I'm Lau Lau, Lomi and Poi'd out!!!

Aloha for the final time from the Big Island! Today is my last day in Hawaii and I've spent most of it working online and making calls. All the shooting was done yesterday and I fly out tonight. I ran into a little hotel suite party last night, equipped with a DJ no less! So finally this morning I slept in regardless of the time difference. Yeah, 6 hours behind Brooklyn here, so I was getting up at like 3am every day, when I didn't have to be ready for the shoot until 6am. Werd. Then we'd finish around 6ish 7, so that was like 1am for me ... crazy, but we did it and had fun doing it!

Here's me playing with bees ....


And one farm we went to was like an animal refuge, there were turkeys and dogs, cats, geckos, and a peacock ... just chillin' ... so I snapped away...


Pretty colors, huh? It was chilling in the shade beneath a tray of cocoa beans roasting in the sun. A real pretty sight, even peacocks knew the heat was oppressive!

Yesterday I was determined to get some local fare, we'd worked so hard that at the end of taping days, all we really wanted to do was retire to our rooms for sleep. So, with work done the crew and I all headed out to eat together. I did a lil word of mouth poll around the hotel of the natives and narrowed it down to a spot that seemed what I was looking for. Not fancy, but a real home-cooked authentic Hawaiian cooking spot in a town 15 miles south of us called Honaunau. The place is called Super J's and it added up to all expectations. It was described to me as basically a house on the road that a family lives in and serves people food as well. YEEEEEEEAHHHH!!! Ok, so anyway, here's some pics below. But first ... the Poi Guard. Look, I'd rather call her something reminiscent of a popular Seinfeld episode about soup, feel me? But thing is she was rather sweet, just very serious about her poi and who ate it. Here's what happened ... first we pull up and it looks like it should, a small place without frills, I was thrilled and the guys seemed to be thrilled as well. We waltz in and looks like daddy is chillin' reading the paper on a plastic fold table, this would be our table. Once he realized we were staying to eat, he picked up his paper he was reading and quickly began clearing off the table for us. As he began to shuffle we began to order from Ms. Super J herself at the counter! I went first and said my Alohas and such and then started to ask for the chicken lau lau and she recommended I try the pork instead because it was better. I was like ok, no biggie. Then I ordered something I'd never had before salmon lomi. She said it was yummy and I'd love it, it had tomatoes and salmon and green onions, salt and pepper. Like a salmon salsa. Then ... came the trouble with the Poi Guard! I said, yeah and I'll get the poi. Super J was says to me as if to qualify me "well, do you like it?!". It caught me off guard because I'm thinking what? Food? Yes, I like any food, but I clarified and said "poi? yes of course I like it". Then she was like "well how much do you want? Just a little bit like this?(makes a hand gesture to show a circle about the size of one of those tiny plastic take out cups, the ones they put the jalapenos, lemon wedges or whatever in. Like 1/4 cup capacity). I frowned and said, "no, more than that" and just that quickly, she turned from the Guard to the Lady! She smiled with approval and moved on to the next which was Tony, camera man extraordinaire :-). She put him through the same thing, but it was much shorter because he watched me go through my dialogue to get the poi, now here's the funny part ... up next was Bruner- sound man of the year :-). He steps up to order and this is EXACTLY HOW THE EXCHANGE WENT DOWN

Miss Super J aka "Poi Guard": What would you like?

Bruner aka sound man of the year: Uhhh, yeah I'll have the lau lau and the poi.? (notice the period, then question mark? cuz that's kinda how he said it, well she smelled fear in his voice and then asked him the next fateful question)

Miss Super J aka "Poi Guard" : Have you ever had it?

Bruner aka sound man of the year: No, uh what's in it? (and it was over)

Miss Super J aka "Poi Guard": Oh no, uh-eh (shaking head) YOU GET NO POI!

We all just burst out laughing, and she smiled with pride. She said in not so many words, she wasn't gonna waste her poi on him. I mean it was hilarious, and you know what? She really didn't give him any poi! Scott, our producer went after Bruner and played it safe and didn't even ask for poi teeheehee. I shared mine with him, but I say all this to say, just like that similar Seinfeld episode the food was being "guarded" for good reason, it was exceptional. amazing. yummy. all of that.
Here we are all outside right after ordering ...


Then we sat down to eat after getting drinks from the fridge ...


Sorry no food close ups, it smelled so good, I was 3 digs into the tender salty pork wrapped in the taro root leaf (the lau lau) before I noticed I forgot to snap a shot. The lau lau was perfect and I was very happy I took her advice and went with pork. Now, have you ever had salmon lomi? I hadn't either. Ooooooowwweeeee it was good, I poured it all over my rice and then because I liked it so much she gave me extra and some juices from the mixing bowl! YAAAY!! Look, it was goooood and the Hawaiian tomatoes escaped the recall we had in the continental states last week. It was salty and sweet due to the tomatoes, plus salmon is kinda sweet on my tongue too. It was like salsa with no fire. The poi was light, and the perfect consistency. Fresh is the word. Turns out according to Miss Super J, the farmers don't like harvesting it these days, so there's a teeny shortage which is why she prefers to feed it only to someone that she knows will eat it all. I get it. Totally. Here's Miss Super J tending to the dishes n such. She seemed too shy to ask for a photo, so I caught a candid...


We sat there for about an hour and just enjoyed the meal. A cute little girl was running around barefoot and carefree and she caught all our attention, just so cute. I mean, this was relaxing and enjoyable, a perfect ending to this trip. If you ever make it to Kona, Hawaii, I'd make a run to Honaunau and take in all that is Super J's, and if you want to try the poi, based on my experience, act like ya know!!! Alright, I'm headed back to the mainland ... here's a Hawaiian sunset, enjoy the weekend and I hope ya catch Cooking for Real and NFNS Sunday, then the webisode :-)