FLUX No. 18 Consumption

THE CONSUMPTION ISSUE

TABLE OF CONTENTS |

Make It Last | 27

How much of your food do you throw away?

If you’re like most Americans, the answer is 40 percent. Given the many ways food can be preserved, it’s easy to improve one’s consumption habits. From preserving fruit to smoking meat, we feature four ways locals are consuming better.

Under the B Ig top | 44

The gulf of inequality between the highest earners and the rest of the planet has never been greater in human history. Writer Sonny Ganaden examines this divide while working for minimum wage at the always anticipated Punahou Carnival.

t he aM er Ican e p I de MIc | 50

Today, with pharmaceutical drug overdose deaths now outpacing those caused by heroin and cocaine combined, Hawai‘i is facing the reality of those consumed by drugs overprescribed to keep people painfree and happy, with haunting addictiveness. Carmichael Doan examines the epidemic.

I Wanna B e Loved By yo U | 56

A fashion editorial inspired by Marilyn Monroe—the international sex symbol who once said, “I don’t want to make money. I just want to be wonderful.” Shot by Harold Julian and styled by Aly Ishikuni and Reise Kochi.

Aletha Thomas makes the most of Kaua‘i’s bounty of local produce in her variety of jams, curds, butters, and sauces for Monkeypod Jam.

Since a shark attack in 1997, Kaua‘i photographer Mike Coots has been an advocate for the creatures who took his leg, as well as amputees plagued by shoddy prosthetics.

edI tor ’s L etter contr IBU tors

M asthead

L etters to the edI tor

What t he FLUX?! | 20

COTTAGE FOOD INDUSTRY

Loca L M oco | 23

MIKE COOTS

I n FLUX

F ood | 62 GET SHUCKING: KUALOA RANCH OYSTERS

rev I e W | 66

KOKO HEAD CAFE

ro U nd U p | 68

HAWAI‘I FOOD AND WINE

Fash Ion

L eather so UL | 70 FROM STREET TO NEAT

Lo UI s v UI tton | 72

HAUTE MAROQUINERIE

F erraga M o | 74

FIAMMA

ho M eco MI ng | 80

KAWEHI

Interv I ew: Best Coast

Years ago, when rumors of H&M’s first store opening in Hawai‘i began swirling around town, just about every girl and guy waited with bated breath for the Swedish retailer’s arrival. So it wasn’t surprising when more than 500 guests stormed the doors for the store’s grand opening, scooping up the brand’s trendy apparel (with one fast patron scoring dozens of $1 bowties). The real showstopper, however, came from Los Angeles rock duo Best Coast, who rocked an energized performance to a packed house. Lead singer Bethany Cosentino took a moment to answer a few questions for FLUX about her fascination with bandmate Bobb Bruno’s flowing locks, the influence of The Beach Boys and sunny California on their music, and why everyone just needs to relax about weed already. For the full interview, visit fluxhawaii.com.

—I MAGE BY R IANA S TELLBUR G

on t H e C over

ALL THAT MATTERS

On Saturday, June 14, the new Kaka‘ako Agora space will host All That Matters, a free all-ages show featuring the likes of The Bougies, The Tigers from Niger, Red Light Challenge, The Pow Wow School of Music, Poncho, The Secret Record Store, DJ Monkey and Morning Glass Coffee. Look out for exclusive interviews with participating bands at fluxhawaii.com.

Call to artists: All That Matters is looking for additional live bands, performers, emcees, and deejays to perform in the all-ages showcase. If you are interested in performing, email allagesatagora@gmail.com.

On the cover: Photographer Harold Julian captures this shot of model Mahina Garcia consumed with Harry Winston’s dazzling diamond pieces. Shown here: diamond lotus ring set in platinum with 4.62 carats; Traffic by Harry Winston diamond bracelet with 4.20 carats; premier ladies timepiece in 18k white gold with 7.56 carats, all available from Harry Winston.

About a month ago, a friend took me mantisshrimp fishing at Magic Island near where the boats are docked. He told me about how he and his dad frequented the area to catch the otherworldly crustacean for bait, flipping rocks and watching for creatures scurrying across the shallow reef. Back then, Magic Island was a place teeming with life, where my friend learned how to fish. Mullet, weke, moi, o‘io, papio—it all could be found at a place that was truly magical.

I had gone mantis-shrimp fishing about a decade before, in Kāne‘ohe Bay. Like it was for my friend and his father, the catch was plentiful. We hauled up the shrimp, some nearly a foot long, on bamboo poles split down the center, barbecuing them on the grill with butter later that night. The meat, moist and succulent, was like a mix between lobster and crab.

At Magic Island, as we tiptoed across the reef, moving slowly so as to not scare any unassuming shrimp, we saw a few trumpet fish, some tilapia, lots of furry crabs. But not one mantis shrimp scuttled into sight. After about an hour of creeping and flipping, we call it quits, leaving my friend and I slightly befuddled and wondering, Where have all the mantis shrimp gone?

It is no secret that our culture is one of overconsumption. Bulging landfills; polar bears’ loss of habitat; the most recent, whopping 665 advertising pages of Vogue’s September issue; swelling poverty levels; the self-destructive behavior of social outcasts, stay-at-home moms, scholar students, and starlets alike all give this away. It’s a landscape that would send anyone in his or her right mind scurrying for retreat.

It’s hard to say where the mantis shrimp went. According to one Kāne‘ohe Bay fisherman, they’re still around, though their numbers seem to be dwindling. I am reminded of an interview I did in 2010 for a water-themed issue of FLUX

with Keli‘i Kotubetey, who is charged with taking care of He‘eia Fishpond with nonprofit Paepae o He‘eia. Fishponds, he observed, catch all the good and bad. “Anything that’s done uka, above the fishpond in freshwater streams flowing into the pond, ends up affecting the fishpond,” he said. “Same thing in the ocean. … The fishpond can be an indicator of how healthy your ahupua‘a is or how healthy your ocean is.” Like the fishpond, this, our Consumption issue, seeks to catch it all, reflective of the age we find ourselves in today. Though our backdrop is prettier than most, we experience it all, both the good and the bad.

Though we didn’t catch any mantis shrimp that day, my friend stayed behind after we left (mostly to save his dignity) and hooked a to‘au. He also came across a man teaching his grandson how to fish. “He just caught his first one,” the man said, pointing to a young boy proudly holding up an o‘io. They both threw their catches back. No sense in taking what you don’t need.

With aloha,

Lisa Yamada Editor

FLUX HAWAII

Jason Cutinella PUBLISHER

Lisa Yamada EDITOR

Ara Feducia

CREATIVE DIRECTOR

SENIOR STAFF

PHOTOGRAPHER

John Hook

PHOTO EDITOR

Samantha Hook

FASHION EDITOR

Aly Ishikuni

EDITOR-AT-LARGE

Sonny Ganaden

IMAGES

Jun Jo

Harold Julian

Jonas Maon

Mel Tjoeng

CONTRIBUTORS

Carmichael Doan

Kelli Gratz

Jon Letman

Jeff Mull

Rebecca Pike

Erin Smith

EDITORIAL INTERNS

David Jordan

Vincent Van Der Gouwe

COVER PHOTO

Harold Julian

COPY EDITOR

Anna Harmon

WEB DEVELOPER

Matthew McVickar

ADVERTISING

Mike Wiley

Group Publisher mike@nellamediagroup.com

Keely Bruns VP Marketing & Advertising keely@nellamediagroup.com

Bryan Butteling Account Executive bryan@nellamediagroup.com

OPERATIONS

Joe V. Bock

Chief Operating Officer joe@nellamediagroup.com

Gary Payne Business Development Director gpayne@nellamediagroup.com

Jill Miyashiro Operations Director jill@nellamediagroup.com

Kai Rilliet

Strategic Marketing Coordinator kai@nellamediagroup.com

Creative Director

Matt Honda

General Inquiries: contact@FLUXhawaii.com

Published by: Nella Media Group

36 N. Hotel Street, Suite A Honolulu, HI 96817

©2009-2014 by Nella Media Group, LLC. Contents of FLUX Hawaii are protected by copyright and may not be reproduced without the expressed written consent of the publisher. FLUX Hawaii accepts no responsibility for unsolicited manuscripts and/or photographs and assumes no liability for products or services advertised herein. FLUX Hawaii reserves the right to edit, rewrite, refuse or reuse material, is not responsible for errors and omissions and may feature same on fluxhawaii.com, as well as other mediums for any and all purposes.

FLUX Hawaii is a quarterly lifestyle publication.

CARMICHAEL DOAN

Carmi C hael Doan

resi D es in the luxurious borough of K aimu KĪ, but was raise D all over the worl D as the mi DD le son of a military family.

In addition to writing, he has also been published as an artist in Growing Up Local and has received the Scholastic Arts Award and Hallmark Honor Award for his previous artistic endeavors.

HAROLD JULIAN

b orn in the Philli PP ines an D raise D in h awai‘i, h arol D is a self-taught P hotogra P her who at age 18 began assisting fashion P hotogra P hers to further his K nowle D ge an D P ush his C reative boun D aries.

With his thoughtful and intuitive uses of color and tone, the images he creates depict passion, depth, and emotion— conveying a thoroughly rich and saturated visual style. His passion for photography is matched only by his desire to continually grow stylistically as an up-and-coming fashion and portrait photographer.

JONAS MAON

b ase D in h onolulu, Jonas is a we DD ing C inematogra P her with aria s tu D ios, an D moonlights every now an D then as an event an D e D itorial P hotogra P her.

When he’s not shooting with ARIA, he can be found at home snacking while watching a marathon-session of a TV series on Netflix; on a shoreline attempting to catch dinner with his girlfriend and fishing buddies; or running around somewhere with his camera trying to get a photo-of-theday for his daily photo project. Follow him on Instagram, @jonasmaon.

REBECCA PIKE

r ebe CC a Pi K e has been writing for an au D ien C e of visitors to the h awaiian i slan D s sin C e she move D here from her native n ew y or K City in 2007.

She enjoys exploring the stark contrasts between her metropolitan birthplace and her current home of Honolulu, as well as their similarities. If she had to choose, however— malasadas or Madison Ave.; poi or pizza; surf or subways—she would choose Hawai‘i. Rebecca lives in the way, way back of Pālolo Valley with her husband, daughter, cat, and two parrots. She can often be found running up and down the hills of her neighborhood, stand-up paddling, or just barely getting through hot yoga classes in Kaimukī.

I was very interested to see you use the interior of the St. Andrew’s Cathedral on the cover of your magazine. That is what inspired me to buy it. It is such an interesting building—but the history of the church is amazing as well.

Thinking of war and peace: After the overthrow, Queen Lili‘uokalani attended Sunday mass there (she lived right next door and had a private gate for access). From what I understand, another regular attendee of Sunday mass was Sanford Dole. He sat religiously in the opposite aisle… The Queen faced her enemy every Sunday … in peace. There is a moment in Episcopal worship called “the peace” where you go around with your arm extended saying: “May the peace of God be with you.” So much to meditate on—your photo shoot and the title brought this to mind.

I enjoyed your magazine very much and think you are charging too little for it. I would pay up to $7 for it. I am looking forward to your next issue.

Sincerely, Jenny

Show uS how You taKe Your flux .

@erikries “Pre @eleven44hawaii launch reading … New @fluxhawaii and margarita.”

