I was born in Hawaii and grew up in Guayaquil, Ecuador. I'm fluent in Spanish and working on Japanese. I love "local" Hawaiian food which is a diverse buffet of ono foods. I also love to cook for my family and friends. Rum cake, bread pudding with whiskey sauce, bean salads, pasta salads, fried rice, Thai curries, Vietnamese summer rolls, stir fries, Filipino pork adobo, Korean jap chai, teriyaki chicken, beef stew, beef bourguignone, lasagna, seafood alfredo, arroz con pollo, arroz con gandules, pernil, patacones, guacamole. Japanese New Year's Day lucky foods; zoni, sushi, mochi, namasu, kimpira, shrimp and vegetable tenpura, and nishime. I always cook these with family. I try to be modest, but most things I try the first time turn out quite good. Although, I'm not always certain how close they are to the intended recipe. These aren't tragedies, just where I need practice: always cook in mass quantities and I have difficulty scaling down. I also tend to kick the recipes "up a notch" before I've even tried the original recipe.