It's Called a Wi

Pronounced "vi", I'm not really sure now who brought the fruits and left them on the table in our lounge, I think it might've been Tiare or maybe Susan. I had never seen a wi before, and when I asked around, somebody said that it tasted like a cross between an apple and a mango. Some of the fruit felt hard like an apple and some were softer like a tomato. I found some interesting facts on a blog post called The Humble Wi Fruit. Here is an excerpt:

"Many of us Fijians who grew up in Fiji will remember the wi season when it is plentiful in the markets and also in the forests. You can smell the ripe wi when you get closer to the wi tree. The fruits can be sour when its green, but when its ripe it is sweet and juicy. In the past, the pressed liquid from the stem or bark is used for treatment. In Tahiti, parts of the plant are made in fermented drink to treat diarrhea. In Tonga, the pressed fluid from the bark is used to treat diarrhea."




This is Anne. You might recognize her from my recent photo shoot that we did at Moanalua Gardens. I haven't worked with Anne in ages 'cause she's usually scheduled to work at our Ala Moana branch. Lately though, she's been working at King Street, and I just love it 'cause she's one of my favorite, favorite people. She cracks me up all the time. Anyway, Anne is always up to trying new things, so here she is about to taste her first wi fruit.


Ummmm, I think it's small-kine sour . . . maybe not ripe yet.


Check out this amazing shot. Even after witnessing Anne's reaction, Leslie bites into the very same fruit that Anne tasted . . . and talk about a bite . . . no scared yeah.


Hahahahaha!!


Another amazing shot . . . Anne takes another bite!!! So brave! Anne actually finished the fruit. She said that if you peeled off the sour skin part, the inside was really good! Anne couldn't really describe the flavor, but Les said it tasted like a lychee to her.


Here's Yosh before partaking . . .


Mmmmmmmm . . .


Ptui . . . ptui . . . ptui . . . I think he shoulda peeled off the skin. Yosh said it tasted like passion fruit. . . which led to the debate . . . is passion fruit the same as lilikoi?


Here's my foot pedal. I use it to listen to the doctors' dictations. I wanted to share another interesting thing with you. The foot pedal at our Ala Moana office is missing. The day after Thanksgiving it was gone. CQ looked all over for it. It's heavy and it's connected to a USB port on a computer. I don't think it got accidentally tossed or accidentally swept somewhere. I think somebody swiped it! But whyyyyyyyyy???? So strange yeah!!??

Logan and Brady

Another short and sweet quickie photo shoot where Wendell says, "You're done already?" Coworker Jason lives really near to me, so I just did fast-kine shots of his kids playing near their house. Thanks Jason and Sharon for letting me take their pictures again this year.

Anne, Kevin and Family

After taking photos of Rosalyn's family last Sunday, I so wanted to go back to Moanalua Gardens again to check out the other areas within the park that looked promising for picture taking. I coerced coworker Anne to drag her family to the Gardens to pose for me this morning. The grounds were wet and muddy and it did drizzle for a little while, but the family was so accommodating despite the adverse conditions. I'm soooo grateful. Thank you guys!!

Ben Chrisman and Erin Reed

There are quite a few professional photographers whose works I admire, but topping my list by far is wedding photographer Ben Chrisman. He got married himself about a week ago to fellow photographer Erin Reed, who herself does awesome work. This teaser video done by their good friend Vladimir Chaloupka blew me away.

Ben and Erin Teaser from Vladimir Chaloupka on Vimeo.

The Alley Restaurant in Aiea Bowl

Celia and I dropped by The Alley for a bite to eat on our way to the Nanakuli Performing Arts Center's performance this past Sunday. It was packed so they had to seat us at a table kinda just outside of the restaurant in the bowling alley area.



We both ordered the saimin. I loved the shiru (broth), and the noodles were just how a like um. But the best was yet to come . . .

We shared two desserts. Actually we started on um before the saimin came. This is the Creme Brulee . . . OH MY GOD . . . wrapped in chocolate . . . soooooo ono. It was $6 something. Expensive yeah, but worth it.


This is a Marshmallow Blondie (something like that anyway). It was good too . . . $3 something.

I tried to take more pictures of the different desserts in the showcase, but was kinda hard. I was in the way so I had to rush. This is the best I could do.





I wanna go back again and try more desserts. Looks like they open until midnight on Thursday, Friday and Saturday!

Happy Thanksgiving 2010!!

Besides the regular turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy, the theme for our Thanksgiving this year was "Greek". My sister Geri made up her own recipe for the phyllo wrapped dish below and brother in law Michael made a Greed salad. The rest of us pretty much failed at the greek theme.

Geri said for her dish she combined 1 lb each hamburger and ground pork, 1 cup finely chopped mushrooms, 1 diced onion, 1/2 tsp each thyme, basil, salt, pepper, cayenne pepper, 1 tbsp lime juice and some bay leaves and simmered in a crock pot for about 1 hour. Then she drained out the liquid and refrigerated. She then got the chilled filling and added 1 cup parmesan cheese and 2 eggs. She got 2 sheets of the phyllo dough and cut them in half, brushed with butter and put some filling in one corner and rolled into a triangle shape. She topped each with more butter. She baked the pieces at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. It came out really good.



Geri also made this fried tako which she coated with corn meal, cornstarch and flour before frying.


Here's Michael's Greek salad.


Nephew Daniel helped me grill the shrimp which I marinated in a combination of Mae Ploy Sweet Chili Sauce and Susie's Teri-Miso Sauce.


This was a hit. I got the flavored smoked salmon ($10.99) and baby brie cheese ($5.29) from Costco.


Didi made her ono mochi rice dish.


After lunch, I was actually able to snag some people for some picture taking! This is nephew Jason and Cory with puppy Cain.


Nephew Daniel and Kenna. They arrived about 1/2 hour early and boy was I grateful for their help. They whipped up some Marie Callender cornbread, plated the salmon/cheese/crackers, hibachied the shrimp and even made the rice for me. Pretty awesome yeah!


Nephew Aaron with Jason and Kona.


Sister Didi and Glenn


Sister Leigh and Michael

Found Puppies

Last Sunday Landon was at Punalu'u Beach with a bunch of his friends diving for tako. These two puppies spent the whole morning with them. They didn't seem to belong to anybody, were kinda skinny and were so hungry that they ate about 6 hotdogs each. One of the puppies almost got banged by a car, so when it came time to leave Landon was afraid to leave them there. He decided to drop them off at the Humane Society. On the way there he stopped by the house so that we could get a look at them. They were so cute that me and Wendell debated for a little while on whether we should keep one. We finally decided not to 'cause scaredy cat Kona doesn't do well with change at all and he's also afraid of big black dogs. I wonder if somebody adopted them yet.

Rosalyn, Gordan and Family

Three years ago, Rosalyn, Gordan and Kaydon were the models for one of my very first family photo shoots! Unreal yeah! And then Megan came along and her photo got me in a National Geographic publication! More unreal yeah! Needless to say, this family is very special to me. I hope I can continue to take their Christmas card photos for many more years to come.