@momok0 “Gang’s all here! @fluxhawaii I remember when it was just an idea. Thoughts become things... This is a real good thing.”

@beckiejoon “Ok...I lied...I didn’t really celebrate #drunkmondays. Lol more like “Chill catch up #businesspowerwomanMondays.” So many projects & deadlines on my mind...I’m super excited! “Patience is a virtue, and Passion is key.” Winded down & couldn’t help but to enjoy some reading while preparing work for tmr.”

@manuhealii “Just some lunchtime reading #manuhealii #flux #innov8 #islandair”

Thank you for sharing Ms. Janet Mock’s story with us. I am also on a journey of my own transitioning to redefine realness in my life, and I was able to find courage and fierce ferociousness in her words. Powerful women like her, Laverne Cox, and Carmen Carrera make me hopeful that one day people will not stare or ridicule or respond in anger or ignorance to transgender issues. There’s a long way to go still, but until that day comes, I will always put class over sass, as these ladies continue to do on a daily basis.

W E WE lco ME and valUE yo UR f EE dback. Send letter S to the editor via email to li S a@fluxhawaii.com or mail to flux h awaii, 36 n h otel St., Suite a , h onolulu, hi 96817.

Sincerely yours, Jasmine

Nicole

Aloha FLUX,

WHAT THE FLUX ?!

Cottage Food Industry

Remember that little girl who sat down the street from where you lived every day during hot summer months selling homemade lemonade for 25 cents?

Or that aunty who pitched a tent along the highway and sold pickled mango from the trunk of her car for $5 a bag? You knew the lemonade was always going to be just a little too sweet, the pickled mango just a bit too tangy, but you bought their offerings anyway, a supportive affirmation for these enterprising individuals. What you may not have realized, however, is that these moneymaking ventures are actually criminal, in violation of state health codes, which do not allow cottage food practices such as these.

Hawai‘i, despite its long history of roadside food sellers and homemade goods, is one of five states that have no permanent cottage food laws in place.

Cottage foods are defined as non-potentially hazardous foods such as baked goods and jams, which do not present the same food safety

NON-POTENTIALLY HAZARDOUS FOODS:

Include cookies, breads, jams, jellies, candies, chocolates, whole uncut fruits and produce, cotton candy, dry herbs, nuts, rubs, spices, re-packing of arare, and other non-hazardous snacks.

risks as other processed foods. Though two bills were introduced this year to implement cottage food laws for getting home-based food production to market (HB 2153 and HB 1992), both have stalled and are considered dead in the current legislative session. Currently, the Hawai‘i Department of Health allows homeproduced foods to be sold for a maximum of 20 days in a 120-day window, which equates to selling only on weekends.

“In my mind, that restriction would give a person limited opportunity to grow their business,” says representative Takashi Ohno, who introduced HB 2153, a bill that sought to provide an exemption from DOH rules for certain cottage food products sold directly to consumers. (HB 1992 sought to provide a larger scope of exemptions.) According to Ohno, sellers are required to undergo an arduous process in order to get their products to market, including preparing foods in costly commercial kitchens. “I think there are a lot of folks who are interested in being entrepreneurs, who are interested in adding something to our economy that doesn’t exist,” continues Ohno. “I don’t want to set up barriers for them. I want to eliminate hoops they have to jump through. I think the state’s better for it.”

Despite his bill’s deferment in the legislature, Ohno remains hopeful that there is enough interest in the cottage food industry to prompt change. Here, an overview of the cottage food industry today and how Hawai‘i stacks up.

POTENTIALLY HAZARDOUS FOODS:

Defined as foods that consist in whole or in part of milk or milk products, eggs, meat, poultry, fish, shellfish, and edible crustacea.

20 days out of a 120-day window

Current health regulations grant temporary food establishment permits that allow an individual to sell home-produced foods for a maximum of 20 days out of a 120-day permit.

106

Number of temporary non-potentially hazardous food permits approved per month; no fee for permit.

418

Number of temporary potentially hazardous food permits approved per month (must be produced in a commercial kitchen); $25 fee for permit

$10,000 = $260,000 / year

The amount Down to Earth estimates it would purchase per week of cottage food products.

$50,000 = $2.6 million / year

The amount per week purchases of cottage foods could increase when other retailers like Whole Foods or Island Naturals are accounted for.

$94 million farm gate

$188 million economy wide 2,300 jobs 10% =

A 2008 research paper prepared by University of Hawai‘i economists suggests that increasing the amount of food produced and distributed within the state by 10 percent could translate into $94 million in farm-gate income (agriculture sold from farms to consumers), $188 million in economy-wide sales, and more than 2,300 jobs.

SOURCE: COTTAGEFOODS.ORG.

“This law will allow individuals to produce and sell non-potentially hazardous foods to consumers and keep money in our local communities, all without the stress and large financial commitments needed to set up

a commercial operation.

Ingredients will be purchased because they are the freshest and healthiest available, not because they are the least expensive (a compromise that often has to be made when overhead costs for a commercial kitchen are high).”

—Kristine Vallandingham, pastry chef and owner, Mauka Girl Creations, in written testimony supporting HB 1992

“It is a generally held principle in food safety that adverse risk increases with increased volume of food distributed.”

—

Gary L. Gill, acting director of the Hawai‘i DOH, in written testimony opposing HB 1992

Where does the nation stand?

MAINE was the first state to pass cottage food laws; recently, 10 towns took it one step further, passing a “food sovereignty” ordinance, allowing citizens to produce, process, and sell local foods including raw milk, locally slaughtered meats, and just about anything else you can imagine. Producers can still be fined, however, under state and federal laws.

PENNSYLVANIA allows more types of foods to be produced in-home than almost any other state; it is also the only state that allows meat jerky to be produced in-home and sold.

OHIO was one of the first to implement cottage food laws, and has no maximums on the amount of revenue that can be made from sales; it also allows for the sale of refrigerated baked goods like cheesecakes.

There are 26 health inspectors statewide for the more than 6,000 food establishments on O‘ahu, and some 10,000 across the state. That’s 1 inspector for every 384 establishments.

COTTAGE FOOD LAWS BY STATE THAT ARE:

LOCAL MOCO: MIKE COOTS

The Kaua‘i photographer inspires change.

T EXT BY L ISA Y AMADA | IMAGE BY JOHN HOOK

Mike Coots is an enigma, the sort one might come across once in a blue moon. The odds of meeting someone like him are about as rare as getting struck twice by lightning or bitten by a shark (the likelihood of which is one in 11.5 million)—which as luck would have it, happened to Coots in the fall of 1997. “It was seriously the best thing that’s ever happened to me,” he says, quite seriously. To consider this statement—how anyone could count the loss of a limb as luck—is to begin unraveling the paradox that is Mike Coots, a Kaua‘i photographer who smiles a lot and pauses to laugh in situations when most others would frown.

The young bodyboarder had aspirations of going pro when the attack happened, but rather than let the grievances of the life-changing incident consume him, Coots found a way to see light in the darkness, find opportunities in those he lost, and afford purpose to it all. Though the attack did have its fair share of gory details—“I looked at my leg, and it was perfectly amputated off, squirting blood like out of a horror movie”—mostly Coots remembers “having chicken skin, like when you see a centipede and get that initial creepy feeling. … I didn’t feel any pain, just a lot of pressure.” The moments that followed were a blur: the leash that was made into a tourniquet and tied around his leg; the race to the hospital in the back of a pickup; the hand of a doctor grabbing him moments before passing out.

In an instant, the trajectory of Coots’ life changed forever. With a shot at a career in bodyboarding behind him, Coots

set out to find a new option, vacillating between jobs in the tourism industry and tinkering around with a camera, shooting pictures of his friends. It was only after an encounter with John Russell, who came out to Kaua‘i to shoot Coots for an article in Breakaway magazine, did Coots begin to seriously consider a career in photography. “Growing up in Hawai‘i really influenced me photography-wise, because you see so many beautiful things,” he says. “You watch the sun rise at one place or see all kinds of crazy things with the ocean—I just wanted to be able to tell those stories.”

Nearly two decades later, Coots has become the go-to guy on Kaua‘i for surf photography. It has taken him to places like Peru, France, Spain, and Portugal to shoot for some of the industry’s biggest brands and magazines. Despite his accomplishments, Coots remains humble, attributing his work ethic to Russell. “He has a notepad and writes everyone’s names down, memorizes who they are, then writes thank you letters to everyone that he’s ever worked with,” Coots says about his mentor. “He’s just all about relationships and not burning bridges, and of course looking for nice light.”

And in true form of loving one’s enemies—another confounding characteristic—Coots also has been instrumental in creating shark conservation legislation, working with organizations like the Pew Environmental Group to combat the killing of an estimated 75 million sharks every year as a result of shark finning. He helped draft Hawai‘i’s shark conservation bill, the first of its kind in the

“You can now print out the whole prosthetic, from top to bottom, for pennies on the dollar,” says Mike Coots, shown here, who works to improve prosthetics for active amputees.

nation, and helped establish global shark sanctuaries, where neighboring countries ban shark finning, creating large swaths of ocean in which sharks are protected.

As a result of increased legislation, shark populations are beginning to stabilize, according to Coots. This has enabled him to turn his focus to making prosthetics, which can run upwards of $15,000 per piece, more accessible to amputees, as well as improving their design for those with active lifestyles. He hopes the foundation he works with, Friends of Bethany, which supports shark attack survivors and amputees, can begin collaborating with 3D-printing technology to print out prosthetic parts from plastic and carbon fiber inks. “You can now print out the whole prosthetic, from top to bottom, for pennies on the dollar,” he says. “This technology is all happening within just the last year, but I see it as the future for amputees.”

If life has taught Coots anything, it’s the ephemeral quality of moments. “I remember being in France one evening shooting Dustin Barca and Makua Rothman,” he recalls. “It had been cloudy and rainy, then all of a sudden, the sun popped out. It was instantly gorgeous, and Dustin did a really nice backside air. It’s crazy how literally in seconds, things can change.”

To see Coots’ work, visit mikecoots.com. For more information on Friends of Bethany or how you can get involved, visit friendsofbethany.com.

Image courtesy of mI ke c oots.

make it last

How mu CH of your food do you t H row away?

If you’re like the majority Americans, the answer is, “too much.” In 2012, a report by the Natural Resources Defense Council found that Americans dump 40 percent of their food supply every year, with food waste accounting for the single largest component of solid waste in U.S. landfills. At nearly every stage in the supply chain, from farmer to retailer to consumer, fresh produce is tossed more than any other food product (including seafood, meat, grains, and dairy), which is unfortunate given the dozens of delicious ways these foods can be preserved. With just a 15 percent reduction in food waste saving enough to feed 25 million Americans annually, we can all afford to be more mindful of our consumption habits. Here, a few locals show us how they waste not.

“Preserve only what grows around you, and only in season,” says Monkeypod Jam’s Aletha Thomas of her motto behind the flourishing fruit-preserve business.

J am it

when life G ave aletha thoma S man G oe S and mountain a PP le S, S he did the onl Y thin G that came naturall Y to her —S he J ammed .

In 2012, Aletha Thomas was teaching at a middle school on Kaua‘i when furlough days hit Hawai‘i’s public schools. Overnight, Thomas’ hours and pay were slashed, and she was shut out of her own school campus. For her, it turned into quite literally a jarring experience.

