Aloha !
Its been a while since I wrote on my blog . Its not that things have not been happening , its just that surprisingly, I didn't feel the urge to write down my thoughts lately, as I usually do .
Last week, while I was working at Hale Aloha , one of the guests came in. She was from Switzerland. She asked what those little creatures were called, the ones that are running around all over the place.
" Oh, its a mango ! " the reception person who was working with me said . Now you have to understand that English is her first language and her only language. She turned and looked at me for confirmation and I really had to bite my lip to keep from bursting out into laughter. She took a look at my face and retracted her statement . " Oh, I mean it sounds like a mango. Mango's a fruit ! tee hee ! I love mangoes What is that animal's name, Molly ? " DUH !
" It called a mongoose, " I told them both. So, it went on for a while, with me helping the Swiss Lady pronouncing mongoose . " MONgose ! ." " No , its mon - goose . You don't need to put a strong emphasis on the ' mon ' part. " " MonGOSS ! " " No, you you have to stretch out the O sound , as in oo " . " MANgos. " " No, not man , its mon . Mon - gooooooose . She left finally saying man-GOES , with a Swiss accented stress on ' GOES ' . She just wasn't able to get rid of the first word that she was told. It was the brilliant receptionist that has cemented mangoes in the Swiss lady's head. Let me know if you see mangoes running around in Hawaii. Little furry ' mangoes ' , running around, scurrying under the jungle bushes and around the palm trees. . They are a beige brown and not a mixture of green , red or orange. I catch the Swiss by surprise all the time when they hear that one of my favourite places in the World is Lauterbrunnen. Many years ago, I stayed there and also hiked in the Swiss Alps.
Today at lunch , I was having a conversation with Steve. Steve is not his real name , and I am using Steve to respect his privacy . Ultimately, someone at Kalani will stumble upon my blog and if I use his real name , well, all of Kalani will know who it is. Somehow, the conversation ended up with Steve telling me that he didn't learn to read until he was in his mid-40's. That didn't surprise me. There are many people out there like Steve. Somehow , they got lost through Society's cracks and School systems. Unfortunately, the signs were all there, but no one took the time to pay attention and follow through with care , to teach a young child how to read.
" You must have a photographic memory " I said to Steve. He nodded with pride. " You know, I have always felt that people who cannot read often have amazing photographic memories . They are extremely intelligent and resourceful too. They have to be, to hide their illiteracy from their family, friends and co-workers. You become extremely resourceful in adapting to the fact that you cannot read labels , directions, job applications or books . "
Steve could see paragraphs , and be able to re-write the same words from memory , not having any idea what he was writing . I told him that I was a volunteer Literacy Tutor for children Grade Three and Grade Four. The look of gratitude in his eyes when I told him this melted my heart. " You ' git ' them before they get lost in the system , Molly ! " " Yes, that is my goal , Steve. I have 7 kids that I tutor and they are all very bright . "
Malcolm sits down across from me with her lunch. " You have 7 kids, Molly ????????? !!!!!!!! " She had only heard part of the sentence. Steve and I laughed . " I tutor 7 kids. I personally do not have 7
children . "
Malcolm laughed with relief . " I mean, you're too young to have seven kids. I guess its possible but there would have to be at least 2 sets of triplets . " I just shook my head and laughed . Yes, it would be nice to get it all over with , but the thought of breast feeding triplets will be a full time job in itself. Time and time again , Kalani folks think I am in my early 30's . I am a female version of Benjamin Button.
And, while Marilyn was sitting down beside me for lunch, she offered me some dry looking puffed wheat cylindrical 3 inch diameter crackers. You know the ones I mean . The ones that will fill you up and taste like sawdust , not that I have ever eaten sawdust. " They're really good, Molly ! They're made with corn and flavoured with sesame. " " Well, if its flavoured with sesame, I will try a tiny piece . " Now, sesame oil is very strong and can overpower most things. Sure enough, I tasted sesame oil and not sawdust. it made the cracker palatable. " That's not bad . Not as bad as I thought it would be. All I can taste is sesame , " I told Marilyn. Marilyn carefully removed 2 crackers from the bag . They are somewhat fragile , in a styrofoam kinda way. Oh, they can taste like styrofoam too , not that I have ever tasted styrofoam either. I laughed at what Marilyn did next. She took 2 crackers , spread some Reuben Sandwich sauce on each side of the cracker , and then put a thick layer of BBQ potato chips in between the crackers . She made a BBQ potato chip sandwich . " That looks really healthy !!!! " I laughed, with an amused look on my face. Marilyn is not a youngster . She is probably in her late 60's , perhaps even somewhere in the 70's. She is, to my knowledge, a vegetarian also.
And Chef Mark made a most delicious dinner last night . He made bouillabaisse full of scallops, shrimp and fish . Oh, it was so YUMMMMMM!!!!!! I was in food comatose heaven ! He is my favorite chef and I love working with him. I was plating the dessert yesterday . George, Kalani's pastry chef made some rich chocolate brownies. He left specific instructions as to how to cut the brownies that were baked in large hotel pans. He wrote " Two of the hotel pans, cut 8 x 5 and the third hotel pan , cut 12 x 5 . Plate on large platters. On the 12 x 5 plated pieces , write on food description " 50% less fat and sugar . " I laughed when I read that . Kalani has small signs on all the food served , whether it is gluten free, vegetarian , vegan, has nuts, onions, garlic , dairy, etc. mark laughed too and shook his head.
' No one's eating the brownies that are marked ' 50% less fat and sugar ! " I told Mark . These weren't even half the size of the 8 x 5 ( 40 pieces cut .) They were the same brownies, only cut slightly smaller. Too funny ! " Take the sign down ! George's plan didn't work ! People are still taking the larger pieces ! " Mark responded. We all had a good chuckle about that.
Kalani caters to so much restricted diets that it makes for cooking food a challenge in the kitchen. During a Kitchen Appreciation Party , we were going to make s'mores over a campfire. " Can we have gluten free , sugar free graham crackers ? I want sugar free marshmallows ! Non-dairy chocolate too ! I want animal cruelty free marshmallows ! " We all put in our too bits. It gets to be a bit much. No, none of the stuff we jokingly verbally tossed out exists, to my knowledge. If people are vegan or vegetarian , why don't they create something new, instead of making a regular great food ' vegan ' or ' vegetarian. ' Reuben sandwiches were served for lunch today . When I went through the line to get my food , I said " I want the real Reuben ! " the guy beside me laughed. There was a vegan option for Reuben sandwiches and also gluten free option too. mark also made a bouillabaisse with tofu and he refused to call it tofu bouillabaisse . The sign said " tofu option. " I am in TOTAL agreeance with him. It is time that vegetarians and vegans create their own foods and not change some great old time honoured favourites into bland tasting saw dust rubbery textured poor facsimiles of the real thing. There really is nothing like the real thing , in anything .
Yes, if you eat only half the portion , you have saved yourself 50% less fat and 50% less sugar. Rocket science.
With much aloha,
x0x0x0x0x0
Molly
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