Morning Hat and other Stories

Morning Hat

Morning Hat

Three Sisters

My two sisters and I (one older and one younger) met in San Francisco last year to clean out the house that my aunt, who had passed away, had lived in for 40 years.  It was a daunting assignment, but we had fun while we were there. One morning I came out of the bedroom and my two sisters were already at my Aunt's kitchen table. I had spread a washcloth on my hair to mat down the ones that were standing at attention. My young sister looked at me and said, "What, is that your morning hat?"  Ha!  I just thought of it as a washcloth, but she added a zing to it and it became my morning hat. Then she cross stitched a one for me! Use phrases with spice like: nap victim, or Aunt Minnie in radiology, or hashtag, instead of number sign or octothorp, or pie instead of pizza.  Just spice it up!  Quality Service lesson: Rename things to make them more interesting!


Traditions are Memorable

When I was in elementary school in Nanakuli, I was always excited for the last day of the school year because that meant I was off for the summer. Three months of hunting for lizards and lizard eggs, traipsing the neighborhood to visit with other kids, going to the beach, playing croquet, and even playing in the old outhouse on the property. But the school added icing to the excitement by giving every student one of those cardboard luau cups of Kalua pig that the administrators had cooked in the ground. If you want to learn more about how Kalua pig is made, visit Veena's Market's blog. The link is below.  For those of you who have never tasted Kalua pig, you are missing out. Go to the Hawaiian food restaurant in your town and try it or even better, fly to Hawaii and check it out. Once you taste it, you will want this recipe so you can make it at home in your own crockpot. You can use kosher salt if you can't find Hawaiian sea salt. It's so easy! But if you want to cook it in the ground in an imu, here's an instructional video.  Every time I smell Kalua pig, I think of those luau cups that were handed out by the teachers to each student every year on the last school day before summer. It was a wonderful tradition that I will never forget.  Quality Service lesson:  Give your customers a tradition that they can be a part of and will remember forever. They will be so excited about the tradition, they will do your advertising for you on social media.

Photo borrowed from http://veenasmarket.wordpress.com/

Festival of Love

Mommy/Sonny Selfie

My husband understands the meaning of Quality Service. Right now his job is caregiver even though he does not get a salary for it. There are intrinsic rewards for him but not monetary.  His nurturing care of his 92 year-old mother has been an inspiration to me because of her many illnesses all through which he has kept her spirits up and kept her going. He checks on her constantly and makes her laugh with every visitation. When she calls him, he answers the phone, "Howdy doody Mommy Tooty Fruity!" and he tucks her in at night with a phone call that usually ends with a funny dialogue about bedbugs. He makes sure she takes her pills and eats her meals and drinks her water. They go for drives around the property in her golf cart and he takes our little rat terrier down to visit her during the day. She loves the quality service that he dishes out!  Quality Service lesson:  Care about your customers, even if they aren't paying you for a specific service right at the moment. They (or their family or friends) could become a valuable customer in the future. 

Remember - every day is Aloha Friday! Take the Aloha Spirit with you wherever you go and make it a good one!

Good Old Days!

School Lunches

My elementary school had the best school lunches. They were hot lunches that only cost a quarter - that's right just twenty-five cents! One of my favorite dishes was Spanish Rice and here's a recipe that resembles what we had - yum!


Spanish Rice
1 lb. ground beef1 onion, chopped
1/2 onion, chopped
1 bell pepper, chopped
Salt and Pepper to taste
2 (8 oz.) cans tomato sauce
1 Tablespoon Chili Powder
3-4 cups cooked rice

In a large skillet, brown ground beef, drain fat. Add veggies and season to taste with salt and pepper. Add tomato sauce and chili powder. Simmer for about 20 minutes. Add rice. Cook another 20 minutes on low heat until the liquid has been absorbed. 

And now you have a free recipe! Quality Service lesson:  Give them something they will love at a bargain or free! It will stick in their minds!

Earworms

Photo borrowed from HubPages

Speaking of "Sticking in their minds" . . . Do you ever get earworms - songs that you just can't get out of your head - even when you're sleeping?! Sometimes I get them for DAYS and can't get rid of them. The line that lasted for about a month (off and on) was, "When he plays piano in the night."  I am really curious to know which songs get trapped in your heads that you just can't seem to get rid of. Sometimes I even get a radio commercial stuck in my head - you know, the ones where they play a portion of a song and then go on to the next song and the next, so the earworm is just a bunch of single lines from different songs - ahhhh! That's the worst! I am really curious to hear about your earworms, but I hope they don't get stuck in my head!
Marketing lesson:  Use an earworm to advertise your business - you'll stick with them!

