Food Challenges

Living in a humid and culturally diverse area has created challenges to us when it comes to cooking and shopping for food. Shortly after we moved here I wanted to make a pizza. Back in Idaho I bought Jiffy -- you know, the cheap little white and blue boxes -- pizza crust mix. You have no idea to what lengths I went to try to find it on this island. I went to at least five different grocery stores, and even in different towns. No such luck. I would have been happy with the little rotund Chef Boyardee man's crust mix, but nooooo that would have been asking for way too much. You see not only could I not find these two brands, bit I couldn't find any pizza crust mixes!

One day, in total desperation, I bought a premade crust. I paid something like $4.59 for it (can you even believe that!). In the store it wasn't refrigerated, so I didn't refrigerate it at home either. I planned to use it in two days. I told Tom one morning, "We are having homemade pizza tonight! Yippee!" That night, I pulled out the crust and it was completely green with mold on the back side. We were introduced to Mama's Island Pizza that night. And it was good.

Sensing my frustration and defeat, Tom said, "maybe Hawaiians don't make their own pizza." Hmm...he might be on to something. Being the problem solver that he is, he went online and found a whole case of Jiffy pizza crust mix (that's 24 boxes, in case you're wondering) on Amazon. Yep, we ordered it and they are on the shelf in our makeshift pantry -- the hall closet.

At this point, I was beginning to wonder what other food challenges I would face living here. Tonight I made tacos for dinner and was reminded once again of our little food problems. I went to shake on the Taco Bell seasoning and nothing would come out of the jar. I took the cap off and what was once a powdery substance was an orange rock stuck to the bottom of the container. I had to take a knife and whack off enough of the spices to get through this dinner.

A month ago we had the same problem with our onion powder. Tom tried to season some hamburgers for grilling and several globs had formed in the container. He had to shake it hard to get some powder loose. We ended up ditching it and started with a new jar. So far, so good.

Recently most of the stores in town stopped carrying Noah's favorite snack - Baked Cheetos. I tried all of the main stores and couldn't find it. So, Tom said, "no problem, we'll just order some!" Little bit of a problem this time, though. For some reason they won't ship them to Hawaii or Alaska. I guess we aren't worthy of such finer foods as dried corn things with fake cheese powder.

This time we had some luck on our side because the other day I happened to be at a store I hadn't been to in a long time. Out of habit, I checked to see if they had Baked Cheetos and lo and behold they did. And they were on sale, too! Ka-ching! Noah was so happy he was dancing in the aisle. Until the electricity went out. Like I've said before, life in Hawaii is, well...different.