Recently in Metablog
I'm in the middle of a series of software upgrades for the site. Things will be broken off and on until the dust settles. Hopefully for both of us, the dust will settle soon.
Turns out jet lag is a pain, and a lot of Life need catching up on when we returned from the mainland. The trip was great: we saw old friends, ate good food and my talks were well-received. Maʻona sat neglected throughout.
The longer I break from writing, the harder it is to start again. I atrophy. Topics that couldn't wait a few short weeks ago now sit ignored and stagnate with each passing day.
Ideas, like good sourdough, need to be stirred up and fed to keep bubbling. Also like sourdough, writing inspirations tend to grow out of control if nursed, expanding and spilling over the edge of the bowl in a gooey puddle that has to be cleaned quickly before anyone else comes home and makes snide remarks about how Alan has made a mess of the kitchen again.
Hmm, took that metaphor a bit too far, I 'spose.
In short, it's time to talk food again.
I'm off for two weeks on business travel mixed with a few speaking engagements. Most likely, things will be quiet around here until I'm back on Oahu. Meanwhile, I leave you with snapshots from today's thunderbirds performance over Waikiki. A hui hou.
Restaurants
If money and time were no object, I'd visit each new restaurant three or more times prior to reviewing them here on māʻona. More often, reviews are based on just a single visit (who knows when I'll ever make it back again) because I think I've found something worth sharing. Reviews based on a single visit will be identified so that you can take them with a large boulder of salt.
Books
As the visibility of this site has grown, publishers have from time to time sent me books in the hopes that I'll review them. Many bloggers see this as a conflict of interest and an obligation to write. I'm under no such compunction. If the book is good, I may say a few words. If it's not, I doubt I'll make the time. There are enough out there worth reading to waste time documenting the ones that aren't. Unless of course the book truly sucks, in which case I may take out my wrath on the author, the publisher, on the trees that became its pages and the mail carrier for bringing it to darken my door.
There are many more books that I'm hoping to review simply because I love them. I've bought these books with my own money, read them, studied them and used them as research. Food is an experience, but books help us understand, interpret and appreciate it through new eyes.
Negative reviews
Rarely will I write a negative review of a restaurant, especially based on a single visit. If my disdain is misguided, then it'd be unfair of me to be too harsh. If others share my dislike, then the subjects will slowly wither even without my critique. My focus instead is on places you really should experience; food to celebrate and savor.
I will however share flaws in a restaurant as I see them. Every place has their weaknesses and maybe my own experiences can help you avoid specific problems at an otherwise worthy restaurant.
Life is too short to waste your time and mine on sub-par restaurants when there are so many excellent examples to discover.
Full Disclosure
I promise to be completely upfront with you about any possible conflicts of interest. If I have personal connections to a restaurants, I'll say so. If a book has been sent to me for review, I'll make sure that's clear. In truth, I think I'm harsher in those cases because I'm so conscious not to play favorites. You be the judge.
Fellow bloggers
The focus of māʻona is food in Hawaiʻi, and I have no problems giving link love to other bloggers in and from these islands. Although we've never met, we share a common bond. There are many, many other excellent food writers out there whom I'm tempted to link, but I keep coming back to the core focus: food here in Hawaiʻi. I hope you come to love it as much as I do.
Three new food blogs have popped up on Oahu. When I say "new" what I really mean is "new to me." All three have been eating, cooking and writing for months already.
→ Cheap Places to Eat in Oahu Hawaii
Cheap Oahu eats served with a side of attitude. The author moved here earlier this year yet already she's hit most of the best known places and many smaller, off-the-beaten path locations. This post changed where I'll be eating breakfast today.
→ Journey of a Foodnista
Jenny mixes up recipes of her own (dyed, molded eggs anyone?) with reports on local restaurants. Her Lilikoi Chiffon Squares provoked Pavlovian drooling when I read about them.
→ LocoKineGrindz: Where Hawaii Comes to Eat
Dale's LocoKineGrindz site is done in the style of a blog, but aspires to become a resource for "detailed reviews of the local restaurants and dining establishments in Hawaii." Yesterday, he dined on lobster at Hoku's.
