AlohaTiki

New post over on the Bibliotiki

2012-01-25T18:10:00.001-08:00

Got a new book review up on the BT. Hope for one a month, so far so good.

Knitting organizer

2012-01-21T15:19:00.000-08:00

So I decided in November that I needed a more portable hobby then sewing. I then saw this book full of cuteness and decided I needed to learn how to knit.

I got some books and dvds from the library and picked up some basics but if I am going to make a knit hot dog I would need more help. So I have signed up for a 4 class series on how to knit which will start in a few weeks. Wish me luck.

In the meantime my sister decided to focus more on crochet then knitting and mailed me her old needles. Great but now I was amassing a whole bunch of knitting supplies and no way to corral them all besides dumping them in a bag.

I then saw this on a craft blog and thought that might help.

I love my hula girl fabric, I bought it like 4 years ago to make curtains for my tiki room but then decided that it was too busy. So now I have like 5 yards of it and was happy I could finally use it for something.

I'm pretty happy with how the organizer turned out even though I messed up the ribbon instructions but now I need to make a bigger bag to hold it and all my yarn.

San Diego

2012-01-02T17:08:00.000-08:00

We had been thinking about going to San Diego for a while now and then Southwest had a sale and we were able to score $35 tickets so that sealed it. It was just a short trip, fly in on a Saturday and leave the Monday night.

When we arrived we didn't really have much of a plan so headed up to Encinitas and went to the beach there and then wandered around the town. During a stop for coffee my husband was told "cool look bro" as he exited the bathroom. We aren't sure why. For dinner we went to Pokez Mexican food. They had some good veg and vegan options. I had some great mushroom and tofu enchiladas but my husband strangely went for the chimichanga and wasn't really into it.

We checked into out hotel and noticed there was some swank hotel and bar across the street called the Pearl so we headed over there and had a drink.

The next day we took it easy in the morning then went to Ocean Beach for food. My husband had the acai bowl at an outdoor drive thru coffee place called Tiki Ports and I had some seitan and tempeh tacos from a liquor store for a $1 called Liticker's. They were damn good and we need to go back there.

We walked out to the beach and around the town.

After some lukewarm coffee and hot chocolate we then went to the Maritime Museum but didn't realize it was the parade of christmas lights on boats so parking was a challenge and the area was way more crowded then it should of been. We got to go on 3 different boats and saw the Captain Cook/Gauguin/ Melville exhibit which was full of great stuff.

By now it was time for our dinner reservation at the Bali Hai. It has bee there since the 1950's. We got a good table with a view of the water. Loved all the tiki carvings and neat lamps around the place. We each got drinks in the Mr. Bali Hai and Goof mug which we brought home with us. The food was good and I would love to go back. Here is a great blog post about 2 artists who worked on the restoration of Mr. Bali Hai.

Near the Bali Hai is another tiki hot spot called Trader Mort's which is a liquor store with tikis in and in front of it.

The next day we woke up to pouring rain and loud upstairs neighbors (just like home) so we weren't off to a good start. Then lunch at a vegan fast food place was "difficult" due to various reasons I care not to recall. Then we went in search of an umbrella and once we paid our $10 for it, it stopped raining. We got some free parking in Balboa Park and tried to restart our day. Went to the Museum of Man which is a neat old building. Saw lots of skulls and mummies and old things. We then wandered around the park a bit and saw the cactus garden and the botanical garden for about 1 min before they closed.

Our flight was soonish and we wanted dinner sort of close so went to a swank Mexican place where my husband had a well needed drink and I had some great tortilla soup.

Made it back home without fuss. I would go back to San Diego but maybe when the weather is better so we could get more beach time in more.

View the photos here.

Christmas Eve Cavatelli

2011-12-26T20:26:00.000-08:00

For some reason this Christmas I decided I needed some homemade pasta. I had been wanting to try to make some cavatelli for a few years now. My grandma use to make it and I loved it. I had it at her sister's restaurant a while back and realized I forgot about it. My grandma also called it "gavadills" which I guess is the Southern Italian term.

While looking for a recipe I found there are a few different varieties. Seems the actual Italians make it with just flour and water and the Italian Americans make it it with ricotta and eggs. Though my mother just emailed me her recipe and her is flour and eggs and oil.

I went with Lidia's recipe since I was in North Beach and easily found durum wheat flour.

It was insanely easy to whip up. Just flour and water.

I used a local brand of flour.

I tried a few different methods for forming them. Some with my 3 fingers and some with a metal scraper. Some I did tiny some I did with 6 fingers.

They cooked up quick. They were good but not awesome. I might try this recipe again and make them 6 fingers since that would be fast. Going to see how my moms turn out and then maybe try her recipe next time.

This is going to start a new tradition with us, pasta for Christmas eve and the tofurky and veg on Christmas. It appeases both our palates, and gives me an excuse to make fresh pasta at least once a year.

Since it was christmas eve we also watched It's A Wonderful Life, a fave of mine. I loved this twitter version of IAWL, so true, so true.

Moms cookies 2011

2011-12-18T09:45:00.001-08:00

moms cookies 2011, a photo by AlohaTiki on Flickr.

Always a highlight of the christmas holiday, my mom's cookies.

This years selection includes a lemon bar, chocoloate pepperment, biscotti, chocolate/coffee, hersey kiss ball, cherry cookie and pizzelle.

Need to lock them in a suitcase but too busy eating them.

New Bibliotiki review!

2011-11-25T14:53:00.001-08:00

Hey! It's a new post on the Bibliotiki!

New Mexico - Days 6 & 7

2011-10-04T14:06:00.000-07:00

I woke up feeling less like I ate an entire wheel of cheese and ready to face the day. We found a great place to go for lunch. Counter Culture Cafe. I had a cheese free Mediterranean plate, which was excellent. Afterwards we went to the Plaza to take in the sights.

The old Cathedral was very pretty, then we went to the Palace of the Governor's and the New Mexico History Museums. The Palace of the Governor's is the oldest public building in the US. I actually like the New Mexico History museum better. I liked their women's exhibit and general exhibit of the settling of New Mexico.

By now it was dinner time and since we were in the plaza we had to go eat at the Shed. I once again had enchiladas and Mr. Tiki the burrito. He had a prickly pear marghertia and I had sangria. We loved that the food came with garlic bread. Everything was very good. Super cute old building as well.

After dinner walked around the plaza some more and went to the oldest hotel there, La Fonda. I was loving the lobby. Had some great art work, beautiful light fixtures and many neat little details. Reminded me of a Southwest version of the Royal Hawaiian in Oahu.

Once we left the hotel we wandered some more and saw the old Mission and the old house in the US.

Day 7 was our last day. Had lunch again at the Counter Culture. I had the salmon burger and their haystack fries were awesome.

We decided to drive the Turquoise Trail back to Albuquerque which was scenic. Stopped in a tiny ghost town of Madrid for some iced coffee and a look around. Also hit some thrift stores on the way back.

Made it to Albuquerque with time to spare before our flight so decided to do one last visit to the Frontier. I had a red chile burger and Mr. Tiki had the tortilla soup which was really good. It seemed fitting that the Frontier was our first and last place to eat at.

We had a great time in New Mexico despite not wanting to look at another enchilada again.

All the photos are here and here.

New Mexico - Day 5

2011-10-02T14:41:00.000-07:00

This was to be our longest driving day since we would be going from Carlsbad to Santa Fe. We started the day off going to the Living Desert Zoo and State Park. It was super close to our hotel so took no time to get there.

It was pretty empty so it felt like we had the whole zoo to ourselves. Also empty in animals for we found quite a few exhibits vacant. Did see a bald eagle, javalina and the state bird the Roadrunner. I believe all the animals where rescued from some unfortunate situation so some of them looked a little worse for wear.

After the zoo we went to Artesia for lunch and ate the buffet at a Mexican place that looks like time forgot it, in a good way. I got super excited to see on the dessert table, pudding with vanilla wafers but was bummed to see it was banana pudding. My mom use to make this great vanilla pudding with the nilla wafers that was always a big hit. Mr. Tiki did like all the retro desserts from his youth.

We then hit Roswell again where Mr. Tiki got sucked up by hundred of records at the Salvation Army. Once I freed him our next stop was Cline's Corner, the mother of all rest stops. It was like a full town.

We finally got to Santa Fe around 7pm and went straight to Tomasita's for dinner. This is the site of my beginning of veganism. I had the blue corn cheese enchiladas and Mr. Tiki had the tamales and a taco. All was good and the sopapillas were excellent but I felt like hell after the dinner due to dairy overload. We walked around for a while then I got reacquainted with my old friends Pepto and Bismal.

photo set here.

New Mexico- Day 4

2011-10-01T15:04:00.000-07:00

As we headed out of Roswell we of course had to visit the International UFO museum, for surely there we would see aliens.

I did think the street lights in downtown Roswell were pretty adorable.

The museum starts off with clippings of the incident then moves to alien art then some first hand acconts and finishes with some movie references.

Display wise, I wasn't that impressed with this museum but I did like the recreated alien scene complete with timed flashing lights and fake smoke.

We were pretty restrained in the gift shop except for the alien postcards we sent our parents.

Then it was time to head towards the Carlsbad Caverns.

We got there later in the day and the drive into the park was scenic. I made us go on the audio tour since we couldn't do a ranger lead tour.

We entered by the natural enterance, which I think took 1 1/2 hours then you reach the former cafe which was very cool looking but they don't use it anymore. Then we walked around the Big Room.

We finished all that by 6pm and knew we wanted to see the bats at 7:30 and luckily made it to the real cafe with only 15mins to spare to get some food, otherwise we would of been eating the power bar and warm water we had in the car.

Did dicover this incredible cherry beverage in their cafe.

I guess New Mexico hasn't had a lot of rain so this has cut down on the insect population which the bats eat. Normally there are 500,000 bats but we probably only saw 3000. It was still cool.

We loved the Caverns, they were very cool and turned out to be a highlight of the trip.

Here is a link to the Carlsbad Photoset, warning, it has like 100 photos it in.

Happy Anniversary!

2011-09-29T21:58:00.000-07:00

Mr. Tiki had gotten back very late from LA which made for a slow start on the day of our anniversary. We had brunch then decided to do something low key like go to the new antique mall. They had some great stuff and when we had made our way around most of the store I saw this lamp and stopped.

I have been wanting a vintage lamp for years but never could commit, but this lamp was different. I kept going back to it then made Mr. Tiki come over and have a look.

"Buy it," he says without hesitation.

And so we did. Took it straight to the lamp store to get some things fixed. Which we were incredible proud of ourselves so it didn't end up as another item on the to do list. Mr. Yuri did a great job and told us we paid a fair price.

Brought it home today and have it set up temporarily set up in the bibliotiki until we can sort out the living room.

The back of the lamp is stamped "1951 Reglor" and thank you google, found out it was a company from California. Now realize I have been seeing their lamps for years. It has so many neat details like the seaweed on top of the shade (not original), to the bubbled plexi glass.

We love this lamp and will always remember it as our 8 year anniversary lamp.

New Mexico- Day 3

2011-09-26T20:49:00.001-07:00

Driving to Roswell., a photo by AlohaTiki on Flickr.

After a late start hunting around for a book store that turned out to be not so awesome we where on the road to Roswell. I had heard there wasn't much traffic in New Mexico and the photo above was pretty much what we saw the whole way to Roswell.

Stopped at a very nice and clean rest area which some interesting art.

Upon entering Roswell, kinda disappointed it wasn't more "alien." Seems like only the fast food places really embraced the UFO weirdness.

We found a decent Mexican restaurant right next to our hotel so figured that would be easy and then large margaritas could be involved. Food was fine though we were drowning in calabacitas.

New Mexico- Day 2

2011-09-15T18:43:00.000-07:00

We started our day with the breakfast buffet then headed off to the Petroglyph National Monument. We wanted to have an earlier start since the hike would be more pleasant before it got too hot. But being on vacation, an early start is sometimes hard to come by. They have a few different hiking trails with various degrees of difficulty. We did the 3 easy ones that are all near each other.

The first one was the most challenging because you walk up hill. The second hike was about 5 mins long, just in a circle and the last one took maybe 15mins. Here are some petroglyphs that we saw:

After our hike we headed out to the Old Town in Albuquerque for lunch. Went to an old lunch counter at Duran's Pharmacy. Mr. Tiki was excited to get a special which was smoothered sopapillas with mashed potatos on top of them then covered in red and green chile. I had blue corn enchiladas, mainly red chile. Our chile wasn't very spicey which disappointed Mr. Tiki but both were good.

We then drove into the Old Town proper and walked around. Saw the old church, some stores and had samples at the Candy Lady. Then we went to the Rattlesnake Museum. A little pricey but was neat. Saw some live snakes. I loved all the snake ephemera. Mr. Tiki went nuts over the snaked themed comic books. And for some reason this label of Indian Beer has found a place in my heart.

They had a film about crocodiles which was nice to watch in the a/c since I think I was still hot from walking around. Did learn a lot about crocodiles .

We then headed off in search of coffee. Went to Satellite in Nob Hill. I had an amazing Iced Mexican coffee which I wanted to go back for another but never managed to. Walked around the stores for a bit then went in search of some other record/book/thrift stores. I must stay, New Mexico doesn't seem to want to sell me anything for my tiki collection. I have never bought so little on a trip. Thought we didn't go to the antique malls which they have many of there.

We had dinner at the Flying Star, which I was excited about but it was just ok. Mr. Tiki had some strange Asian noodle dish and I had a hummus plate. I was just happy it wasn't covered in chile or cheese.

To end the evening we wanted to go to the only tiki bar in New Mexico, Burt's Tiki Lounge. We also knew we wanted to go early since we had a feeling the shithead quotation for downtown increases as the night goes on. We got there a little before they opened at 8:30pm so we walked around and got to see the cool old art deco theater, the Kimo.

We went back to Burt's at like 8:35 and were the only people there for a while. We got some drinks and they weren't bad. The decor was kitschy and some tiki. It is more of a rocker bar with a some tiki thrown in. They did serve their drinks in actual tiki mugs so that gets some points. The booths were nice too. While I wanted to stay for the Turbonegro cover band there was no way I would make it to 2am so went back to the hotel after this action packed day.

To view more photos click here.

New Mexico- Day 1

2011-09-08T22:25:00.000-07:00

Mr. Tiki's birthday was coming up and we were trying to figure out what to do for it. We had a voucher and an unused flight on Southwest. We had talked of wanting to go to New Mexico and eat the chiles. We know a suprising number of people with New Mexican ties so we had folks to ask for advise. So we booked our tickets and I checked out ever guidebook from the Library so we were ready to go.

One thing that suprised us what that people kept thinking we were going to Mexico. Does no one know where this state is?

We flew on the actual day of Mr. Tiki's birthday so I gave him my last Southwest drink voucher, because I am nice like that. He had a bloody mary. We landed in Albuquerque and soon wound up in the longest car rental line I've been in. After getting an upsell (god I hate that) we were off. Our pricier car did have one feature that made it worth it. You could start it without being in it and it turns the a/c to high. So that was great not to have to get in a blazing hot car when it was a 103 out.

Our first stop, food! Our friend from New Mexico loves this student place called the Frontier. It was huge. Like 3 or 4 big rooms. I believe the place is from 1971 and very kitchy. I got the enchiladas with red sauce and Mr. Tiki got the burrito with green chiles. Both were very good. Mr. Tiki was feeling those green chiles for many hours later. We also encountered our first New Mexican sopapilla, which looked like a toritilla to me. You put honey on it and I swear it is good. When we were in Wyoming years ago we were served sopapillas but there were differnet, more like fry bread so this tortilla thing was not what we were expecting.

After eating dinner at 4pm we wandered around. Went to some book and record stores. At one record store I saw this head that looked like the goof for the Bali Hai in San Diego, I am not sure though.

