Midlife Crisis Hawaii

Just read this on Facebook:

Are you a banana eater?

I grew up eating bananas.  My mom had a half-brother who had a banana farm in Waimanalo.  Sometimes when we’d come home from going out some place, there’d be a large grocery bag on our doorsteps filled with bananas.  As soon as I would see it, I’d say “Waimanalo uncle was here!“.

Other times when we were home, I’d see his black Ford Falcon station-wagon pull up and park in the front of our house.  He’d walk to the back of the station-wagon, use the crank to roll down the back window and pull out a big brown bag of bananas.  I’d quickly call my mom because I didn’t know how to speak Japanese.

Waimanalo Uncle’s station wagon looked like this one but was black with red interior

Of course we couldn’t eat all those bananas being that it was only my mom and me who used to eat them. So my mom would pass some out to the neighbors and other relatives.

But there was a certain bowl that was used to hold the bananas.  The only time it was used to hold something other than bananas was for assorted nuts during Christmas time.  The bowl was a heavy glass bowl with a deep dark red coloring to it.  It made the yellow bananas really pop out and look so appetizing.

When it came to snacking, it was hard to get mom’s permission to eat Oreo cookies or even breakfast cereal.  But I knew that I’d always get the green light if I asked to eat a banana.

Over the years I’ve distanced myself from bananas.  It’s not that I don’t like them, but it’s not that I love to eat them either.  I think it’s just that there are unhealthier (meaning tastier) things to snack on.

Paula often buys bananas – a few at a time – that she and daughter #2 eat.  When nobody eats the one or two left over, then I know we’ll be having banana pancakes come Sunday.

But after seeing this piece of information – I think I’ll start eating bananas once again.  Bananas are like the perfect fruit.

• They don’t require refrigeration
• They come individually wrapped (organically)
• They don’t required any utensils to eat them
• They’re not messy to eat
• They keep fresh for pretty long
• Even after they start rotting on the outside, the inside is still good for baking
• Bananas contain potassium and iron and vitamins such as B6, C and A
• They posses no cholesterol and practically no fat
• And if they get too old, you can make banana bread

Do you remember these bananas?

Are you a banana lover?  Did you used to eat bananas small kid time?  Do you still snack on bananas today?  Did you know that bananas can be healthy for you?  Do you have any special banana recipes?  Banana jokes?  Banana friends?  Share your banana stories with us.

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Love jazz?  This Saturday at the Hawaii Convention Center -PACIFIC RIM JAZZ FESTIVAL

That’s like 7 hours of pure music…

A co-worker was telling me a story about how they have a pot that they use to make adobo.  Whether it’s pork adobo, chicken adobo, chicken liver adobo, pig intestines adobo – regardless of what kind of adobo, it’s always made in the adobo pot.

In fact, one day her sister was going to make beef stew and took out the adobo pot.  Her father asked her what she was doing and she said that she was going to make beef stew.  He then asked her why she took out the adobo pot.  She said because the stew fits the pot.  He scolded her and said that the adobo pot is used strictly for adobo.  Nothing else.

I told her that maybe the pot was seasoned with the adobo spices and her father didn’t want to chance having something other than adobo mess up the seasoned pot.

Which got me thinking of how when we were growing up, certain pots were used for certain foods.  In fact, usually just by looking at the pot on the stove, I could more or less tell what we were having for dinner.

If I saw the the black cast iron frying pan and the stainless-steel pot (from the set of stack-able pots) next to it, I knew we were having bul-go-gi for dinner.

If I saw the black cast iron frying pan with the olive green Teflon coated pot next to it, that meant meat-jun for dinner

If I saw the deep pock-marked silver cast iron pot with the long black handle on the stove – chili.

The shallow pock-marked silver cast iron pan –> fried chicken.

Sometimes it was a guessing game.  If I saw the big shiny stainless-steel pot with the copper bottom on the stove, it could be either beef stew, pork tofu, or corn chowder.  Sometimes it’d be spaghetti.  I guess that pot was mom’s go-to pot.
*Sometimes looking a which ladle was out next to the pot helped in narrowing down what was in it.

And when it came to dishes, even some of them had certain uses for them.  The light beige ceramic bowl with the green trim on the table meant we had namasu for side dish.  The big green ceramic bowl meant potato salad for side dish.  And the light green Tupperware bowl meant chopped cabbage for side dish.

And the big dark red transparent glass bowl was reserved strictly for bananas.  The only exception was at Christmas time when the bowl would be used to hold mixed nuts.

My dad’s kochujung sauce was always stored in an etched glass bowl that had a matching cover.  Like the adobo pot – nothing else ever went into that dish except dad’s kochujung.  His “chojung” sauce (like meat-jun sauce) was always made and stored in old peanut butter jars – with the folded piece of wax paper under the cap to keep the seal tight.

And of course, all our meals were consumed off of Golden Wheat dishes.

What was your “adobo pot”?  Share your memories with us.