't taste anything like an apricot.]
- Abhay Apuri lime, originating in India. It's long and skinny shaped instead of round. I got two, one green and one yellow. The stand guy said all limes turn yellow as their last color! He also had Kona limes and kaffir limes (the kind that look like brains), but I didn't get any since I've had them before from the South Kona Fruit Stand.
- Starfruit (2) and they look like nice ones.
- Mangosteen! I only bought one, since mangosteen is old hat to me now. ;-) They were $2 each. Dean said the weird fruit guy is the same guy who had the mangosteen last year.
From various stands:
- a bunch of apple-bananas
- three yellow pitaya (dragonfruit)
- a bunch of papayas
- a bunch of tangelos, since we know how to eat them now!
We also shared a really tasty juice made from mango, lilikoi, lemon and lime. I asked the lady what was in it and started writing it down on my piece of paper, and she said, "What are you doing??" But when I told her I like to write down what I get, she described it fully, as if giving me the recipe!
And of course we got our usual Makali'i hot food stand breakfast! Dean got the burrito as always, and this time I had a "real bagel" instead of my usual fish taco. It was REAL good, and we had to go back for a second one! I got it with butter, cream cheese AND jam, and one of the reasons it was so incredibly good was the delicious jam. It was Poha, aka cape gooseberry, jam, and Kristin revealed to me that she actually bought it at KTA because she was so busy with the cafe that she hadn't had time to make her own jam. She showed me the jar and told me where to find it (near the bakery/weird fresh fish section) and we stopped at KTA after the market and snagged a jar! It's locally made (with local fruits), in a Ball jar, with a homemadey looking label. From Pahoa!
When we got back, I photographed the cool stuff outside on the patio. The lighting's really good today because it's overcast again. While I was arranging the fruit and taking pictures, it started to rain, but I didn't get wet because of the huge roof overhang.
Hover over the pictures above for captions/labels. And here's a large version of the plate with all the really unusual small stuff. Clockwise from 12 o'clock: mangosteen, bilimbi, pitanga, otaheite gooseberry, tropical apricot, calamonsie (Filipino lime), and Abhay Apuri lime.
Friday, March 06, 2009
Double Ke'ei! First we dove at Ke'ei ("our" dive site, according to Virginia...), then we went to Ke'ei (aka "Norm's restaurant") for dinner. Both were good, although the water was pretty cold and we didn't see anything super-exciting. (The Wanna Dive guy posted on his blog today, "The water's really cold right now, call it 71/72 or so... brrrrrrrr. That's as cold as it's been since I've moved here, I can only recall it being that cold in January/February of '00." Then this evening we saw the Wanna Dive guy driving his truck near Borders!)
Posted at 6:00:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.
It was overcast and calm and rainy again, so it's a nice temperature (with a beater on) but not as bright underwater. But it was a nice dive to just float around and enjoy all the old coral. Dean took a video of our blue blue descent! Also, he found a giant crowbar. It was really heavy! (Too heavy for me to pick up all the way, even underwater) He signed that it wasn't a giant crowbar, it was a giant hook. For a whale. But I still think it's a giant crowbar.
On the way back up Napoopoo Road, we stopped at a little fruit stand on the side of the road, run by two local dudes. It's called Eddie's Tropical Fruit. Dean got four papayas for $1 apiece, and the second dude gave us each a tangelo to try, prepared with the top peeled off. He told us to "smash it up" inside, then squeeze/suck/slurp the juice. They were incredibly juicy and really good and refreshing, especially right after a dive!!! We immediately walked back and bought six (3 for $1). Now that we know how to properly eat tangelos, we are big fans! Dean had always tried to peel them and eat them like oranges, but the juice flew everywhere and it made a huge mess and just didn't work. It's tons yummier than an orange! Nice color, too.
There was a baby wild piggy (brown with stripes and a super-cute nose) running around the stand, and the guy was feeding it scraps. Later we realized why. (Hint: every time we visit Ke'ei, there's this delicious smell...)
Oh yeah, and the espresso machine at Coffee & Epicurea was fixed and Dean finally got his Larry's Famous chai! I got a cappuccino and it's good. We got banana bread (Dean's) and choc-zuke bread (mine) to go with them. I like mine best and so does Dean but they're both good and are super moist! Better than the banana bread place.
