my virtual me....

this was fun... picking and choosing and creating a virtual character to represent me... (you can't see it in this pose, but I am wearing bunny slippers!)

Huli Sue's Sandwich - totally YUM

 

well, we opened up the second hawaii restaurant a week and a half ago. It has been a bumpy, interesting and exciting ride. Everyone is a bit a tired but some new servers have been hired and the good news is the food is great.

This shot is not a great picture... but-it IS a great dish- it is the Smoked Pulled Meat Lunch Sandwich, served piled mile high with homemade onion rings, slaw, and hand cut fries. These french fries really remind me of festivals, or the Bloomsburg State Fair, back home They are DEEEE-LISH. Totally makes me feel like a kid again!
The rolls are also made fresh every day right in the Huli Sue's kitchen!

you can see the rest of the Huli Sue's Menu for dinner at HuliSues.com

an aside

one of my favorite beaches on the Big Island is the Hapuna Beach state park. It is a great beach when you are looking for the Iconic HAWAII BEACH, white sands, palm trees, lava cliffs shallow enough to get in and out easily and with waves enough on somedays for some body boarding.

It has nice facitilies, showers, a snack stand (with good pink lemonade) and just a fun place for families, for fun afternoons. There are beaches I like more for other reasons... But when I am just feeling like BEACH, I like hapuna.

time flies when you are having fun!

Time passes quickly these days. So much going on. not even time to pause and write about it. This photo is from a week ago, we did a catering at the DONKEY MILL ART CENTER in Holualoa in the mountains above Kona. It was a fundraising kick off event to start to build new classrooms etc at this very beautiful community art school and gallery.

There were 5 other catering or chef's tables there. Ours was lovely and simple but held it's own. We were serving Smoked Salmon tartar on crostini with tobiko, and Smoked pork on homemade tortillas with red pepper jelly. My catering partner was Masami and lovely German Japanese chef we brought here to Kona from our Tokyo Restaurant. The event started at around 4pm and went until about 8. We saw a lovely sunset. And we got rave reviews on our food. More pictures of the Fujimamas Catering Table here.

I loved the little town where the center is, lots of galleries, coffee shops and coffee farms. I wouldn't mind living there until we have something going in Hilo. some day!

The rest of last week until thurs. I was working at fujis in Kona then On THURS we FINALLY OFFICIALLY OPENED HULI SUE'S !!!! So the last three days have been a whirlwind of activity, customers, and trying to figure out some start up systems as we get going. The food is BBQ and some great Chef Mark Vann apps and grill items. Plus I really like the pork stew! (this photo gallery is from a tasting the week before we opened.)

More on all things Huli Sue's and Hawaii- as I have time.

thinking back to vienna

so just about two months ago- I was excitedly exploring and enjoying vienna and prague. this shot was from the MOST adorable bread stall in a christmas market in downtown vienna. What a wonderful experience. Now, with a little more distance from the whole thing I can say this was really really a happy discovery. Such a fun way to enjoy the christmas season, literally on every street corner and town square.

I really enjoyed the food, and especially the cafes/ coffee houses. What a fun pair of cities. I definately want to explore more holiday travel in the future. I also really want to take mom with us to vienna sometime in the future. My mom is a bigger christmas fan than me, and that is saying something. I know she would enjoy it.

So back to the food. Really- outside of the hotels we never had a bad meal. And the breakfasts at all our hotels were perfect. The food and the hot wine in the christmas markets was worth the whole trip. I highly recommend this kind of tour.

visiting the kona brewery

More food news from Kona, Hawaii.
I am still here working happily in our Kona Restaurant. (will be back in tokyo in a few weeks I think...)
Last week the owner of the Kona Brewery and restaurant came in to dinner at Fujimamas. We use Kona beer both here in Hawaii and at the home restaurant in Tokyo. Chatting with Mattson the owner was lovely and I am hoping that when he visits Tokyo in May we can do a beer and food pairing dinner.

So he invited Chris and I over to the Brewery restaurant. We went on Friday night, and were treated wonderfully by the staff. The place was packed. a Big Highlight of the experience is to be able to try a Kona Beer sampler. 4 small tasting glasses.

we had, from left to right above...
Kona Big Wave
A new Lillikoi (local passion fruit) beer
the Black Sands Porter
and
the Hefeweisen which had a little bit of banana taste YUM

I loved both the lillikoi and the hefeweisen!

The restaurant was nice. good outdoor seating. And the pizza was good. All in all a lovely evening.
I am looking forward to doing more with the Kona Beer folks in the future.