What a weekend!

It’s 3:17 am and I am up early as opposed to staying up late. Sometimes my body clock reverts to California time and I go with it. We had quite a weekend and now things are getting back to normal. I needed catch up time to write.

On Saturday we went to a Slow Food Hawaii event at the Lyman Museum., downtown Hilo. It was a fun afternoon, comprised of a spectacular “local food” potluck. The food was great, so many different things grown and made in our area, even some terrific home made beer! We invited two couples and they both attended the event. Noel and Keith who hosted the first International Cooking Club Dinner that we attended last November were there as well as my new friend, Leslie Lang with her husband Marcario and their little darling Emma Rose. She was the only child at the event and was both well mannered and adored by many people throughout the afternoon.

After we sampled the food and drink offerings we were treated by a presentation on Hawaii’s food traditions. Nan Pi'ianaia, the founder of Slow Food Hawaii gave a talk on the actual foods that Sarah Lyman had used during her lifetime as a missionary in Hilo. The agricultural history of the area was a natural extension of that topic as Nan shared from the actual diaries of Mrs. Lyman. Such things as flour had to come around the horn on ships and usually were full of bugs by the time they arrived. Locally the introduction of the sugar cane industry changed their lives as well as that of the boys at their boarding school. It was a very interesting presentation and one that leads me to want to read further about life in the early times of our city and these islands.

Fellow food writer, Joan Namkoong of Waimea shared with us about the “key ingredients” of Hawaiian cuisine. She had queried several well known Hawaiian chefs about what they thought were the most important and iconic elements to Hawaiian Cuisine. It was a pleasure to meet Joan in person after having read some of her food writing.

After the presentations, we viewed the exhibit from the Smithsonian, Key Ingredients – Hawaii Edition. It was the last day of the exhibit so we were delighted to get a chance to see it before it left the Lyman. We really enjoyed our time at the museum and visiting with our new friends. Emma Rose charmed us through the exhibit, proving that there is nothing like seeing things through the eyes of a child.

We wished we had time to see more of the museum and to go on the mission house tour, but we had yet another event to attend and so we ran home, gathered up food and went to a Punaweb party at the Lamont farm in Glenwood. We saw Keith and Noel again there too. It was a fun evening with lots of great food and drink, but most of all it was special because we got to talk in person with so many of the characters from Punaweb ! Pam so generously shared her lovely home and farm with us all. I finally got to see Carey's beautiful mosaic work in Pam's bathrooms too.

Superbowl Sunday was here before we knew it! Time to get ready for our first annual neighborhood Superbowl Party. This was not an easy task because our container and home goods has still not arrived, but we brought in some outdoor furniture from the Lanais and have a few pieces we bought here, so we made it work. We had about 20 guests from the neighborhood and just to keep the theme going, Noel and Keith were there again too! Our good friends Ray and Marsha from Honokaa came and spent the night in our guest room. Our friend Kelly brought Brad and Abel (remember Abel was the one who planted all of our new trees) It was a Pu Pu Buffet and game watching fun on the 6’ HD projection screen. Several of us also enjoyed watching the whales from our lanais. After most of the crowd left a smaller group of 8 of us sat around on the lanai and talked story into the night with the sound of the surf and the spectacular Hawaiian star show above us.

Coming up...

Next weekend we have an International Cooking Club dinner on Saturday night and Sunday is Bob Marley Day and Agricultural Fair in Hilo, so we will be going to the big free Reggae concert in the park and attending the Agriculture Fair with some friends. The following weekend on Valentine's Day is the Hilo Chinese New Year Celebration , so lots more fun stuff on the horizon.