On this day, Kaila Hawai‘i would like to celebrate the birthday of Prince Jonah Kūhiō Kalaniana‘ole Pi‘ikoi. Prince Kūhiō was born on March 26, 1871 in Kōloa, Kaua‘i to High Chief David Kahalepouli Pi‘ikoi and High Chiefess Victoria Kekaulike Kinoiki. He later became the hānai son of King David Kalākaua and Queen Kapi‘olani. Prince Kūhiō is widely celebrated for his political expertise in post-annexation Hawai‘i, especially for the Hawaiian Homes Commission Act. The day of his birth is now known in Hawai‘i as Kūhiō Day, while his name now honors places all over the Hawaiian archipelago.

But Prince Kūhiō also helped to spread traditional Hawaiian culture. In the 1880s, Prince Kūhiō, along with his brothers Prince David Kawānanakoa and Prince Edward Keli‘iahonui, attended Saint Matthew’s School in San Mateo, California. In the summer of 1885, Prince Kūhiō and his fellow young ali‘i visited family friends in Santa Cruz. During their time there, the young princes headed out into the waves to enjoy the royal pastime of he‘enalu, or surfing, at the mouth of the San Lorenzo River. The people of Santa Cruz quickly took note.  The July 20, 1885 edition of Santa Cruz’ The Daily Surf comments:

The young Hawaiian princes were in the water, enjoying it hugely and giving interesting exhibitions of surf-board swimming as practiced in their native islands.

Unlike the surfers of today, these 19th century ali‘i headed out on massive 15 foot, 100 lb boards made out of local Californian redwood. Though it is still not widely known, these young ali‘i are now credited with introducing surfing to the United States.

And surfing was not the only physical art that Prince Kūhiō’s had mastered. He was also a skilled athlete, a marksman, and, a true rarity for his time, a practitioner of the traditional martial art of Lua.

Prince Kūhiō’s wide range of accomplishments still resound 139 years later and serve as a fine example to all Hawaiians and residents of Hawai‘i.

Tags: Kūhiō Day, Prince David Kawānanakoa, Prince Edward Keli‘iahonui, Prince Jonah Kūhiō Kalaniana‘ole, Santa Cruz, surfing

In general, I prefer my cocktails on the lean and mean side, such as a classic gin Martini or the bourbon-based Old Fashioned. Of course, there are always exceptions to the rule. For me, these include a well-crafted Cosmopolitan (made with real cranberry juice, Cointreau, and a fine citrus-vodka) and the Mai Tai.

When I lived away from Hawaiʻi nei, I developed quite an affinity for the Mai Tai, which always felt like sunshine in the cup. According to my Internet bartender of choice, Mr. Robert Hess,  the Mai Tai was created back in 1944 at Victor “Trader Vic” Bergeron at his Trader Vic’s restaurant in Oakland, California. The story goes that a few guests from Tahiti tasted it and exclaimed, “Maitaʻi roa aʻe!” Often, this phrase is translated as “Out of this world!”. But to my Hawaiian ears, it seems more like “Really, really good!” In any case, the word maitaʻi stuck, but the glottal stop was eliminated, leading to the twangy “my-tie” pronunciation. Thankfully, the quality of this tropical cocktail surpasses any minor aversion its name may produce.

Where to Drink It

Despite its fame, it’s hard to find an exceptional Mai Tai. The worst can taste like alcohol and lead to a headache more memorable than the drink itself. But there are a few Oʻahu establishments that do offer a fine Mai Tai. For instance, the Mai Tai in the photos above comes from the Mai Tai Bar at the Royal Hawaiian Hotel at Helumoa, Waikīkī. The outdoor bar offers a few sophisticated variations of the original recipe. I personally prefer the Royal Mai Tai, which includes fresh squeezed pineapple, fresh squeezed orange juice, cherry-vanilla purée, Bacardi Superior,  Cointreau, and Amaretto Di Disaronno liqueur topped with Whaler’s Dark Rum.

