Kupuna Hula Fest - Hawaii Island Festival

As part of the 30 days of Aloha celebration, the Hawaii Island Festival is proud to extend its warm Aloha the whole month of October in a celebration of the history, culture, food, dance and sports throughout Hawaii island.

One of the most popular sold-out events is the Kupuna Hula Festival held at the Sheraton Kona resort and spa at Keauhou. The three day event starts on Wednesday Sept 11th and continues through the 13th. The highlight is the Kupuna hula and competition (seniors over the age of 55). Some of Hawaii Island’s most experienced and talented kupuna or elder hula dancers will perform at 5:00 p.m. at this event. This year's theme is titled Noho Ali`i Ka Lani or "The Heaven Reigns Above." For the compeition each halau (hula school) will choose a song that incorporates natural elements including: the heavens, sky; stars, moon, wind; air, or clouds.

Along with the Kupuna Hula Festival at the Sheraton Keauhou, there will be a local arts and crafts fair every day of the festival from 8-4pm.

For information call (808) 323-4340 or visit http://www.hawaiiislandfestival.org/ purchase tickets for the September 11- 13th shows.

Mealani's Taste of the Hawaiian Range 2013

It's almost that time again with Mealani's Taste of the Hawaiian Range at the Hilton Waikoloa Village, it's a foodie extravaganza that you don't want to miss. Coming up this October 4th, this annual event showcases the isle’s grass-fed beef industry while bringing together local ranchers, farmers, restaurateurs and eager eaters to celebrate a bounty of locally produced food.

Over 30 of the state’s top chefs dazzle diners 6-8 p.m. with delectable dishes using grass-fed beef, pork, lamb, goat, mutton and wild boar—plus a cornucopia of fresh island fruit, veggies, honey, spices and beverages.

Culinary adventure seekers can taste and enjoy all the cuts of grass-fed beef—everything from tongue to tail—prepared expertly by Hawai‘i chefs. Enjoy familiar cuts like sirloin tip and ribs, plus beef cheek and the infamous “rocky mountain oysters” or bull testicles. While “tasting,” festival goers can meet Hawai‘i’s food producers at gaily decorated vendor booths and talk story with the ranchers and farmers who make a living growing our food. Taste also affords local food producers the opportunity to hookup with isle chefs, wholesale buyers and consumers.

Here is a post from last seasons event showing some of the most delicious bites from the evening. If this years Taste of the Hawaiian Range is anything like last, you'll want to come early to sample some of the most amazing dishes from the top chefs in Hawaii. For more information and to purchase tickets directly, visit their website here.

First Fridays in Hilo

First Fridays in Hilo are really a fun event in town, considering....

     that Hilo is usually a sleepy place after 8pm, but look -
                 *** everyone is out and enjoying the evening,

                                    entertainment
                                                and of course
                                                        the food trucks


 

Lots of great choices - the food vendors were lined up by the bandstand....it's great to have a fun venue to check out all the ono (delicious) foods in one spot.

       How about some wood fired pizzas?





I just love watching  food actually cooking by a fire, don't you?






I had to try some of the meat on a stick from Mister 'D', it was pretty good and the sauce - finger lickin' good BBQ!










Mr. D giving the shaka (hang loose) Hawaiian style...








You have to try these in Hilo, they are not just ice snow cones, they are flaky soft snow globes, almost like soft flaky sorbet....This one below is liliquoi (passionfruit) with Li Hing Mui topping, also ono!







Walking around was an interesting parade of quirky, corny but fun, hey it's Hilo anything goes and the entertainment is free.



There's always a dog dressed up for the party, don't ya love the polka dots?





Everyone is into yoga here in Hawaii....of course there's always the 'Latest' trend and this time it's called Acro-Yoga (self explanatory)










Lots of art galleries open with all the new work from local artists on display - some good, some strange....I actually like the street graffiti that's just starting.