When a friend invited Thomas to sell homemade food alongside her at a farmers market, Thomas decided to give it a try. Looking for ways to make up pay lost as a result of the furloughs, Thomas whipped up a few jars of mango jam to see if they would move. To her delight, the jam was a hit, selling out quickly and prompting her to make another batch, then another. After three consecutive weeks of sold-out jam, Thomas decided that if life was going to give her lemons, she would make marmalade.

Today, Thomas’ Monkeypod Jam includes 50 types of jams, jellies, marmalades, curds, butters, and sauces that rotate week by week. Her fruit-preserving enterprise follows the basic tenet she learned growing up in a family in which her grandmothers preserved fruit to help get through the bitter winters of Minnesota and Saskatchewan: “Preserve only what grows around you, and only in season.” Closely following nature’s rhythm means there is no time to slack. It also means that when a farmer (one of the

30 growers she buys from) calls to tell her they have a mother lode of ripe tomatoes that needs moving immediately, she moves. Two hundred pounds of ripe tomatoes later, Thomas has concocted one of her best-selling items: spiced tomato jam that, flavored with pepper and cumin, hums with notes of chutney.

As a committed supporter of local agriculture, Thomas uses only Kaua‘i-grown produce in her jams, even if it means some popular items aren’t always available. That’s only natural, she says, adding: “We believe strongly there’s enough food here on Kaua‘i. We have farmers growing for us, and we really want to start with our neighbors and our families.”

A certified master food preserver, Thomas utilizes wide, traditional French Mauviel copper pots that allow food to be heated quickly and evenly in order to capture freshness without overcooking. Unopened, Monkeypod Jam products remain shelfstable for about six months. And because they aren’t filled with a chemistry lab’s worth of artificial preservatives, they don’t stay good indefinitely. “Our ingredients list is very simple, like what your grandmother would have put in a jar,” she says.

Each six-ounce jar is filled with freshly picked produce and basic ingredients like

dried spices and small amounts of sugar. The product line includes banana foster jam, Tahitian lime curd, papaya chutney, starfruit ginger jelly, lemquat marmalade, and orange chocolate sauce. Reflecting on the importance of preserving fruit, Thomas says that all too often, people today turn a blind eye to seasonality, demanding a uniform, steady supply of the same produce year-round. “As consumers, we’ve become very spoiled,” she says. For Thomas, fruit preservation is one way to eat and live in harmony with nature while extending the period food can be enjoyed. For her, preserving is an invitation to rediscover the joy of fresh food processed at its peak.

Monkeypod Jam has been a hit with visitors because it’s an easy, portable way to bring home something exotic and distinctly Hawaiian. Fresh jam captures the essence of Hawai‘i and allows the bearer to share an otherwise intangible sense of place. Who in Wisconsin, in the dead of winter, would expect a jar of guava butter or jaboticaba jelly? For similar reasons, locals treat themselves or send a jar in care packages to loved ones, knowing that the sight and smell of liliko‘i curd or mountain apple pepper jelly is transformative, reminding far-away friends and family of home, transporting them back to their childhoods to that tree they used to climb in tutu’s garden on bright summer days so long ago.

Look for Monkeypod Jam at farmers markets around Kaua‘i and at R.Fields Wine Company. You can also purchase a limited amount of products online at monkeypodjam.com.

dI re CTIONS :

THOMAS

I N gred I e NTS :

1 1/2 c. whole wheat flour

1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon

1/4 tsp. salt

1/4 tsp. baking powder

1/2 c. coconut oil, at room temperature

1/2 c. packed light brown sugar

1/4 c. granulated sugar

1 large egg

1 tsp. vanilla extract

3/4 c. sliced almonds

3/4 c. Monkeypod Jam Cara Cara orange marmalade

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease an 8-inch square baking dish with cooking spray. Set aside.

2. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, cinnamon, salt, and baking powder. Set aside.

3. In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream coconut oil and sugars on high speed until light and fluffy, about 2 to 3 minutes. Add the egg and vanilla extract. Mix well. With the mixer on low, slowly add in the flour mixture. Mix until combined; the dough will be crumbly. Stir in the sliced almonds.

4. Stir the jam to loosen it up. Gently press half of dough into bottom of prepared baking dish. Evenly spread jam over dough. Sprinkle remaining dough over the top, making sure to cover the entire bars. Press gently to form the top layer.

5. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes or until the top is golden brown. Cool completely and cut into squares.

MARMALADE CRUMb SqUARES by ALETHA

“When fishermen have a big marlin and don’t know what to do with it, that’s where we come in,” says backyard smoker Darren Kai about utilizing protein that might have otherwise gone to waste.

S mo K e it

B ac KY ard S mo K er S darren K ai and mi K e

S ou Z a hel P fi S hermen ma K e the mo S t of their catche S.

Once upon a time, smoking meat and fish saved lives. If you could dry and cure your haul or hunt, you could feed your family for weeks or even months of lean times. Today, the practice of smoking game is less a necessity than just common sense. You catch a giant fish, and wasting its meat would be a shame. Enter Darren Kai and Mike Souza.

“Really, what we do is take care of local fishermen,” says Kai. “When they have a big marlin, and they don’t know what to do with it, that’s where we come in.” These smokers take the fish whole and break it down, carving out filets and removing the unusable parts. The fish is then frozen until conditions are right. “We’ll smoke it when we have time and good weather,” says Souza. “It can’t be raining.” First, the fish is sun-dried for several hours in a wire cage behind Souza’s Kalihi warehouse, where he runs a paper goods wholesale operation. Then, it’s loaded into a refrigerator-sized metal box, the smoker. “You have to dry it halfway,” he warns. “If you don’t dry it, it’ll end up steaming in your box. You need a sunny day with a nice wind. That’s the key.”

Another key to successful smoking, according to culinary authorities, is to brine the fish before smoking it (most Thanksgiving

turkeys are brined to ensure moistly cooked meat). A brine is a salt and water solution, which typically also has additional seasoning. Hawaiian-style brining includes, naturally, plenty of shoyu. “Everyone has their own concoction,” says Souza. His secret recipe was bestowed upon him by the same people who taught him the art of smoking. Who was it? He gestures westward, toward ‘Aiea: “The watercress patch.”

Souza is speaking of Sumida Farm, that enduring oasis of spring-fed watercress wedged between endless swaths of concrete in ‘Aiea. Many still remember how its patriarch, Masaru Sumida, battled developers to keep his farm intact as plans for a massive Pearlridge proceeded. The farm was also known in fishing circles as a place to take a big fish when you didn’t know what to do with it, and Souza met the Sumidas through his membership in a small fishing club. The main Sumida building is still adorned with dozens of prize marlin flukes. It serves as headquarters for the Aiea Fishing Club, a joy to the late Sumida in his post-retirement years, when he spent countless days out on the water, fishing. He and his hānai son, Matt Kahapea, originally shared the art and science of smoking with Souza.

However far back the practice of smoking fish goes (perhaps thousands of years), it has evolved from being a necessity to being a technique for creating a savory delicacy from protein otherwise unusable. Once a fish like a marlin gets to a few hundred pounds, the meat starts getting tough and bland. “Anything that can be smoked, I will smoke,” says Souza, who estimates that 95 percent of the meat he smokes is marlin. On this day, however, he has pork butt in one small smoker and two-dozen racks of broadbill swordfish filets in “the box” (the large metal smoker), plus an experiment: tied-up links of fish sausage hanging like fruit from a top rail. A thigh-sized piece of kiawe wood is casually propped in a chamber on the bottom, its smoke drawn up into the main compartment.

The swordfish, plump and scored like

split sausage as a result of being dried in the sun, is ready to be tasted, and it is good. Is good the right word? It is smoky; it is moist; it is life-affirming. And then, just like that, it is gone. This backyard smoking operation, though not commercial, yields marketquality results. “My mother used to buy the Pike Place Market smoked salmon for 25 dollars a pound,” Kai recalls, who also made all of the pupus—including a smoked salmon appetizer—for his 600-person wedding in 2000. “Then she tasted ours, and she doesn’t buy that anymore.”

“People like our fish,” confirms a modest Souza. He had opened the smoker door only momentarily to remove the sample for me, but my clothes would carry the mouthwatering aroma of wood smoke and salty goodness for hours.

I N gred I e NTS :

A few blocks of smoked fish

Mayonnaise

Cream cheese

Green onions

Chili pepper, Tabasco, or Sriracha

d I re CTIONS:

1. Shred fish.

2. Add rest of ingredients to taste.

3. Mix well and serve with crackers or between two loaves of bread as a sandwich.

SMOkED FISH DIP by DARREN kAI

“The peppers are what really took off, so we started creating things,” says Adoboloco’s Tim Parsons on the start of the fiery hot sauce brand.

Bottle it

the P ar S on S famil Y K ic KS it u P a notch with their line of locall Y made hot S auce S.

On a cool spring afternoon, Tim Parsons, owner of Adoboloco Hot Sauce, leads me to the back of his property in Kihei, on the southern shores of Maui, where a humble pepper farm is revealed. Amidst strewn gardening tools, recycled crates filled with budding greens, and a brick oven and smoker, there’s his family. His wife, Summer, their three kids, Scarlet, Harrison, and Xander, and their family’s pets, bacak-ing, woofing, and bleating nearby. Everyone seems to have their own responsibilities, their own roles to play, and when seen together, it appears effortless. Even the animals are necessary to the organic synergy of their farm, and ultimately, the end product. “The chickens provide great fertilizer for the garden and the peppers,” Tim says as we walk opposite the chicken coop. “Everything is produced organically with no pesticides right here on our farm or up at the Kula location.”

Parsons perfected his hot-sauce craft at home in Maui after returning from working as a graphic designer for 20 years in Oregon, but it was his Filipino heritage and love for chicken adobo that really propelled him toward this venture. “When I was a little kid, my favorite thing to eat was chicken adobo,” he says. “I always bugged my mother to make it until she finally taught me the recipe. When we lived on the mainland, there were no Filipino places to get local food, so I started cooking more, developing styles and recipes, and created a blog called Adoboloco.”

This love for Filipino food paired with a strong entrepreneurial spirit kick-started the project in 2010, which emerged as the perfect teaching platform for their children.

“When we decided to home school the kids, we figured a garden would be the perfect way to teach them about math, science, and other core subjects,” says Summer. “The peppers are what really took off, so we started creating things, taking them to farmers markets and giving it out to friends, and thought, ‘Wow, we can teach our kids about running a business and what it would take to manage it.’”

Running a successful business means learning and farming on weekdays and working weekends in a rented commercial kitchen in Kula to produce 100 pounds of hot sauce that will be bottled, labeled, and shipped to stores nationwide. He cites his delight in the strength and versatility of peppers—qualities that make their products widely accessible over long periods of time.

“After we extract the seeds, we save the peppers and let them dry,” he says. “We use those for cooking and they’ll last almost forever as long as they don’t get wet or moisture in the container. The pepper’s flavor will change at different stages of its life cycle, but the spice will last and last.”

Since exploding on the scene, Adoboloco has become a hot commodity, acquiring national distributors like Tommy Bahama and Crate and Barrel. “It’s so exciting because both companies had no idea how to

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get products out of Hawai‘i, because they’ve never ordered a product from here,” says Tim. “They ended up having us figure out the shipping logistics. It was really cool to have a product from Hawai‘i be shipped out to people who have never ordered products from here, and even better that the products were ours.”

