New Hawaiian Food of the Week: Marlin Fish Jerky

This Marlin Fish Jerky is actually pretty good. I love beef jerky, and while at the supermarket contemplating what my food of the week would be, I decided I had to give this a shot. Let me pre-empt the fact that this is Teriyaki Fish Jerky, which makes it so much more awesome. I feel like Andy Zimmern here, whilst I do my epicurean taste description ;) It's initially sweet from the teriyaki and almost has a smoky flavor, there is a tiny int of fishy and the texture is leathery, just like jerky. After the first bite, I was all over this thing, definitely something I would eat again!

Some First Impressions

The last thing I want to do is let the extraordinary become ordinary.

When the plane first landed and I walked through the airport I noticed the sheer amount and variety of flowers and trees, most of which I had never seen and was astonished by their beauty. Still today I am, you guessed it! in awe of this beautiful vegetation. I am not a vegetation type of girl but these flowers and trees are absolutely breathtaking.

Honolulu is more like the big cities in the mainland than I ever thought. All the  major chains are here, including Wal Mart, McDonald's, Taco Bell and even Toys R Us.

The people here are amazingly friendly, everyone here believes in Aloha. Well, except for those who love to beat up lone men on the beach. I've heard stories of guys getting beat up pretty bad by the locals just for the fun of it. Nothing that I've experienced though, all I've seen is sweetness and caring.

Who knew that such a small island could have so many beaches that are so different from one another!

Who knew that the weather would be the same year round. I'm not complaining!

The birds here are beautiful! And so are the reef fish, which can be seen just about anywhere there is a reef. It's almost like we are surrounded by a giant aquarium.

Unfortunately along with the birds and the fish, there is an overwhelming number of insects, some pretty crazy ones like 15 inch giant poisonous centipedes or 4 inch giant FLYING cockroaches.

Some Supercool stuff that happened to me since I moved here

Seeing a real live Sea Turtle

 As soon as I read in my guide book that there is a beach that turtles like to frequent, I knew I had to go there. Sure enough, I walk out of the car and there it is, a real live sea turtle, just swimmin' around doin' its thing and eating seaweed. I was in complete awe of this enourmous, gentle creature.

Running into Daniel Dae Kim

I went to the Korean Festival in Kapiolani park in Waikiki and ran into Daniel Dae Kim from LOST and Hawaii Five-O. He parked right behind me in his Prius and it took me a second to muster up the courage to talk to him, and what did I do? I chased him down a field and said "Scuse me, are you the guy from LOST?" What a moron I can be some times! Anyways, he agreed to take a picture with me :)

I almost got a part on Hawaii Five-O, Twice!

OK, so here is where I really have to kick myself. I show up at the casting office for CBS with my almost blank acting resume and headshot. I give it to the casting person and she's like, "Thanks, we'll call you if anything comes up". She looks at my head shot and says, actually perhaps you should meet with the director, her office is here to the left, just go in and introduce yourself". So the director asks me if I can work that Friday in a bank scene and asks me if I have a suit, like a moron (again!) I said I didn't. I want to kick myself so hard for not lying and going to buy one! I guess I was just too excited to even be talking to this woman and I think she may have also gotten a whiff of my nerves.  

The second time, they needed people for a night club scene and needed pictures of people in their club attire. So I send in my pic and sure enough I get a call back, great right? Well, until the lady asks me for my info and I'm like, "oh I already filled out an application, my name is....", and she's like, "oh yeah let me look for it and I'll call you back", never heard back. Oh well, guess it wasn't meant to be.

Found the set of Pirates of the Carribean: On Stranger Tides

 
I had heard rumors that Johnny Depp was on the island and in talking to some friends, they told me that earlier that day they were kayaking in Kaneohe Bay and they ran into the Black Pearl. Sure enough the next day I went out and found it, I was also hoping to get a glimpse of Johnny Depp, but they had wrapped up filming the day before :(

I went in a Shark Cage

 

This is a picture I took with an underwater camera. These are 3 ten foot Galapagos sharks. I went on the shark encounter tour by Hawaii's shark encounters and let me tell you, this was by far one of the best experiences in my life. I was kind of scared at first, but the guides helped me feel more comfortable and after a few minutes in the water I was just in awe by the majesty of these gentle (believe it or not) creature. There are many misconceptions about sharks actually, they are not as bad as the media hype puts them out to be and they are actually endangered.

I found a waterfall where LOST was filmed

I don't know about you guys, buy I was and still am, a LOST fanatic. I was so excited to come to Hawaii and scope out areas where the show was filmed. Aside form the TV show, I find it amazing that you can walk 5 minutes from a major highway and find yourself in a jungle with an amazing waterfall and hundreds of blood sucking mosquitoes. Thank goodness for DEET! You might get bored of the fact that I keep finding myself in awe of stuff, but some of these things are truly amazing. I have never seen a land quite like this, and I've done my fair share of traveling abroad.

I witnessed my first Hawaiian Sunset on the beach

I was in awe, just kidding, but I was pretty darn amazed. It is as close as feeling as you are in a postcard as it gets. Too beautiful to describe and my camera didn't do it justice.

Getting settled in

So, I've been here in Honolulu since June and every day has been a pleasant learning experience as I discover that each day has something new to offer and the surprises never end.

We flew in from the mainland and stayed in downtown Waikiki  for 8 days before finding a home. The stay in Waikiki was amazing to say the least. The water in the ocean is warm and the weather is perfect. Temperatures are always (no mater what season or time of day) between the low seventies and the high eighties. There are only two seasons here only the way, summer and winter, but don't be fooled, temperatures don't really change much in the winter.

Back to Waikiki, it's an amazing piece of heaven, it has the feel of a large European metropolitan city and a marvelous beach. I loved that my hotel, the Hale Koa, was right on the beach and at any time of day we could go down to the beach a take a swim. The water is a little cloudy, so snorkeling is not recommended. Boogie boarding on the other hand is really fun here.

During my first week I tried some of the most amazing foods and vowed that while I am here, I will try 1 new Hawaiian food a week. I will make sure to include pictures and reviews in this blog.

I also came to find that Hawaiians are some of the friendliest people I ever met. I love it how anywhere you go they say "Aloha" and they thank you by saying "Mahalo".

Since moving here I've really experienced the feeling of Aloha, I really feel welcomed and I don't feel the pressured of a fast paced stressful lifestyle I experienced on the mainland. It's going to be hard to get me to move away, I am in love with this place!