After all this excitement we went to check in to our hotel. We stayed at the Hyatt Place by the airport. After our wonderful stay at the Hyatt in Seattle for my birthday, we joined their points program and now are trying to get a free stay. This Hyatt Place was our cheapest hotel of our trip ($79) and the nicest place we stayed. It look just like the website. We swam in the outdoor pool, Mr. Tiki got a free birthday drink at their bar, liked the heatlhy breakfast buffet and enjoyed our daily Wall Street Journal.

Ricotta gnocchi

2011-08-15T18:58:00.001-07:00

Ricotta gnocchi, a photo by AlohaTiki on Flickr.

This is something that sounds impressive that you made but was so easy that an untrained monkey could do it.

Came out pretty good, I didn't add as much salt as the recipe called for, which I would do next time and go with a red sauce. I made a pesto for this.

Found the recipe here. Also would try whole wheat flour next time.

Cooked.

Day off

2011-07-31T11:41:00.000-07:00

Mr. Tiki and I finally took a much needed day off. The plan was to drive to Santa Cruz and go to the boardwalk. But along the way we got sidetracked.

We first stopped at the new bakery, Devil's Teeth in outer Sunset for some coffee, donut muffin and breakfast sandwich. It was foggy in San Francisco but was hoping to see the sun at some point today.

Started driving down Highway 1, and saw the sun for about 5 mins. Oh well, at least we could see the ocean.

Our first roadside stop was Half Moon Bay where I picked up a book for the Bibliotiki for 25% off so that was nice. And found some other titles to add to the reading list. Also hit the rebuilt Cunha's grocery store. Was there a long time ago with my folks before their fire.

We then drove down to Pescadero to have lunch at the tourist trap Duarte's Tavern which has been there forever. We actually had a great meal there. Cream of artichoke and green chili soup, crab sandwich, Mexican coleslaw and olallieberry pie. I was loving the inside of the restaurant. Didn't realize they had a lunch counter, would of totally of wanted to sit there. Also liked the cork like walls of the back room.

Link to Duarte's Diner, Dives and Drive In episode.

We then started towards Santa Cruz but decided to stop at the Ano Nuevo State Park. Mr. Tiki had hear about their elephant seals. We did the 3 mile walk and saw some seals laying on the beach. It isn't really the season they are there. We talked to the park ranger who said the island had an old Victorian house on it that has seal lions living on every floor. I would love to see photos of that.

After the park we then headed to Santa Cruz. Got to Hula's tiki bar and grill while the happy hour was still on and had mai tais. I always like looking at their glass case of mugs.

Wandered around for awhile, got another book for the Bibliotiki then went and had dinner at Saturn. For some reason vegan nachos and mac and cheese sounded good to me. The danger of the booze.

Afterwards, we headed home leaving the boardwalk for another day.

New Desk!

2011-06-13T15:42:00.000-07:00

I am feeling very Goldilocks about the desks in my life. First I had a huge Ikea desk which I loved cause it was big and great for cutting fabric but it was too big and only had 1 tiny drawer. Then I had tiny Ikea desk, as you see it had no drawers which helped me downsize but was hard to keep things organized. Plus it was too tiny for cutting fabric.

This weekend I walked into a fave vintage store in the Mission and saw they where having 50% off. Saw this desk straight off and debated it, emailed photo to Mr. Tiki then called Mr. Tiki to measure the tiki room and see if it was as cool as I though.

It was just right! So I bought it 5 mins later.

I like the inside stamp but not sure who the "by" stamp is. Harris? Look at these drawers, so much space and shelves on the side for more books and tiki mugs.

Love that I can stash all the electronics which can kill the tiki room vibe.

Sewing

2011-05-18T15:22:00.000-07:00

It has been a drought of sewing for me these last few years. I think the last thing I made was this penguin in early 2008! With my new years resolution to sew again and my ban on buying new fabric until I did, I finally have made not one but 2 new purses.

Let me back up. I started on a purse in September that I was going to take on our October 2010 trip to Oahu. I didn't have a pattern and after I cut the fabric and laid out out, soon realized it was not the purse that I hoped for. I tossed it in a corner discouraged.

Fast forward to April 2011, I am on the Internet bookmarking yet another sewing website and realized I have become a craft poser. I decide to make a small bag with a pattern I bought off of etsy. I use fabric I don't care about because I know I am rusty. How rusty, well I first put the zipper in upside down and backwards. I rip it out. Then I just put it in upside down. I finish the purse and find that the lining is on the outside and the outside of the bag is on the inside. Awesome! Well at least I made something. I plan on keeping this purse around to remind me what happens when you don't craft in 3 years.

So now warmed up, I find a better pattern in Seams to Me for a taxi bag. I use some fabric I bought in Japan. I wimp out on making my own bias tape because I would actually like this project to be done in this century. It goes pretty well. I wish I would of made the pocket smaller or made it in sections because it is a bit floppy. The purse is bigger then I though but worked great on a recent plane flight where I had the whole thing stuffed with food.

While making this bag, I find that a nearby sewing store has new Hello Kitty fabric. I would soon be going to a birthday party of a friend who also loves Hello Kitty so then I decided she needs a Hello Kitty bag as her birthday gift.

So I whip out another one, which of course goes much quicker. I like her bag though the lining seems a little floppy. Maybe because the fabric is really thin. I am not sure what I could do about it. Maybe use light interfacing on it? I love the big yellow button, even if I at first put it off center and had to resew it.

I am feeling pretty good now that I have actually made 2 bags. I would totally make this bag again only I would shrink the pattern down by 1/2 because I like a smaller bag for non commuting days. Not sure what (or when) I will make next but I have a new blade for my rotary cutter and am now allowed to buy fabric again, so sky's the limit.

Seattle 2011

2011-04-28T12:30:00.001-07:00

For my February birthday this year I decided I wanted to go to Seattle. I had never been there and have always wanted to go. Mr. Tiki was having a hard time with my low key vacation idea but quickly came around.

I booked a swank hotel which we have fallen completely inlove with, the Hyatt at Olive 8. We left on a Wednesday and flew on Virgin America, which we had never flown before. It was a pleasant experience. We then took the new train from the Seattle airport into downtown. Only $2.50! It was snowing a little when we got in, which was a nice change for us and luckily we brought warm clothes and boots. Only had about 2 blocks to walk from the train station to the hotel. The hotel is new and very swank.

We were a little hungry so we hit the late night happy hour at the Asian place, Dragonfish, next to our hotel, which wasn't bad.

The next day we were suppose to see some friends but the weather wasn't very good so we rain checked. We decided to have a lazy day. We went to Blue C revolving sushi for lunch. It was fun. What isn't to love about food on a conveyor belt. Then we wandered around downtown for a little bit and took in a matinee. After the movie we walked to Top Pot donuts for coffee and donuts. It was in a cool old building and the donuts where very good. I liked you could see the monorail go by.

For dinner we where going to walk to Capital Hill but it proved to be too far and cold so as luck would have it, I realized the iphone gave us bum directions but there was Habesha Ethiopian restaurant a few feet away. It was cozy place and the food was good. Though I ate so much we hit the hotel health club later.

The next day we visited the wonderful pool area at the hotel. Really nice locker room and a huge hot tub. We made a point of trying to swim or hot tub every day.

Since it was my birthday today we went out for breakfast. Mr. Tiki found us a great little cafe in Belltown called Bang Bang. Their vegan chipotle mac and cheese was incredible. I also had a frittata and Mr. Tiki had a breakfast burrito. All was good and filling.

We then walked to Pacific Science center to see Ultimate Wave Tahiti, a 3D surfing movie I had been trying to see for a year. I then went to the top of the Space needle but left Mr. Tiki in the Starbucks since he isn't a fan of heights. It was a crisp, clear day though super freezing on top of the needle.

Afterwards we walked around the Queen Anne neighborhood then bussed to Belltown to go to a record store. As luck would have it there was a tiki bar called the Lava Lounge across the street. So I had a birthday porter at 3 in the afternoon! It was a nice tiki bar with lots to look at. We then went back to hotel to rest and where surprised with a bottle of sparking wine and a box of chocolates! WOW! Very cool, made us love the hotel even more.

For dinner we bussed up to Capital Hill and went to the Elysian Brewing Company for dinner. I had a good burger but passed on beer. We then went to the bookstores and other stores nearby. A friend texted that we needed to go to Molly Moon's for ice cream, even though it was like 30 outside. The ice cream was really good. We walked back to the hotel and hit the hot tub. Since we had this bottle of sparking wine we needed something to go with so we ordered up room service. Got some local cheese and a salad. All really good. Have never ordered room service before, dangerous to know.

The next day we had a small breakfast at Sweet Iron Waffles, very tasty then went to check out Pike's Place. I wanted to hit the Chukar Cherries stall where they were generous with their free samples. I bought a bunch of different bags and now am hooked.

In the afternoon our friends came to pick up us and took us a Malaysian place for lunch which was really good though we ordered way too food. We then went to the University District in search of coffee and bookstores.

They dropped us off and after a swim we walked to Tutta Bella Neapolitan Pizzeria. Had some excellent pizza, wine, beet salad AND a view of the Space Needle!

The next day we were leaving, sadly. We loaded up on Mexican food at a place nearby then we went down to the Experience Music Project/Science Fiction Museum. We were pretty disappointed by it all though. The SciFi had a Battlestar Galactica exhibit but none of their other memorabilia was up.

It just seemed like the whole museum didn't have much in it. Though did see the cop car from Blade Runner.

We thought we would be spend many hours there then would head back to the airport. Well, since there wasn't much to see we went back to Top Pot donuts again.

Took the train back to the airport and back home. It was a great, low key relaxing trip. We are ready to go back to Seattle and back to the Olive 8.

To see more photos, click here.

Cooking

2011-04-18T19:33:00.001-07:00

Cooking has been a challenge lately, which means we have been eating out too much. So today I dragged myself to Safeway in search of "food". Came home and made some edamame hummus. It was good but I need to get it more creamy. I used the recipe from Maki's Just Bento cookbook. But we love dips and this would be nice for lunch tomorrow.

Then I made sweet potato, black bean and green chile enchiladas. We made it christmas by also putting on red salsa. It was tasty and made leftovers for dinner tomorrow night, which was the master plan.

Then I made cupcakes with Bailey's in them for a friend's going away party on Wednesday. I got the recipe from Devil Doll. They are really good. I am just going to frost them with store bought dark chocolate frosting because I am lazy and others wanted chocolate cupcakes. These cupcakes are so good they almost don't need frosting. And the batter is really good.

So now I have made 3 things in one day and did all the dishes. So I don't have to cook the rest of the week right?

Laundry time

2011-03-20T12:33:00.001-07:00

While cleaning up my tiki room today, I was in the mood for some Italian music. I bought this lp a while back since my family hails from Calabria.

The album is fine but what is up with this god awful cover. I believe it is women doing laundry in a muddy pit. Is this the best Calabria had to offer tourism in the 1960's?

The album says "Revive, refresh, and relive your musical memories of Calabria..."

"yes, honey remember our great trip to Calabria where the hotel made us wash our towels in the dirty stream with the local while singing 'Ma chi avi stu paisi?' Well we can relieve it again!"

Today

2011-03-13T11:43:00.001-07:00

Think this sums up my weekend.

SF Eat's Menus - Part 2

2011-03-04T16:22:00.001-08:00

Tommy's Joynt a photo by AlohaTiki on Flickr.

I finally made it to the rest of this exhibit at the Main Library in San Francisco. These were all on display upstairs. I was pleasantly surprised to see a tiki display!! Here are some photos. You can view more photos over here.

Jack London State Park

2011-02-05T08:25:00.000-08:00

For our wedding anniversary in September we wanted to do something different but not too big since we were going to Hawaii the following month. The weather had been nice lately, so the day of our anniversary started out warm and sunny. I had always wanted to go to Jack London State Park in Glen Ellen even though I am not a big fan of his books I did read The Cruise of the Snark of his ill fated trip and Hawaii and the South Pacific. I also read Jack London in Paradise, a semi fictional account about him, his wife and Wolf House. That is when I first learned about the Wolf House and wanted to go.

We first drove to San Rafael for lunch and stopped at Sol Food for Puerto Rican food. We went to the their tiny location and had some really good stuff. Then we continued to drive to the state park. The day was getting hotter, which was nice.

We reached the visitor center and there was only 1 other car. Well, guess we don't have worry about crowds. I thought it was because it was a Monday...

The visitor center and museum is in the House of Happy Walls that his wife Charmian lived in after Jack died. I was stoked to see it was mainly full of stuff they brought back from their Snark Cruise!

They had drums from Tahiti, tapa cloth, war clubs, tikis and fabric. They also had a nice display of all the books he has written. Geez, he wrote a lot of books..

Also had some nice furniture in the place.

We then started on the trail. There are 3 hikes you could take. We started off for the one towards the Wolf house. Nice walk, kinda warm though. The Wolf House was his dream house that he was building. It burnt down about 2 weeks before they were to move in and allegedly left him heartbroken. It was neat to see this ruin in the middle of no where. It was much later discovered that it was rags with chemicals that spontaneously combusted.

After the first walk we came back to the car and luckily I packed a cooler full of water bottles and ice packs to keep it cool. I brought 5 water bottles. We drank 2 after this hike.

The next hike was to his experimental farm. Had the failed cactus patch that was suppose to be food for the animals but that didn't work out. Saw the pig palace. His other house on the property wasn't open though. We wanted to continue on to the Lake but I had forgotten to put sunscreen on my legs and this hike didn't have much shade. Went back to the car and drank more water and then had to try and get some bees out of the car.

Drank some more water then took a scenic, if slightly scary drive thru the mountains to St. Helena to goto what is formerly know as Taylor's Refresher but is now Gott's Roadside drive inn. They made one of my fave cheeseburgers.

We then drove home and it was still warm out. While watching the news that night we found out it was probably a 100 degrees on our hike! No wonder no one else was there. Thank god I packed all that water. We happily didn't wind up sunburn or dehydrated so thankful for that. We would go back to the Jack London State park, for the area was huge and lots more land to cover but I totally bringing a bigger cooler filled with water next time.

For more photos click here.

For the Trader Joe shopper

2011-01-21T16:34:00.000-08:00

I love this article. My fave part:

Quit blocking the aisles while you aimlessly wander about searching for those tricolored baby carrots you got last time. That shit is gone, man. You need to let it go.

Yes, that is me in the dried fruit isle blocking the way where I stand vacantly looking at the bags of trail mix for 10 minutes, apologies.

San Francisco Eats

2011-01-16T10:46:00.001-08:00

The San Francisco Main Library currently has a great exhibit up if you are into San Francisco food and ephemera . It is San Francisco Eats and is being shown in the gallery downstairs and on the 6th floor. I LOVE old menus and have a small collection of my own, always fun to look through them and go "wow, a gin and tonic was 10 cents!". Here are some photos from the downstairs gallery. I will try to get to the the upstairs soon. Was stoked to see the Tonga Room menu. It all ends March 20, 2011.

Fish floats!

2011-01-13T21:10:00.001-08:00

I should do a blog called " stuff my husband brings home from the thrift store", for it is always something interesting.

A few years ago he saw some fish floats at the thrift but never bought them and I have heard about it ever since. He did find me some awesome square ones a while back, but the pain is still there.

So he came home with these the other day. $1.99 each. Not bad, though I hear they aren't as nice as the ones he didn't buy but I am not complaining.

Oahu 2010 - Day 7 & 8

2011-01-06T15:12:00.000-08:00

Day 7 was our last full day in Hawaii and we lucked out with some great weather. We headed off to Kailua again with a stop at the Pali lookout. We got to see them set up for a shoot for Hawaii 5-0.

Sadly, we saw no stars since I think they just started to set up. They where setting up for the episode called Palekaiko. The scene was suppose to be taking place on Kauai but we knew better.

