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Yelp Uncaged 2012 at the Honolulu Zoo: Free Food, Craft Beer, and Unicorns

by Coty on April 23, 2012 in Events with 3 Comments

Imagine going to a party. At a zoo. With free food. And beer. Really good craft beer. And unicorns.

I went to that party.

It’s hard to start my review of the 2012 Yelp Uncaged event at the Honolulu Zoo because it was so outrageously awesome. I guess I should start with the search for an octopus. An octopus costume, to be exact. That’s what Joel decided to go to the Uncaged event as. Octopi searches at Party City, Flora Dec, and some other small costume shops around Oahu proved to be futile. So of course, Google was the next best thing. His “search” for an octopus costume came to an end when he stumbled upon this creative link. He set out to create that octopus and ended up with a rad costume. I, historically very lazy when it comes to costume parties, spent about 2 minutes at Party City before locking in on a pair of Gorilla Gloves. Monette went as a black kitty (she disregard my suggestion of going as a cheetah). And Ahnate was even lazier than I (imagine that).

Yelp Uncaged 2012 started at 6pm, just before the sun went down. Photo by Coty Gonzales.

Joel shows off his octopus costume. Photo by Coty Gonzales.

Having never been to a Yelp event, I was quite unsure of what to expect. I was pleasantly surprised. After donning my Yelp name tage (non-elite status), I noticed that a large number of people showed up in elaborate costumes. There were flying gorillas, pandas, cheetahs, and of course unicorns. The event was set up just around the bend from where the flamingos like to hang out. The large, open, and grassy space was perfect.

Lining one side of the grassy field was over 20 food and beverage tents. Our first stop was Pau’ls Poppers. What’s a “Popper?” Think funky wontons. They were serving turkey with cheese and jalepeno poppers that were out-of-this-world good. Just next door to Paul’s Popper was Hula Grill and their Honey Glazed Chicken Lollipop w/Glazed Walnuts. Good, but I ended up liking the name of the dish more than the end product.

Fortunately, Paul shared his Poppers with us. They were delicious! Photo by Coty Gonzales.

I think they're all enjoying Acai samples here. Photo by Coty Gonzales.

Chicken Lollipops coutesy of Hula Grill. Photo by Coty Gonzales.

Just two plates in and I had my first taste of desert, courtesy of Sweet Revenge. Their One-Bite Banana Cream Pie was ah-ma-zing. I resisted going back for a second and third serving. I probably could have gone for a third and fourth serving if I had no shame! Another irrisisitible food find was Hawaiian Cheesecake’s lilikoi cheesecake made with only local ingredients. The crust was lined with premium Waialua chocolate.

Other notable dishes included the cauliflower mash, steak served with savory sauce from GRYLT. I’m a regular at GRYLT and knew what to expect: savory awesomeness. Another dish that earned rave reviews from both Joel and Ahnate was the goat cheese brussel sprout salad from The Grove. Monette, scared of the goat cheese, handed me her untouched plate. I gobbled it up. The goat cheese was spectacular. Joel also raved about The Pig & The Lady’s vegetarian curry doused in heavy shitake mushrooms. I had been wanting to visit the Pig & The Lady for some time now, but, was rather unimpressed with this particular dish. Maybe I wanted some pig?

One-Bite Banana Cream Pie from Sweet Revenge. Photo by Coty Gonzales.

Lilikoi cheesecake with a crust lined with premium Waialua chocolate. Photo by Coty Gonzales.

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Photos from the 18th Annual Honolulu Festival

by Coty on April 6, 2012 in Events with No comments

Despite living in Hawaii my whole life I never made it a point to attend the Honolulu Festival. This changed last month whenI attended the 18th Annual Honolulu Festival. The theme of this years festival was bonding together, hand in hand.

Authentic sake drinking cups from Nagaoka, Japan. A lot of people tried to snag these. Photo by Coty Gonzales.

Another photo from the Nagaoka sake table. I think that these are labels for the sake bottles. Photo by Coty Gonzales.

The Honolulu Festival has grown to become a large three day event. I was only able to take in the events on the last day. In fact, I was only at the convention center for about 4 hours but yet I saw and experienced so much ethnic diversity. There was live music, dance, and cultural demonstrations. Groups from all over the world flew in to perform at the festival. I sat down and enjoyed two of the live performances. The Tada-ryu Tada Kimono Kitsuke School put on an interesting kimono dressing show. The Discendance, an Australian aboriginal group, were the show stoppers with their traditional aboriginal dance and song.

An actual Kasama potter from Kasama, Japan. Photo by Coty Gonzales.

Kasama Pottery. Photo by Coty Gonzales.

When I wasn’t watching the live performance I was roaming the convention center floor. The floor featured a large craft fair featuring arts and crafts from various cultures. They had an entire section dedicated to the Kasama Potters of Japan. I had a great time watching the Kasama Potters demonstrate their craft.

“The devastating earthquake and tsunami that hit Japan in March 2011 created major long-lasting disruptions to every facet of the daily lives of people, including potters in the town of Kasama. Located in Ibaragi Prefecture, Kasama has a long history of ceramic-making dating from the 1700s, and is one of the most important art and craft centers in eastern Japan. The March 2011 earthquake was especially heartbreaking for this small town as kilns and ceramics were destroyed, devastating livelihoods in just a matter of moments. In immediate attempts to repair the kilns, the aftershocks weakened the same havoc several times over. The Kasama potters are still recovering from the devastation.”

