Archive for October, 2007
Wednesday, October 31st, 2007
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How I love to have company on Fish Wednesday! If that company happens to be my absent much too long husband, well, welcome home and let’s have a bit of a feast to celebrate, shall we? I asked J. how long it had been since he’d had a home cooked meal - not so long - but it had been a good long time since he’d had fresh seafood.
Salmon season is over, the fish market gal tells me, and soon there will be no more fresh halibut. There’s still frozen salmon to be had but my discerning eye didn’t care for the look of it. Perhaps will be moving on to farmed shellfish for the winter, that and fish from lower latitudes and warmer waters.
First, I roasted one large chopped onion and six purplish potatoes in a hot oven. When they were done, I took the potatoes from the skillet and added the halibut, the juice of one lemon, and a generous tablespoon of capers. That cooked for about 10 minutes until the fish was flaky but not dry. That’s all there was to it. I didn’t even have to pay attention because someone kept asking me, “Hey, do you need to check on the fish?”
The price of the halibut is a bit steep, but oh my god, was it delicious, worth every penny of the 18 dollars a pound price tag. I don’t know what you’d be paying in a restaurant if retail is so high, but this particular bit of halibut was the Chilean sea bass of halibut, I tell you what. Alaskan halibut earns a thumbs up rating for sustainability, good news for the hungry.
In a vaguely related item, today while trying to learn about Hawaiian food, I came across the Hawaiian Seafood Buyer’s Guide. It doesn’t include sustainability ratings, to my disappointment, but there is detailed information about how each fish is caught. I will be chatting about sustainable seafood with the PR rep when we visit the Maui Ocean Center next month. Seafood abundant Hawaii has its own Seafood Watch guide, here - it’s a bummer how short the “good” list is, though I guess it’s not surprising considering how many people pass through there and feast from the sea.
[tags]Fish Wednesday, seafood, halibut[/tags]
Posted in Fish Wednesday | 5 Comments »
Wednesday, October 31st, 2007
Yesterday I finished watching a perfectly awful movie: Hawaii. This epic drama tells the story of a tightly wound missionary (Max von Sydow) and his bride (Julie Andrews) who are called to the Hawaiian islands to save the souls of the sinful people of Maui. The movie is too long by half, and the characters are completely transparent with one exception, the plus sized Alii Nui (Jocelyn LaGarde). She’s awesome. In spite of the melodrama, the film presents a fairly accurate depiction of Hawaiian history following the arrival of the accursed ‘haole’ (white man).
We all know what happens. The missionaries come, destroy the native culture, sailors, traders, and whalers arrive, bringing disease and exploitation to the bare breasted island maidens, the big hearted bride dies from overwork and consumption, the natives cover up, and Hawaii goes to Elvis and big hotel chains for the rest of time, but not before making the Native Hawaiians all but extinct. Oh, yeah, and there’s that Pearl Harbor incident. The travel propaganda industry moves in and Hawaii becomes ensconced in our collective psyches as Paradise, American Style. Okay, the movie doesn’t drag us into modern times. Von Sydow sees the error of his ways at the end, but wow, does he make a mess of everything getting there.
I have one more movie on deck, a documentary about Queen Liliuokalani, Hawaii’s last queen. She was coerced into abdicating her throne and the islands were handed to the jurisdiction of a man by the hardly coincidental pineapple name of Dole. I could follow up with Pearl Harbor, but I can’t stand Ben Affleck - From Here to Eternity is a better choice. And then, the insipid and undeniably appealing Blue Hawaii as desert? Or, Lilo and Stitch, for fun?
That is just under 300 words. And what have you learned about Hawaii today? Not much, I think. Plus, editorialize much, Nerd’s Eye View?
People who like to read my writing, god bless them, are all psyched when they learn I’m writing a book about Hawaii. “Hot damn!” they say, “I can’t wait to get my hands on what you write about that place!” Well, that is certainly flattery beyond what I deserve, but also, sadly, possibly untrue.
What they want is the wacky commentary. The character stories. The obscure details behind the scene. And I can honestly tell you that as badly as I want to write that stuff, there is very little room for it in my assignment. Take, for example, the fact that I have 400 words in which to cover history, culture, geography, and the modern day zeitgeist of the islands. And that the tone of the book is light, fun, appealing, and certainly free from sarcasm and snark. There’s room for enthusiasm and aesthetics, but for attitude?
Don’t get me wrong, I think it will be a good book, useful and fun, with a little off-the-beaten track (as much as it can be) advice, and some fun background stories. But it’s a reference, an introduction, a suggested guidelines sort of book, not a deep exploration of alternative Hawaii. And within those rules, there are some intense restrictions.
