Jaymee Sire's Miso Soup with Nameko Mushrooms (Guest Post)

The lovely Jaymee Sire was nice enough to give me an early birthday present: a guest post! I am so, so excited that she's sharing her latest recipe here on M&PT, and her miso soup happens to be inspired by fresh mushrooms from the farmers' market.

First of all, I love miso soup. My cousin Stacey (who you may remember from my Disneyland: Grown Ups post) is half-Japanese, and one of my favorite childhood memories is of her grandmother making miso soup from scratch whenever she came to visit. Secondly, I love cooking with different kinds of mushrooms. There used to be a time when I would limit myself to either button or portobello. Fortunately, those days are long gone. Mushrooms come in so many sizes, shapes, and flavors, and I'll take any chance I can get to learn about new, interesting ones. Thank you, Jaymee, for sharing this simple and delicous recipe for Miso Soup with Nameko Mushrooms! :)

Oahu: From Fruits to Fishes

Green and pink anthurium flowers peeking out from buckets of water. The sweet smell of strawberry papayas. Jars of homemade jam with handwritten labels.

I love strolling through the farmers' market to see what little treasures I can find, and doing this in an exciting, foreign locale never fails to be an eye-opener. I always tell friends that want to visit the Hawaiian islands, "Go to the local market!" Checking out the local markets is a unique and mostly inexpensive way to get to know the area. You can meet anyone, from the very farmers who harvest the crop to business owners selling their homemade goods, from the neighborhood residents to fellow travelers.

So, for the finale of my Oahu posts, I want to shine a light on a couple of marketplaces on the island. I've mentioned all of the "home"-cooking that my mom did for this trip, and now I can finally tell you about where we found our ingredients. We would've loved to go to Oahu's bigger farmers' markets, but our schedule just never matched up with the days that they were held. (For information on markets sponsored by the Hawaii Farm Bureau Federation, click here. For the county-run People's Open Markets, click here.) Nevertheless, we found a couple of places that are open all week long and are just as interesting to stroll through.