Bacon sizzles at semi-annual Eat the Street Mililani

https://vimeo.com/89347998

Risa Askerooth reports at Eat the Street Mililani for this month’s bacon theme on March 8.

Check out our past coverage of Eat the Street here.

By Risa Askerooth

[email protected]

Naono Hawaii is a regular vendor at Eat the Street who also regularly sell corn at farmers' markets. — Naono Hawaii is a regular vendor at Eat the Street who also sells corn at farmers’ markets.

People from all over Oahu gathered on March 9 from 2 p.m. to 7 p.m. for semi-annual Eat the Street Mililani and this month’s bacon theme, which featured 43 vendors selling everything from malasada burgers to corn. With newly-introduced live entertainment, rides and bounce houses, Eat the Street continues to gain momentum throughout the island by supporting small businesses and bringing people together through food.

“I like the food. I love the vendors and the people who come out to buy food and I just love the whole spirit, the aloha spirit, everybody’s so friendly around here,” said Ginger Banner, an employee for Naono Hawaii. Although their main seller is corn, Naono Hawaii prepared a special dish of squid luau and trite soup for this time’s theme. MHS Sophomore Ashley Regaspi added, “There’s foods from everywhere. There’s really good macaroons and burgers and just really good different (ethnic) foods.”

The live entertainment at Eat the Street featured performances from The Hype, Retro 50, EMKE, The Playground and Central Theater Arts Academy (CTAA), whose songs included “Notice me Horton” and “Let it Go,” sung by Misha Rosario. “They haven’t had it all the time but I think as it grows then more and more people want to be part of it. And (CTAA), they have a chance to actually show what they can do,” said former Rep. Marilyn Lee, “I think entertainment’s a great thing.”

Another recent addition to Eat the Street Mililani is the hosting of Lemonade Alley, a nationwide competition in which kids create a lemonade stand and sell their original lemonade recipes, with all proceeds going to charity. “We allowed them to come in to do their fundraising here today. But it’s really cool, it’s for kids and it’s actually a whole business plan that the kids have to put together,” stated Eat the Street Coordinator Poni Askew.

Eat the Street has grown to massive proportions since it was created in 2010 with the Twitter handle @streetgrindz as an indicator of where to find food trucks and street food. Now, Eat the Street has become a community event, as well as an attraction for people all over the island as an opportunity to share with people their communities. “It’s not just Mililani people. And that’s okay, that’s a good thing because sometimes we get a little isolated here,” said Lee.

An additional purpose of Eat the Street is to support the numerous small businesses and food trucks such as The Girls Who Bake Nextdoor, Simply Ono and Olay’s Thai. “It’s mostly special because it’s actually a celebration of small businesses owners and what we want to do is make sure that people support small business in Hawaii and so if we can do something like this and the food vendors benefit and are able to support their families out of something like this then that’s really what’s the special part is Eat the Street,” said Askew.

The themes that Eat the Street offers, which occasionally repeat, such as garlic, chocolate, spicy and Filipino encourage vendors to constantly channel their creativity. Although it hasn’t taken place this month, vendors occasionally compete for prizes relating to the theme, such as “best bacon dish.” Askew stated, “One year the winner was chocolate covered bacon and so you probably see a lot of chocolate covered bacon.”

The next Eat the Street, scheduled to take place at Kakaako on March 28, as it falls on the last Friday of every month, will have a Japanese theme.