While we were there we walked some on the Old Pali Highway trail, which is a easy hike.

We got to Kailua and wanted to eat at Boots and Kimo's again. We foolishly thought the wait would be less on a Tuesday (yea, we didn't learn since the last post) and that their new location was larger would be shorter time. Well, the wait was long but it was good. I had the fried rice omelet again and Mr. Tiki had the guava crepes.

Afterwards we went to the record store then Mr. Tiki bought records out of a trunk in the McDonald's parking lot. Always on the prowl that man. After the record buy I was able to get us back on vacation track and we went to the Byodo-In Temple which is located in the back of a cemetery.

It was here that I remembered I was in Hawaii because I got eaten alive by mosquitos and didn't even think of putting on repellent.

We then went to the Kailua Beach park, which is one of my fave beaches on Oahu but the bathroom is another story.

We snorkeled for awhile then wanted to drive south while the light was still good so then drove back down to Sandy Beach (the other non sandy side).

and then around the bend to Koko Head for visit to the Kona Brewery. We love the Kona beers. I hear they are liquid aloha.

Had dinner then came back to hotel and walked around Waikiki to finish shopping. Then packed and attempted to stuff 100 lps into our suitcase with bags of coffee, poke mix and sailor costumes.

The next day plans for a last swim were scrapped. For this was our weather:

yup, time to leave. Went to Mana Bu's to get onigiri for the plane. And flew home. Landed in 80 degree weather in SF and Giants fever.

all the photos are here.

Oahu 2010 - Day 6

2011-01-05T21:42:00.000-08:00

Started the day wanting a big breakfast. We tried to go out to breakfast at Eggs n Things, thinking since it was Monday there would be less people in line. We forgot that everyone who would go there was on vacation so what do they care what day it is. When we got there they had a massive crowd, so settled on some divey place by our hotel that was fine and no waiting.

We had plans to go snorkeling later with some friends so used the morning to do some souvenir shopping at the Foodland grocery store. We were pretty restrained but still left with a bunch of stuff for us and others, including some Hawaiian x-mas cards. When we walked out of the store it was pouring rain. We were near a Goodwill so stopped in there. I got some stuff for me and was all tag specials.

We met our friends at Hanauma Bay beach park. This is a protected marine life sanctuary so it has a lot of fish. We all did some snorkeling and they left to go to the other side of the island. We stayed but then it looked like rain so we got back in the car and drove to some overlooks. Saw the Halona Blowhole and the went down to Sandy Beach.

I think one of our guidebooks said Sandy Beach was one of the most dangerous beaches on Oahu. It was nuts. The reef must be closer cause the waves break close to the shore. It was filled with locals who where skim boarding and body surfing. Kids just hurling themselves into the waves. By now our friends gave up driving across the island due to bad traffic and came to join us on Sandy Beach. Though none of us was brave enough to go near the water.

Afterwards we all headed up to Kailua but first Mr. Tiki and I stopped off for a bite at Maui Tacos, next to the Teddy's. Living in San Francisco we can only go so long without a burrito so were stoked to discover a decent mexican place. We hung out in Kailua for awhile and said goodbye since they were all leaving the next day but we still had 1 full day left.

Oahu 2010 - Day 5

2011-01-05T20:56:00.000-08:00

Woke up and it was halloween! Did our usual swimming then went to get lunch at the Diamond Head Market and Grill. Man, what a good spot. We got bentos of portobello mushroom and some of the best mac salad, also a orange coconut brownie for later. They don't really have anywhere to eat so we drove to Diamond Head Beach Park and ate in the car.

It was a long, downhill walk to the beach and it seemed full of local students with textbooks. Not sure how much studying you can get done on a beach in Hawaii with your boyfriend sitting next to you in a bikini, noble effort anyway.

Spent a few hours on the beach then went back to the hotel to get dressed for halloween. Our friends band was playing another show in Chinatown. I found a cute sailor girl dress at Target and Mr. Tiki found a vintage sailor top at the Goodwill in Aiea so we went in costume back to Noodle Village and had dinner with our friends then off to the show. There were a few people dressed up so that was fun. In a cruel irony this show was over by 10:30pm, which would of been nicer the day we landed.

Driving back to our hotel was kinda of mess. I guess Halloween in Waikiki is pretty crazy and traffic was at a crawl. I was then happy that our hotel was on the edge of Waikiki so we didn't get trapped in traffic for too long. We parked then walked across the street to the Whalers General store to buy some cereal but navigating the crowd was a bit dicey. We made it back without getting punched so all was good. Also came to realize how nice it was that our hotel room faced a side street since it was super noisy on the main street. I woke at 4am to go to the bathroom and could still hear people hooting and hollering. The next day the valet said bar time is until 4am and people where still wandering around drunk at 6am when he got to work! Yikes, glad we survived Halloween.

Oahu 2010 - Day 4

2011-01-02T14:04:00.000-08:00

Our late night from 2 nights ago and jet lag still seem to have a grip on us. This is the slowest moving we have ever been on a trip. It was nice to be a slower pace but kinda unusal for us.

So today I really wanted to go to the Farmer's Market at the Kapi'olani Community College parking lot over by Diamond Head. WOW! What a great farmer's market.

Of course the first vendor we see is for local coffee which Mr. Tiki was pleased about and got a kona. One of the things this market is know for is the $7 pesto pizza. Normally I wouldn't spend that much on a slice but it looked good and tasted amazing. It was worth it.

Also had an ear of corn and many free samples. I brought our mini coolers and we bought a ton of stuff for our lunch. Taro poke, mushroom poke, lomi sea asparagus and tofu musubi.

We took our lunch and went in search of a beach. Tried to find Kuilei Cliffs beach /Ka'alawai beach which is in front of some rich folks home. We where at one of them, but not sure which, maybe both? Ate our lunch at the enterance then walked further and plopped down on the sand for the beach time. The waves were a little strong but we got some time in the water in. We rechristened this beach, "bronze buns beach" due to the naked guy near us sunning his already very tan butt.

We spent a few hours there then went in seach of coffee and found a Coffee bean and Tea leaf. I was excited to see they had Bubbies Mochi ice cream so we got a selection (also now at Whole Foods).

For dinner we went to Puka Dog which now has whole wheat buns then went to the Royal Hawaiian Hotel for drinks on the beach. The hotel was old and amazing.

Awesome lobby, great light fixtures and chairs. And orginal artwork of the Matson Menu artists Frank McIntosh and Eugene Savage.

Wish we would of gotten there a little earlier before it go dark so we would of had a view. We both had mai tais, which where good. Then off we went to the Moana Surfrider beach front bar with the Banyan tree from Hawaii Calls. Enjoyed some local music but then when a different musician took over the rendition of Hotel California had me running for the door.

Oahu 2010- Day 3

2011-01-01T21:46:00.000-08:00

Had a relaxing morning of sleeping in, swimming and using the hotels massage chairs. Boy, we love these massage chairs. They upgraded the chairs since our last visit and it was all I could do not to bring them home with us. I think we used the massage chairs almost every day we were there.

We were glad we got a swim in since it rained the whole rest of the day. The main pool is unheated and only Mr. Tiki is hardy enough to handle it. I liked our secret pool, it was overheated, like a bath.

We talked to our friends and decided to head over to Kailua to see them but first we would stop at Manu Bu's to pick up onigiri for them/us. Manu Bu's is like dying and going to onigiri heaven. It also felt like we were in a store in Tokyo. I love how they had everything labeled. We got there at 10am and they were sort of cleaned out already and us buying like 20 ongiri/musubi didn't help.

We got to Kailua and hung out a little bit. With a group of 8 people everyone had a different plan so they all went off. We decided to have lunch again at Teddy's since we really liked it on the last trip and I think they are on my fave burger places, but man I was full from eating there. I think I didn't need to eat dinner that night. Also went to the bookstore and got an addition for the Bibliotiki.

Our plan was to go across the island in search of a non rainy beach but took the wrong turn and wound up going in the wrong direction. Our plan for the evening was to go to the Haunted Lagoon at the Polynesian Cultural Center so we had to make sure we were back to that side of the island for dark.

I think the rain put us out of sorts which wasn't helped by getting trapped in absolutely horrible traffic. We went to Aiea to do some shopping. While at the Goodwill Mr. Tiki picked up a halloween costume and I picked up a vintage Hawaiian shirt. Also hit Jelly's where I picked up a beach read that has provided much amusement for us and fueled an Oliver Reed obsession. We then went to the other Leonard's and they gave us free malasadas. These had no fillings and I think I like the ones with filing better. Mr. Tiki had a malasada with Li Hing sugar which he enjoyed. I also hit the Fabric Mart but bought very little since I still haven't done anything with the fabric I bought their 2 years ago. How is that for restraint.

Our friends were going to go to the Haunted Lagoon with us but decided not to because they read Yelp reviews of being in line for 2 hours. We had nothing else to do and when/where else are you going to go on a floating haunted house!

We have never been to the Polynesian Cultural center since I know way more about the Polynesian Triangle then most but after walking around a little there I kinda want to go. Had really nice exhibits in the lobby. Got in line for the HL and it took like 1hr 10mins, but they kept you entertained. From the dance group doing Thriller to making you take photos with dressed up characters (like yoda, avatar etc) then you can buy it (we did, it was so ridiculous) . I am sad I have no photos of the Haunted Lagoon ride since it wasn't allowed.

They put you on a raft/outrigger with about 30 others and you are guided through the lagoon. There are creatures in the water who swim up and try and jump into the raft, in costume. On the shore there are scenes of horror and on top of the water as well. You would go under a low bridge and stuff would jump down from it. It was all very creepy especially when it started to rain and it was so dark then some fire would shoot up from somewhere. I am not into horror but I was screaming at few points. This group behind us was really scared so that made it more fun.

The ride lasted about 30 mins and was well worth the $26. We wish our friends would of come. It was very, very cool. And a great way to end the day.

view all photos here.

Oahu 2010- Day 2

2011-01-01T21:09:00.000-08:00

Oh my were we tired when we got up the next day. Didn't sleep nearly long enough. Spent the morning napping and swimming in the hotel pool. We had a kitchenette and brought packets of oatmeal with us so we wouldn't have to worry about breakfast.

By the afternoon we went in search of food and went to this tiny Japanese place in an alley by the Hyatt that did different kinds of onigiri.

We got a selection, some potato salad and really good miso soup.

On the way back to the hotel stocked up at the grocery store.

Then we took another nap.

By late afternoon Mr. Tiki needed coffee so we went to Leonard's to get some malasadas. The filling of the month was banana, which was good but was no passion fruit. We then went to Bailey's to check out this store that has all the Hawaiian shirts from like $3.99-$1000. This store was PACKED with Hawaiiana and loads of shirts. I really liked this rack that has shirts the bus drivers wear.

We went to check in with our friends and they were all going to the Loving Hut by our hotel. I had only ate at the Loving Hut (vegan chinese/asian) in the mall in SF and this one had a different menu. Mr. Tiki got some vegan shrimp which tasted liked real shrimp cause really how hard is it to reproduce a rubbery texture. I was super excited when we pulled into the Loving Hut parking lot and saw it had Manu Bu's !!" Mana Bu is another onigiri place that I wanted to try and now I knew where it was. More on Manu Bu's in future posts.

Afterwards we went back to our hotel and picked up some Kona beer and went to bed a much normal hour.

Oahu 2010- Day 1

2010-12-31T15:38:00.000-08:00

Ok, sure we where just in Hawaii in February when we went to Kauai but this was for "work". Plus that Kauai trip was kinda strange with the tsunami evacuation and not the most relaxing vacation.

A band we work with was going to be playing 2 shows on Oahu over the Halloween weekend, how could we not go?

We were just in Oahu for Mr. Tiki's b-day in 2008 but really liked it so we were looking forward to going back. It was a easy trip to plan since we had places we wanted to revisit, generally remembered how to get around (thank you iphone) and stayed in the same hotel. Our friends where all staying in a condo on the east side of the island but we wanted the more touristy trip.

We flew Hawaiian Air, which I thought would be better but was just as annoying as United. We got there and I made the crucial error of not having my sandals packed where I could easily get them. We had a few hours to kill before we could check in, which was kinda of annoying cause I hate lugging around stuff around (laptop). We drove to Nico's at the Pier for lunch. We saw Nico's on some tv show and it sounded great. It was. Had the furikake pan seared ahi and Mr. Tiki had fish cakes with lemon caper sauce. We ordered mac salad and nalo (greens) but got 2 nalos. Oh well. Starting the trip healthier. Plus I promised myself to ease up on the mac salad on this trip.

We then still had more time to kill so went to some record stores. The previous late night rushing, early flight, heat and dressed in too much clothes got to me at the final un- a/c'd record store where I thought I would hurl. Luckily by then it was 2:45 and we could go to our hotel now.

Stayed a the former Wyland now the Courtyard Marriott. They put us in a different tower, which at first we were bummed and the room was smaller but soon realized it had a major bonus in that our room didn't face the main street and was so much quieter. Also we had a secret hidden pool in our tower that we often had to ourselves so it was all good.

We tried to nap since the band was playing that night but that didn't go well. So off we went to Chinatown for the show. Wound up eating at the same Chinese place (Little Village Noodle House) we did last time which was kinda the only thing open in Chinatown. Then we met up with our friends who told us the bad news that a band had jumped on the show, was going to play first and play for 1 1/2hrs!! Upon receiving this news my sleep addled brain did the math and realized we might not be back at the hotel till after 1:30 am (3:30am San Francisco time), I restrained self from bursting into tears. The band/friends tried to send us back to the hotel and would understand if we missed it but we flew there for this band and damnit we are going to see them. It is not like we had to go to work the next day right? Ugh.

So we all hung out in the club and at times I had never been so tired in my life but then I would have another wind and be ok. Then totally tired. We made it to the end of the show and then was super awake while driving home at 2am. And hungry. Valet parked at the hotel, then walked by the transgender prostitues in front of our hotel, then went to McDonalds, the only thing open. Mr. Tiki had the saimin (soup) and I had a glorious cheeseburger. I think we go to sleep at 3am Hawaiian time. Vowed to never take a flight before 10am ever again if could be helped.

Island Style Shake up

2010-12-05T16:28:00.000-08:00

In November the Hawaii Convention Bureau had a big push for tourism to Hawaii. They had ice rinks set up and special events. We went to one sponsored by them and San Francisco Magazine.

"Sample three different island-inspired cocktails presented by five of San Francisco’s top bars, then shake it island style with hula dancers, pupu (appetizers) by Roy's, fresh flower lei, and Hawaii music and dance. At the end of the night, a people’s choice and judges’ choice winner will be crowned, and one lucky guest will receive a trip for two to Sheraton Kauai, courtesy of Pleasant Holidays. "

You got all of this for $20! Plus our favorite tiki place, Smuggler's Cove created a drink for the contest. There was 5 different drinks in the competition.

Tiger Lily | Cantina

Pua'a Ola | Hog and Rocks

Baby Beach Sipper | Otis Lounge

Kahiko Punch | Smugglers Cove

The Bitter Companion | The Burritt Room at The Crescent Hotel

Taken http://media.modernluxury.com/islandshakeup/SANF

We each got 3 drink tickets. We both started off with the Smuggler's Cove drink was was very good. Plus they had flaming tiki bowl and a very decorative booth. I then had the Baby Beach Sipper which I liked but didn't love. Mr. Tiki had the Tiger Lily which had pieces of ginger in it. He was pretty fond of it. Then we each ended with Pua'a Ola which was like a daiquiri with coconut juice and cinnamon. It had bacon as a garnish.

So we each had 3 full size drinks in two hours with some pu pus from Roy's (poke and tofu poke), plus they where giving away bags of Maui potato chips, mac nuts and Kauai Kookies. All this together means we were pretty trashed by time we left and horribly hung over the next day.

