No, not me! That's the name of an independent film I saw last night (Sunday), the last in the Rainbow Film Festival. Although the film festival is mostly focused on the gay and lesbian community, "The People I've Slept With" is very mainstream. Here's the trailer:

I did a short article on it in Sunday's paper, but if you missed it, it's a comedic journey that focuses on Angela (Karin Anna Cheung), a promiscuous party girl who loves sex so much that she has to create baseball cards to remember the men (and women) she's been with and what they were like.

She suddenly gets pregnant, but due to her track record, has no idea with whom. Was it the Five Second Guy? Or the Mystery Man? Perhaps the Nervous Guy? With the help of her cards and her best gay male friend Gabriel (played by Wilson Cruz), she tracks down her most recent lovers to figure out who the father is — and what she wants for herself in a relationship.

I thought it was a cute movie with a lot of laugh-out-loud moments. I'm straight, so it was especially appealing to watch hot CSI actor Archie Kao (who is from Hawaii) in many of the scenes. The other funny thing is, I think I knew someone who resembled almost every character in the movie. If it comes around to regular theaters, I hope you get to see it.

After the movie, we went to the Rainbow Festival Gala at Ka. Being a straight girl, I felt a little out of place, but I saw my twitter friends Chris Hall and Yen Phan.

I also saw Tracy Chan from Metromix (who reminds me of my niece Morgen), and DJ Nocturna, above, who introduced me to the film's director, Quentin Lee.

Me with Quentin.

Then Yen met Quentin.

From there, Quentin ushered us into the VIP area! That was pretty cool, especially when Christa Wittmeir came by and hissed, "What are YOU doing here?!" LOL

Quentin introduced us to Wilson Cruz, the lead actor in the movie. Although Quentin says "The People I've Slept With" does explore the relationship between a gay man and his "fag hag," he didn't want the movie to just be about that. Wilson, however, yelled, "I love fag hag movies!"

We also got to meet actress Mindy Cohn. Remember her, from the Facts of Life? From left, Brent Anbe, Wilson Cruz, Mindy Cohn, my features editor Elizabeth Kieszkowski, and me.

One of the highlights of the evening was a performance by three dancers from Cherry Blossom Cabaret. If you haven't heard of them, these are burlesque dancers who perform elaborate striptease productions, but don't take everything off. In most cases, the girls went down to a thong and pasties.

I'll leave you with the performance by my twitter friend Miss Catwings. You can see the others on my YouTube channel.

So starts the countdown for the blogs. I've been picked up by the new paper, but there will also be migration of blogs to Hawaii IRL, so you don't have to jump all over the internet to find us. More details to come in the coming week. Thanks to all of you for reading all these years; It's so amazing to see how all of our blogs have grown into what they have.

I'll have a bigger message at the end of the week, but for now....please help show your support for Metromix and fan the "Save Metromix" page on Facebook! Thanks!

Sunday's breakfast of champions

Last year, you followed my blog as I ate and drank my way through the fabulous Kapalua Wine & Food Festival. It was an event that I had only heard about, but never knew how wonderful it was till I experienced it first hand.

Well, I'm going again this year! It's from June 24 thru 27 at the ever-growing Kapalua Resort. And hopefully, you can come, too, since they now have kama'aina rates on tickets.

Kama’aina can enjoy generous savings on all festivities by purchasing a 4-Day Festival Pass for $599 or ala carte tickets. Ala carte tickets to the big (BIG!) events like the Grand Tasting, Seafood Festival and “DK’s Secrets: Sansei-Style” are only $120 each. Kama’aina prices for individual wine seminars range from $50-55. (I'm bad at math, but you can check out the pricing here to compare the rack rates to the kama'aina discounts.)

I got a preview of the menu for “DK’s Secrets: Sansei-Style," which is on Sunday the 27th from 1 to 3 p.m. Check it out:
1. Kona Cold Sous Vide Lobster “Farm to Table” Salad
Waipoli Hydroponic Greens, Big Island Hearts of Palm, Haricot Verts, Citrus Gelee, Sherry Shallot Vinaigrette
2. Asian Spice Crusted Meyer Natural Angus New York Steak
Potato & Hamakua Alii Mushroom & Spinach Potato Risotto, Ho Farms Tomato Umeboshi Lomi
3. Warm Waialua Chocolate Ganache Bomb
With Kula Strawberry Lavender Coulis

Some of the biggest, most indulgent events happen on this last day of the festival, so you see a LOT of local people there, young and old. I'm guessing they take off from work the next day!

