Chinatown Finds - 03/06/2016

Here's a collections of the food finds in Chinatown over the past few months.

These were available during the Autumn Moon Festival.  I was attracted to the evil shape it had.. I did some research and found that you have to boil them well since the water these things grow in could have bacteria that can get you sick.  I was hesitant to try it, but I did.  

The white meat inside was not crunchy like a water chestnut. It was like eating a grainy potato (hmm.. maybe I boiled them too long).  Cracking it required a nut cracker as the shell is super hard.

One day, I heard these ladies talking about these kumquats.  I've only had those from crack seed store, but not fresh ones.  The lady said you can eat the skin and all and it's very sweet.  So I bought a bag of them.  I think for about $2/lb.

She was right. It was sweet, but not really juicy.  Kind of remind me of this Yuzu candy I tried.  I ate a soft one, thinking it would be sweeter.. then i realized it had WORMS inside!!  I ate the rest, but made sure to look really good for worms.

I have no idea what this is.  I took a pic of it hoping I'd be able to google to one day find its name.

My strangest find.. This is a cacao. The guy told me it was $3 each.  It was very intriguing.

I read about the fleshy meat inside so we cut it open and surprisingly, it wasn't too hard to cut it open.

As with other fruit finds, I googled 'is it safe to eat raw cacao'  and it mentioned it wasn't too safe to eat them. I read that ingesting too many of it has the effects of LSD. Animals in the wild don't eat this, or those that live long don't. I was really hesitant to even try.

I did try a piece. It was kinda sour and had a tangy taste.  It wasn't too tasty and was hard to get the meat off so we gave up.

We cleaned off the seed.

The shell was kinda cool though.

I had all this leftover seeds, I read that for making cocoa.you have to ferment it. So I put it in a paper bag for a week. It started to turn a brown cocoa like color but it had a nasty smell though.

I'm sure I did that previous step wrong since it was still wet, but I figure why not try and bake it to roast it.  It turned dark brown, but was still goopy.

I cut it open to see what it looks like. I was not even going to attempt to try to taste it.  It smelled roasted, but still had a sorta bad smell.

It's been a few months.  Although the cacao experiment didn't turn out well, I still have the dried shell and it turned out pretty really cool. I still have the cleaned seed. Perhaps I'd plant it to see if it'd sprout.

Sogetsu Hawaii Luncheon - 02/27/2016

I was invited to the Sogetsu Hawaii Luncheon held at the Ala Moana Hotel. I had no idea about the lighting but I figure w/ the high ISO of my new Canon 6D, it wouldn't be a problem. I was able to shoot most, if not all of these at ISO 1600! This is awesome since it would be so grainy w/ my 50D. I didn't need flash at all and I was using the 24-105mm with max aperture at F4.5 so it wasn't a low light lens. I think the lighting of the stage  and I had front row seat so those factors helped a lot. The sensei used a wide range of flowers.

It's a balancing act to keep the branches from falling as well as keeping with the design.

There's this mixed media arrangement made w/ an Itoen Green Tea can.

The finale was this huge arrangement.  I think she said the leafy branch was mock orange.  I think I only knew the name of one of the flower used in all of her arrangements.

Lechon -- 02/06/2016

Last week was the Chinatown festival on Maunakea street.  I spotted this unusual roast and it smelled great!  I didn't have time and had to leave so I didn't get to find out what it was.

Then today, they had another Chinatown Festival at the Chinese Cultural Plaza and there it was again. I got a closer look.. it was just like the Chinese roast pork, except it's boneless. 

I took a pic of the sign.. Lechon. I googled and found that "Lechón is a pork dish in several regions of the world, most specifically Spain and its former colonial possessions throughout the world. The word lechón originated from the Spanish term lechón, referring to a suckling pig that is roasted".  But also, I found that it's Filipino-style boiled and deep fried pork belly.

They had just started the BBQ. It looks like it'll take a while to roast over this small fire.

There'll be another festival at the Chinese Cultural Plaza next Saturday and Sunday and hopefully, I'll find better parking so I have time to give this a try.

New Year Ohana Festival - 01/10/2016

This year's Ohaha Festival at the Japanese Cultural Center seems a bit more crowded. There was a large tent filled with people at the Moilili Field where the entertainment was so it was hard to photograph. I try to go every year to see the pounding mochi and Taiko performance.  This year gave me another chance to practice with my camera.  

Canon 6D - 01/07/2016

Happy New Year! It's been a while. Finally, I am able to post some test shots I took with my Christmas present to myself:  my very first full frame camera, the Canon 6D. I got a pretty good deal from Amazon that included a 24-105mm lens, a camera bag, SD card, and non-canon rechargable battery (I'm hesitant to use them since I worry about it causing damage to my camera). I'm still getting used to it learning how to change the settings since it's way different from my 50D. Here are my test shots. The full frame is makes everything looks so wide now. I know I'm losing the distance end but wow! the wide is pretty cool. I had to do some distortion correction w/ PSE because the building wall was slanted.

Here's one I did not fix.. I used my 16-35mm and it looks like I was using a fisheye.

I always had a hard time with the 50D under the dark streetlights in Waikiki.. I took a walk during the last street festival and the high ISO was pretty amazing too. I shot this at 2300 ISO.  I did make some small adjustments to remove yellowing in PSE but there is very little noise.

Again this was shot with the 16mm and the bldg looked pretty cool with the wide shot.  I really like the upgrade I FINALLY made.  My 2016 new year resolution:. find more time to shoot with my new 6D.

2015 Honolulu Marathon - 12/13/2015

Wow..It's been 5 months since i last posted? I finally decided to get a new lens (and a new camera..that's for later). I decided to try it out for the Marathon today. It was HOT with very little wind.  According to the news there were some 22,000 who raced today.  Every year, I meet my friend at the finish line and I usually get there just before 9am.  
With the 24-105mm lens, I didn't have to get too close to the shower area with the finish line banner in the back ground.  

This year they seem to have new venues.

There's usually a huge balloon above finisher T-shirt tent.

All of the winners have finished way before I get there.

This year, there's a new large TV screen that plays the video of the finish line.  What's cool is that this is a 30 minute delay so after you finish, as you head to get your shirt, you can watch yourself cross the finish line.   A lot of people had gathered there to take pic w/ their cell phone and cheer for their runners..

The Japanese tour companies have large tents and venues just for their participants.

Finishers can pick up some refreshments.  I think this is the first time I've seen bagels being offered.  

For as long as I've been to the marathon, they've always offered runners malasadas.. it smells really good.. and often times I've wanted to walk up to get one too.

The production of malasadas is serious business.. there is a production line under the tent with people prepping the malasadas.

There are hundreds of them already shaped and ready to be fried..

In recent years, there has been increase security.  When I first started going to the marathon, I was able to get to the finish line to see people cross, but now, it's been fenced off to all, except local traffic. I also saw a police w/ a dog at the finish area and definitely more police presence.

As I walked home I finally got a chance to read these signs I saw someone put up a few days ago. There is certainly more security since the Boston Marathon incident.  My friend finished the race in 4:14:22 and we were happy to see him at the designate meeting place as he was happy to see us having finished the race.  All in all, it was a good day, and good shooting w/ my new lens.