When seen on the shelf in glass bottles, the hot sauce has no smell, no flavor, no texture, so it would be easy to glaze over all the dedication, passion, and hard work of the Parsons family. But the vinegary-garlicky goodness in each sauce, when paired with a sandwich or burrito, is impossible to ignore once experienced. The bright, colorful, and creamy flavors of jalapeño, pineapple habanero, and smoked bhut jolokia (more commonly known as ghost pepper) make for bold marinades, and their Maui No Ka Oi sauce, made with Trinidad Maruga Scorpio peppers, is always in great demand (be wary of watery tear ducts and rolling sweat), blending the perfect amount of sweet and spicy. A world bursting with life and color is released and mere table food is given the opportunity to be something so much more. “Similar to varietals of grapes in wine, there are endless flavors in peppers and so many different ways of using them,” Tim says. “For us though, we want the flavor of the pepper to shine. It’s about enhancing the flavor of the food, not masking it.”

With the Parsons’ hot sauces drawing a large and loyal following at more than 100 stores nationwide, the family is eager to introduce the Adoboloco zing to new concepts. “We have other products we are thinking of and working on that are different from hot sauce,” says Tim. “We’ve been fine-tuning it on and off for a year now, but through this whole process we’ve learned it’s not about growing beyond what we can do. We started with nothing. There was no capital, but when there’s growth, we try to meet it.”

For the full list of locations where you can find Adoboloco sauces, or to order online, visit adoboloco.com.

Patties:

IN gred I e NTS:

LOCO HOLLAN d AIS e SAUC e :

6 egg yolks

2 tbsp. Adoboloco sauce (my pick: Hamajang; my kids’ pick: Jalapeño)

1/4 stick of salted melted butter

PATTI e S:

Pa‘i‘ai patty: Undiluted poi and grated steamed taro (make it at home or pick up freshly pounded Mana Ai pa‘ia‘i at Whole Foods) Portuguese sausage patty: I make mine with an even mix of wild Maui venison and pork; an alternative is store-bought Portuguese sausage 4 eggs

Dry dill or finely chopped chives and paprika

dI re CTIONS :

Loco hollandaise sauce:

1. Blend or whisk the egg yolks and Adoboloco sauce together in a bowl until thickened and doubled in volume.

2. Place the bowl over a saucepan containing slightly steaming water (or use a double boiler). The water should not touch the bottom of the bowl. Continue to whisk rapidly to prevent the eggs from overheating, or they’ll harden and create lumps.

3. Slowly pour in the melted butter and continue to mix until the sauce has thickened. Remove from heat, cover, and place in a warm area.

1. Hand-form pa‘i‘ai patties and press in grated taro for texture. Season with a little sea salt and pepper, and fry until browned on both sides. Set aside.

2. Fry the sausage patties and set aside in a warm area.

3. Traditionally, eggs benedict is served with poached eggs. No one in our family really likes them poached, so I fry the eggs easy, sunny-side up.

A SS e M b L y:

Assemble everything in this order: pa‘i‘ai patty, sausage patty, fried egg, Loco hollandaise sauce. Garnish with dill or finely chopped chives and paprika. Serve warm.

Serves four. Traditionally this would only serve two people, but taro is a whole food and will fill you up better than the token English muffin and Canadian bacon.

Bottoms up! The AdobolOkole en Fuego! cocktail, developed by Jimmy Shoemaker of Dazoo Maui and made with okolehao and Adoboloco pineapple sauce, goes great with the Adoboloco eggs benedict. For the full recipe, visit fluxhawaii.com.

ADObOLOCO PA‘I‘AI VENISON EGGS bENEDICT by TIM PARSONS

“We just keep growing them more of, not tradition, but just because they were hers, we try to keep them going,” says Doris Inafuku about the decadesold chives that her family replants and ferments into kimchi.

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T

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It was more than two decades ago when Dorothy Enokawa started growing chives out of her home on Booth Road. It wasn’t a whole lot, just a few handfuls of grassy sprigs sprouting from a galvanized pail. Mostly, Dorothy enjoyed the harvested chives by mixing them into a tempura batter, adding canned tuna—“because it was cheap,” says her daughter Doris Inafuku—and frying them into little fritters.

Dorothy knew a thing or two about making meals go a long way. She was the mother of seven and taught her children not to waste, says Doris, the eldest of the Enokawa clan. She taught her kids ways to keep food from spoiling, like how to make spaghetti sauce or beef stew last in the refrigerator for weeks at a time (“Once your food comes up to boil, don’t put a spoon or ladle back in the pot—it introduces all kinds of bacteria; put your food straight into your icebox container, and it’ll keep for weeks,” according to Doris). In 1990, at the age of 75, Dorothy moved to Salt Lake to live with Doris, Doris’ husband Toshi, and her youngest daughter Elaine. She brought her galvanized pail with her.

In the backyard of Doris’ Salt Lake home, Toshi replanted their mother’s bundle of chives in a small box he built alongside their lemon, orange, and papaya trees.

Twenty-four years later, despite her passing in 1996, Dorothy’s chives are flourishing. Every two weeks, a new growth of the garlicky, oniony herbs springs up, ready to be harvested. The box is small but yields a large portion. “Sometimes we turn them into the chive and tuna tempura,” says Doris. “We just keep growing them because it was Mom’s chives. More of, not tradition, but just because they were hers, we try to keep them going.”

With more chives than they know what to do with, Doris enlisted the help of her sister-in-law Mimi, who mixes the chives with salt, garlic, ginger, sugar, and shrimp paste and turns it into kimchi. “The older the chives get, the more tougher and harder to chew,” says Mimi as she cuts away bundles of chives. “Little younger is better because they’re soft. The taste is more better.”

While some prefer to leave kimchi to ferment until it’s bubbling and fizzing out

of its container, the full, acrid zing having reached maximum ripeness, Mimi prefers to eat the chive kimchi fresh, over hot rice or mixed with vegetables for a bibimbap. Unlike the ubiquitous won bok cabbage kimchi, chive kimchi (buchu, in Korean) is “quick and dirty,” as Elaine says, and doesn’t require the days of fermentation to reach prime ripeness, though it’ll keep in the refrigerator for “however long,” says Mimi. The shelf life of kimchi, however, is a matter of taste. “As a raw, naturally fermented food, kimchi continues to age indefinitely,” writes Lauryn Chun, author of The Kimchi Cookbook, “its flavors intensifying from a simple melody into a complex symphony over time.

She continues: “Decades ago, it wasn’t uncommon for two-year-old kimchi to be retrieved from the onggi (earthenware), rinsed, and chopped up for a soup, stew, ssam (wrap), or pancake. Just as you would scrape off an unsavory spot from a wedge of cheese that might have lingered in your fridge, old kimchi was never thrown out. A precious, valued ingredient, it was always treated with respect.”

To maintain the chive’s robust, peppery flavor—key in fresh buchu kimchi—the dirt in the chive box needs to be replaced every few years. It’s a tedious process that involves uprooting each tiny bulb individually, soaking it in water to loosen the dirt around the roots, and replanting

it—a process that can take hours. “The mother plant that mom brought with her is what continues to grow. If you let it grow long enough, it’ll make seeds sort of shaped like a dandelion, or the keiki will just drop and keep growing,” says Elaine. “After a while, since the roots keep growing, they get all crowded and need to be replanted.”

“Every time we replant, I get nervous and tell Toshi to go look if they are growing okay,” says Doris, who instructs Toshi to check if the chives are in need of a replant. As he steps outside, Doris calls out, “Is it time?”

“There is a feeling of fairness in blowing the weekend’s scrips on a game that involves equal parts skill and luck to win a Doberman-sized plush tiger, and I am not the first to observe that joy comes easier when the world feels equal.”—the author on working the Punahou Carnival.

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at the alwa YS antici P ated P unahou carnival , S onn Y G anaden wor KS for minimum wa G e , ex P lorin G the annual event a S a meta P hor for local economic ine Q ualit Y.

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A century ago, the disparity of wealth inequality inspired populist revolutions around the world, led to violence, and, in America, altered systems of taxation and programs for the poor. The present gulf of inequality between the highest earners and the rest of the planet has never been greater in human history and has been the topic du jour of world leaders; President Obama, the pope, and progressive politicians on all continents continue to make the widening gap a target of discussion and policy. In Hawai‘i, this vast inequality can be masked by shared beaches and gorgeous vistas, day hikes and weekends at the carnival.

What one consumes in Hawai‘i in terms of culture, food, consumer goods, housing, and travel is almost wholly dependent on wealth and income. The price of paradise is not solely the result of shipping, transport, and isolation. In 2012, the state was rated by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy as the fourth-worst in the nation in its taxation of the poor. Lawmakers are aware of how this looks. That same year, several advocacy groups worked to amend the earned income tax credit for some 230,000 residents that live in poverty, essentially eliminating state income tax for those whose income falls below the federal poverty level (currently $11,490 for an individual and $23,550 for a family of four). Debated for years, as of the drafting of this article, the state legislature has passed a measure that gradually increases the state minimum wage from the present

$7.25 per hour to $10.10 by 2018.

For advocates, debates over statistics and pennies mask the human drama that follows poverty. From Alexis de Tocqueville’s 1835 Democracy in America to Barbara Ehrenreich’s 2001 Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By In America, the subject of being broke and the ethics of hard work remain favorite free-form American subjects. The countless documentaries and articles that followed note the obvious news flash: It’s impossible to live on minimum wage. In art, film, and the myriad forms of literature, creative nonfiction remains a powerful look at inequality, a way to humanize stories that go unreported in statistical analysis.

In a not so rigorous application of participant observational methodology, and in order to articulate Hawai‘i’s conditions of minimum wage employment, I took a job at the annual Punahou Carnival. The carnival is the primary public relations event of Punahou School, founded in 1841 as a bastion of Christian learning for missionary children and touted as the finest education in the state, with a history of educating monarchy and the sitting U.S. president. Annual tuition for grades K–12 is presently listed at $19,950. The carnival proceeds, it is often mentioned, go to the school’s financial aid program. As the rides and games contractor since the 1930s, E.K. Fernandez and its numerous employees occupy the vast Chamberlain Field at the entrance of the campus. Punahou students and alumni volunteers man the games, art

show, food booths, and plant and white elephant sales on the perimeter of the field.

I sense that my new employer is constantly taking applications as insurance against workers who quit mid-shift. During a phone interview, the aunty in charge of hiring is interested in whether or not I will show up and whether I am willing to take a urine test to work the rides. As I would rather not brave the crowds and elements (the carnival usually coincides with rain), I opt for the big top games section. Upon arriving to Punahou, Aunty has us gather into a circle and introduce ourselves with flair. Most are recent public high school graduates. A 20-year-old breaks the upbeat introductions: “Also, if I have anything to tell you, don’t have kids too young, girls,” she says, nearly in tears. When the young woman to my left stays silent, staring at her feet despite constant encouragement from the circle, Aunty puts a hand on her shoulder. “It’s OK sweetie, we have some openings in concessions,” she consoles. My employee regulations include few perks: “(#13) You may not give away trials, free games and prizes. It will be considered a theft against the company and we will prosecute THEFT...” and “(#14) You may not use your cell phone and music players during work hours otherwise your supervisor will confiscate it. You may get it at the end of your shift.”

