A Taste of “Pineapple Island”

If you have been following our stay in Hawaii on Facebook, you’ve undoubtedly seen a number of versions of this photo:



If not, let me introduce you to the rum-based drink called the Mai Tai.

On FB I’ve done my best to show you how this tropical temptation calls out from tall and short glass- and plastic-ware; some versions served as a frozen concoction and others ‘on the rocks’.

And yes, in order to show you so many versions, we’ve ‘had’ to consume that many versions as well.

While each has been slightly different, their common trait is that pineapple wedge clinging to the side of the glass.



Really, those pineapples are everywhere. Wedges adorn drinks and the fruit and juice are integral to ever so many tasty dishes served here ~ it really does  symbolize the place.

The pineapple actually holds a significant place in Hawaiian history and economic development as well. James Drummond Dole, arrived in Hawaii in 1899 and believing he could turn pineapple into a viable agricultural product. The following year he planted the first 61 acres of the crop on O’ahu to prove his point.

Soon thereafter he built Dole cannery and. . .

. . . as they say, the rest is history. In 1922 he bought an island to have enough land for the additional 20,000 acres of pineapples he was to plant.  He purchased the island of Lana’i, near Molokai and Maui. It was commonly known as Pineapple Island, during the nearly 70 years it produced 75% of the world’s supply of pineapple.

By the late 20th Century pineapple production in Hawaii had slowed and the island of Lana’i  began a slow transition from pineapple production to low-keyed tourism.

Two Four Seasons Resort properties have opened there, joining the 11-room Lanai Inn in offering overnight accommodations. Oracle founder billionaire Larry Ellison bought the entire island two years ago and has announced some interesting plans for it.

While we’ve sampled plenty of pineapple during our travels in Hawaii, we’ve never yet had a taste of “Pineapple Island.” This year we’ve decided  it was time to change that!

We’ll be heading to that small island, (seen at sunset from Maui in the photo above) just 18 miles and a ferry ride from Lahaina, Maui on Sunday.

(Pssst. . ..It is also where The Scout will be celebrating his . . .ahem. . .well, rather big, significant birthday.)

Come along as Hula Babe and Beach Boy explore Lana’i next week!

And as always, mahalo for the time you spent with us today!

Linking up:
Foodie Tuesday at Inside Journeys
Travel Photo Discovery on Monday
Sweet Shot Tuesday

Hawaii: SPAM and Other ‘Ono Grindz’

Ono grindz:  means good food in Hawaiian.

One of the ways Hula Babe and Beach Boy ‘go local’ is by the way we eat!  But that can be said of us no matter where in the world we travel. Half the fun of travel is trying the local cuisine.

And there’s no bettah way, as they say here,  to get a taste of Hawaii than by eating some of the killah ono grindz and that includes, my friends, none other than. . .SPAM!

SPAM, its name derived from ‘spiced ham’ was the creation of Minnesota-based Hormel foods back in 1937. They came up with a recipe to use left over pork shoulder and an employee is credited with giving it the immortal name of “SPAM” as result of a contest.

Despite what some of you may believe is in those ubiquitous cans, it is a mixture of ground pork and ham, with salt, sugar and other special ingredients.  It is cooked then canned and cooked again, then cooled in the can. 

Of course, in Hawaii they have versions of SPAM we never see back home, like the little SPAM singles to the left. 




In Honolulu they have an annual SPAM JAM event that spans several days in honor of this tasty treat. (Even at KoOlina, where we are, weekly SPAM carving/cooking/creating contests always draw contestants.)

We were blown away by the varieties now offered – think Starbucks and its variations on a cup of coffee - compared to the original flavor,which many of us at this age recall eating in our childhoods.

Hawaiians consume more SPAM than anywhere else in the world, with Guam a close second, and South Korea in third place. (SPAM is sold in exquisite gift boxes and considered a luxury gift given for special occasions like Lunar New Year in South Korea, according to numerous mainstream media articles.)

But man cannot live by SPAM alone, so another of our favorite Hawaiian treats is poke.  Pronounced, POH-kay, it is a Hawaiian verb, meaning ‘to section or slice’.  It is made of fresh fish -- okay you squeamish ones out there -- that is, raw fish that has been ‘marinated’ in a sauce or doused with spices.