Remember these Maui gals, from last year?

They've actually kept in touch, and I'll probably see them at the big seafood festival on the 27th. They were hilarious, and to me, exemplified the local touch of this very international festival. (I know M, NKHEA, Ynaku, and Opso would looooooove to meet them!)

Get your tickets, and don't forget to ask for the kama'aina discount!

Kapalua Wine and Food Festival
June 24-27
Kapalua Resort, Maui

Sorry, I forgot to post pics of how the Zinfandel tasting went! I know you saw it on Twitter and Facebook, but here's a quick recap of how it went.

Chef Elmer Guzman from the Poke Stop was there and met Neenz Faleafine for the first time. I don't have any good pictures of his food, but let's just say it was ono! I don't usually drink reds with seafood--especially if raw and/or spicy--but the rep from Ravenswood recommended their Big River zin. And you know what? It was the first red I've ever had that matched seafood!

One ounce pours go a long way when you see how many bottles we had to try!

They also had food. This lamb was perfect for the big, robust zins.

Boneless shortribs are always a winnah!

Neenz got to know the Leonhardt reps.

A plate from Don Ho's. I miss these guys!

Dessert from JJ's Bistro.

I ended up buying two bottles of Leonhardt wine. At the end of the night, these guys left, and had to drive all the way back to the Hale Koa to give me the bottles! Kudos to them for their nice service and nice wine.

After a grand trip to San Francisco and wine tasting in Sonoma, I'm jazzed and ready to go to yet another big wine event with my neighbor, Amber (shown here with me in Sonoma).

The Zinfandel Grand Tasting is happening Sunday, May 23 (tomorrow) at the Hale Koa Hotel. See, the Zinfandel Advocates & Producers (ZAP) is doing its spring tour, and stopping on Oahu. A group of premier ZAP member wineries who specialize in Zinfandel will have tastings so that people can mingle with top winemakers and principals, learn about the remarkable richness and versatility of Zinfandel and discover why Zinfandel is “America’s Heritage Grape.”

I don't know about you, but I like Zinfandel. Reader Turk Fontaine commented that "he BIG Z is meaty, beaty, big and bouncy." I think it has a flavor that evokes different "flavor memories" in my mouth. I often will taste a zin and suddenly know what's for dinner--be it spaghetti with meat sauce, pizza, or lamb.

I guess this is true of most people with Zin, so ZAP is going to feature small bites from local chefs, as well:

I can't wait! I hope you'll be able to join me. Tickets for the public tasting are $59 per person for non-members and can be purchased on line at www.zinfandel.org. Some tickets may be available at the door for $69 per person.

Zinfandel Grand Tasting
Sunday, May 23 (Public Tasting)
4-7 p.m.
Hale Koa Hotel ~ 2055 Kalia Road
Order Public Tickets online until noon (PST) Sunday, May 23. After this time, tickets are available at the door - cost of $69 per person.

Wow, I can't believe I'm back already! That was a fun trip...but I didn't get to post everything, due to time. Here's what else we did:

Tweet Up

Thanks to my classmate Deb Aoki's help, we got a tweetup together at Heart Wine on Valencia Street.

Deb and I haven't seen each other for about 20 years, I think. It's hard to say, because the internet makes it seem like it's been much less. She's still the same!....and working at eBay.

We devoured the cheese plate, so I didn't get to take a picture of it, but trust me, it was good!! The salumi plate was also very good.

The scallops, if you eat that, were amazing! They were sprinkled with herbs, oil, and the right amount of salt to get your taste buds going.

Amber ordered some fish, which was full of flavor. OK so in the interest of time & space, all the photos will be in an album on facebook.

Heart
1270 Valencia Street
San Francisco, CA 94110
(415) 285-1200

R & G Lounge

Yes, thanks to your suggestions (and the fact that Chinese restaurants are open every day), we went to R&G Lounge. We had planned to go to Thanh Long, but plans got shifted. It's OK, we've all been there before. Anyway, the salt & pepper crab at R&G is interesting! It's coated in a salty, crusty tempura batter that is finger-lickin' good.

Peking duck, always a good choice.

