Mo’ili’ili
You would be mistaken if you thought that the happiest place on earth is somewhere over the rainbow on Waikiki. It’s actually located two miles north in Mo’ili’ili at a Burmese restaurant, a five minute walk from the Japanese Cultural Center past the Shinto shrine ⛩ flanked by Burger King and Jiffy Lube.
The happiest place appeared every two months after dance class at the JCC. You would be lucky to be invited as one of the dozen. I was.
The first time I brought a good bottle of wine to make sure I was being sensible and proper. I was greeted with big hugs and loud laughter. There was no “what do you do?” or “where do you live?” There were only “do you wanna play???!!!” like a five year old asking a new five year old on the playground. My shoulders relaxed two minutes into the first encounter and my belly hurt with laughter all night.
Butoh (舞踏)
The dinner was with a butoh* dance group. Butoh is a Japanese post war dance movement known to "resist fixity" and difficult to define. It is unlike any dance I’ve seen. ‘Seems more like child’s play than a dance,’ I thought.
To give you some idea, Jenny was told to dance butoh by following the instructions below.
‘… imagine a feather in your hair growing all the way up the moon. Bend your body with the feather all the way forward to reach the other side of the earth to catch a drop of water, then bring it back up and bend backwards to wrap around the earth again to drop the water to its original place.’
The dance is mind-bending, literally.
Indelible dinner
I celebrated my birthday with the butoh group at the Burmese restaurant in February. It didn’t matter that my birthday was over a month away. What mattered was that we drank wine, enjoyed the food, laughed a lot, and celebrated together. All thirteen of us.
I have no recollection of what we ate, but it was an indelible dinner nonetheless. I know we giggled and sang like children. Mostly 80’s pop remembering only half the lyrics. We made strange faces, sometimes stuffing our mouths with our fists. Yes, two of us could actually pull this off! We made silly movements. We hugged. We touched. We kissed. We ate. We danced. We were so happy.
We eat 3 meals a day, 21 a week, 90 a month, 1,000 a year, 10,000 meals a decade, and roughly 100,000 meals in a lifetime.
But only a handful are memorable.
Sensei
Lori was quiet. Reticent. She smiled and answered questions with a gentle voice. Jenny told me she was the sensei (先生). The leader. The organizer. I didn’t really notice her per se at dinner. I was having too much fun. Too much fun playing. Too much fun laughing.
Perhaps it was just a sign of her quiet charisma letting us be our bigger selves around her.
At home Jenny showed me the hand painted postcards Lori sent her each year. So beautiful, thoughtful yet shy paintings.
“Lori died…” Jenny told me a couple of days ago in September, tears rolling down her cheeks.
“…oh my god, oh my god, oh my god, …” I repeated longer than the saddest song.
A text message thread was created. Memories, photos and videos were posted. Grief was shared. Looking at the smiles in the pictures from the Burmese restaurant it hit me that Lori would no longer be with us for dinner.
I was looking at the photo of our last supper.
Without a sensei the dance group would no longer exist. We will remain friends. But I doubt the magical dinners at the Burmese restaurant in Mo’ili’ili will be the same.
Our last supper
About 2,000 years ago thirteen people sat at a table to eat.
In Leonardo da Vinci’s depiction of the meal they ate eel(!), orange, bread, and red wine. No one had a fork or spoon.
I don’t think they were there for the food or service.
They came for the company, or whatever thought, emotion, or desire that led them there. They would find out that he would no longer be with them. This would be the last supper with him.
In his painting, Leonardo holds the twelve discordant loquacious figures together with one central reticent figure. His perfect composition falls apart as soon as the central figure is too animated or too muted.
Lori understood Leonardo’s composition.
Perhaps our last supper in Mo’ili’ili was Lori’s perfectly choreographed butoh.
Twelve unique incongruous figures dancing in a flawless composition of shared happiness. Lori’s seated figure neither too animated nor too muted, resisting fixity.
Method
Sometimes the cooking method, not the ingredients, define a dish.
Like butoh, electric blenders are a mid twenty century invention. Both are relatively new and unconventional methods. With a high powered blender everything is blended into tiny particles emulsified into a delicious singularity. If you don’t have a blender you can’t make this dish, much like you can’t dance butoh without Lori.
