sometimes you just might find yourself chemically dependent in a way that you might not imagine to things that are not necessarily self medicating but filled with chemistry and therapy...
other than run on sentences. it took ten days to get a box in the holiday rush from mom's in hawai'i. so needless to say there is a lot of sugar within mom's holiday care package. the box of macadamia wedding cookies were gone in about five minutes. followed by a dozen pieces of chocolate covered macadamia nuts. gone too but there are more of those. if the whole carton was filled with those cookies i would have just been sick right now instead of skittish and neurotic from all the sugar. there are some winners this time around as well as the crap i have mentioned, via email, was a waste of time and money.
so now i have another can of toasted coconut chips. i might as well find something to cook them with. another bag of ground tourist coffee. coffee for me is serious ritual and i prefer to grind my own for into the press they go. i think i have three of four dusty bags on standby. i may have given some away... when i clean out the pantry in a couple of weeks they will surface and surely need a home. this year will be about cutting the fat from the beast that is my world so i will be getting rid of any of the crap i don't absolutely think i'll need one day. one large box of cured beef called pipi kaula made in wisconsin. hawaiian style i guess. beef, water, salt, brown sugar( i love brown sugar...), spices( probably garlic, onion, ginger, shoyu,) flavorings, msg ( my favorite aka agi nomoto) + sodium nitrates... the frickin' hawaiian warrior on the box if fucking pink. wtf? stoopid haoles.
one weird possibly winner of the year for creative care package is the li hing powder. i used to love li hing mui from yick lung. in fact i love so many yick lung products when i was a kid. weird dried fruits and shit that might be candied or salted or pickled or just fucked with hardcore chinese style... a lot of it was just called cracked seed. so good, me and all my friends would just get down and manja. as i got to the end of my teens i was turned on to li hing mui soaked in tequila. so good. fucking rad shit. total crap but yummy.
li hing mui was Plum, licorice, salt, sugar, aspartame, red 40, water, 0.1% sodium benzoate (as a preservative.) so fucking sour and salty it made your face scrunch up. to take a whole seed in your mouth and work the meat off with your teeth was a trip. then they came out with the shredded kind and that was rad too... off into the tequila it went. so anyways a bag of red #40 powder w/ a bit of yellow #5. fucking weird shit mom.
got some macadamia brittle, roasted macadamias... are you sensing a theme here? me too. good thing she skipped the ones that bug but i eat anyways because they are macadamias. chocolate cover nuts with carmel and without. a whole bag of li hing mui and i still have eighty percent of the last bag from who knows when.... i got little mochi in diferent colours with azuki beans. yum.
lotsa styrofoam popcorn packing which i hate.
oh yeah macadamia nut honey mustard.
won ton strips and shredded mango. it's good but i still have from last time. nmore red #40.
today was bullshit work. the morning started off good because i went back to a job i was working on a couple of weeks ago to install some changes in thne electric hardware then i went to a huge bullshit job and a waste of time for me and my patience but i didn't not argue a few fuck with you zingers. it is a good thing i like that boss or i would just let him have a pice. he menas wel sorta. he has good intentions but he is only willing to go so far. not far enough buddy. you can still keep it to forty and keep it together. just be prepared. don't cater to the fuck offs but we all have a diferent way of doing things.
i personally like my way but whatever that is my perogitive. afetr the decemination of the fat i need to start doing art again. it's true. the music, the art and maybe a little yoga? a little hardcore play? not just hardcore work? we'll see. that raise i get in february will iron out some bullshit that is rising to the summit.
it is the focus that strays. focus. focus. focus?
aloha,
j
other than run on sentences. it took ten days to get a box in the holiday rush from mom's in hawai'i. so needless to say there is a lot of sugar within mom's holiday care package. the box of macadamia wedding cookies were gone in about five minutes. followed by a dozen pieces of chocolate covered macadamia nuts. gone too but there are more of those. if the whole carton was filled with those cookies i would have just been sick right now instead of skittish and neurotic from all the sugar. there are some winners this time around as well as the crap i have mentioned, via email, was a waste of time and money.
so now i have another can of toasted coconut chips. i might as well find something to cook them with. another bag of ground tourist coffee. coffee for me is serious ritual and i prefer to grind my own for into the press they go. i think i have three of four dusty bags on standby. i may have given some away... when i clean out the pantry in a couple of weeks they will surface and surely need a home. this year will be about cutting the fat from the beast that is my world so i will be getting rid of any of the crap i don't absolutely think i'll need one day. one large box of cured beef called pipi kaula made in wisconsin. hawaiian style i guess. beef, water, salt, brown sugar( i love brown sugar...), spices( probably garlic, onion, ginger, shoyu,) flavorings, msg ( my favorite aka agi nomoto) + sodium nitrates... the frickin' hawaiian warrior on the box if fucking pink. wtf? stoopid haoles.
one weird possibly winner of the year for creative care package is the li hing powder. i used to love li hing mui from yick lung. in fact i love so many yick lung products when i was a kid. weird dried fruits and shit that might be candied or salted or pickled or just fucked with hardcore chinese style... a lot of it was just called cracked seed. so good, me and all my friends would just get down and manja. as i got to the end of my teens i was turned on to li hing mui soaked in tequila. so good. fucking rad shit. total crap but yummy.