And finally, Reid at ʻOnokinegrindz has decided to take a break. Reid was one of the first Hawaii food bloggers and has remained one of the most prolific, attracting devoted readers from around the globe with this down-to-earth writing style. Seriously, if you're looking for an authority on affordable restaurants in Hawaii, you'll find no better resource than his archives.
All three of these blogs have been around for a while. Two are authored by transplants to Japan, while the third is right here in Honolulu. All three are actively writing and worth a look:
- Adventures in Bentomaking You read that right, an entire blog devoted to bentos. Pikko chronicles her many, many bentos in loving detail. Some are simple, pulled together from leftovers. Others are works of art. The tastiest looking bento so far: Fried Ahi Poke
- Our Adventures in Japan Kat is both personable and prolific, posting thirty-five times in the month of May! One recent post introduced me to something entirely new: Myogazushi
- Hwn Pake in Okinawa "Chinese from Hawaii working in Okinawa," a good mix of local recipes and Okinawan treats. Best ode to mayonnaise: Best Food Mayonnaise
The ranks of Hawaii food bloggers continue to grow. Check the sidebar to the right for a comprehensive list of every site I've found. Each of us focus on slightly different topics, but all have some thread connecting us to these islands we call home.
Both have been around a while, but are now also included in my list of Hawaiian food blogs (here and abroad). I'm attempting to assemble a comprehensive list, so please let me know if I've missed anyone.
→ On My Plate "Maui Built," Creen now resides in Daly City, CA where she writes about hole-in-the-wall finds and meals from her own kitchen.
→ Lunch Time Grinds Where were Jane and Pia when I lived downtown? She is on a mission to discover the best lunch options in Honolulu's city core, interspersed with recipes and info about local food.
I leave you with poetry from Lunch Time Grinds...
Ode to the lilikoiSmooth round golden globes
Cut open dripping with juice and orange-yellow pulp
Black crunchy seeds
Sweeter than candy
Like sunshine on a summer day
There are four recent additions to the Hawaii Foodblogs sidebar. Never noticed it? It's on Maʻona homepage, down a bit to the right. None of the additions are new sites, but I've just been neglectful about keeping my list current. I'm going to step out on a limb and assume that, because you're reading this site, you'd have an interest in all the sites listed there, not just these recent adds:
→ HawaiiDiner.com has been writing about food for a lot longer than I have, but I haven't included it before now because the site is so hard to categorize. Take two parts online magazine, one part blog, one part social activism, shake vigorously then garnish with the best damn podcast in the islands. Ahh, that goes down nicely.
→ The Tasty Island Pomai writes about local eateries with the familiarity of someone born and raised. Reading his reviews, I'm building a long list of places I've driven by but never tried. This is the kind of site you should bookmark for every time someone asks, "Where should we go to lunch?"
→ Sonia Tastes Hawaii shares recipes from her home on the Big Island, where she has run a bed and breakfast, cooking school and published a cook book! The recipes on the site are an intriguing mix of cultures, combining her diverse experience, Cuban heritage and local ingredients.
→ Lindy's Ono Recipes is cookbook author of a different sort, choosing to share her recipes serially on color-coded recipe cards. Check her out for dishes crafted for local tastes yet that can be appreciated by anyone who loves ʻono food.
Reading the sites above, I realize I'm out of my league--and I like it. When I'm the novice in a group, there's all the opportunity in the world to learn.
Some months are better forgotten. The last six weeks have been a rollercoaster ride: my sister's wedding, a 90th birthday bash for Dzia Dzia, several weeks on the mainland sleeping on someone else's pillow, a strategic shift at work, a new employee to train and a move from Liliha to Palolo Valley. We survived, and even enjoyed the time, but schedules were disrupted and with them, the easy rhythm of writing.
This blog was the main casualty. Days then weeks passed where there was neither space nor energy to write. The more time that passed, the harder it became to start up again. Like something from Little Shop of Horrors, maona called out, "Feed me!" as it grew larger and more oppressive. Life is too short to stress about a hobby, so I let go and relaxed. The blog could wait. I'd start writing again when I was ready. Someday.
