Gladys Knight loves Hawaii. And Hawaii loves her.

Knight rocked the Neal Blaisdell Arena this past Saturday at “The Rhythm of Romance 2” concert. As part of the second annual Hawaii Romance Festival, HAWAII Magazine was invited to hear the R&B superstar perform with the Matt Catingub Orchestra of Hawaii.

We were also serenaded by singing sensations Aaron Neville and American Idol’s Kimberly Locke. Even Hawaii’s own Na Hoku Hanohano music award winner, Fiji, romanced the crowd with a couple of songs.

Knight’s older brother and former Pip member, Merald “Bubba” Knight, made a brief appearance—bringing laughter with his jokes and his James Brown impersonation.

The three-hour concert inspired the audience to dance and sing along. The performers received several standing ovations. Of course, we had a great time.

If you missed it, check out Aaron singing “Everybody Plays The Fool” and Gladys singing “Midnight Train to Georgia,” minus the Pips.





The next Hawaii Romance Festival is tentatively scheduled for May 1 to 14, 2009.

For more romance, read our March/April 2008 HAWAII Magazine cover feature “Romance Hawaiian Style.” We’ve got stories about romantic adventures and love on the lava.

Need some romantic ideas? Check out our Top 5 Romantic Spots in Hawaii and the 8 Most Romantic Songs from Hawaii.

Photos and videos by Sherie Char

 

I love getting dim sum. If you like seeing food before you order it, there’s no better way to dine out.

And Mei Sum Chinese Dim Sum Restaurant is the place to have it when you’re in downtown Honolulu’s Chinatown district.

Carts of Hong-Kong-style dim sum are rolled around the restaurant right to your table. If you like what you see on the cart, just ask your server for it. Don’t like what you see? Wait for the next cart to come around. Instant gratification!

Going to a dim sum restaurant requires little prior experience or expertise in Chinese cuisine. If you’re unfamiliar with what’s on the cart, most restaurants have a menu with pictures and the names of each dish. If you’re still unsure about an entrée, you can always ask your server.

In addition to Mei Sum’s dim sum, you can also order entrées or starch dishes like noodles and fried rice. But most of the fun comes from checking out what’s on the carts.

We ordered pretty much everything we saw: from char siu bao (barbeque pork manapua), spareribs with black bean sauce, shrimp dumpling and shrimp pork hash (pictured above) to pot stickers, barbeque pork pastry and cold jellyfish (pictured to the right).

That’s right, cold jellyfish, which I was curious to taste. It was a bit chewy, and definitely an acquired taste.

A must-try though? The deep fried taro (pictured left).

The best thing about eating at Mei Sum is that it’s affordable. The price for each dim sum entrée depends on its category: small dishes will cost you $2.15, medium dishes are $2.55 and large dishes are $3.35.

Mei Sum is open for lunch, dinner or takeout. Reservations are highly recommended for large groups.

You’ll find Mei Sum at 65 N. Pauahi St. (on the corner of N. Pauahi and Smith St.). Call (808) 531-3268 for hours and more menu information.

  

Here’s something we're looking forward to. 

The 27th Annual Kapalua Wine & Food Festival will work its Maui magic from June 26-29 this year.

The three-day festival is presided over by Master Sommelier Fred Dame—who we enjoy for his genial wit, as well as his palate.

It kicks off Friday with chef demonstrations and a grand tasting with 100 wines, exceptional pupu and a Kapalua beachfront sunset. 

It ends Sunday with the Seafood Festival, a bounty of Island seafood, prepared by star chefs, with, of course, plenty of wines.

In between, there are tastings, cooking demonstrations, dinners and a guest appearance from Chef Frank Ostini, whose Hitching Post Restaurant had a starring role in the film Sideways.

Perhaps our favorite moment.  A seminar Sunday morning called “It’s Five O’Clock Somewhere,” featuring Bloody Mary recipes from the star sommeliers.  Perhaps the seminar should be called, “Hair of the Dog.”

