Yosh's New Toy

Yosh's new toy arrived today, and we were all excited.

Hooo hoooo!

For baby boomers like me who might not know yet . . . it's an iPad.
My preeeecious!
Les is still on vacation but came to visit.
Cannot play yet . . . gotta sync. Awwww!

Yosh's Bendy Straw Opai

Marvin (aka Yosh) made this opai (shrimp) from a drinking straw!

He first saw the shrimp on Gizmodo and later found the instructions on how to make it at Creative Blythe. Well Davin, whatchathink? Can use as a lure or what?

Foodland Farms

They remodeled the Foodland in Aina Haina Shopping Center and it's now called Foodland Farms. The very best thing on a hot sunny day at Foodland Farms is . . .

this drink station. Do you see the drink-filled jars? I mix together lemonade from the left jar with Arnold Palmer tea from the right jar . . .

to make this oh-so-refreshing lemonade iced tea!

Aunty Kitty's Blanket

My Aunty Kitty handmade this blanket which she gave to Cy and Diem as her baby shower gift. My mom was so impressed by the hard work that it must've taken to make the blanket that she asked me to include it in my blog.


My aunty sewed together about 1,300 of these 1-inch x 1-inch squares to make the blanket! Isn't that amazing! Thank you Aunty Kitty. I'm sure Cy and Diem will treasure the blanket for a very long time.

E-Mail from Linda

Linda is a faithful reader of my blog who grew up in Hawaii but now lives in California. She is the one who shared the Mustard Cabbage and Pork recipe with me a few months back. I enjoyed this e-mail she just sent me, and wanted to share it with you.

Hi Jalna,

The Hawaii Kai Chili festival you went to touched off small kid time memories that I have of Hawaii Kai when people called it Kokohead. 50 something years ago when I was little I lived on a farm up the road from there. Lunalilo Home was the next property over. I remember taking the bus home from nursery school. Can you believe they would let 4 year olds go on public transit to go home from school back in those days? I sometimes missed my stop in front of Lunalilo Home and the bus driver would walk me across the road when he dropped me off when he was going back the other direction. Good thing because I never would have gotten across the road. I was too scared. (Note from jalna: I remember walking to and from school by myself from as young as 5 years old, and the school was a good distance away. Once my Aunty Mabel said that while she was riding the bus, she saw me walking. She said that I was barefooted and she scolded me.)

Attached are pictures from the Nikkei Matsuri festival this past weekend. This Nikkei Matsuri festival was in Japantown in San Jose, California. In recent years there seems to be a lot more of stuff going on that has to do with Hawaii in the Bay Area. Maybe it has always been there and I just did not know. But there are quite a number of Hawaiian plate lunch places now in San Jose and the surrounding area. Hula is big and ukulele too. There is even an ukulele store that sells handcrafted ukulele from Hawaii.

I mostly took flower arrangement pictures. I did not exhibit any this time. I only sent you one picture of flowers because I don't want to bore you with flowers in bad gymnasium lighting. There were ukulele students playing music. There were some hula students from the nearby halau that was going to dance to the ukulele group... but turned out they did not need to but they were all dressed up and ready to go dance.

Thanks for sharing Linda. I really enjoyed your story and the pictures!

Diem's Fried Tofu

I went to my mom's house today and got to taste Diem's Fried Tofu. It was sooo ono, I couldn't believe how simple the recipe is.

First you slice up 2 packages of fried tofu and you fry it in some oil.

For the sauce you sautee about 1 Tbsp. of minced garlic in some oil until golden, add 5 seeded chopped tomatoes, 1 tsp. salt and 1 tsp. sugar.

That's it!!

Koko Marina Chili Cook-Off

Wendell and I went to the Koko Marina Chili Cook-Off earlier this evening. For $10 we got to taste five different chilis. You could also purchase more scripts if you wanted to taste more than five. About fifteen different restaurants participated.

We got there pretty early, but it was already kinda crowded. The lines were actually not long at all though.