Use your Trash!
I was looking for a unique gift for my sister and stumbled upon this recycled flip flop mat. The company makes and sells flip flops and they make these rubber slipper mats out of the material left over after cutting the flip flops. Pretty cool, huh? My sister loved the mat and she even bought one for her friend who saw her mat and loved it. There is a popular poem in Hawaii about Rubbah Slippahs which is where I got the name for my blog. I will share it in a later post.  Quality Service lesson:  Use your trash in a creative way and your cash flow will go up and your customers will think you're clever.


Remember - every day is Aloha Friday! Take the Aloha Spirit with you wherever you go and make it a good one!

Fond Hawaiian Memories

So long memories . . .

Photo borrowed from Pinterest

Many restaurants have closed over the years in Hawaii and I am so glad that someone took the time to start listing them. The food was so good in Hawaii when I was growing up and it's because of many of the restaurants on this list.  It might make you sad, but I guarantee it will bring back some good memories if you were in Hawaii in the old days. Maybe you remember some restaurants that need to be added. 

Tops Restaurant closed down - my first date. Nick's Fishmarket closed down - my first real job. Coco's for late night dining. McCully Chop Suey where the family ate a lot. So many memories!  I would love to hear which ones were your favorites that closed down? I didn't see Rainbow Drive-in or Zippy's on there, so I hope they are still cooking. I was sad to hear about the Yum Yum Tree by Kahala Mall closing down. They had so many pies and they were all delicious! It was hard to make a decision sometimes! That was my last job in Hawaii and on my last night, they pied me in the face - tradition.  I had chocolate syrup in my eyes and whipped cream in my hair until I got home and took a shower. That is a weird feeling! We laughed a lot though! The Yum Yum Tree had quality service figured out. First, they built the restaurant by a shopping mall. What do you want when you're done shopping, a snack!  Second, they provided outdoor seating. Where do you want to sit when you're in Hawaii? Outside, of course, because it's beautiful there. But, they also had inside seating if you preferred that. Third, they had coffee shop type food, but they also had a huge variety of pies so customers could have their favorite pie or eventually just try all of them. Lastly, they hired fun, friendly servers who provided great service.  Quality Service lesson:  Figure out what makes your customers happy and give them a variety to choose from!

Only Cows Know Why They Stampede

What is she thinking?

Make your business interesting - nobody likes boring! At an upcoming conference, one of the sessions is titled, "The Cowboy's Essential Guide to Leadership or Only Cows Know Why They Stampede."  That's an interesting title. The other sessions during that time slot are: "Nutrition for a Stressful Workplace" and "Setting Up a Facilities Management Apprenticeship Program for Seamless Succession Planning." Which session do you think will have the best attendance? The Cowboy session still gets the point across that the session is about Leadership, but it adds some excitement with the Cow Stampede. Quality Service lesson:  Give your customers some excitement. Nobody wants to be bored! 

My Favorite Catamaran Ride 

The guys who ran the catamaran rides on Waikiki beach were really cool so when they didn't have a full load, they would ask if we wanted to go for a ride. I loved the rides, but I would usually get cold because you get wet when the boat hits the waves and the water splashes over the bow. As long as it's a sunny day, you dry off pretty quickly. The boat goes out where the water is dark blue so it's a good way to see the coastline and see the darker ocean waters and sea life. One day, they just had a few customers, so they asked if my friend and I wanted to go for a ride. When we got to the deeper waters, the guys decided they should troll for fish while we enjoyed the ride. Well, they caught two really nice tunas and when we got back to the beach, they cut up the tuna and someone ran for some soy sauce and mustard and we had sashimi right there on the beach while enjoying the warming rays of the sun. That was the life! And here are some recipes for tuna (also known as aku or ahi).  Quality Service lesson:  Give them a unique experience that they will remember forever. 


Remember - every day is Aloha Friday! Take the Aloha Spirit with you wherever you go and make it a good one!

