Loco Moco: Hawaiian Soul Food

 I thought, and was told by locals, that LocoMoco is THE quintessential Hawaiian dish. But according to the American Food Network, Hawaii's specialty food is Shave Ice. I've tried both; they're both yummy. Have YOU ever tried Loco Moco?

Picture a big blob of cooked white sticky rice. Top that with a quarter-pound lean hamburger patty. Smother is all with brown gravy. Add one or two fried eggs (cooked to order) and onion rings optional. This dish will fill you up for all day and likely has an all-day worth of calories. 

What is Washington's famous/favorite food? Or the dish we're most known for? Seafood Chowder, according to the American Food Network list. Idaho's choice is the Steak-Cheese Loaded Baked Potato.  Marionberry Pie is Oregon's dish. And Montana? Huckleberry Ice Cream!

How many types of apples are grown in Washington???     Over 30 types!

Washington is home to over 30 types of apples that range in flavor, texture, and color. They all have a few things in common. You can count on every Washington apple to be juicy, nutritious, and delicious.  Washington Apple Commission

How many varieties can you name?????

Washington Apples

Was Johnny Appleseed for real?  Click to this link and find out:

https://waapple.org/johnny-appleseed/

(You may have to copy/paste this link.)

Apple facts perhaps you didn't know:

Apples are a $2 BILLION industry in Washington. 

Washington grows over 30 varieties of apples....can you name five?

Apple sizing is designated by count---specifically the number of apples that can be packed in a 40-pound fiberboard carton. 

The average apple contains only FIVE seeds.

29 - times you could circle the earth with the apples picked in Washington state

7500- varieties of apples grown around the world

1381 - Year the earliest known apple pie recipe was recorded

4 lb 1 oz - weight of the world's largest apple, picked in Japan in 2005

95 - calories in a medium apple

Did our ancestors eat apples? Darn tootin. Driving around and trying to find old homesteads, the surest indication that you're in the right spot is to find an old, gnarled, apple tree. 

 

Serendipity Friday

We Washingtonians recognize how important our apples are to the world.

Back in the first decade of the 1900s a series of National Apple Shows were held across Washington…….

This photo was from the first-ever-held National Apple Show in 1908 in Spokane. The photo comes from our Washington State Digital PHOTOGRAPH collection……….. bet you didn’t remember that there were many, many older photos available via this website. (They were Charles Libby photos.)

Doing a Google search for “national apple show,” I found this newspaper quote (from the San Francisco Call ) for December 6 and 8, 1908:

“President Roosevelt will press a button at 10:30 tomorrow morning Pacific time which will give the signal for the formal opening of the National Apple Show to be held in Spokane December 7 to 12. The exhibits, ranging all the way from a single apple to carload lots will fill twenty thousand feet of floor space………… the exposition is the greatest and finest exhibition of apples, apple products, implements and machinery associated with the cultivation of the apple that has ever been assembled anywhere. The array is bewildering in magnitude and beauty.

“The bulk of the exhibits come from Washington, Idaho, Montana and Oregon but some are from western Canada and Luther Burbank sends an exhibit from California……….. there are exhibits from Japan, France and England, Norway, Germany and several U.S. states…….”

“One feature of the show is the presence of sixteen young women from the Domestic Science class at Washington State College in Pullman who will demonstrate the cooking and serving of apples…. they have 56 ways of cooking this one fruit.”

Think about it; would YOU have been excited to go to an Expo all about apples?????