Category: Updates

You are what you eat. Sometimes.

Recently, I had a yummy dinner the likes of which I haven’t had for perhaps 50 years.

It was fried aku bones.

Yep, many families used to dine on aku bones when available. No, you don’t eat the skeletal remains, but you’d nibble on the flesh of the bones of fish, which were seasoned with salt and pepper and served as a casual meal.

You were able to buy uncooked aku bones at your neighborhood market; if it sold aku filet, it would have had the aku bones – remnants of the fish – the home chefs would buy and then serve. Ono stuff.

But I don’t know how long ago that markets pulled the plug on aku bones. After all, it’s supposed to be a discarded item. If they’re still sold, it must be a regional secret.

But my nephew, who was on a mission to purchase aku filets at Tamashiro Market in Palama, noticed the availability of aku bones. He managed to score enough and save some for me.

These bones were simply wrapped up in a market’s pink paper, and given to regular customers. I mean, come on, you can’t buy/sell steak bones, so why can you sell aku bones?

Folks of a certain vintage will remember aku bones. You’d have to grab the bones with your fingers cuz you couldn’t use a knife and fork to cut the flesh off the fish, since there wasn’t much on the bone. Yet if you had two or three of these critters, you had a meal in the old days.

After salt and peppering – you could add a dash of garlic – you simply fried till it was koge – blackened or  charred – and  some folks deep-fried the aku bones. White rice wouldn’t have been the only other component you’d  need to have a feast.  Since the bone would be a hand-held item, a musubi would have been the perfect partner.

Then you’d suck away, till every morsel of the aku flesh would be slurped and consumed. But eating the aku bones required some skill and caution, because the bones were sharp and subject to poke and wound you. So you’d have to learn to use your tongue to navigate. Honest!

This all might sound gross and disgusting, but if you have elders in your household, ask ‘em about aku bones. It was an incredible edible, only consumed at home. You’d never  serve it to guests at your dinner table and you’re never find it on a restaurant menu. But if you remember and treasured aku bones, you’d never forget ‘em.

So: If you’re a fan of fried aku bones, share your memories here.

Except for a couple of last-minute additions to my mailing list, most of the 2026 Valentine’s pins are en route to recepiens.

In fact, more than 75 per cent already have received their pins by now.

Monday’s deliveries should reach others.

The motifs widely feature hearts, the essence of Valentine’s, and red and pink dominate the palette.

These are among the designs this season,

Bruno Mars, perhaps the most revered native son icon on the planet now, will go global with his mammoth tour beginning April 10 at the Allegient Stadium in Las Vegas. Tickets went on sale Jan. 14 at GoTickets.com but are also available at other ticketing agencies.

The tour supports Mars’ new “The Romantic” album, due to be released by Atlantic on Feb. 27. The first single, “I Just Might,”  dropped a few days ago, and already is charted as a bona fide hit.

For Hawaii fans, catching Mars means fetching tickets for one of his playdates, which run from spring to fall, elsewhere. FYI, several cities already have added new playdates because of brisk,  healthy sales.

Some data worth sharing:

* The Romantic Tour broke records for the largest single-day ticket sales in Live Nation history throughout North America, Europe and the UK.

* Ticketmaster logged 2.1 million tickets in a single sales day.

* Mars’ first-ever stadium sked now spans more than 70 shows, a decade after his record-breaking 24K Magic World Tour nearly a decade ago.

In plain talk, Mars is a hottie, with shows scheduled between June 2026 and July 2027.  But obviously, Mars can’t concertize in the Islands since the Aloha Stadium is closed for renovations, and there’s no viable venue unless you consider outside-of-the-box locations like Diamond Head Crater, Kualoa Ranch, or the plains at Schofield Barracks, which would mean impossible challenges like a lack of infrastructure or parking or security measures. But wouldn’t this make for an indisputably spectacular TV special after the fact? Just daydreaming.

His tours will be on hiatus during the holiday season, since he has a Christmas-New Year’s residency to fill at Dolby Live at Park MGM, Las Vegas.

“The Romantic” is the Hawaii-born superstar’s fourth album  and the first in nearly a decade.

Mars is a familiar figure in Billboard Charts and the Grammy Awards since he became a household name. His trademark retro-inspired rhythm ‘n’ blues sound, elevated with a pop punch thanks to the versatility of his group, the Hooligans, includes the likes of “Just the Way You Are,” “Uptown Funk, “When I Was Your Man,” “Locked Out of Heaven,” “24K Magic,” “Treasure,” and “Marry You.” He just might slip in “I Just Might,” natch.

In the 2018 Grammy Awards, Mars won 16 trophies, in a major sweep of seven awards, and additional wins with Silk Sonic, and  his 2024 collaboration with Lady Gaga on “Die With a Smile,” was reflective of his versatility and fluidity in partnering with landmark peers. In the 2026 Grammy Awards on Feb. 1, he is nominated for for his collaboration with Rosé on the song “APT.,” for Record of the Year, Song of the Year, and Best Pop Duo/Group Performance. And betcha he wins big time, too,..

And that’s Show Biz…