Another favorite spot is the House without a Key at the Halekūlani at Kawehewehe, Waikīkī. While House without a Key does not offer the variations on the theme, the Mai Tai at the Halekūlani (above) is sophisticated nonetheles. Moreover, it’s a perfect complement for the hula stylings of Ms. Kanoe Miller, who performs at House with a Key from Monday to Saturday.

I have also enjoyed some exceptional Mai Tai at Indigo in Chinatown. But let me offer this caveat: it all depends on the bartender. When I brought a perfumer friend visiting from New York to the Green Room awhile back, a tatted Thai bartender pulled off a Mai Tai with panache. On another night, a young twenty-something behind the bar could only make a sub-par disappointment. I’ll therefore suggest you try a Mai Tai at Indigo on a slower evening, when the youngsters are away and the downtown business crowd seeks real libations.

How to Make It

If you’d like to attempt it, making a Mai Tai ʻono enough that you’ll say “Maitaʻi roa aʻe!” will require that you stock up on a few quality ingredients. The classic recipe below comes from Mr. Robert Hess’ website DrinkBoy. While many do insist on the pineapple garnish, I’d suggest finding a more elegant accompaniment.

1 ounce light rum
1 ounce gold rum
1/2 ounce orange curaçao
1/2 ounce orgeat
1/2 ounce lime juice
Garnish: Float of dark rum, and garnish with speared pineapple chunk and cherry.
Shake with ice. Strain into an ice filled Old Fashioned glass.

Addresses

House without a Key

Halekūlani
2199 Kālia Road
Honolulu, Hawaiʻi 96815
808 923 2311

Indigo

1121 Nuʻuanu Avenue
Honolulu, Hawaiʻi 96817
808 521 2900

Mai Tai Bar

Royal Hawaiian Hotel
2259 Kalākaua Avenue
Honolulu, Hawaiʻi 96815
808 923 7311

Tags: Halekulani, House without a Key, Indigo, Kanoe Miller, Mai Tai Bar, maitai, reo māʻohi, Robert Hess, Tahitian language, the Royal Hawaiian Hotel, Trader Vic's

Time to start practicing your tāmurē, ladies. And gentlemen, better learn how to impress your girlfriends with fine, thigh-firming paʻoti before a tāne with smoother moves beats you to it. Why, you may ask?

Because the biggest Tahitian party to rock the Hawaiian archipelago in 2010 is about to go down Saturday, March 27, 2010. Nella Media Group (the folks behind Go Airlines’s eco-chic in-air magazine Innov8) and Maʻohi Nui, purveyor of the finest Tahitian dance moves, have come together to rock Aloha Tower with earth-shaking ʻōteʻa and local grooves for Spring Broke III. And what better excuse is there party when it all benefits a local charity? Party down guilt-free to the sounds of Miko Sweet, Beach 5 and OOKLAH THE MOC and check out the latest fashions from Hinano. So even if you can’t make it for Hawaiian Airlines’ Honolulu-Papeʻete flight for spring break, you can still experience the full māʻohi flavor right here at home.

Interested?

Check out ticket details in the Kaila Hawaiʻi ʻAlemanaka (Calendar). And if you’re not convinced yet, check out some these clips of Maʻohi Nui at last year’s Spring Broke.

Tags: Hinano, Maʻohi Nui, Nella Media Group, Spring Broke III, Tahiti

This ad for the American Indian College Fund is one of the most intelligent that I have seen in quite some time. On one hand, it’s modern and stands aesthetically on its own. (And whoever is handling ad placement for AICF agrees and keenly placed it in the 2010 Men’s Fashion issue of New York Times’ T Magazine.)

On the other hand, it effectively demonstrates generations of traditions and values that reach back into time. Such is the responsibility undertaken by the young man featured, Mr. Alan Waukau, a Criminal Justice major from the Menominee tribe in Wisconsin.

