Local Snacks: Ice Cake

The Things that Entertained Us: Andy Bumatai

Wednesday, March 3, 2010 2:00

In the late 1970’s and 80’s Andy Bumatai was one of the comedians I grew up watching on KGMB. Shows like “All in the Ohana”  and “High School Daze” made us laugh at ourselves because we could either identify with the characters ourselves, or we knew someone just like one of those fictitious characters. Who [...]

The Things that Entertained Us: The Skyslide

Wednesday, February 24, 2010 2:00

The Sky slide, remember that? In my minds eye, I recall a huge orange slide, with grooves that separated the different ‘sliding lanes’. I remember standing in line and walking up a huge flight of stairs for a chance to slide down the Sky slide. I remember sitting on a shaggy carpet square as [...]

The Things that Entertained Us: A New Hawaii Traditions Series on Growing up Local in Hawaii

Wednesday, February 24, 2010 2:00

After a day at school, my children usually ask to watch cartoons on PBS. These days, it’s Curious George or Sid the Science Kid, but when I was growing up as kid in the 1970’s here in Honolulu, things were different.
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Remembering Ala Moana Center

Thursday, February 18, 2010 15:59

As a youngster, I remember frequenting Ala Moana Shopping Center with my mother, who was the manager of Garfunkels and Dunkin’ Donuts, where the Honolulu Satellite City Hall is now. Over the years, we children were allowed countless hours in the sand box on the ground floor of Ala Moana, climbing on the metal sculptures [...]

Chinese New Year: The Year of The Tiger

Sunday, February 14, 2010 2:00

Ocean of Slippers, Hawaii Style Celebration Series
Picking up my son from school last week, the familiar sound of beating drums and gongs grew louder and louder. And then, a flash of red and gold out of the corner of my eye— a colorful larger than life sized lion moving energetically through the school—ah yes, Chinese [...]

Local Snacks: A New Series on Hawaii Traditions

Friday, February 12, 2010 20:13

Local Snacks
One of my absolute favorite island snacks is a far cry from the gold-foil packaged chocolate macadamia nuts we commonly give to non-islanders as gifts from Hawaii. No, instead—or maybe afterwards—give me a washed out mayonnaise jar filled to the brim with half-ripe chilled mango, soaking in sweetened vinegar tinted with red food color [...]

New Years Cleaning, A Hawaii Tradition

Saturday, January 2, 2010 21:06

Question: For a child, what’s worse than having to clean up your room? Answer: Having to really, really, really clean up your room every year, all before December 30th.
The New Year’s house cleaning that is an annual tradition in many households in Hawaii has it’s roots in Japanese culture. General housecleaning, called “osoji” in Japanese [...]

Hawaii Celebrations: New Years, Hawaii Style

Friday, January 1, 2010 20:31

Perhaps no other place in the world celebrates the new year as we do, here in Hawaii. Some aspects of our new year’s celebration are similar the world over; the family and friends that gather, the food, the children running around underfoot and even in some places in the world—fireworks. Somehow, what makes Hawaii’s new [...]

Hawaii Eats: Wailana Coffeehouse

Saturday, December 26, 2009 2:00

HawaiiEats

Much of the Hawaii I knew growing up is now gone, replaced by shiny new eateries and shops. While these new additions to Hawaii’s landscape offer much in the way of practical convenience and what some would call retail diversity, sometimes I still long for the Hawaii that was when I was just a kid [...]