Hawaii Dinner is Ready! Plus Fun Facts

Our Hawaiian dinner is ready! We made Ahi Tuna Poke with Fresh Ginger, Scallions, Sesame Oil, Soy Sauce, Cilantro, Sesame Seeds, and Macadamia Nuts. We served it with homemade Nori Chips(Baked Seaweed Sheets), Jasmine Rice, and finished with our Lomi Lomi Salmon. We prepared it with fresh tomatoes, white onions, and scallions. It was delicious! The flavors were so clean and fresh. I have never had Ahi Tuna prepared this way. The sweetness of the tuna with the spicy of the ginger and crunch of the macadamia nut was divine. The girls loved the Lomi Lomi Salmon. After baking our seaweed sheets we  broke off pieces of the Nori and made chips topped with jasmine rice and Lomi Lomi salmon. It was so much fun discovering their love of new food! We liked two different recipes for the Ahi Tuna Poke, so we used a bit from both. Here are the recipes we used tonight.

http://honestlyyum.com/5508/nori-chips-and-poke/

http://whatscookingamerica.net/History/Poke.htm

http://www.fishmaui.com/fish-recipes/lomilomi.html

 Here are some fun facts we learned this week about Hawaii:

Hawaii is the only U.S. state that grows coffee. Coffee plantations in Hawaii make up 6,200 acres. In 2003, 8.5 million pounds of coffee were produced.

Sugar is mainly produced on Maui and Kauai, on altogether 70,000 acres. In 2002, 340,000 tons of raw sugar were produced. One ton of water is needed to make a pound of sugar.

Hawaii produces about 320,000 tons of pineapple each year.

Hiram Fong of Hawaii was the first Asian-American in the Unites States Senate. Fong is a descendant from Chinese immigrants and was elected to the Senate in 1959.

Hawaii has the highest population density in the United States.

In the 2000 census, more than 20 percent of Hawaii’s population claimed multi-ethnic backgrounds, far more than any other U.S. state.

Hawaii is the only U.S. state whose majority of people are non-white.

Hawaii has its own time zone. It’s called Hawaiian Standard Time. There is no daylight savings time in Hawaii, which means that in summer, Hawaii is two hours behind the U.S. West Coast, while in winter, Hawaii is three hours behind the U.S. West Coast.

The Hawaiian alphabet consists of only twelve letters. The five vowels are A,E, I, O,U. And the seven consonants are H,K,L,M,N,P,W.

Among all U.S. states, Hawaii has the highest percentage of women in the workforce, about 63 percent as of 2003.

More birds have become extinct in Hawaii than in any other part of the world. A total of 26 species died out and 27 more are endangered by changes in their natural habitats, forest destruction, mongooses and man.

The Hawaiian Islands National Wildlife Refuge northwest of Kauai is the world’s largest bird sanctuary. It is home to many seabirds.

Hawaii had the oldest newspaper west of the Rocky Mountains – the Sandwich Island Gazette, 1836-1839.

Hawaii has the highest number of married couples living with others, mainly because Hawaii has the lowest percentage of home ownership.

Hawaii has the highest life expectancy in the United States. Life expectancy for males is 75, for females 80 years.

Hawaii has the fewest overweight people in the United States. About 19.7 percent of Hawaii residents are overweight, compared to about 30 percent on the mainland.

Hawaii has a unique way of giving directions. To point people in the right path, local residents use “makai,” which means toward to sea and “mauka,” meaning toward the mountains.

 Sources: http://www.50states.com/facts/hawaii.htm#.UtsX7UbnbIU