Under the Trees and Off to the North Shore

 On a tip from Sahara, we went to dinner at the Hau-Tree-Lanai at the New Otani.  Seating maybe 40 guests under three intertwined hau trees, the restaurant is located right on the water, ideally located to see the sunset.  While Goldfish and I missed the sunset, we had a wonderful meal - first class food, yet a casual atmosphere.

 This is the view looking back at the restaurant while standing in the Pacific Ocean, just before kissing Goldfish, or maybe just after . . . . hard to think straight at times like those  . . .

 The next morning we went to Mac 24/7, as shown on the Food Channel's Man vs. Food.  I did not attempt the Mac Daddy Pancake Challenge, I settled on an excellent omelet, wheat toast, pineapple juice, and a few very large mugs of kona coffee.

 Then it was back under the trees again, where we checked out the International Market Place.

 There was a little bit of everything in there - Goldfish and I found some sun hats and a personalized Christmas ornament, just in case we ever end up spending Christmas at home.

 There is a funny story behind the Santa guy - you should see him from the front, he has the white beard (real, not costume), the whole thing - he looks exactly like Santa on vacation in Hawaii.  Well, we had just boarded a shuttle, heading to the car rental place to pick up our car.  The shuttle driver was this young guy that started backing out from in front of our hotel without a backward glance, and I happened to look back and see he was about a second away from running over Santa.  I yelled, the driver screeched to a halt, and Santa looked really pissed.  I quietly said "Dude, you almost killed Santa".  So, you heard it here first, I saved Christmas.  I bet that driver is not going to get anything good in his stocking for many a year, if ever!

 After we picked up our rental, we headed towards the North Shore, passing the Chinaman's Hat.

Goldfish waiting in the car while I snap a few shots - hey, rental cars are dirt cheap our here, so you might as well go with the Mustang convertible, right?  Okay, off to bed, we're getting up early for Pearl Harbor, the USS Arizona, and the USS Missouri.  Love falling asleep to the surf pounding the beach outside . . . . .

Hole in the Wall Food Tour

The lovely Goldfish at the Oahu airport after a grueling flight from Anchorage.  Okay, it wasn't actually all that grueling.  Five and a half hours in first class (use your Alaska Airlines companion ticket, and first class almost makes financial sense with all the free perks), and we gained 65 degrees (11 degrees in Anchorage, 76 degrees in Honolulu).   Goldfish had arranged a lei greeting and shuttle to our hotel in Waikiki, where we spent two nights in the big city before relocating to the North Shore.

One of the things we wanted to try during the city portion of our stay was the Hole in the Wall Food Tour .  Goldfish's sister caught wind of this and graciously pre-paid the tour as a Christmas gift, and we had a great time!  You can see, as we waited outside our hotel to be picked up for the tour, we may very well be the palest white couple in the Hawaiian islands . . . .

I'm not going to get into a lot of detail on the foods we sampled as this is mostly an on-line photo album for us to look back on later.  These were our tour guides, Sahara and Greg, at the first stop on the tour.  They both had great personalities, and truly were focused during the entire time on making the experience first rate.  After the tour, Sahara sent us a long, detailed email including all the information from each stop so you didn't have to worry about taking notes, you could just relax and enjoy the experience.

 This was one of my favorites - there were maybe eight different fillings you could choose, and they tasted amazing - Hawaiian sweetbread filled with Chinese sweet roast pork (Char Siu) was Goldish's choice, and I had mine filled with smoked kaluha pork.

This is a view of one of the many lei shops where the leis are handmade and sell for just 5 or 6 dollars.  The leis we got at the airport gave our hotel room a wonderful aroma for the duration of our stay.

A view down the courtyard in China Town.

Inside the Ying Leony Look Funn Factory where owner Fu Ying Chee has been making traditional rice noodles for over 50 years.  The only concession to modern times is the conversion of the wood fired steamers to natural gas.

The entrance to the noodle factory.

Greg fed us plate after plate of food that Sahara sourced from all over the market.

Coming from an Alaskan island, we were blown away by the abundance, variety, freshness and low prices on the produce all over China Town.  It is no wonder the best restaurants head there to stock up.

A look inside one of the many markets in China Town where you could buy anything from exotic fruits from all over the world to live bullfrogs.  There were animal parts in that market that I can not identify to this day . . . . .