For dinner at Ke'ei I had catch of the day (walu) with lilokoi white wine sauce, and shrimp coconut rice cakes (they reminded me of something from Whole Foods). Dean got eggplant rolls and a boring meal (intentionally) and it was good. We did not get a Kailua Candy Company lilikoi cheesecake with chocolate ganache but agreed that I'm going to get one at the KCC (but not lilikoi flav). I like Ke'ei's lettuces.
Thursday, March 05, 2009
Posted at 3:48:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.
Pine Pine Pine! I love Pine Tree Pools! It's such a good place for a long wander in my Scuba Crocs, white shorts, Oshima Jail Shirt, and Roxy Beater, Dean's iPod in the mp3 pocket, listening to RDM's podcast, then my Hawaii music, climbing over lava and sand, in and out of pools, finding unis and sea cucumbers of every description. I walked all the way down to Pine Tree Portal, and there's NO ONE else here. Took a picture of the Hug A Tree on the way. Wandered and climbed and waded and looked. It's cool out today but perfect with my beater.
[Edit: Here's a picture of my Oshima Jail Shirt! It's from on the couch, not Pine Trees. And here's my Roxy Beater, at Pine Trees. Also note, the cool Tsunami sign above is not from Pine Trees; it's from the Jack's parking lot. I love those signs and keep wanting to photograph one, and today I finally had the camera with me so I jumped out and did it. There are lots of them around here, including one right near the entrance to our condo development. Except, ours is one of the ones with the guy running toward the gigantic wave, and says "ENTERING tsunami evacuation area." That kind is too crazy! Why would the guy run toward the wave???]
Yuck!!! Dean got a Cherrymint water at the Island Naturals Market in Kona yesterday and we just tried it. It SMELLS and TASTES like that horrible Black Forest Cake style cherry! I knew I avoided buying it at ION market for a good reason! Dean likes it of course. WHY would the Metromint people come up with such an abominable flavor and not produce Cucumbermint?? P.S. We're at Pine Tree Pools again and it's NICE! And all my dead unis are still here where I left them!
Posted at 2:00:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.
We're at the Makali'i Café! It's in a warehouse! But it has three cute tables with Hawaiian tablecloths, and a counter. They seem really busy with takeout and deliveries! It's Kristin at the front taking orders, Devin in the kitchen chef-ing (with an assistant), and a delivery guy making runs. It's actually very pleasant in here! Fan whirring on the ceiling, real glasses and silverware, cloth napkins. Good thing we know the Makali'i team from the Farmers' Market, or we would've been afraid to come.
Posted at 12:00:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.
Wow! Everything was good, and gourmet tasting. My sandwich had a crispy pita, which was weird but I really liked it. We got tons of food but we ate everything! Potstickers, soup of the day (yum!), marinated tofu tacos, and chicken/ham/brie mustard sandwich on pita, with Asian coleslaw. All good!
I almost forgot to post, this morning I went on a solo mission to Oshima Surf! I love driving the Jeep (my Guy: "Ka-MAY-ha-MAY-ha-three Road"), parking in the Isamu Oshima public lot, walking in my shirt, Longs bag swinging from my shoulder, bumbling around Oshima Surf looking at everything. I bought one thing: a supersoft jail-striped Oshima shirt (has a small Oshima Surf logo on chest!) that was custom printed for someone who ended up not buying it, so it's one of a kind. Lucky me. It fits perfectly. (Speaking of which, I wore my new favorite shirt ever, bought yesterday at Kohala Divers!) I buy so many great clothes in Hawaii. It's so weird, because I don't buy many clothes at all, at home.
Posted at 12:58:00 AM by Laura W. Petix.
After Oshima Surf, Dean was still having his phone call so I walked around. I love Mamalohoa Highway so much. I browsed around Oshima Store and a couple of others, then talked with the massage school lady for a while and learned all about the school, which was very interesting. Their business is doing well! It's only $30 for a one hour student massage and I want to get one!
Wednesday, March 04, 2009
Posted at 10:07:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.
