Tommy “The Polynesian Pirate” Ching digs into Hawaiian food for lunch at the Waikii Music Festival. Tommy is a local radio DJ who often emcees events and he told me to forget the backstage free food (chili and hot dogs) and grind on some Hawaiian food being sold by vendors. Here Tommy goes for some sashimi and he’s already scarffed-down some fried fish, poi, laulau, lomi lomi salmon, rice, and fresh crab. ono kine grinds as they say.
So I decided to go local and got the lau lau plate. Clockwise from the top left: macaroni salad, lomi lomi salmon, pork/fish laulau, rice (with some shoyu on it). You could bust a gut eating this plate of food and I couldn’t finish it.
Here’s my view of the stage while eating lunch. Could there be a better place to enjoy a lunch? Clouds on the edges but sunny, a cool breeze that was a little chilly if you were in the shade too long. You couldn’t ask for more comfortable weather. And on stage was the group Keahiwai doing their set.
I’ve got to hand it to Ed Yap and his beautiful wife Nani Lim-Yap for putting on this event every Father’s Day weekend. I had heard earlier a month or two ago it was cancelled but somehow they managed to pull it off. They were expecting a bigger crowd on Sunday as that’s Father’s Day. And what a way for dad to relax. Pull up a beach chair or beach mat, Hawaiian food, Hawaiian music, places for kids to go play games and cool weather to fall asleep by.