In November 2011, a filmaking group from Hawaii traveled to Kasama, Japan, to document the devastation and story of the Kasama Potters. The result was a short film that they produced titled Place of Hope—The Kasama Potters Community and the Great Ordeal.

Also on the show floor were tons of games for the keiki that were organized by the Pacific Basin Cultural Exchange. There were tons of nifty items featured at the craft fair, however, my favorite find were the custom handmade soaps by Filthy Farm Girl. The Hawaii Senior Life Enrichment Association (HSLEA) also had an amazing art exhibit set up. I can only hope to be half as creative as those fellows in my golden years.

Traditional japanese handmade footwear. Photo by Coty Gonzales.

These ladies from the Lucoral Museum were giving away some cool custom bookmarks with your name written in Korean. Photo by Coty Gonzales.

Great penmanship. Photo by Coty Gonzales.

This guy was roaming the show floor. Photo by Coty Gonzales.

They had some cool origami demonstrations. Photo by Coty Gonzales.

Origami Scorpion. Photo by Coty Gonzales.

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Hawaii Cacao Festival 2012 at the Haleiwa Farmer’s Market

by Coty on February 6, 2012 in Events with 4 Comments

Two Sunday’s ago I had the fortunate opportunity to check out the 2nd Annual Cacao Festival at the Haleiwa’s Farmer’s Market. Actually, me going to this event happened on a whim. The day before, Ernest (remember Waldo from the Makapuu to Tom-Tom hike?) invited me to check out the festival with him. I heard about it a few days earlier but had forgotten about it when Ernest brought it up. My interest was renewed now that I had someone to go with. The funny thing is that we never really set a time to go. That Sunday, I woke up a bit late, jumped in my car and drove to Haleiwa wondering if Ernest would still be joining me. Before heading to the Farmer’s Market, I made a pitstop at the Haleiwa American Savings Bank to grab some quick cash. It turned out that Ernest had reached Haleiwa at around the same that I stopped at the ATM. Cool. Only thing, he missed the Farmer’s Market and ended up lost somewhere in the North Shore. Fortunately, I guided him to the intersection of Jospeh P. Leong Bypass & Kamehameha Hwy and he was able to find his way the Farmer’s Market. All this excitement and we hadn’t even checked out the Cacao Festival yet!

The Haleiwa Farmer’s Market was definitely bustling and packed with people. It was great to see such a large crowd supporting local businesses. As I walked around and checked out the different vendors I became impressed by the large number of local business that I had never heard of prior. This was great and I was very stoked. The various cacao vendors where interspersed with the regular maker sellers. Our first stop was at the ~~Waialua Estate~~ Sweet Paradise Chocolatier Brew Bar where they were serving Hawaiian Hot Chocolate Shots. Ernest bought me a shot and my taste buds were instantly surprised, shocked, and satisfied. The shot included 70% Hawaiian grown Waialua Estate chocolate, local vanilla bean, ginger, cinnamon, and Hawaiian chili pepper. The shot was amazing.

Hawaiian Hot Chocolate Shots. Photo by Coty Gonzales.

Waialua Estate Coffee. Photo by Coty Gonzales.

Fresh Coffee Beans. Photo by Coty Gonzales.

My next stop was at the Roots of Hawaii Tea stand. They were giving away samples of their Noni Sweetlove tea, which contained noni leaf, raspberry leaf, lemon grass, hibiscus, and stevia. The seller mentioned that it was good for aiding the digestive system, and helps to rid of acid reflex, heartburn and gas. It did taste good.

The very friendly Roots of Hawaii Tea stand. Photo by Coty Gonzales.

Kava Shots. Photo by Coty Gonzales.

At the very end of the lot, under a huge tent was Malie Kai Chocolates. I love chocolate, so again, I was surprised that I had never heard about this chocolatier. Their chocolates are made entirely from cacao beans that are grown on the North Shore. They had really nice packaging and of course, the chocolates tasted very rich. The only drawback was that these premium chocolates have a hefty price tag relative to the average Nestle chocolate bar. Then again, these are all Hawaii made organic chocolates. How can you not like that? After this event I had a new found appreciation for finely made chocolates.

The neat Malie Kai Chocolates table. Photo by Coty Gonzales.

Tiny Pineapples. Photo by Coty Gonzales.

Once I had my fill of samples from Malie Kai Chocolates, I made my way over to Ono Pops. Now, this was a vendor that I was 100% familiar with. I had tasted their product at one of the Eat The Street events last year. I remember their pops being super refreshing and very tasty. I wanted some. I ordered a Lilikoi 50/50 for myself and a Chinese Chocolate concoction (I can’t remember the real name, I think it was 6-spice Chinese Chocolate). Yep, my memory served me right. These pops were so delicious, especially on this particularly sunny day. And I finally found out why it’s called Lilikoi 50/50. It’s because they can’t use the trademarked term “creamsicle.” Instead, they went with the term “50/50″ which was used by an old and now defunct popsicle maker to describe their “creamsicle” like popsicles.