li hing mui was Plum, licorice, salt, sugar, aspartame, red 40, water, 0.1% sodium benzoate (as a preservative.) so fucking sour and salty it made your face scrunch up. to take a whole seed in your mouth and work the meat off with your teeth was a trip. then they came out with the shredded kind and that was rad too... off into the tequila it went. so anyways a bag of red #40 powder w/ a bit of yellow #5. fucking weird shit mom.
got some macadamia brittle, roasted macadamias... are you sensing a theme here? me too. good thing she skipped the ones that bug but i eat anyways because they are macadamias. chocolate cover nuts with carmel and without. a whole bag of li hing mui and i still have eighty percent of the last bag from who knows when.... i got little mochi in diferent colours with azuki beans. yum.
lotsa styrofoam popcorn packing which i hate.
oh yeah macadamia nut honey mustard.
won ton strips and shredded mango. it's good but i still have from last time. nmore red #40.
today was bullshit work. the morning started off good because i went back to a job i was working on a couple of weeks ago to install some changes in thne electric hardware then i went to a huge bullshit job and a waste of time for me and my patience but i didn't not argue a few fuck with you zingers. it is a good thing i like that boss or i would just let him have a pice. he menas wel sorta. he has good intentions but he is only willing to go so far. not far enough buddy. you can still keep it to forty and keep it together. just be prepared. don't cater to the fuck offs but we all have a diferent way of doing things.
i personally like my way but whatever that is my perogitive. afetr the decemination of the fat i need to start doing art again. it's true. the music, the art and maybe a little yoga? a little hardcore play? not just hardcore work? we'll see. that raise i get in february will iron out some bullshit that is rising to the summit.
it is the focus that strays. focus. focus. focus?
aloha,
j
A seedy odyssey from China to Hawaii
Crack seed's ancestor was a dried, salted plum Chinese travelers carried for sustenance. The original crack seed was a variation of this and was, truly, cracked seed--plums soaked in brine, sun-dried, washed, and smashed to release extra flavor from their pulverized red seed, then soaked again in a sauce of water, licorics, sweetener, and spices.
As for the snack's arrival in Hawaii, the facts are cloudy. But most authorities believe that the first cracked seed was probably imported commercially around 1900 by Yee Sheong, who sold it from his Yick Lung ("profitable enterprise") store in Honolulu. As business picked up, he began preserving local fruits such as mango in the same traditional fashion.
(Today, Yick Lung continues as one of Hawaii's two largest manufacturers and importers of crack seed.)
Original crack seed still sells, but its shrapnel-like consistency has cost it partisans who favor varieties with seeds intact (you don't eat the whole seeds). Visit a larger shop these days and you'll see dozens of varieties, from plum to lemon to cherry. All are dried, then soaked in sweet, sweet-sour, or salty sauce.
Powerfully flavored, often very sticky (a stack of paper napkins is a de rigueur accompaniment to any crack seed session), crack seed may be an acquired taste for most people. Still, on a hot and humid tropical afternoon, a nibble here and there can refresh.
Shopping in crack seed stores
Island supermarkets sell some crack seed in prepackaged 1/2-to 3-ounce bags, which retail for 75 cents to $3. But you'll have more fun shopping at specialty stores, where dozens of varieties are sold in bulk. The price for crack seed ranges from $8.50 to $23 a pound.
Here are eight stores with a large variety in areas often visited by tourists. For others, check Seeds in the yellow pages for each island. All are open from at least 10 to 4 (most longer) Mondays through Saturdays; many are also open Sundays. Call for exact hours.
In Honolulu
C-Mui Center, 77 S. Pauahi Street; (808) 536-4712. Hole-in-the-wall store just a few steps off Fort Street Mall is a favorite with locals. It sells seeds in bulk from nearly a hundred big glass jars.
Crack Seed Center, 1044 Ala Moana Center; 949-7200. This shop on the lowest level near the post office has more than a hundred jars of seed. There's usually a line here at lunch and after work.
Hong Linh Store, 1041 Kekaulike Street, Stall 1; 531-7782. Customers of Chinatown's only remaining crack seed shop stop to visit and snack in the wide, pedestrian-only alleyway in front of this shop.
On the Big Island
Doris' Place, Highway 180, Holualoa; 324-4761. Picturesque, small-town country store on the west side of the island about 4 miles southeast of Kailua Kona sells crack seed from about 65 jars, along with a variety of local produce.
Kiluaea Preserve Center, 187 Kilauea Avenue, Hilo; 935-8360. This is the oldest of a half-dozen different shops in the Hilo area. It sells 40 to 45 different types of crack seed.
On Maui
Rainbow Snacks & Seeds, Lahaina Shopping Center, Lahaina; 667-6696. Only a couple of dozen seed choices are sold here, but the shop is easy to find in the island's most popular tourist center.
On Kauai
Longies Crackseed Center, Rice Shopping Center, Lihue; 246-8823; and 3858 Hanapepe Road, Hanapepe; 335-3440. Both stores have 70 to 80 jars of crack seed to choose from, but the Hanapepe store--housed in a restored garage and gas station on this old town's small main street--has all the charm.
COPYRIGHT 1991 Sunset Publishing Corp.
COPYRIGHT 2004 Gale Group