Eat the Street Kakaako
Oct 4, 2011 General
On Friday I was lucky enough to go to Eat the Street in Kakaako with a friend for her birthday.
I love when I can pretend I’m doing something nice for a friend but really just get to eat whatever I want. Birthdays are so great for that. I recommend them.
Eat the Street is an event where a bunch of food trucks and pop-up food tents gather for a crowd of people who are at least as hungry as I am (organized by streetgrindz).
We basically decided there were no limits and no shame to getting everything that looked good. 
Our first stop was Inferno’s Wood Fired Pizza. Yes. They brought their own oven and set up shop. Awesome. We ate the cheese pizza with truffle oil and both of us were stuffing our faces even though it was still too hot to eat. These guys are champs—they were churning out pizza constantly and I know for a fact that rolling out pizza crusts is a pain and a half. They were also offering barbecue pork pizza and I wanted to stand in that line too…
Adam, my friend and wedding photographer, is great friends with Jonas Otsuji, the mastermind behind Otsuji farm’s Hawaiian nachos. I missed out on the kale nachos (tempura fried kale topped with fish and sauce) but the breadfruit nachos were delicious too. I slammed them so quickly, one bite each.
Then we were off to the Tiki Truck. I can’t stay away from this place. I was the last order as they had run out of crack sauce. Lucky me!
I could eat about a dozen of these tacos. The green papaya slaw mixed with the crack sauce is just pure bliss.
Then we were off for some corn (lilikoi butter and parmesan cheese), Ono Pops (WHY did I forget to take a picture? Too busy eating), and then a crepe.
I don’t care if crepes are over done with these kinds of things. And who cares that I can make them myself? I just love a crepe. 
Yes, that is a real bottle of nutella. Did that not convince you?
While we were waiting for our crepe I sidled over and bought a bleu cheese slider and ate it. (Ok, so I ate half of it.)
Even though we stuffed ourselves I still bought 4 macarons from La Tour Café, and they were buttery deliciousness. So worth it.
I love outdoor eating events with too many people. We met a couple of friends from twitter @hnlmark @melissa808 @nonstopmari (I missed @edoshiro again! and as I found out later, @chefjay and others… Next time, ok?) and even had a lovely chat woman who somehow connected because of a love of Jamaican men. I love a night out.
What did you do this weekend?
P.S. The workshop with Dianne Jacob is December 10 at Cupola Theatre in Honolulu. Click HERE for more information and to register! See you there!
Tags: Barbecue Pork, Bleu Cheese, bliss, Champs, Cheese Pizza, Crowd Of People, Food Tents, Food Trucks, Great Friends, Green Papaya, I Don T Care, Inferno, Kakaako, Kale, mastermind, Pizza Crusts, Pops, Slider, Tacos, Wedding Photographer
The Ultimate Muffcake
Dec 28, 2010 General
It started as a Twitter conversation.
It ended in a pact to create a muffcake recipe to love.
Somewhere in the middle there were some giggles.
Others joined in on the fun and here I am, committed, to make muffcake converts out of all of you. (Recipes to come tomorrow or the day after, whenever I recover from this late night posting, or stop laughing. Whichever is last.)
I googled muffcake, just to make sure I wasn’t mistaken, and I was only a little disappointed at several posts dedicated to muffcakes on food blogs. It certainly isn’t a new idea. I still think it’s brilliant. I’ll go ahead and credit Rice and Wheat since she’s the first one to bring it up to me.
Here’s what it means to me: Muffins with frosting, or cupcakes without. And there has to be some discussion about texture here: moist, soft crumb, and crunchy edges (but not tough).
The thought of muffcakes rolled around in my foodie brain all through the holidays. I read all about cupcakes and muffins in McGee’s book and looked at dozens of recipes to get a feel for proportions, fat contents, and chemical reactions of leavenings. I actually dreamed about them. In my half-crazed middle-of-the-night-restlessness, I decided to make three muffcakes.
Me:
Rice and Wheat:
And Salty:
Salty Seattle, the mastermind of the operation, is a gastronomical genius in the kitchen. The girl cures her own bacon and makes her own salt. I seriously considered trying to make a sous vide muffcake in tribute to her, but decided I wasn’t in the market for that contraption just yet. When I’m rich and famous…
Salty’s muffcake is salted caramel. I sprinkled the caramel muffcake with home made salt. My husband brought a bucket of ocean water home and boiled it down to salt. He’s hot stuff and no you cannot have him.
The muffcake was delicate, buttery and sweet. You could easily make this one into a cupcake. The salt on the top just melted down into the moist top. Lovely.
The muffcake representing me was pumpkin flavored with a dollop of sweetened mascarpone in the middle. They sort of erupted in the oven, but I found them to still be tasty. The middle turned into a cavern of wet and caramelized goodness. I think mascarpone and powdered sugar whipped together would make an amazing frosting.
Rice and Wheat’s Project Food Blog entry for the picnic challenge was all about muffaletta and making things happen. I sincerely fell in love with their blog when I read that post and the sandwich just called my name for days afterwards. A muffaletta muffcake was in order.
