In need of a shave and an eyebrow trim, yes. But happy. Though the stubble is only a week old, I hadn’t updated this blog since the beginning of the year. A most incredible time in my life but I am safe, uproariously happy and filled with wonder at what revolves around me in my […]
Escaping From America, Into Quarantine and Marooned Happily on Top Of The World Down Under!
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On The Dawn To 65! (Yawn…)
It’s been a long life, lots longer than I thought I’d make it through. I ain’t dead yet but I can smell the flowers all around me where I live–frangipani, tuberose, gardenia, night-blooming jasmine and ginger–almost like a funeral parlor in my foyer. I’m just turning 65 and start collecting the wonderful Australian pension […]
Chef Chai Makes the Last Night Heavenly Hawaiian
I have loved Chef Chai’s cuisine for decades from when he was at the Aloha Tower with his incredible lineup of music acts like HAPA, the Brothers Cazimero and many more local stars. I have turned a lot of friends and readers onto his cooking and venue with rave reports back. Now he has […]
It’s A Food World After All—The Finale
It’s A Food World After All—The Finale The final night of the 4th Hawaii Food and Wine Festival brought to a close my marathon feeding frenzy across the Islands. Held on a beach in West Oahu at sunset with feet in the sand, surf lapping the shore and stars bursting out, it’s an idyllic venue […]
Corks & Forks and Chef Rock Stars
Corks & Forks and Chef Rock Stars The days of rock stars are not yet over but their business model truly sucks with few newer acts likely to reach the longevity of their predecessors. Today, celebrity chefs are the new superstars and I was lucky to hang out with and taste their special tunes, […]
In The Belly of The Buddha
Fourteen Chefs, Three Master Sommeliers, Nine Winemakers & Five Mixologists Start Up The Madness. With an upstairs faux mini-beach and fountain, leading down to the pool surrounded by stands of chefs billowing steam and the occasional bursts of flames, with bars in every corner and wine booths scattered around, it’s an idyllic setting for […]
Hot Guitars, Cold Organic Vodka and Steaming Seafood Snacks Make the Night
It was the second night of the Ka’anapali Fresh Culinary Experience and the venue had shifted to the third hole of the golf course just opposite the Sheraton. A funky little mini-town has been made within a classy enclosure with reserved tables and couches for the VIPs, hi top tables for the […]
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The Soba Zen Experience
SOBA… so simple. A buckwheat noodle that sends japanese into nirvana. I never really appreciated it. Until my mate Shep Gordon told me of a restaurant tucked away on a side street in Waikiki, nestled between two other Japanese restaurants where a pair of brothers have perfected the art of making it from buckwheat […]
It’s A Jeep… No It’s a Merc
A day on the Big Island is like an OD of sunshine and tropical breezes saturated by floral scents. Just makes you want to hop into your ride and cruise the lava fields, coffee plantations and shorelines. So that’s what we did, not in this faux-woody beach cruiser made out of a Mercedes, but in […]
Manta Madness in LavaLand
I used to be in one of these boats many times over the past 20 years that I was a dedicated scuba diver. I saw many sunsets like this in a dusk dive before going back down an hour later to see up to 20 six to 12 foot wide graceful manta rays doing an […]
Early AM Farmers Market & More in Hilo
Up with the birds this morning at 5 am loving the coolth of the morning in Hilo ready to hit the Hilo Farmers Market for a 6am opening. It will be a little less populated due to the Puna farmers getting hit by the hurricane but I vow to find a new breakfast joint, […]
Full Moon in the Middle of a Day
Hilo is a sleepy town but thrilling to wake up to early and explore. After a cold brewed ice coffee from Bears which I’ve caffeinated at for over 35 years and a loco moco (two scoops of brown rice, onions, gravy, burger patty and an egg on top) which gave me the energy to […]
Mr Marvel Mavro
I’ve been a public stomach for some time now in my travel writing and had the fortune to eat in some of the grandest pubs around the world. Not that I’m a food snob, rather I am curious and find myself sated in the oddest places. Here I am in Honolulu for my first […]
Counting the Days to Hawai’i Food and Wine Festival v4.0
I’ve been to the previous three incarnations of this incredible event which has grown from four feasts and several seminars on Oahu in Waikiki and West hotels to this year which incorporate a night in Maui again, a new event on the Big Island in Waikoloa and four primo nights in Oahu. Details have just […]
Honolulu Good Food Guide Now Online
Honolulu is where virtually every holiday begins in Hawaii and I’ve had the great fortune of sampling some of the great top end restaurants but also the mom ‘n’ pop hole-in-the-wall spots and growers markets. This comes more from my participation in three annual Hawaii Food and Wine Festivals http://hawaiifoodandwinefestival.com held first week of September where […]
Life Glows On!
I could be sad. My dear friend up The Hill from me, John Bromell, died in the past fortnight and I just got back from his wake in Sydney and am now settled back in to home. With a dawn like this, smoke-tinged red, yellow orb of sun blazing through, sweet breezes rolling up the […]
Marvo Mavro!
Marvo is short for marvelous in Australian. We Australians are lazy, don’t like wasting syllables and like to shorten names by cutting most of it and adding an o at the end, like John-o, Mike-o, or their last name shortened with an o. Had he emigrated to Australia like me, George Mavrothalassitis would have been […]
West Side Story–Ko’olina Explodes for Food & Wine
I was wondering how I’d possibly make it through the last day of the Hawaii Food and Wine Festival with two events in one day. Girls Got Game +1 in Waikiki’s Hyatt was a two hour tour de force for the female chef and after an hour ride to Marriott’s Ihilani Spa and Resort, I […]
Right Place, Wong Time!
To honour one of my hosts, Alan Wong, I had to eat at his eponymous restaurant with no parking and no ocean view in an office building on the third floor at 1857 King Street in Honolulu. He’s just a block down the street from my favourite Hawaiian chef, Chef Mavro, but he runs a […]
Girls Got Game +1
With a fascination for women’s volleyball and basketball and a team named the Rainbow Wahines, you’d think this Saturday event was going to be held in a dark, smoky sports bar. But no, it was on the bright rooftop restaurant SHOR topping the mezzanine of the Hyatt Regency Hotel perched above Waikiki Beach. I love […]