There were a lot of fancy chilis like this one that had a cornbread pancake and a cheesy rice cracker.
And this one by Willows Restaurant . . .
that had a couple of pieces of short ribs plated under the chili and a taro croquette on the side.
Would you believe me and Wendell voted for this plain-looking French Country Chili . . .

done by Hank's Haute Dogs. It had duck and pork stew in it. Ono chili.

Landon's Ulua

Landon's eyes are bugging out not because he's so excited about his catch. It's because he kept blinking from the flash, and this is my fourth attempt at trying to get a picture.

Les is in San Fran

Les just came back from Japan and now she's in San Francisco! What a life yeah! Check out her blog Leslie's pics to join her in her adventure.

Uyeda Shoe Store

I'm getting too fat. I need to exercise. The only form of exercise that I'm capable of doing lately is walking. But I needed new shoes. I first went to Sports Authority. They got uku jillion shoes to select from. A few of you may know from my earlier blog post entitled jalna's Lazy Man Strawberry Shortcake, that given too many choices I will get an anxiety attack and end up not choosing anything, which is precisely what happened. I left.

I decided to go to family-owned Uyeda Shoe Store in University Square at the corner of King and University. They've been around since 1915 and specialize in comfortable footwear.
Do you remember back in the day when the shoe salesman would measure your feet, bring out some shoes, sit on the floor , use the shoe horn and slip your foot in the shoe? That's how it is here. I got this really homey, nostalgic feeling being in the store.

This is Claire Takashima, third-generation owner of the store. She was just what I needed . . . someone who would decide for me what shoe I needed. I told her that I was looking for walking shoes and slippers. I complained that the shoes I currently use made my feet hurt after only a few minutes of walking. She asked what kind of shoes I use. I said, "My mom's hand-me-downs." She said, "Ohhhhhh." She asked me what kind of slippers I use. I said, "Ones that my son's ex-girlfriend left behind when they broke up." She said, "Ohhhhhh."

Claire was wonderful. She brought two different shoes for me to try . . . . perfect. I can easily choose between two pairs. I chose this Brooks . . . veeeery comfortable. It was $120.

I asked to see arch supports and she showed me these. They were 40 bucks!!! I thought oh well I guess it's about time I spent money on some good foot gear.

So since I was already dishing out the big bucks, I also got these Teva slippers - $50! I'm still keeping Taryn's rubber slippers though . . . just in case I gotta walk on the beach or in mud or something.

Save Our Sports Fundraiser by Galaxy MMA

I received this e-mail from good friend Mano Nguyen. Galaxy MMA is having a fundraiser this Thursday at Big City Diner, Ward location to benefit the Save Our Sports program.


Hi Friends,

Big City Diner is graciously helping us raise funds for the Save Our Sports program for Hawaii high schools on behalf of Galaxy MMA. Bring friends and come eat between 3pm and 10pm at Big City Diner (Ward Location only) this Thursday, April 22nd. Please bring this voucher with you and 10% of your meal will be donated to the Save Our Sports program to help raise funds for Hawaii high school sports. The Galaxy MMA team is committed to community service. Galaxy MMA is going to launch their its premiere mixed martial arts event at the Blaisdell Arena on May 1st.

For more info on Galaxy and Save Our Sports visit: http://www.galaxymma.com/community.html

Thanks for everyone's support and thanks to Big City Diner! Please pass this email on to anyone that wants to eat good food for a great cause on April 22nd. See you this Thursday!

Regards,-- Mano NguyenGalaxy MMA Vice President

Diem and Cy Baby Shower

My sisters put together a baby shower for my brother Cy and Diem this past Sunday. It was held at the Seafood Village at the Hyatt.

My hard-working sisters Didi and Sweetie.

Guess the tummy size.

Guess the candy.

Michelle is da bomb game player.

She kept winning . . .

and winning.

The prize table.

The food was really good. We started off with Oriental Chicken Salad.

Assorted Dim Sum

including this nori shrimp thing.

Szechuan Pork with Garlic Sauce

Beef and Broccoli

General Tsao's Favorite Chicken

Seafood Fried Noodles

Almond Float