 

 




This one was free standing....I think it's made of jelly bean, want to sample?







More acrobatics, but this time the adult version...anyone want a free lesson?





Okay time to stick to G-rating, lots of families out for First Fridays, here's a little circus performance just for the kids....

Gotta take some of these home for breakfast, lunch and dinner - Hawaiian mangoes are oh soooooo gooood...

 
 
 
 
 
 

 

 Lets check out the bandstand, there's always some cool and funky local bands playing, besides I like watching the crazy people dance in the dance floor!

 

 

 

 

 

 

That's it nights over, it was fun, my friend Atma and I had fun at First Fridays and bumping into so many friends. That's Hilo, a friendly small town in Hawaii, just the way we like it!

Hurricane Flossie on its way and we celebrate with Hula

 

 

In Hawaii, it's rare to get hurricanes to come to Hawaii and on the occasion that they do become something, it usually gets quite devastating. But the majority of the time, the two large mountains of Mauna Loa and Mauna Kea creates enough buffer to change the directions and minimize the impact to the Big Island. In spite of recent updates and hurricane advisories, our hula group still decided to still gather have our hula and luau in Wailoa park on a spectular sunny day in Hilo.

 

 

On such a nice sunny and blue sky day, how can you cancel anything on this beautiful Sunday - besides it's the calm weather before the storm and it was quite a gorgeous day and celebration. The dancers start to filter in and put their prepared specialties for the typical Hawaiian pot luck lunch.

 

 

 

 

 

 

First, we pule (pray) and ask for blessings before the feast and dancing gets started....okay everyone, let's dig in, and what a spread there was with all the good local kine food! Every dish tasted ono (tasty) and everyone kept going back for seconds including some amazing desserts.

 

Placing fresh flowers on the head of Alakai sister, Darline and celebrating her visit back to Hilo.

 

Under the direction of our kumu Iwalani Woo O'Brien, who teaches at the Kamana, Keaau and Pahoa community centers, each class gathered for the first time and danced together as a group ensemble. Crank up da music, we are all ready to get started.


 


Iwalani showing us how to pick up those fresh blooming puas (flowers)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Before everyone started to fall asleep or take naps, the music started up and everyone jump to the floor sans flip flops and started to sway to some old favorite tunes that Iwalani taught all three classes to perform. I chose to sit out to take some pictures and video for the party so I could post these later on this blog.





Beautiful aloha smiles and expressions.

 

 

Of course the late afternoon light was just perfect along the Wailoa river to go some group shots, it took a little bit of direction but I finally got everyone in order and here is the final shot - smile everyone!

Here's the final picture with beautiful light and gorgeous hula sisters and just us two kanes (guys)

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Not a bad day to hang out at Wailoa park, enjoy some good food, friendship and dance a shared hulas together. No worries about hurricane Flossie today, the weather is perfect before the storm.





 

Big Island Mango Season

Fresh mangoes for sale at farmers markets.

Mango Season in Hawaii

There is nothing like mangoes when they are in season in Hawaii. When the trees are loaded with mangoes, it’s a great time to start asking your friends if you can pick some or find some of the wild trees in secret spots that give the juiciest mangoes all for the taking.
Surprisingly mangoes in East Hawaii are not as successfully grown compared to the west side of the island which has perfect sunny weather unlike the wetter side of the island. The dry west side fosters larger, delicious fruit and better volumes for sale at various markets. Mango season usually starts seeing fruits at the farmers markets or local fruit stand from June until October timeframe with the peak occurring towards the earlier part of the season.

Continue story - http://travelphotodiscovery.com/mango-season-in-hawaii/

A Korean Feast in East Hawaii

A Korean feast in store overlooking Keaukaha bay


There's no shortage of cuisine that our international food group hasn't covered from around the globe. Even though our island lacks many of the wonderful cuisines of the world, it's great that food groups like ours can experiment and share our cooking discoveries with our monthly themed events.

