Musings

Castle building, now part of the Bishop Museum complex. Condemned due to termite damage, so closed. Perhaps work has begun to renovate it?

I picked one artifact from this huge museum, of Hawaii, of the Pacific, of life in Polynesia: a wooden Duke Paoa Kahinu Mokoe Hulikohola Kahanamoku surf board. Duke lived from 1890 to 1968 and was a fast swimmer as well as surfer. May his waves ever curl perfectly. Duke was named after his dad, who was named in honor of the Duke of Edinburgh. Duke seems like a perfect surfer name.

Fascinating garden on the grounds, with coast plants in one area, another zone of highland plants, and a third of canoe plants, that is, the ones the Polynesians brought to feed themselves. They brought food plants, and plants that they grew with the food plants to make mini-ecosystems that worked. These are breadfruit. Polynesians needed nutrients and carbohydrates from plant sources—they got a lot of protein from fish; this dietary situation is similar to what other traditional peoples living by rich coastal waters have had to contend with.

Chinatown. Way cool; and hot/sticky where it wasn’t air-conditioned. Like this market. A few others had AC. I’d try to shop here for fruits/veg at least sometimes if I lived here.

Loved this sign in the restaurant where we ate: Only Good Vibes, and the two gals playing pattycake while waiting for their food.

We did not have dessert, so I never found out what magic crack is.

Wending our way back to the rental, we went by the Aloha Tower. Majestic. It opened in 1926 and is a lighthouse. After the bombing at Pearl Harbor it was painted to disappear in night-darkness.

This restaurant is gone, but its historic sign has carefully been kept. The restaurant was open over seven decades, if I have it right. The building had degraded and “had to” be demolished.

I’d say building preservationists so far have been more successful with the Castle than the restaurant.

Posted at 12:43 AM | 1 Comment »

This is a sample of last night’s food porn. The restaurant around the corner has special menus seasonally. Right now they’re on a tomato one. This is pane pomodoro appetizer. That tomato mixture started with roasted tomatoes, then they were cooked down and I could not tell all the magic that went into the transformation into the final version. So complex. So excellent. I’m still swooning. We did have a whole lovely meal. Even dessert (against all odds). Mmmmmm.

Tonight’s menu was nowhere near so complex. Tasty, yes. But…hmm…my flavor-creation choreography. Toasted some pignolas. Pureed them with good olive oil, garlic, salt, some water to thin. Then basil. And more basil (after it was de-stemmed and cleaned). Over pasta, duh. Stirred with a generous pile of Parmigiano-Reggiano until homogenous.

Livin’ large.

So, now the hip-high bushes are only almost that high. Trimmed.

Posted at 8:56 PM | 1 Comment »

Inattention suited the basil lately. The tall Genovese bush is thigh high; the Thai cultivar is to the right with the purplish flower spikes.

I picked a good pile of the Thai basil…

…and, with cilantro leaves, it made a terrific garnish for our Thai curry tofu. High protein version today with added edamame, peas. I think the rice has a bit of protein, too. I recently read that aging people need more protein.

Protein: check. And yummy, too!

Posted at 6:57 PM | Comments Off on Basil burgeons

That freighter: Indiana Harbor. I assume it’s a real place. The strange-shaped vessel behind it is working on the disputed pipeline that crosses the straits. I think the white cone is part of the pipeline project.

Sparty. BMOC. You know which C.

Old Forestry building, now called Chittenden Hall. Mom’s office was on the second floor.

Irish nachos. Totally decadent. Happily shared with almost-birthday guy, DeeMickGee.

Posted at 10:03 PM | 1 Comment »

The basil was READY. 🌱 I scissored ✂️ it back, snip ✂︎ snip. I didn’t worry about shaping 🌳 the plant (hah), just removed all the flowering spikes and their leaves, and the almost-ready-to-flower spikes. This process captured enough for a pesto pasta with perhaps twice the pesto that might normally be used. Rich! 🌈 Lucky! 🍀

Posted at 8:02 PM | Comments Off on Pesto night

“Producto local” in Spanish means what you might guess in English. The basil is from our front yard/garden plants, and the pesto I made from these leaves was superb (and tasteeeee!).

These are Georgia peaches, albeit from the groc-store and not our property. We are so lucky to have the final droplets of last year’s maple syrup from our neighbors’ in northern Michigan (no-Mich?) to add to the peaches, and a new 2019 ration to turn to when those droplets are consumed.

We are living large, and very lucky.

Posted at 6:33 PM | Comments Off on Producto local

While out for my walk, I made a new friend: hello, tigre-pantera! This one loved a head scratch and pet.

We saw a few cruise ships passing yesterday, perhaps three, and almost half-dozen today…bound for Alaska, we’re told, and regulars along this route on Fridays/Saturdays.

We spent some time today prepping for the grad party, and finished our chores ahead of schedule…so opened a bottle of wine and sipped our way through some white pinot while enjoying the sun-warmed deck from the shade.

Dessert, of course, was the high-point of the menu…a pair of surgeon-made and surgeon-dissected ice cream cakes…about one and a half consumed before everyone was too full to eat another bite…which means there’s half in the freezer awaiting tomorrow’s coffee hour. Yay!

Long summer for the HS graduate, as he moves into the dorm to begin college life in late September (surprise: quarter system!). I hear the job search will begin Tues…after the last after-graduation event.

Posted at 10:22 PM | Comments Off on (Mean)while

Little bit of precipitation last night…wowzer, these (redbud) leaves look mid- to late-summer.

I don’t think this means the bus tumbles. I hope.

We missed Summerfest in the neighborhood this weekend. Not sure what these are but my guess is they were to catch wastewater (like from sinks in food trucks).

First big basil harvest here in the ATL. Also have Thai basil for some Thai curry—wonderful eats this week!

Posted at 6:51 PM | Comments Off on Odds, ends

So, after yesterday’s main event—the wedding!—the multi-talented bride’s mom made (home·made!*) biscuits and a cheese grits casserole for brunch for drop-in morning-after-the-wedding guests.

Not to be confused with a restaurant with that name. Extra point if you know the name of that dot-in-the-middle-of-the-line character….

Posted at 9:34 PM | 2 Comments »

Today was an appetizer…and these are blue cheese-stuffed date with almonds and marinated deviled egg stuffed with hummus. Mmmmmmm. 🥚

Posted at 9:44 PM | Comments Off on Double meaning