Gratefully, I am not suffered the further

More than 14,000 people, or 2.2 percent of the total workforce, are paid no more than minimum wage. My coworkers throughout the carnival, even as temporary workers, support the statement.

indignity of being called a carney, the mainland term used to discriminate the sometimes transient edge-of-society folks who work in the industry. While loitering around a makeshift office, I speak with an 18-year-old from ‘Ewa Beach wearing fitted pants and Converse sneakers. “I went to work the Maui Fair couple months ago. Brah, hard work dat,” he says with a gaptoothed smile. “I’d rather not work this weekend, but I need the money.” When he starts shuffling to the surprisingly killer house remix blasting from Punahou’s sound system, I find myself trading slide techniques on the creaky floor boards floating over the muddy grass. “Here, hide in the corner until Aunty puts the girls in the darts. You don’t want to be seen when she’s figuring out who’s gonna fill balloons.” The young women are assigned the more talkative games: wiffle ball, bastketball game, roll-a-ball. A cohort of tutus work darts; the remaining ballretrieval games go to the fellas. “’Nother day, ’nother dollar,” my new friend says on the way to the milk cans.

My initial assignment is the most rancorous game under the big top: Shoot Out The Star. Every game’s objective is in its title, which helps when irritated. As I am asked for the umpteenth time how to win the remote-control helicopter, I tap the sign and go back to shaking BBs into a line of loosely tethered air guns attached to an ominously rattling air compressor. While distracted by one of the innumerable complainers, a boy picks up a gun behind my back and blasts. “My kid was just shot in the face!” his irate father tells me after a BB pops off the target’s metal frame, speckling his kid’s forehead. I stop myself from saying, “his fault,” hunch my shoulders like Curly from the Three Stooges, and tug on my

manager’s sleeve while motioning for a water break. As I flee, my manager hands the kid some scrips while the dad’s voice rises. At the carnival, as in life, we are never inherently safe.

The only positives of the work are in fantasies of the mind. I am Herman Melville at sea, George Plimpton playing football, Joan Didion in Manhattan, a wordsmith touristing with the proletariat while composing the opus of the working man. Alas, not the case. On being outed as a writer among my compatriots: Who the hell cares? Everybody knows someone who writes for enjoyment or pay. “Brah, my cousin wrote the sickest sci-fi comic book you ever read. But then he had a baby and now he does construction,” my coworker says, shaking pellets into a misfiring gun. The din of gunfire makes him yell: “I should send you his book. Maybe you can find someone to publish it!” Our manager beams us a back-to-work smile. Writing about being poor makes zero sense to most of the people I meet. For those whose family members know it too well, absolute poverty feels far too close.

In the recent debates over the inevitable rise of the state minimum wage, Dwight Takamine, a former legislator who now heads the state Department of Labor and Industrial Relations under Governor Abercrombie, noted that 85 percent of minimum-wage workers in Hawai‘i are above 21 years of age, dispelling notions that most low-wage jobs are entry-level positions held by teenagers. “More than 14,000 people, or 2.2 percent of the total workforce, are paid no more than minimum wage. More than half of those employees work full time,” he told lawmakers. My coworkers throughout the carnival, even as

temporary workers, support the statement. Working games on the field while earning $7.25 an hour puts me in the category of low-wage earners who represent the majority of workers of the world. Reminiscent of de Tocqueville, another Frenchman has applied the European theories of political morality to American economic reality, arguing that surging inequality is endemic to capitalism. A 700page tome that has become the number-one book on Amazon and earned its author meetings at the White House, Capital in the Twenty-First Century by French economist Thomas Piketty reframes the widely known income distribution gap at the beginning of the 20th century, which rose sharply and led to global depression, and became more equitable during and after the century’s second great war. That inequality has soared since the 1980s, due in part to lax taxes on the supremely wealthy, attacks on organized labor, and the cruel mathematics of interests. The top 1 percent of households now garner 22.5 percent of total income. Chief executives have never been paid more. Several corporations pay their CEOs exorbitant sums in stock options, thereby earning capital from dividends, capital gains, interest, and rents. The 85 richest people in the world have as much money combined as 3.5 billion of the poorest, which is half the population of the planet. By simply defining income as any asset that generates a monetary return, Piketty assesses how an appropriate tax system could work.

In the years prior to the war, New Deal policies raised income tax rates across the board, (especially for the wealthy who owned land), set minimum wages in several industries, and encouraged the growth of trade unions. It

The topics of being broke and the ethics of hard work remain favorite free-form American subjects in literature, film, and academia, and are brought to life at events like the ever-popular Punahou Carnival.

was through policy, not the largesse of industry, that America prospered, Piketty argues. “Economic and political changes are inextricably intertwined and must be studied together,” he writes. The book suggests a tax rate similar to New Deal policies: a wealth tax that would look like a property tax, applicable to 21st century versions of wealth. As the level of income inequality in the United States reaches heights reminiscent of Europe prior to socialist revolutions, “higher than in any other society at any time in the past, anywhere in the world,” according to Piketty, “the consequences for the longterm dynamics of the wealth distribution are potentially terrifying.” Unfortunately, with the state of current corporate political lobbying and a lack of political will, the outlook for advancing this tax system has the same prospects as organizing the labor of my fellow carnies: a snowball’s chance in Halawa.

After a break spent with a saimin and a nap, I am grateful for reassignment out of the infantry. Next station is Tip ’Em Over, the centuries-old game of embarrassing pitches of a pudgy softball at three concrete bowling pins. The trick, I tell anybody who will listen, is an accurate throw to the baseboard that ricochets to the pins’ connecting points: more accuracy than power; easier said than done. The next few hours are 30-second caricatures of disappointment and hilarity. Teen boys are the biggest suckers, followed by aggressive dads; dolled-up teen girls use their windups to shed clothing while their mothers usually give half-hearted throws and return to their funnel cakes. There is a feeling of fairness in blowing the weekend’s scrips on a game that involves equal parts skill and luck to win a Doberman-sized plush tiger, and I am not the first to observe that joy comes easier when the world feels equal.

is not to say the divide remains impossible to traverse, at least generationally, anyway. When I pick up my meager paycheck two weeks later, I pass three new Mercedes in the parking lot of the main office. Most workers retrieve their pay within hours of its issuance.

There is some guilt in writing about minimum-wage employment as some exercise in journalism rather than necessity. Most do not have the luxury. What is usually missed in exclusive discussions of tax and income policy is why economic equality is so important: because every human is valuable; because talent, intelligence, and capacity (and their opposites) are equally distributed through the gene pool not dictated by race, gender, or place of birth. Because a more equitable society means we consume more appropriately, giving according to purpose, taking according to need. It means valuing ourselves.

The economy has been excellent in Hawai‘i, in part the result of a reinvestment in war, increasing tourism from new markets, and the gorgeous repurposing of local agriculture. The islands have also become a playground for the rich. The south shores of Maui and Kaua‘i, the Kona Coast of Hawai‘i Island, and portions of O‘ahu have been transformed in the last generation. At the outset of Hawai‘i statehood in the 1950s, some New Deal policies meshed with organized labor to provide at least the promise of economic equality. But over decades, ownership of capital in the islands now mimics parts of America, where supremely wealthy locals and foreigners outmatch the populace for housing. At the carnival, there’s no way to tell who’s better off than the next by looking at the social signifiers of fashion. If Hawai‘i’s modern economics mirror the 19th century, its fashion is its inverse. A few recognizable professionals look like beach hobos in white tube socks and black loafers, while west-side teenagers strut in the freshest threads. The world almost feels egalitarian under the big top, and the conspicuous consumption is limited to fried food and neon plush animals.

As for skilled labor, my job ranks low. Another teen steps up to the mound, and I hand her a ball while stuffing my apron with more scrips. The tedium must be breached. I juggle softballs and impersonate Vin Scully calling a play-byplay: “Madame in the blue knickers and askew floral cap takes the mound. Full count and the tension is palpable. Here’s the wind-up. Aaand here’s the pitch. ... NEXT!” When a small crowd of bemused teenagers forms, I stop. More entertaining equates more ball retrieving. I shut my trap and attempt some metaphysical flow as the carnival lights whirr overhead, using legs instead of back to avoid the sickening pop of an overused tendon. It is impossible to “pretend” to be a carney. All I do differently is use a phone to jot oneword notes, hiding behind the tarp from my manager.

As golden solstice sunlight glints off the rides, competing for brightness with the waving lights, the difference between lives of the young adults working on the field compared to the alumni volunteering the booths on the perimeter is illuminated. If the carnival is a metaphor for the local economy, according to economic statistics, most of us are somewhere in the muddy grass with the rides and games, where the journey to the sidewalk might as well require navigating a poisoned moat. This

The upcoming increase in the minimum wage will help with economic inequality, but not by much, and certainly not to the capacity achieved by the utopian ideals of equality in education, healthcare, labor, and criminal justice. Most of us have taken god-awful jobs on our way to better ones, and most minimum wage jobs don’t have the benefit of watching thousands of people laugh at their own physical failure. Admittedly, I didn’t spend enough time retrieving softballs to truly appreciate the opportunities for advancement. I quit well before the bonegrabbing aches set in, the ones that shoot up the legs straight to the heart. It is easy to stay too long at the fair. Economic inequality is the defining characteristic of our era; one that we can only hope our democracy starts to fix before the lights in the tent go out.

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the american ePidemic

with P re S cri P tion dru G overdo S e death S now out P acin G tho S e cau S ed BY heroin and cocaine com B ined , hawai

‘ i will S oon face a B lea K realit Y of tho S e con S umed BY the S cour G e .

T EXT BY C ARMICHAEL D OAN | I LLUSTRATIONS BY M ATT H ONDA

At the turn of the millennium, the classic escapist cocktails of marijuana, LSD, methamphetamines, Psilocybin mushrooms, and good old-fashioned alcohol were in demand and used with enthusiastic fervor. While this was true around the nation, it was especially so in Hawai‘i—a paradise where drugs could accentuate a Waikīkī stay or offer an easy escape from the harsh, repetitive nature of living on an island.

When outsiders think of Hawai‘i, they envision a certain ideal, one of bronzed, beautiful people smiling and throwing shakas back and forth. That version of Hawai‘i exists, but beneath the illusory veil of swaying palm trees, towering high rises, and sparkling blue-water beaches lies a seething subculture of those desiring to chase the tail of metaphysical dragons and spiritual awakening, struggling against the rising tide of malaise. Beyond the recreational dip into pot-smoking on the weekend or the occasional delve into psychedelics on a day off, there is an alarming truth coming to light about the extent and lethality of Hawai‘i’s growing addiction to prescription drugs. Around the nation, the number of addicts, recreational users, and abusers of prescription drugs has dramatically increased over the last decade. In 2010, the National Center for

Disease Control declared prescription drug overdoses an “American epidemic,” responsible for more overdose deaths than heroin and cocaine combined. Sixty percent of drug overdose deaths involved pharmaceutical drugs, with opioid analgesics (painkillers like oxycodone, hydrocodone, and methadone) involved in about three of every four pharmaceutical overdose deaths. It’s estimated that the misuse and abuse of prescription painkillers alone costs the country an estimated $53.4 billion a year in lost productivity, medical costs, and criminal justice costs.

In Hawai‘i, the numbers are just as bleak. According to a 2013 report by the Trust for America’s Health, a Washington D.C.-based health policy organization, drug overdose deaths in the Aloha State— the majority of which are from prescription drugs—increased by 68 percent over the last five years. Matt, a local entrepreneur and friend of mine, was among the statistics.