More specifically, the tag line “Think Indian” makes me think of Apple’s “Think Different” campaign of the late nineties. It featured iconic figures that broke out of conventions of accepted thought, such as Einstein, Martha Graham, and George Clinton. By changing one word out of two, we still break out from the dullness of the mainstream but uphold native values at the same.

Total respect.

Tags: "Think Different", "Think Indian", American Indian College Fund, graphic design, Menominee Tribe, Smart Ads, T Magazine

After going through Angeleno, I’ve moved onto exploring the Los Angeles Times Magazine website, whose online design and layout I prefer over New York Times’ counterpart. Okay, it does not carry the seriousness of the Gotham mag nor is it published every week. But compared to the New York Times’s periodic style manifesto T, the L.A. Times imprint carries a certain freshness and joie de vivre that I enjoy. (I also find the typography reminscent of French Vogue.) After all, any magazine that features a well-made cocktail every issue is worthy of respect. Take, for instance, September 2009’s The Fashionista, which, despite the fashion reference, looks like one serious drink… woefully beyond my personal bartending capabilities.

Staying on the foodie theme, I particularly appreciate Lora Zarubin’s sushi article (fish) (delicious) (November 2009 issue) with its helpful guidelines and great photography. Never have I seen raw fish (above) so closely resemble some kind of stylish accessory (what kind of accessory though, I can’t say). Plus, it’s the first time I’ve seen a guide on how to eat sushi with your hand (below), which, I’ve been told, is how it’s really supposed to be done (at least, for nigiri).

Read more of the Los Angeles Times Magazine here.

Credits

Photography: Victoria Pearson | Illusration: Jameson Simpson for the Los Angeles Times Magazine.

Tags: cocktails, Los Angeles Times magazine, New York Times magazine, sushi

Though I’ve never lived in California, I’ve always thought of myself as more of a NorCal than SoCal person. The good wine, slow food, and liberal attitudes of the Bay Area just suits my personality much more. But something’s changing.

It might be a passing case of rock fever. But recently I’ve been thinking of Los Angeles. Maybe too many hits of the David Duchovny-loaded Californication have taken their toll on my psyche—and yes, I’m aware he’s a New Yorker at heart that often loathes the City of Angels—but L.A. is moving fast up the list as my next off-island stop.

And nothing has added fuel to the fantasy fire like the savvy mag Angeleno. It puts a luxe spin of L.A.’s distinctive brand of easy cool with a touch of edgy sophistication. The March 2010 issue features actress Toni Collette on the cover. But what really caught my attention was the all-black fashion spread “Theory of Devolution” and the architecture feature “Postcards from the Ledge”. Fantastic.

Read more

The latest issue of Angeleno is available for free browsing and download at on Modern Luxury’s website. Also don’t miss Modern Luxury’s Los Angeles page.

Credits

• “Theory of Devolution” – Photography: Nino Muñoz | Styling: Bernardo Siaotong | Art: Daniel Lyons
• “Postcards from the Ledge” – Photography: Benny Chan, Peden + Munk, and Mark Luscombe-Whyte

Tags: Angeleno, architecture, fashion, Los Angeles, Southern California, Toni Collette

“Kareho Koe”, the new clip from Tikahiri’s new album Merahi Kerekere, is finally up on YouTube in high resolution. Its dark, gothic atmosphere and slick production make it one of the more original clips out of Tahiti and French Polynesia to date.

Like Tikahiri’s video debut “Tapea te paari”, the band maintains its special brand of smoldering and brooding. But on this occasion, a female element appears as a mysterious woman who seems to lure one of the men into her grasp during the darkness of the night. Unfortunately, you need to speak pa’umotu (the language of the Tuamotu Archipelgo) to get the complete meaning of the song, and, alas, no translations have appeared yet. Somehow, I think you can get the song’s jist just by watching.

