Great idea and I was so excited to go! However it was $3 admission and I didn't think was worth the…read moreadmission fee. the event was in the parking lot across the Ward Entertainment Center so at least parking was free and stress free. I went when it opened There were only a handful of food tents. I think Eat the Street even has more vendors and that's a free event. You also had to buy scrips ($1/scrip) to purchase food or drinks. What enticed me to go was garlic ice cream. Dave's ice cream had garlic ice cream for 3 scrips. I was a bit disappointed since it was a really small container (the size of the katsu sauce you get from L&L). The ice cream had a hint of garlic but the vanilla ice cream was more overpowering. They had vendors like Side Street, Auntie Pasto's and Prima to name a few. Everything looked good, however I thought it was a bit pricey so I just took photos rather than got dishes. Hopefully next year the event will be grander and have more garlic dishes.

The concept of this festival was great, but I agree with most of the Yelper sentiment, it was…read moreexecuted rather poorly. We arrived about an hour after it started and between the 3 dollar admission, $5 (domestic) 12-oz beers, long lines, scripts, and half of the vendors running out of their signature garlic or ginger foods, it was kind of disappointing given the potential. That said, I did get to try a few places that I haven't visited yet and I'm inspired to check out. The top of the list is Poke Stop from Waipahu. They had a phenomenal pork hash slider with fried eggplant "fries" with a potent garlic kick to it that was awesome! The place only has OK reviews, but I'll be checking out their shop soon: http://www.yelp.com/biz/poke-stop-waipahu Everything else here was either too long of a line to try or was unremarkable. As for the festival, I'm on the fence whether I'd go to this thing again... probably will with the hope for improvement and more reasonably-priced offerings.

Great event to grab dinner so dont have to cook on a Saturday night. One of the smaller Festivals I…read morebeen to. Lots of food choices with 98% being food vendors. There was also a tent selling cute rice spoons a great gift and another tent selling tshirts. I liked that most food vendors had sample plates displayed made it quick and easy to order and helped shortened the lines. Entry is free it's on the road at ward so its closed off to thru traffic. Lots of parking all over. I parked at Whole Foods bcuz I planned to go shopping after I ate and browsed the event. Was supposed to meet up a with friends there but got held up at work so I just grabbed some food, ate and left. They do have tables to stand and eat at but it felt like they should have had a few more. The website showed a list of all their vendors.

Date: September 5, 2015 Where: Office Depot parking lot on…read moreKamakee Street Reason to go: Eats from Nani Kore Hawaii and music by Vaihi The 6th Annual Hawaii Rice Festival was held at the Office Depot parking lot on Kamakee Street. The event started at 10am and finished at 5pm. Donation of bags of rice to Lanakila Meals on Wheels. Live entertainment, ukulele contest, poke bowl eating contest, and spam musubi eating contest. I arrived after 2:30pm thinking that I missed out listening to Vaihi perform since they were scheduled at 2pm. The first booth I checked into was the Yelp booth @ Rice Fest. Good luck if you can get the ping pong ball in the red or blue cup to win a prize. Somehow my throw was too short and didn't even reach the red or blue cups. I did walk away with a small Yelp button pin. The second and last booth I visited was the Nani Kore Hawaii booth. I've been craving the bacon wrapped mochi since the Eat The Streets: USA event. I ordered 2 of the bacon wrapped mochi drizzled with teri sauce as well as their kim chee fried rice to eat. Yummy yummy for my tummy. I made my way to the tent area where there were tables and chairs set up. Sadly most of the chairs under the tent was taken so I ended up using one of the chairs that was exposed under the hot sun. As soon as I sat down I hear the emcee mention Valhi will be performing next. "What?!?! I thought I missed their performance." I see the group getting on stage and setting up their equipment. As soon as Bruddah Sam sat down on his big ball...I made my way to the stage and greeted him with a kiss on the cheek and a hug. First thing he asked me "Where's mom?" I told him "Mom is at home and I just came from the Okinawan Festival". I greeted Bruddah Aaron with a kiss on the cheek and a hug as well and told him "I thought I missed your guys performance." When Lina Girl from KCCN heard I said Okinawan Festival she asked me "How was the festival?" I told her "was crowded and very hot." Lina then tells me "your name going be easy for remember cuz it rhymes with Lina" LOL. I told her "I used to watch you and Bruddah Sam on Local Kine Grindz". After I did my greetings I made my way back to my chair and started to grind on the kim chee fried rice and bacon wrapped mochi. Onolicious. What a wonderful way to enjoy a Saturday. Live entertainment from Vaihi. Ono grinds from Nani Kore Hawaii. Plus watching the tail end of the spam musubi eating contest.

