Dim sum, a package, and the greatest book ever!!!!

June 27, 2012

`Olu`olu komo mai, kukakuka. (Please come in and let's talk story.)


I know my posts for the last week haven't been very exciting. I've been staying fairly still and trying to let my ankle heal. It is much better today and I am considering increasing my activity starting tomorrow. Tomorrow is the free hula class and I would very much like to go. Unless my ankle makes it known tomorrow that it is not doing ok then I will be going. It is Wednesday and normally I would have gone tot he zoo tonight, but the music is kids playing and I figured I could rest my ankle another night :)

I woke early today to what? You guessed it... rain! However it ended very shortly thereafter. I got ready and headed into work. I arrived at 7:30, so I could be ready to go downtown at 8 for a meeting at the Hawaii State Capitol Building. the building architecture is to remind people of the state. Here is a section pasted from the link about the building:

• The building is surrounded by a reflecting pool, symbolizing the Pacific Ocean.
• The two legislative chambers are cone-shaped, symbolizing volcanoes that formed the Hawaiian Islands.
• The columns around the perimeter of the building have shapes resembling coconut trees. There are eight in either side of the building, representing the eight main islands of Hawai'i.
• The Capitol is built with an open-air design, allowing sun, wind, and rain to enter; the central rotunda opens to the sky.
• When standing in the center of the structure, the chandeliers from both legislative chambers, which represent the sun and moon, can be seen through the glass walls, while the area that is normally reserved for a rotunda in most capitol buildings is left open to the sky. It is said that the sky is Hawaii's capitol rotunda.

I also took a few photos from the inside where we had our meeting. The meeting itself was on services for immigrant populations. This information and opportunity will serve me well during my time in Hawaii, at home in Kentucky, and anywhere I end up in the future.

After the meeting since we were downtown we rode with Lisa and went to have dim sum at Golden Palace in Chinatown.

Dim sum is food items served in bite size, or small size portions or pieces. The meal came with jasmine tea, which was delicious. Each plate or steam basket was only $1.98 so we ate a LOT of items. Shared between 3 people it was super cheap, only $8 each once we were all finished! Having never had dim sum before I cannot compare it. Most of the reviews say this place is good dim sum but not the best you'll ever get. However the bathrooms are described as: "A place you'd go to try meth just once..." I didn't go to the bathroom, thankfully. The servers spoke almost no english and if you even looked at something they would try to put it on your table. You just had to say NO politely but firmly and they'd remove it and not charge. We had a variety of dishes:

This is what we started with - you can see individual pictures below. You can also see the teapot with the jasmine tea.

 I was told this is a shanghai something. Shanghai dumpling maybe? I'm trying to find pictures but it looks like a dumpling so hard to say. This tastes exactly like what we call potstickers (dumplings) at home. This has the ginger, pork, and scallions that is what i am used to getting at Chinese restaurants.

 This had seafood inside. 

 These are shrimp dumplings made with rice flour. It is a sign of a talented chef to make the dumplings translucent. "Though common, steamed rice-flour skins are quite difficult to make. Thus, it is a good demonstration of the chef's artistry to make these translucent dumplings." The shrimp inside are pink, so it was quite a pretty, and tasty, dish.

 Same wrappers as the shrimp, but with spinach, green onion and scallops.

The one on the left (Lisa took the photo for me and it is upside down! But I appreciate her taking it so I could post the image here) is pork and spices in a different type of wrapper - I think this may be the thin wheat wrapper maybe. It also has some sort of yummy sauce. The one on the right was... I dunno. Something good.

 The dessert and fried item cart they brought around. I didn't get a picture of the steamed item cart, which was also very neat!

 Jellyfish! I did try it. It is odd but not bad. It is like a rubber noodle that is not mushy. It actually crunches when you chew, but it is chewy. There isn't a lot of flavor so it is mainly a texture with whatever sauce you add.

Manapua! The sweet fluffy roll with the char siu (sweet BBQ pork) stuffed inside. YUM. We also had a taro dumpling made with mashed taro, mushrooms, pork and spices and deep fried. It was delicious. I forgot to get a picture before we ate them! We also got a fried eggplant stuffed with fish cake. It has a super thin batter and was crispy on the outside. It was covered with a black bean sauce. No picture - sorry. It was very tasty and I liked it!

Ok, these were some sort of steamed rice wrapper with shrimp inside. They are served with a generous coating of sweet soy sauce. The shrimp was good and the wrapped had a good flavor. However, the wrapper was kindof weird... almost slimy but not completely. Not my favorite but it was tasty.

 This is an egg tart. It is actually a sweet custard served in a flaky crust. It was very good.

I want to go back! Tomorrow! There are about a million other dishes I want to try!!! After eating we went back to the office. Ann needed to catch up on some things so I went to my office to get some data results to show her. that is when I realized I didn't have my phone. Luckily after about 25 minutes I found it in Lisa's car where I had set it down to put on my seat belt. WHEW. I showed Ann the data I had and we discussed some things for me to work on tomorrow.

I left a few minutes early so I could come home and make some calls. I also got to video conference with Scott, Michael, Jeff and Rob while they opened the package I sent home. Some of the items needed instructions (DON'T try to chew the seed on the Le Hing Mui candies!), some needed descriptions on what it is used for, and some items were for specific people. I am glad the package arrived and they got their items. They seemed to enjoy it :)  Happy me! I feel like the Pacific Island Santa Clause !

Also, when I got home there was a box waiting for me. Scott had sent me a package with A stuffed Odie (dachshund), a six-pack of Ale-8 and some Blue Monday candy bars to share at work, a box of pain patches, a BELT (WOOHOOO seriously needed that), some sunblock (70+) and lip balm with sunscreen (NEEDED!), a box or organic Chai tea, two big chocolate chip cookies and a snickerdoodle type muffin from the BBB (Bakery, Blessings and Bookstore - my favorite every Thursday haunt at home!), two DVD's - Men in Black and MIB II since I have never seen them, and the Darth Vader and Son book which is cute.

Then comes the GREATEST GIFT OF ALL (and funniest). Scott and Donna gathered bags of the kitties hair when Donna brushed them. They stuck them in ziplock baggies and labeled them, so I would get a giggle and feel like I was home (Scott joked that I could toss it around my room to feel like home). Then he and Michael found the Crafting with Cat Hair book!!!!! This is freaking awesome. I know this is probably not funny or fabulous to anyone else but I think it is such a wonderful thing. My friends and I have joked for years that with all the spare cat hair I should knit a sweater or something. Now I have instructions on how to make it into felt and make crafts from it. Too freaking funny for words. They even included baggies of cat hair for me to make something. For those of you who are allergic I am sorry, the very thought of this probably makes you cringe. However, it is no different that wool for those people allergic to wool. It is just super super cool to me and makes me uber happy!

Here are some, not all, but some of the adorable projects in the book. Just too cute! Mahalo nui loa!!! (Thank you very much!!!)
Finger puppets!

 Book covers!

 Portraits!

 Knickknack boxes!

 Badges!

 And the super fabulous mobile!

I am all full of happy smiles and giggles. I am going to curl up and rest my ankle one last night. I think I'll watch a couple of episodes of Angel on Netflix and go to sleep.My very best wishes to everyone who may be reading this. I may know you or may not, but regardless I appreciate you sharing this time with me. Aloha ahiahi ia oukou! (Good evening to all of you!)

Malama pono, (Take care)
~Melissa