Sumatran Tiger Cubs - 5 months old

The sun reflecting on the fence obscured some of my shots, but the cubs are just so, so, so cute it kinda doesn't matter. It was a lot easier shooting them last month when the overcast clouds helped to soften the lighting. Still, it just cracks me up watching them romping around, playing with each other or just destroying the vegetation. Thanks Les, for letting me borrow your two-ton 70-200mm f/2.8 IS lens.

Brian and Hannah - Wedding at New Hope Manoa 2/8/2009

Brian and Hannah were married today in a sweet and simple ceremony at New Hope in Manoa. It was my pleasure to have been able to play a small part in this very loving event.

Goodbye Aunty Mabel

A monarch butterfly greeted me when I arrived at the Hosoi Garden Mortuary today, and together we looked over the displayed photos reflecting my Aunty Mabel's life. I will never forget her kind, generous and extremely thoughtful nature. It was SHE who comforted me by letting me know that she was ready and unafraid to move on. I can only hope to be as courageous when it's my time to see her again.

Mochiko Fish

Imagine this . . . I don't really like fish. But I loved, loved, loved this dish so much, that I had to stop eating my dinner to set up these pieces so that I could get a shot to post on this blog. The recipe is from Hawaii's Best Local Dishes by Jean Watanabe Hee.

Marinate 1 to 2 pounds mahimahi or other white fish in marinade for 3 to 4 hours or overnight in refrigerator. Wendell said the marinade comes out really thick and pasty, but it waters down after awhile.

4 T mochiko
4 T cornstarch
2 T flour
4 T sugar
1 t salt
2 T shoyu
1 egg, beaten
1 t chopped green onion
1 clove garlic, minced

Heat about 2 T of oil in a pan and fry fish on medium heat. It was really good, something like mochiko chicken.

Yuck Pew Gag

I got this e-mail from my sister Didi. Rainbow Mart is/was in Palolo Valley where we grew up. Cracked me up:

OK…………I have always been an Icee/Slurpee fanatic, from Rainbow Mart days when we used to cut out those triangle shaped stuff from the side of the cup and paste it on the card to get a free one……….anyways, I just had the moistest horriblest absolutely yucko pewskiest….ok, I am exaggerating…I just had one of the moistest horriblest absolutely yucko pewskiest beverages in the whole wide nation…….so so many times when I go the the 711 by our house, the Icee machine is not ready, the light is on and it looks like plain soda inside, not frozen……SO….lalalalla………today, no different, so I look at the other machine and it says “mountain dew”…ok, I like mountain dew….I fill my cup. Hummmm, its an off color, I taste it and almost gagged……THEN I read it carefully……………” enhanced with ginseng and guarana” What the……………I bought it, its sitting in the sink………;o\ yuck

Diem's Salmon Skin Tofu Salad

My brother's girlfriend Diem made this. It's fried salmon skin, radish sprouts and some onion on a block of tofu. She served it with some Kikkoman ponzu dressing . . . very nice and refreshing.

Lemon Ice Cream Bar

Wendell finally got around to making the real Lemon Ice Cream Bar dessert.

Mix 2 1/2 rolls Ritz crackers, crushed fine (put in ziplock and pound it with rolling pin) and 1 1/4 blocks melted butter.
Press into the bottom of a 9-by-13-inch pan. Bake 10 minutes at 350 degrees until golden brown. Cool.
Mix 2 boxes instant lemon pudding with 1/4 c. cold water (it will be thick); be sure to whisk it well so the pudding dissolves completely.

Add 1/2 gallon softened vanilla ice cream.

Mix with your 30-year old "egg beater".
Scrape ice cream mixture into cooled crust. Freeze until firm. Spread whipped topping over ice cream mixture and return to freezer. Remove from freezer 10 minutes before serving for easier cutting. Cut into squares. Makes about 15 servings.
The article calls it a potluck dessert, but it doesn't seem like it would transport easily 'cause it kinda melts when left out. It was really, really good.

Sweet Potatoes, Anyone?

I was so excited when I found sweet potatoes at a Korean store on my lunchtime walk. As soon as I got home from work I threw them in a pot to steam. That's the best way to make them, by the way. Except you should turn off the stove when they're done and not forget about them for hours!

Wendell's Drain Unclogger

Wendell did the neatest thing the other day to unplug our stopped up bathroom sink drain. He went to Blue Sky Hawaii on Dillingham and bought this bag of 36-inch cable ties. They didn't sell them singly so he had to buy a 20-pack. He said it was about $6.

He snipped off the tip and cut jagged notches into the sides. I don't have any action shots of him doing his handywork, but he said he just shoved the length of the tie down into the drain past the P-trap (the U-shaped part of the pipe) and jiggled it around to loosen all the gunk that was down there. He said some yucky black stuff came back up, but I think more importantly he probably shoved some of that gunk down too. Sooo neat yeah! The drain works good as new now. So if anybody needs some 36-inch cable ties, we got 19 of 'um that we don't need.

The Soon Do Bu Project

This past week I picked up the ingredients to make my own Soon Do Bu and today was da day to try it out. I kinda followed this recipe from the Korean Cuisine blog.

The recipe calls for dried anchovies and dashima to make your broth, but co-worker Julie gave me some of the same in a powdered version that she made herself. I threw it in 6 cups of water and boiled.
In a separate frying pan I fried 3 T red pepper in about 1/2 cup of sesame oil until bubbling. Then I took it off the heat.
In yet another pot a sauteed some garlic and sesame oil and then threw in about a pound of ground pork. Then I threw in 1 1/2 cups of kim chee, some kim chee juice and some onions.
I poured the broth through a strainer then added it and the pepper oil to the ground pork mixture. I only added 2 cups of the broth and half of the oil. The recipe said that the tofu would release a lot of water and it didn't really look like I needed all 6 cups so I figured I'd add more broth later if it needed it. I also didn't want to put in too much of the pepper oil in case it got too spicy. At the end, I never did add the extra in.

I wasn't sure what "shrimp jut" was. This is the closest thing I could find. When I opened the jar though, I just couldn't bring myself to add the 3 T I figured I needed. It just looked too weird. So I just put in 1 T.
Finally, I added in the tofu and the shiitake mushrooms.

This is the final product . . . my own Soon Do Bu. The taste was there, and so was the spiciness. I did work up a sweat eating it. I was just small kine disappointed though, 'cause it turned out more soupy than stewy.