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Kady Pascual

Hawaiʻi Scene on Social

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"That doggo has a good hang paw technique!"}]

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808SurfClips

<title>Hawai‘i Scene on Social: Man’s best friend</title>

Today’s social media find comes from @808SurfClips, with the best tandem partner.

Hawai‘i Scene on Social: Man’s best friend

That doggo has a good hang paw technique!  Make sure you follow @808SurfClipson Instagram! For the latest news of Hawai‘i, sign up here for our free Daily Edition newsletter!

Kelli Shiroma Braiotta Headshot

Kelli Shiroma Braiotta

Food & Dining

Himalayan Kitchen’s Ala Moana Center location has been replaced by a different Indian eatery.

 opened in February in Himalayan Kitchen’s former space at Ala Moana Center (it’s located on the street level, close to Macy’s and Assaggio Hawai

i). While Himalayan Kitchen offered Nepali-Indian cuisine, this new eatery features Pakistani-North Indian cuisine.

We’re told the latter features more grilled meats, while Nepali-Indian food is more curry-based.

The eatery’s layout remains the same; there are a few tables for dine-in service but the business is conducive to takeout.

If some of the menu items sound familiar, it’s because the chef used to work at now-closed Bombay Palace (in Discovery Bay Center). Compared to Bombay Palace, Tandoori Express features a more streamlined menu, focused on the eatery’s most popular dishes since the current space is more conducive to takeout (instead of a more formal dining experience).

Start with appetizers like veg samosas ($5.99 for two), which boast a crispy exterior and soft interior. They’re served with a refreshing mint chutney.

The lunch plates ($12.99-$15.99) are a new option (compared to the former Bombay Palace menu) and feature your choice of two or three curries with a side of rice or naan. This gives customers a chance to try several curries instead of ordering a single curry entree.

Curries range from chicken tikka masala and butter chicken to lamb rogan josh (tender lamb in an aromatic, creamy tomato curry) and paneer Makhani (paneer cubes in a creamy, tomato-based sauce). Although it’s not listed on the menu, palak paneer (cubes of Indian cottage cheese in a creamy spinach curry) is also available. Customers just need to ask for it.

[{"type":"text","text":"Curry entrées ($12.99-$14.99) come with a side of rice."}]

The eatery also features reasonably priced bentos ($10.99 each). Choose from tandoori chicken or tandoori lamb on rice with a side of raita (yogurt sauce). So far, the lamb kebabs have been a customer favorite.

The menu also features a selection of grilled meats — tandoori chicken ($15.99), tandoori shrimp ($15.99) and tandoori lamb kebab ($16.99) — along with naan breads, dinner specials (chicken biryani and chili chicken), and beverages like the popular mango lassi ($5.99).

Open for lunch 10:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., dinner 4:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. Wednesdays to Mondays (closed on Tuesdays)

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Tandoori Express lunch spread 031726

<title>Tandoori Express is now open in Ala Moana Center</title>

The eatery is located in the former space of Himalayan Kitchen. It specializes in Pakistani-North Indian cuisine, and serves up dishes that were popular at the now-closed Bombay Palace.

Tandoori Express is now open in Ala Moana Center

Stephanie Salmons Headshot

Stephanie Salmons

Government & Politics

Forecasters from the National Weather Service in Honolulu are predicting more rain across the Islands this week.

Although "mostly dry and pleasant" trade wind weather will continue Monday — albeit with brief passing showers favoring windward and mauka areas — the 

 a "significant pattern change is then expected by Tuesday as an upper disturbance and surface low pressure evolve northwest of the Islands."

"This system is expected to draw deep tropical moisture northward over the state, leading to an extended period of southerly winds, increased chances for widespread rainfall and renewed flooding concerns from from the middle of the week through the weekend."

Some possible "enhanced" showers could reach Kaua‘i by late Monday and there's a slight chance of thunder for Hawai‘i Island Tuesday afternoon, the NWS notes.

Find seven-day forecasts for areas across the state 

 published Monday morning, the NWS said now is a good time to prepare for possible flooding impacts:

"Residents living near stream, rivers, gulches, valleys, ravines and flood-prone areas should remain especially alert and prepared to move to higher ground if flash flooding develops," the outlook notes.

The possibility of more rain and flooding comes just weeks after back-to-back Kona Low storm systems brought heavy rains to the Islands that triggered flooding and power outages, prompted evacuations and caused damage.

 that the two storm systems, which brought 30 to 60 inches of rainfall to some areas and led to the worst flooding in Hawai‘i in more than two decades, caused around $2 billion in damages and economic loss. The preliminary estimate accounts for damage to homes, businesses and infrastructure, as well as tourism losses, agricultural impacts, and emergency response and recovery operation costs across O‘ahu, Maui and Hawai‘i Island, AccuWeather notes.

