Morsels: Himalayan Kitchen

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Himalayan Kitchen

Life Imitating Art: College Edition

Just another typical YOLO Friday for us. 

I love these guys. 

Sunnies

I've been in the market for a new pair of sunglasses for a while.  In Hawaii, there really aren't many options for prescription sunglasses, which I find ridiculous because people here practically live in them.  Places like LensCrafters wanted up to $500 for Rx sunglasses and as a broke college student, there is NO WAY I can fork over $500.  After some online research I came across this online optical and sunglass company called Warby Parker.  I was really impressed with their company and how affordable and fashionable their product is as well as the philanthropy behind the brand.  I'm quite picky with things like this because I can't stand the flashy styles that have been dominating the market.
Read: simple and classic.

  When you purchase a pair of glasses, whether they be optical or sun, they donate a pair of optical glasses to someone in need.  How awesome, right? So my $150 for Rx sunglasses not only bought a dope pair of sunnies for myself but also someone else in the world who needed a pair.  The company also does this cool try-on program where you can pick out five frames to try on.  They mail them to you and you have five days to test them out for free and find your favorite.  However, they don't offer this service yet to folks living in Hawaii.  I hope they do soon though because I'm in the market for new Rx glasses! *hint hint* 

I chose the frame style Thatcher in the color they call greystone.  (The picture directly below has it's color altered by the light on my desk.  The color is true to the last two photos.  I just wanted to show the inside of the case.)  I'm in love.  As much as I'm a all-black all the time kind of girl, my friends will definitely vouch for me, sometimes even I can admit that it can come off as too harsh.  The greystone option looked less harsh yet had the vibe I wanted out of a black frame.  They came in this super sturdy hard case complete with a lens cleaner inside.  Tomorrow I'll take them out for a spin and report back! 

Check out Warby Parker here

I should have been Greek

One of my favorite times of the year finally happened, Honolulu Greek Festival! I can't even remember how long I've been going, it's been that long.  Usually we try to go to both days but as I've gotten older, I treat my mama to the second day.  I had to work one of the two days this year so my mom and I went on opening day, my treat.  This year was just as great, not to mention delicious.  Over the years we've learned that on the first day you get there super early in order to make it into the pastry line first.  Those suckers sell out by the first couple of hours.  This year we stoked up on pastries up to my eyeballs.  Baklava, chocolate baklava, kataifi, koulourakai, and sooo much more.  It was a good call because by 3:30 (festival opens at noon) half of it was sold out.   

After we pretty much single-handedly bought out the pastries we headed to the greek kitchen section to feast.  I got the spanakopita plate which included greek salad, feta cheese and bread, olives, rice pilaf, dolmathes, and a piece of baklava.  I also got an extra piece of spanakopita because it's my favorite and just so damn good.  My mom shared the plate with me but got her own piece of spanakopita and a piece of moussaka, her favorite.  We found seats near the main stage where we got a great seat in the shade under the trees and watched the live greek band, Apollo, perform.  We lucked out that some of the festival volunteers from the Greek Church danced to traditional songs.  

About an hour later we decided to muster up the energy to get up (and not explode) and walk around.  I always love visiting the booth that a local jewelry store, Artlines, sets up.  I usually find a bracelet or ring that I like but this year I found a sick bell bell chime that I couldn't pass up.  It was so hot that day so to cool off we shared a bowl of lemon sorbet.  Before we called it a day, I picked up a gyro for dinner and a greek sausage and pita bread for my mom.  Overall, another great festival and a very satisfied Kiyana.     

You're Invited

All I want is to throw a swank-ass dinner party in my own apartment with good friends, delicious food, and lots of booze.  

Nosh: Ichiriki

I've been told over and over again how awesome Ichiriki is yet I've never gone out and actually tried it. Tonight my mama and I were in the mood for comfort food and for her, comfort means soupy Japanese food.  She suggested Ichiriki and off we went.

Ichiriki is a nabemono, or hot pot, restaurant.  Here, you cook your own dish in hot dashi, or soup, on a gas stove at your table.  I was nervous at first because looking at the menu, I don't eat half the things on it.  I don't like red meat, I'm not the biggest fan of some vegetables like mushrooms, and I'm not big on shrimp and scallops, all of which are a prominent part of the menu items.  Luckily Ichiriki catered to my odd taste and happily substituted ingredients I didn't want with ones I did.  

I got the signature nabe, Ichiriki dashi which is a shoyu base with chicken and ramen.  Mama got the paitan nabe which is a pork dashi, all the ingredients, and udon.  Later we decided to turn our leftover dashi into zosui, or rice porridge with egg and nori.  The zosui was the best decision we made all night.   

My nabe ingredients

Ramen noodles

Mama's nabe ingredients

Udon noodles

Dashi before (left: pork dashi, right: Ichiriki shoyu dashi)

After! Nabe is complete! Itadakimasu!!

Gotta have that Asahi

The zosui, a how-to:

 1. Bring dashi to a boil

2. Add rice and let simmer and soak up dash

3. Scramble egg and pour into dashi evenly

4. Let egg cook until soft

5. Add nori

6. DEVOUR

Gochisosama

Impromptu

Daisy

I know, I know, Daisy is old news.  Julie and I were obsessed with it when it first came out and are still obsessed.  When Julie brought it home from Boston with her as my birthday present, it's all I've been wearing.  It's so light and refreshing, effortless if you must label it.  A no brainer, slap (or in this case spritz) it on, and go type of ordeal.  Not to mention it looks damn good on your dresser.

A trip to Godiva for the 4th of July!

Follow me on Instagram @kiyanananana

Lust

Bought these babies on Target earlier this evening.  So stoked.

Summer Project: closet organization and purge

Diving We Will Go, Dive Day No. 2

Day two of our PADI Advanced Open Water (AOW) certification was another 2-tank dive day.  Mia and I left Kewalo Basin Boat Harbor at 7:30am with Drew again and a new friend, Jessica Cowell, and headed out to our first dive site, The Sea Tiger.  The Sea Tiger is a shipwreck about 10 minutes away from Kewalo Harbor.  This particular dive was to fulfill the deep dive for our certification.  After the dive the day before, I think I got out all of my reservations about deep diving.  I woke up prepared and eager for the dive, a nice change from the butterfly-freaked-out feeling I had the previous day.  After putting together our gear and (struggling) into our wetsuits, we were off.

Drew briefed us right before the dive, telling us that our depth goal for the dive would be about 100 feet, along with a no descent line descent and ascent.  That freaked me out a little, thinking about the trouble I had with my descent the other day with the descent line and at about 10 feet shallower.  Nonetheless, I got in and went for it.  The descent was easier than I expected.  Going down I paid more attention to just getting down there when suddenly, the wreck appeared in all of its grandness.  The Sea Tiger is HUGE.  Much, much bigger than the YO-257 for sure.   

Right away we began touring the wreck, an awesome experience in itself.  There were literally hundreds of fish all around.  Massive schools of fish bigger than I've ever seen, rivaled only by the footage I've seen on the Discovery Channel.  After we reached about 100 feet, Drew administered a Nitrogen Narcosis test, holding up fingers and having us show him how many more fingers we would need to make what he showed equal to ten.  Thankfully, we both passed with flying colors.

This dive was a big accomplishment for both Mia and I because we both felt that it was the most relaxed we had ever been on a dive.  I didn't worry about a single thing during the dive, not even my buoyancy.  The dive felt completely effortless, something I never thought I'd feel with the amount of dives I have under my belt.  Our dive depth total was 102 feet with a bottom time of 29 minutes.

Jessica, who is an amazing photographer, got some shots of our dive day and graciously shared them with Mia and I.

My stride entry

The Sea Tiger wreck

 

Mia above the wreck.  Such an epic picture!

 

A turtle just chillin' on the wreck

Drew (left), Mia (middle), and I (right) on our mandatory 3-min safety stop during our ascent

All photos courtesy of Jessica Cowell

Our second dive was at Horseshoe Reef, a reef we've all dived before.  The only difference was that this dive would be the dive to fulfill the navigation portion of our certification.  We practiced with the compass on the boat first then when we got in the water, Drew had both Mia and I navigate using kick cycles and the compass.  With the compass, we had to navigate from a point and make a square, 10 kick cycles each way.  It was a lot harder than I thought but I passed!  After our navigation test portion, we all just cruised around the reefs.  Jessica took some amazing shots of the sea life when we were down there.  A really big thank you to Jessica who shared her pictures with me!  I hope to dive with you again! 

Me, waiting as Mia took her navigation test

An awesome little Fried Egg nudibranch.  These guys are so cool!!

I love sea turtles, they're just so chill.

This guy was just swimming as we were cruising by.

 

All photos courtesy of Jessica Cowell