Good Recipes

Recipes

Photo taken from Allrecipes.com

When I was young and my sister Momi Lani (Hawaiian for Heavenly Pearl) was even younger, she gave me a recipe book that she had made out of her school note book. My favorite teriyaki sauce recipe comes out of that book made by my sister when she was in elementary school. I can remember lots of picnics at the beach where we would have teriyaki chicken or beef and Mom would make her famous potato salad - yum! I am not sure where my sister got the recipe, so I can't cite her source, but here it is. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

Teriyaki Chicken – Momi’s recipe

2 lbs. chicken(breasts, thighs, wings, or drumsticks)

Sauce:

½ c. shoyu (Aloha soy sauce is my favorite - they sell it in Walmart)

½ c. water

¼ c. sugar or 2 Tbls. Truvia

1-2 cloves garlic

4-6 slices fresh ginger root

¼ teaspoon salt

When using chicken breasts, I like to pound the breasts with a meat mallet so they are flat when I cook them on the grill. Mix sauce ingredients together and add chicken. Marinate overnight. Drain chicken and place on a baking pan and bake at 250 degrees for about 1 hour, or cook on the barbecue grill. Onolicious! Quality Service lesson:  Share your favorite things with others - they will appreciate it!

Sharing recipes with you reminds me of the Soaring Tree Tops adventure that my husband and I enjoyed in Durango, Colorado because they shared their delicious recipe for Cranberry bars. Best vacation ever! What a quality company! If you only take one vacation in your life, save up for a ziplining trip to Durango and a dinner at the Bar D Wranglers Chuckwagon supper. You won't be disappointed and it could end up being the best vacation of your life! It even includes a train ride!  We even did a rafting trip and a jeep ride to the top of a mountain in Durango.  Quality Service lesson:  Give them a quality experience which includes way more than they expected! They will remember it forever and will tell everyone about their adventures on TripAdvisor. They will do your advertising for you!

Remember - every day is Aloha Friday! Take the Aloha Spirit with you wherever you go and make it a good one!

Beach and Foods

Foods of Hawaii

Spam Musubi - nom nom!

Spam Musubi - most haoles would be grossed out by this dish consisting of seaweed, spam, and rice, but the locals LOVE spam musubi and you can use that link to learn how to make it! Instead of sugar and soy sauce, I just use teriyaki sauce and I don't add the furikaki or li hing mui powder. You can find one of those musubi makers in the Asian food store, but if you don't have one you can fly to Hawaii and get one or just shape the musubi with your hands - it's just as ono! Even my son Chad loves, and often makes, spam musubi and he's never even been to Hawaii! Check out this Google Search and see how many images there are of Spam Musubi - even Yoda is licking his chops for Spam Musubi! As the locals say, "Broke da mouth!" I have a great recipe for teriyaki sauce and yakisoba noodles that I will share in another post. Quality Service lesson: Give them what they crave!

Davy Jones Locker - Outrigger Hotel

Davy Jones Locker
I was thinking about what to include in my blog this week and remembered that the Outrigger Hotel (I think it's called The Reef now) has an underground bar called Davy Jones Locker which provides an excellent underwater view of the Outrigger pool and its swimmers - like when you go to the aquarium and stare at the fish. It's very entertaining for bar patrons when couples get "frisky" at that end of the pool and then decide to have a drink in the bar afterwards and realize that everyone in the bar was just watching them make out. The Outrigger Hotel figured out that instead of having patrons stare at a wall while they drink, they could provide a show put on by other people. Quality Service lesson:  Give them a show! It's free!

Wata and Cindy

Wata, the Beach Boy
My tandem surfing partner (Wata) was a beach boy at Waikiki Beach where he gave surfing lessons to the tourists. He understood the importance of a quality experience. He always guaranteed that the neophyte surfer would stand up on his or her first surf lesson and they always did or they would stay out there until they did. His canoe rides were always memorable because for every group of canoe riding tourists that he took out, he would always say, "Best crew we ever had!" And even if they were the most inept group of paddlers, they still got a laugh out of that. Wata would take them on three wave rides and then bring the canoe in safely - every time.  Quality Service lesson: Give them special memories! It doesn't take any more effort.