Oh but it was fun. In some hotel we never heard of in an old bar on a freezing night wearing a fresh flower lei. Sadly, we did not win the free trip to Kauai but enjoy the hula dancers and singing.

Smuggler's Cove won the judges award and I think the Baby Beach sipper one the public award. We didn't try the Bitter Companion because it seemed to medicinal.

Afterwards we got some food at the Burger Bar and had a nice view of the ice skating.

Mahalo to the Hawaii tourism and SF magazine for the event!

Domo Arigato

2010-10-02T20:42:00.000-07:00

Last week we were as usual indecisive about what we wanted for dinner. And as usual didn't want to cook. We were about to hop on the bus to the new Izakaya but that seemed like too much effort so I suggested this Japanese place we could walk to that had an unusual menu.

Kappou Gomi opened about a year ago and we always were amused by their sign in the window "NO SUSHI. NO COMBINATION DINNER". With a sign like that you knew they weren't the usual cheap sushi joint on Geary.

We walked in and they were full up so we sat at the counter and instantly given hot towels. So nice. There was an adorable wooden nodding cat across from Mr. Tiki that couldn't help but make you smile.

The menu is generally broken down into items then different ways you can get it prepared. Even though we eat Japanese food all the time and have been to Japan, there was a lot on there we had no idea what the heck it was. The place is generally small plates. So with a leap of fate and some beer we ordered:

Mizuna Ohitashi

Nagaimo unoae (mountain yam, might be spelling that wrong)

Agedashi mochi

Saba karashisumiso

Hamachi miso

It was all excellent. The saba (mackerel) was incredible and the broiled yellowfin nearly made us cry. We passed on dessert so not to be overly full.

I felt like this place was shot out of Tokyo right to our neighborhood complete with a large table of Japanese behind us drinking huge bottles of sake. While I am dying to go back, I will ration this place out for when I want a trip to Japan without the jet lag.

Mount Davidson

2010-09-28T21:09:00.001-07:00

Mount Davidson
Originally uploaded by AlohaTiki

The other week we had some great weather so Mr. Tiki suggested we go to the top of Mount Davidson. I had no idea where this was but found I actually work near it.

The view was great from the highest natural point in San Francisco.

The cross was erected for the Armenian genocide incase you are wondering.

Chicago 2010

2010-09-19T13:30:00.001-07:00

Bronzie Fonzie
Originally uploaded by AlohaTiki

We have been having a super depressing summer here in San Francisco. It is usually cold and foggy but has been extra cold and foggy. You often can get away to another neighborhood to see the sun but not this summer. I think by time we had our August trip to Chicago we hadn't seen the sun in like 32 days. That just makes me nuts.

But it also meant I was extra excited about our trip home beyond getting to see family and friends.

And Chicago didn't let me down. I was there a week (Mr. Tiki a little less) and only one day wasn't sunny and it was warm every day.

We used a Southwest free flight voucher and had some free drinks on the flight over. My folks picked us up and took us to this new green restaurant called Prasino. It was really good and I got to eat there again with my sister for lunch the next week so that was cool.

The next day we went up to my aunt and cousins' Italian restaurant up north. My grandma was an excellent cook and we miss her and her cooking. My aunt also is a good cook and a few years ago we ate at her place and realized you just can't Italian- American food like that in San Francisco. This year our meal up there was great as well and I don't think we have ever been served so much food in one sitting. We had salad, calamari, fried ravioli, fried artichokes, bread, cannoli, gnocchi, primavera, sorbet, tiramisu and hot peppers. I know I am forgetting a dish or 2, it was that much food. Then they gave us tons of leftovers.

Came home and digested. That night we met up with panzerotti girl for some tiki drinks at Chef Shangri-La in Riverside. We had only been there once to peek in the door but thought it was time for a real visit and since we weren't that hungry didn't have to eat much.

The place was pretty amazing on the inside, full on tiki.

We had some drinks, which were ok and some palatable chinese food.

The next day we swam in my folks' pool then headed off to see some other friends. Ate dinner at a soul food place in Berwyn which would of been great except the a/c was broke and we sweated thru dinner.

Saturday Mr. Tiki went to a small record swap then we had lunch at Portillo's even though I wasn't going to do a hot dog on this trip. Then we drove up to Milwaukee. Our first stop was the Bronzie Fonzie. They most of ran out of money since he was kinda tiny and didn't really look like the fonze.

We then went to this crazy bookstore that was like 4 floors with piles of books everwhere. I thought I hit the Polynesian book motherload but only left with 1 book but it was one on the want list.

After the bookstore we had dinner at Comet which was good and ended the day with some frozen custard at Kopps.

The next day we went to the record swap which was pretty disappointing. After the swap headed to a south Indian place near the Serb Hall called Bombay Sweets for lunch. They had a crazy amount of nuts and sweets. Would eat there again if needed something different in Milwaukee.

The next day Mr. Tiki left and my last 2 days I hung out with friends and family. And I did get the panzerotti with panzerotti girl. It was good as always.

To see more photos, click here.

Tiki Bob

2010-08-21T19:55:00.001-07:00

Tiki Bob
Originally uploaded by AlohaTiki

While cleaning up the house today Mr. Tiki came home from a morning of yard sales with a bag off stuff. He asked if I wanted my anniversary gift early (it is in September). He is bad at keeping surprises so I said I wanted it now.

I unwrapped a Tiki Bob San Francisco mug.

WOW!! This my top want of mugs. Adorable and hard to find. I have a pretty large mug collection all bought on the cheap from yards sales and thrift stores. This Bob was a a steal at $20, he usually goes for $100+.

So what is next since I have Bob? Zombie village and Luau 400 would be nice, maybe one day they will show up at our Goodwill...

Off the grid

2010-06-26T16:26:00.000-07:00

The other night we went to the new evening of Food Trucks at Fort Mason. I have been dying to go to the Curry Up truck for a while and this seemed the easiest place to catch them. I also just found out about the onigiri truck called Onigilly and was really craving them as well.

We got there around 5pm and hit the Friends of the Library bookstore, where I did well. Then hit the trucks. Hard to decide when it all looked so good.

Started off with a spicy miso and hijiki onigiri from Onigilly, both really good. Then I got a paneer tikka masala burrito from Curry Up Now. Mr. Tiki got a crepe from Azalina's Malaysian lacy crepe.

Both were good and we got to share. The end the meal Mr. Tiki got a rose chai from Soul Cocina. It was all great but was totally freezing out. We would go back and maybe get booze to stay warm.

Tiki haul

2010-06-26T14:15:00.001-07:00

Tiki haul
Originally uploaded by AlohaTiki

Mr. Tiki hit the motherload today. This has to of been our biggest tiki score at a thrift store ever. And it was all 1/2 off ($14). We are totally amused that the bucket mug is stamped with Andersen Pea Soup. I can think of nothing more gross then a mai tai and a bowl of pea soup together. Maybe they served the pea soup in the mug?

The mug with the earrings is from The Lania in San Mateo, which is neat since I don't think I have anything from there.

This has probably blown the tiki karma for the year. We even got a Westwood.

The only problem is now I think I might have to go up a shelf in the tiki room. Too many good mugs, but where is Tiki Bob?

Farmer Brown

2010-06-20T18:13:00.000-07:00

I had a day off the other week and a 2 for 1 lunch coupon came my way for Farmer Brown, a Southern place we have been wanting to go to. They have just started to open for lunch so not too many folks down there. We had some beets as a starter and a blacken catfish porboy. Both were good and not too blackened.

I had shrimp and grits which was really good.

I totally want to go back at night for their fuller menu and drinks, though Mister Tiki wants to go back for brunch since he likes breakfast. Whatever, I'm ready.

Move over youtube

2010-06-14T19:44:00.001-07:00

This is my latest time suck, old British newsreals, 90,000 of them at British Pathe. Like this one for Tahiti, you even get a shot of Quinn's.

( A VISIT TO TAHITI )

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I like this one for the native music.

TOURISTS IN TAHITI

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Farmer's Market

2010-06-13T12:38:00.001-07:00

Veggies
Originally uploaded by AlohaTiki

I went to the new Farmer's Market at Fort Mason today. It is only a short bus ride from my house so I figured I would check it out and wanted to get some cherries while in season.

It wasn't as big as the farmer's market in San Rafael off of 101. That was the most mind blowing market we had ever been to. It is huge and tons of places to eat, just incredible. But that is over the Golden Gate bridge so even though it isn't that far away, it kinda is. Plus you get a $5 or $6 bridge toll.

In my neighborhood we have a lot of produce marts, which are good but I wanted something different and organic.

This new one at Fort Mason is only 2 rows so not tiny but not that big. The only dining option are the Roli Roti rotisserie truck, a crepe maker and Chaac-Mool, a Yucatecan place. Though you could get cervechi and have that for lunch.

There are a lot of free samples here which is great, I had fruit, cheese, chocolate, spreads and kale.

Flowers were reasonably priced and I came close to buying some but since I can't eat them I decided against it.

I didn't actually take a close look at the mushroom guy. Too dangerous.

I thought these mini squashes where super cute but wasn't sure what I do with them.

my husband can attest that I am not a big vegetable eater and not too good on cooking and identifying them. Last week while trying to buy poblanos at the market I had to consult google images on my iphone so I knew what they looked like.

I was pretty good not buying everything in sight but had an impulse purchase after trying this dried, season kale.

Kale scares me, it just seems like such an intense vegetable. I like collared greens in my Ethiopian food, which is as green as it gets for me. But this dried seasoned kale is so good, it is really unbelievable and since Kale has a ton of vitamin A, C, calcium and fiber I thought I could drop the $8 for tub. Mr. Tiki isn't home yet and I think he is going to flip out over it. If this tub makes it in to tomorrow I will be surprised.

So this is what I bought:

Loaf of sourdough, carrots, kale, broccoli, pluots, donut peaches and cherries. Some lessons learned: bring small tupperware. One of my donut peaches got mushed (but still edible) so I think I would bring some tupperware to protect the more delicate stuff. I think I will also pick my own cherries. I bought them from a guy where I got a mixed bag for $7, which was the cheapest rate there but after washing them there were a bunch of rainiers I had to toss. Think I will just pick them myself next time so then it is all quality.

Some things I resisted: many flavors of homemade ravioli, pastries, more bread, raw ahi tuna salad, flowers, smoked salmon, sorbet, peaches, beets, raspberries and blueberries. I didn't want to go to nuts with the fruit/veg buying so I can be sure we eat what we I got. I will totally be back, if not for the kale then for the fruit.

Bouquet to Art 2010

2010-04-21T19:01:00.001-07:00

For the last few years I have gone to the De Young museum to see the Bouquet to Art show. It is a week of floral arrangements that are inspired by pieces of art on display. This year I didn't think I would have time to go but as luck would have it I had today off and actually remembered I wanted to go. The museum was packed on a rainy Wednesday morning but I am still glad I went. To see all the photos I took click here. Below are just a few samples. Sorry for the so so photos. I couldn't find the batteries for my digital camera so it was all iphone shots.

Introducing the Bibliotiki!

2010-03-30T19:58:00.000-07:00

On this blog I use to review books, but along the way as my interest in tiki and Polynesian culture grew, I realized i wanted to have a separate blog just for my growing South Pacific literature collection since so many had neat illustrations that I would like to share. And I also joined goodreads to keep better track on non-SP lit.

In 2007 I decided to start the new blog and well... it just went live this month. In the meantime, I have been still reading and writing reviews so I hope to keep it updated fairly regularly.

Since most of my alohatiki readers are friends and family, I don't except you all to read my new blog. Great if you are interested, if not I won't be quizzing you on it.

The new blog is called Bibliotiki, which is the name of my tiki room. This is my tiki, I think he looks like he is reading a book. One day it will turn it into more of a real logo.

So enjoy!

Art at Stanford

2010-03-22T20:42:00.001-07:00

This weekend we drove down to Stanford to check out the Papau New Guinea Sculpture garden that I had heard about a few years back. The garden was created by PNG artists who they brought to Stanford to create the garden. My favorite is the sign for Rodin's Thinker and the PNG artist who was shown photos of Stanford's Rodin Sculpture garden and said "This is nothing. We can do better then that."

Click here to see more photos.

After we walked around the garden we went to the art museum at Stanford which was much bigger and nice then we thought it would be. Wish we had more then 40mins to look around.

While walking back to the car we took in the campus which was really pretty.

Our next trip to Stanford, we will spend more time at the art museum then hit the Trader Vic's in Palo Alto.

Kaua'i 2010

2010-03-07T12:47:00.000-08:00

So last year, after our Japan trip, we saw we had a ton of flyer miles on United. We were going to use them to go to New Zealand in 2010 but we would have to go for over 2 weeks and that just seemed like too much time then we were feeling comfortable with. We loved Mr. Tiki's 40th birthday trip to Oahu in 2008 so we figured out we could use our some of our flyer miles to go to Kauai for my my birthday this year. We planned for 5 nights, which at the time seemed like enough time. We had never been to Kauai so what the hell. We got a direct flight from Sf to Kauai going there and coming back had to leave from Oahu.

We arrived on Kauai at about 1pm, hungry, after only eating United snack boxes. It was about 80 so I was happy. Got our rental car, which was a PT cruiser, which I think is the only rental car on Kauai except for a bright blue Mustang convertible. My dad has a PT, which I like to drive so this was cool. Except it had no trunk cover and since theft can be a problem in Hawaii I did worry about that.

We left the small airport and instantly got lost. We found ourselves driving up the East side so we stopped at a little store and got some mango juice then headed back the right way. We wanted to go to Fish Express and for some reason my iphone told me another fish place was Fish Express. We wound up at Ara's Sakana-Ya fish market. I got a bento with spicy tuna ahi over rice and Mr. Tiki got ahi poke and seaweed salad. It was all good. Here are some of the offerings they had:

We continued on and hit the Walmart for suntan lotion and bug spray. Also got some beach towels, mats and our fave poke mix so we can make tofu poke at home. We drove thru Lihue then onward to the South Side. We drove thru the tree tunnel, which was neat. We got lost finding our place but that is ok since we got to drive along the ocean. Also google maps gave us some odd way to go. I think google maps doesn't like roundabouts.

We found our place, the Surfsong, top floor #4 Flamingo. It was awesome. This is the view from our front balcony that had a table and chairs.

It was pretty spacious with a bed and futon. We had a balcony in the back as well that you had a mountain view. Also a full size fridge, microwave, toaster etc. It wasn't fancy but tasteful and comfy. We spent most of the time on the front balcony eating, reading or just looking at the water. I love having both doors open and you could hear the ocean.

Upon entering the room, Mr. Tiki laid down and didn't move. He suddenly realized he was tired. We eventually found some energy to check out our closest beach, Baby beach, which was across the street. It was nice & small. We then headed into Koloa town to see what was up food wise. We hit the Sueoka Grocery store and picked up some food and Hawaiian beer for dinner. They also have a take out snack window and Mr. Tiki couldn't resist the $2 saimen. Headed back and had dinner on our balcony. The time change from California works in our favor though Mr. Tiki was asleep by 8pm and me by 9pm.

The next day was my birthday and I swear to god, when I opened the front door and looked at the ocean I saw dolphins flying thru the air and a whale blow hole. So that was a nice start and it was 80 and sunny again. We made some breakfast with our poptarts, toast and Aunty Lilikloi jam. We drove west to Hanapepe. Went to 2 thrift stores near there. I got a neat tiki envelope/napkin holder and lost Mr. Tiki in the records for awhile. This strange thrift store also had building material and this pit out back.

The other thrift store was pretty sad, no finds there. We then went to lunch at the Hanapepe Cafe & Bakery where I had to keep Mr. Tiki away from a huge bear claw. I had a really good garden burger sandwich. We also walked on the swing bridge and hit the local bookstore, Talk Story. On the way to the beach we went to Lappert's to get coffee and sorbet. Then headed to Salt Pond beach park, hidden behind the veterans cemetery. It was a nice beach with a reef so you could snorkle. I like that the parking lot was nearby so you don't have as far to trek with all your beach gear. The beach was also full of fat chickens, much like the rest of Kauai.

