You would think — with all the awareness campaigns, the mortality rates, the warnings on packagings even! — that people wouldn’t still be smoking.But they are. Droves of them, actually.According to Dr. Cynthia J. Goto, spokesperson for the Hawaii Tobacco Quitline,…
My morning routine typical starts off with two things: a Diet Coke and NBC’s “Today.”I enjoy waking up — or coming home from the beach — to the pairing of Matt Lauer and Meredith Vieira at the anchor desk. I learn something,…
You don’t have to tell me how expensive it is to eat out.I eat out at least four times a week — thought it was more, didn’t you? — and the cost adds up. A $3 burger here, a $7 plate lunch…
I’m a big fan of food on a stick.Hot dogs, teriyaki beef, chocolate-covered cheesecake — these things are meant to be skewered.So whenever a new yakitori-ya (Japanese restaurant that serves skewered foods, particularly chicken), I make a mental note to…
Every day we walk our dogs past our neighbor’s property and admire her flourishing tomato plants, which are jutting through the concrete wall and onto the sidewalk.Since we haven’t had much luck growing tomato plants — they last about as…
You’ve seen ’em, danging from the back bumpers of trucks, an obnoxious oversized pair of plastic testicles.Testicles. On the back bumper of a Toyota Tacoma next to a sticker that reads, “I love my wife,” just to re-emphasize the heterosexuality…
Water spouts off Kakaako. Hail on Maui. Flooding on Oahu. People trapped in elevators. Thunderstorms everywhere.That was some eventful evening last night, and forecasters say more severe weather is to come.But the worst part about last night’s storm was the…
Confused? Don’t be. This is my last week of blogging here. But check me out next week at The Cat Dish for more of my musings, noshing and adventures.Don’t get me wrong, I was up at midnight — along with 2…
The other day I was craving tomato soup.But I didn’t feel like fighting the crowd — OK, the parking — at Ala Moana Center for my favorite bowl at Nordstrom Cafe. And we were in the Makiki area. So we took…
Forty-three years ago, McDonald’s opened its first restaurant in Hawaii — in Aina Haina.Seems like a strange neighborhood to open the first McDonald’s — why not the higher traffic areas of Waikiki or Ala Moana Center? — but it quickly became an icon…
It’s no secret: I love rice.I can eat it plain, topped with furikake, paired with Spam and nori, smothered in brown gravy, and even with garlic salt.It’s the first thing I like to eat when I come home after a…
I never thought I would start a sentence this way — harking the lectures from my parents — but here goes:I remember when life was simpler — and cheaper.The cost for school lunch was 75 cents. A one-way bus fare was just a…
That was one of Ryan Suenaga’s last tweets, sent yesterday before he ran 4.95 miles and “felt alright.”He was more than just Hawaii’s best known Apple II geek. He was a social worker, an Athletic Diabetic, a runner, a biker,…
I must be getting older when I still refer to the site where Don Quijote sits on Kaheka Street at Daiei.And Daiei hasn’t been there since 2006.Worse yet, my mom — who’s turning 66 this summer — still calls it Holiday Mart.…
There are moments in life when you realize, ah, things have changed.I had that moment yesterday at the vending machine near my office.I had only brought enough change to buy a Diet Pepsi — the campus has a contract with Pepsi,…
Yesterday I had hiccups I just couldn’t get rid of.John Garcia, our Nonstop tech expert, thought if he stared at me, it would go away. It didn’t. But my bout with hiccups at our Nonstop meeting did spawn a discussion…
There was a time when at least once a year I went to Las Vegas.I saved up for the cheapest airfare I could find, crammed into a hotel room with three other friends, and budgeted my gambling and shopping money…
The last thing I want to think about today is taxes.I know the Internal Revenue Service has issued an extension, so technically taxes aren’t due until Monday.Still, April 15 sends electric shock down my spine.So I’ve decided, just for today,…
When I started blogging six years ago with the now defunct Honolulu Advertiser, I had no idea what I was doing.Actually, not many of us staff bloggers did.But for me, I didn’t have much direction. I was told I was…
Well, who knew Monday’s blog would be such a talker! But then again, I shouldn’t be surprised. Hawaii has changed so much over the past few decades, it’s easy to find something to miss. Longs Drugs Stores are now owned…