When I met him, Matt had a sharp mind and was loaded with physical talent. He excelled in most everything he could lay his hands upon. He had the tools to play basketball with guys who were twice his size and yet had the agility and coordination to become one of the most naturally gifted skateboarders at Aiea High School. His

mental aptitudes were astounding as well, and it seemed to me that he could run circles around the local drug dealers and tongue-tie the authorities that sought to curtail his extracurricular activities.

He, like many others at the time, was an avid marijuana smoker. Where pot sometimes stifles or mellows others, it had the inverse effect on him. He would sit and analyze the minutiae of design and art like a savant. His mind was unleashed from its earthly coil, and he would wax philosophical for hours while deconstructing problems in his mind. Back then, he might have been called a dreamer, an altruist, a complex and versatile humanist. These attributes led him to start his own clothing company, Barely Human, in 2004, with all the dreams and aspirations of breaking into the streetwear scene. He had hopes of changing the way the world viewed itself, and faith that he could inspire and build a better world for his newborn daughter.

In 2006, following a fight outside of a karaoke bar, Matt was seriously injured and one of the vertebrae in his back was permanently disfigured. The doctors advised him that his active lifestyle would further compound his injury, possibly leading to more debilitating results. He was prescribed oxycodone as a way to cope with the lingering

The common misperception amongst first time users of prescription drugs is that it is not unhealthy for them, has limited side effects, and in fact, that it may have healing properties.

pain in his lower back. After six months, he was taken off oxycodone and told to treat his chronic back pain with acetaminophen and other over–the-counter measures. However, already physically addicted to the sedating effects of oxycodone, Matt immediately began to experience nausea, weakness, and the plethora of other negative side effects resulting from withdrawal.

Eventually, Matt’s desperation to alleviate these symptoms led him to what is known as “doctor shopping,” a process of scheduling multiple appointments with a variety of doctors in an attempt to mislead, misinform, exaggerate, or outright lie about ailments in an attempt to take advantage of the ambiguous guidelines for prescribing controlled substances. Since pain is subjective, these types of schemes are just a numbers game that involves playing the odds. A person who is actively doctor shopping will schedule as many doctor appointments as need be until a physician either fraudulently or ignorantly (though with good intentions) prescribes the desired medication.

It didn’t take long to achieve what he needed. After a couple of visits to multiple doctors, he was loaded with prescriptions for oxycodone, Vicodin, and oxycodone hydrochloride, or Oxycontin as it is commonly called. He was stocked with enough pills to sedate a small zoo, but like most addicts, his tolerance had increased, and his addiction had become insatiable. His drug use had extended way beyond therapeutic.

As is the case with most drug abusers, the appetite for louder, stronger, more intense, more visceral, eventually leads most to one of two options. The first option is what most people attempt:

They pull back, and rein in these urges. Refocused after their sabbatical to the fringe of commonly accepted debauchery, they muster the strength to switch gears and devote themselves to the church of labor or family or plain sense. This decision is a practical one. This decision leads down the winding pathways to success, stability, and lawful gains. Those who simply cannot abide to put these temptations at bay choose option two.

Matt chose option two.

Ten years ago, Matt’s standard deviation into drug abuse was a joint laced with cocaine, or a drop or two or three of LSD, but with intensified scrutiny on these stock drugs and the increasing ease of accessibility to “legal drugs,” he focused his efforts on the pharmaceutical variety. No longer content with merely sedating his pain, he began applying his industrious and fatalistic tendencies toward swapping his analgesic stockpile for other types of chemistry-altering pills. With prescription drugs able to produce the same effects of archaic drugs but with less oversight and regulation, Matt began to slide further into the abyss of pill-popping and prescriptionmixing activities. His company went into default during this time, and he sold off the remaining equipment in his defunct warehouse for more extraneous cash. Barely Human was officially dead.

There are common misperceptions about prescription drugs. A cocaine user knows that he is killing brain cells and either doesn’t care or is too addicted to stop. The common misperception amongst first time users of prescription drugs is that it is not unhealthy for them, has limited side effects, and in fact, that it may have

healing properties. This could be attributed to a variety of factors, from the propaganda of pharmaceutical companies pumping out advertisements of smiling housewives running in white clothing on a summer day while sucking back on some Ambien, to the fact that your local doctor prescribes it to your grandmother. According to a report published in the Journal of the American Medical Association Internal Medicine, “Most people who abuse prescription opioid drugs get them for free from a friend or relative—but those at highest risk of overdose are as likely to get them from a doctor’s prescription.” (Those considered at the highest risk are those who use prescription opioids non-medically 200 or more days a year.) Because of a belief that doctors will follow their Hippocratic oaths to practice medicine honestly, the average consumer innately trusts his or her prescribing physician.

Matt initially believed the same thing. “I used to think, ‘Why would the doctor give me something that isn’t safe?’” These days, he knows better. Following a two-year stint at Waiawa Correctional Facility for robbery following a dry spell of prescription pills, he began to clean up his act. He goes to Narcotic Anonymous meetings regularly and meets with fellow addicts looking to spread information and awareness. Looking back, he realizes that that he has to accept responsibility for his downward spiral, but has no qualms about giving the powers that be their due as well. “The government and doctors are the biggest drug dealers, and it is absolute shit that doctors get paid by pharmaceutical companies to push their products. When they give you drugs, they always seem to

W. SON

fail to mention the addictive nature and possibly life-fucking side-effects.”

With the prevalence of prescription drugs in the marketplace, abuse among teens and young adults has, inevitably, also increased. Pychostimulants like Ritalin or Aderall, which are used to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, are being snorted or injected to aid in things like weight loss or academic performance, or to achieve feelings of euphoria, as fast as they’re being prescribed. “The dramatic increases in stimulant prescriptions over the last two decades have led to their greater environmental availability and increased risk for diversion and abuse,” according to a report by the National Institute on Drug Abuse. “For those who take these medications to improve properly diagnosed conditions, they can be transforming, greatly enhancing a person’s quality of life. However, because they are perceived by many to be generally safe and effective, prescription stimulants, such as Concerta or Adderall, are increasingly being abused to address nonmedical conditions or situations.”

Research by The Partnership at Drugfree. org supports those perceptions, finding that nearly one-third of parents say they believe psychostimulants “can improve a teen’s academic performance even if the teen does not have ADHD.” Among the estimated 1.1 million people who use stimulants drugs for nonmedical uses is Kaimana, a 22-year-old who doesn’t drink or smoke and rarely goes out on weekends. “The rigors of being in school and working are very taxing, and I just need a little something extra to keep my grades up and keep myself focused,” says the University of Hawai‘i student, who regularly takes Ritalin, one of the most popular

stimulants abused among users 12 and up, before midterms. Though Ritalin provides Kaimana with a quick boost (resembling the stimulant characteristics of cocaine), the long-term effects of abuse include permanent damage to the brain and heart, which can lead to heart attack or stroke; liver, kidney, and lung damage; respiratory problems if smoked; tissue damage in the nose if snorted; psychosis or depression. What might have begun as an honest and thoughtful excursion into the swirling abyss of experimentation and reverie has descended into a growing subculture in Hawai‘i of increased acceptance and use of pharmaceutical drugs, a fever pitch of crushed dreams and frantic grabbing hands. In this paradise, it is easy to become swept up in the scintillating vibrancy of metropolitan nightlife, or the rigorous tribulation of higher learning. The irony is that in our rush to augment the quality of our life and the possibility of our future, we may have unwittingly loosed a dire and even sobering reminder of our own fragile mortality.

I Wanna Be

Loved By You

PHOTOGRAPHY BY HAROLD JULIAN

STYLED BY ALY ISHIKUNI & REISE KOCHI

STYLING ASSISTED BY MATT GONZALEZ

MAKEUP BY DULCE APANA, TIMELESS CLASSIC BEAUTY

HAIR BY ROWENA HIRAGA, CITIZEN SALON

MODEL: MAHINA GARCIA, NICHE MODELS AND TALENT

“I don’t want to make money. I just want to be wonderful.”

—MARILYN MONROE

ATLAS LINK NECKLACE IN STERLING

SILVER BY TIFFANY & CO; TOPSHOP

BATHING SUIT FROM NORDSTROM.

LEFT: TOPSHOP BRALLETTE AND BIKINI BOTTOM FROM NORDSTROM; O’2ND MESH BLAZER AND TOM FORD SUNGLASSES FROM NEIMAN MARCUS; VITA RIVA WICKER CAR BAG FROM KATE

SPADE NEW YORK. RIGHT: MSGM DRESS FROM NEIMAN MARCUS; AMOS KOTOMORI NECKLACE FROM THE COLLECTION OF AMOS KOTOMORI; VINTAGE EARRINGS FROM CATHERINE’S CLOSET.

“She was a girl who knew how to be gay even when she was sad. And that’s important, you know.”

LEFT: TOPSHOP BRALETTE FROM NORDSTROM; KATE SPADE SKIRT FROM KATE SPADE NEW YORK; KATE SPADE NECKLACE FROM NEIMAN MARCUS; VINTAGE EARRINGS FROM BARRIO VINTAGE. RIGHT: 3.1 PHILLIP LIM CROP TOP AND BANGLES FROM NORDSTROM; VINTAGE EARRINGS FROM CATHERINE’S CLOSET. ON TABLE: SMALL PINK BAG FROM SALVATORE FERRAGAMO; LEMON BAG FROM KATE SPADE NEW YORK; JUDITH LEIBER CRYSTAL WATERMELON BAG FROM NEIMAN MARCUS; MANOLO BLAHNIK NUDE PUMP AND CHARLOTTE OLYMPIA BLUE PUMP FROM NORDSTROM; KATE SPADE NECKLACE (IN TEACUP) FROM NORDSTROM; DISHWARE PROVIDED BY VINTAGE ROSE, AVAILABLE AT FISHCAKE; NECKLACES AND EARRINGS DISPLAYED ON TABLE FROM BARRIO VINTAGE AND CATHERINE’S CLOSET.

“A wise girl kisses but doesn’t love, listens but doesn’t believe, and leaves before she is left.”

TIME TO GET SHUCKING

For the first time in Hawai‘i, oysters grown in Moli‘i Fishpond at Kualoa Ranch will be available for sale and public consumption.

In an 800-year-old Hawaiian fishpond on O‘ahu’s eastern shore, new life grows. Encircled by dense, green vegetation and flanked by a cascading mountain, the Moli‘i Fishpond, located at Kualoa Ranch, once fed a large swath of the island for hundreds of years. And if the grand plans for the future of the pond hold true, it will contribute once again, marking a new phase in Hawaiian aquaculture and adding an important element to the state’s modern economy. So what’s the secret to revitalizing this old fishpond? Oysters.

“Yep, we’re growing oysters in the fishpond. Around 30,000 of them actually. Pacific oysters to be exact,” says David Morgan, whose family has owned and worked Kualoa Ranch for generations. “Since we announced what we’ve been up to,

we’ve had a tremendous amount of positive feedback. People are really excited about what we’re doing and so are we. We think oysters production in this fishpond could be a big part of what we do here at Kualoa Ranch in the future.”