Fresh ahi (tuna), shrimp, mussels in spicy flavors, soy or oyster sauce draw us to the massive poke bars at the local island supermarket, Foodland and even Costco offers a poke bar in the town of Kapolei.  Poke is traditionally served as a side course or appetizer, but we’ve often made entire meals out of two or three of these tasty treats.

And then there is Kim Chee. also known as Kimchi and gimchi; some of our favorite Korean vegetable delights! These are fermented and/or pickled vegetables – spicy hot and usually served on a bowl of rice. Since we are cutting the carbs, we eat them as sides.  (Remember, finicky ones, sauerkraut is fermented vegetables as well).

I almost worship this bar each time we enter our local store and never leave without a carton of the cucumbers in spicy hot sauce.

Hawaii is an international melting pot of culinary delights and we must give a nod to the Portuguese for bringing their hot spicy sausage to the islands so many decades ago.

If you can’t bring yourself to try some SPAM and eggs for breakfast, you must try Portuguese sausage and eggs!

And then there is Lau Lau, a local favorite made of pieces of pork and butter fish wrapped in taro leaves and steamed.  (If you’ve ever been to an authentic luau you will have had this dish along with poi (made of taro) as your buffet selections.)

So do they really eat this stuff, you are probably asking yourself. Yes, we do. We buy the lau-lau ready made and steam it in its leaf wrappings as shown on the left, below. While it steams we put Kim Chee and poke on the plates. . .unwrap and add the lau-lau. 

And there we have it, one of many of our dinners. . .

. . .a feast that would have even made Hawaii’s King Kamehameha proud!

That’s it for today.  Hope you have a great week and see you back here soon! We appreciate the time you spend with us and always look forward to your comments.

Linking up:
Inside Journey’s Foodie Tuesday

That Unforgettable Taste of Tahiti

Our favorite cruises are those in which the ship arrives early into a port and leaves late. . .you can experience much in a 12-hour time period. We had such a stop in Pape’ete, Tahiti and it afforded us a real taste of the town:

Our evening at Place Vaiete Roulottes – in the shadow of our cruise ship -- may have been one of the best experiences we had while sailing across the Pacific Ocean en route to Sydney, Australia from Honolulu last fall.

Place Vaiete Roulottes, is the most amazing collection of mobile food trucks and food stalls we’ve ever experienced (yes, even better than Portland, Oregon for you Northwest foodie fans out there). Roulotte is French for caravan – and what a culinary caravan circled up to serve an array of dishes. 

A couple dozen chefs rolled in as the sun dipped below the horizon (about 6 p.m.) and the once empty lot, known as Vaiete Square, near the cruise ship dock came to life as colorful tables, chairs and plastic stools stretched in every direction.

It was an aromatherapy treatment for foodies as smells from grills mixed with the pungent smells of spicy stir fry and the sweet scents of crepes.

We circled the area several times before we could get focused on just what we would eat – think children in a candy store – because that was what we were as we strolled, our heads swiveling back and forth, competing with each other to find the next temptation.

Even after we had selected the place where we would dine I couldn’t sit still and  had to watch my dinner being hand made by this culinary artist.

While The Scout dined on Steak Frites, I ate those delightful stuffed morsels you see on the right side of the above photo.  We could have been tempted to eat more, to sample the many more flavors that were seducing us with their scents – but it would have been, sadly, shear gluttony.

Now there are probably some of you reading this thinking, “But was it safe to eat at those places?” and the answer is a resounding, ‘YES!’  They are all licensed and everything was as spotlessly clean as it appears in this photo. (Sadly, we watched many fellow cruisers who walked past this culinary haven as they returned to the ship to ‘eat on board’ because they weren’t up to the adventure or they wanted to get that meal that came with the price of the cruise ticket.)

The food was so good and inexpensive that we could have eaten there every night for a week (or longer) and never have tired of it. It is one reason, we agreed, to put a return to Tahiti on our ‘bucket list’.

Should you find yourself in Tahiti – don’t miss this experience.  Do remember to bring cash – they don’t take credit cards.



The Food Fest on shore was still going strong as we pulled away from the dock at 9 p.m.  And they say that often times music plays on weekend nights – we were so on sensor overload that I can’t recall whether we heard music or not. . .I’ll have to ask The Scout what he remembers beyond the food. . .

That is it for today.  We thank you for the time you’ve spent with us and hope you will be back soon to share in our tips and tales.

