Enjoy the things you can afford
Brand: Obachan’s Cost: $3.59 Found at: Foodland These are … a lot. Texture-wise there is nothing to criticize. The lemon slices are perfectly dried and pleasingly chewy. Flavor-wise, however, it’s hard to know where to start. Frankly, my tongue could barely make sense of the experience. On first popping one into my mouth, my brain... Continue Reading →
Brand: Maika’i Cost: $1.50 Found at: Foodland I have many first-world problems in my life right now. The slow Wifi at my brother’s house in Hawaii means that my Netflix occasionally lags. A $7 poke bowl is slightly too much food for one meal, but slightly too little food for two meals. I have to... Continue Reading →
Brand: Hawaiian Host Cost: $1.09 Found at: Foodland I grew up next to a university campus, which means I can sleep through anything. As a kid, I was often falling asleep to the sounds of college parties in progress, and because it was the only life I knew, I slept quite soundly. My mother, however,... Continue Reading →
Brand: Maika’i Cost: $2.69 Found at: Foodland My first experience of plantain was that of betrayal. I wanted a banana and got a potato in a banana suit. I think this is a common experience, and I, for one, am still getting over the trauma. Still, I pride myself that I am doing the necessary... Continue Reading →
Brand: Foodland Cost: $5.49 Found at: Foodland There is really not much to say here: it’s just mochi. It’s your standard-issue soft rice dough sweetened with sugar and presented in a fun pink and white color scheme. They are perfectly tasty, if a little unremarkable. Still, I think I’ll hunt through the fridge for something... Continue Reading →
Brand: Foodland Cost: $7.99 Found at: Foodland At last, my two great loves meet. Peanut butter and mochi. Peanut butter in mochi. It’s the fusion cuisine that I never knew that I needed in my life. This is it. I have peaked. I can die now. I’m not crying, you’re crying. This mochi is absolutely a fan favorite.... Continue Reading →
Brand: Maika’i Cost: $2.00 Found at: Foodland My father is an easygoing man: steady and agreeable and unassuming, he is placidly content with his lot in life. To those who don’t know him very well, it’s easy to assume that he does not have strong opinions about anything, but that’s not true. On at least... Continue Reading →
Brand: Foodland Cost: $3.99 Found at: Foodland My brother is very frustrated that he was not raised Hawaiian. He has brought it up in just about every phone call since he moved to Maui. He feels that our parents really missed a trick raising the two of us in the cold, wet weather of the... Continue Reading →
Brand: Kuchenmeister Cost: $0.99 Found at: Trader Joe’s Nothing says “Christmas” like a bunch of Americans going absolutely wild over German baked goods. Like St. Patrick’s Day, when everyone suddenly seems to be Irish, at Christmas, everyone suddenly seems to be German. As soon as the Black Friday advertisements appear on TV, friends who are... Continue Reading →
Brand: Trader Joe’s Cost: $3.99 Found at: Trader Joe’s I left these biscotti on the kitchen table, and this was a tactical error. I really should have known better. Leave anything out in the open at my house and it enters the public domain. So, just like my kindergarten diary in 1996, my family got... Continue Reading →