We swam around in the ocean a bit, tried out our new flippers which worked great. It was pretty windy on the beach so laying on the sand for a while meant you where covered in sand.

By now it was getting to be close to dinner time so we headed back to Poipu for dinner. Went to the shopping village to go to the Puka Dog. We had a puka dog on Mr, Tiki's b-day in Oahu and I didn't really like it but I think I didn't choose well. This time I had the actual hot dog and went spicy and it was really good. We finished our dogs in time for the free Tahitian dance show on the lawn. It was good, on the right is currently Miss Kauai and took up a donation to send her to the bigger beauty pageant. I got a lei so that was cool.

After dinner Mr. Tiki was still hungry so we got home some cheap fish and chips at the snack shop. We have now realized you need to set standards for your fish and chips for if you go too cheap it is just grease and you will suffer later.

On Friday we woke up and drove out to the Spouting Horn. It sounded like the smoke monster from Lost.

I liked all the chickens too.

Though, we kept waiting for them to attack. We then went to check out the free Moir Gardens which was neat will all the catcus'.

We were going to head to the canyon today so we went to the Koloa fish market and got a ton of food but by now the greasy fish and chips was attacking Mr. Tikis stomach so we headed back for him to rest a little and then ate our lunch. Had ahi with a wasabi cream sauce and teriyaki, very ono. He was feeling better after some ginger drinks and rest so we decided to try for the canyon since he wouldn't have do much but sit in the car and it was a nice day so we would actually be able to see the canyon.

On the way out there we went to the ruins of the old Russian Fort, saw the area of Cooks landing and got to see Ni'ihau island. We also hit Lapperts again. Mr. Tiki got a mac nut milkshake and i got Kauai pie ice cream, both very good.

The drive up the canyon was nice and took in some look outs.

I don't think it rained much recently so we didn't see the waterfall but the canyon still looked beautiful.

And they didn't lie, it was about 15 degrees colder up there. We bought some papaya from a vendor and had a snack on one of the overlooks. We went on a very short hike but didn't want to attempt any others. I think our fave quote of the trip was overheard at the gift shop/museum there. A young woman came in and asked the shop worker if there are any good hikes that she could see, you know like plants or jungle. The woman told her, "yeah, the other side of the island". ouch, harsh, since the canyon is surrounded by you know, plants and jungle.

We drove back down, and picked up some red bean mochi and Hawaiian sun drinks at the mart then went back to Salt Pond Beach to hang out.

Thought about swimming but it seemed even windier then the day before so happily walked along the beach and looked at the chickens.

On our drive back home we tried to go to the Auntie Lilikoi store but she must of stepped out because it was shut. We then drove by the Kauai Coffee Company and had to stop.

Sadly, we didn't get there in time to walk to coffee maze but happily got there with about 30 mins left to sample all their coffees. Mr. Tiki is a big coffee addict and I must say it was the best he looked all day. We learned that they also have food and malasadas so made a mental note to come back from breakfast some day. We hit the gift shop hard, bought all our Aunty Lilikoi stuff there.

While driving back we decided on pizza for dinner since fish wouldn't be involved. Went to the much loved Brick Oven Pizza, which was good. I did love the map of Kauai if Italians ran the place.

We got 1/2 our pizza as take out which would come in handy soon enough.

Headed home we realized we hadn't really checked out Poipu beach so though we would stop by and check it out. Mountain view was nice as was the sunset.

Saw a monk seal parked on the beach as well.

The next morning we were awoken at 6am by the sound of an alarm. It was the tsunami alert, we turned the tv on and saw that yes, all of Hawaii was under alert and it was suppose to hit Kauai at 11:45am. We checked the phone book and saw we were in an evacuation zone so tried to figure out what to do. Packed everything up, and filled all glasses with water in case we came back and there was no water. We started to drive to the canyon again but then traffic was messed up so then just head to the public libraries lawn about 1.5miles from where we were staying. It was pretty relaxing laying on the lawn eating our pizza and reading.

But was a little worried we would soon be having a horror in paradise. To kill time we walked into town, bought some stuff then came back. At 1:30 we got the all clear, no waves had happily hit. We rested then though about how to restart our trip. Drinks where in order. Went to the Point bar at the Sheraton for some excellent poke nacho and cocktails. I had a black cherry mojito.

Saw a lot of whales from our seats so that was nice. We then went back to Poipu beach for another sunset then headed to the Hyatt to go to the Stevenson's Library Bar and got to see a dance show.

Went back home and fell in a dead sleep only to be awoken at midnight by the alarm clock. Then wide awake for a long time then a wind storm started. We worried we were now going to have a hurricane but could find no news. The temp dropped and our louvered windows howled. Sleep was elusive. Eventually we did sleep and woke the next morning not really feeling ready to tackle the day. It was still really windy, only 70 and overcast. Thought we would go to the beach but weather seemed not to think so. Found the Lappert's that was very close to us in this strange new shopping mall. Had coffee and hawaiian tea then headed to Lihue for breakfast with the locals at the Tip Top. A total dive and famous for their pancakes but we will never know since they stopped serving breakfast 5mins before we sat down. My tiki had a big bowl of Saimin and I grilled cheese and mac salad. The waitresses were like machines there.

We then just started to drive up the east side. Saw the waterfall from Fantasy Island.

Saw another waterfall.

Saw the Coco Palms in ruins

Went up to the Kilauea lighthouse and bird sanctuary

Then stopped at 'Anini beach and decided that since it was late in the day we didn't want to try and see anymore of the North Shore. Headed back to Kaapa for taro burgers for dinner that were just ok.

Headed back to Poipu beach for another sunset, the seal was gone. Then slip a veggie puka dog. Had a relaxing evening and packed. The next day we flew to Oahu then home. We realized that we need more time to get into vacation mode though we might of been closer to relaxing if we didn't have a 6am tsunami call. We liked Kauai and would like to go back since there is plenty more to see and do and eat.

for many more photos of sunsets click here.

Lost!

2010-01-31T21:50:00.000-08:00

Here in the Alohatiki house, we are counting down to the premier of the last season of Lost. The other day I saw these awesome posters on a friends blog and wish i could have them all. Not sure which one is my fave. Here is the site with all of them.

Christmas 2009

2010-01-03T16:30:00.001-08:00

surfers
Originally uploaded by AlohaTiki

I took down my tree and other decorations today. We also just ate the last of my mom's cookies. So I guess that means the holidays are over.

We had a nice christmas, listened to some x-mas records, watched bad santa, ate bagels and lox.

We also got great x-mas as usual, my highlight is a new electric blanket and a tiki mug from Kon TIki Ports-Chicago. Mr. Tiki liked his slipcase Walking Dead and pencils made from Chinese newspapers.

Next year, i need to put a little more effort into the tree. Needed a better fluffing this year.

A week of eating

2009-12-27T19:53:00.000-08:00

A few months ago my folks gave us a gift card to a greek restaurant named Kokkari. We hardly have any greek places here, so we were curious to see what it was like. When we read that the Mayor and other highers ups have made it their go to spot we were even more curious.

We figured going the Tuesday before christmas would be a good time to go. When we got there the place was packed with people waiting. I had made reservations but I was suprised it was so busy. It is a large but cozy place, with dim lighting, hence why my food photos are so dark. We ate ourselves silly. We had: grilled artichokes and eggplant skewers with amazing homemade yogurt, mushrooms and havarti, gigantes baked beans, arctic char on lentils and zucchini cakes. The highlights where the skewer and the zucchini cakes, but it was all great.

gigantes

zucchini cakes

Not sure how we had room but for dessert we had a baked apple with cream frache ice cream. So good.

I was so full the next day I skipped breakfast and had a light lunch.

Our next orgy of eating came the day after christmas. We have been wanting to go to Nopalito since it opened a few months ago, but every time we drive by their is a long line. We figured the day after christmas would work in our favor since San Francisco seemed to be a ghost town. It turned out to be a good plan, we got parking in the free parking garage and we got seated immediately. Since we had never been there, we went crazy with the ordering. We had : beets, tortilla chips smother in hot sauce, fish taco, sweet tamale, quesadilla, sangria and horchata. It was all excellent. We probably didn't need the chips cause they could feed 4 people and were filling but it was all sooo good.

beets

tamal

horchata and roasted chickpeas

Today we wound up being out during lunch time. Mr. Tiki was craving Indian food so we headed to Japantown. While we like the Japanese food in Japantown, we love the Indian place, Dosa. Nice, bigger and just cooler then their location in the Mission. We saw they were doing brunch and were curious. We had some chai, vada (lentil donut) in yogurt with tamarind and mint. Look at that thing! Looked great and was very tasty.

vada, there is a donut hiding under all that yogurt.

We also got the Egg Poriyal Dosa, Indian spiced scrambled eggs in a dosa wrapper, with chutneys and soup.

This was our third time at Dosa and we had learned after the first time we went and ordered way too much food to really think what we were getting. We didn't think this would be that much food but it still was for an entree and appetizer. We love Dosa and now we have somewhere to get a different kinda brunch.

After we got home, I needed a nap. Shockily, we did make it to the health club. For dinner, all we had was rice and steamed broccoli. I have a feeling I might be too full for breakfast tomorrow.

cookies 2009

2009-12-18T11:26:00.001-08:00

cookies 2009
Originally uploaded by AlohaTiki

My mom has sent her wonderful christmas cookies to us, they are:

snowballs with kiss, Festive butter cookies with sprinkles, Cut out cookies from nephew, jiffy choc drops with chips, anise cherry butter cookies, kookie canes, cocoa cookies (grandma recipe) lemon bars, pizzelle, and anise biscotti.

Smuggler's Cove

2009-12-14T16:51:00.001-08:00

upstairs ceiling
Originally uploaded by AlohaTiki

The other weekend I was able to score 2 preview tickets for the yet to be opened Smugglers Cove. It was pretty amazing. Like a grown up tiki bar. The shrines to the old San Francisco Tiki bars are neat. It has 3 floors, though isn't very big.

The drink menu has 80 drinks on it! I made it thru 2. I had Donn's own Grog and the Parisian Blonde. The PB was so good. The grog was good as well.

We are so stoked this place is in San Francisco so we can bus or take a cab home. Mr. Tiki hasn't been yet since he was off eating udon in Japan, but can't wait to take him.

More photos here.

Home run inn

2009-10-24T10:38:00.001-07:00

Home run inn
Originally uploaded by AlohaTiki

At work today we are having a special program and refreshments. I only have so much money so I always make my coworker drive me to Costco since I am not a member and she its.

Upon walking into Costco I smell something familiar, I dismiss it until we get closer and I see the Home Run Inn table.

HOT DAMN! As many know, when I visit Chicago my father often makes me a cheese one and then i pack it up and eat it on the plane. It is my fave frozen pizza, ever.

So I guess Home Run Inn is trying to get Costco to carry them. They started to give out free samples and we had a bunch. My co-worker liked it. She talked me into buying a 2 cheese box for $10.89.

My day is made.

Chaat Bhavan

2009-10-21T21:13:00.001-07:00

khus and mango lassi
Originally uploaded by AlohaTiki

Mr. Tiki was in Fremont the other month and stumbled across a south indian vegetarian place. While he was there he kept sending me texts about all the crazy stuff on the menu.

This past Sunday we found ourselves in Fremont and I was dying to try this place. We started with the pepto bismal colored rose lassi and mango lassi. The mango was really good. Rose always taste like you are drinking a flower.

I ordered the kadhi chaval which is a curry made with chickpea flower and yogurt. I didn't expect it to be so watery. it was just ok. I also ordered the vada pav which is a spicy potato patty on a bun. It is Indian street fast food. McDonald's needs to carry one.

Mr. Tiki got the pav bhaji with papad. It was like vegetarian sloppy joe on a bun. It was incredible. I want to try and make it at home.

Overall we where happy with our Chaat Bhavan experience and look forward to working our way thru their massive menu.

Japan - Days 6/7

2009-10-03T17:54:00.000-07:00

While watching tv we learned that a typhoon was approaching Japan. We weren't really sure what that meant and how bad things would be. An old friend of Mr. Tiki was coming to meet us for lunch, she was worried about us walking outside so she came to pick us up at the hotel. We took the underground walkway to the Iseten department store. We walked thru the food hall area and it was just amazing how perfect everything looked. We went up to floor 7 to Chaya, a macrobiotic place. It was pretty peaceful in there. Had a seat by the window so could see the driving rain. We had a rice curry that was good and had a nice time visiting with our friend.

We then were headed to Koenji to visit some friends at their record stores. Went to Record Boy and Record Shop Base. We stopped for a snack at the Freshness Burger and I got to try the "4 kings of cheese in wine" hot dog.

it was ok. I would of like to walk around Koenji but it was a total downpour, we where just soaked. At Freshness Burger we ran into a friend who said more folks we knew where hanging out nearby. We went over to meet them and hung out. We then found out that maybe we should head back to Shinjuku because our train line, being elevated, likes to stop running when there are typhoons. Once back in Shinjuku we went to the food hall in the Odakyu department store. We picked up some bento boxes and stood in line for some fried stuff but then gave up cause the line wasn't moving. We went to the inari counter and just picked some. Not all where sweet which was interesting.

We ate our dinner in our hotel and saw it had stopped raining. Once we felt that it wasn't quiet because we were in the eye of the storm, but it was quiet cause the storm had passed we went outside. We wandered around Shinjuku some more.

We wound up hungry again so we went to piss alley which was much more lively at night. The places where so small that we weren't sure where to go but this one stall had a lady calling out so we picked them. Had some tofu, peppers and green onion on skewers with some beer. It wasn't the best food and kinda pricey for sitting in an alley but the experience was cool.

The next morning we woke at 7:30am and went for a walk. Went to the Shinjuku Central Park since it was close. Saw where all the homeless people live. Walked back to hotel and got our bus to the airport. Ate some ok udon at the airport then flew home. Couldn't sleep and my cold felt bad again. Had the worse airplane food ever. Got a taxi home then took a nap. Spent the next few weeks sick with my cold and battling jetlag that woke me at 4am.

Despite it all I had a great time in Japan, glad I finally got to see the place even if some of the time there was work related. Would love to go back and see other parts of Japan, though I already have a list of places to revisit and visit in Tokyo.

all the photos are here.

Japan - Day 5

2009-10-03T17:32:00.000-07:00

Since we had such a late night we wound up sleeping till 11:45am! We got up and walked across town to go to the Flea Market at Hanazono-jinja shrine which is suppose to happen every Sunday. Well, not this Sunday apparently. Walked around the shrine. I liked the wooden prayer blocks you would see at shrines.

Our original plan was to go to Shibuya to eat then to Harajuku to see people dressed up crazy. We made it to Shibuya after walking thru another underground maze of subway. Pretty hungry by time we got there so we just ate at a soba place in the train station. I had kitsune soba, which is a fave. It was good and cheap. When we hit the street, it was getting colder and started to sprinkle. We just wandered around and shopped and looked at stuff. We stumbled across a fabric store called Marunan that was pretty great. I bought some fabric on sale.

We wound up in an alley where some love hotels are.

Found a big manga store called Mandarake that had really great old Japanese toys in glass cases. Sadly, they would not allow photos.

This is the only Subway we saw, why don't we get the indian options?

We also discovered Tokyu Hands, a large DIY store that I fell in love with and bought a bunch of bento supplies for Devil Doll. They had 7 floors and I would of liked to of spend a few hours there.