I invented a new lulo drink and Dean thinks it's really good! He said he'd order it at a real smoothie establishment. I agree, but I thought he'd think it's too tart! Wowowow. Here's the recipe (I'll have to share it with the Lulo Guy on Saturday!):
Loli's Bananalulo
Ingredients:
- The scooped-out insides of 1 ripe lulo
- One apple-banana (or half a regular banana if you don't have an apple-banana)
- 1/2 container (3 oz) of Meadow Gold plain lowfat yogurt
- Honey to taste (you don't need much)
Whir together the first three ingredients in a blender until smooth and creamy, then stick your spoon in and try it. Add a little honey, depending on how tart you like your Bananalulo, and blend again, then pour into a tall glass and insert a straw. Serves one. Double the ingredients if someone else is around, so you won't have to fight over the thick, delicious and nutritious result!
I keep talking nonstop about how great sea asparagus is, but whenever I say the words "sea asparagus" Dean can't hear me and makes me repeat myself!
Posted at 9:23:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.
Laura: "From now on, if you can't tell what I'm saying, it's probably sea asparagus."
A few minutes later:
Dean: "Mumble mumble mumble fifty percent mumble."
Laura: "What?"
Dean, loudly and clearly: "I said, sea asparagus is very good."
That wasn't what he said, but sea asparagus is very good. It's crispy and fresh and pleasantly salty. I don't know if I'd want to just munch a bowl of straight sea asparagus (maybe I would), but in the application I used it, it was ideal. It made the dish. I broke up a little pile of raw sea spargle and sprinkled it on top of my squirmy-wormy udon noodles with butter and shrimp. The meal would have been a little plain tasting and too smushy textured without the sea asparagus, but with the s.a. it was really something special. I wish they sold sea asparagus in Connecticut! Sea asparagus is also very cute (I will have to take a picture) and fun to eat. It sort of looks like tiny mini bright green branched asparagus stalks. Except, I bet it's actually seaweed and is related to asparagus in name only. [Edit: True, and oh wow, it's the same as glasswort!] I will have to try the instructions for blanching it also, although I can't imagine it will be better than raw.
[Edit, 3/5: I tried that today! It was good, but wasn't much different than raw. I like sea asparagus with a little butter. And it produces the most beautiful chartreuse broth in the bottom of the bowl! Dean isn't totally convinced as to the wonders of sea asparagus (he thinks it tastes too salty or something) but I am!]
After Dean's Herculean demo, I actually agreed to dive at Crescent Beach! (Last time, our opinion = not worth the effort.) But only on the stipulation that we'd do it when it was cool and overcast (so he wouldn't have to carry the tanks ten thousand miles in the hot sun). It was cool and overcast (+ not windy!) right then, so he convinced me it was a good time to do it, even though it would be about 5:00 by the time we'd get in the water. He said it was a good op because the eels, octopus, sharks, etc. might be active since it was darkish. I carried the gear bag and backpack only, and Dean carried our tanks x 4 (and me x 1!). ! Wowowow. I couldn't believe it was even possible, because I would have fallen over after about ten feet with the tank on my back with that footing. He claimed it wasn't even hard! I guess how little you are compared to the tank makes a pretty big difference. :-(
Posted at 6:30:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.
The dive was pretty nice, although we didn't see anything super-exciting like the Crescent fans claim always happens. It reminded me a little of Ke'ei (boat launch area). When we first got in, I found a tiny heart urchin and figured out that it was alive! I could tell when looking with my eyes about four inches away, because I could see incredibly tiny pale purple tube feet sticking out on top.
Things we saw: lush coral, lot of unis, lots of fish.
No sharks. :-( Dean pouted on the bottom in the deep section. :-)
No octopus to hold hands with, either. We did see several eels including a nice polka dotted one, and a nice yellow cushion star which stuck its feet out on my hand when I was holding it. Also, a strawberry-RED cushion star (I didn't know cushions came in red!) which was all molded around the coral in a weird non-cushionstarlike shape. And a nice BIG crown-of-thorns with 16 arms and lots of tube feet when I flipped it over. Its underneath details were beautiful, and easy to see on the sand, but it was getting too dark for a picture.
[Edit, 3/6: Grrr. We told Virginia we dove at Crescent Beach and she went on and on about how it's the Big gang's favorite site and they see all different sharks, porpoises, manta and eagle rays, etc. But they go early in the morning, like 8 AM. That's not going to happen. They also cheat and use a boat (sometimes)!]
