Mele and friends at Kaua`i Family Restaurant

Our friend Gary Medeiros is a local kine hero, with his male falsetto mastery and command of the `ukulele. He plays all over town, often with Auntie Manu. In fact, he was recently in Idaho performing. We first met him at last year's Live Aloha Festival in Seattle Center, and then saw him again playing at the luau after the Pineapple Classic. We are lucky to have such a talented kanaka in our midst.


One of Gary's regular gigs is the brunch hour at Kaua`i Family Restaurant. We made it once before, but that was too long ago. So this morning we decided to head down to Georgetown for some `ono food, friendly service and mele nani (beautiful music).



Gary and friends did not disappoint. Dressed in black to (not celebrate) Hawai`i 50th anniversary as a State, the trio played the duration with many impromptu hula intermixed from the lively audience.

There was a special on the menu to commemorate the anniversary -- poke and kalua pig steak with cabbage. Dan couldn't resist that, and at 5.99 the price could not be beat. I went with the traditional rice, eggs and bacon breakfast. Of course any trip to Kaua`i Family Restaurant necessitates grabbing a hold of a big brown bag of goodness - malasadas. The Portuguese donuts are a blissful way to heart disease, fried in coconut oil and not as sweet as your typical bakery donut.



We were blessed with a visit from our old friend Jerry, who we just don't get to see enough of these days. We introduced him to the malasada, to which he concurred was heavenly.

If you are looking for an authentic Hawaiian local experience with refreshingly low prices, Kaua`i Family Restaurant is hard to beat. The bakery/gift shop next door is worth a look, too. The guava and passion fruit cakes come in individual servings, and are very seductive. (They are closed Sunday and Monday).

Google adds `olelo Hawai`i!

Hawaiian language added to Google

By Rob Shikina

POSTED: 01:30 a.m. HST, Aug 07, 2009



Next time you do a search on the Web, you could be selecting "Huli ia Google," the Hawaiian words for "search Google."


COURTESY KEOLA DONAGHY
Hawaiian words and sentences have been added to the Google search engine. Shown
here, a screen shot of Google's search page in Hawaiian.



The Hawaiian language version of Google's search engine is now available on Apple's Safari browser through a project by a University of Hawaii-Hilo assistant professor, who also translated the Netscape Web browser in 1997.

Keola Donaghy of the Ke Haka 'Ula O Ke'elikolani College of Hawaiian Language estimates he spent 100 hours creating the translation. The Hawaiian version provides instructions in Hawaiian on Google's search engine, but results are still in English.

To complete the translation, Keola provided Hawaiian versions of 2,500 "strings" -- words, sentences or paragraphs used by Google's search engine.

For three years, Keola had been trying to persuade Google to add Hawaiian to the dozens of other languages available.

Last year, Te Taka Keegan, a lecturer at the University of Waikato in New Zealand, opened the door for Donaghy while working at Google.

Keegan had created a Maori language version for Google that took about eight years, he said by e-mail.

A Hawaiian version "will give native Hawaiians a sense of pride, a sense of identity and a confirmation that their language has real purpose in today's modern society," he wrote.

Donaghy said the translation will positively affect the Hawaiian community.

"It tells our children that the Hawaiian language is on par with the other languages of the world," he said. "It increases the status of the language in their eyes and also around the world."

Google's Hawaiian version can be accessed after selecting olelo Hawaii, or Hawaiian language, inside the system preferences on Apple.

The Hawaiian version for all Web browsers will be available as soon as the end of this week, Donaghy said.

Keola wants Hawaiian language to be available in as many contexts as possible and is trying to persuade Facebook to add a Hawaiian interface.

"We live in a society where telecommunications is a huge part of our life," he said. "For us to ignore that world, we are saying the Hawaiian language doesn't belong here."







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