I took a picture of the strange fruits in the middle so we could try to figure out later what they were, not knowing we were moments away from Greg serving us some, along with how to get them peeled.

Rambutan, or "big red hairy balls" were some of the more interesting fruits found in the market with a taste all their own.

Hawaii is the number one per capita consumer of Spam, and Spam Musubi is daily fare for many living on the Hawaiian islands.  Greg rather defensively explained that Spam is made from 100% pork shoulder, not from random pig parts.  What REALLY surprised me was this was one of Goldfish's favorites on the whole tour . . . .

Pineapple two ways - fresh cut and sprinkled with li hing powder - YUM!  We bought several packages of li hing to bring home.

Smoothie time with a little island cheer from Greg's hip flask . . .

This was my favorite stop - it was a tiny hole in the wall store that we all crammed into while Sahara taught us about the origins of "crack seed".  We did some shopping there, taking advantage of flowering tea balls for a buck, packets of li hing powder, smoked and dried scallops, dried lychee, and some fruit flavored hard candies.  What a treasure!

Greg rocking the Hawaiian Food Tour logo (also the license plate from the shuttle bus) as he led us to the next stop in China Town.

We stopped at Bubbie's for mochi ice cream!  Mochi is a pounded rice paste that they wrap around homemade ice cream, so you can eat the ice cream without a spoon or cone!  Great way to practice portion control as well - we all got to try two different flavors, I went for one traditional (adzuki bean) and one holiday (candy cane) - both were delicious!

Our last stop was Leonard's for malasadas, a Portuguese donut which they make to order so they are still warm.  Great way to end five hours of food tasting!

This was the view from our hotel room in Waikiki.  After the food tour we freshened up and puttered around a bit before heading across town to a restaurant that Sahara recommended we try for dinner.

Blue King Crab Delivery

 We got our last king crab delivery of the year on December 4th, ending a very long season of processing which began the the first week of June.  Blue king crab is a smaller species of king crab, to my eye about the same size as brown.  The blue king is a fishery on the rebound with the total allowable catch growing every year.  Our boats reported catches a little better than last year, always a good sign.

None of the blue king was put up in home packs for local sale as it was all spoken for on the world market.  I couldn't detect much of a taste difference from the red and brown, it is all delicious, especially fresh caught.  Alas, my favorite is bairdi crab, so sweet and easy to eat, but the season is closed this year to allow the stocks to recover.

 You can see the bluish tint that gives the species its name.

A little culinary tip - if you are ever in a time crunch and wanting to transform a so-so frozen pizza to world class, about halfway through cooking a self-rising combination pizza, scatter a liberal portion of half-price mozzarella cheese and a pound of king crab meat.  Delicious . . . .

Honey, We're Not In Unalaska Any More . . . .

I'm sitting on the terrace of our rental in Laie on Oahu with a morning's worth of blogging ahead of me because not only have I been in Hawaii for a few days, I wasn't particularly caught up before I left home - you know, that other island, where it is 30 degrees and blowing 45 knots right now . . . so I've got a friendly cat, a glass of juice, and a pot of good Kona coffee, and I begin.  The weather, as you can see, is miserable, but I'll work with what I've got . . .

A Real Thanksgiving

On Thanksgiving Day around noon, Chico and I, finding the preparations for the festivities well in hand, headed down to the beach to allow the cooks room to express their creativity, and to enjoy the day.  It was there on the beach, for that sun-drenched hour of wind and crashing surf, that I truly had Thanksgiving. 

We walked and sat on the beach grass, then walked some more.  I agreed to spend extra time on the beach given the beautiful nature of the day, and he agreed to spend less time trying to sneakily unearth and eat mummified, sand-encrusted and spawned out salmon (which is probably exactly what he is doing in the photo above).

All the while I thought about all the things I had to be thankful for (I'm not sure what he was thinking about, but it probably involved food or chasing foxes, his two primary obsessions - or perhaps I should give him more credit, he may have been pondering the very same things as I .  . . )

In no particular order, and doubtless with many ommissions, these are a few of the things I silently gave thanks for that morning on the beach.  My loving wife and best friend who was back on the house pouring her heart into making the Thanksgiving meal as perfect as possible - I really can't say enough about her and definitely don't deserve her; my parents, who always encouraged my hobbies and interests, and instilled in me a blue collar work ethic that has always served me well; my sons - I am so proud of the young men they have become, so intelligent, interesting, hard-working, honest and kind-hearted; my brother, always doing everything a little bit better than I do, setting such a great example of what it means to be a man, always there for everyone in the family; my older sister who stepped up when my Mom passed away and worries about us all like a surrogate mother hen - such an amazing mother in her own right, teacher and friend; my baby sister, who is like a beautiful, wild, mysterious creature that I don't fully understand yet love unconditionally; my friends - friends on the island that make me laugh and are there for me always, friends I have met over the years on-line yet never met who are just as there for me, friends who touched my life briefly and lost touch, friends from around the world who are always welcome in my home.

