I just saw the movie Julie & Julia. A foodie from birth, I relished every minute of watching Julia Child (played by Meryl Streep) transform herself into an American culinary icon from scratch. She was born in 1912, in the same decade as John F. Kennedy. Hers is oft referred to in America as “The [...]
TWS Blogs
I remember walking to Enchanted Lakes Elementary school with my brother in our “hanabadda” days. We always walked to school and then ran back home. Mornings were cold back then. When we exhaled, fog would come out of our mouths. We used to practice blowing smoke rings like our dad, who was a smoker back [...]
Thank you Boreas (God of the North Wind) for blowing the trades back. I think this is the hottest summer I have endured since I arrived in Hawaii 17 years ago. All this heat makes me yearn for icy cold beverages. So to combat the heat and quench my thirst at dinner, I often enjoy [...]
Though the shiraz grape is not indigenous to Iran, grapes were first made into wine in the Middle East. As a matter of fact, the name Shiraz comes from a town in Iran, famed for its wine production. The story goes in an ancient Persian legend that Jamshid, a grape-loving king, stored ripe grapes in [...]
On our tour through Napa last month we sat and chatted in the midst of Stagecoach vineyard with Dr. Krupp. He said the reason why the vineyard is named Stagecoach is because it was once a bustling stagecoach passage from Sacramento to San Francisco. As I sipped on his very cold and tasty rosé called [...]
Prior to the innovations at Hanzell Winery in Sonoma, no one in California or the rest of the New World had the audacity to think that wines from California might one day beat French wines in a blind tasting competition. In 1976, California wines did just that. This underdog win, immortalized in the book The [...]
Bill Van Asperen grew up in Kailua and was educated there. Growing up surrounded by the best beaches in the world, it’s not surprising that the first love of his life has always been surfing. He remembers riding down the “Old Pali Road” with the winds rocking the car back and forth. Kids thought it [...]
The ocean is an interconnected mass of water and, depending on where you look, it can be icy or warm, blue or green, muddy or clear and Ian Serle has seen it from a quite a few different angles. He grew up in Pennsylvania and the Jersey Shore, graduated from Valley Forge Military Academy, and [...]
Legend has it that in 1956 Henry Ford II complained that when he tried to put his golf clubs into the trunk of his personal Thunderbird, he found that they did not fit unless he took the spare tire out! I can see his point. After all, shouldn’t you be able to use your classic [...]
In 16th century England, people typically drank eight pints of beer a day. A gallon per day back then was not as overly intoxicating as you might think because it contained only about 2% alcohol. By adding hops they could brew the beer longer and at least double the alcohol. The addition of hops came [...]