If you love food, wine and Maui (and it’s a short list of people who don’t), you can make reservations here, or (888) 665-9160.
 

Couldn’t make it to Kokua Festival last month?

The entirety of festival co-founder and headliner Jack Johnson’s performance is now online at MSN Music’s IN CONCERT site.

Free.

The bad news? None of the much-buzzed-about set by Dave Matthews and Tim Reynolds, nor any other acts are included.

But you won’t have to endure long waits in line for organic cotton Kokua Fest shirts, pricey beer or veggie wraps. And Matthews and Reynolds make an appearance late in Johnson’s set on a cover of Jimmy Buffett’s “A Pirate Looks at 40.”

So make yourself a sandwich, pour a cold one and click here for Jack’s entire 23-song performance from the Waikiki Shell.

If you find yourself needing a break from all the mellowness, check out our on-the-scene posts from Kokua Festival 2008 here.

  

It’s not official just yet.

But Honolulu Mayor Mufi Hannemann, a couple of corporate sponsors and a whole lot of volunteers donating and stringing flowers crafted the world’s longest lei yesterday at May Day festivities in Waikiki.

The final length? 5,336 feet—or 56 feet over the mile-long goal the Mayor had set.

The event was documented for the folks at Guinness Book of World Records, who will, hopefully, make the world record official within the next few weeks. Overhead video from a news helicopter, photos, witness statements and the confirmation of not just one, but two notary publics will be sent to the book’s British publisher.

“When that helicopter is flying overhead, I want you to wave because that image is going to be seen around the world,” Mayor Hannemann instructed the crowd. The lei—which encircled much of Waikiki’s Kapiolani Park, at the foot of Diamond Head—was comprised of hundreds of yard-long segments of strung-together plumeria, orchid, hibiscus and other flowers.

Hannemann, the event’s de facto head cheerleader, seemed elated. “I’m very happy we’re going to be in the Guinness Book of World Records,” he said. “It’s another great cultural achievement for the people of Honolulu.”

After documentation, the crowd was allowed to take segments of the record-breaking lei with them as souvenirs.

Check out a video report on the event from Honolulu TV station KHNL here.
 

A mysterious package arrived for me at front desk. I felt like a mad scientist when I opened it and a fog rose from the Styrofoam box packed with dry ice. When the fog cleared, I saw five whole boxes of Mikawaya’s Mochi Ice Cream.

Mikawaya is based in Los Angeles, but mochi ice cream is a Hawaii favorite. It’s a perfect combination of textures: ice cream, still hard despite its journey across the Pacific, wrapped in soft mochi (Japanese sweet rice cake).
The frozen treat, available online and at many stores, comes in seven flavors: Mango, Strawberry, Vanilla, Kona Coffee, Chocolate, Red Bean and Green Tea (there's also a Taro Mochi, but it's seasonal and currently not available). Our favorites were strawberry and mango, a perfect afternoon treat.

If you want to be more adventurous with your dessert, you can also try this recipe.

Mango Mochi Ice Cream with Raspberry Sauce

1 box Mikawaya Mango Mochi Ice Cream

Raspberry Sauce:

1 (10 ounce) package frozen raspberries (thawed)

1/4 cup white sugar

2 Tablespoons cornstarch

2 Tablespoons water

In small saucepan, combine raspberries and sugar over medium heat. Cook until raspberries are broken down (about 10 minutes). In a separate bowl, mix cornstarch and water until combined.  When raspberries are broken down, slowly whisk in cornstarch mixture. Bring to boil and cook 3 minutes or until slightly thickened. Chill well.

Serve individual Mango Mochi Ice Cream on plate. Drizzle with Raspberry Sauce.


 

You may have heard that many of us here in Hawaii eat Spam.

Fried Spam, eggs and rice for breakfast. A Spam musubi before lunch. A spam musubi FOR lunch.

Guilty as charged.

In a state where every McDonald’s restaurant has a Spam breakfast platter on the menu, is it any wonder we put aside a day each year to celebrate our obsession with the canned pink luncheon meat from Austin, Minnesota?