This is actually helpful when faced with so many options, so many choices to cover - if it’s not truly wonderful, it’s out. There’s no room for the mediocre. It’s also an excellent writing challenge. Restrictive word counts are not for weaklings. An editor I once worked with told me a famous quote for writers - “I would have written less if I’d had more time.” Writing long rambling paragraphs is easier than whittling them down to the essentials. The good news is that a lot of advice for travel writers says that editors are keen to fill the small spots in their calendar, that writing these tiny 400 word columns is a good way to break in to travel writing. It is good practice to write short, action packed pieces about huge topics.
The other news, good or not, is that oh, yeah, I have a blog! All those stories that you say you want to read (what, you don’t have anything better to do?) are going to end up right here on Nerd’s Eye View. Untrammeled by word counts and editorial guidelines beyond ‘disclose the freebies’, first person accounts of Hawaii are in the very near future.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to turn my attention back to writing 1200 words about Hawaiian food. I’m trying to get the essential character of poi into 300 words.
Related:
[tags]travel writing[/tags]
Posted in Aloha Oy | 2 Comments »
Sunday, October 28th, 2007
Once or twice a year, C and her sweetheart H open their cozy Vashon Island home to the four stringed ukerati. They grill up some good grub, people bring treats to share, and we sit around the living room (or back deck, if it’s summer) strumming and singing and having a good time visiting with fellow humans afflicted with an irrational affection for the uke.
I love their place, it’s a big ramshackle lot with out-buildings and a little Airstream trailer and in summer, H’s garden is abundant with dahlias. Last time I was out there I told C that she should not be surprised if, one morning, she stumbled out in to the yard to find I’d moved myself in to a little campsite on a sunny patch of their grounds just out of view of the main house. She laughed and told me I was welcome any time.
The splendid thing about a day on Vashon is that you must arrive by ferry. It’s a short hop across the water from the dock near my house. This morning, the air was thick with fog and the island was just a fuzzy outline. And this evening, we had the good fortune to time our departure just as the sun was setting over the Olympics.
Often, when people find out I had the opportunity to live in Austria, they stare at me in slight exasperation. “But Austria is such a beautiful country!” they say. I have learned to spare them the long disillusioned expat speech. But the question of beauty, well.
I live here.
There are a few more Vashon photos here.
[tags]Vashon Island, sunset, Seattle[/tags]
Posted in Seattle | 4 Comments »
Saturday, October 27th, 2007
It’s about a 15 minute walk to the 39th Street stair climb that goes down in to a pricier neighborhood where most of the houses have views and two car garages. 15 minutes further along, there’s Fauntleroy Park.
The park is shady and quiet and full of moss, ferns, very tall trees that are dropping huge yellow leaves on to the trails. Fauntleroy Creek runs under a series of bridges and boardwalks. It’s risky walking, the wood structures are slick and the trails are muddy.
It seems the recent wind storm took down one big tree, but I don’t know this park so I can’t say that it didn’t go down last season - I do know you have to thread through the downed branches to continue to the East side of the park - I went West instead.
I headed down hoping I might see a Coho salmon, an ambitious early go getter heading upstream to spawn, but instead all I found were three other hikers and a morose couple eating sack lunches. This park is a lovely place for a walk - even though it’s so close to the road and the ferry dock, you don’t hear the noise of the cars on Barton and the terrain goes up and down and across so your walk feels all cross-country.
If you go, do be careful when you’re on the boardwalks and bridges, especially if it’s cold as I imagine it gets quite icy. If we’d gone together, we’d have walked the rest of the way down the hill to that little cafe that has treats and coffee, the name escapes me right now, but it’s a cute place. And cozy.
[tags]West Seattle, Fauntleroy Park[/tags]
Posted in Seattle | No Comments »
Wednesday, October 24th, 2007
I don’t even know if that’s a word. But if you’re Hawaii-phobic, well, I don’t even know you.
Meanwhile, I’d like your advice in the form of a “fill in the blank” exercise. While yes, of course, I must visit the ukulele producing wonderlands of KoAloha or Kamaka or smaller other places I’ve not yet heard of, I’d like your non-ukulele suggestions.
Copy, fill in the blanks, paste in the comments, please.
While you’re on the island of [Island Name] you must see [Attraction Not to Be Missed]. And if you have time and are in the [Location on That Island], you gotta stop at [Name of Restuarant/Cafe] because they have the best damn [Edible/Drinkable] you’ll get anywhere.
You get only one entry per island because I want the absolute best, the thing you’d say I should do/see/eat if I had only one day on that island.
Update 10/26: You people rule! Keep ‘em coming!
Posted in Aloha Oy | 7 Comments »
Monday, October 22nd, 2007
I did the bike/bus combo to meet my friend L. at Elliot Bay Books for coffee. It was warmer than expected and truly, a beautiful morning to be out and about on the bike. The ride to/from West Seattle across the Duwamish Slough is my favorite thing about biking into downtown.
[tags]Seattle, Harbor Island[/tags]
Posted in Seattle | No Comments »
