Hawaii
So what dish is
considered brain food?WHILE DINING with former Isle columnist Tom Horton, now "genial host" of his Stinson Beach Bar & Grill in California, I chided him for pronouncing "foie gras" as if it were "fo gras" instead of the phonetic "fwa gra." In writing about it for yesterday's column, I inexplicably took a walk down Memory Lane and said it was in Le Bon. Well, that eatery, nice as it was, is long gone, and the spot in which we dined was the Halekulani's five-star restaurant, La Mer. The first e-mail I received yesterday was from Horton: "I may not know how to pronounce them fancy frog dishes but at least I can remember the name of the restaurant where I ate the damn stuff." Guilty, as charged ...
THE above doesn't quite mean I'm ready to avail myself to the handiwork of Claus Hansen, however. Well, maybe just a little -- he is married to KHNL newscaster Diane Ako, after all. But Hansen's real job is CEO of Affordable Casket. And now he's learned he'll be featured in a new A&E Channel series, "It's a Living," airing this summer. The producers called him and told him about the series on different jobs They said they wanted to feature his firm in a piece on non-traditional funerals. Why did they pick him, he asked the producers. Easy! They searched the Internet and the first listing under "A" was for Affordable Casket & Moanalua Mortuary ...
Bowser wowsers
PLANNING and engineering a complex project is a real art, says Gary Okamoto of Wilson Okamoto Corp. This year, Okamoto's firm is tying into art in another way, as a Pablo Picasso Patron sponsor of the Hawaiian Humane Society's annual fund-raiser at the Royal Hawaiian Hotel. The theme of the April 5 event is the Petropolitan Museum of Art, where pets are featured in works in the style of Renoir, Rembrandt, and contemporary artists. Other sponsor opportunities are for Jackson Pawllock Benefactors, Toulouse La Cat Curators and Vincent Van Dog Enthusiasts ...MORE art renderings: When Judy Muncaster went on a Baltic cruise years ago, she bought a limited edition print in an on-board art auction. Now Muncaster is associate exec director of Ballet Hawaii, and her print, showing ballerinas, suddenly found its way out from under her bed and is now a welcome addition to the ballet studio's decor at the Dole Cannery ... I can't mention "Art," without saying that's the title of the award-winning comedy opening Feb. 5 at the Actor's Group's Yellow Brick Studio at 625 Keawe St. ...
Auntie Genoa reigns
OR maybe the above headline should read "rains" since that's what a crowd of her fans sat through last week during her regular Thursday evening shows at the Waikiki Marriott's Moana Terrace. The SRO crowd endured the rainstorm, and after it passed, food and beverage manager Jorge Duart and his staff handed out towels from the pool shed to dry off and use at "blankets." A TV crew from Germany captured it all on video for a special on Hawaii. They'd been at Kamaka ukulele earlier that day, and said the special will showcase Hawaii's culture and music. Aunty Genoa returns, hopefully to good weather, tomorrow ...
Dave Donnelly has been writing on happenings
in Hawaii for the Star-Bulletin since 1968.
The Week That Was recalls items from Dave's 30 years of columns.Contact Dave by e-mail: ddonnelly@starbulletin.com