Hawaii’s largest Spam festival, the Waikiki Spam Jam, makes its sixth-annual appearance Saturday, from 4 to 10 p.m. A good-sized portion of Waikiki’s main drag, Kalakaua Avenue, will shut down for the street festival. There’ll be a couple of entertainment stages. Merchandise booths will sell Spam T-shirts, sunglasses, dolls, straw hats and other paraphernalia. The winner of a Mr.-or-Ms. Spam beauty contest will get a year's supply of salty pork goodness.

And yes, Virginia, a dozen or so Honolulu restaurants are setting up food booths to sell Spam-enhanced culinary creations to the famished multitudes bound to show up.

You might ask, “Derek, I'm staying in Waikiki this weekend, should I go?” To that, I might answer, “If you’re not a vegan or on a low-cholesterol diet … why not?”

Spam folklore has it that Hawaii residents were introduced to the stuff during World War II when fresh meat was hard to come by in our isolated archipelago. Apparently, it was love at first bite. These days, it’s said we consume 7 percent of all Spam sold in the United States annually, and 16 times more Spam per capita than any other state. Pretty scary for a state with just a half-percent of the U.S. population.

Spam cookbooks abound, giving credence to fans who wax lyrical about the canned meat product’s limitless culinary applications. But most local folks—present company included—dig it most in a Spam musubi: a tasty, extremely portable snack consisting of a marinated slice of fried Spam snuggled in a block of sticky rice wrapped with dried seaweed.

(That’s a Spam musubi I enjoyed this morning, in the top photo.)

We’ve got more information on this weekend’s Waikiki Spam Jam here. But if you need a good laugh or proof that Spam-maker Hormel Food Corporation has a sense of humor about its much-maligned “mystery meat,” click here, and toss a query at the all-knowing “Book of Spam.”

And click here for a "How to Make a Spam Musubi" video we found on YouTube.

 

Perhaps you’ve heard the old hapa haole hula anthem, “May Day is ‘Lei Day’ in Hawaii.”

The song is still largely true. Each year on May 1, many residents statewide celebrate Hawaiian culture and island culture by attending music and hula shows, sporting their best aloha wear and wearing colorful floral lei.

But Honolulu politicos—Mayor Mufi Hannemann, most prominently—are hoping to prove May Day is indeed Lei Day this year with the construction of Guinness world-record-breaking floral lei in Waikiki’s Kapiolani Park. Minimum length? One mile when the string of flowers is finally tied together. 

Thousands of fresh flowers, hundreds of volunteers and two full days will be necessary to accomplish the task. And if you’re in town on May 1, you could participate in the world-record attempt as one of many residents and visitors holding the lei when the mayor connects the ends.

We’re thinking seriously cool photo op for the mayor (and you) here.

The city’s 81st annual Lei Day celebration in Kapiolani Park will also feature live music and hula, demonstrations and exhibits of Hawaiian craftmaking, and lots of colorful and fragrant lei for sale.

You’ll find a complete schedule of Lei Day celebration events here. More information about the city’s Lei Day celebration and Guinness world-record attempt is here.
  

One of the cooler things about my job is escaping the office on Oahu every couple of months, flying to one of the neighbor islands and getting to call what I do there work.

I’m on the island of Lanai this weekend, taking in some scenery, activities and food. You’ll see everything I collect while I'm here in future HawaiiMagazine.com Web posts and HAWAII Magazine articles.

For now, though, some photographic evidence of what I was up to on Friday.

Vog from Kilauea enveloped most of Hawaii on Friday, obscuring views of Oahu and Molokai on the morning flight to Lanai. The effect it had on the view of the manicured gardens at the Four Seasons Lodge at Koele when I checked in, however, was wonderfully dramatic.

A view of the island's only town, Lanai City, from a bluff above the Lodge at Koele. With just over 3,000 residents, a handful of businesses and comprised mainly of homes, it's not your classic definition of a "city." But you'll meet some of the friendliest people in Hawaii here.

