Top Ten Count-Down: Favorite Hitch-Hiking Moment.

I leave Maui in T minus ten days. So, here we go with the top ten :)

Hitch-hiking on this island, I have made good friends, lined up a baby-sitting job, been drenched by rainstorms in the bed of many, many large trucks, taken a nap on a tatami mat in the back of a VW van, and noted that drinking and driving laws are treated as though they are insignificant on the island... The memory with the best documentation however has got to be Halloween.

The scene: 10 pm, darkness, four frustrated travelers (a pirate, his parrot, a zombie and a "f--king wasted" person) on the side of Maui's biggest intersection heading to Lahaina.



Good news! We did make it to our destination after Kaylie made a prayer-like motion to a passing truck :)

Trouble in Paradise

We've been robbed. I'm now without cell phone charger or ipod. harumph.

Big Island Recap

You've already seen the obnoxious picture of the pina coladas and tanning oil, now I'll tell you a little bit about our trip. The Big Island is interesting in that it is the youngest in the Hawaiian chain. This means the landscape is strikingly, well, volcanic. Driving from the airport in Kona to Lulu's uncle's place near the Mauna Lani resort, the sunset illuminated coral-constructed graffiti on limitless (until you hit a golf-course) black lava fields. Check out this masterpiece:



One might be tempted to call this landscape barren, but that would be a misinformed appraisal as it turns out that volcanic rock is incredibly high in micronutrients and minerals. (So high that we get it shipped here to the farm and turn it in to our beds by the barrel-full.) Check out the plant life growing in solid rock. Sweet.

All this lava means that some of the beaches feature black sand:




You may notice that Lulu and I happened upon a napping sea turtle on our morning stroll. No biggie. Didn't that happen to you yesterday?

On the Big Island, Lulu and I ate. Pictured here:




That's raw steak you see on top of that sushi roll--best damn surf and turf I've ever had--which we found at a little place in the town of Hawi. The onion ring was also quite nice.

Not pictured in this blog-posting is the part where Lu and I drank so much Kona coffee the day of our departure that we were sick through the duration of our flight and the next two days. I haven't touched coffee since.

L.L. LiliKool (Ladies Love Lilikoi)

Today was muddy, rainy and, generally speaking, icky so I'm going to concern myself with brightly colored photos and good weather topics.

There are three types of easily-accessible passion fruit (lilikoi) on Maui:



From Left to right, we have the red lilikoi, yellow lilikoi and jamaican lilikoi. The yellow lilikoi is the most astringent and abundant of the three. It's vine grows in tall trees and the fruits drop to the ground in droves when they are ripe. The visual effect is something similar to a bountiful easter egg hunt.

Friday after work, I set out to collect model specimens of each variety and Joe and I executed a very serious taste test. Here are our findings:

The Jamaican Lilikoi was unique in that it was the only fruit with a soft, foam-like exterior. The other two rocked cardboard-esque husks. Upon cutting open the lilikoi, a brain-like interior was revealed. The Jamaican lilikoi (center) being the brainiest:



The bouquet of each variety proved varied and unique. For the Jamaican lilikool (JLK), Joe and I settled on fresh melon and cucumber. For the yellow, just under-ripe strawberries and for the red, the smell of the inside of a pumpkin when you are carving it (no joke.) The taste profiles of each were equally particular. The JLK had a strangely artificial taste and we went through all the candy flavors (such as artificial strawberry and grape) before Joe nailed it on the head with "tropical-flavored starburst pack." (Let me tell you, only the most sophisticated of palettes could have discerned the essence of this fruit with such exactitude. I was impressed.) The yellow lilikoi packed some serious pucker and smack factor. I likened it to a blueberry warhead but, let's be honest, it tastes exactly like lilikoi. The red lilikoi was a little gentler on the lips though still sour. Joe noted it was something you ate until you got sick. In short, we ate the s*&t out of them.



On another note, there are some beautiful mushrooms growing in one of the gardens:






































Lastly, concerning the title of my blog: case in point.

For Fun

This is what I do in my free time

If you like pina coladas...

On a vacation from my vacation. Lulu and I have jetted off to the Big Island for the weekend. I flew over on a commuter flight in an eight person prop plane (an experience which was alternately beautiful and terrifying). This picture will give you a good idea of what our day was like today.


life is rough.

Banana Boom Exposes Miseducation

Huelo Point, Maui: Expectations were high as rack upon rack of ripened bananas were harvested from the banana groves at Hale Akua Garden Farms. As happens often with the banana harvest, when it rains it pours and farmers could be seen discussing their fruitful bounty with mixed feelings of excitement and worry. The pressing question: what to do with all these bananas so as not to waste the fruits of their labor? Two days passed, yet another ripened rack was discovered and the farmers found themselves unable to stomach another plain banana. Lulu McAllister remembers the conundrum well, "there were more bananas than even a monkey could handle," she recalled. She and another farmer, Chelsea Coleman, set about handling the surplus with a simple and delicious solution: cake. They settled on two recipes: one vegan and one with eggs. Coleman recalls her hesitation in tackling a vegan cake recipe, "I always figured there was no sense in pretending you were something you're not. You know?" she mused with a hearty chuckle. Yet, there were vegans on the farm and Coleman and McAllister wanted to share because sharing is caring. So they made sacrifices: a dash of vinegar replaced the acid in buttermilk or yogurt, an extra banana made up for a lack of eggs, and coconut oil was substituted for butter. To her and McAllister's shared delight, the vegan recipe was a fluffy and moist success. "It was really good," observed a resident vegan and farmer, Joe. By the end of the evening, the two had disposed of an entire rack of bananas, created two cakes, and whipped up some banana fritters. When remembering the boom, Coleman is most likely to recall her life-time of vegan prejudice and miseducation. "I really learned a big lesson that day," she said, "vegan baking doesn't have to taste like flax seed oil [and therefore toilet water] and can be astonishingly cake-like."

Vegan Banana Cake with Coconut/Rum Glaze:


2 C All Purpose Flour
1.5 tsp Baking Soda
2.5 tsp Baking Powder
3/4 tsp Salt
3/4 C Brown Sugar
1/2 C Coconut Oil
1/3 C Orange Juice
1 C Almond/Rice/Soy Whatever Milk
3 Tbs dark rum
8 very ripe and mashed apple bananas (or 4 standard bananas)
1 C nuts (pecans or mac nuts work well)
2.5 Tbs apple cider vinegar

Glaze:

1 C powdered sugar
1/4 C coconut milk
1 T dark rum

Preheat oven to 320 F and grease an eight or nine inch square cake pan.

Combine dry ingredients in a bowl, set aside.

Mix coconut oil, orange juice, rum, almond milk and bananas in the blender like a smoothie.

Combine dry ingredients with banana mixture. Mix in nuts.

When the oven is heated, pour the vinegar into the batter, mix well and immediately throw in the oven.

Leave it there for 40 minutes or until the center bounces back from the pressure of your finger and the edges have pulled away from the side.

Spread glaze over cake after it has cooled a bit.

Delicious.

Chelsi Mangiabene writes for herself. She has contributed previous articles to this publication.