Recent data from the University of Hawai‘i's Hawai‘i at Mānoa shows that more than 

 of water, enough to fill 3 million Olympic-sized swimming pools, inundated the Islands last month.

The March storms caused the indefinite closure of 

Downtown honolulu 040626

<title>More rain expected this week</title>

The possibility of more rainfall comes weeks after back-to-back Kona Low storm systems brought significant rains in March that triggered flooding and power outages, prompted evacuations and caused damage across the Islands.

More rain expected this week

Kelsey Kukaua Medeiros Headshot

Kelsey Kukaua Medeiros

Aloha Spirit

 is bringing hope and life-giving aid to Oʻahu residents impacted by this flooding disaster.

This isn’t the first time the faith-based, global humanitarian organization headquartered in Springfield, Missouri, has provided relief services to Hawaiʻi. Vice President of Public Engagement and National Spokesperson Ethan Forhetz told Aloha State Daily that the nonprofit spent a year helping West Maui recover and rebuild after the Lahaina wildfires in 2023.

“We are blessed to be able to give back to Hawaiʻi and help following yet another disaster there,” Forhetz said. “Every disaster is different, so it is based on the needs at the moment and what we foresee the needs will be.

“Now that the flash flooding has receded in large part, it’s the cleanup, so we will continue to deliver supplies, and our team members will be there as long as there’s a need for them there. We are also ready and willing to respond on other islands, if needed."

Forhetz, a former TV news anchor, joined Convoy of Hope five years ago to “be part of the solution,” he said, adding that so far, it’s been a good fit for him.

He said he was last on Maui in 2021 and has traveled to disaster scenes across the world with the organization, which last year responded to 92 disasters globally.

He added: "But the things that we see, a lot of times we see people on one of the worst days of their lives. They've lost their home, or their loved one. They've lost their livelihoods and it can be a dark time. Then, they're so grateful – they're blown away – by the fact other people know what they're going through and have come so far to help."

Convoy of Hope has partners across the Islands, including local churches, businesses, government and more. 

“Every time I get to meet a recipient of what we’re giving out following some sort of disaster, it makes me proud of the work I get to do in this organization with our partners and donors, he continued. “We couldn’t do it by ourselves. It really takes a group working together cooperatively to make a difference in other people’s lives.”

He noted that for this disaster, dozens of volunteers are assisting its “team of specialized disaster volunteers who train and travel.”

Forhetz said that Walmart and Home Depot have both been generous with in-kind donations.

“Walmart is committed to its continued support for our associates and the residents of Hawaiʻi,” according to a recent statement from the company. “Through strategic coordination with Convoy of Hope, Feeding America, and other partners on the ground, our local Walmart stores are helping make sure water and essential supplies reach affected areas quickly.”

The Walmart Foundation has also committed $250,000 in grants to 

 to support disaster relief and long-term recovery.

Additional items are being shipped, according to Forhetz, and are scheduled to arrive next week.

“I would say the biggest thing we see there on the Islands is this very, very strong culture and community of people wanting to get involved and help their neighbor. They come together to do the work.”

When asked how faith comes into play for Convoy of Hope, Forhetz told Aloha State Daily, “Our faith is the reason we do what we do.”

“We don’t require anybody else to be the same faith to receive help from us, but our faith is what drives us to help our neighbor in need, to see someone without hope and try to give them hope. Weʻre trying to give people hope that tomorrow’s going to be a better day.”

Convoy of Hope is primarily funded by corporations, churches and individuals, he said, adding that “more than 90 cents of every dollar donated goes where the donor wants it to go.”

Forbes' list of America's Top 100 Charities

the global nonprofit generated $95 million in total revenues in 2024. 

Besides crisis relief and meal support, its other programs include teaching people agricultural practices and empowering women to generate income.

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Convoy of Hope flood relief

<title>Faith-based nonprofit aims to bring hope amid disaster</title>

Convoy of Hope, a global humanitarian and disaster relief organization headquartered in Springfield, Missouri, continues to provide food, supplies and services to residents on Oʻahu in response to recent flooding.

Faith-based nonprofit aims to bring hope amid disaster

Katie Helland Headshot

Katie Helland

Arts & Entertainment

The Merrie Monarch Festival returns for its 63rd annual event this year from Sunday, April 5, through Saturday, April 11. The invite-only hula competition takes place at the Edith Kanakaʻole Multi-Purpose Stadium in Hilo.

