Throwback Thursday: Hawaii's Lanai Boy, Then and Now

Flashback to December 1990. I'm a high school senior in Hawai'i, listening to the radio when KIKI "Hot I-94" starts advertising a holiday-themed promotion to make wishes come true. It's mostly a chance to give a few down-on-their-luck folks some money to make it through the season. But I come up with another idea, which would be free for the station: Make my dream come true to be a DJ on the station. What the hell, I thought, maybe they'd let me show up and do it. (I had gotten the bug earlier that year while doing some DJing that summer on KTUH, the University of Hawaii radio station.)

To my surprise, they said yes -- and offered to let me do an hour show on a Friday night during the "Lanai Boy and Jimmy the Geek" show. (It was late December, so they probably figured no one was listening on a Friday anyway). Lanai and Jimmy basically gave me the board for an hour as I played commericials, the pre-determined playlist (remember Stevie B?) and read a few liners. It was a blast. Above, a shot of me with Lanai Boy from that night.

In the decades that followed, "Lanai Boy" became just "Lanai" and forged a long-running radio partnership with Augie Tulba. But more recently, he was part of the "Aloha Plate" food truck team that won Food Network's "Great Food Truck Race."

A few weeks ago at the LA Street Food Festival, I ran into the Aloha Plate food truck, and there was Lanai. I went over and told him about the time I met him in the studios of I-94 nearly 24 years ago. An updated pic:

Stuffing Our Faces at the LA Street Food Festival

They warned us to wear stetchy pants, and we indeed showed up to Saturday's Los Angeles Street Food Festival ready to eat. More than 100 booths offered up samples of dishes from a wide variety of Latin, Asian, European, American and other dishes, as well as an iced coffee lounge, an ice cream/dessert section, a tequila tasting tent as well as beer, wine and cold drinks. I brought along the Blogger Kids and we arrived at the Rose Bowl around 4:30, hoping to beat the crowd.

The crowd was already huge, and we never made it through the Latin area. But we did manage to try a wide range of items. Some photo highlights:



The Grilled Cheese Truck were among the mobile eateries making an appearance.



Golden Road -- enjoying a bit of Point the Way IPA to counteract the heat.



The early crowds at the LA Street Food Fest.



Of course, the boys steered us over to the ice cream and dessert tents.

At Salt & Straw, I tried a coffee & bourbon ice cream, while Blogger Kid had sea salt/caramel and Blogger Kid 2.0 tried chocolate with gooey brownies.



You have a friend in Donut Friend.



I Heart Spam at the Aloha Plate truck!



Quenelle offers up an apple pie bon bon with bourbon caramel.



Nothing new about Sushi Roku, but still a solid spicy tuna roll and baked crab roll.

Bring Stretchy Pants: The LA Street Food Fest Is This Saturday

It seems like every weekend there's another food festival here in L.A. But there's nothing quite like the Los Angeles Street Food Festival, now in its fifth year and bursting at the seams with some of the best L.A. food imaginable.

This year's event takes place on Saturday, June 28, from 4 p.m. to 10 p.m. at the Rose Bowl. Here's the good part: Just 5,000 tickets are sold, making the crowd manageable and the food actually attainable. More than 100 vendors from restaurants, food trucks and food carts will be on hand, plus craft beer, cocktails, wine, tequila, ice cream and even an iced coffee lounge.

Here's who's coming:

LA food truck favorites Urban Oven, Luckdish Curry, the Grilled Cheese Truck, Azteca Truck, Foodism, Kraken Mobile and Currywurst plus special guest truck, Aloha Plate, champions of last year's Food Network Great Food Truck Race, bringing us their signature Spam musubi from Hawaii; street eats from foodie favorites Home State, Badmaash, Chef Brian Huskey/Formosa Café, Mexicali Taco, Chef Bruce Kalman/Union, El Condor, Chef Vartan Abgaryan/Cliff's Edge, Short Order, Guelaguetza, El Coralense, Chef Eric Greenspan's Grilled Cheese, Bizarra Capital, Del Rey Deli, Sticky Rice, and pop-ups BEP Vietnamese Kitchen, ARO Latin, The Ceviche Project and Hotato Potato.

Debuts at this year's Fest include The Asian Box, the Carb & Nation truck helmed by Church & State alums, Shao Kao BBQ from underground supper club chef Luther Chen, Short Cake's new lunchtime line of paninis from pastry chef Ivan Marquez, and Glassell Park's 100% grass fed Vaka Burger, voted Best Burger in Southern California. Past event award winners, Starry Kitchen and Dog Haus return along with local lonchero Mariscos Jalisco and Baja, Mexico's Mariscos El Mazateño, Tacos Kokopelli and Aqui es Texcoco. For the veggie minded, Kitchen Mouse Vegan Café returns along with The Grain Café and No Tacos, Please!

For the sweet tooth, the popular Ice Cream Social is back and even bigger, featuring cult favorites Donut Friend, The Churro Borough, Peddler's Creamery and The Beignet Truck alongside Fluff Ice, Ramekin, Quenelle, Choctal, Saffron & Rose, What the Funnel, Ice Cream Lab and Confexxion's "brioughnut", along with the baked stylings of local flour mill, Grist & Toll. Portland's Salt & Straw makes a So Cal debut with special flavors created just for the LA Street Food Fest including "Papi's Salted Nuts": the brainchild of Roy Choi from Kogi and POT, combining salty Beijing-style boiled peanut ice cream with a spicy Southeast Asian style marshmallow fluff and "Stumptown with Compartes Love Nuts": cold brewed Indonesian coffee with chocolate dipped, caramel coated pecans from LA's Compartes Chocolate.

A new feature debuting this year is the Iced Coffee Lounge which will feature cool caffeinated beverages from a dozen of the city's top roasters and new wave coffee shops including Cognoscenti Coffee, Copa Vida, Cafecito Organico, Home Brewed, Zona Rosa and more, plus the debut of Angel's Gate Roasting.

For the 21+ crowd, the original Tequila Tasting Tent returns and beer options have been expanded to include refreshing suds from Angel City Brewery, Golden Road Brewery, Stella Artois, Kronenbourg and Singha. Caroline on Crack also returns having curated some incredible cocktails from Petty Cash, Harlowe, Bar 1886, Church Key and Melrose Umbrella Co.

Tickets are just $55 and are available right now at the LA Street Food Fest website here or at Eventbrite here.

The organizers advise that you "bring stretchy pants."