"hawaii" news and stories

Japanesse expats Mamoru Matsumoto and his wife Helen dreamed of opening their own business in Hawaii. It was a long, hard journey -- he started out peddling goods on a bicycle while Helen labored as a seamstress -- but it eventually happened. They opened their own grocery, M. Matsumoto Store Inc., in the historic town of Haleiwa in 1951. Following the birth of their three children, the couple decided it was time to expand. They settled on shave ice, which they believed would appeal to the growing number of hotrodders, surfers and hippies invading the North Shore. Their "snow cones" cascading with homemade syrups were instant hits, and the couple become local celebrities. They were living the American dream.

Following Mamoru's death in 1994, his son Stanley and wife Noriko took the reigns. This new guard ditched the groceries for T-shirts and souvenirs (to cater to the growing number of tourists), but kept the shave ice. And business is better than ever. Just ask Roxanne Lloyd, a loyal employee trusted to run the store on a day-to-day basis. We recently caught up with her to talk about shave ice and its many tangents, including David Hasselhoff, sumo wrestlers and the problem with paradise.

Read all about island girl Roxanne Lloyd and her frozen life after the jump.

Aloha, hot dog fans. Grab a lei and a mai tai, and get yourself in a Waikiki state of mind. This Hawaiian hot dog recipe, from blogger Rachel at coconut&lime is based on actual fruit-topped hot dogs that the birthplace of our president calls delicious. Mango, pineapple, red onion, jalapeño and lime juice create a chunky salsa for the topping, followed by a drizzle of spicy, vinegary jalapeño-lime sauce.

It's not your ballpark frank slathered with mustard from Yankee Stadium. And why would you want it to be when you're in the state of pineapples and mangoes? Got a regional frank recipe you want to shout out? Let us know in the Comments section.

Become a member of the Slashfood Flickr pool for a shot of having your photos featured in Feast Your Eyes.

The Wienermobile in Hawaii on July 5. Photo: hawaii/Flickr

One of our favorite bloggers, Jorge Garcia of "Lost," recently wrote a dispatch from the island about the Oscar Mayer Weinermobile washing up in Hawaii. Unfortunately, the orange-and-yellow hot-dog vehicle has upset some in the nation's 50th State.

An environmental group called the Outdoor Circle says the Wienermobile's visit violated a state ban on vehicular advertising, according to reports.

Bob Loy, the group's spokesman, told the Honolulu Advertiser that Outdoor Circle received about a dozen complaints from residents of Oahu about the 27-foot-long vehicle's visit.

"The Wienermobile is cute. It's got an attractive quality to it. I think anyone would agree with that, and that is part of the insidious nature of advertising," Loy told the paper. "It appears to be one thing, when in fact it's another."

Oscar Mayer isn't having it.

As we noted a couple of weeks ago, Ben and Jerry's recently sought to harness the idealistic fervor of Barack Obama's supporters by renaming their butter pecan ice cream "Yes, Pecan!" To the company's credit, it has agreed to donate all of the profits from the sale of this flavor to Common Cause, a voting advocacy group. While I am not a huge fan of Unilever, the current owners of Ben and Jerry's, and have numerous problems with the additives that started creeping into the ice cream after it sold out in 2000, I have to admit that this seems to be a well-intentioned (if transparently exploitative) move.

My cousin, Cathryn Michon, aka The Grrl Genius, is a great deal less cynical than me. Moreover, she has a definite skill when it comes to adding sweet ingredients to each other; consequently, I advise prefacing this recipe with a nice big shot of insulin. Enjoy!


Smoking Hot Fudge Barack Obama "Yes, Pecan!" Inaugural Sundae

Two Scoops of Ben and Jerry's "Yes, Pecan" ice cream (or any brand of butter pecan ice cream)
1/4 cup candied pecans
1/2 cup Godiva hot fudge (or brand of your choice)
1/2 cup whipped cream
1 George Washington honorary Maraschino cherry
1/4 ounce dark rum
Hawaiian orchid (for garnish)

Warm hot fudge according to package directions and pour over the ice cream. Place the pecans decoratively on the sides of the sundae and lay the decorative orchid at the base of the serving dish. Spoon on a generous serving of the whipped cream, creating a trough in the whipped cream that resembles the cone of a live Hawaiian volcano. Set the cherry in the trough and fill with dark rum. Set the rum on fire with either a long match or a butane lighter to symbolize our smoking hot new President and the sweet hope that will sustain us in all the days to come.

Serves one happy world citizen!

When it comes to food, I rarely turn down a dare. Whether the food in question is haggis or headcheese, tongue tacos or tortoise soup, I'm usually up for a challenge. Even so, there is one food that I have studiously avoided for my entire life.

Spam.

It's not that I'm opposed to processed meat. I've eaten more than my fair share of scrapple, pate, pon hoss, sausage, blood pudding, and other ground goodies. However, there's something about Spam that always turned me off. Maybe it was the 1950's-style ads on the old-fashioned can, or maybe it's the fact that the meat was just a little too pink. Regardless, I could never bring myself to give it a try.

Recently, however, amid reports of the growing popularity of the canned meat, I felt like the time had come to give it a try. After all, with some of America's top chefs using Spam in their cooking, my detachment started to seem a little provincial. Besides, the ingredients (pork shoulder, ham, water, sugar, salt, sodium nitrite, and potato starch) are a lot more natural than I might have thought, and the price is certainly attractive.

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