We heard that the cosplay in Harajuku was canceled due to rain, though we did see some people dressed up. So we didn't make it to Harajuku. By now it was raining harder and was colder since I was dressed for much hotter weather so we went back to the hotel and changed. When we went to head out for dinner I made us walk by a place near our hotel called Tahitian Noni Café. Noni is a fruit that some feel have great health benefits. The café had some nice tikis and the food was kinda Hawaiian. We didn’t eat there so since it was raining we headed underground towards the train station. By the Disc Union Punk Market record store we discovered another revolving sushi place that was really good. Mr. Tiki was happy cause he thought the last kaiten sushi place was pretty awful. This place had some things we never seen.

Next we went on a mission to find the tiki bar called Tiki Tiki. I had many maps to help. We found it on the 4^th floor of a building. The elevator takes you straight there and you are greeted by a stuffed crocodile. The place is pretty big and really nice looking, very old school tiki. We sat at the bar and got some drinks. I got the tiki tiki since it came in the souvenir mug, which is kinda ugly but hey it is from Tokyo. They have dancers throughout the night and charge you 500 yen to see them whether you can see them or not. They did some Hawaiian songs and weren’t bad. A couple near us at the bar had a smoking coconut drink that was just kinda crazy. We also ordered “fruits Macedonia” which was a small amount of fruit cocktail in a tiny espresso cup. With such a strange name we just had to know.

After our drinks headed back to the underground tunnel to the hotel.

Japan - Day 4

2009-10-03T14:39:00.000-07:00

Woke up and went to swim in the pool, chilly again but we got a little swimming in. We left the hotel and took a different route to some record stores we wanted to go to. Saw a shrine and some different vending machines along the way. We did a little shopping then went to eat at Freshness Burger. This is some chain that has a tofu burger that the band last night told us about. It was good, tofu on a roll with avocado and some sauce that tasted like salsa and mayo. It was another hot day so I enjoyed some fresh squeezed lemonade and a/c at the Freshness.

Walked around some more then head back by Shinjuku train station and saw Omoide-yokocho, also know as “piss alley”. It is this post war alley that has wooden stalls that sell yakitori and beer. It wasn’t very hopping in the afternoon though. They are suppose to be tearing it down any day though. Wandered around Shinjuku more, thru endless tunnels and shopping centers.

They seem to like cute pigs on signs so here is one I took for Devildoll

We cut thru the train station to get back to our hotel and got waylaid by a stall selling very cute bags. After much agonizing I bought a small shopping sack with a elephant and wiener dog on it. Then we went to stall called Bagel and Bagel, who sold interesting flavor bagels. We picked up a curry bagel and soy milk and edamame. I resisted their perfect rectangles of different flavors of cream cheese, called cheese cakes.

This turned out to be our western food day because we then went and had pizza at some sit down place in the train station. It was good, super thin crust. We had a cheese pizza and a mushroom and tuna. I was surprised to see we got Asian style mushrooms on the pizza, but it was really tasty. Next time perhaps I will put some shiitake on my pizza.

Went back to the hotel, changed then went back to the train station. We were headed 1 stop north to shin-okubo were we where going to see another show. Got there and guessed the direction the club was in and after a few blocks saw some friends so we knew it was right. I was most worried about this show, about it being super packed, super hot and smoky. All came out true. What really sucked was that they wouldn’t allow ins and outs so you where trapped down there.

I found a nice wall to prop up next to and stayed there the rest of the night fanning myself with all the other hot, sweaty people. Paintbox were really good though. I was most excited to finally see Gauze. They were part of the story about how Mr. Tiki and I met and we tried to get them to play our wedding.

While I was melting in the back, Mr. Tiki was on stage, drinking beer and hanging out. After the show ended he came for me and brought me back stage where I stood under some glorious a/c. I then got to meet 3 members of Gauze. We hung out and drank for a while, I even got a taste of Havana Club rum, which is banned in the US. At one point in the evening the drummer of Gauze rolled me on his back to help me get the kinks out. I must say it felt incredible!! I had a lot of fun hanging out with Tomio from Crow that night as well. Crow is going to come visit next year, which I am looking forward to see them again.

By now it was too late for the train so we took a taxi back. The cab driver took us to the wrong hotel, which was across the street from ours so he charged us less so that was cool. We then had a visit to our hotels convience store. I discovered some British cookies (McVitties mango) that were so good I brought 3 bags home.

day 4 photos here.

Japan -Day 3

2009-09-23T22:13:00.000-07:00

Slept like a log and sore throat was gone. Still felt like I had a cold but didn’t feel that bad. Mr. Tiki not feeling too great but that was due to the beers. We had a light breakfast then walked outside. Felt like a wall of heat, so we headed to the department stores for a/c and lunch. Kept looking for these foodhalls with bentoboxes, we found some but they seemed more high end and had too many choices to make a decision. Plus if we did decide on one, we would have nowhere to eat it.

Followed a sign for the “Gourmet Ghetto”, it turned out to be a German beer hall in the basement and 2 other places one floor up, not much of a ghetto. We picked a Japanese place. The waitress took us outside to point to the photos of the lunch specials. We picked a soba and unagi don set. We noticed the place was full of old Japanese people so we figured it must be good and it was. One thing I loved about Japan was they just give you your check without asking and often when they give you your food. Then you pay at the counter, I liked that. No stress of trying to flag down the server. The no tipping was nice as well.

Since we were already connected to the train station we decided to just head to Yokohama now instead of later. We were going to Yokohama to see some bands play. Yokohama is about a 30 minute train ride south of Tokyo.

We got there and it seemed not as hot so that was nice. We wandered around the underground and found “Little Italy” which had a bunch of Italian places to eat and plastic Italian food on display. For some reason only Japanese food looks good represented in plastic.

I had read in Tiki Magazine about some Hawaiian places in Yokohama so we sought out The Bay Quarter Mall. Found the Hawaiian Café so we had malasadas and Lion Coffee. They had travel brochures for trips to Hawaii around. We then went to the Hula Hawaii, a store selling Hawaiian goods.

They actually have a ton of stores in Japan. I got a nice Tahiti Hinano shirt for 50% off so that was cool. Also in the Bay Quarter mall is Kua ‘Aina burgers, which they have on Hawaii as well. I was really curious what the Yokohama – Hawaii connection since they also have a location of the Tiki Tiki bar there. Whatever the reason, I was happy to shop and eat malasadas.

We then took the train a few stops down to Ishikawacho Station to where the show was. We instantly got lost upon leaving the station. We later realized the pedestrian bridge that didn’t look very promising was actually what we should of took. We did find the entrance to Chinatown (eventually). The Chinatown was a decent size and so clean! It looked more upscale then the San Francisco’s Chinatown, less produce marts, more upscale restaurants.

We powered Mr. Tiki up on some Sta-ba (starbucks) and then tried to find the club. We did find a shrine and an antique store full of Shag tiki mugs (on sale) and some tikis. I shockingly bought nothing. We then ran into our friends from Texas (and one of the bands playing that night) a block from the club. We walked with them to a record store, walked by the baseball stadium where there was a game about to happen. Saw lots of good street food vendors. Went to an AM/PM and I was introduced to a Japanese style peanut butter sandwich which was like a sealed filled cube of white bread with no crust. It was ok, filling at least.

We went back to the show then left again with some Texas friends who were in desperate need of decent food. Since we sort of knew where Chinatown was we took them there. Happily we found a great place called Shin Shin (152 Yamashita cho) were the owner spoke perfect English. This came in handy since our vegetarian friends had many special requests.

We walked back to Club FAD and saw WB2D play and Paintbox, who we came to Japan to see. Luckily I was a little OCD about the train trip to Yokohama and wound up printing the train schedule. Realized that the last train to Shinjuku was leaving at 11pm and we still had to get to the Yokohama station. So we had to leave Paintbox after song 5 (they were only playing 8) and made it to our trains with a little time to spare. Mr. Tiki bought a huge manga to read on the train. When we got off at Shinjuku I turned around and saw station attendants pushing people into very crowded trains. I am assuming on the weekends the last train is always like that, glad we where getting off.

Video of Paintbox doing Cry of the Sheep.

Walked back to the hotel with our nightly stop at Natural Lawson, picked up a bag of macadamia nuts with freeze dried cheese from Australia. It was, strange.

To see up to Day 3 photo set, click here.

Japan- Day 2

2009-09-10T22:01:00.000-07:00

Mr. Tiki slept pretty well, I slept horrible. Kept waking up every 2 hours and woke up with a sore throat. Mr. Tiki was sick before we left but was fine now, guess it was my turn. Since we were meeting an old friend of his in a few hours I didn’t want to stay in the hotel and “rest” so I just took cold-eze all day, drank tons liquids and by the end of the day my sore throat was gone at least.

We got up and went to our new favorite convenience store, Natural Lawson. The regular Lawson didn’t seem as good. We bought some more stuff for breakfast, personal banana, yogurt and I got some strange rice circle that had a meat patty on top. Ate breakfast in our room watching Japanese children’s tv and looking at our 31^st floor view.

We went down to the hotel pool, removed our shoes and was confronted with freezing water. We eventually swam a little bit but wasn’t expecting it to be so chilly.

Our friend came to the hotel to meet us and we set off for Shinjuku train station. It is the largest in the world and something like 2 million people pass thru it a day. I felt by the end of my trip I saw all 2 million of those people. I am still having dreams of walking around the endless tunnels of the train station. Luckily our Japanese friend helped us along and showed us how to buy tickets.

He took us to Asakusa. This area was founded in the 7^th century. You first approach a covered market that sells sweets and trinkets then you reach the Senso-ji temple and Kaminarimon (thunder gate). On the grounds is also the 5 storey pagoda.

We wandered around the area for a while and down some back streets.

We told our friend we wanted kaiten (revolving) sushi so he found a place.

The sushi ranged from good to not so good. But he showed us how you make your own tea with power so that was cool. I think I enjoyed it more then them. We tried to buy our friend lunch but I think he felt bad that the place wasn’t very good so he bought us lunch.

We then took the train to Akihabara, which is known for all the stores selling electronics. We went to one and it was hard to resist buying tiny cameras. We really wanted to see robots though…

We then took the train to Ueno Park, which seemed rather large, but was nice. There are a lot of museums and temples in the park.

This is a body of water covered in massive lotus flowers. They are huge.

After being stung by a bug I discovered a fave new beverage from a vending machine called Calpis Water. I thought I was buying a bottle of water but it was like a yogurt drink and very good. The cold bottle also felt great on my bug bite.

By the pond we saw these crazy turtles and fish fighting over bread. We happened upon self peddled boats. We forced our friend into a pink swan boat for the next 30mins.

That night he took us to meet some other friends at a Izakaya, which is like a Japanese pub that you can get small plates. We put our shoes in lockers and sat on low benches. To use the bathroom we had to put on special shoes. Our friends ordered a lot of food, which I wish I got a photo of. Fish fillet, burdock fries, French fries, small fish with head, chicken skewers and pizza. Pizza was a flour tortilla with white cheese, bacon bits and garlic flakes. Um, ok. I asked my friend the name of the place and it was something like “back to the country.” They must love fried food in the country. On this sign, the place is the one with the hut, it was in the basement.

We walked back to the hotel and stopped at Natural Lawson. They had moved everything in the store around since we had been there this morning. A cruel joke on drunks but I was stone sober and found it odd.

To see Day 1 & 2 photo set click here.

Japan- Day 1

2009-09-08T20:27:00.000-07:00

Japan, not sure where I even begin. I always liked Japanese things, starting with an early love of Hello Kitty. Once moving to San Francisco I discovered Japanese food, Japantown and endless Japanese punk bands on my couch. Mr. Tiki always would say "you would love Japan, I should take you there." So after the millionth time he said that I made him take me.

Mr. Tiki does some business in Japan and had lot of trepidation about this trip since he hadn't been in 10 years and his Japanese was rusty. We left on his birthday and flew for 10 hours. United, ugh. Next time I pack a burrito. Mr. Tiki had some odd oatmeal that was cooked for like 8hrs. I had some not good chicken and a ok pasta dish. I think we only slept for an 1hr or so, luckily we got in a little early. Immigration has no line, which was a first. We got fingerprinted and photo taken electronically. Got our bags and headed to the airport bus. The travel agent booked us on this bus. At first I was wary of the cost but the fact we wouldn't have to take the train and it dropped us off at our hotel was appealing. I am now sold on it. It is awesome and easy. While waiting for the bus, Mr.Tiki got us some cold green tea (ugh), coffee in a can and some onigiri rice balls.

On the way to the hotel saw my new fave sign, for Yamato transport co. Mama cat with kitten. I want this on a sticker or t-shirt.

We got to our hotel, the Keio Plaza in Shinjuku after a interesting trip into Toyko. They took us to our deluxe room and we nearly fainted. WOW! 31st floor, view, huge room. This was the nicest hotel room we have ever stayed in. We were stoked that we would have 6 nights here in this swank hotel, good job travel agent!

Since it was warm out we changed then hit the streets of Shinjuku. Learned quickly that streets don't have names in Tokyo, only major ones. We kept turning around to remember what stuff looked like so we could get back to the hotel. The huge, lattice looking cocoon building was a great help.

I was starving but we hit some record stores first and wandered around. I was too out of it so Mr. Tiki just randomly picked someplace that looked chill and we could sit down. Happily, he picked someplace that had the best udon noodles ever! I don't know what the place was called. They gave us a english menu, something like Udon City but here is their website. It appears they make the noodles by hand daily and deliver them to the 3 restaurants in Shinjuku. I had the cold udon noodle salad with tofu, bonito flakes and some kind of dressing. Mr. Tiki had soba noodles and ginger dipping sauce. Both where excellent. Thank god I grabbed their business card so I could find them again. While looking at their website I now realize we had one like a block from the hotel!

We hit some more record stores and I explored the fascinating world of the convenience store. Made a decision that I can't buy all the cute stuff so I will just take photos of it. Went back to the hotel and crashed.

Day 1 of the photo set is here.

Las Vegas 2009

2009-09-06T21:54:00.000-07:00

A few months ago I ran across a blog post that said Les Grands Ballet des Tahiti was going to be in Las Vegas. They are the premier dance troupe from Tahiti who rarely perform in the U.S. We checked the calendar and decided to plan a quick trip to Vegas. We hadn’t been to Las Vegas since 2003 or so and didn’t really like it on that trip. We made a plan to have a different kind of trip. After talking to a friend we decided not to stay on the strip but to stay downtown. Found a cheap deal for the Golden Nugget and the shark tank swimming pool sounded cool.

Flash forward a few months and with an impending trip to Tokyo for the end of the month we were wondering why we where going to Vegas, even if it was for 2 nights.

We had the last flight out of town, which wound up even later due to an equipment delay. We eventually got to our hotel at 1:30am.

Then next day we used our $20 hotel food credit at the hotel buffet, we played it generally safe. Then we were off to the Neon Museum Tour at a secret location. They take you on an outdoor tour of old neon signs of Vegas. We loved this, which is exhibited by the 50 plus photos we took. I would recommend this tour to anyone but it gets hot on the concrete so bring some water. They have vending machines in the main building in case you forget.

Our tour guide told us about the evolution of the neon signs and how they got them. He also told us they are building an actual museum that I think will be open around 2011 and some of the signs will get lit up. It is always heartwarming to see urban archeology in action and preservation happening. Thanks to Mr. Tiki for letting me use some of his photos, since I didn't know I had a smudge on my lens.

After the tour we headed to Mandalay Place to go eat at the Burger Bar. We had been watching Top Chef Masters and where charmed by Hubert Keller. The BB was great. Mr. Tiki had the veggie burger, which was pretty amazing. I had a beef burger, which was pretty good. We like how you can customize your burger. Afterwards we walked around and went to the Luxor and felt like we where in Egypt.

We then headed back to the hotel to try out the slide thru the shark tank. You go so fast you don’t see them. It was nice to hang out and see the fish though.