More Tikahiri on Kaila Hawai’i:

• Polynesian Gothic: Tikahiri’s back with new album & clip
• Tātau and leather – “Tapea te paari”, Tikahiri’s debut clip
• Polyneisan Paradoxes: Tikahiri

LISTEN TO TIKAHIRI’S MERAHI KEREKERE

Tags: Acoustic Rock, goth, Kareho Koe, Merahi Kerekere, pa'umotu, Tahiti, Tikahiri

Today’s Hawaiian word of the day is kai a Pele, or tsunami or tidal wave.

The inspiration for today’s choice was obviously the events of this past February 27, 2010, following the oceanic surge sent throughout the Pacific Ocean by the Chilean quake. On a side note, I must say that some celebratory champagne from the night before had led me to think of something more sinister concocted by Kim Jong Il when I was awakened far too early by the sirens’ metallic screech at 5:50 in the morning. Hence, I was “relieved” to learn that the crisis at hand was actually natural.

Before I get complaints from the scientifically-inclined, I’d like to underline the difference between tsunami and a tidal wave. While tsunamis are generated by geological disturbances, the key word in the layman’s term is tidal, referring, of course, to the tides. Since tsunamis are not caused by the tides, tidal wave is discouraged as term to describe the phenomena. (At the same, tsunami literally means “harbor wave” in Japanese, so here’s to the scientific community’s selective recognition of etymology.)

Now that the digression is over, back to the ‘ōlelo Hawai‘i. Though the Hawaiian word for wave is nalu, the Hawaiian terms referring to tsunami or tidal waves found in Pukui and Elbert’s Hawaiian Dictionary use instead the word kai, or sea.

Besides kai a Pele (literally “sea of Pele”), other terms are kai e‘e (mounting sea) and the variant kai ho‘ē‘e. As a verb, ho‘ē‘e can be to rise or swell. I do recall hearing some Ni‘ihau speakers dropping the word kai and using either e‘e or ho‘ē‘e on its own to refer to the destructive wave. Interestingly enough, the Hawaiian term is closer to the actual nature of the tsunami, a swelling of the sea that surges ashore as opposed to one crashing wave. The receding of the ocean that precedes the tsunami is called kai mimiki.

Personally, I prefer kai a Pele because it refers to the wahine kapu (sacred woman) of Kīlauea herself, Pele, and her awesome powers. Not only the creator of new land, Pele also makes the earth tremble in ōla‘i, or earthquakes—the generator of the tsunami.  In the lower case, pele refers to lava and eruption. And if my understanding of Hawaiian grammar is right, the possessive a suggests that the destructive sea does not just belong to Pele but is created or generated by the goddess herself. Though the hula kahiko “Aia la ‘o Pele” refers to eruptions, I think it’s meditative inquiry “I hea kāua e la‘i ai, ‘ea?” (Where can we find peace?) is equally appropriate for kai a Pele.

Fortunately enough, the Pacific was spared from the kai a Pele this past weekend. Since I was already awake Saturday and suffering from my own ōla‘i (of notably French origin) between my temples, I jumped online to see what was occurring in French Polynesia because of the region’s closer proximity to Chile. The Gambier Islands only recorded 26 cm. The harbor in Pape‘ete, Tahiti only noted marginal rises. The minimal waves Because of their topography, the Marquesas, or Te Fenua Enata, recorded the strongest waves, measuring up to four meters at Ua Pou. On Radio Polynésie, a local resident reported seeing tourbillons, or whirlpools, form in the water. A day later, La Dépêche de Tahiti published the following photos—not exactly kai a Pele but curious enough.

Sources:

• Flickr – Clearly Ambiguous – Under Creative Commons License
• La Dépêche de Tahiti
• Pukui and Elbert, Hawaiian Dictionary

Tags: Chile, Gambier Islands, Hawaiian language, Hawaiian word of the day, kai a Pele, kai e'e, kai ho‘ē‘e, Kilauea, Kim Jong Il, Marquesas, Pele, Tahiti, tidal wave, tsunami, ‘ōlelo Hawai‘i