I'm thankful to have a good job in today's economy, for a company that is doing something important.  I love the fishing industry - when I was a deckhand on a salmon gillnetter, it felt wonderful to pick those shiny sockeyes and cohos from the net and carefully layer them in ice, brailer after brailer, getting dog tired but feeding people.  I worked processing black cod in Nikiski, herring in Bristol Bay, and now out here in the Aleutians, the grand daddy fishery of them all, where boats pull up to the dock with a million pounds of pollock at a time.  Crab gets all the press, but it is pollock that pays the bills, and for the bill paying I am thankful.

I am thankful for these United States of America, most especially the great states of Maine and Alaska where I have spent the majority of my 47 years.  Both states have been good to me - Maine was a wonderful place to grow up, and living in Alaska for almost 23 years has been wonderful, giving me more to be thankful for everytime I look out the window.

There is, of course, a lot more to mention but I'm going to get this posted as I have several more posts in my head I need to get out!  Cheers everyone!

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

 We had a very laid back Thanksgiving out here on the island; Goldfish's brother Matt flew out from Anchorage, and our dear friend and red headed stepchild the Art Queen came over in her PJs to help us celebrate, bearing all manner of delicious food items and one spectacular bottle of vino.  (yes Elaine, I am trying out nicknames - welcome to the family).

 Matt helped a lot with the cooking, and everything turned out pretty amazing.  I didn't really take too many photos as I was busy having fun, eating some spectacular food and then playing board games until Punkin Chunkin came on the Discovery Channel.

 This was our first turkey using Goldfish's Electrolux oven, and I was pretty happy with how it came out.  Just slide the temperature probe into the meatiest part of the thigh, hit "Upper Oven", "Perfect Turkey" and "Start" and the oven took care of the rest, cooking to a 170 degree internal temperature using the convection feature.

 There are rumors that a certain handicapped fox ended up with the neck and giblets after we made gravy.  It does appear he scored a little holiday cheer somehow . . . . . .

It has been fun having Matt out here this past week.  He brought some really cool board games, his mad cooking skills, and his warped sense of humor.  Here, he is bonding with the Summers Bay horses.  This afternoon we brought him down to the gun range and fired a few different handguns.  His favorite (and mine) was the S&W Model 625 Mountain Gun in a .45 caliber - what a sweet revolver, a joy to shoot and a real nail driver in the right hands.

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving!  I have another Thanksgiving post I will put up in the next day or two, after I download photos from my phone.  Cheers everyone!

35 Minute Slice

I grabbed a camera and took a few pictures on Saturday . . these are a few of the things I saw in 35 minutes - here comes Goldfish to join me for lunch . . .

 It was Mexican day in the galley - doesn't Randy have the cutest kids??

 We walked out of the galley and waved at co-workers working on the condenser re-piping project . . . .

 Then we walked down to the dock to see how the crab off-load was going.  You can see it was a gorgeous day in Unalaska/Dutch Harbor!

 Usually whenever I go check out a crab offload I have Jason hold one up, but he was just looking too relaxed in the sun . . .

 F/V North Sea is a big gal with wide decks and lots of freeboard (the amount of space between the waterline and the main deck).

 My co-workers's Dad was operating the off-loading crane . . .

 I'm thinking the crew must have a pretty well protected deck to work on with the hull design.

 After lunch at the galley and a walk on the dock we headed home to walk Chico and relax for a bit before returning to work.  At the base of the driveway was one of "our" eagles surveying the valley (there is a mated pair that winters in the immediate vicinity, usually visible most times of day).  The mate was up on a lamp post and loudly protested my taking a picture of his sweetheart . . . .

And of course our poor starving handicapped Paw Paw, who happens to somehow have the plumpest body and most luxurious coat on the island despite having a bum leg, was hanging out in the front yard.

No deep thoughts, just a slice of my Saturday . . . cheers everyone!