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July-August 2007
THE JOY OF POI
If you've been to Hawaii, then surely you've been to some hotel's luau at least once (and if not, what kind of tourist are you, anyway?) A luau, as all good tourists know, is about the food. And just so you won't go hungry, they make sure not to keep the offerings too authentic. But one thing for sure, you're guaranteed to find that obligatory Poi - that purple paste in a bowl that the entertainers will warn you about. It's something, they say, only a native Hawaiian could love. And do they love it! Dipping two fingers at a time, then three fingers and finally scooping out a handful in a cupped four-finger dip. Guaranteed to get a good laugh.
To a culture accustomed to sweet and salty flavors as we are, poi is a shock to the senses in its relative blandness. Compound that with the especially tasteless sample you're likely to find at your Hawaiian Buffet, you'll wonder why anyone would bother with it.
The Mother of All Cocktails
Pity the poor cocktail! What a corrupted and abused concoction it is. Walk into a “martini bar
Magic From New Mexico
Columbus has been so maligned that Columbus Day has become the most embarrassing holiday on our calendar. Yes, he was wrong about many things, like in what land he had docked his ships and about who those people were that greeted him. But he knew a good meal when he tasted it and what he tasted was the magic of chile. He brought the chile back to Spain and from there the chile conquered the world: from Europe to Africa, and on to India, Southeast Asia, China and Korea. Maybe if we celebrated Columbus bringing chile to the rest of the world, we’d have more agreement about his holiday?