Yesterday was the kind of weather that brings people to vacation in Hawaii. Blue skies, fluffy clouds, warm temperatures, but with a gentle trade wind to stir the air. It was the perfect day for a trip to the Saturday Farmer's Market at KCC.
Walking among the aisles, I remembered everything I like about this market. It's a bustling but friendly place, with just the right mix of high-end and down-home. Do you want to buy the same Nalo Farms mixed greens featured on the best menus in Honolulu? Check. A batch of fresh lumpia? Got that, too. Joan Namkoong was there, autographing copies of her new book, Food Lover's Guide to Honolulu and generally being charming. Everywhere I turned, it was about good, fresh food.
And that's when the spark struck. Food is my mistress, and I love letting people in on the details of our affair. Saturday morning at KCC stirred up that enjoyment again and got the creative juices flowing. Already I've got dozens of ideas bouncing around my head, clambering to see the light of day.
I'm back.
One year ago today, this modest venture called Ma`ona launched. My "voice" has changed over the prior twelve months, gaining small measures of confidence with each passing month. When I started, I felt like a very small fish in a big sea. well aware that everyone else knew more and said it better! Since then, I've come to recognize that, although my words still stumble and I have too much to learn, I have my own little niche: food in Hawaii. That doesn't make me a better writer, but it gives me focus.
Where have I focused in the past year? My luau series has been running almost since the start, with the poke and laulau posts receiving the most attention. I've started reviewing restaurants in Hawaii, and still have a long, long way to go before I can consider myself an authority. But do you want to know which post is by far the most popular, receiving triple the traffic of the nearest runner up? How to cut pineapple like a local. If you haven't already, you should check that one out.
And so now I find myself at a natural place to re-evaluate whether or not to continue this time sink of mine. The answer is a resounding yes. It has made me a better cook and, dare I say, a better person. I have new ideas on the horizon to improve the site, including a big announcement tomorrow. The future is bright indeed.
There is one favor I'd like to ask before I turn in. I really have no idea who reads this site, despite evidence that there are a good number of you from around the world. Please, whether you comment regularly, lurk unseen or are stopping by for the first time-- leave a brief comment to this post so that I can learn a little more about who you all are. Even if you would never dream in a million years of leaving a comment, humor me just this one time.
Mahalo nui loa.
Oh where, oh where has my little blog gone?
Oh where, oh where can he be?
With his tales cut short and his absence quite long,
Oh where, oh where can he be?
- with apologies to Septimus Winner
After returning from the holidays, I've had to hit the ground running at work. As if that weren't bad enough, my laptop has gone belly up and needs to be professionally resuscitated. Bring on the defibrillator! I don't think I've lost anything vital, but it's cramping my style.
Do not, I repeat, do NOT click this link unless you can afford to have an hour or more of your day disappear in the blink of an eye as you become engrossed in food glorious food. Browsing the category comments for nominees is one of the best ways to put your finger on the pulse of food bloggers around the globe and find a few of its shining stars.
Update 12/8: I just noticed that "Fran", whomever and whereever you are, has nominated Ma`ona in the Best New Blog category. I don't think I have a prayer of even making it to the short list of category finalists against such stiff competition, but I'm touched nonetheless. Thanks Fran!
I've just upgraded the MovableType install running this site, and am running into minor wrinkles along the way. Hopefully the dust will settle soon and I'll be able to pay attention to writing rather than debugging. If you happen to notice any problems, please let me know by mailing alan at this domain. Thanks!
It turns out that I suck at juggling a busy life and writing for this site. There's no shortage of material--I have a backlog of half-written posts and notes on napkins longer than my arm--but at the end of the day there's no energy left to polish and publish. My expectations for posting frequency are being adjusted by a healthy slap of reality.
If there was one moment recently that gave me energy to write again, it was last weekend. A handful of us pulled chairs into a small circle in a hotel lobby, drinking beer late in to the night while listening to Jeff Veen of Adaptive Path hold court. Jeff and my paths cross once every year, yet I never fail to glean new inspiration and understanding from him each time.