Wow. I am very impressed. In an attempt to convince me to try diving at the harbor/Crescent Beach again, Dean proved he could carry me on his back all the way from the beach to the car (over tons of lava rocks). It's far and uphill. I pretended to be a tank. I'm still skeptical. But I'm very impressed.
Posted at 4:02:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.
The ice cream bean is good! We ate the rest of it just now. It's nice and moist, and fun and easy to eat the cottony part off of the seed. We approve of ice cream bean!
Posted at 8:58:00 AM by Laura W. Petix.
Yuck!!! Dean made me try a spoonful of his Meadow Gold lychee yogurt even though we already know I hate lychee. It was so horrible, like a mouthful of rosewater! On the other hand, Meadow Gold vanilla yogurt is really good. Very smooth and creamy textured, with a pronounced vanilla taste, but not sweet. I should've gotten more vanilla at Safeway! I used half the container last night to make a quick (avec seeds, no water) Loli's Luloade.
Tuesday, March 03, 2009
All you gotta say is Sug! I like following the chain. (I went in front!) And then we heard the whales! Much quieter than at Pine Tree Portal, but Dean managed to record the sound with the underwater camera this time. One was low and groany and the other was high, echoey, and weird. After listening to the whales for a little while, we played underwater Uno with the deck Jan gave us for Christmas!
Posted at 11:28:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.
As you can see, I was a pretty sore loser. Dean used his classic Dean maneuver and bombarded me with a series of reverse cards to go out. But he's a huge cheater and forgot to say "Uno"! I'm sure our sea urchin spectator will attest to the fact that I was robbed.
Thanks for the cards, Jan! The only difficult part about playing was that the top of the case kept trying to float away...
AHH!! Once again, Dean failed to learn his lesson and ordered a Tropical Dreams ice cream flav other than mac nut at the Kope place in Hawi, despite my warnings. Then when he tried my mac nut he attempted all sorts of unsportsmanlike means to get his paws on it, including switching our cups when I wasn't looking (I knew immediately, without even taking a bite of his coconut cream) and trying to steal spoonfuls every time I left mine unguarded for one second. It was a big fight fight FIGHT, even though I let him have a reasonable number of free bites. If he orders something other than mac nut next time we go to the Kope place, he's going to be out of luck!!
Posted at 9:00:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.
We have to come back, because Persimmon was closed by the time we got there. Not that we need an excuse to come back to Hawi for more of the best ice cream/coffee combo ever...
... ! There's a big fire near mile marker 7 and we have to take a huge detour, back through Hawi and home by way of Waimea on Highway 250, aka Kohala Mountain Road! But we've never been on that road, so that's interesting.
This is a nice road! Nice trees, nice clouds, nice whumpy hills to look at, nice curves, and cows. Lots and lots of cows. Also horses.
We're about 3,000 feet up. We'd be getting the bends if we hadn't slacked and played Uno at Sug! But we didn't dive very deep, so it should be okay.
Wow--I turned on the radio to see if there was anything about the fire, and there was a Hawaii Civil Defense announcement on at that exact moment! It's a brush fire. I can see the smoke from up here.
... Cafe Pesto = Paradise Passion & same pizza as last time, as it came so highly recommended by my former self. (The former self gives good advice; Dean should heed it when it comes to ordering mac nut ice cream.) We got a premium table, in the front window of the bar room. Nice and quiet!
Edge.
Today's Plan:
Posted at 10:03:00 AM by Laura W. Petix.
- Stop at Tim's for fuel
- Pick up tanks at Big / give Sara her card (first pull scam to find out her fav restaurant)
- Drive up north
- Stop at Kohala Divers to check for shirts
- All you gotta say is Sug! (listen for whales)
- Hawi, including Tropical Dreams/Kope place, Mother's, As Hawi Turns, and superior branch of Persimmon
- Cafe Pesto
I woke up thinking, "Oh boy, I get to wear my new beater!"
Posted at 9:54:00 AM by Laura W. Petix.
Posted at 1:20:00 AM by Laura W. Petix.
I slacked on writing this post and it's holding me up from posting a billion other ones!
I love Pine Tree Portal!
I like nosing under rocks at the base of the portal.