We are linking up with:
Nancie McKinnon’s Budget Travelers Sandbox Travel Photo Thursday
Marcia Mayne’s Inside Journey’s Foodie Tuesday
Kent Weakley’s Sweet Shot Tuesday

Travel Tuesday: Tips and Tidbits

I’ve got a couple health- and fitness-related travel topics this week so without further fanfare, let’s get started:

The ‘Eyes’ Have It. . .

This one is for all you contact lens wearing travelers of a ‘certain age’ (40 is usually when the telltale signs start appearing):  the small print seems to be getting smaller and a bit more blurred each time you try to read your passport or credit card numbers and trying to read the small print on a map is more daunting than getting lost. . .could it be time
for those 'readers' on sale everywhere from grocery to book stores?


One more thing to add to that carry-on bag already is stuffed with documents, medicines, prescription glasses, contact lens case/solution and sunglasses?

I’ve worn gas permeable contact lenses for decades and in the last couple years even the ‘bi-focal’ types weren’t quite doing the job. . .that is until  my optometrist asked me if I’d try out a different type of lens. Another patient of hers, a flight attendant, had tried them and was singing their praises, so I agreed.

That was nearly a year ago.  I waited this long to write about them just to make sure they weren't too good to be true. I couldn’t believe the improved visual acuity - and comfort. (Their only drawback is that like all gas permeable/hard lenses I've worn, they do tend to dry out on long airplane flights.) The smallest of print (including those microscopic numbers on the back corner of the credit cards) are as easy to read as is seeing the far distant stuff. In fact, both of my distances are now a smidgen better than 20/20 -- a real plus when focusing the camera! 


It took a few extra visits to get the fit right because the lenses are weighted to keep the close-up at the bottom and distance at the top – so they have to fit the eye well.

If they are of interest and you are in the Puget Sound area of Washington State, I recommend my optomitrist Dr. Pamela J. Bingham at Market Optical in Seattle’s University Village.

And if you are elsewhere, talk to your eye care professional about “TruForm” rigid, gas permeable lenses.  (I read on the company web site that they even make multi-focal lenses!)


Serving up and Repacking the D2G. . .Diet to Go: 

Three years ago on TravelnWrite we sang the praises of the “Glycemic Load Diet” developed by Seattle cardiologist, Dr. Rob Thompson. We bought his book, tried out his eating recommendations and found the recipes were incredible good and it was a perfect fit for travelers.

So easy to follow when traveling that we called it the D2G; our Diet to Go. Some may even recall the guest post Dr. Thompson wrote for TravelnWrite. If you missed it, click this  link. 

My physical that year showed not only had I lost weight (13 pounds) but my bad cholesterol levels had dropped significantly, as had blood sugar and everything else that gets monitored - despite four-months of living out of a suitcase; drinking and eating on-the-road. (And I was no longer blaming cruise ship photographers for 'making me look fat!')

Fast forward. . .if you saw the post a few weeks ago, A Taste of the World, you know without me telling you that we – me, in particular – slipped off that D2G wagon. A big burger in Arizona, an Australian Pie in Sydney, a basket of bread here and a serving of French fries there and maybe just a tiny bit of dessert. . . The results of an annual physical a few weeks ago showed the bad cholesterol had skyrocketed and a few pounds had returned, despite a regular exercise program both at home and on the road.

So, the new year has begun with D2G once again, our traveling companion.

Instead of that deep fried bacon cheeseburger I told you about in December, take note of the above veggie burger on a whole grain bun with more veggies at the side and red wine (which is allowed on the D2G).  I had this at one of our favorite places, Todd English’s P.U.B. at Crystals in City Center, Las Vegas last week.


That’s it for this week’s Travel Tuesday – the day we share any  new tips related to travel.   How about you?  What new discoveries have you made for travel. . . Health and fitness?  Packing? . . .Ways to save money on travel?  Let us know in the comment section below or send us an email.

Disclosure:  We received no compensation for recommending the contact lenses, Dr. Bingham, Market Optical or the 'Glycemic Load Diet'. (Although if you order the book from Amazon using the link in the post, we make a few pennies; we'll get paid when we have $10 worth of pennies, about 2050 by my calculations.)  We simply think all are worth recommending! 

Linking up with Marcia Mayne's Inside Journeys Foodie Tuesday.

A Taste of the World

A certain number of people have only one question when we announce an upcoming far-distant destination:

 “But, what will you eat there?”

