Mahalo for supporting Honolulu Star-Advertiser. Enjoy this free story!
5 Things We Love is a shortlist of newly discovered stuff you have got to see, hear, wear, use or eat. What are you loving this week? Send a brief description of your latest favorite thing, where to find it and how much it costs, along with your name and contact info to features@staradvertiser.com.
Abundance of gau brings new fans to sticky treat
Though I like all kinds of rice cake, and that would be reason enough for why I’m waxing poetic here, the biggest reason gau is dear to my heart is for all the happy fuss that surrounds it. Every Chinese New Year my family receives several gau, an auspicious dessert made with glutinous rice and brown sugar, from my husband’s attentive aunties who remember that “he’s the boy who loves gau!” While my daughter inherited her father’s fondness for the holiday treat, the three of us cannot possibly eat all that gau, so we share with my family, now a bunch of newbie gau fans. Find it all over Chinatown and elsewhere. At Sing Cheong Yuan Bakery, a large gau is $15; order ahead at 531-6688; pick up at 1027 Maunakea St. — Joleen Oshiro
Lunar New Year offers teaching opportunity
You don’t normally get a cultural lesson at the bank, but if it’s Chinese New Year, that’s exactly what you’ll get at Hawaii National Bank in Chinatown. For the past 31 years, retired bank vice president Evelyn Chang, 87, has been conducting free presentations on Chinese culture and the Lunar New Year, entertaining and educating customers, tourists and schoolkids by the busload. “The schools start calling in August to make reservations,” Chang said. “One morning Ihad 600 kids.”
She puts together a display of artifacts, food and clothing for her 20-minute talks. Every year, shedonates a rice plant to the Waipahu Cultural Center, where it is grown and returned to Chang when it has the rice grains on it so she can use it in her presentations. “I tell the kids, ‘This is where your rice comes from.’ One parent said to me, ‘Mrs. Chang, I’m never going to throw rice away because Ididn’t know it was that much work.’”
The tradition started when local merchants ran a contest for best Chinese New Year display. After a second-place finish the first year, Chang won the top prize the next year. The contest was discontinued after that, so she’s the reigning champ.
The free presentations are offered from 8:30 to 11:30 a.m. at Hawaii National Bank, 45 N. King St., through Feb. 12. Call 528-7768 to reserve a space. — Steven Mark
Popping candy packs a punch in several flavors
Who needs firecrackers when you can have a Chinese New Year party in your mouth? Shocking Popping Candy is the Chinese version of Pop Rocks. Carbon dioxide gas is released when the candy dissolves in saliva. The result is a treat that pops and crackles in your mouth. The artificially flavored lychee really tastes like lychee. Other flavors include watermelon, green apple, cola, strawberry and something called Super Sour. Packs of 20 are available for $2 at Mana Market on Hotel Street and other stores in Chinatown. Pop a pack in your mouth and the noise should scare away bad taste demons in the new year. — Craig Gima
Silk outfit features fine detail, lucky items
This adorable silk Mandarin suit is just the kind of outfit a mom needs to celebrate Chinese New Year while the little ones still think it’s cool to wear it. The silk brocade two-piece outfits have beautiful detailing on the cuffs, frog closures and emblems of happiness and good luck. They are $15 at Kimi’s Fashion, Maunakea Marketplace. Look for cheongsam dresses in various colors on an outside rack. — Nina Wu
Pagoda, papers bring good luck to the home
I can’t say that I really love my Five Element pagoda right now, but I may come to love it if I survive the year. According to Chinese astrology and feng shui, people born in the year of the boar, as I am, are subject to death, illness and theft in 2014 from the killing and misfortune stars, and placing this $98 metal object, from Sedona at Ward Centre, in the northwest sector of my home will neutralize the earth source of trouble. Don’t scoff if you’re a rat or ox person; you fall in the same sector, too.
It can’t hurt to have plenty of hui chun, or lucky new year paper, on hand, either. Each sheet bears a message of prosperity, good health or other auspicious benefit. These are available for $2 each at Dragon Gate Bookstore in the Chinatown Cultural Center. — Nadine Kam