Later we wandered out to the Fremont Street Experience which was kinda odd. We tried to find somewhere to eat and settled on some Chicago pizza place. It was ok. We then took a cab to Frankie’s Tiki Room, a 24hr newish tiki bar. It was small but looked great. You can get any drink in a mug to take home. I got a drink in a tiki slot machine mug, which is really nice.

The next day we checked out and took a trip to the Charleston antique mall. There was suppose to be a tiki stall but couldn’t find it. We then went to the Paris hotel and had crepes, they were good but we ate way too much. Walked around for a bit then headed to the Pinball Hall of Fame. The PHF was far from the strip and in a run down strip mall. Walking into it felt like visiting an arcade in 1983. They had a ton of pinball machines from all time periods. We spent about $7 playing for a while which was fun.

By now it was time to head to the Clark County Library for the Tahitian dance show. We had bought tickets for the earlier show and I guess they didn’t sell a lot of tickets since we got to sit wherever. They show was called Maimiti and it was about the love story between Fletcher Christian of the Bounty and his Tahitian honey. The dancing and music were great. We did learn that they will be performing at the Paris hotel starting in October. Here is some video of them doing the show we saw but we didn't get the boat.

We then had to hustle to the airport since the show started late but made our flight, which happily left on time.

We had a really good, short trip to Las Vegas. We now want to go back, next time we will stay on the strip and hit Liberace’s Italian restaurant, which is supposedly haunted by his ghost!

For more photos, click here.

Chicago 2009

2009-08-20T21:45:00.000-07:00

Last month I attended a library conference in Chicago and as luck would have it is the same place that my friends and family live. Thank you place of work for a free trip home! The conference was good, though held in McCormick Place West which isn't really by anything. Luckily, my father drove me to the conference every day so I didn't have to shlep on the train and shuttle buses.

My first day of conference was on Saturday. I spent most of in workshops. When I would move from one conference room to the next, I noticed the vending machines get increasingly decimated as the day went on. We librarians don't have a lot of money and conference center food is always so much $$. I actually had to stand in line to buy a Pepsi. I wish I would of taken a photo of the chips machines where by the end of Saturday there was only 1 bag of funyuns left. I went to the conference for 3 days, walked by Neil Gaiman.

Also got to meet my aunt at the exhibits one day so that was cool. Was very impressed that her library rented a bus, bought them lunch and took them all to the exhbits.

By Monday, I had enough conference.

While in town I got to see Panzerotti girl and her brother who is in Library school so that was cool. She took us to this crazy old school bar called the California Clipper. It was pretty awesome. Though I put the wrong address in my iphone nearly gave Panzerotti girl a heart attack as we took a scenic detour thru the hood. oops. At this bar they make their own grape soda. The main room is lit red with cool old booths and then another room that has a tiki vibe going on. We stayed and watched a band and bought some tamales off some tamale guy.

The next day I hung out with my library school friend and he took me to the Billy Goat Tavern. I have never been but I will be back. I had an excellent double cheeseburger.

I then had some time to myself so I walked down to Millennium Park and really like the garden and crazy bridge there. I wandered across the street to the Chicago Yacht Club, where I spent a lot of my youth with a friend whose family owned a sail boat. By now it was time to meet my friend, her husband and 18mo old and we checked out the new wing of the Art Institute. It was nice but I think I like the older part better. They then took me to a really good soul food place in Berwyn.

My food orgy continued the next day when my folks and I met my sister and wonderful niece Dance Girl and ebullient nephew at Giordano's for stuffed pizza.

On my last night in Chicagoland my folks and I went to a new Italian place in downtown Hinsdale. I guess the space use to use a silent movie theater so that was neat to try and visualize it. Il Poggiolo had some amazing food. I had some gnocchi that just melted in your mouth. Why does Italian food in SF never taste this good?

On the day I left I stopped in to visit a friend and meet her new son, who is super cute. I missed visiting her and her 2 kids on my last visit so I am glad I got to see them this time.

Stay tuned for trip #3 to Chicagoland in October for 20th highschool reunion...

Click here for more photos.

Humphry Slocombe

2009-08-14T21:30:00.000-07:00

I kept reading about this amazing new ice cream place called Humphry Slocombe. They are getting a lot of buzz for their adult flavors like salt and pepper and olive oil. We wound up walking past it one day but were too full on Roosevelts Tamales to have room for ice cream.

But early this week we both weren't having a good day and ice cream was needed. We headed out to HS and got there with about 15 mins to spare.

They are generous with taster which is good since they have some different flavors. Mr. Tiki got a taste of Thai chili lime but decided to go with Blue Bottle Vietnamese coffee and Secret Breakfast (corn flakes and bourbon). Both his flavors where awesome.

I got cinnamon brittle which was awesome as well. We will totally be back but happily the place is across town otherwise we would be there all the time.

Portland 2009

2009-07-16T21:11:00.000-07:00

Portland, a place were a lot of our friends move too and they have a place known as the "City of Books". We always talk about going up there and Mr. Tiki has manage to make it there a few times but not me. A few weeks ago Mr. Tiki decided he had some business to do up there and that we should finally go up to Portland. Plane tickets quickly bought and hotel pricelined.

He went up there a few hours before me on a Saturday and I was to meet him at the hotel. We got a room at the Benson, in the downtown. It is an old hotel with a very nice lobby. Mr. Tiki wound up getting delayed and we didn't meet up at the hotel till 1:30am and then we hunted for free parking which we happily got 2 blocks away.

The next day we didn't really sleep in and the went to meet friends for breakfast at a place that I can't recall its name but I had a great portobello scramble. After breakfast we headed to the Velveteria, the velvet museum. A video will play when you click the link. It is really just a large room but is well worth a trip.

We then did some shopping on Hawthorne and had lunch at Nick's famous Coney Island dogs. Mr. Tiki got some Black Sabbath beer and we got vegan dogs with chili and cheese. It wound up being a ton of food. It was good but I don't need to rush back. After all this excitement it was time to go back to the hotel for a nap.

Post nap we went to Voodoo doughnut, which Mr. Tiki had been to the night before. I just had a basic chocolate cake donut but it was very good. We then walked to Powells, City of books.

It was indeed very large. I like the color coded rooms and the map you can get. I bought some stuff so that was cool.

We then went to Thatch Tiki Bar and met some friends.

It only had a few people there so it was chill. The bar looked great, nice seating areas and velvet paintings of tikis up. I had 2 drinks and was hammered. I like to think it was due to not really eating dinner. Mr. Tiki was very amused.

The next day, feeling hung over, Mr. Tiki found us this great breakfast place called Tin Shed Cafe which I had an awesome breakfast of yogurt and grits.

The grits where so good you didn't even need the cheese. I was feeling much better then we were off to the Classical Chinese Gardens. While it was nice, going when a lot of people were there kinda ruined the zen.

After we were there for a bit it was time for lunch. I really wanted to check out the food carts in downtown Portland.

They appear to be growing in numbers. Just small little food carts, very cute and tasty. We had an empanada at one and a eggplant sandwich at the Czech cart. There were so many other carts we wanted to try but resisted. It made me wished I worked in Downtown Portland, I would never pack a lunch again.

After lunch we went to yet another cute neighborhood then drove to the well hidden airport. Along the way we drove past the other tiki bar but did not stop. Will save that for next time.

For more photos, click here.

In-laws visit

2009-07-10T21:38:00.000-07:00

While having dinner with my parents tonight in Chicagoland, we were talking about my blog and I was mention the photos I had up of my in-laws visit and our Portland trip, I was meant with blank stares. Then I realized I was 2 blog posts behind but had already written them in my head. Oops. Since I am in Chicago for a library convention, which will surely be its own blog post I better get moving.

At the end of May my in-laws from Florida came for visit. The last time they came my poor mother in law wound up in the emergency room after a fall in North Beach. We wanted to make sure this visit would be memorable in a more pleasant way.

We picked them up on a Friday afternoon and after a quick check in at the Tuscan Inn, the hotel of choice for both sides of the family, we whisked them off to the Tonga Room for happy hour. There was a short wait, not sure if it was due to the publicty of them closing or just a Friday evening thing. We had some drinks and witnessed a few rain showers and then we where off.

Next stop was Borobudur, an Indonesian place near downtown that we have never been to but I saw on Check Please. It was pretty crowded but we got the last table. We ordered a ton of food, wish I took a photo. It was all really good. We got shrimp skewers, tempeh, gado gado and noodles. Mr. Tiki and I already planning on bringing friends back there.

The next day we were all still full from dinner that we scrapped our plans for a southern breakfast and decided on yogurt. We took them to Jubili for yogurt. You can get cereal and oatmeal there as well. We all wound up getting yogurt and fruit and it was the right amount of food. We then drove to San Mateo for the Maker Faire. Thinking that going earlier would be better wasn't such a great idea since we had to park super far away. The Maker Faire is like a big science faire. They had a big area full of legos, a shark car,

a robot Obama, craft bizarre, black light room, etc. It was all very differnt and interesting. One of the biggest hits was the sandwiches we got from Pica Pica, I think we had the maize-wich sandwiches. Sadly, we missed the fountain made of mentos and coke.

After the faire we head back to San Francisco, got some coffee then had dinner at Peruvian place called Fresca that we always wanted to eat at. Wow, was it good. Mr. Tiki had the ceviche sampler:

and I had the pepper with quinoa, boy it was good. Everyone was happy with their food.

The next day we picked up the in-laws and went to the Modern Art Museum, which we hadn't been in a long time. Then since we where so close we went to the Cartoon Art Museum to see the Watchmen exhibit. They had original art from the comic and props from the movie.

Our big event for the day was attending Teatro ZinZanni. Hard to explain it actually. It was a dinner show with music, magic, jokes and audience participation. It was really well done and quite an event. My in-laws loved it so I was glad Mr. Tiki though of taking them there.

The next day we took them to the airport sent them on their way with much nicer memories then of their last trip.

For more photos click here.

good, better, best

2009-07-06T20:46:00.000-07:00

I have finally graduated to an iphone and since have the 2 other cell phones I have ever owned and thought it would be interesting to see them together.

Far left, my first Sprint phone. Paid $25 for like 20 mins a month though rarely used up the minutes. Mr Tiki and I use to share this phone.

Middle is my Virgin Phone, pay as you go, usually $10 a month. I remember when I got it (paid $99) was so blown away by what it could do I had to read the manual. Had it for like a year and half before ever sent a text.

Last, the iphone. I have been mooching off of Mr Tiki's iphone for the last 8 months and now finally have my own. Hard to believe in probably 5 years it will be a doorstop when we all have chips implanted in our heads. In the meantime, it will be attached to me ever waking moment. I will enjoy it even more once Virgin Mobile coughs up my old phone number to ATT...

This is my wallpaper on it:

http://www.arkivatropika.com/cgi-bin/item.cgi?item_id=417

Bombolloni!

2009-06-08T15:26:00.001-07:00

Bombolloni custard
Originally uploaded by AlohaTiki

We took a trip to the Ferry Building on Memorial day in search of lunch. We had a very good Japanese lunch at DELICA rf1. But we needed something sweet and since every time I am at the Ferry Building I always stare longingly at the Italian donuts I made Mr. Tiki buy us some.

They had a few different fillings: custard, raspberry and chocolate. We had custard and chocolate. The custard was good but the chocolate was amazing, it was a dense, dark chocolate.

We got the bombolloni here.

We also checked out the new Blue Bottle location which of course was hopping.

The Ferry Building, a dangerous place.

Beach day!

2009-05-04T17:33:00.001-07:00

Muir Beach
Originally uploaded by AlohaTiki

Geez, hard to believe a few weeks ago it was 92 degrees and we took a trip to the beach. We first went to Muir Beach, walked around then went to Stinson Beach. At Stinson we parked it for a few hours. Did realize we we need longer beach towels. I hate having my feet hang off of the towel.

It is rarely that hot here but when it is, you need to strike fast cause you only get hot weather for 3 or so days. I was very happy that this last round of hot weather fell on my 3 day weekend. Now I wish it would come back!

Hidden places

2009-04-11T13:03:00.000-07:00

Mr. Tiki was planning on going to some yardsales in the East Bay, I wasn't too keen on going but he bribed me with hot cross buns and a promised visit to the Italian deli.

The first sale was kinda strange, in like a parking lot in a an alley. I didn't buy anything but sat in the sun and read my hot dog book.

The next sale was on the water in Oakland. We thought the listing was fake but it was indeed a sale and much much more. Set back from the street, towards the marina where all these industrial art studio/workspaces. I think people lived there as well. It is just was so strange and wonderful. The sale was late getting started so Mr. Tiki sat in their home made metal UFO coffee garden. It was self-serve and the milk you squeezed out of baby bottles. I wandered around and took some photos. First I walked to the water:

I met a guy who said to me "this is a very unusual place"

By the water I saw a washed up boat:

I loved this house and the pufferfish:

ships wheel with sparkplugs:

Mr. Tiki liked the funeral and pizza delivery hearse:

I loved this, the soldiers on a rocket, next to a shipping container that says "Oakland Rivera" but best of all the shipping container is Matson. Matson use to be the big cruise line from San Francisco to Hawaii/South Pacific.

I didn't buy anything at this sale but Mr. Tiki did, that is ok. cause the setting was totally worth seeing.

We then headed to Genova Deli (across from the wonderful Dona Tomas) I got a salami, cheese, roasted red pepper and marinated mushroom sandwich, which was great. We also bought a massive frozen lasgana to feast on later. But best of all was the artichoke and cheese arancini, so good...

Swizzle sticks

2009-04-08T12:55:00.000-07:00

Mr. Tiki went to a yard sale and came home with a ton of awesome swizzle sticks. Most are from Miami but some from New Orleans and Boston. Not all tiki but all very cool. I think I need a book on old Miami to learn about some of these places. Some in the photo:

Tahitian Bar at the Castaways
Poodle Room at Fountainebleau
Marco Polo
Wreck bar at the Castaways
Water Gate Inn
Boom Boom Room at Fountainebleau
Eden roc
Outrigger at Sheraton Charles New Orleans
Polaris

Roosevelt Tamale Parlor

2009-04-06T12:27:00.000-07:00

The other weekend the weather was wonderful, sunny and warm. Mr.Tiki dragged me out of the cold house otherwise I wouldn't believe it was nice out. We headed to 24th street in the Mission in search of the $3 gourmet donuts I had heard about.

24th street is part of the Mission off a bit of the main part of the Mission, near the wonderfully art deco General Hospital. We located the roll up door that is Dynamo Donuts. They had about 4 different kinds. I had a lemon pistachio that was $3. It was very good but not sure I would want to pay $3 again for a donut, sorry no photos, we where so hungry we ate them quickly. We then walked around and found the new ice cream place Humphry Slocombe which has unusual flavors. Sadly, we didn't try any because we had lunch at the Roosevelt Tamale Parlor, this has been there since 1919. We shared some squash and black bean and red mole tamales.

Both were very good. Mr. Tiki said the mole was excellent and he isn't much of a mole fan. We liked Roosevelt's but were so full that ice cream was out of the question. Will have to wait for a day when it is really hot out, which could be a while.

Bouquets to Art 2009

2009-04-04T14:47:00.000-07:00

Bouquets to Art 2009
Originally uploaded by AlohaTiki

A few weeks ago we went to the annual Bouquets to Art at the de Young Museum. The week long exhibit has local florists creating arrangements inspired by art work in the museum.

We first saw this a few years ago when it was the Palace of the Legion of Honor. When we saw a floral arrangement with a skull in it, we were hooked. We missed the last 2 years I think but this year I was determined to see it.

We went on a Friday night when the museum was open late. Also saw the Warhol and Yves Saint Laurent exhibits. Saw some crazy arrangements but sadly they had none in the Oceanic Art area which was a total bummer. Here are few or click here to see the photo set.

