 And welcome to Lillian's Vegan World, the only show in Honolulu where we delve into veganism and the plant-based diet. Coming to you live from the beautiful studio in downtown Honolulu, we are filming from ThinkTech Hawaii and a huge mahalo to everyone here who makes shows like this happen. So thank you very much to the team here at ThinkTech. I am very excited to introduce my guest today all the way from down-to-earth, one of my favorite favorite shops on the island, stores on the island, down-to-earth community outreach assistant, Amber Brennan. Hi, Amber. Hi. Aloha. Aloha. And welcome to the show. Thank you so much for taking the time out to join us today. My pleasure. Thanks for having me. You know, I am a huge fan of your store and I'm sure a lot of people are here on the island, of which you have now six stores. Yes. You just opened a new one in Kailua. Yes. Yes, recently. Was it last month? It was this month, actually. This month. August 10th was our relocation. Great. Congratulations. Thank you. So that's number six. Yes. Down-to-earth taking over Hawaii. We try. Which is a good thing. You know what, I know that down-to-earth is incredibly well-known here on the island, but there are still some people who haven't actually gone into the store, taken a look around or, you know, tried some of the food from the food bar. So I do have to tell you that I love the store. And I was, when I was thinking about having you on the show, how do we describe down-to-earth? Yeah. Down-to-earth is, well, we are an organic and natural retailer. So we have, we're kind of a health food vibe, but we're also so much more than that. You know, we have cosmetics. We have a full deli bakery in our newer stores, like the Kailua Pro-Origin Kaka'ako stores. We actually have an expanded deli. So we got Asian wok bowls. We have vegetarian sushi, which is, I just had some right before coming here. We just have a lot of, a lot of really cool stuff. Yeah. Awesome. Yes. So I have a title today's show, and it is, What's New at Down-to-earth? We've got so much to talk about. And the subtitle is, Keeping Honolulu Organic and Natural. And as you said, Down-to-earth isn't just about food, you, I call it a vegan's heaven. It definitely is for someone like me, but it, it doesn't have, you don't have to be a vegan to enjoy, you know, a store like that. Really, anyone can pop in, take a look around, try some of the items. And it, it actually is not 100% vegan. Right. You do, you do also sell vegetarian or dairy. Yes. And we also sell honey. Okay. But those are the two only animal products that we sell. Yeah. And very, very clearly marked. I think that's one thing that I really appreciate as a vegan shopping there. It's very, yeah, very clearly marked as is the food bar, the gorgeous deli bar. So, yeah, my hat off to you for that. Thank you. So, Amber, you have given us some slides that we're going to take a look at. And these photos are just mouth watering. So let's take a look at the first slide that you've brought in. Yum. That doesn't, that really doesn't look vegan, does it? Right. Which is great. That's, yeah. This is a great thing. So tell us a little bit about these little sandwiches or rolls. So these are two of our new sandwiches. We sort of premiered them with our Kailua store. So the one on the top is our chicken parmesan or chicken parmesan, if you will. So we use a garden patty, which we also sell in the store. Okay. So this is made marinara sauce and you can opt for vegan or dairy cheese. The bun is vegan, so no worries there. And then on the bottom it's a similar but a little different. We have our meatball sub, which is excellent. My dad's favorite actually. Yep. I can see a lot of people would get into something like that. I mean, who wouldn't? Yes. Awesome. Like stuff like this is so great because it's good for people who are transitioning or people who are looking to try healthier options or add more healthier options into their diet. So stuff like that that looks exactly like the real thing. For me, it's a no-brainer to support, so that's great. They must be selling quite well. Yes. As far as I know, yeah. Awesome. Let's have a look at another one. Okay. So these are our new smoothie bowls. We actually have four, but one of them is not pictured. Okay. On the top, the orange one is our lehua bowl, and all of these are actually inspired by nature in Hawaii. Yes. They look very, you look at it and it's like screaming Hawaii somehow. It's beautiful the way it's been presented there. Thank you. Yes. That's the lehua blossom. We know it's one of our most beautiful flowers here. The middle one is our makai bowl, which means ocean in Hawaiian. Okay. You see there are blue spirulina sorbet, and it kind of looks like a little wave on the sand there. Yes. You know, very cute. Beautiful. And then the last one on the end is our makai bowl, which means mountain. And this was inspired by the mountains, and it has like the little chia seeds look a little bit like a path in the mountain when you're hiking, and then the green comes from spirulina. Okay. So that's got a lot of healthy stuff in it, for sure. And the one on the bottom? The one on the bottom is actually my coworker and I were playing around with some new toppings. So that one's not on the menu, but all those toppings are available exclusively at Daunter. What are the toppings? They look like edible flowers, but I'm not, something dried or dehydrated? Yes. So the dried fruit is actually pitaya, pitaya chips. They've been dehydrated. Okay. They kind of stick in there pretty easily. It looks very dragon fruity, doesn't it? Yes. Beautiful colors there. And then we have our sparkling amber lily-coi flakes, that's the little yellow bits there. And then the rest is a mix of edible flowers, so we have rose petals, and those blue ones are actually color-changing pea blossoms. Really? So you add them to your like, say, your lemonade, and you, it changes color with citrus. Interesting. So it comes from blue to purple. It's really beautiful. Wow. Do you actually sell those dried flowers or dehydrated flowers separately at the store? Yes. We sell them individually, packed in, they're by a brand called Suncor Foods, and they're actually exclusive to Daunter, if you can't get them anywhere else on the island. Really? Yes. Great. I'm going to have to go in and have a little shop for around on the weekend. That's gorgeous. The first bowl, what did you say was orange? The lihuobo. The lihuobo. And what was that again? That is our, there's goji berries inside. Yeah. Nice. Everything, we tried to make these like super foods, so we got the goji berries, the blue spirulina, and the green spirulina. Right. And about how much do you sell these gorgeous bowls for? These, I believe it, maybe, it's under eight dollars for sure. I don't know the exact price off the top of my head, but it's very affordable. So that's like, that really literally is a meal in itself, like you wouldn't really need anything to go with that. It's pretty filling. Yes, gorgeous. I love the colors. And they do say that people eat with their eyes, so something as pretty as that, which is also very, very good for you and healthy for you. It's amazing. It's very Instagram-able. Yes. It is. Do you have an Instagram site for Down to Earth? It's Down to Earth H-I. Down to Earth H-I. Yeah. What about Facebook? Are you on Facebook as well? Down to Earth Hawaii, I believe. Awesome. So you can get lots of information there, I'm sure, and see lots of more gorgeous photos of what your new items and what you're selling at the deli and stuff. Great. We also post our events on those Instagram and Facebook as well, so if you follow us, you'll be able to see. Great. What's going on? Actually, in the second half, we are going to talk about some upcoming events, because you do a lot of stuff at Down to Earth. It's not only a store, which is pretty awesome. You also have cooking classes and demos, and you are going to be part of the VegFest, which is September 21st coming up soon. Yeah. That's huge. I was here. I happened to be here last year to visit the VegFest, and it's just so amazing. And such a good bunch of people come out. It's getting very popular here. I think this is our fourth year. And Down to Earth has been a major sponsor every year, so we're very excited. We will talk more about that in the second half. Let's have a look at one more of your slides. Yay. This is the Kailua Grand Opening, is that correct? Yes. The top photo is actually Kailua Road. This is actually the former Macy's building. I know you are not from here, but it's kind of an iconic, you know, everyone knows all the old Macy's building at Kailua. Wow. Yeah, so we're excited to be there. And then the bottom photo is our parking lot entrance. Okay. Awesome. And that, yes, this is the one that just opened, so great to have Down to Earth on that side of the island. I teach cooking demos at Down to Earth. I'm not sure if you knew that, but a lot of my friends are actually living in Kailua. And they used to always say, you know, when's the Down to Earth coming or when are we going to get some Down to Earth cooking classes in that area, so I think that's great. How long have you been at Down to Earth working there now? Actually, I just started in March, but I was a long time customer before I joined the team. Yeah, I'm sure you were. And what do your duties include at Down to Earth? So, I'm on the community outreach team, which is actually just two people. We're a small but mighty team, as we like to say. But so we're in charge of all the events, like our beloved cooking classes. We love to have guest teachers come in and teach, you know, wellness and cooking demos and things like that. So, yeah, we do that and we also do that. Well, we will go into more of that, Amber, for sure. But thank you. Let's take a quick break, stay tuned, and we'll be back for more Down to Earth and what's new and happening here on the island. Hi, I'm Rusty Komori, host of Beyond the Lines. I was the head coach for the Punahou Boys varsity tennis team for 22 years, and we're fortunate to win 22 consecutive state championships. This show is based on my book, which is also titled Beyond the Lines, and it's about leadership, creating a superior culture of excellence, achieving and sustaining success, and finding greatness. If you're a student, parent, sports or business person, and want to improve your life and the lives of people around you, tune in and join me on Mondays at 11 a.m. as we go Beyond the Lines on Think Kauai. Aloha. Aloha, everybody. My name is Walter Kauai. I'm your host for our monthly live streaming video entitled Ukulele Songs of Hawaii, where I bring on guests. We enjoy talking story about the music industry here in Hawaii, sometimes going back 50 decades if possible, and always having some good fun talking with entertainers. We're here located at Think Kauai downtown Honolulu at the Pioneer Plaza building and in their studios. So join me next month for Ukulele Songs of Hawaii. Welcome back to Lillian's Vegan World and welcome also back to Amber, who is from down to Earth, and I'm so excited to talk about down to Earth. Everyone's a fan of that place, so what's new at down to Earth? We're going to go through some upcoming events there, Amber, because there's a lot of stuff going down there and lots of items and new things that we're going to do a bit of show and tell with. I do want to show a couple of my slides if you don't mind. Let's have a look at the first one. Oh, Amber, this is your gorgeous lattes. Yes. Yes, please do tell us about these. Oh, these. Beautiful. Thank you. These are actually our new superfood lattes. We kind of premier them all at the same time with all those other sandwiches and bowls. We have a matcha chia latte with your omega-3's in there. Then our cacao coconut latte, delicious. Then we have our beet latte, which is super pretty, but also really good for circulation as well. We try to get those superfoods. Then the bottom one is our ginger lattes, so it's a really, really, oh, ginger tumeric actually. Ginger tumeric. Yes. What a gorgeous combination and how healthy it is that lots of antioxidants going in there. When you say latte, you're meaning that they're made with milk. What kind of milk options do you have there? You can choose your milk. We have cow's milk, but we also do have almond milk, macadamia nut milk, soy milk, of course, and I think a few more, but those are the main ones. Yes, so you can customize your own latte. They look beautiful. Thank you. Yes. You look at them and think that they're going to be really good for you, just off the bat. Beautiful. Amber, I did at Down to Earth, I did have one of my very popular cheese demos, cheese making demos, where I made cheeses from Cashews. So the next slide I'm going to show you is the, I was actually featured on the cover of The Crave magazine in June, and I did at Down to Earth, I did do some follow-up cheese making demos there to coincide with this, but yes, so Crave called me the cheese with vegan chef producers, cheesy dishes without dairy. It's kind of cheesy, but I'll take it. And so I am actually doing some more cooking demos privately at Harbour Court, and I think the next slide is, oh, this is my vegan brunch that I'm going to do at Down to Earth. So I have made this one, the American four-course vegan brunch, which I thought might be nice. So what we're going to learn in that cooking demo at Down to Earth will be a nice tofu scramble with some kale. I am doing a baked bean dish with a Japanese twist. We'll have to wait and see how that turns out. Some beautiful scalloped potatoes. I love these things. Looks great already. You can really see them often on menus. Yeah. And they're actually really easy to make and look very pretty on the plate too. And I am doing the traditional pancakes with a blueberry compote and some vegan butter. So that's going to be the American vegan brunch, which I'm looking forward to. And that will be held on September 11th at Down to Earth, so do get your tickets from Eventbrite. You can also get any information about any of my upcoming events on Lillian Vegan. I'm on YouTube, Facebook, and I do have a website all under Lillian Vegan, so lots more information there. Down to Earth actually holds lots of cooking demos, and you have instructors from all over the world teaching food and cuisine from all over the world. We're very excited about that. Yes. Like you were saying earlier, we're not just a store. We try to be a community-building team, so we're really excited to be able to offer. We offer Indian cooking classes. We have your vegan brunch coming up, which I am so excited for. We also have a fascia rolling class every month. You just roll out your fascia. Yum. It's kind of amazing. So we try to focus on complete wellness, helping people transition from wherever they're at to a plant-based lifestyle. Great. I did notice every time I come in for the cooking demos, I noticed there's a lot of yoga mats in the kitchen studio, in the community room. So I was guessing that you are doing ... You do have some classes I've seen you have ... What are they? Not yoga, but ... That would be our fascia class, but we do have a yoga body weight conditioning class coming up. All of these classes, how long do they go for? Is it 90 minutes? Usually it's an hour to an hour and a half, depending on the teacher. Cooking class is normally 90 minutes, I guess, but that's awesome. And you are doing something very exciting soon next month, the veg fest, which I can't wait to go and see. And that's on September 21st. It's huge. I'm guessing there's going to be a lot of people coming to this this year. It seems to be getting bigger and bigger. Yeah, definitely does, so bigger every year. And so what is Down-Death planning to do there on this gorgeous day? We are going to go for a more local style this year. We're going to be offering ... All vegan, of course, everything is vegan at Veg Fest. We're going to be offering a loco moco, which is ... Have you had a loco moco before? Yes, I have, actually. Yes, yes. It's really good. We have our homemade gravy, our tofu scrambles, we're going to use brown rice with our Beyond Meat patty, which is really yummy and getting more popular. That should go down well. Yeah. We also have a hamburger steak plate, which is kind of like the Japanese Okazu style. So we have our max salad with the brown rice and then our mushroom gravy on the Beyond Patty. And all of these will be available for purchase at the Veg Fest? Yes. At our Danta Earth booth. Awesome. And you are doing cooking demos there. I know that Chef Paul Nishi, who is a good friend of mine, will be doing something there. What's he going to be doing? Actually, our cooking demonstrator that day, he's going to be cooking his version of the loco moco. Awesome. I actually just ... Yesterday it's phenomenal. Yeah, I can't wait. I can't wait to try it. Awesome. So the first hundred people in that cooking demo is actually going to get to try it as well. Oh, wow. A hundred people. Awesome. That's very generous. Yeah. So get in early. And we can get all of this information about the cooking demo times for the Veg Fest on your website or ... You can go on the Veg Fest website. I'm not sure it's completely up yet, but it will be soon. Okay, great. Looking forward to it. Yeah. Let's have a look at the next slide, Anne, but this is another one. So at Danta Earth, I'm doing the American Brunch, and at Harbour Court, where I do my private cooking demos, I am actually doing a four course vegan Japanese Brunch. Oh, my gosh. I did do a Japanese demo. Yeah, that was my first one at Danta Earth a few months ago, and it proved to be quite popular. Yeah. It's very obvious that Japanese food is very loved here in Honolulu, so that's the vegan Japanese Brunch. Great. As most people know, I spent 30 years in Japan, 20 of which I was working as a chef, a vegan chef there, so Japanese food is my thing. Yeah, it was really good the last time I tried your food. Thank you. Yeah. So, Japanese vegan brunch, do you have any Japanese vegan in your deli's that Japanese inspired? What? Kind of, in a way, just we try to have a lot of local dishes. Right now, we have teriyaki tofu, I know that's not traditionally Japanese, but it's kind of like a mixing pot, you know? We have a bunch of different, you know, there's pickled vegetables, it kind of depends on the day. So much stuff. Now, Amber, we have to introduce these items that you brought in for a little bit of show and tell. Yes. From down to earth, vegan bacon slices. I tell you, I'm going to turn this around if you don't mind, because I want you to see what it looks like. It actually has like sinew sort of effect going on, that to me looks so like the real thing. Yeah. Incredible. This is my first time recently, and I was kind of creeped out to eat it, because I'm also vegan. Because it looks so real, yes. And I haven't eaten meat in five years, and I looked at that, and I was just like, wait, what? I don't know if I can eat that. I know it. Incredible. And these are, so no preservatives, no trans fats, non-GMO, soy protein, contains no animal factor, of course, made primarily from the, so this one is made from the soy bean protein. The other one that you brought in, Amber, if you want to hold that up for us, is the vegan shrimp. Oh, and turn it around, again, this is just incredible. This one is primarily made from the konnyaku, which is a type of potato. So you did say that it has that kind of texture. Did you? It's like very shrimpy. Shrimpy. I was just saying, well, that's amazing. So if you're transitioning or trying to eat more plant-based foods, or just looking for healthier options, these products, I must say, I would support 100%. I think they're amazing. If they can get you off eating the real thing, if that's what you want to do, definitely try some of these from down to earth. And they are about 9.99 a pack. And they will be in the frozen food section at down to earth. So you can get that. And you can enjoy some hop tea with these, which is actually, what is it, a non-alcohol? This is a tea. A tea, but it has hops in it. Yes. So it's essentially a non-alcoholic beer. Yeah. Does it taste like beer? Yeah. It does. It's kind of weird. Wow. It's crazy. This is the one that has no caffeine, because I'm going to drink it later and I'm not drinking caffeine right now. Okay. But we have a green tea, a black tea, there's a lemon flavor. It's just really good. We also have like true beers, non-alcoholic beers at our Kailua location too. Excellent. Yeah. That's great. I have to try one of these. And this is around like under $4, I guess. And interesting that you said there's no caffeine in these, which is nice. So you can enjoy them at dinner and not worry about having to stay up all night. This one actually makes you go to sleep a little bit. Kind of calm a camel meal. Oh, really? Yes. That's great. So there's a few things to definitely consider. Perfect for Aloha Friday, Pahalos. Yeah. And then you've brought in these wonderful bags. Yes. Tell us a little bit about these. So these are our special bags for our Kailua store. We debuted them for our grand opening. And we have a kappa artist who makes a kappa specific to each store. Wow. Our graphic designer actually took elements of the kappa and placed them throughout the design. So here we have the Lanikai waves. Beautiful. There's mountains in here. You can't really see. Yeah. I can. Yes. Because I'm closer to it. But yeah. Very detailed artwork there. Yeah. We tried to tell a story of each store and their location. So. Wonderful. We really loved how it came out. And of course I'm wearing our... The down to this. Yes. This t-shirt. You can buy this shirt also. Kailua. That's from the Kailua store. So these are only available at Kailua store. But in the future we hope to have products for each store. Nice. And these ones here Amber I think are on sale at the moment. They're down from 21.99 to 16.99 so good time to grab one. And you know it's great to use bags that you're not going to throw away each time you go shopping. So definitely yeah support down to earth. Grab a bag while you're shopping. Yeah. Put your goodies in. Your non-alcoholic beer. These things I really can't get over so I hope that people do go out and try them. And down to earth is an amazing place. Thank you. So thank you so much for coming on the show Amber. Thanks for having me. Thanks for joining us. So what if you could say something to people out there who have never been to down to earth. Please give them a little message. Oh wow. So I would say just come in and check us out. We most of our customers aren't vegetarian even. We just have a lot of options for healthy foods you know fun foods like this. I always say these are not for vegetarians or vegans they're for people who just want to try something new familiar but you know it's a little healthier so yeah come and check us out. Yeah definitely. And what you said is exactly right they may not be you know for vegans or vegetarians but people who are there's so many people out there who are really trying you know trying new things and healthy options think about the beyond burgers and the impossible burgers that are just selling out like crazy. And then was it KFC that recently came out with the chicken fried chicken the plant based fried chicken and there was like a one kilometer line of people waiting to get in to buy this vegan this vegan chicken so from KFC. It sold out in an hour. Yeah it's incredible. Yeah. And then I had to know that. Yes I think it's incredible and it's a sign that you know the times are changing and people are looking for different things to try and honestly down to earth has a huge right you can even buy junk food at downtown. Believe me I do. Yeah and vegan not that I'm saying and I myself don't eat junk food every day but every now and again for sure I go crazy for the savory junk food there yeah very into the the chickpeas the like little cheesy snacks made from garbanzo beans they're amazing but stuff like that I think in moderation you've got to you know enjoy yourself and still have fun when you eat and just take it easy do it on a daily basis or too much you do want to get the fresh you know whole foods in but yeah that's so much actually it's just love life love life eat healthy be happy I love it that should be everyone's motto actually and on that note thank you so much Amber for joining us good luck with all your upcoming events and I look forward to seeing you on September 11th for my next cooking demo the American vegan brunch and to everyone else have a wonderful long weekend and Labor Day weekend see you in a couple of weeks for more of Lillian's Vegan World. Aloha.