Tandem Surfing
Wata was also a great tandem surfing partner. When I was 13 years old, he approached me while I was sunbathing one day and asked if I wanted to try tandem surfing. We entered some contests over the years.  We were even on ABC's Wide World of Sports one Saturday - too bad we didn't have VCRs back then. We won 3rd place in the Makaha Surfing Championships one year. Bob and Patti (pictured below) got second place even though we had done stunts with a higher degree of difficulty and caught bigger waves. That was because Bob and Patti added a flare. They did the simplest stunt on the smallest wave they could catch, but while she was standing on his shoulders riding the wave in, she lit a flare and held it in one hand as they left a trail of colorful smoke behind them. The judges and spectators were entertained more by their flare than by our difficult stunts. Quality Service lesson:  Add a flare to the show!

Wata, Cindy, Bob Moore, Patti Young

Diamond Head behind us

Waikiki Beach

Barf Cruise

Neil and Cindy

When you visit Kauai, if you have a strong stomach, take the snorkel cruise that goes along the Na Pali Coast and over to Niihau (small island where only native Hawaiians live).  You may even want to take some Dramamine if you have a strong stomach. Everyone on the cruise except my husband and me hurled before the trip was over. The waves were kind of big and the captain was booking it back to shore across the channel from Niihau, but we were enjoying it while others were not. It was right after lunch too! And the lunch was delicious!  The crew congratulated us for being the only two who did not get sick on our seven hour tour. We enjoyed the snorkeling (we saw a huge monk seal swim right underneath us); the views were outstanding; and the cruise was amazing, except for the other passengers' seasickness. We saw two kinds of dolphins, flying fish, sea turtles, seagulls, and all kinds of fish. Take heed, if you barf when you see barf, don't take this cruise - take the shorter one. If you want to read more about Blue Dolphin Charters on Kauai, check out my review on Tripadvisor. Danny was the crew member that made the cruise memorable. Every time one of our fellow cruisers got sick, he got a damp paper towel and a cup of water to take to them and he tried to comfort them. He went around and chatted with everyone on the cruise and one time when he visited with us, I told him that my husband would look every time someone hurled and then he would describe the chunks to me. So, Danny told my husband to stop looking and would look at my husband every time he had to get a damp paper towel and would tell my husband to look away and would make the "I am watching you" hand gesture to the eyes.  It would crack us up every time. I still laugh about it whenever I think about it.

Photo borrowed from Universal Studios site

Quality Service lesson:  Make them laugh even under adverse conditions - that's what they will remember!



A bit of Trivia

Photo borrowed from Tripadvisor

In Hawaii, the roadkill is mostly Mongoose. They brought the mongoose to Hawaii in the 1900s to get rid of the rats in the cane fields but the mongoose are not nocturnal while the rats are, so it was not a very good plan. The mongoose are everywhere and have killed many of the bird populations. Check out the link for more information on this invasive species that was imported to the islands.  Kauai could use some mongooses on that island to get rid of all the wild chickens roaming the island since the hurricanes set them free. Or not!

My next posting will include the story of my favorite catamaran ride, my Mom's Hawaiian doll business, and Mother Nature's most excellent quality service contributions. Thanks for reading!

I would love to know what you want to learn about Hawaii. Click the button to follow me and please leave me comments or questions. 

Remember - every day is Aloha Friday! Take the Aloha Spirit with you wherever you go and make it a good one!

Meaning of "Haole"

Welcome to my Blog!

I am on the Quality Service Committee at Southern Utah University (SUU) so I thought it would be interesting to blog about lessons I learned growing up in Hawaii that provided quality experiences and also vacations and meals with quality companies. The Aloha Spirit that is so popular in Hawaii is the impetus for quality service. SUU already has the Aloha Spirit, but we are always striving to improve service to our students and fellow employees. Take the Aloha Spirit wherever you go so that you can provide quality experiences for everyone you encounter. 

Me as a young girl

First of all, let me start out by explaining what "haole" means. It's the Hawaiian word for "non-native person to Hawaii," but it's mostly used for Caucasians. So, growing up in Hawaii, I felt like a native, but I had the skin of a haole. I was always one of the few haoles in my classes in my Nanakuli elementary school, but that doesn't mean there was a majority race. My classmates were Hawaiian, Chinese, Japanese, Portuguese, Filipino, Negro, and mixed race. Everyone in Hawaii back then was friendly and loving. The locals were the epitome of quality service. They always made you feel special, no matter who you were or how old you were or what race you were. They would give you fresh mangoes they just picked from their tree or guavas or bring leis made from fragrant plumerias or even portuguese sausage (the most delicious sausage in the world!) and chocolate covered macadamia nuts. Yes, Hawaiians were born with quality service flowing through their veins. Quality Service lesson:  Make people feel special!