I rented a Jeep 4x4  to explore the island's beaches for a future HAWAII Magazine feature. With only 30 miles of paved road on the island, Jeeps are pretty much the only rental available. Fortunately, they're the best way to see Lanai (other than on horseback, which I'm also doing a bit of this weekend for a HAWAII feature). This is a beach road on the island's north shore.

Polihua Beach, on Lanai's north side, is your reward after a lengthy and extremely bumpy drive down a single-lane Jeep trail. Stretching more than two miles, it's Lanai's longest white sand beach. It's also one of the island's most remote. On a typical late afternoon visit, you'll find about as many people exploring its breathtaking grandeur as you do in this photo.

My dinner after a long day of "work"—a meat lover's pizza at Pele's Other Garden in Lanai City. It's always a joy visiting owners Mark and Barbara Zigmond, and sampling their terrific homemade Italian entrees, pizzas, deli sandwiches and desserts. Great people. Must-have-food on Lanai. Check out Mark's must-read "My Corner of Paradise" feature in our Jan./Feb. 2008 issue.

 

Jack Johnson’s Kokua Festival wrapped up its second day of music Sunday night in Waikiki. As promised, here’s writer and Jack fan Jessica Ferracane’s fifth-row-from-the-stage view of Saturday’s sold-out show.

I’m at the Waikiki Shell for the first night of Kokua Festival 2008, standing in a line with about 150 people, trying to buy a $20 festival T-shirt.

The beer lines are far shorter, populated mainly by the boyfriends and husbands of the countless women in line with me. We’re missing Go Jimmy Go on stage. Tragic. But we boogie in place, inching our way towards the 100-percent-organic-cotton proof that we were here. 

Hawaiian singer and ukulele player Paula Fuga goes on stage next. There’s no way I’m missing Paula. So I take a last sip of my husband Steve’s $7.75 beer, leave him in the T-shirt line, and try to find our seats—just five rows back from the stage.

Paula’s soulful lyrics and rich vocals set the late afternoon vibrating with melody. At the end of her set, I scream, “Hana hou!” (Hawaiian for “one more time”) at the top of my lungs.

Steve, like Jack Johnson, is so far nowhere in sight.

When Dave Matthews walks out on stage, shrieking females rush back to their seats with full beers in one hand, veggie burritos in the other, purses bouncing off backsides.

The fans erupt in adulation when Dave opens with “Crazy." Tim Reynolds—his longtime friend and fellow musician extraordinaire—joins him. Dave’s raucous vocals, contagious energy and the duo’s genius guitar riffs soon have everyone on their feet.

It’s Matthews’ first gig at the Waikiki Shell (and in Hawaii), and he’s obviously moved.

“Everything about this festival has a great vibe. It’s beautiful,” Matthews says solemnly to the masses, his normally sarcastic humor put aside.

The crowd erupts again, flashing shaka signs and cameras. Even guys previously content to politely move their heads from side-to-side while their women shake it, shout back, “Aloha Dave!”

It’s all pretty cool.

Steve finally shows up—two T-shirts in hand, with another full beer. It’s too loud to ask where he’s been. And when Jack takes the stage I’m so star-struck I just grab Steve and sing every word to every song— “Better Together,” “Banana Pancakes,” and all those Jack tunes Steve likens to chick flicks. Still, I catch him singing from time to time, too.

Jack’s set stretches into the night for a gloriously long time. He eventually calls his friends on stage: Dave, Tim, Go Jimmy Go, Mason Jennings. But first, Paula Fuga takes the mike again and she and Jack sing “Country Road”—my personal anthem to drive with both hands on the wheel, and keep an eye on the other guy.

At the end of the show, there are more shaka signs and waves of applause. Everyone takes some time to pick up discarded biodegradable plastic beer cups and trash, and put it in the appropriate receptacle on the way out.

Mahalo for your "Kokua," Jack. See you next year!