Hawai‘i has played a crucial role in American oyster production for some time. Over the past decade, the Pacific Northwest—an epicenter in mainland oyster farming—began to experience ocean acidification, making it difficult to grow oysters. Because of Hawai‘i’s temperate climate and ocean conditions, many oyster farmers in Washington began growing their seed, or baby oysters, in Hawai‘i, where the shellfish reach maturation at a much faster rate. Unfortunately, all the oyster seed grown in the islands is shipped back to the

mainland, where it continues to mature, and is eventually sold to a very hungry market. According to research conducted by the University of Hawai‘i at Hilo, the shellfish industry in Washington state alone is worth $150 million, and in the country as a whole, more than a billion. Conservative estimates by UH Hilo predict oyster farming in Hawai‘i could bring in $20 million a year over the next 10 years.

So, with an increased demand for oysters from foodies around the world, and a perfect setup in the form of the fishpond, Morgan took to work. When it comes to growing oysters meant for human consumption, the state requires producers to meet a bevy of regulations. Over the course of a few years, Morgan worked with the state to ensure that the pond and his methods of farming were up

to code, and just earlier this year, he pulled in his first harvest. Currently, the oysters are for sale by the dozen at Kualoa Ranch and at select farmers markets like the one at Windward Mall. And while the ranch has plans of selling directly to restaurants in the future, it is looking to increase its stock before taking on that endeavor.

While Morgan oversees the ranch and the oyster farm, Ku‘uipo McCarty, a woman with a wry grin and a sharp sense of humor, is responsible for the day-to-day operations. Luckily for me, the ranch set up a tour of the production, including an oyster tasting. The oysters, which she mothers from seed to maturation, require a hard day’s work to ensure they meet the ranch’s (and state health officials’) high standards. The end result, she tells me, is one of the finest oysters I’ll ever eat.

I ask her to prove it.

With the light dancing on the brackish water in the fishpond behind us, McCarty removes an oyster knife and begins shucking oysters pulled from the pond just

hours before. “You won’t find anything but lean protein in our oysters. After we harvest them from the fishpond, we put them in a tank with pure fresh water for two days to ensure that they don’t have anything left in their system,” she tells me. “This makes the taste of the oyster—which really should be like a fresh bite of the sea—that much better.”

With a deft hand, she unhinges the shell and plucks the live oyster from its home. She passes me the bivalve and I quickly slurp it, chewing it exactly three times before swallowing. The taste is otherworldly, like if you were to eat canned tuna all your life, then encounter a highquality slice of fresh sashimi.

“What did I tell you?” she asks. “Pretty good huh? You want another?”

How about a dozen?

Fresh live oysters are available by the dozen for $15 and can be picked up at Kualoa Ranch. For more information or to reserve yours, visit kualoa.com/oysters-seafood.

David Morgan and Ku‘uipo McCarty, who oversee Kualoa Ranch’s new venture into oyster farming.

BIG, BEAUTIFUL BRUNCH

Chef Lee Anne Wong embraces local ingredients and infuses metropolitan sensibility into her new Kaimukī sensation.

Tex T by Rebecca Pike

mage by m el Tjoeng

In big cities across the globe, lusciously lazy gatherings over boozy brunches are an institution. In Kaimukī, the down-home neighborhood undergoing its second major boom, people are flocking to Koko Head Cafe to partake in the tradition.

Housed in the former location of 12th Ave Grill, the airy restaurant is a partnership between 12th Ave’s Kevin Hanney, who also operates Salt Kitchen & Tasting Bar, and chef Lee Anne Wong, who gained fame during the first season of the Food

Network’s Top Chef. Rotating specials at the cafe include skilletcooked frittatas featuring fresh local produce and a “dumpling of the day,” an integral part of Wong’s vision. In August, her cookbook Dumplings All Day Wong will hit the stands.

“Everyone loves dumplings,” says Wong. “It’s even truer here in Hawai‘i, a melting pot of Asian cultures.” Still, she continues, writing the book was “one of the hardest things I’ve ever done in my life, and I did it right in the middle of uprooting myself after 20 years in New York City.”

Wong is easing into island life. She loves the natural beauty of Hawai‘i and the warmth of the people, though she laments the local influence of major biotech and GMO advocates. A staunch opponent of factory farms and processed foods, she is committed to keeping her kitchen natural. “Our food is rich, don’t get me wrong,” she notes. But there’s a difference between indulgent and unnatural, between sophistication and just plain junk food. “We source as many locally grown products as possible, thereby supporting fellow small businesses and showcasing the bounty that Hawai‘i has to offer.”

At Koko Head Cafe, local ingredients are celebrated. Eggs haloa, for example, is a benedict-style dish with poached eggs over poi biscuits and creamy coconut luau, topped with sour poi

hollandaise. It’s salty, tangy, and absolutely unique. North Shore farm vegetables are a staple, while fish and eggs (a staff favorite) features line-caught offerings from Hawaiian waters over rice slightly koge from the cast iron skillet.

Hawai‘i’s melting pot and Wong’s own background inform the menu, from the salty, creamy, sweet, breakfast congee, served with three meats and delightfully surprising cinnamonbacon croutons, to the rich, comforting ohayou eggs skillet, filled with hearty local mushrooms, parmesan dashi cream, and bonito flakes. These two savory dishes are immensely popular, although Wong’s sweet meals seem to be garnering even more praise and enthusiasm.

The breakfast bruschetta, an unequivocal hit, is a Japanese rusk (a sort of sugary crouton) topped with thick, mascarpone-esque macadamia-nut yogurt and fresh fruit. Wong’s French toast, brick-shaped and coated in a crisp cornflake crust, is accompanied by a perfect, creamy, blackpepper maple syrup and “billionaire’s bacon,” candied thrice with secret spices. The house pancakes are spiked with ricotta cheese, leaving them moist and fluffy.

Wong works alongside her staff in the bustling semi-open kitchen. Expediting plates, checking sauces, serving customers, and talking story, she is busy and focused long before her restaurant opens until after the last satisfied diner leaves. “When I see a full dining room with happy people,” says Wong, “then I know we are doing our job right. It has taken a while to get here, but to be able to make good food and create a fun and healthy work environment for my employees has been the motivation behind opening Koko Head Cafe.”

Koko Head Cafe is located at 1145c 12th Ave. (behind Gecko Books) and is open daily from 7 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. No reservations. Full bar. For more information, call 808-732-8920 or visit kokoheadcafe.com.

* LEE ANNE WONG WILL BE PARTICIPATING IN THIS YEAR’S HAWAI‘I FOOD AND WINE FESTIVAL. FIND HER SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 7 AT THE BATTLE OF THE BRUNCH SHOWDOWN, WHEN THREE FEMALE MASTER CHEFS WILL BE PAIRED WITH THREE OF THEIR MALE COUNTERPARTS TO COOK UP SOME OF THE MOST CREATIVE BREAKFAST AND LUNCH DISHES IN A BATTLE FOR BRUNCH SUPREMACY. BATTLE OF THE BRUNCH TAKES PLACE AT THE HYATT REGENCY WAIKIKI BEACH RESORT & SPA; 11 A.M.–1 P.M.; TICKETS ARE $95. FOR MORE INFORMATION ON THE HAWAI‘I FOOD AND WINE FESTIVAL OR FOR THE FULL EVENT LINEUP, VISIT HAWAIIFOODANDWINEFESTIVAL.COM.

LEADING THE CHARGE

Kalapawai Café’s new employee biking plan does its part to reduce traffic and emissions.

Kailua is exploding with popularity. The area is a repeat vacation destination for President Obama and is home to Lanikai Beach, recognized as one of the best beaches in America. With amplified recognition and activity comes increased traffic. Since Kailua is primarily zoned as a residential area and has relatively narrow roads, this rise in traffic is painfully noticeable to many residents, including Lindsey Dymond, who is implementing a simple yet effective plan to help reduce the traffic in Kailua.

Dymond operates Kalapawai Market and Kalapawai Café, a casual coffee shop, deli, and dinner restaurant that has become a favorite among locals. Looking to improve the traffic problem, Dymond gave four of his senior employees bicycles. With Dymond and his four bike-equipped employees leading the charge, the rest of the Kalapawai staff have begun to convert from car drivers to bike riders. “The culture of a business starts from the top,” says Dymond. “If you can get the leaders to do something, it’s amazing how quickly everybody will follow suit.” Not only does biking to work open up precious space in both Kalapawai parking lots, but it also reduces traffic in Kailua and encourages employees to enjoy a healthier lifestyle.

Dymond describes his strategy as a “tangible loyalty program.” He plans to expand his program to benefit more employees in the near future and hopes to work with a local bike shop to acquire additional bicycles. In the meantime, Dymond and his employees will continue to foster a cycling culture in Kailua by acting as a turnaround point, refreshment area, and maintenance stop for riding groups. —David Jordan

A TASTE OF OUR LOVE FOR THE LAND

The Hawai‘i Food and Wine Festival returns again for two unforgettable weeks of culinary experiences. With a roster of more than 80 internationally renowned chefs, including four Iron Chefs and 22 James Beard Award winners, the HFWF will showcase the state’s enviable bounty of locally sourced produce, seafood, beef, and poultry, promoting the return of sustainability to Hawai‘i. Here, we feature of a few of the festival’s brightest local stars.

ISSAC BANCACO

About: Issac Bancaco is the chef de cuisine at Ka‘ana Kitchen, located in the Andaz Maui hotel. Bancaco, who was born and raised on Maui, takes pride in utilizing Hawai‘i’s locally grown and produced goods, culling 85 percent of his foods at Ka‘ana Kitchen from island farmers, ranchers, and fishermen.

SignAture diSh: Kona cold lobster with Kula kabocha, Portuguese sausage, and Maui onion soubise.

Find him: Sunday, August 31 at the Hyatt Regency Maui Resort & Spa in Kā‘anapali for Kā‘anapali Kitchen Stadium Under a Maui Moon; 6–10 p.m.; GA $250, VIP $500.

experience: a front row seat at the beachfront Kitchen Stadium as master chefs prepare a six-course menu under the Maui moonlight.

MICHELLE KARR-UEOKA

AbOUT: Michelle Karr-Ueoka gained experience in the kitchens of Alan Wong’s, The French Laundry, and Per Se before opening her first establishment, MW Restaurant, with her husband, chef Wade Ueoka. Their joint venture has already received much acclaim, garnering a James Beard nomination for Best New Restaurant and Outstanding Pastry Chef for Karr-Ueoka.

SIGNATURE DISH: Kula strawberry cheesecake, made with Big Island Goat Dairy fromage blanc, li hing Kula strawberries, strawberry hibiscus sorbet, and kiawe graham crackers.

FIND HER: Thursday, September 4 at The Modern Honolulu for A Lucky MODERN Buddha Belly; 6–9 p.m.; GA $200, VIP $300.

eX per I ence : Hawai‘i’s unique location as a culinary hub of the Pacific when 14 esteemed international chefs showcase dishes inspired by the Lucky Buddha, who is known for happiness, plenitude, and wisdom of contentment.

MARK NOGUCHI

aB o U t : Mark Noguchi, resident chef at Lunchbox in the Hawaiian Airlines headquarters and Snackbox in Kaka‘ako, is dedicated to empowering his community through food and education, making him one of the leaders in Hawai‘i’s sustainable food movement.

sIgnat U re dI sh : Kawelo family he‘e, hō‘io, bac ha, tomato, burnt shoyu, and nuts.