Super excited as Soto Mission of Hawaii launches their 2024 bon dance on Friday, August 16th, and…read moreSunday, August 17th, in sunny Nuuanu. Lots of ono food, taiko performances and dance the night away with like minded bon dancers (no shame, just follow da person in front of you! With a light breeze cooling the early dancers and volunteers we are anxious to experience the bon dance under the leadership of new Bishop Shuji Komagata and his trusty sidekick and wife Jaymie. Check out my photo of this year's menu.

It's Obon Season in Hawaii! Soto Mission hosts one of the many bon dances that occur on Oahu from…read moreJune to September. Now, I'm not Japanese and at the rate I'm going to these things, the spirit of my Chinese grandmother is going to appear and say the same thing she told my father in his youth: "You not Japanese, why you go to so many bon dances?!" But I'm just going to shrug, tell her we all miss her and ask her how the afterlife is with my grandfather who we all miss dearly too. Any who.... Soto holds a standard bon dance festival, with food, dancing, music, crafts, but relatively few games for children. No food trucks in Festival 2017, but the usual assortment of sushi, chili and rice, bentos, musubi, etc that have become the normal bon dance food. I did not see mochi, but my friends and I came at 6:30 so they may have sold out. The food and crafts are in the basement of the Mission with a huge number of tables for people to sit, eat, enjoy each other's company and make new friends. Long story short, I ended up playing tour guide for my new friend from Los Angeles here on vacation and the bon dance was our third stop, and she loved it as she's never been to a bon dance. So this is tourist friendly on her seal of approval. To the dancing! Honolulu Fukushima Bon Dance Club was the dance club for 2017, but this may change in the future. Dancing started around 7:00 with various types of dance and being open to all people who wanted to dance. There were the ardent professionals with their graceful, well trained moves and the new to the bon dance crowd just enjoying themselves among the festivities. Many people wore their yukatas despite the late afternoon heat, including children. There's some parking on site, but it fills up real fast, so grab whatever street parking you can find. Allegedly the lower school of Hongwanji nearby opens their parking up, but call to confirm. One super nice thing about this bon dance is that it's held right in front of the stairs leading into the Mission. Meaning there are plenty of places to sit down and watch, unlike other bon dances where you have to bring your own chair or just stand the whole time.

Free and fun... Hawaii Seniors Fair kicked off today,…read moreFriday. At the NBC exhibition hall. Lots of good information about our golden years and how to prepare for yourself or how to make sure your Mom or Dad are on the right path... A buddy brought me here a couple years ago, me dragging and kicking and trying to convince him to go for a hike or play tennis! I am glad I got dragged. Honestly enjoy learning things I would never pick up in my spare time. I got to watch some kupuna do aerobic dancing and show off their youthful Vegas glamor!(see pic). Picked up some neat succulents for the house too. Will remember to visit again next year. Hope you take a chance and spend a couple hours here. We all get golden, might as well learn how to turn into a golden beam of sunshine instead of a golden raisin....hehe!

Walked over about 1:00pm. Still lot's of families walking around. Entertainment, Food Booths,…read moreDrinks, Book Swap, Story telling, Rides for the Keikis, health awareness, and more. Saw Kristi Yamaguchi, she had a booth Kristi's Reading Corner. So awesome to see her still involved with the Hawaii People. HMSA was there promoting health and giving away tote bags to everyone, but the catch is you had to be a member. Other consolation prizes given mini bubble bottles. Hokulani, Hawaii's famous favorite dog making friends with all the children. Overall, a great event for the future of our Keikis.

All around clean fun for the family. good parking with the…read moreC+C. Some activities from little little kids. Some food trucks. Not a whole ton of stuff going on- unless you bring your own party. Not exactly what I was hoping it would be but it is a great opportunity if you do make a booth of your own that you will have the walk through audience that is interested in what you are interested in and can talk and chat. Still nice to attend but not a lot of meat per- say. It is nice to meet and talk to local authors- it is even better to hear how they struggle to get their works printed. It is tough to hear how hard it is to be published and to see that their work is under-appreciated. Wonderful to have a state like HI that supports and respects literacy enough to house a venue dedicated to reading not just popular culture.