Some special, off-the-menu veggies that were really good. I detected a slight bitterness bite, like bok choy, but it wasn't bad. I didn't take pictures of the rest of the food because my hands were just to greasy from attacking the crab!

R&G Lounge
631 Kearny Street
San Francisco, CA 94108
(415) 982-7877

Dosa

Dosa is the name of an Indian crepe, like above. Sometimes it's served like a profiterole, sometimes it's a big triangle, sometimes it's a huge roll--like a map. It's served all of these ways at Dosa. This was really good!

Instead of chips, they start you with some caraway pappadums. I couldn't stop eating these.

Goat cheese and mango salad with hazelnuts. So refreshing! The goat cheese isn't gamey. I had to fight Ed for the rest of this.

Uttapams are like pancakes--similar to the Korean pancakes or Russian blinis. We ordered the variety plate of five, which was a great idea. I think the carrot one was our favorite.

Duck curry with spinach. I dunno, I thought it was like chicken. The sauce reminded us a lot of squid or chicken luau, which isn't a bad thing. They recommended lemon rice, which was good but a little too strong; I think next time I'll do the coconut rice.

Lamb meatball curry. The meatballs were good--what we could taste. The sauce was a little too spicy, which overpowered the taste of everything else. Again, the recommended lemon rice was too strong. Our initial verdict is that Dosa is good at dosas and uttapams, but we're not sold on the curries.

You can counter the spicy curries with a lassi--like a smoothie. Dosa's mango lassi was kind of thick for me, but that helped make it last longer.

Dosa (2 locations, we went to the one on Fillmore)
1700 Fillmore (@ Post)
San Francisco, CA
415-441-3672

Papalote Mexican Grill

On our last night, former expat Hawaii Twitterati Susie Lin suggested we try Papalote Mexican Grill, a place that is constantly packed. We were lucky that the line didn't go out the door that night!

My shrimp burrito with guacamole. They give you hot sauce on the side, which will punch you in the face if you're not careful! It's powerful!

Susie and Ed with their burritos. Susie ate hers with a fork and knife, but for some reason mine was wrapped enough to eat with my hands. At that point, though, my hands were full, so I couldn't take more photos. By the way, they have Horchata here--if you don't know what it is, you need to read my Metromix review on Tacos Ricos. Just sayin.

Papalote Mexican Grill
3409 24th St
San Francisco, CA 94110
(415) 970-8815

Bi-Rite Creamery

No trip to San Francisco is complete without some ice cream from Bi-Rite. They also have a bakery on the side, if you prefer cupcakes to ice cream. The line is always down the street.

They're known for their unique, intense flavors, like roasted banana, brown sugar with ginger caramel swirl, or honey lavender.

I had one of their most popular flavors, salted caramel. This was really good, but in all honesty, was so strong that I don't know if I could eat a whole scoop again. I wish there were a tasting spoon option, so I could buy a spoonful of 10 flavors. I also had the balsamic strawberry and vanilla, which was very creamy but a lot like Baskin-Robbins. I don't mean that as a bad thing! But it wasn't unique.

When you go, tell me what flavor you try!

Bi-Rite Creamery
3692 18th Street
San Francisco, CA 94110
(415) 626-5600

Toast Eatery

On our last day, Ed and I drove over to Noe Valley (one of my favorite neighborhoods) and ate breakfast at Toast. For you Toast fanatics, this is not related to any others in the country.

Ed's chicken apple sausage omelette.

Croissant French toast. Who was the genius who created this?! It's so rich, you don't need to put butter on it.

This was a good breakfast to get us through shopping in Noe Valley. It's on a hill, so if you go there, plan to walk up one side and then down the other.

Toast Eatery
1748 Church St
San Francisco, CA 94131
(415) 282-4328

For the ride home
We went back to Tartine Bakery to get some food for the plane ride home. They put your stuff in boxes, so it will last.

I got their famous pecorino & almond sandwich: Sheep milk cheese & almonds crushed with olive oil, lemon, and sage. This is a mouth-watering sandwich, full of every flavor in the rainbow, but it was a bit rich. I think if I have it again, I need to split it with someone and have a side salad.

Ed got the Humboldt Fog cheese sandwich and mentioned that his was also a little too rich for one sitting.

And that was it! I'm going to post some photos of Hotel Tomo in a separate entry so you can see how charming it is. Thanks for coming along with me on this trip. I had a great time.