One area seemed really familiar, and I wrote on my slate, "Is this the spot where I found the baby crown?" When I looked up from writing, so I could show Dean the question, I found him buried behind the camera photographing THE BABY CROWN!!! (!!!!!!) 1) I have never recognized an underwater location like that before (recognizing a location, below water or below, is completely unlike me; I am distinctly lacking in all such abilities) (not to mention, the spot where the baby crown lives really isn't that unusual looking, so I have no idea how I knew it was the place), 2) !!!! We found the baby crown-of-thorns again!! The same exact one from last year! My pet! I can't believe I ever found it in the first place, once, let alone twice! I have never encountered an underwater creature twice and known for sure that it was the same creature, but in this case I have no doubt, especially since I've never ever seen another baby crown-of-thorns.
Wowowow. My dear dear dear baby c-o-t. It grew! Only a little, but I immediately thought it looked bigger, a tiny bit less babyish. I measured it against my slate and it was almost the width of the slate, so I think it grew about half an inch. I counted 17 arms. Last time I counted 16, but I'm not sure if it grew a new one or I counted wrong previously.
It's so nice to hold and touch! It held onto me, and crawled on my hand with its little tube feet. I even took my reg out of my mouth and kissed it with my lips. I have videos, but I haven't videoified them yet.
For the baby crown pictures/videos, I took my dive slate off my arm so it wouldn't look distracting. I put the slate and pencil down in the sand and obliviously crown-crown-crowned. Then when I went back to put it on, my pencil was missing! We looked all around, but it had completely disappeared. Fortunately, I had my spare pencil in my BC pocket, so I got it out, but it was a huge mystery what happened to my original pencil. That is, until Dean took my spare pencil and let go of it in the water to see what would happen, and we watched it float upward toward the surface. Apparently my pencils are buoyant. Heh.
After the crown, we heard whales! Loud! We'd never heard them this loud! We swam deeper, thinking they'd be even louder there, but apparently the whales ran away, because they stopped singing and Dean didn't get to record the sound! (Our new underwater camera has sound, unlike the one we had last year.) Next time we'll learn our lesson and try to record right away, not wait thinking it will get even better.
I also found a second nice crown-of-thorns who was fairly small, like a teenager or young adult-sized crown (tons huger than the baby). He was really friendly and clung onto my hand like crazy, at one point totally engulfing it. I could barely pry him off!! I was a little afraid that I'd get poked on the left hand while trying to get him to let go of my right one. After I finally got him off (minus a few feet, which stayed suctioned onto my fingers, but I'm sure they'll grow back), I looked around for my right glove which I'd taken off so I could handle him barehanded. It was nowhere to be found!! Dean took off my other glove and let it go in the water... and, yep, it floated upward. Aaaak!!! FORTUNATELY, Dean (he is my hero) somehow FOUND the missing one floating at the surface, some 20 or 30 feet above us! It would have been horrible to lose my glove, since I bought it in Rocky Hill and they don't sell good gloves around here!! Yikes. I guess I'd better not put any more pieces of gear down in the sand and get distracted playing with crowns-of-thorns, or I'm likely to never see them again.
Anyway, it was a nice nice dive, slow and relaxing. My back didn't hurt and my tank didn't feel heavy! Pine Tree Portal is a great spot. I love coming back up through the portal, holding onto a rock so I don't rise too fast. :-)
After Pine, since it was still pretty early, we drove up to Waikoloa, and it was a total Waikoblowa, which did hurt my shoulders. It was still fun though. We checked out the Queens to see all the new shops that have opened since last time, and I got a new beater at the Roxy store (so now I have an Oshima Beater, a Scuba Beater, and a Roxy Beater). I was drawn to it the second I saw it; it was immediately obvious that it was meant for me: it's bright pink overdyed with bright orange (with cool abstract graphics)! I'll post a picture of me wearing it.
We also checked out the new Gourmet Market, which was really nice. It was sort of like a bigger, fancier version of Whalers, with lots more food and stuff. I got a weird food called Sea Asparagus in the fresh vegetables section. It looks cool! There was hardly anyone at Queens, Kings, or the Shops at Mauna Lani.
[Edit: Here's a big version of the photo of the urchin who looks exactly like me, since I love it so much. Dean took this picture with no prompting from me!]