This was definitely my favorite muffcake. I used a corn muffin base that promised a “cakey” texture, and in the middle I layered cheese, olive mix, and sliced ham. The crunchy sides, the salty olives, the ooze of cheese, and the mouthfeel of the ham—I was in love at first bite. The sweet corn muffin base made all the difference. Things fell apart pretty quickly, but probably because I ate the whole thing piping hot out of the oven.
For sure, my muffcake crew are all jabbing my ribs as they read this completely innocent post. Really. It’s entirely impossible to avoid double entendre when you describe food. Just try.
You can visit and get their side(s) of the story.
On a side note, I was watching an episode of Parenthood (not sure why I need to apologize, but this is the first episode I have ever watched, promise—except that I may possibly watch more of them) today and the parents were trying to explain to their 5-year-old how babies are made. A 5-year-old. Because she was asking. For details.
I will completely freak out if 6 months from now my daughter asks me about that. Completely. Freak. Out. I am just not prepared to have such a conversation. I’m sure I’ll still be freaking out when she has her first boyfriend. Then I’ll have double complete freak out.
Kids. They don’t make ‘em like they used to. But then again, they do.
Do you think I could use cooking to explain the birds and the bees? Or am I just mixing my metaphors too much?
Maybe I’ll take the same approach as I take to Santa.
“Santa? Who told you about Santa?” I ask, and then let her go on believing that Santa lives in Utah.
Sex does happen in Utah. She wouldn’t be entirely mistaken.
Tags: Bacon, Caramel, Chemical Reactions, Contraption, Converts, Crumb, Crunchy, Cupcake, Cupcakes, Frosting, Genius, Hot Stuff, Late Night, mastermind, muffins, Ocean Water, Pact, Proportions, Restlessness, Wheat
Is Your Brain Mush As A New Entrepreneur?
Sep 6, 2010 A Piece of Cake Book
Is Your Brain Mush As a New Entrepreneur?
Either you are agreeing with this as a new entrepreneur or you are laughing because you are more seasoned as an internet marketer and had been there.
Do You Remember…
I remember starting out as a new entrepreneur as an internet marker and thinking ok, this should be a piece of cake. I started out learning this and that, just scraping the ice of every aspects as an internet marketer. I started out watching a few webinars, then a few conference calls, then trying to read every email from every “expert” I came across. I was bound and determined to learned this field and be successful. I made a promise to myself I would not be a 97% failure. I dug in more learning PPC, SEO, Social Media, RSS Feeds, bookmarking, video marketing, reading books, buying this course and that course. I even went as far to learn some HTML code to help my team and I have cleaner websites on WordPress. I was living in the office with both computers going, and when I had to go somewhere I was online with my Blackberry.
When you first started out as I did it is normal to feel overwhelmed as a new internet marketer, we have all been there. To be completely honest, there are times you will find seasoned entrepreneurs get overwhelmed as new stuff comes out or they mastermind with others. I can only suggest you reach out to your sponsor and ask them for guidance and three big nuggets. See, I am a three nugget guy! I want things kept simple and easy. For example, I ask people do you like to write or to make videos. If they like to write, my three nuggets would be something like:
1. Article Writing- Learn it, live it, Love it! Write 3 to 4 articles per day for 90 days. Then submit to 5 to 7 websites and learn about keywords. Article Writing also allows you to brand yourself, just make sure that your articles are pertinent to the field you are in, also don’t try to write articles on 50 different subjects. Find a niche and build upon it, as you focus on a niche you will become a known expert and this will attract individuals to you.
2. Build a Blog -Use Word Press and build your blog. Add content everyday that is relevant to your internet marketing business. This is how you will be able to start branding yourself as a person, how you educate the world on who you are and what makes you tick. While we are all unique, we attract people like ourselves which allow us to build long lasting and meaningful relationships.
3. Personal Development- Read one leadership self help book or inspirational book per week. Then write an article in your own words about what you felt, learned, and obtained from the book. As a good friend of mine named Andrew Cass says “No new skills means no new money”. While you may be learning something new, what you do with that information is the key to success.
Remember Why You Became an Entrepreneur
While I give “guidance” to others on how to become successful, remember why you became an entrepreneur; freedom and money! I do not give assignments to anyone on my team, they are their own boss, and they don’t work for me. Don’t expect your sponsor to tell you what to do and when to do it, but also don’t try to do everything on your own, especially if you are just starting in a new field. Pick a few avenues like Article Marketing, Press Releases, and maybe Social Marketing. Just remember there are so many forms of entertainment (distractions), don’t get caught up shooting a video then watching videos for the next 6 hours.
In closing, I would just like to say don’t get lost in the marketing world. Don’t try to accomplish everything overnight! Don’t sign up for every last EBook, program, or new idea online. Focus on what you are learning and surround yourself with the people that are being successful, mastermind with people that are successful and learn from them. Rome was not built in one day, nor will your business.
Your friend and coach,
Robert
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Tags: Blackberry, Brain, Bui, Email, Entrepreneur, Few Conference, Guidance, Internet Marketer, Marker, mastermind, Mush, New Stuff, Niche, Nugget, Nuggets, Piece Of Cake, Reading Books, Video Marketing, Webinars, Wordpress