Chicago 2009

2009-04-04T12:14:00.000-07:00

I realized a few months ago that I haven't celebrated my birthday in the homeland since I moved to San Francisco 10.5 years ago. One reason is February is not the most desirable time to go. Of course once we bought tickets, Chicagoland proceed to have a super horrible winter. Mr. Tiki and I worried for our thin, wimpy San Franciscan constitutions.

We arrived on a Friday, out of our heads with lack of sleep from staying up too late packing the night before. My folks picked us up and we went had a nice dinner at Coopershawk winery, where they had this really strange wine decanter that is worth going just to see it in action. The food was very good as well. We got back to my folks and tried to stay awake.

Then next day we woke to see a whole bunch of snow. Mr. Tiki is from the south and this was the most snow he had ever seen. He really enjoyed throwing snowballs at me. We drove out to my friends new house in Oak Park and had a nice lunch with her family. We then headed to another friends to pick her up on the way to where we were celebrating my birthday, Tiki Terrace.

I had been wanting to go to the dinner show at the Tiki Terrace for years and what better excuse to go for my birthday. My folks, niece and nephew met us there. The place was in a strip mall but once you walked inside you where transformed to polynesian paradise. They has all the right touches, tikis, fish floats, rattan. The place was done up very well, not tiki tacky at all. We ordered a ton of food and drinks, all was very tasty. Then the dance show began. They did dances from tahiti, new zealand, Hawaii, all very good. They also pulled up people who where having their birthdays. I got pulled up and did pretty well I though. It was a Hawaiian so more arm movements then hips. Then it was back to the real dancers, who where all very good.

The next day we were up early and off to Milwaukee. They had way more snow up there, which made driving around a lot of fun. We met up with Devildoll and had lunch on the east side. Due to her GPS being high we took a strange way to get there that took us through a part of Milwaukee that is true Milwaukee. I really wanted to get out and take photos every other block of very cool old buildings. But for some reason on this trip I didn't take another photo. My camera and I seem to be on the outs for some reason. Hopefully we can find the love again soon.

Anyway, always good seeing DD and Milwaukee. We hit some antique stores which always make me cry cause they are so cheap compared to the ones out in the bay area.

The next day we went to visit a friend and her very cute new baby then all headed to my sister's house for my birthday dinner with my nephew and niece, who will henceforth be referred to as Dancegirl. We got to play some rock band and wii with them which for Mr. Tiki and I who haven't really played video games since the '80s, wasn't really are best showing. Had a very good birthday dinner with some excellent meatballs and cannoli cake. I got sung Happy Birthday while my nephew played along on his trumpet.

On Tuesday we hung out with Panzerotti girl and went to a junk shop that horrified me and her and Mr. Tiki where very amused by. We went into Chicago and always amazed by how much stuff has changed.

The next day we flew out but first I had my birthday Cheese dog and then my folks took us to an excellent preflight dinner at Tuscany. We hadn't had Italian food that good in a long time. My gnocchi was incredible. And I got sung to by the staff and a piece of tiramisu. We rolled out of there so full and happy that we wouldn't be tempted by crappy airport food.

Fish float

2009-03-12T21:35:00.000-07:00

Mr. Tiki came home with this recently:

Never have seen a square fish float before but it looks old and cool and was $3. cool!

tonga room

2009-03-05T22:02:00.000-08:00

The big news in the tiki world (other then Martiki leaving Forbidden Island) is that they want to turn the building the Tonga Room is in into luxury condos. San Francisco does not need any more condos but it sure needs a historic tiki bar.

There have been a lot of debates in the last few weeks of save the Tonga vs let it go. We here at alohatiki are of course in the save camp. Sure, the remodel made it look more southwest then Polynesian and the drinks aren't very good and the band isn't that swell either but it is the god damn Tonga room!!

People have been organizing more visits, we where just their ourselves for the Isotope Tiki Bar crawl (though we only crawled to the Tonga). Will it be enough? Will the Fairmont care?

You can sign a petition so show some support here. We will continue to drink there as long as we can, though we aren't eating the pineapple.

*images above are scanned from an old Tonga postcard I have. Below is Mr. Tiki's drink at the Isotope crawl.

cookin'

2009-03-03T21:30:00.001-08:00

whole wheat calzones
Originally uploaded by AlohaTiki

For various health reasons we are trying to cook more in our house. I wanted to show 2 things we are kinda proud of.

We made whole wheat calzones for valentines day. 1/2 are stuffed with ricotta & spinach the other 1/2 with pizza sauce, fake pepperoni and cheese. These came out pretty good though I need to stuff them more. The best thing about them was how filling they are. We wound up freezing a bunch. Not sure why some oozed, will try to fix that in future batches. This was my first time making something with wheat flour, now to use up the rest of the bag.

Much to Mr, Tiki's dismay, 2009 has been a year of colds so that means lots of soups. It now seems we have had ever soup in a 20 mile radius and have burnt out on all of them. I made my first asian noodle soup recently and was stoked how easy it was. Love the Better then Bouillon, with lower sodium.

This soup pictured is a shiitake, quinoa, spinace, cremini cream soup. All tossed in a blender. Might not look pretty but it was really good and pretty filling. I love a soup that the spoon will stay upright in.

This was our first try with quinoa, I have 1/2 box left and am eyeing some other recipes.

While our new joy of cooking is great, the dishes are not.

The folks

2009-02-13T20:30:00.001-08:00

gg bridge
Originally uploaded by AlohaTiki

My folks came to visit the other weekend and they happened to pick a weekend that had great weather. I left work early and we got them at the airport then headed off to the wharf to have them check them into their hotel. Since we had some time before our dinner reservation and Mr.Tiki needed some coffee.

We head out to Crissy Field, which is a park near the Golden Gate Bridge. We had some drinks at the Warming Hut and happily didn't need to be warmed up, I don't think we even had coats on. Then went for a walk towards the beach. It was nice for walking and even better if you have a dog.

By now it was time for our dinner reservations at A16, an nice Italian place that has wood fired pizza like you have in Naples. We ordered some salads, pumpkin gnocchi and 2 pizzas. The pizzas where bigger then we though and some came home with us. We also got their infamous burrata.

Burrata is a fresh Italian cheese, made from mozzarella and cream. The outer shell is solid mozzarella while the inside contains both mozzarella and cream. They are one of the few places in the city that serves it. I had never had it before. While it was good, I don't need to make a special trip for it. We also had some house made salami.

Dinner wound up so filling we declined dessert and had to walk around the Marina for a while. Our orgy of eating has begun.

On Saturday I picked up my folks and we had a detour to the Presidio so see some views. We then got Mr. Tiki and went to the newly open Academy Of Sciences. This museum has a planetarium, aquarium, rainforest, alligators, penguins and stuffed African animals. It felt very space age to be in the museum. It is a bit of visual overload. We didn't get to see the planetarium due to wait being too long.

After the museum we had a some lunch then off to have macaroons in Hayes valley. It seems Hayes Valley is now the epicenter of macaroons, who knew. We tried to eat light since we had dinner ahead of us.

We headed over to Oakland with plenty of time for our dinner reservation at Dona Tomas. We killed some time at the Italian grocery store across the street. Dinner at Dona Tomas was excellent. My mom and I had the house margaritas which were very tasty. All of our food was excellent. I had the chili poblano in cauliflower puree.

Afterwards we took the folks to Forbidden Island, Mr. Tiki picked up their new mug. And as usual the place was hopping.

On Sunday we picked up my folks after church and headed to Napa. We took them to Taylor's Refresher for burgers. We had cheeseburgers, which were really good and filling though they weren't giant. We then checked out the Oxbow Market and then headed back home. On the way home we stopped at Roche Winery for some free tasting.

We took my folks back to casa de tiki and rested up a bit. We then went off for a late dinner at Nopa. Once again, Nopa was amazing and Mr. Tiki and I didn't even get any entrees. This place always gets me to eat vegetables and makes me excited to eat them. We did have to have dessert here, a little pot of chocolate, how could we resist?

The next day my folks left and I think it was 70 degrees. A nice visit indeed.

Denver 2009

2009-01-27T14:45:00.000-08:00

Once again it was time for another library convention. This time it was in Denver. I have flown thru the Denver airport many time and have driven from the airport to Boulder but never actually been to the city.

I wound up having 3 other roommates but one of them had booked us at the Hyatt hotel at the convention center which was a wonderful luxury to be so close. I got there fine and walked around the 16th street mall a little bit to see what kind of food I had nearby. Didn't make it too far since it started to snow. I got back in time to go to a cocktail reception with the roommates. I had some Fat Tire which I didn't realize was local beer, some dry cheese and other little snacks.

From there we went to a dessert reception at the Downtown Aquarium. We walked around first and saw many a fish.

We think they were suppose to a have a tiger there but we never saw it. The dessert reception would make my mother cry. A table for hot chocolate and its fixings (the largest bowl of whip creme ever). Flaming cherries jubilee and bananas fosters tables. Build your own ice cream, mini cheesecakes, tiramisu and other delights. I didn't got too nuts since I didn't want my stomach to hate me later.

Saturday I went on solo adventure. I walked down to the civic center and checked out the public library, which is very large. Then I went to the small but very nice Kirkland Museum of Fine and Decorative art.

I saw many things at the museum that I wanted to take home. I have a weakness for plates and glassware from the 1920s-1960s so this museum was like the motherload for me.

After the museum I walked around Capitol Hill and saw some great apartment buildings. A left turn on Colfax brought me to a healthy Japanese place for lunch, a dusty record store and a nice used bookstore, Capitol Hill Books. I then went back to the convention center and looked at yet more books.

I got back to the hotel and met my roomates at the bar on the 27th floor for a wonderful sunset view of Denver which of course I didn't have my camera for. We then went in search of food and gotten taken by a biking rickshaw to a brewery that was just ok.

Sunday I had my 8am committee meeting but happily we ended early. Was greeted to more snow on the walk back but caught the free shuttle bus. Later in the day we were in invited to a wonderful tea at the incredible looking Brown Palace Hotel. They had a super cool nautical themed bar. Just a really cool old hotel that I will totally stay at if ever in Denver again. Kicking myself that I didn't have my camera at all. The tea was very nice, got some champagne, tea and many snacks.

Monday I got up for the Youth Media awards and got to hear Neil Gaiman win the Newbery award. Click here for when they told him. I haven't read it yet but will now. Went back to the hotel and packed. It was snowing a lot now and one of my roommates was on my flight so I convinced her we needed to leave really early due to the weather. Our super shuttle ride which should of been 30mins took 75mins. Got to the airport with enough time and made it home to be greeted by no snow and a warm 54 degrees.

I liked Denver and knew there was a lot more to explore if I had Mr. Tiki and a car. Will have to go back sometime. Click here for more photos.

Up North

2009-01-18T15:30:00.000-08:00

driving
Originally uploaded by AlohaTiki

A few weeks ago Mr. Tiki and I needed a day trip. We had been meaning to check out some antique stores in Vallejo so we thought it was a good time to head up there.

First we went to Napa to get lunch. We went to Taylor's Automatic Refresher.

I had been to their location at the Ferry Building but wanted to go with Mr. Tiki up to their Napa location. We got there before the lunch rush. Nice looking place, kinda 50's diner modern with booze. Mr. Tiki got that $14 raw ahi burger and fries. I got a grilled cheese with tomato soup. The the grilled cheese was ok but the soup was excellent. The ahi burger got a thumbs up as well. We didn't get any booze though where tempted.

Taylor's is next to a gourmet market place. It was pretty empty on a Saturday afternoon but it was the week after x-mas so hopefully they do better business. Went to stare at the cheese shop for a while. They have a few stores that have locations in SF like Ritual Roasters Coffee (which is actually from the Northwest) and Hog Island Oyster Depot. They had a lot of other cute shops as well.

Next we decided to go into Downtown Napa since we had never been there before. We parked and took a long walk. It was pretty cute and historic looking. Saw lots of old neat buildings. Went to a bunch of antique stores and almost bought a pants suit with the French Polynesian islands on them but Mr. Tiki talked me out of it.

After a coffee break we went to Vallejo. Wow, what a study in contrast. While downtown Vallejo could be nifty looking it looked more like skid row. Some of you might recall that Vallejo is a California city that declared bankruptcy a few years ago. We went to a few antique stores where I kept feeling like we where going to score something good but didn't. One antique store was totally bizarre. Had a basement full of crappy records and the ugliest Asian and African "antiques" upstairs. Wish I took photos, it was truly appalling.

We then headed to the mall part of Vallejo where I found a fabric store I didn't know about. Since we where on the other side of the bay we thought we would eat dinner in the East Bay and went to a tiny thai place that was good though Mr. Tiki was having a low blood sugar moment but kept it together long enough to get some food.

Not sure I need to go to downtown Vallejo again but would go to Napa again.

Christmas 2008

2008-12-30T21:57:00.000-08:00

We had a low key x-mas this year. For x-mas eve we went to a friends which was fun. Got introduced to peanut butter balls frozen with chocolate over them and vegan french onion sour cream. Both incredibly good and very dangerous.

On x-mas day we made vegan apple french toast which was very tasty.

We then opened gifts and talked to family. We got some great gifts from friends and family this year. Mr. Tiki gave me some nice tiki mugs and an electric pasta maker which I have wanted forever! This one came with loads of attachments and I decided we would make rigatoni for dinner. It was very easy to use and of course tasted wonderful.

We made some vegan vodka cream sauce, which wasn't bad, for our sauce. We ended the night with our traditional viewing of Bad Santa.

for more photos click here

Dicken's Fair

2008-12-29T21:35:00.001-08:00

Santa in Corset
Originally uploaded by AlohaTiki

We had always heard about the Dicken's Fair, which is 90,000 square feet of a recreation of 19th Century Dicken's England. It always sounded a bit ridiculous but last year we figured out that they have 4 pubs on site so we thought we should go this year.

As luck would have it through my work they were offering free tickets. We went a few Saturdays' ago and to our surprise we got 2 free tickets. It is normally $22 to get in so we were stoked to get the free tickets and we took the free shuttle there.

Upon walking in with dancers to the left, a pub to the right and tons of people dressed in period costume the first thing I though was "I am in the episode of Firefly where they go to the ball." There was sawdust on the floor and sweet incense burning to get you in the mood.

The thing is huge and has a lot of place to eat, drink and shop. They also have free shows which we caught some of.

We started off with some roasted chestnuts and a peach snakebite from the pub. Then had some fish and chips and finally a roast beef trencher sandwich. Mr. Tiki doesn't eat meat so I ate the roast beef, which I think I only have had Arby's roast beef in my life and found this real roast beef very good.

The bookstore was neat because everything was old. There was also a corset shop that had live models that was getting a lot of attention.

We had a few more drinks and watched a few more shows. It was a fun day and we want to go back next year.

For more photos click here.

Forbidden Island

2008-12-10T21:08:00.001-08:00

nui nui and painkiller
Originally uploaded by AlohaTiki

Mr. Tiki and I feel we are very lucky to live within a 40 min drive of one of the world's best Tiki Bars, Forbidden Island. The problem is, it is kinda far and since we have drive, who gets to drink? We always feel bad that we don't go there more often because I know there are people all over the country that are dying to go there. So I decided one of my new years resolutions is to have every drink on their menu (what a lofty nys goal). We decieded to start early and hope to visit monthly.

We went a few weeks ago since I had just finished reading the fantastic Sippin' Safari and saw they had a Don the Beachcombers drink, the Nui Nui that I had just read about.

Here is FI drink descritpion:

Nui Nui

One of Don the Beachcomber’s greatest, featuring our housemade allspice liqueur and cinnamon syrup, perfectly balanced with fresh citrus- a tribute to the master.

My take, it was something I normally wouldn't of ordered (allspice and cinnamon) but I trust FI and it was very good. It had a lot of depth to it. Mr. Tiki got the painkiller, virgin, since he drove home.

So check back through 2009 and hopefully we can make it through all 29 drinks (not sure what we are doing about the shared bowls though).