Monday, March 02, 2009
That was the best Dara's meal ever--I liked every element. Shared vinegared cucumber-peanut salad, pineapple rice, mango sticky. The owner greeted us warmly when we walked in! He could hardly believe us when we assured him it's been a year. When we talked to him afterwards he told us the economy is hurting Hawaii badly though and he hopes he'll still be here in another year. He said his business has dropped off by 50%.
Posted at 7:21:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.
Dean, while eating haupia yogurt in papaya bowl, "Mmmmmmmm! Mmmmmmmm. Isn't it the greatest ever? Mmmmmmm!"
Posted at 4:46:00 AM by Laura W. Petix.
The Ice Cream Bean was actually good. You eat the white cottony part around the seed and it's sort of cotton-candy texture, but not melty. It has a sweet, floral taste, very green and plantish. It reminds me of the smell of a garden or something. It was easy to eat. We both liked it. (But eating it didn't make us giggle like the farmers' market girl said it would!) There was a baby tree seedling guy in the seed. :-)
[Edit: Here are some pictures! 1) Ice cream bean, B) opened up (yeah, it's really gigantic), 3) the cute seedling!
I forgot to mention in my entry about Saturday, we stopped at the International Market after our dive, on the way to pick up new tanks at Big, and I checked out what's in the former Dano's spot. It's a bento place, but it wasn't open. And we also said Hi to the Goodies Guy at his stand, and got to meet Mrs. Goodies Guy! She's the one who makes all the my-favorite-soaps-ever soaps (tied with Vaniglia soap and my new Brazil nut soap!). She made us tell her our names and pose for a picture, because she's collecting photos of all their loyal customers from different far-off lands. Ak! My hair was all wet, but oh well.
Posted at 4:22:00 AM by Laura W. Petix.
Sunday, March 01, 2009
The Romanesco was good! I'm surprised, but I liked it. It's very mild (but not bland) and tender, and so fun to eat all those self-similar mini versions of itself. We counted at least four levels of fractals. It tastes a lot like cauliflower, but I don't like cooked cauliflower and I did like it. I like raw cauliflower better than raw Romanesco, though.
Posted at 4:06:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.
First Kona Mountain visit of the trip! When we walked in, the Kona Mountain girl said, "Welcome back!" then added, "When I saw you walking in the door, I almost made you your dark roast, but I didn't want to be presumptuous." !! Can you ask for anything better than that from a coffee shop??? My coffee was the best, as always, and we even got a Kona Mountain Club punch card! Wowowow.
Posted at 11:00:00 AM by Laura W. Petix.
We're at Pine Tree Pool (to the left of Pine Tree Portal) and it's a premium new spot! Lava chairs under a mini Tree Beach tree (it has soft ears), nice tidepooly area in front, small waves curling, breeze blowing, fish jumping, fishermen catching feasty treats. My Oshima beater is snuggly.
(Later, 6-ish:) I went on a giant Pine Tree wander while listening to GWC on Dean's iPod (my old hand-me-down one). I found 1) lots of dead unis (not Iki lots, but random ones, floating, 2) lots of different lolis, including Loli Longs' little brother. Also a fuzzy crab leg that smells really tasty. And I dissected an uni and took out its mouth. This is a good spot. I feel all relaxed now.
Before we came here, we had lunch at Lava Java, at my suggestion (?!) and I ordered a vanilla milk shake (??!) and a Big Island Beef burger (???!). I don't know why, but I really like Lava Java's vanilla milk shakes, even though I am not normally a vms fan. It was nice and small too, unlike the gigantic burger. But the burg was pretty good, other than being almost too giant to even bite.
On the way home in the dusk, I tuned in a Hawaiian radio station because Lava 105.3 was having a blues show that I wasn't in the mood for. I really liked the song that was playing, but I don't know what it was called. It had a beautiful long instrumental intro and the refrain was about "Last night I dreamt I was returning." [Edit: I think it was "Kuu Home O Kahaluu"!]
Lychee yogurt in a papaya bowl. Dean: "It's the ultimate breakfast." (Yuck!)
Posted at 7:29:00 AM by Laura W. Petix.
Saturday = Keauhou Farmers' Market! I brought some of my nice new KTA bags and a piece of paper to write down what we got:
Posted at 5:53:00 AM by Laura W. Petix.
