musubi snacks and moonwalks

Before I left for Fall Break in Las Vegas, I visited groupon to see what deals I might want. That was a great idea! I found out about the 8th Annual Pure Aloha Fall Festival and Concerts at the Rio! I found out abour the MJ LIve: Michael Jackson Tribute Show at the Rio! And I was able to coordinate the two events for one grand day and evening on this sunny Sunday in October. Sweet!!!
I knew today would be the final day for the Pure Aloha Festival, so I had thought things might be winding down, some of the vendors gone, perhaps no more stage events. Wrong, wrong, and wrong! True, I had arrived fairly early - hey, my "$8 for two tickets" voucher said 11 AM as the start time and I had arrived about 11:15. Still, this IS Las Vegas, home of nocturnal creatures. The entertainment hadn't yet begun, but the merchandisers and food vendors were already displaying their wares.

First up was this SPAM concoction. I had already made the outer circuit of vendors and was cruising the inner lines when the word "SPAM" leapt out at me. Kama'aina Kravings' menu listed several variations of musubi and when I asked the young woman behind the register about them, she described them as "Hawaiian comfort food". Good enough for me! At $5 for two, I decided I could eat one there and save the other for later.
I opted to NOT get the deep-fried version. As it was, the musubi was roughly palm-sized, with a thick block of white rice and healthy seaweed paper. And you know what? It was quite tasty! The fishy taste of the seaweed combined surprisingly well with the hammy taste of the meat. I can certainly understand why it's called comfort food!

For my main entree, I ventured back to a booth that billed itself as healthy food, but...seriously? If you offer barbequed pork and grilled sausage, that isn't quite healthy, is it? No. But it was tasty! Also, as you can see, they offer heapin' helpin's of food for only $8. They even let me split the meat portion into half chicken and half sausage and didn't charge extra. Nice! My favorite part of this meal, though, was the Hawaiian corn. The man said it was his grandma's recipe and that she liked to have it for dessert. Corn kernels with shredded coconut and some coconut milk, that's all it was. Delicious, too, especially with the spicy sausage!
While dining, I spoke to several visitors at the table. Like me, most happened to be in Las Vegas and had stumbled upon the festival, but some regular attendees were there, too. After all, where else will they eat island food in this landlocked part of the world? I even had some Portuguese doughnuts (malasadas) later from the Hula Halua Kaleo O'Kalani booth - a baker's half-dozen! (They were good as not-too-sweet desserts for my next few meals in that neon-bedecked town.)

Seven drummers had been entertaining all of us as we ate beneath the canopied tables. Then, at 1 PM, the dancing began! The Hupa Hula Overall Competition began, with the winners from the previous three days now dancing for the grand title. Most of the dancers were women, some teenaged, some in their twenties and thirties, and one each in the categories of forty and over-fifty year old. Believe me, those older women certainly had the moves!
But what I liked best were the male dancers. Shake it, shake it, baby, aahhh, shake it, shake it... Ah, pardon my drool, but if you had been there, you would know exactly what I mean. Just in case, the photo above is of one of those young men. Very nice!
Next up was a six- (or was that seven-)man band called Mele Ka Mana. Some of the songs were definitely danceable, some seemed to be ballads, most were not in English. A group of dancers happened upon the scene during the last few songs and that was very entertaining.
But I was starting to flag. The morning sun had taken its toll on my energy level, so I decided to catch the free shuttle back to Bally's on The Strip. Maybe I would take a nap, maybe not, but I would definitely get out of the sun for a while.
I didn't take a nap, but I did take a cool shower and that revived me. Plus, I ate my other musubi and one of the malasadas and that recharged my energy levels. Back up the road to Bally's I walked, making it there just in time to take the last seat on the shuttle - whew! There are distinct advantages to traveling solo and this was definitely one of them. Most groups didn't want to be split up, so singles could usually get lone seats as the vehicle filled up. Yeah, me!

I made it to Rio just in time to get in line for the show...which meant almost ninety minutes before the doors would open. Whoa. I had not expected that. Good thing I had already exchanged my groupon voucher for my ticket, as that line was already long, too.
The show was very good. If I had not already seen the Meat Loaf event, I may have enjoyed it more. And if there had not been a microphone/mixer issue during the first song, that would have helped, too. But by the third song, I was suspending disbelief and was dancing in my seat to Thriller, Billie Jean, Black and White - oh, yeah! Then he started doing some of the old Jackson 5 numbers and I was loving it! By the time all was sung and danced, I'd had a great time.

By 9:30 that night, I was on the shuttle (last single seat again!) back to my side of Sin City. I had promised myself that I would venture to Twin Peaks to check out their venison chili and bread pudding. I had noticed those two items on their menu a couple of days earlier and was intrigued. First of all: venison chili? Oh, really? And we all know how crazy I am about bread pudding, don't we?
So, as it was on my way "home" to Polo Towers, it was a natural to stop by. I had one of the best waitresses ever. Attentive, friendly, helpful... and she wrote such nice things on my receipt! The food was very good, too, and I look forward to having the bread pudding in the morning for breakfast.
I gave her the ice cream.