A menu worth repeating

7 01 2019

Oh, the food! Does the food make the party? In the case of last Saturday’s art show opening, yes! Kealoha and Kahikionaokalā Domingo of Nui Kealoha caterers outdid themselves with its farm-to-table menu, supplemented with basic additions of punch and cookies made by me.

Here we share the Nui Kealoha’s menu for the January 5 “Fiery Volcano Collages & Doodles” and the recipes for the cookies and punch, giving credit to their origins. Easy peasy and refreshing.

Kids loved these as well as seedless grape clusters on the side. Take precaution with grapes, a possible choking hazard, for very young children. For the punch, look for a ginger ale without high fructose corn syrups at the store.

Clockwise from lower right: classy menu, poke ʻulu, koʻele pālau tartlets, burnt ʻuala canapé.

 

I found the recipe for chocolate cookies on the back of the Western Family Baking Soda box.

 

Punchbowl recipe by my cousin Elly. From Everyone, Eat Slowly: The Chong Family Food Book (Chong Hee Books, 1999)

Enjoy!
~ Rebekah


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Categories : Chong Hee Books, Food, Friends & Family, Hawaiian

Taking care of trees

10 09 2018

No time to second guess a hurricane or a tropical storm, here at the studio we’re grateful Rocky and his 6-member crew of Ohana Tree Services were able to trim three large trees today, prior to Hurricane Olivia’s visit to Hawai‘i.

They did a great job, cleaned up all the debris, and hauled it away. We traded cooling shade for better air flow around the property and a lot more daylight. Whether Olivia blows strongly or not, it was time for the trimming. We got a great deal from this professional company with a price that was 37% of the next lowest bid.

Now the kou looks like a lollipop and is without its orange-hued lei flowers for a while. Thankfully the avocado was finished bearing its last three fruit for the season. Hopefully the mango will get the message and give us a crop for next time. As for the Maafala breadfruit, Rocky said to wait until the fruits are ready, and then he will come back to help harvest the tree and trim it at the same time.

Two climbers in the mango

Mango tree after trimming looks like a coat rack

Avocado tree after trimming

Kou tree after trimming has a few leaves remaining

We love our trees.

~ Rebekah

 


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Categories : Food

Papaya art

21 08 2018

Wowee! I reused the parchment paper on which I dried papaya chunks (using the heat from the oven light only) to bake a puff pastry at 450 degrees F. The paper was still slightly damp from the papaya. Look what happened! I wonder if I can use this paper in my collage art. Gonna try!


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Categories : Fine Art, Food

Alani

17 08 2018

Peeling an orange on a warm summer day.

Do you remember when you first learned to peel an orange? I do. I was with my Aunty Lois, and we sat down together on the steps of her back porch. When we ate it, juice ran down my arm. Funny, the things I recall.


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Categories : About me, Food, Friends & Family, Memoir

Mid-summer abundance

22 07 2018

The large yellow/orange globe is a papaya from my garden. The birds planted the tree!

Taking time to marvel at the variety of fruit that I see in my kitchen—gifts from friends, strangers, a bird, and from the market. I am inspired to assemble a still life. Ever grateful for the abundance. Mahalo e Ke Akua.


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Categories : Food, Hawaiian

Finding Hakka roots in food

8 07 2018

Cousin Millie organized a table of 10 for last night’s Tsung Tsin Association dinner celebrating Hakka Chinese culture.

Most of the time I am unconscious of my ethnicity. When I have to identify in that way I say Hawaiian. That I am.

An occasion like the Hakka dinner reminds me of my maternal roots. 

At Golden Palace Seafood Restaurant six of us were first cousins; our mothers were sisters. Eileen, accompanied by her daughter Marty, and Kwong Yen, who came with his lady Molly, are our eldest cousins—age 91! Audrey Helen, Nathan, Millie’s husband Peter and my hubby Pete filled the rest of the seats.

Molly was surprised and thought the dinner at the Golden Palace Seafood Restaurant would be among us 10 only, not part of a big party in the banquet room! We enjoyed a pretty good Hakka menu, wine that Millie brought, raffle prizes, and party favors. As always, Millie and Audrey Helen gave out additional gifts. Christmas in July! 

A bag full of goodies—tea samples and fruit confections

A brave woman attempted to teach us a Hakka song. We tried! It was a lovely tune.

Hakka song lyrics and translation

Both the lion and the dragon made their appearance and were well fed. As the eldest, Eileen got to take home the table centerpiece—a money tree plant!

Eileen (lower left) watches Marty photograph Nathan feeding the dragon . . .

. . . and the lion

While “a good time was had by all,” I couldn’t help noticing that this year’s turnout was smaller than last year’s, and that there were hardly any younger people present. We need to pass this experience to our kids, if only to cook and eat our traditional foods.

What foods did your ancestors eat?

~ Rebekah


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Categories : About me, Food, Friends & Family

Observing the moon phases

24 06 2018

Matching moon phases with calendar dates and making a journal entry

In my Hawaiian language class we are learning the names of the moon phases — a different name for each 24 hours as well as the hand signs. Kumu Keoua Nelsen challenged us to go outdoors and look at the moon. Last night in Kaaawa I observed its shape as gibbous or 3/4 full. I think it is Huna today. As I wrote in my journal, it is a “warm and windless morning. Light rain shower. 7” avocados on tree. Plenty papaya still green…”

Avocado fruit measures about 7” in diameter now. I anticipate it will be humongous by the usual harvest time in August.

 

Plenty papaya

~ Rebekah Luke


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Categories : About me, Food, Hawaiian

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