The other day, for whatever reason, I thought about Castle Park.It was Oahu’s version of Disneyland — complete with a castle. I remember spending weekends there, playing video games in the arcade — I was a big fan of Mappy —…
Hawaii has always had great restaurants attached to bowling alleys.Consider Kapiolani Coffee Shop in Kam Bowl. Or the restaurant in Bowling City, where my grandfather used to serve his popular tripe stew.And now there’s The Alley Restaurant in the renovated…
There’s really no one to blame by ourselves.Well, unless you want to blame the media for hyping all the things we ended up buying, sharing, quoting, storing, flaunting and raving about a decade (or more) ago.I was having lunch the…
There’s nothing better than spending money on both good food and a good cause.That’s what the annual Taste of Marukai is all about.The event, which runs from 6 to 9 p.m. Thursday at Marukai Wholesale Mart, will collect donations for…
You put a glass of wine and a plate of braised lamb shank in front of me, well, neither will last very long.So when Hoku’s, the award-winning restaurant at The Kahala Hotel and Resort, invited me to sample its wine…
Question: I am totally obsessed with the Royal Wedding!!! I am so glad you asked yesterday (in Monday’s blog)!!! I have a question for everyone else who is just as obsessed as me — or not: What is your marriage…
Get this: For $4,000, you can send your 8-year-old daughter to a princess boot camp — one of many that have sprung up prior to the April 29 nuptials of Prince Edward and Kate Middleton.One in particular gathers wannabe princesses at…
Last year my parents debated between Waioli Tea Room and Hanaki, both in Manoa, for our annual Christmas Eve dinner.Waioli won out for two reasons: 1) My mom had always wanted to eat there and 2) Hanaki, we had heard,…
I know, I know.It’s crowded, the lines are long, there’s not enough parking, trunks ran out of food.I got it.But there are ways to avoid these potential potholes if you heed some of my advice:• Go early. That’s the easiest…
Question: My mom is so hard to shop for. Every year we have the same problem: what do we get mom for her birthday, for Christmas and now for Mother’s Day. Any suggestions?Answer: I have the same problem! Except the…
Last year on my birthday I woke up with a pounding headache.At first I thought I had a migraine. Everything — the light outside, the noise from the TV, my dog licking my feet — was bothering me.I was in severe pain,…
It’s hard to believe — at least for me — but it’s been 10 years since I participated in the annual Cherry Blossom Festival in Hawaii.Ten years.It seems like only yesterday I was learning ikebana, hitting a taiko drum for the…
It was inevitable.My midweek jaunt to Kona was coming to an end.That meant is was back to work — not that I left that behind in Honolulu — household chores, morning traffic, crowded surf breaks, fast food and parking wars at…
One of the must-trys on my list of things to do in Kona was, literally, “Eat malassadas at Tex Drive In.”I had never been. And being such a malassada connoisseur — OK, not really, but I do love to eat them…
The other day I listened to two Honolulu foodies argue about the pork chops at the Manago Hotel.One preferred them with gravy; the other declared that practically blasphemy.So I decided to try it for myself.Yesterday, en route to Honaunau, we…
The last thing I needed this week was a mini vacation.I’ve got papers to grade, a website to build, freelance stories to finish and an event at Hawaii Theatre to organize this Saturday.Then again, maybe it was the perfect time…
When I first visited the fishpond in Heeia years ago, I couldn’t believe the work ahead.The hundreds-years-old fishpond located in Kaneohe was overgrown with mangrove, an introduced plant whose roots grow into the wall and loosen the rocks and corals.…
The other day I got an e-mail from tech-geek extraordinaire Ryan Ozawa, asking if I’d like to attend a foodie meet-up at Side Street Inn.He said one of the hosts of the wildly popular podcast “The Sporkful” — Mark Garrison — was…
Question: Dr. Dish, my company has a policy that we cannot drink while at work events. But what about at networking mixers at bars and nightclubs? Technically it is not a work event.Answer: Thanks for the question! It’s a good…
I couldn’t stop watching CNN and checking online blogs on Thursday, the day a 8.9-magnitude earthquake rocked Tokyo and caused a deadly 13-foot tsunami that destroyed coastal cities in Northern Japan.We didn’t know the impact of both disasters until the…