The blender is highly present in the process, but absent as an ingredient. Much like Lori in her perfectly choreographed dance.
I thought of unique figures/ingredients blended into one delicious cool dish that goes well with the tropical weather of Hawaii. The giant local Hawaiian avocado, Portuguese influenced Hawaiian sweet rolls with a touch of pineapple flavor, Shishito peppers from Don Quijote (Japanese supermarket in Honolulu), Serrano peppers from the hot Mexican sun, extra virgin olive oil from Italy, Hawaiian sea salt from the pacific, and some cold ice cubes to cool things down.
Here is how to make Lori’s Moiliili Gazpacho.
ingredients (Moiliili Gazpacho)
Giant Hawaiian Avocado ….. 1 lb (or three large Haas avocados)
Japanese Cucumber ….. 1
Shishito Japanese peppers ….. 8 pods
Green bell pepper ….. 1 medium
Serrano pepper ….. 1/2 small
Hawaiian sweet roll ….. 1 roll
Garlic ….. 1 - 3 cloves
Extra virgin olive oil ….. 4 tbs (1/4 cup)
Lime juice or Rice wine vinegar ….. 2 tbs
Hawaiian sea salt ….. to taste.
Dill ….. to garnish
Ice ….. 5 cubes
Instructions
We are NOT heating any ingredients in this dish. We are taking advantage of the freshness of each ingredient.
The goal is to taste ALL the ingredients in one mouthful.
Add all of the following ingredients to your blender.
Get a decent blender. Vitamix and Blendtec are good. Do not use a food processor for this dish. You need the blunt force of a high powered blender for this dish.
If you live in Hawaii, get the big giant local avocados! Make sure they are ripe. For the rest of the world, get the large Haas avocados and halve and pit. Scoop out the flesh with a spoon.
Use soft ripe avocados! You can blend the hard ones, but they DON’T taste the same.
Cucumber is 90% water.
Think of cucumber as crunchy flavored ice that doesn’t melt.
Reserve a 1/2 cup of diced cucumbers for garnish. The crunchy cucumber will elevate the smooth texture of the liquid.
Shishito Japanese pepper is a small green mostly mild pepper.
About one out of every eight peppers is spicy.
Keep a small one for garnish.
Green bell pepper is a sweet pepper.
Get rid of the seed and core. Have some diced for garnish.
Serrano peppers are super spicy.
Use 1/2 of a pepper to give the dish a kick. You don’t want to over power the dish.
No need to use a fresh loaf of bread. Rip into smaller bits.
Bread acts as a thickener. Add more for thickness. Use Hawaiian rolls for the extra sweetness and because it is Hawaiian!
The first garlic clove is an emulsifier. You will not taste it so much.
The additional cloves are for those who love to taste it (and smell it).
Use the good olive oil. Use a lot.
We are going for richness of flavor with the olive oil. Fat is flavor!
Vinegar is a flavor enhancer.
Use your favorite kind or whatever kind you have.
Add some ice
A powerful blender will heat up the ingredients quickly.
Since we don’t want to cook the ingredients I like to put cubes of ice into the blender.
Blend!
Blend 2-3 minutes until smooth.
You can pour though a sieve if you want super smooth results.
Serve Chilled.
Garnish with dice of ingredients used and dill!
Drizzle some olive oil when serving.
I imagine this dish served in twelve different plates, a singularity of taste in multiple forms.
Blender
For gazpacho the blender is the key. With a good blender you just have to add a bunch of fresh plants!!!
Here are my ingredients for a tomato and cucumber gazpacho.
Tomato ….. 1 lb
Cucumber ….. 1/2 large
Cubanelle (or Anaheim) pepper ….. 1 large
Red bell pepper ….. 1 medium
Bread ….. 2 slice
Garlic ….. 3 cloves
Olive oil ….. 4 tbs (1/4 cup)
Vinegar ….. 2 tbs
Salt ….. to taste.
Maple syrup ….. to taste.
Ice ….. 5 cubes
Cilantro ….. to garnish
What an incredible tribute to our lovely sister-in-law Lori Ohtani!!! This was so beautifully and creatively written in her honor, and we are amazed and grateful to you. Jeanne & Carter Mills
Beautiful Eliot, thank you for commemorating. You captured Lori's spirit and style in this.