Archive | October, 2011

Maui Participates in Blog Action Day 2011 – Food and Culture

By on October 16, 2011 in Blogging, Community, Family Fun, Where Local Eat

One of my favorite events in my kids’ school back when they were in elementary school is the day they call “Culture Day”.  On that day, the children celebrate the culture of their ethnic backgrounds. It’s fun for them to trace what their ethnic backgrounds are and it’s very common to have a mixture of two or more cultures.  For example, my kids are half American (English & German), half Filipino.  They are known as Hapa kids (which in essence means half and half).  One feature of this Culture Day is potluck.  Kids will bring a dish that’s from their ethnic origin and share it with everyone. I love this! What a great way to connect the kids with their culture and keep the tradition going.

Like what I said, I love the Cultural Day Potluck. It’s like taking the trip all over the world!  Listed below are some food from various cultures that have been infused into Maui’s food culture. I thought it would be good to have a list here for those who are vsiting  on Maui and are curious about these ethnic food.
 
HAWAIIAN
Ahi: yellowfin tuna, mostly grilled but there are other ways to cook it too.
Laulau: pork, butterfish, beef or chicken wrapped in taro leaf and steamed in an imu (underground oven).
Haupia: coconut pudding, one of my favorites!
Long Rice: cellophane noodles made from mungbean flour; Cook with chicken, it’s my daughter’s favorite soup – the chicken long rice.
Poi: staple starch of the Hawaiian diet, made from boiled taro root, boiled and pounded. They feed this babies and kids a lot but adults love them too.
Poke: raw fish with seaweed and sesame oil. Variated is Tako poke which is made with (tako) octupus instead of fish.
Taro: a tuberous vegetable used to make poi

 FILIPINO
Adobo – pork or chicken in a vinegar and garlic sauce. Most Caucasians like this.
Pancit: egg or rice noodles ‘n stuff. There are a lot of variations – pancit canton, pancit bihon, pancit loglog, sotanghon, etc.
Lumpia: appetizer similar to spring roll. Some are fresh (like that on the photo) some are fried.  It can be made of vegetable or ground meet (lumpia shanghai) or banana (turon).
Pinakbet: okra, string beans, tomatoes, shrimp paste simmered with fish or pork. Oh so nutritious.

JAPANESE 
Edamame: whole boiled soybeans. Great healthy snack.
Maki-sushi: sushi items rolled up in seaweed
Furikake: a flavoring accent of seaweed, salt, sesame
Saimin: noodle soup. a lot of variation on this.
Sashimi: thin slices of very fresh salt water fish
Manju: sweet bean paste buns
Shumai: small steamed dumplings
Sashimi: thin slices of very fresh salt water fish
Tempura: vegetables, meat, or seafood quick-fried in light egg batter

KOREAN
Kim Chee: heavily seasoned pickled vegetables
Kal Bi: barbecued short ribs marinated in a shoyu and sesame blend

PORTUGUESE
Caldeirada: seafood stew
Caldo Verde: kale and potato soup
Feijao: beans

THAI
Satay: beef, pork, or chicken on skewers with peanut sauce
Tom Yum: spicy lemongrass soup with shrimp and meat

VIETNAMESE
Pho – beef noddle soup with sprouts, herbs, chilis and lime

The list above is not comprehensive at all.  Those are just the ones common on Maui that has somehow got integrated in Maui’s food culture.  There’s a lot more cultures wih fine cuisine to be represented, Italian, Mexican, Indian, French, an so on. Please feel free to dd some of your favorite ethnic food in the comment section below.

On this Blog Action Day 2011, I want to encourage everyone to keep on teaching our kids about culture and food.  With the busyness of our daily lives, it’s so tempting to feed our kids the fastfood kind of food. However, it must not be so.  Let us take time to nuture the culture and keep the cultural food tradition going.

 

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Maui Open Studios – A Showcase of Maui Artists – Planning 2012 Event

By on October 9, 2011 in Arts and Culture, Community, Events, Family Fun

Remember the Maui Open Studios I attended last year? I can’t believe that’s been almost a year ago.  The organizer, Carolyn Quan, is planning the next event and I thought I’d help her promote this wonderful art event on Maui. Because of Maui Open Studio, artists on Maui can now experience what artists on the mainland have had the opportunity to experience for almost 40 years and it’s a great community event as well.

Maui Open Studios are self-guided tours of artist studios and exhibition spaces which offers the art-buying and art-loving public a rare opportunity to meet the artists in person, talk story with them, learn about their creative processes and purchase artwork directly from them. Many artists serve refreshments and do live demonstrations of their techniques.

The inaugural event in February 2011 was a huge success with 111 registered artists and over 6,000 individual studio visits made. The second Annual Maui Open Studios Event is being planned so artists care encouraged to register now at Maui Open Studios website. (Deadline is November 1st 2011)

The Hui No’eau Visual Arts Center is a major sponsor of the event and hosts several Maui Open Studio artists as well as open their jewelry, ceramics and print making studios to the public during the event for demonstrations given by some of their resident artists.

Please visit http://www.MauiOpenStudios.com for more information.

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