Last week's topic du jour was the soon-to-be-released Measure Map. As a food blogger, let me state unequivocally that this service represents a big step forward in how we comprehend the relationships of a blog to the Rest of the World. Where most (all?) other stats programs focus on things like site "pageviews" and browser market share, Measure Map attempts to lend insight into the particular microcosm of blogging. It looks at relationships between visitors, links, comments and posts then helps identify trends and anomalies.
Do you write a blog and sometimes wonder if you're spewing words into a relative vacuum? Measure Map helps identify exactly how people are interacting with your writing. Even if your blog is enormously popular, would you like to know which topics create an unusual buzz? Measure Map is a perfect fit. It closes the feedback loop in ways that no one previously has been able to. That excites me. Not only that, but the interface is slick, using tons of careful planning and Ajax to anticipate common tasks and make them natural.
I've already submitted a request to be part of the early rollout, but I guess my annual handshaking with Jeff doesn't give me enough juice to join quite yet. I'm trying hard to be patient, but this is cool.
I'm back from Moloka`i and online once again.
 Halawa Valley |
 St Francis Church, Kalaupapa |
 View of Lana`i from Moloka`i |
 Sunset in Kalaupapa |
The photos are a bit offtopic for a food blog but hey-- it's my blog, my rules. Besides, isn't Moloka`i stunning?
We're off! This is the first vacation in five years during which I will have neither laptop nor cell phone. First stop, Kaua'i, then on to Hawai'i before finishing on Maui. See you in a week!
Mā'ona is Hawaiian for the condition of being satisfied from eating. It is both the action of eating one's fill and the state of bliss that follows. This site isn't about gluttony; far from it! It's about savoring the simple pleasures of food, whether prepared by myself or someone else.
Let's back up and start at the beginning. I was born in Texas, raised in the San Francisco Bay Area and since marrying that pretty lady in the photo, have lived in Wisconsin, British Columbia, Vietnam, Michigan and now Hawai'i. I share this not to catatog past residences, but to note that we are not Hawaiian, either by ancestry or birthplace. We are strangers in a strange land, seeing everything with the freshness of a child's eyes. A big part of this food blog is me exploring the culinary traditions of our new home. To really know and appreciate a place, you must steep yourself thoroughly in it. For me, food is one vital avenue for the learning process. Food combines cultural values, local ingredients, language and history all in one edible package. What's not to like about that?
I'm not limiting myself to just writing about things Hawaiian though. I love food too much for that, so I'll be dipping into whatever strikes my fancy: wine, food politics, restaurants, etc. -- sometimes irreverant, sometimes awestruck, usually with hidden typos despite my best efforts.
As much as I enjoy preparing and writing for this site, it comes second to both family and work. My work projects can be quite bursty, resulting in a sadly unpredictable posting schedule. Posts come when I have the mental reserves to write them, and in between I store up a list of new ideas as long as my arm.
I reserve the right to go back and modify old posts or delete comments for any reason whatsoever. In practice, both are rare. I try diligently to be fair, clear, entertaining and accessible. I try to strip some of the mystery from cooking, and to explain not only what happens, but why you should care. YMMV.
If you're brand new to mā'ona, you might enjoy a few of my favorite posts so far:
- The very first post: There's no such thing as a free lunch
- Pineapples for the masses! How to cut pineapple like a local
- A celebratory meal, almost missed, Valentines at Alan Wong's: A Dinner Drama in Four Acts
- Addictive, but legal? Moloka`i Hot Bread from Kanemitsu Bakery
Enjoy your visit!
Alan
alan@maona.net
Honolulu, Hawaii
I've been meaning to write an About page for mā'ona since the beginning, but could never quite find time to get to it. This post at Food Blog S'cool is what finally got me off my butt.
Last week was bad for technology. My laptop went belly up and moments later my workstation's hard drive failed. I went to take a photo of the carnage and my camera informed me it needed a visit to the manufacturer's emergency room for a firmware transplant. Considering that I telecommute, I should be bothered by how little the two computer failures bothered me. Computers fail, as surely as the proverbial death and taxes. When a workstation fails, I swap in a replacement and keep going without much remorse. My camera though... to pack it up and send it off was like hacking off a limb and shipping it away.
It'll be at least three weeks until I get that body part back. In the meanwhile, posts may be heavy on text and light on the eye candy.