- lemon grass, ginger, hibiscus iced tea (slurped down by Dean)
- lilikoi juice (we shared it)
- Kona sweet pumpkin haupia coconut bar (mine)
- passionfruit-coconut bar (Dean's, but he liked mine better)
- an ice cream bean ("eat flesh around seed -- sweet!")
- lots of papayas, but not a crazy amount (I told Dean I am only going to eat half a papaya per day and that's final!)
- Tahitian limes to go with the papayas
- yellow dragon fruit (yeah!!) (I only got three because they're expensive, $5/lb. But they're my fav so I was really happy that they had them!)
- 4 lulo and a jar of lulo jam [edit: I should've gotten more lulo!]
We saved the Lulo Guy's stand for last, and he immediately recognized us as his old fav lulo fans and even remembered we're from Connecticut! He was all happy to see us again, and told me that he had prepared his lulo recipes booklet (but not printed it up yet) and that my recipe is right in front. (!!) He also suggested we could tour his farm some time while we're here. I tried his Kona coffee and it was good! We had a giant chat with the Lulo Guy. :-) Some of the other Farmers' Market vendors recognised us, too, including the tart lady's daughter and the hot food stand duo.
We got our usual fish taco and breakfast burrito from the hot food stand after we put all our fruit in the car, and ate them on our bench in front of the reflectiony window. I picked up a menu handout about their real restaurant (which is new), the Makali'i Cafe, and noticed that it's on Kaiwi Street, so I commented that that's right near Big Island Divers. They said, yeah, Sara and Josh get breakfast and lunch from them all the time! I blurted out, "We're friends with Sara!" and Dean agreed, "We're friends with Sara and Josh! We go there practically every day." Hee hee, I felt like such a name dropper. We'll have to check out the real cafe! (Cute! I just looked up "makali'i" in the Hawaiian dictionary, and it means "very small or fine; diminutive.") (Wow--I also checked out their catering business' website, and Devin is quite the chef!!)
After the market, we drove down to Honaunau and dove at three-step. It was pretty overcast, but the visibility was good. The water felt icy when I first got in! I was warm when we descended to 130 feet to visit the denizens of the deep (I wrote on my slate, "I like deep!"), but cold again as we made our way up the hill of old coral to 20 or 30 feet. Weird. The pressure at 130 was really dramatic--my watch was spinning on my arm because my wetsuit was so compressed. I found a beautiful crown-of-thorns at 40 feet (he looked so green and pointy, arms wound around coral, happy) and held hands with him and carefully stroked his thorns barehanded. After that my right ear started getting another squeaky squeeze, which was kind of annoying, but we were headed back anyway. It was really hard to climb back out at 3-step because the tide was low when we got out, and my tank felt so heavy. Diving on the Big Island is a lot harder than diving in Grand! I'd forgotten just how much strength it takes to shore dive. It's hard being little, and having a messed-up back! I thought I was strong from NEAC but really I'm not. My back was wiped out afterward so I just lay on the super-tall bed listening to GWC when we got back to our place, and did some stretches when it stopped hurting as much.
It was only 72° (on land!) in South Kona and was a little chilly (especially wet) but I was a pretty good temp with my scuba beater! :-) We stopped at the South Kona Fruit Stand (the Pebble Beach lady was there, and I asked her about Beth; she said Beth still owns the stand, so we'll have to try to catch her another day). Their cafe is temporarily closed due to some sort of evil bureaucracy situation, but we got a bunch of fruit. We also stopped at the banana bread place for b. bread, chai, and Kona coffee (they have NO size smalls!), and the new Island Naturals Market & Deli in the Mango Court building where Evie's used to be (but at the opposite end of the building). It's TONS nicer than Evie's!!!!! There's also a branch near Big, and I can't wait to go there too. Both branches were endlessly "Coming Soon" last time, a huge tease that finally paid off. They have all sorts of great natural products (including neem extract!), and we got another yellow dragon fruit (slightly cheaper than at the farmers' market!), a cute little mango, and a tiny grapefruit, all local. They even had snakefruit! (But I didn't get any since I'm a bigger fan of snakefruit as a cool fruit than I am of actually eating it.) And, we each got a tasty sandwich, which we ate at a little outdoor table in the back of the building, just like Evie's but nicer.
