Friday night I went out with friends from work to Ryan's bar and restaurant down in the Ward Center to celebrate a coworkers birthday. It's actually a pretty nice place and their happy hour is decently priced and all. Sweet potato fries are definitely becoming the rage. Whenever I order a Blue Moon out here, I also have to specify to have an orange slice in the beer. One place I went, they didn't put an orange slice in the beer. For some reason the bar didn't have orange slices and I even think the waitress that we had didn't know you put orange slices in a Blue Moon. The other interesting thing about Blue Moon was that on another menu (I forget where), I saw Blue Moon as in Import beer.
Saturday, at first, I didn't have any major plans. Again, my plans to have a movie night with friends got spoiled by them because they were "moving" although she moved like on Wednesday. I also found out that when they asked me if I wanted to go surfing, they were planning on going surfing in an hour or two from that point, not actually clarifying the time or the plan. Needless to say, I decided to go humpback whale watching on the Windward (west) coast. I got distracted though when I went to Costco to get some lunch (just because it is cheap). I was possibly thinking of going to the Hawaiian Chocolate Festival, which I found out Friday night from a friend, but wasn't 100% sure on it. I decided to go to the festival while I was eating lunch at Costco. What could it hurt, it was right across the street.
Now, I didn't know that Hawaii grew cacao on the islands. I did learn though that Hawaii is the "north pole" for growing cacao, since the tree likes humid, hot, little to zero wind, and it needs lots of water to grow. Basically, the best zone for cacao to grow is +20 degrees and -20 degrees latitude. Now you are probably asking what cacao is, or at least the pod/seed what is grown. It comes in many different colors and can be seen below. The seeds are in the white protective film seen in the yellow open pod and then the roasted final seeds are in the basket at the top. This is the first ingredient and step in making chocolate.
The Hawaii Chocolate Festival is actually a really big deal as I found out on Saturday, in that the event even got its own special events Hawaii proclamation from the governor. The proclamation reminds me too much about ASCSM and the wonderful legal jargon that goes with writing something that could just be said much easier, as in, "I, Gov. Abercrombie, proclaim February as Hawaiian Grown Cacao Month." Instead, you try to read the seven "whereas" statements that lead up to the grand saying at the bottom.
If you have chocolate, you are soon come across a chocolate fountain of some sort. I believe I saw only three fountains, but this one was the best decorated and displayed. Although, this one was just for show, the other fountains, you could actually use. So, you probably are wondering what chocolates I tried. I can't honestly remember them all, but I did have a "chocolate passport" telling me what companies I tried chocolate from. I know it is hard to read the list, so I will list them.
- Choco le'a
- Hawaiian Vanilla Fudge Sauce
- Hilo Sharks Chocolate (only one that did not add cocoa butter)
- Macadamia Nut Hawaiian Fudge Sauce
- Madre Chocolate
- Manoa Chocolate
- Ono Pops
- Original Hawaiian Fudge Sauce
- Padovani Chocolate
- Premium Hawaiian Fudge Sauce
- Private Reserve Hawaiian Fudge Sauce
- Ricard Chocolat
- Sweet Paradise Chocolatier Co.
- Tiki's Grill and Bar
- Waialua Estate
- 360 Vodka
- 100% Kona Coffee Hawaiian Fudge Sauce
- 9th Aunnual Emanuel Episcopal Chocolate Extravaganza
Along with these, I tried 14 different chocolates in three flats (like a wine tasting) in one of the seminars that was hosted by Madre Chocolate. I also learned that UH Manoa and their agricultural degree is educating most growers in cacao and that professors are experimenting with different species and varieties of cacao here in Hawaii. It is not known yet, which variety gives the greatest yield. Now you might be able to understand my chocolate overload this weekend. The festival had two "official" mascots. One is pictured below.
I did end up making it later in the day to whale watch. I saw some humpback whales jumping and spouting, but I couldn't get any good pictures (yet) of them. They were off the coast past the range of the zoom on my camera. On the way back, I decided to take a hike and watch the sunset from the Windward side of the island. I hiked up Hanauma Bay park (the rise above the bay) which I got some pretty spectacular vies of Koko Head and the bay before the sun started setting.
There was a storm that was coming in from the north which cooled off the air before it made it extremely humid. It also gave some nice pictures and the color contrasts. I think it also gives some color definition to the area and you just don't see a "blue" sky all the time. I do also have to note that everything is much greener since the last time I was over on the Windward side of the island. It is the rainy season and that side definitely gets more rain that the other parts of the island. Early in the week, that side of the island had flash flood warnings. The entire island also had an amazing lightning show. The next morning, I heard on the radio as I was going to work, that we had 21,000+ lightning strikes the day before. That's just amazing!
Hanauma Bay is a fantastic snorkeling (and also very crowded later in the day) spot. Tourists come everyday that it is open (closed on Tuesdays) and crowd the beach. The coral life is in pretty good shape despite the high traffic volume and the people that can't read (or listen) by standing on the "rocks". If you ever go to a reef, never stand on the coral, you are killing the coral by doing so. I was personally wishing that a whale (or whales) would come into the bay to just swim around when I was there, but it didn't happen. Oh well, it still made for a nice hike with a great view. I did end up seen the sunset like I planned on. I even had company while I was up there. I think the bird in the foreground took a break as well to watch the sun set.
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