6th Annual Hawaii Rice festival

My first time attending the rice fest and it was a blast! There was a good amount of local venders keeping within the theme of rice hence, rice fest:) I was able to get here once they opened at 10am. Being that it was a hot, sunny and beautiful day I needed something tasty and cold. I've always had my eye on aloha pops and that was my first stop. There was two flavors, blue vanilla and strawberry cream with mochi. They are handcrafted and local which is awesome! Love supporting local businesses. The strawberry was delicious and melted in my mouth along with the mochi. I consumed that within a minute. Don't judge it was a hot day lol;). My next stop was the lanakila pacific booth which is a non-profit organization that provides healthy development outcomes for seniors. I was fortunate enough to interview one of the directors for one of my class projects. They were collecting donations of brown rice or suggested donations of 5 bucks. They also incorporated a spin the wheel game with that and I won a lunch bag;) The next stop was at Christine's catering truck where I ordered risotto milanese crab cake with saffron puttanesca. It was delicious, fresh, and flavorful with generous amounts of crab inside. The garlic aioli had the right amount of spice. There was great visual appeal and colors. I ended up being full and seating myself under one of the tarps. There was great entertainment from ukulele super kids! The kids were jamming and playing that instrument with such talent! I would buy one of their CDs if they ever put one out:) The mc for the ricefest was incredibly entertaining and funny. He did a great job in getting the audience engaged and involved during the cooking competitions and games.Also chef mavro created a dish on stage, and was able to provide the public with some samples. I was lucky enough to grab a photo:)Great festival to bring friends and family!! Love how everything was so organized!! Don't forget to stop by lanakila pacific booth and support local business!!

Great event to grab dinner so dont have to cook on a Saturday night. One of the smaller Festivals I been to. Lots of food choices with 98% being food vendors. There was also a tent selling cute rice spoons a great gift and another tent selling tshirts. I liked that most food vendors had sample plates displayed made it quick and easy to order and helped shortened the lines.Entry is free it's on the road at ward so its closed off to thru traffic. Lots of parking all over. I parked at Whole Foods bcuz I planned to go shopping after I ate and browsed the event. Was supposed to meet up a with friends there but got held up at work so I just grabbed some food, ate and left.They do have tables to stand and eat at but it felt like they should have had a few more.The website showed a list of all their vendors.

Date: September 5, 2015Where: Office Depot parking lot on Kamakee StreetReason to go: Eats from Nani Kore Hawaii and music by VaihiThe 6th Annual Hawaii Rice Festival was held at the Office Depot parking lot on Kamakee Street. The event started at 10am and finished at 5pm. Donation of bags of rice to Lanakila Meals on Wheels. Live entertainment, ukulele contest, poke bowl eating contest, and spam musubi eating contest.I arrived after 2:30pm thinking that I missed out listening to Vaihi perform since they were scheduled at 2pm. The first booth I checked into was the Yelp booth @ Rice Fest. Good luck if you can get the ping pong ball in the red or blue cup to win a prize. Somehow my throw was too short and didn't even reach the red or blue cups. I did walk away with a small Yelp button pin.The second and last booth I visited was the Nani Kore Hawaii booth. I've been craving the bacon wrapped mochi since the Eat The Streets: USA event. I ordered 2 of the bacon wrapped mochi drizzled with teri sauce as well as their kim chee fried rice to eat. Yummy yummy for my tummy.I made my way to the tent area where there were tables and chairs set up. Sadly most of the chairs under the tent was taken so I ended up using one of the chairs that was exposed under the hot sun.As soon as I sat down I hear the emcee mention Valhi will be performing next. "What?!?! I thought I missed their performance." I see the group getting on stage and setting up their equipment. As soon as Bruddah Sam sat down on his big ball...I made my way to the stage and greeted him with a kiss on the cheek and a hug. First thing he asked me "Where's mom?" I told him "Mom is at home and I just came from the Okinawan Festival". I greeted Bruddah Aaron with a kiss on the cheek and a hug as well and told him "I thought I missed your guys performance." When Lina Girl from KCCN heard I said Okinawan Festival she asked me "How was the festival?" I told her "was crowded and very hot." Lina then tells me "your name going be easy for remember cuz it rhymes with Lina" LOL. I told her "I used to watch you and Bruddah Sam on Local Kine Grindz".After I did my greetings I made my way back to my chair and started to grind on the kim chee fried rice and bacon wrapped mochi. Onolicious.What a wonderful way to enjoy a Saturday. Live entertainment from Vaihi. Ono grinds from Nani Kore Hawaii. Plus watching the tail end of the spam musubi eating contest.

I enjoyed the festival for my first time experiencing it, unexpectedly. I was in the area. The taiko drums is always a hit in drawing crowds to gather for entertainment as people enjoy the food they have in hand. I was drawn with youth artists featured.The scheduled time of events were not quite on schedule. I believe the location for this event serves it right, for now. It was festive with a variety of food vendors. I am not quite sure if I experienced that it was the Hawaii Rice festival. I will want to attend it next year!

FUN AND AWESOME EVENT, HOLY RICE BALLS OF FIRE! Okay, okay...I'll admit that I was working at the Yelp booth the whole time, but from what I witnessed the event was a HIT! There were a few dishes I tried, Paul's Poppers Pandan sticky rice poppers with Dave's mango ice cream, Shigalicious' shave ice, Poohko Hawaii's Okinawan taco rice, and Megaload Burgers' crab cakes, all of which were amazing!The event was very upbeat and felt that having it from 10-5 was a perfect length of time. The spam musubi eating contest was also very entertaining, and a little nauseating at the same time. I am so excited to see what it's like next year as I have attended this event 2 out of 6 times.

I went to the 8th annual. Great food trucks, entertainment when I got there. The one thing is they should get a bigger venue like over by the medical school. People were practically on top of each other. Good for popularity, but it means they've outgrown their accommodations