But the BEST thing was in the vegetable section. Romanesco!!!!! Yes! I was so excited I gasped and was practically speechless, just frozen pointing at them inarticulately so Dean wondered what the heck was wrong with me, until he realized what I was pointing at. Must photograph, eat, and report back! The store guy said they were actually from California, not local, but I don't care. It's Romanesco! Fractal food! And so soon after I added it to my Weird Foods I Especially Want to Try list, too!
Note: I am keeping a running list of new weird foods I try on this trip, so I won't have trouble remembering when it's time to update my list. So far I have Romanesco and ice cream bean (neither of which I've actually eaten yet).
I was too tired and back-hurty to post last night, so I made a deal that I'd write this morning instead. Last night we watched BSG on the TV here (via TiVo and Slingbox, and laptop hookup cables Dean got at Radio Shack and the new Office Max) (Sling is great!) and then I fell asleep in bed reading stuff on my laptop. Luckily I don't move around very much when I'm sleeping, so I didn't knock it on the floor! I have never fallen asleep while reading before, let alone while reading a laptop!
Posted at 4:30:00 AM by Laura W. Petix.
Okay, catchup time. Friday we went to good ol' BID for tanks, and got two air punchcards, dive watch battery replacement kits, and a nice new dive light which won't flood the first time Dean uses it (unlike his previous two). Sara, Josh (dreadlocks guy) and Thumper were there, and we did lots of Sara chatting! She even had a box for us, but she held onto it until after our dive since I asked her if it would be harmed by leaving it in a hot car, and she said the "texture" might change. (She said she couldn't use the correct word to describe it, or it would give away the content.) So I had lots of time to guess what it would be, and I decided that it was a box of sea urchins. But it wasn't. :-) (The correct word was actually "bouquet.") Oh yeah, and Big finally had a nice soft girlie tee, and I got one! They only had one color left in size small, though, and tons of colors in all the other sizes, so it was a big tease. But at least they had one!
On the way to Big, we checked out Four Mile and it was flat. And then I suggested a Killer, because I didn't think I'd had a big enough breakfast and didn't want to be all weak and hungry during the dive. We stopped there before Big (it's right across the street) and I had two fish tacos, and Dean had nothing. (!!!!!) Later on he regretted his foolishness.
The viz wasn't that good at Four Mile, but it was okay for a first dive. Dean's new dive light is great! It's nice and bright, and non-floody. I got an ear squeeze after we went in Sharkey's (RIP) cave (Dean said the depth changes in tricky ways there) and my ear kept bothering me, so, at Dean's prompting, we ended the dive a bit early. I was glad, because I was cold and was feeling that cold slosh in the small of my back (why does that always happen at Four Mile, I wonder?). The water was only 73°. When we were de-gearing in the parking lot, this surfer dude-ish guy asked us how the conditions were, and we said it was nice and calm but the viz wasn't the greatest. He went in snorkeling, but then came back while we were still packing up, and said sarcastically, "Thanks for the warning, guys!!" We were like, "Eh? About what?" And he told us he ran into a gray near the whitetips' cave. We sure didn't see it! It would've been a lot more interesting dive if we had...
After picking up new tanks at Big (Ralph was there, once again just back from a trip!), we tried to go to O's for dinner, but when we got there there was NO O's!!!!! It didn't sink in right away for me that this means NO MORE O's CAKE, ever! I just wrote about it in my Best Desserts Ever List last week, too! This is too big of a loss to entirely fathom. O's (back when it was called Ooodles of Noodles) is the first restaurant we ever went to in Hawaii, on the night we arrived on our first visit. :-(
But, we went to Kenichi instead, and it was fantastic. Unfiltered pearl sake (trickery!), seafood sunomomo (sweet octy and vinegared cuke, yum!!!), succulent black cod, and two amazing unis. Pretty much the best combination of dishes ever.
After, we opened our Sara box back at our place. All the items are wow! (The "bouquet" one was a really yummy wine, some of which we drank immediately.) And, I have a new favorite soap! It smells INCREDIBLE and my skin loves it! I keep smelling it from its spot in my bathroom soap dish every time I go in my room, and just inhaling. It's Pré de Provence brazil nut soap and I need to get more!!
!!!? Dean just got a text message from a guy at work saying, "You're missing 10-14 inches of snow."
