Blending for Dollars.

It's about time i told you about my new job! I work at a smoothie shop called Jewel or Juice. we make smoothies (duh) and Acai bowls. we have about 35 different smoothies, some healthier than others. Some flavors and a lot of unprocessed fruit in them, but others are mainly frozen yogurt and various flavorings.

The Acai bowls however are pretty darn special. I had never heard of an "acai bowl" before coming to Hawaii. i'd heard of acai because of it's new popularity as a "superfood" and the store i worked at sold it in frozen packs. it is a berry from the Amazon, it is small and dark bluish purple like a blueberry, but with a large seed inside.
our company website explains this: http://www.jewelorjuice.com/

and it is touted as having a ton of antioxidants and vitamins and amino acids and all that good stuff. in brazil the fruit of the acai is blended with apple juice and served with toppings. our basic blend has acai, banana, apple juice, and strawberry. (everything but the juice it prefrozen) it all blends in to a purple, creamy mixture that we top with banana, granola, fresh strawberries, blueberry , honey... it's pretty yummy!


other than the granola you are basically eating a bowl of condensed fruit and it is very filling. (our local competator adds ice to thin their mixture and then changes more for it. boo!)

many customers like to eat a bowl for lunch. some claim to feel more energized. :) i liken the taste of the blend to blackberries with less tartness. so when you add the sweet honey and crunchy granola, i suppose it's a bit like a frozen berry pie!

we have a few variations on the acai blend, including acerola, which is a whole different thing i could just explain in another post.

anway i am enjoying my job and the time goes by faster when we have more customers, so come in and have a treat!

the banana that is an apple

i have seen a few variations of bananas before.. plantains, fingerlings, red bananas (which i havent tried) but i hadn't heard of apple bananas until i moved to Hawai'i.

i actually saw them in the safeway first, and then a housemate brought home a huge bunch of short, green bananas.

he is a pest exterminator and a client gave these to him. i think they were having trouble with ants infesting the banana tree. anyway, he hung the to ripen outside.




these are apple bananas, also known as silk bananas, candy apple bananas, and latundan bananas.
their wiki page:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latundan_Banana

these were my observations: they are about half the length of the banana we are used to seeing, have a thinner peel. the smell i thought was a little "green and grassy" smelled like it wasn't ripe yet. but it obviously was.


although this website says i should have waited until the peel was black: http://www.specialtyproduce.com/index.php?item=2050

the taste was yummy. sweeten than other bananas. almost like it was banana candy flavored. :D but it was over in about 3 bites, so you'd better have two.


they have their own website! http://www.applebananas.com/ and claims they have "3 times more Vitamin C and 1-1/2 times more Vitamin A than your regular banana varietes" also they charge 40 bucks to deliver 10 bananas?! holy crap! so i guess the bunch our friend has is worth like $150. although i think that website is making up some scarcity inflation something. next time they are at safeway, i'll check on the price, but i think it was closer to $4 a pound, not 12.

i still don't quite get the "apple" connection, but apple bananas are delicious.

message from the rock!

I can't believe it's taken me so long to write this first post from my new home. The time just flies by and it's been almost 3 weeks here already. i actually didn't have a computer for about a week or so.

but anyway!i havent been too good about the diet yet. i have been eating pineapple and bananas and apples and grapes. sometimes i have steel cut oats for breakfast. no cooking, no blending, not even milk! i just soak them over night, drain off the water and add in a little peanut butter, agave, and dried date pieces. (or banana and some coconut butter!)




I did manage to bring coconut butter in my luggage. on the first day here we toured the town and i went to the natural foods stores. i bought some mung beans to sprout. here they are in a cup from my flight on delta airlines :)



one problem is i dont live very close to the health food stores. at safeway they have pineapple and papaya for pretty cheap but other wise there isn't a lot of local produce :(
i was really hoping for avocados, but they are 2 bucks each and from mexico. hopefully if i find a farmers market i will have better choices.

i miss not having the dehydrator to make some things.

it's hard not to just eat the things that my boyfriend eats, namely wheat and beans and variations on that theme.

what i like best about being here is the warm, beautiful water, the amazing plants, and the birds and lizards everywhere. actually i have the front door open and a dove just poked its head in to look at me.

i'm still looking for work. i have interviewed at a smoothie bar. and they have something here in hawaii that i've never seen before, and acai bowl. like they pound the acai berries and add yougurt and other fruit. i haven't had one yet but it sounds very good for you. my friend sue tried one while she was in honolulu and said she could eat one every day.

more coming soon i promise. for now a beach picture: