"The 'Ilima Awards are determined annually, partly by a reader poll and by our restaurant critics' choices from among the best restaurants reviewed that year" Honolulu Star-Advertiser.
I copied and pasted the above explanation here just in case some of you don't know about the Ilima award - just like Jimmy and I were. The first time we heard of the award was when we received the letter that Hot Pot Heaven was one of the winners for this year. We didn't know how prestigious this award was. Jimmy pulled out his phone and googled it; I went down to talk to our property manager thinking she might know best since more than half of the spaces at McCully Shopping Center are restaurants. Jimmy and I were both happy with the answer we got from the web and from our property manager and agreed to participate in the cook out at the Diamond Head Theater. It was a beautiful event! It took a lot of work to prepare but the staff who volunteered their time and us all had a wonderful time.
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Setting up: I think we over did it. We brought almost everything from our shop :) Other restaurants just gave out one of their special dishes but we gave everything we had. Must be because we feel everything at our restaurant is very special :)  On display was our Thai/Mushroom combination pot - the most popular broths for us Di Anh, Jimmy's mom's best friend, we call her "di" which means mom's younger sister - our chef cook - always hard at work and always there whenever we need her help.  Jimmy's cousin, Trinh Ho, aka - Hot Pot Heaven's graphic designer was luring in the guests to try our broths :) They all loved the broths and many have already showed up to Hot Pot Heaven!  Our team (LR): Tina (my sister), KS (our filler), Di Anh (our cook), then Jimmy's parents  :) =)  At the end of the night: with the award in hands and bellies were full of sample dishes from other winning restaurants - we were very happy! I just realized now that Jimmy didn't have any picture! It was because he was kept in the waiting room of Diamond Head theater the whole time while we were outside taking pictures. Before the guests were realeased to go out and and try the food, they were entertained by the talented Diamond Head Theater performers. Instead of calling individual restaurant to go up and receive the award, the restaurants were grouped into categories and a song was written for each group. Representative of each restaurant then was called up and performers sang and danced to them :) Jimmy, of course, loved it more than any picture! Overall, we all had a great time and felt ver proud to be able to cook along side with many famous restaurants! We will continue trying our best! |
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