Busy, busy!

Cooking for Solutions, Monterey Bay Aquarium
May 20-22, 2011

Ed came back to California as an invited guest of the Monterey Bay Aquarium to be part of their annual sustainable awareness celebration, and asked if I wanted to come down and help him out with the event. Well, duh. Of course I did! It also happened to be during the same weekend as my sister's college graduation, though, so I arranged for a rental car and made the decision to shuttle myself back and forth between Monterey and San Francisco all weekend. I'm glad I did it, but ugh. That's a lot of driving! But worth it, so worth it.

And kind of funny. There's all these chefs just hanging out and kickin' it...and me. Because I went with Ed everywhere, I think it was just assumed I was a chef too. I even went to a few things "outside guests" weren't invited to, and because I was there, when they asked for everyone to get together for the chef photo, well, I had to get up too and go be in the photo. Which really is the haha part, because someone's gonna have to caption that photo, and when they get to me, some poor editorial assistant won't be able to identify me but will probably be too embarrassed to admit not being able to recognize a "famous chef". Tee hee.

For the main culinary gala, Ed was asked to create a dish using Pacific akule, the Hawaiian word for mackerel scad. Because it's pelagic (which means it doesn't just settle in one place), it can populate anywhere, and so there's no worries for it being overeaten or overfished. In most places, it's a fish more commonly used as bait, but that's the whole point of events like this, to educate the public of other possibilities. Click here for a little slideshow of akule escabeche, our dish offering of the night.

University of San Francisco Gradution, May 21, 2011

Middle sister Alisha, diploma holder from the McLaren College Undergraduate School of Business and Professional Studies (with proud family, parents flew in from Hawaii, youngest sister flew in from Spokane, Washington, where she goes to school, and me, resident noodle cooker)

Finance Major, Japanese Minor...yay!

Hapa Ramen in NonStopHonolulu, Hawaii: IRL

Melissa Chang is a social media and foodie extraordinaire from Hawaii introduced to me by fellow Hawaii transplant Chris Kajioka. Chris and I never travelled in the same circles back home because he does what I call "fancy chef" stuff -- stuff that requires waaaay more knowledge and precise technique and skill than I have -- but since we've been here in the city, we've come to make the Ferry Building our hotspot for photo shoots that get sent back home and make it look like we only hang out at the Ferry Building. Not that I mind the hanging out part, it's that I think I'm wearing the same hoodie in every picture. So I guess this message is really for Chris: we need to start bringing our own backdrops on set to change the scenery. I'll be sure to have a few props on hand as well.

Melissa writes a blog called Hawaii: In Real Life, which puts a name and face to twitter handles that have local ties. She wanted to do a video involving Chris and I, but with my usual aversion to the social media thing, I deflected to Richie, our social media luminary and @haparamen author. Here's the video she made during her visit, which is a great inside look and summary of what we're doing right now: