‘Blue Balls’ and Cannabis at the Food and New Products Show

On Oct. 18, I went down to the 49th annual Food and New Products Show at the Neal S. Blaisdell Center. I showed up around five just as the doors were opening, and was able to cut in front of about a hundred impatient folks because another staffer (the photographer) had arrived at 4:30 p.m. So I was off to a good start. Admission was $4 for the general public, and free if you brought along a donation for the Hawaiʻi Food Bank. Collectively eight bucks poorer, we walked into the hall.

 

 

The first thing that stood out was the Filipino dessert stall. This is a picture of Halo-Halo.

Think of it as shave ice on steroids. In this cup right here we have purple yam ice cream, flan, evaporated milk, several kinds of preserved beans, and various permutations of preserved coconut. Don’t confuse the purple yam (ube in Filipino) with taro though. One huge cup cost me five dollars. The stall serving this also had various other Filipino pastries.

 

We moved on to an ice cream stall that was serving “Blue Balls Sorbet”. It tasted less like pent-up sexual frustration plus crippling loneliness and more like blueberry shave ice. The pineapple li hing sorbet was great too, and I bought a cup for $3.

Look at this Cannabis energy drink. I was expecting something foul or at least odd, but it just tasted like Red Bull.

There was mango flavored and ‘original‘ flavored, whatever that meant. Both were good.

 

 

At this point in time, I had just run out of money and subsequently had to live off free samples for the rest of the night. We saw this dog. He was the mascot for this particular stall.

This particular stall had some great beef jerky and some other interesting dried stuff, like lotus chips.

 

There were other things besides food, too. I took a little break on this mattress.

In this general area the stalls showcased things like knives, cheap iPhone cases, massage chairs, and non-stick cooking utensils. Others farther down sold roof shingles. One booth advertized waxing services. Thankfully, it wasn’t offering its services right then and there. Various hairy and unpleasant looking characters were creeping up to the booth.

 

This next stall was filled with chocolates, pastries, and Halloween candy. I cursed my empty wallet and the ATM with the $3 service charge silently.

 

Towards the end, there was a stall giving out samples of bread that you could dip in one of many oils and vinegars on display. I tried the truffle oil and the garlic balsamic dip.

 

As we left, we saw a huge line wrapping around a large part of the floor. It pointed to a milkshake stand. There was another huge line next to it leading to a large display of stuff like Pocky, Yan-Yan, and other things that I’m not such a huge fan of. We also passed by all this deep fried Chinese food and some barbecue. Leaving it all behind was a tragedy.