Michael Strong describes Kekaha, Hawaii, comparing it to San Diego. He explains Hawaiian foods like haupia, Spam musubi, poke, and lau lau, and reflects on the island's distinct culture and friendlier neighbor interactions.
Michael Strong. I can't hear you.
Me now?
Yes.
Okay, great. How are you?
I'm good. Where are you?
I'm well, thank you. Where are you?
Um, I'm in the town of Kekaha on the Hawaiian Island Hawaii.
Wow, you're in Hawaii? You're so lucky. Do you like Hawaii?
Yeah, I love it.
And are you near a beach?
Um, actually, yes, I'm super near a beach. You can just drive down maybe a few blocks, then you're there.
Okay, so yeah, tell me what you like about Hawaii. Let's just talk about Hawaii.
I love the rain. I love the mountains. I really like the mango tree in their backyard. They have a huge backyard.
Would you say that Hawaii is very different from San Diego, or is it almost exactly the same as San Diego?
I think it's kind of different. One, there's no rooster crows in San Diego. Each morning at 5 o'clock, uh, um, Hawaii time. Um, and two, it's more greener to me, and it's hotter, or a little hotter. I really like that. And they get a lot of rain too in the winter. They're so lucky.
I hadn't thought of it. If it's Hawaii, you must— it must be really early there. Are you Is it really early in the morning?
Um, not super early, just 7 o'clock.
Oh, okay, that's not super early, you're right. Um, so those are all differences with Hawaii. Um, would you say that the— do you know what culture is at all?
Um, like their traditions or some religions?
That's part of it, that's part of it. We can also talk about culture as just the way people interact on a day-to-day basis. Does that make sense that in some ways how we interact on a day-to-day basis is part of our culture too?
Yeah.
So would you say that Hawaiian culture is any different from San Diego culture or is it exactly the same?
I think it's— I think it would be pretty different. One, I think the food is great here. Here. And two, I think all the people that pass by us, especially our neighbors, they're really, really nice. Really, really, really nice. Actually, I really wish I lived here so I have really nice neighbors.
Okay.
I do have really nice neighbors in San Diego though.
Okay. But the people there are really nice. And they're different when you pass by them.
Yeah, or they just pass by you, you're always waving to them unless you're like busy or something like that.
Got it, got it. Um, are there any other differences in kind of day-to-day culture, how people interact?
Um, maybe the types of just food they eat, maybe, or where they go.
So tell me about the different kinds of food. How is food different there?
Um, I think it's different because San Diego is basically just cheeseburgers, hamburgers, fries, Coke, Pepsi, stuff like that. But here it's like there's lau lau, there's poke, musubi, spam musubis, there's haupia, and there's a lot of stuff that I really like.
Very cool, and I have no idea what all those things are. What kind— what are those? Tell me just a little bit about those things. What kind of food was that?
Okay, so haupia is basically— to me, it's basically just coconut Jell-O. It's kind of like that. And Spam musubi is basically where you put Spam mixed with rice and then seaweed no, they wrapped around it. Poke is basically just chopped up raw fish with maybe some green onions or sauce. And I think lau lau is where like there's like kalua pig mixed or wrapped in like tea leaves or something like that. I've never really— I don't really eat it much, so I don't really know.
So it sounds like those are very different foods from most American foods. So I would say that's a very definite different part of their culture. And I thought there might be kind of more fish. Is it— would you say in general they eat more fish there than you do in San Diego?
Um, for one of the traditional foods, I think the only one in my brain for one of the traditional foods would For fish, would probably just be poke, but you could like— I've eaten almost— I've eaten poke almost every day. I think I ate one yesterday, maybe two days after, um, before that, I think.
And then, and then Spam is actually— it's interesting, but Spam is famously a now a Hawaiian food. Um, so one of the dishes you mentioned, there was Spam in it. Do you like Spam?
Yeah, I do.
Okay, well, this is fascinating. I believe you're so fortunate to be in Hawaii, and I want you to kind of learn and absorb as much as you can about the culture there. And, um, yeah, we'll, we'll figure out more about culture in the future. How's that sound?
Okay.
All right, have a wonderful time in Hawaii, and, um, Yeah, have fun. Okay, bye-bye.