I learned the Hula as a young girl and was in many hula pageants - my mom always made all the muu muus (dresses) for the hula pageants. She could have been the leader of the quality service movement in Hawaii. She volunteered her time for anything and everything. One day, she was having labor pains from my impatient brother who wanted to be born while she was finishing up the muu muus for all of the girls in my dance group for the pageant later that day. She did not leave for the hospital until she had every muu muu finished. The show must go on and the hula pageant was wonderful.  Quality Service lesson: Volunteer your free time to help others! It makes you happy and it makes others happy!

Here's a link for a hula video.  If you go to Hawaii, every island provides some type of luau (dinner party) with Hawaiian, Tongan, and Tahitian dances. The food is generally traditional Hawaiian fare and is ono (delicious)!  When my husband and I went back to Hawaii after several years on the mainland, we decided to try out a commercial luau. We heard that Germaine's Luau was the best so we booked with them. Check out these reviews from TripAdvisor.  Always check Living Social and Groupon before you make any reservations in case they have specials. The luau company picked us up from Waikiki in a luxury bus and drove us out to a private beach on the other side of the island. The bus ride was amazing because the tour guide was hilarious. He kept us laughing the whole way there with his stories about Hawaii and a ton of jokes. When we got to the luau, they gave us leis and took pictures of us and led us to an area where they taught us how to make Hawaiian crafts and play Hawaiian games or we could just listen to music. When it was time for the luau, we had delicious food and saw great Polynesian performances, then we had another hilarious bus ride home.  It was an amazing experience. We thought we were just getting food and dances, but we got so much more. Quality Service lesson:  Give them more than they expect.  

You will learn some Hawaiian words from this blog, so write them down so you can use them in conversation with your friends and family.  In order for you to pronounce the words right, I will give you a lesson on the simple Hawaiian alphabet.  The vowels are:  a, e, i, o, u.
The "a" vowel is pronounced ah, while the "e" vowel is pronounced like a long A sound. The "i" vowel is pronounced like the long "e" sound, the "o" is simply oh, and the "u" is a soft u sound, like ooo.  Ah, A, E, Oh, ooo.  The consonants are, h, k, l, m, n, p, w.  Pronounced: hay, kay, la, moo, noo, pee, vay.  Simple yeah?

The language of Hawaii is a mixture of Hawaiian words and pidgin English which also includes words from other languages.  If you go to Hawaii and hang around any of the locals, you can use this dictionary if they say something that you don't understand. The dictionary is a crack up I tell you! Click on the link and pick a letter, say "P" and the first thing that comes up is "Pakalolo" which means Marijuana. It is pronounced Pah-kah-lo-lo.  When I was in Hawaii, each island had their specialty brand of pakalolo, like Kauai Electric, Maui Wowee, Kona Gold, etc. They grew the good stuff there - so I was told! Anyway, pidgin English is a simplified form of language that could be used by many different races.  Hawaii is called "the melting pot" because of all the different races on the islands, many of which were brought over as labor to work in the sugar cane fields and factories.  If you have never smelled sugar cane being processed, take a trip to Waipahu on the island of Oahu where the smell of cooking sugar permeates the air. I love that smell! Did you know that instead of harvesting sugar cane, they burn the fields and then collect the sugar stalks. That gets rid of the mice and clears the stalk of all the leaves, then they just scoop up the stalks. Here's a great link for learning about sugar cane.  I hope I have given you more than you expected so far and that you continue to visit my blog! I look forward to hearing from you! Please tell me if there are certain things that you would like to know about.

Last year, my husband and I went back to Kauai. I hadn't been there since the late 70's. What a big change.  I reviewed some places on TripAdvisor if you are interested or will be visiting Kauai any time soon. Some ono food there!

My next post will include other quality service lessons from Hawaii, a Hawaiian recipe or two, and some information about my tandem surfing days with Wata the Beach Boy. 

Yes, I had a pretty good tan, but not as good as Wata!

Remember - every day is Aloha Friday! Take the Aloha Spirit with you wherever you go and make it a good one!