Following any trip, the question is usually, “But, was the food . . .good?”

Today, with 2013 only days from being history, I am serving up a helping of some of the mouth-watering foods that have given us a taste of the world in which we’ve traveled during its run.

Some of our happiest travel memories are those that involve food, like that time in:

Honolulu, Hawaii. . .

. . .where their traditional and inexpensive ‘plate lunch’ (total cost for the meal below about $20 US). This meal, served in a Styrofoam box is one of our favorite local eats.  Using our laps for a table we dined on Katsu chicken sitting on a bed of steamed rice and veggies (that's a bit of pork to the left), as we sat on our Waikiki Beach facing hotel room balcony last January.

The View with our Hawaiian plate lunch:

Chora Sfakia, southern coast of Crete, Greece:

“Sfakian pie”  is one of the specialty menu items at Delfini’s Restaurant.  It is made at the time of ordering so that anticipation builds during that 20 minute wait for the fragrant pie stuffed with lamb and four Cretan cheeses to arrive at the table.  We ordered it with a side of “Horta” – those wild greens that grow on the rough and tumble hillsides surrounding the town and look much like spinach – but taste better! 

This may well be one of our favorite meals on earth! Confession: my mouth waters each time I look at these photos. (Cost: our three-course meal, including the pie,was about $22US total including wine.)

The View of Chora Sfakia’s waterfront that we had while we ate Sfakian Pie:

Amsterdam, Netherlands

Stamppot, a Dutch favorite (and one of ours as well)  is made of mashed potatoes, mixed with vegetable (carrots in the photo below) and served with rookworst, a smoked sausage and a 'pond' of gravy tops the potato mound. We could have eaten ourselves silly at every meal during our three-night stay en route from Greece to Seattle. (It’s a good thing we walked ourselves silly each day to counter those calories!)

The setting:  While we didn’t have a 'view table' at this little pub across from our hotel, what made this meal memorable was that table full of people in this photo because it turned out they were a touring musical group and they broke into song and entertained us all!

Russell township, Bay of Islands, New Zealand

The steaming hot Seafood Chowder with local fresh fish, bacon and shellfish came flowing over the sides of its compact cob loaf at the Duke of Marlborough Hotel – a place that began in 1827 as a grog shop – on the waterfront in picture-perfect Russell.

While we both exclaimed there was ‘too much to eat’ we barely managed to leave a polite tidbit of bread in our bowls. And, we used the occasion to taste two different Sauvignon Blanc wines, the white for which New Zealand is famous. (Cost: $56AUS, about $45US)

The setting: was the amazing patio in front of this historic hotel that overlooked the harbor and fronted the small main street that catered to pedestrians and an occasional car or two. (Russell will soon be featured in a post on TravelnWrite.)

A Sample of Southwestern United States: Las Vegas and Scottsdale
Gluttony – pure and simple!  I am almost ashamed to show you some of the food we ate while traveling in Nevada and Arizona this year. Let’s just say, I understand why my cholesterol count was off the chart a few weeks ago and why my doctor suggested 'continued attention to exercise and low fat foods'. . . (ahem, I hope she misses this post!)

Okay, so it was my July birthday. . .remember, 60, the Big One? I believed that a little self-indulgence was in order at Mon Ami Gaby Restaurant on Las Vegas Blvd. ~ and who can say 'no' to a birthday treat from the restaurant, right?

The View: was equally as delightful. . .we sat on the patio under ‘the Eiffel Tower’.

I’ll conclude this food fest retrospective with our November visit to Scottsdale, where we ate twice at the Four Season’s Proof American Canteen. We finally gave in on our last visit and each ordered – and ate – their  Best Burger - Vermont Cheddar, Smoked Ketchup Mayo, Bourbon Molasses Onions, Deep Fried Bacon.  Okay, it tasted as good and was as unhealthy as it looks BUT we didn’t order the optional fried egg on top and ate Cole slaw instead of French Fries. . .that must count for something. . .

The Setting at the foot of Pinnacle Peak (pictured below) couldn’t be beat!

We found plenty of good eats in 2013 and the meals flavored our travels with great memories.

Today we raise our glasses to each of you in a toast of “Thanks!” as our travels in 2013 come to an end:

Thanks for the time you’ve spent sharing our close-to-home and far-distant adventures.  Hopefully our tips were useful and tales entertaining. The Scout and The Scribe recognize that time is a valuable commodity these days and we can't thank you enough for sharing a bit of yours with us.

