Category Archives: Food

Learning the ways of the pineapple

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A couple of years ago, friends in Kaaawa gave me a ripe pineapple. It was a birthday present, as I recall. It had been grown in a pot in their back yard. It was beautiful, and it came with instructions for using it to grow another generation.

The process was straightforward. I was told to twist the crown off from rest of the pineapple before cutting it up to eat. The crown was then set aside to dry for a few days, then placed in water for a couple of weeks until it started to grow tiny roots. At that point, I could plant it in its own pot, find a place with lots of sun, keep it watered, and wait for a couple of years to enjoy the result.

In July, the “child” of that original gift pineapple was ready to harvest! It was the sweetest pineapple we’ve had in many years, perhaps ever! And, repeating the process, it’s crown was replanted and is now growing in the back yard. That’s current pineapple #1.

Then I were given another almost-ripe pineapple for my birthday in August. It’s been ripening in the sun for several months. But after watching it turning several stages of yellow, I finally harvested it several days ago. Yesterday afternoon I cut it up and it’s in a bowl in the refrigerator, ready to eat.

And it’s top is now waiting to sprout roots and be replanted. It will be current pineapple #2.

But there’s more. This year’s gift pineapple developed a small keiki that was attached to its stalk when I removed the ripe pineapple. You can see it in this photo after I removed the ripe pineapple.

So I followed my friend’s advice, carefully twisted it off of the stalk, and then removed a few leaves at its base to reveal where the roots will hopefully sprout. This makes current pineapple #3!

So now I’ve got two pineapples that will be ready to plant in a couple of weeks.

I now have one pressing question. These plants like full sun, as much as possible. I had them in a spot that got the most sun during the summer, but as winter approaches, it’s in shadow by 3 p.m. or so. It looks like I’ll have to study morning and afternoon sun patterns to find a spot out in the back lawn that hopefully gets a couple of hours a day more sunlight. I can’t put them in the front yard, because I think they might get stolen if visible to anyone walking past on the street.

For research purposes, I just took photos showing the sun in the back yard about 3:30 pm Sunday afternoon. I’ll take a few more this morning, and look for the spot with the most sun for the longest time. Then once they’re planted, I’ll be ready to move all three pots out into the sunny spot.

My mother grew sugar cane in the back yard for several years when I was growing up so that we would understand a bit more about Hawaii’s sugar industry, now long gone. But I don’t remember her ever growing a pineapple. So here’s one for you, mom!

Shrinkage

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[See the note at the bottom of this post.]

Auwe, Diamond Bakery!

I was standing in line at the Kahala Long’s store last weekend and spotted a display of soda crackers at what appeared to be a good sale price. So I grabbed a box and tossed it into the cart with the other items.

It was only later that I realized I had not been shopping defensively enough and had been tricked!

Although the new box looked at first glance like the standard Diamond Bakery soda cracker box, but it was actually much smaller. That became clear when seen side-by-side with the older box already in our pantry.

The old box contained 8 packages of crackers with a total weight of 13 ounces. The new box boasts the same 8 packages, but it weighs only 8.5 ounces.

The difference is that the new crackers are significantly smaller than the traditional Diamond Bakery soda crackers, as you can see in the photos below.

There was no indication on the box that the contents were not the traditional Diamond Bakery crackers, but rather a new, mini version that weighs 35% less than the crackers sold up until now.

Is the company doing to its soda crackers what it previously did to saloon pilots? Passing off a small, inferior version as a suitable replacement for the traditional cracker?

I truly hope not. Just raise the price, don’t wreck the product.

**Note: One of the first comments received added new and important information. Tracy wrote:

Aloha Ian! I think you’re comparing two completely different items. The soda crackers are the larger box and larger cracker but the second one is lightly SALTED soda crackers which were always smaller than the soda crackers.

So I’ll be off to the store to check this out!

Another night of fine dining…

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…in our room, that is.

In part because the company is quite pleasant, in part because wine is much less expensive in our room than in any restaurant.

Tonight it was a meal from Mucca Pizzeria, just a few short blocks way. We discovered Mucca several trips ago, and found that their food is very good.

We ordered online, which uses Clover, a familiar processing system. The order was predicted to be ready in 20 minutes, and I walked over to pick it up. Luckily, the heavy rain and thunderstorms that had been forecast did not materialize, although the weather was quite threatening, and gusty wind funneled between buildings made holding the umbrella a challenge. Luckily, walking on the beach with an umbrella back home was good training for this outing.

And the food was very good. A Caesar salad and pizza, Salsiccia e Funghi (Italian Sausage ~ Seasonal Mushrooms ~ Tomato Sauce ~ Mama Lil’s Peppers ~ Mozzarella). Salad was very good, pizza outstanding.

We’re ready for our flights home later today.

Party on!

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I don’t remember my parents hosting large parties, but apparently they did just that during the first decade of their marriage (they were married in December 1939).

Once they bought their house in 1942, friends gathered in the back yard to cook on the brick BBQ, and play volleyball (or sometimes badminton) using a net that could be easily set up and removed for storage. Permanent footings were buried in the lawn, so they just had to bring the poles out, drop them into the two footings, and string the net between them.

My recollection is that my parents rarely drank alcohol, except when they had guests. And, it seems, more guests meant more aclohol, at least according to this recipe in my mother’s handwriting for a rather potent sounding mix, “Scorpions for 20 people.”

It called for a gallon of oke (referring to Hawaiian okolehao), which might have been more accessible during WWII than commercial whiskey, along with slices of fruit and fruit juice, with the explicit instruction to “let stand for at least 48 hours.”

No, I’ve never tested the recipe.