Tickets to see the festival in person this year are sold out, but you can watch the live stream from Hawaiʻi News Now 

. It will be broadcasted in ‘Ōlelo Hawaiʻi and English. Check the Merrie Monarch website for the 

The Merrie Monarch Festival consists of three days of hula competitions: Miss Aloha Hula on Thursday, April 9; Group Hula Kahiko on Friday, April 10; and Group Hula ʻAuana on Saturday, April 11. There is also an invitational Hawaiian arts fair, along with hula shows and a grand parade. On the final day of competition, an overall winner is named. There are also winners for kāne overall, wahine overall, wahine kahiko, wahine ʻauana, kāne kahiko, kāne ʻauana and more.

 who passed away in January at age 79. She was youngest daughter of Edith Kanakaʻole, the founder of Hālau o Kekuhi and for whom the 

 in 1985 with her husband, Sig Zane. Their son, Kūhaʻoʻīmaikalani Zane, was recently named chief executive officer of the business.

In 2025, the overall winner was Hula Hālau ʻO Kamuela, led by Nā Kumu Hula Kunewa Mook & Kau‘ionālani Kamana‘o, which also took first place in wahine overall and wahine kahiko, as well as second place in wahine ʻauana.

Hālau Nā Kamalei O Līlīlehua, led by Kumu Robert Uluwehionāpuaikawēkiuokalani Cazimero took first place in kāne overall and kāne ʻauana, plus third place overall. Jaedyn Janae Puahaulani Pavao 

was named Miss Aloha Hula 2025. She represents

 Hālau Ka Lei Mokihana o Leināʻala, led by 

Kumu Leināʻala Pavao Jardin, who died in October

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"This year, participating hālau include:"}]

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":" The Miss Aloha Hula participants are:"}]

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":" The judges are:"}]

Edith Kanakaʻole Multi-Purpose Stadium

<title>How to watch Merrie Monarch</title>

The Merrie Monarch Festival returns this year with hula competitions from Thursday, April 9, through Saturday, April 11. Activities and events for the weeklong festival also include an invitational Hawaiian arts fair, along with hula shows and a grand parade.

How to watch Merrie Monarch

Higa headshot white shirt square

Sterling Higa

Columnists

Stand-up comedian Tumua is doing crowd work somewhere on the Mainland, and 

 from the audience. The guy is from Kauaʻi, not born and raised, but “flown there, grown there.” He hasn’t lived there in nine years. While Tumua works the crowd, the guy shouts “chee hoo.” Tumua says, “That’s a solid chee hoo, man.” He does it again. Tumua has to shush him.

It’s a small moment, and Tumua plays it off with dry affection. The guy is playing out what he remembers of a place he left nine years ago. Much of the crowd never lived there at all.

Frank De Lima didn’t have that problem performing locally. Most of his audience hadn’t left. They were in the room — sharing the same plate lunch memories, cringing at the same accents, laughing because every joke was an inside joke. This wasn’t an introduction to local culture. It was a reminder, a celebration, even a reinforcement.

The plantation village was a truly different kind of place — shared land, shared labor, ethnic groups pressed close together with no way out. Filipinos, Japanese, Chinese, Portuguese, and Hawaiians were all crowded into the same neighborhoods and schools. What came out of it — the food, the humor, the pidgin — came from people who couldn’t opt out of each other.

Even as that world was dissolving, people reached back for its symbols. By 1978, a political movement called Palaka Power had taken the plantation worker’s cloth as its name — a clear link to the past. The Palaka Power 

 said so plainly. The writers also noted, in the same breath: the ILWU was declining, sugar and pine would soon be gone, the Democrats of the ‘54 Revolution had mostly left the arena. They chose the symbol precisely because the reality was already receding. The myth was always partly constructed. But it was backed, then, by people who had actually 

The built world that replaced the plantation village included public housing, suburbs, and apartments. The Mainland has all of those. And then came radio, television, the internet, smartphones, and eventually TikTok.

Stand in the Sandy Beach parking lot on a Saturday. A kid near the lifeguard stand is hitting a vape and dancing to a song trending in Atlanta. The shaka sticker on the bumper is working harder than it used to. But social media didn’t cause any of this. It arrived to find the flattening of culture mostly finished and has been tracking it ever since.

The audience for local content skews diaspora: Aunties in Vallejo, Kalihi kids now in Las Vegas, people holding onto something they can’t quite name.

Nostalgia is real. But it runs in one direction. You can package a memory and ship it to Fresno. What you can’t do is put it back. A friend put it plainly: are we our own cover band?