This month we are discovering Korean cooking and the many different and exotic dishes that our cooking group is presenting today, come join us. Usually we start off our get-together with pupus (small plates) or in Korean, they are called banchan. Usually the banchan covers an assortment of 2- 10 small side dishes in which kimchee is the most well known and popular offered at every meal.


Would you like to try some of these delicious offerings, some marinated quail eggs and pickled vegetables?





One of the most popular was this baked potstickers or mandu, these dumplings were filled with avocados with a soyu based sauce. It didn't take too long for this banchan appetizer to be devoured quickly.







Some of the members were already starving and couldn't help themselves to taking a quick bite.





Prior to our big feast, it's our tradition to have a quick discussion of the dish we prepared with the main ingredients and the cooking process. The crowd was pretty hungry at this point so the explanations went rather fast so we could chow down right away. All right, it's finally time to dig in, everyone get in line and lets get started.  Let's see what are the main offerings for our luncheon





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First up, marinated chicken wings and drumsticks in a sticky sweet and sour marinade.





Next we have some fried green onions in a light batter and a soyu sesame glaze sauce - who wants to try?





How about some succulent pork belly with pickled onions and wrapped in lettuce like a Korean burrito.




This savory Korean noodle dish called chapchae are delicious and made with sweet potato noodles which surprisingly is not that sweet, but the noodle is quite flavorful and spicy with all the sauce that it absorbs.






You can't have a Korean meal without some marinated barbecue and this beef barbecue was melt-in-our mouth perfect and oh so good!





Another barbeque with sesame chicken to be wrapped with fresh lettuce below.




What did I bring you may ask? I'm presenting a fried tofu dish with spicy bell pepper and eggplant in a mild sweet and sour sauce. Would you like to sample some, there's enough to go around.

Koreans usually don't partake in dessert but our group absolutely insists! The dessert offerings were amazing and to die for - very different from typical Asian sweets or desserts. Our first delicious dessert that were these wrapped persimmons with walnuts called gotgamssam, have just one bite and you just might want to eat the whole plate.

Oh so flaky and flavorful manju or baked sweet pastry, this one was filled with a sweet bean and lilikoi (passionfruit) paste.




This is a fun and social group, we even had a slippah fashion show after the luncheon and a few made it out to the gorgeous lagoon for a quick and refreshing dip, it's all for fun and enjoying the day out by the ocean.

 

 

View out to the bay with many little inlets from the dining pavilion at Keaukaha park.  

 

 

  Delicious Korean food, good wine and the company of friends that love to cook, what a fantastic end to our cooking event by the ocean in East Hawaii.

 

©Noel Morata, All rights reserved


Come and visit my photography travel website at http://travelphotodiscovery.com/
 

A drive along the Puna coastline.

It's been awhile since I've gone out to enjoy a beautiful day outside, I know you would think living in Hawaii that you would want to be outdoors everyday.  That's very true, but its also easy to get distracted by daily chores, Internet activities and other distractions that occur daily.

But waking up early and seeing the sky so clear and blue has induced me to spend a little time outdoors.....

                         somewhere by the ocean - heading out to take a nice drive along the coastline in the Puna district.


            I love driving under these tree canopies covering the roadway along the Red Road in Puna....its so lush!

 
                  ~ what do you think - gorgeous right?



Driving along there are some peek-a-boo views to the ocean and secret bays - stopping to enjoy the amazing views like this one below....

 
 

 

 

 Its a great drive and the breezes coming from the ocean are soooo nice against my face.

            

It's pleasant enough to just sit and enjoy the view, watch the surfers and look at different shades of blue ocean around the bay - the Wind is kicking up and creating a surfing frenzy....




 



 Even the skies are brilliant today, with Puffy clouds over head...dreamy....

Glad I took the drive and enjoyed a few hours outdoors - isn't this what its all about in paradise?


©Noel Morata, All rights reserved