We look forward to having you join us again in 2014 because there’s a lot of world out there to savor and we hope to have a big helping of it. . .maybe even seconds and some desert as well!


Our thanks and best wishes for a Happy New Year and Happy Travels  ~  Jackie and Joel

We are linking up at:
Noel Morata’s Monday Travel Photo Discovery
Budget Travelers Sandbox Travel Photo Thursday

Sydney, Australia: A taste of Watsons Bay

One of our favorite things to do each of the six days we stayed at Sydney’s Circular Quay was to hop one of those fantastic ferries headquartered there and head out to explore other small hamlets that dotted the coastline.
 

Sydney, Australia's Circular Quay

Watsons Bay, a suburb of Sydney, just 11 miles away, was our Sunday lunch destination because a few months ago we’d read a murder mystery novel, The Bat, by Norwegian writer Jo Nesbo. One of its scenes was set in Doyles, a restaurant operated since 1885 on Watsons Bay beach. It sounded worth a visit if we had the opportunity during our stay.

[Travel Tip: We have visited some interesting places in our travels and many of them we’ve learned about by reading novels set in those destinations. We follow up with a bit of research before the trip and then figure out how to include them in the itinerary. We don’t rely solely on travel guides.]

Our decision to go there, however, on that Sunday was rather spur of the moment. After arriving at the restaurant, we realized that we were lucky to get in to this in this beachfront, family-owned and operated (for five generations) eatery even though it has expansive indoor and outdoor seating areas.  

Doyles was one happening spot on Sunday

It seemed most of the passengers on the ferry were headed to the same place that we were – Doyles is ‘the place’ to go on a Sunday, not just for tourists like ourselves but for Sydney-ites as well. Those in the know were able to go straight to the ‘with reservations’ line whle we joined a short line of others in the ‘without’ line.

We each ordered a bowl of their seafood chowder and we knew we were in for a treat when the waiter came and set up the tools for each of us to use when consuming it. “We put seafood in our chowder. You will need to eat it,” he explained.

Soon after, he brought the bottled water we’d ordered as well as a finger bowl with lemon-scented water in which to rinse our fingers as we ate our chowder and another large bowl for the emptied shells. These were bowls – not dainty dishes.

The bowl of chowder at $18.50AUD,(then about the same in US$$) was not inexpensive, although it was one of the least expensive items on the menu. But, was indeed full of seafood including mussels, lobster, scallops, shrimp and crab.

The small loaf of sour dough bread (pictured below) that came as a side, and cost an additional $7.50AUD.

It was a delicious and filling lunch in a beautiful setting ( from some areas of the restaurant you could see the Sydney skyline off in the distance – tables in those areas had been reserved, by the way).

So we agreed that while paying $44.50 was more than we would normally pay for an alcohol-free lunch, it had been worth it.  You can image our surprise when the bill arrived at the table and we found that an additional $5 per person had been added as the ‘adult weekend surcharge’ bringing our bill to $54.50. 

Hmmm. . .that ‘ding’ left just a bit of a bitter aftertaste. Have you ever paid a restaurant 'weekend surcharge?

If You Go:

Ferries regularly depart Sydney’s Circular Quay for Watsons Bay. It is also accessible by water taxi or bus.

Doyles Restaurant is located at:
11 Marine Parade, Watsons Bay, Sydney
phone: (02) 9337 2007 Web: http://www.doyles.com.au  
Open for lunch and dinner seven days a week, closed Christmas Day.

The restaurant’s website offers a link to Alice Doyles’ recipes; recipes like:

 Do Drop in Salmon Spread
Fry sliced onions gently in a little butter until soft, mix in sugar.
Drain salmon, reserving liquid in case needed. Mash salmon, add onions and all other ingredients together. Make the spread very moist -if it seems too dry, add some of the juice from the salmon.
Serve with potato crisps or savoury biscuits. Makes about 2 1/2 cups
Ingredients

• 2 large brown onions, fine sliced
• butter
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 1 large can red salmon
• 1 cup sour cream
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice
• 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
• pinch basil
• few drops Tabasco
• 1/4 teaspoon salt

 
We’ll be adding this post to the Foodie Tuesday linkup over at Inside Journeys, so head that direction then and be sure to come back here for Travel Tip Tuesday when we have more money saving updates for you!.