F I nd h IM : Sunday, September 7 at Ko Olina Resort for It’s a Food World After All; 6–9 p.m.; GA $200, VIP $500.

eX per I ence : the final event on the beach, featuring 16 celebrity chefs who will showcase how the world is connected through food and culture.

LEATHER SOUL STYLE COLUMN #4

From Street to Neat

Honolulu’s street fashion scene is alive and thriving, with amazing shops such as Kicks, In4mation, Crooks & Castles, and Fitted to name a few. We are lucky to be surrounded by such great energy and inspiration. Even if the staple of your casual wardrobe is streetwear, it’s always great to have “neatwear” options for those occasions when sneakers and T-shirts aren’t appropriate. Just because your daily staples are tees doesn’t mean you can’t neaten up your look once in a while.

As featured in our second style column, the classic oxford-cloth button-down is a great staple to own. Match with a pair of wellfitting jeans and dress shoes, and you’re ready for any occasion. Add a knit tie to take it to the next level.

Fitted T-shirt and cap from Fitted; 3sixteen jeans and New Balance sneakers from Leather Soul Downtown; Rolex watch from Honolulu Time; bracelet and necklace, model’s own.

Taylor Stitch for Leather Soul shirt, Drake’s for Leather Soul tie, Tanner Goods belt, The Armoury jeans, and Alden shoes, all from Leather Soul Downtown. Hamilton watch from Honolulu Time.

Tom Park is the founder and owner of Leather Soul. For questions on style or tailoring, contact him at info@leathersoul.com.

STREET

NEAT

STREET NEAT

HAUTE MAROQUINERIE

Louis Vuitton’s bespoke leather goods program comes to Hawai‘i, offering women endless possibilities in customization.

Women have always been close to Louis Vuitton’s heart. After all, didn’t one of the most famous of them all, Empress Eugénie, the wife of Napoleon, call upon the services of Louis, the founder of the house, in the late 19th century? Making a name for himself at court, he came up with a thousand and one clever ways to safely transport the elegant empress’ personal effects no matter their size.

Louis Vuitton’s Paris workshops so hummed with inventiveness that purses, pouches, and minaudières were soon forgotten. Elegant travelers, thirsty for adventure and discovery, now wanted to keep their secrets within arm’s reach in any circumstances. Modernity and elegance fused, giving birth to the first internationally renowned leather ladies bag. In 1892, the “Never Full” became the musthave of the year. Over the years, the Lockit, Speedy, and Noé designs have become icons, the ultimate reference for Louis Vuitton’s creativity and craftsmanship.

Today, as a faithful memory of these designs, Louis Vuitton offers three styles inspired by the iconic bags, along with two new shapes for the company’s Haute Maroquinerie program, a one-of-a-kind handbag personalization service. Women in Hawai‘i can now top off their signature looks with bespoke leather goods, choosing from five different silhouettes and 26 colors in eight of the most beautiful leathers, ranging from supple to firm to exotic. Each handbag is exquisitely crafted in the original Vuitton family home and atelier in the suburbs of Paris in Asnières, allowing the Louis Vuitton woman to own a timeless object of desire all her own.

Customize your own handbag at the Haute Maroquinerie salon, located on the upper floor of Louis Vuitton Ala Moana Center. For more information, visit louisvuitton.com

FIAMMA

Fiamma, a new handbag collection from Salvatore Ferragamo, launches with a series of vignettes of some of the world’s foremost female icons.

The thing that is so wonderful about fashion is that so much of it is a matter of taste. Style is characterized by individuality as much as it is by confidence. And while classics remain that never go out of style, what makes them so timeless are the women who wear them.

In celebration of this idea, Ferragamo is debuting a new handbag collection, Fiamma, that draws inspiration from the different female generations of the Ferragamo family and their enduring influence on the fashion house today. The handbag’s semi-circular top handle, designed in a range of five variant sizes, incorporates a functional pocket fastened with a lock that recalls the Gancio, the eternal symbol of Ferragamo’s history and dedication to modern design and luxurious craftsmanship. A

combination of undeterred quality and functionality translates into a rich series of luxe details, including topstitched, ribbed handles; a double-zip hardware closure; a removable, adjustable shoulder strap; and elegant satin lining.

The collection will launch with a series of film vignettes and portraits of a group of internationally relevant women cast alongside the Fiamma handbag that best represents each woman’s personal style: a brown fox fur Fiamma for Langley Fox Hemingway, the daughter of actress Mariel and great-granddaughter of the late Ernest; a black haircalf Fiamma for Anika and Sydney Poitier, daughters of the acclaimed director and diplomat Sidney; an ivory leather Fiamma for Sao Paolo “it girls” Helena Bordon and Marcella

and Luciana Tranchesi.

The line is named after Salvatore’s late daughter Fiamma Ferragamo, the house’s leather accessories and shoe designer for nearly 40 years, and the vignettes will stay true to their namesake by recognizing women and families for their inherited legacies—unique talents, renowned reputations, impeccable achievements, and inherent styles—captured in an intimate environment. Rounding out the cast are mother-daughter pairs Melusine Ruspoli

and Theresa Ruspoli of Rome; Claudine and Flora Zeta Cheong-Leen of Hong Kong; Hanayo and Tenko Nakajima of Tokyo; and Stella and Lola Schnabel with Jacqueline Beaurang of New York.

Find Fiamma at Ferragamo’s Ala Moana and Royal Hawaiian Center stores. To view the vignettes or for more information, visit ferragamo.com/fiamma.

ARTFUL IN LA

EXT BY J ORDAN R AY

After living in Los Angeles for five years, you could say that I was more or less disenchanted with the City of Angels. The traffic, the smog, the exhausting grind of dealing with people trying to “make it.” Since moving back home to Hawai‘i, I had little desire to visit the city, so I was as surprised as anyone with how colorful the city seems to have become in the last six years.

Of the many museums and galleries that populate the city, a visit to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the largest art museum in the western United States, is a must. Luckily, I arrived on a free-admission day courtesy of Target. Its outdoor lamp sculpture garden makes a fun backdrop for selfies no matter how many times it has been photographed. And with a collection that includes more than 120,000 objects dating from antiquity to the present, there’s always

something new to discover at LACMA.

The West Hollywood Library has been called one of the “most impressive pieces of public architecture to open in Southern California in a decade” by the Los Angeles Times. Designed by Culver City firm Johnson Favaro, the library is reminiscent of architecture in the style of Frank Gehry or Frank Lloyd Wright, with its floor-to-ceiling glass windows, flowing interior spaces, and emphasis on vertical form. In addition, three-story murals by Shepard Fairey, Retna, and Kenny Scharf—an extension of the MOCA’s popular Art in the Streets exhibition—make it a playful stop that stimulates the mind as well as one’s creative processes.

For further studies on modern forms (as well as a comfy pillow to lay your head on), a stay at one of Kimpton’s properties

is a no-brainer. Located in the museum district known as the Miracle Mile, the contemporary Hotel Wilshire, which features an impressive rooftop pool and bar overlooking the Los Angeles skyline, is just minutes from museums like the LACMA, the Page Museum at La Brea Tar Pits, the Architecture and Design Museum, and the Peterson Automotive Museum. Just minutes away, the Hotel Palomar in Westwood is another sleek option, where original works of art hang on the hotel’s sumptuous, red-lacquered walls. Either way, make sure you’re back at 5 p.m. for the hotels’ hosted wine happier hour.

After six years, maybe it’s not so much that Los Angeles has changed, but it’s me who has. As Wayne Dyer once said, “Change the way you look at things, and the things you look at change.”

DINE OUT WITH STARWOOD HOTELS AND RESORTS HAWAII

From fine dining to exotic cocktails, you’ll find an eclectic mix of cuisines to delight your taste buds on O‘ahu at Starwood Hotels and Resorts Hawaii.

RumFire at Sheraton Waikiki

Known for its trendy interior, lively entertainment, and stunning views of Diamond Head, RumFire serves up local favorites with sizzling new twists. Introducing Spiked Afternoon Tea, RumFire “burns up” the traditional afternoon tea and features bite-sized sliders, delectable desserts, and variations of teainspired cocktails.

Legendary Mai Tai Bar at The Royal Hawaiian

Setting the stage for world-class romance and elegant relaxation, the legendary Mai Tai Bar at The Royal Hawaiian has been the destination for Hollywood stars, international jet-setters, heads of state, and kama‘aina for decades. Live local entertainment melds with exotic handcrafted cocktails to provide the perfect atmosphere for winding down from a day at the beach or igniting an evening of island fun. Just steps away from the sands of Waikīkī Beach, Mai Tai Bar will leave you with an indelible imprint of Hawai‘i’s idyllic lifestyle.

Veranda at Moana Surfrider

The ambiance at the Moana Surfrider’s Veranda is tranquil and relaxing, evoking memories of yesteryear beneath the Moana’s historic banyan tree. Indulge in a Waikīkī tradition of fine teas, elegant finger sandwiches, and sweet pastries.

Kai Market at Sheraton Waikiki

Inspired by the plantation era that brought an influx of ethnic cuisine to the islands, Kai Market offers traditional Hawaiian delicacies using the freshest, locally grown products. Nosh on Kai Market’s fare while enjoying the cool tradewinds near the resort’s new infinity edge pool and Waikīkī Beach.

For more information, call 808-921-4600 or visit dininginhawaii.com

GOING VIRAL

Looping phenom Kawehi tinkers outside the box.

T EXT BY E RIN S MITH

On a quiet morning in April of this year, independent multi-instrumentalist Kawehi awoke to find her video, a cover of Nirvana’s “Heart Shaped Box,” on the frontpage websites of Huffington Post, Spin, and Esquire.

“It was pretty intense,” the Hawai‘i-born-and-raised musician recalls over the phone from Kansas, where she currently resides. “These are the websites I check out in the morning, and all of the sudden my video is featured on their homepages. … I’ve been taking calls from The Voice, labels, management, promoters for tours, and companies wanting to feature my music in their ads. I’m really indie though, so I’m careful about what I will or won’t do.”

The video, which garnered a million views in a matter of days, shows Kawehi as she builds the track from the ground up using Ableton software and an intricate system of looping that she learned through trial and error. Using her voice, her looping system, and a keyboard, she quickly builds the track live for the viewer and proceeds to sing the vocals over the track she built. Her technicality is jaw dropping, and her performance is nuanced, moody, and just right.

Kawehi makes building loops look easy, but she’ll be the first to assure you it is not. “I used to perform with just an acoustic guitar, but I grew tired of the limitations, and so I taught myself how to loop. There are thousands of effects and possibilities when looping, so it’s a bit of a Pandora’s box. It takes a lot of practice to get it right. If your timing is slightly off, you have to start again. I’ve had a few live performances where a minor detail got away from me, and I had to restart the song.”

Her “Heart Shaped Box” video caused such a stir that it caught the attention of Courtney Love, who took to Twitter to call Kawehi’s version of her late husband’s hit song “genius.” “I didn’t realize this,” says Kawehi, “but apparently Lana Del Ray recently covered the same song, and Courtney Love tore it apart. She hated it. So when she said that she liked my version, it was pretty overwhelming.”

Keep on the lookout for this rising star, who will be launching a Kickstarter-funded album called Robot Heart soon. She’ll be back in Hawai‘i for a performance at Nextdoor on July 3. For more information, visit kawehi.com.