Ric's- short attention span review:…read more 2017 was their 8th annual festival. Small in terms of what one would expect of a festival. Mostly food trucks, snacks with a sprinkling of service booths with information. (Yelp had their booth, yay!) There was a small entertainment stage area on the mauka side of the fest. Auahi street was blocked off roughly from between Nordstrom Rack and Agu Ramen. Area was really packed, hard to maneuver. No place to sit and eat in the fest. footprint. Most people ate standing up or took their goodies and sat by the Nordstrom/TJ Max area. A little more space with a couple of portable tables and benches would have been nice. Most interesting food offering: the pineapple fried rice with shrimp topping. A half pineapple boat stuffed with fried rice and topped with shrimp. Big enough for two, $13. Not a festival I would go out of my way for. But if in the area, why not?

Parking was horrendous, we spent maybe 20 minutes circling around the parking garage floors before…read morewe got lucky. At least it was free. Rice fest was set for 3-9 pm. We arrived around 5 ish & it was still dreadfully hot. Dozens of vendors were there so I was excited to explore, it was pretty lively with entertainment and games to support Meals on wheels. Some vendors accepted card purchases & some were cash only...luckily I had a $20 What's disappointing was a few booths had "sold out" signs & it was only 5 pm. My favorite booths: I can't recall the name but it's the booth with rolled ice cream? The strawberry mochi was amazing!!! The horchata ice cream was yummy too & im usually not a fan of the drink. Lines were long for the corn booth, I got the Mexican corn & it was delicious! Corn came from the bulk packs you get from Costco. We got our BBQ plate at Chamorro grindz around 6 ish & they ran out of their signature red rice, definite bummer. If I knew before I ordered, it would have definitely impacted my decision to eat there. Kelaguen was good, BBQ ribs were ok. Ulu's lemonade: refreshing as always. Favorites are rob's special (favorite?) and blue hawaii. To be completely honest, I don't know if I'll return next year. This was my first year and it was just way too hot and pricey. Major plus was there were dozens of dogs, win!!!

My boyfriend, Keegan Edwards, and I had dinner at the Outrigger Canoe Club on Wednesday evening…read more The setting is beautiful and the dinner itself was pleasant. However, the experience ended in a way that made me uncomfortable. After we finished our meal, a young female busser with long brown hair approached our table and asked my boyfriend for a ride home. We were clearly dining together as a couple, so the request felt inappropriate and unprofessional for a staff member to make to a guest. Situations where staff ask guests for personal favors or transportation can place diners in an awkward position and blur normal guest-staff boundaries. I did speak with a manager about the situation and was told it would be looked into and that they would follow up with me tomorrow, which I appreciate. I'm sharing this feedback so management is aware and can address it internally.

Beachfront dining with a beautiful Hawaiian sunset...fabulous! Happy Hour is from 4-6. I had the…read morecalamari appetizer and it was served with a light seasoned batter and an aioli. The Poly Purple cocktail is a gin based drink with lychee and other tropical juices. It's not purple but it is delicious! The sunset is the prize.

Granted I only stayed as long as the street lights remained off, it was a nice event…read more We arrived just about 5:00pm where we were told to enter Likelike Elementary School to park. It was free. A+ At HHB, we met aunty getting out of her car, all dressed up in her Kimono and Geta, all ready for the festivities. It was a scorcher that day, and I wondered how she wasn't breakng a sweat. Food booths were set up as well as information booth. The cafeteria housed keiki games and activities lime origami doll card making, fan painting and pill bottle bud-vase flower arranging. It was so hot there was nothing I wanted more than to cool my core down, so I headed to the Shimazu Store shave ice booth for a big 'ol bowl of Li Hing Mui shave ice. Next for some solid food. What better than an andagi and and andadog....or something to that effect. It was a hotdog covered in andagi batter and deep fried. Fabulous! The andagi went home with me at 6pm and was still perfectly crisp at 9pm! Next year, I'm going to stay to watch some dancing!

Nicely dressed, well practiced dancers here! But food is so expensive and not very good! Porta-gi…read more(Portuguese sausage in andagi batter!!!!!!) was ono, and shave ice was yummy! I wish I had found those before my overpriced $5 chili dog "plate" which was actually just a hot dog in a bun with a splash of chili on it. It wasn't even on a plate! At least I had good company!!!