Distinct cultures are not accidents. They grow from particular people living side by side. The plantation village wasn’t a brand. It was a neighborhood. The shaka sticker can travel, but the neighborhood can’t. Something real is lost when a place becomes content.

. He’s reaching for something he actually had, once. What is it, exactly? The memory of a place, a people. The kind of memory that swells within and erupts in shouts — or tears. It’s the memory that many hold of Hawai‘i, even those who visited only for a week.

Nostalgia can become sinful when we deceive ourselves. It’s easy to romanticize farm labor from the comfort of air-conditioned offices, but the plantations were not a paradise. And neither is Hawai‘i. The past is worth a visit, but no place to make a home. 

That’s a solid chee hoo, man — but once is enough. Shush.

Pineapple Plantation housing 16x9 Large

<title>What's in a chee hoo?</title>

Generations removed from the plantation era that forged it, local culture is in danger of becoming a nostalgia-fueled performance of itself, writes ASD columnist Sterling Higa.

What's in a chee hoo?

At the Otake Store, it was dark yesterday morning. There still was no power.

And Wendell Toki, who lost almost everything in the recent Kona Low storms, was keeping track of one generator, which was being loaned out to run electric power tools that are helping families rebuild.

By about 12:30 p.m., the lights were finally back on in the store and a few residences, he told Aloha State Daily by phone Tuesday.

His house, which is part of Otake Camp, located off Farrington Highway in Waialua, is now in demolition condition. He also lost mamaki and plants he uses for food and medicine, plus 180 chickens in the flood.  

On Monday, March 30, the sun was shining. Birds were chirping. Toki was standing in dried mud explaining how a green house slid parallel to the Kaukonahua Stream, past other residences and straight into homes that now sit vacant.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"A muddy puzzle"}]

There are plans to rebuild, but the houses sit abandoned. Doors open. Inside, the floors hold mud thick with things: plastic bottles, a shoe here, a puzzle there.

The mud surrounds a chair in the middle of one of the rooms. It preserves handprints on the walls.

The community needs generators, lumber and food for workers, Toki said. He pauses at the front of the door of the house closest to the stream. Parts of the wall are missing, creating windows to the brown water below.

A nearby house has a desk covered in mud. It holds bright crayons, markers and paper flowers, and something there is not much of: color.

In the house next door, there bright puzzles on the wall. One — a pink and yellow jaguar — is peeling. Where the water was, the design is gone and only cardboard remains.

[{"type":"text","text":"Many, including Toki, don’t have flood insurance."}]

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"A birthday to forget"}]

Down the road, the military is helping farmers like Thy Cavan, who had about two acres of green papayas and bananas, and lost nearly everything in the flood.

Cavan remembers the day the storm hit because it was his birthday: Friday, March 20. The day he lost two cars, his home and the entire papaya crop.

[{"type":"text","text":"“Lost almost everything,” he said. “Some bananas survived.”"}]

National Guard were deployed alongside the Navy

 to remove flood debris from Waialua. They helped Cavan shovel mud out of his house.

He stands next to a mud-covered blue tractor. It was a total loss. So was his generator. And his cell phone.

With a cigarette in hand, he pointed to a spot on a wood beam, which supports the roof over his tractor, to share how high the water got.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"“About right here,” he said."}]

The line is above the steering wheel. It is higher than his shoulders.

It is also visible on the side of the house, where muddy water got nearly to the roof. When it receded, it left tracks on the top of the tractor, like a dried up mud flat.

Cavan realized he could not stay and went to the main road, where a rescue group picked him up. Now, he is staying with friends, and gets to his farm by walking or getting dropped off.

Without a car, he can’t travel easily. Two days ago, he started a 

. His top priorities are fixing the tractor and getting back wheels.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"A new start "}]

Back up the road, near the Otake Store, Toki points to the space upstairs where he will live while he puts together a new life. Toki also has a 

, which was set up by Nicole Correa, his hānai niece.

 and is imagining a shipping container as a home, with a deck built by a neighbor.

“I'm hardly home anyway,” he said. “Only sleep there, and then the rest of the days I'm working.”

Outside, the birds are still chirping. The sun beats down and Toki is reflecting on how to help farmers.

“They need local support,” he said. “More local support.”

Otake Camp

<title>What’s next for Otake Camp?</title>

Some residents of Otake Camp are still in the dark. Farmers lost crops. Families lost homes. And everywhere, the mud prevails. They are seeking generators, lumber and funds to restart.

Hawai‘i Scene on Social: Man’s best friend

Kady Pascual

Social Media Editor

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Hawai‘i Scene on Social: Man’s best friend

Authors

Kady Pascual

Social Media Editor

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