1. My husband and I are starting the year off right with a subscription to HI Fresh Box. For $72 a week, a box containing three recipes and fresh ingredients is delivered to your door; each meal serves two.
With Fresh Box, no more researching recipes or grocery shopping for the required ingredients. Chef William Chen’s menu last week was spicy Jamaican chicken stew with roasted sweet potato and mushroom hash; Catalan-style fideua with mahimahi on paella-style pasta with fennel seed and lemon; and stovetop pork carnitas with turmeric rice and tomato onion salad.
Subscribe at hifreshbox.com.
— Lacy Matsumoto, Liliha
2. Antique Japanese fishing floats are the perfect adornment for any lanai or gazebo with an ocean theme. The glass balls floated from Japan and washed ashore in Hawaii, including at Lanikai Beach, sometime in the 1950s or ’60s, according to Kailua Pickers owner Cheryl Moriguchi, who pairs them with wooden fishing floats.
They are $20 and $30, depending on size, at Kailua Pickers Antiques & Collectibles, 326 Kuulei Road. Call 392-8831 or find “Kailua Pickers” on Facebook.
— Nina Wu
3. Ever since ABC resurrected the Comedy Central show “BattleBots” in 2015, I’ve watched it with my boys for its depictions of everyday inventors building robots in their garages. Physics and engineering principles are put to work in a sparks-filled robot battle for cash and TV fame.
Hexbug BattleBots allow kids to re-enact the destructive fun at home, without any of the danger. The 3-inch toys are controlled by tiny 1-inch remote controls, and the kids duel until all the removable plastic strike plates fly off.
Out of the pile of presents my kids received, it was the toy they kept returning to all Christmas Day and in the days that followed. Hexbug BattleBots are sold individually for $29.99 or in sets of two for $49.99 at hexbug.com/battlebots.
— Donica Kaneshiro
4. Dress your bouncing baby boy or girl for the winter and spring sports seasons with these University of Hawaii-branded onesies. I’m partial to the basketball design — very timely as the Basketball ’Bows and Wahine get deeper into their seasons.
The cotton outfits (football and soccer, too!) are $22 to $24 at H-Zone in Ward Centre, online at h-zoneonline.com and at Stan Sheriff Center during games; call 200-5081.
— Christie Wilson
5. I remember going snorkeling way more often as a kid, and a recent attempt to find updated equipment turned up many of the same designs I saw in the water decades ago.
One alternative is the full-face snorkeling mask pioneered by British company Tribord, which introduced the Easybreath in 2014. A number of copycats followed, all offering a 180-degree field of vision and a built-in system that keeps water from entering the snorkel while submerged and at the same time allowing the user to breathe normally through both their nose and mouth. The masks are easy to find online and range in price from about $60 to $150, depending on size and brand.
But that doesn’t help if you want to go snorkeling now or try on a full-face mask before buying one. Out at Turtle Bay Resort, 57-091 Kamehameha Highway, the hotel’s Guidepost Experience Center offers daily rentals of the Aria snorkel mask for $35 with fins included; call 293-6000. Once you give it a try, new masks are available for $165 at the resort’s North Shore Watershed store.
Townies can give full-face snorkel masks a try at Dive Oahu’s Discovery Bay storefront, 1778 Ala Moana Blvd., where the H20 Ninja mask is rented and sold; call 922-3483 for prices and availability.
— Jason Genegabus
“5 Things We Love” is a shortlist of newly discovered stuff you have got to see, hear, wear, use or eat. Please keep in mind that featured products may be in short supply and may not be available at all store locations; prices may vary. Tell us what you are loving by emailing features@staradvertiser.com.
