While we are already well into 2016, there are still a few open items to take care of to close out 2015, namely our 2 end of year food trips – Hawaii & Montreal. One good thing about posting this months later, is that it lets me take a gastronomic walk down memory lane. So here we go with Hawaii. Montreal soon to follow.
Where to start with Hawaii! While we were there for only 6 days, I feel like we ate enough to last us a lifetime. There were all you can eat options for our luau and our different tours that allowed us to sample some of the more traditional foods, but the highlights for me were our brunches and dinners where we went out on our own.
Brunch on our first full day was at Aloha Kitchen. We found this through Yelp and were not disappointed. Sonia went with the Loco Moco, and I had the Kalua Pork Eggs Benedict. Both were nice traditional meaty starts for our Hawaiian food adventure. One thing we did not try though was the souffle pancakes, which are some of the more popular items for Aloha Kitchen. Will definitely go back to try one of those as they looked amazing as other customers were eating them.
Aloha Kitchen is located at 432 Ena Road, Honolulu, HI 96815.
Out of all of our finds, the one that I was probably most excited about was the food trucks, which we discovered thanks to one of the free tourist magazines Sonia picked up at while at the airport. I didn’t understand why she was picking so many of them up, but I’m glad she did.
So the area where the food trucks park is called Pau Hana Market, and it’s within walking distance from most of the hotels on Waikiki Beach. There are about 7 trucks each with different food options.
Our first stop was Five Star Shrimp, where we had the Garlic Shrimp Plate. Shrimp were nicely cooked and well seasoned. In addition to the shrimp, the plate came with rice, pasta salad, and salad greens.
After the shrimp, we decided to go for ramen at Kamitoku Ramen. Since we were wanting to try things from multiple trucks, we opted to go for an order of gyoza and one of the kid-sized ramens. Gyoza was ok, but we were very disappointed with the ramen. Based on the picture, we thought the kid-sized ramen was just a smaller portion compared to the similar full portion. We ordered the beefy wild, but it had little to nothing in it, and no beef at all.
We also grabbed a burger at Ohana Burger, but were disappointed that they had run out of the tornado potato (this was the only reason we ordered the burger plate). They didn’t mention it until after they had cooked the burger and given us fries. Had we known, we wouldn’t have ordered there. Sadly, don’t really remember anything about the burger, but that may have been because of the missing tornado potato.
Like with any meal, we ended the night with some shaved ice from Hau Nani Shave Ice . Sonia went for the mango, and I got the lychee. This was a nice way to close out the day, and would be a reason alone to go to the food trucks. Not only was there the flavored syrup over the ice, but they added a good amount of fruit to help sweeten it up. Highly recommend it.
Pau Hana Market is located at 234 Beach Walk, Honolulu, HI 96815.
Our last day in Hawaii was probably one of our better food days on the trip. We started our day with brunch at Goofy Cafe + Dine, which was a short walk from the hotel. I finally got my loco moco, which did not disappoint. Sonia went a little healthier than I did and had a farmer’s omelette that came with a taro English muffin. If you are staying at the Hilton Hawaiian Village or close by to it, I would highly recommend Goofy.
Goofy Cafe + Dine is located at 1831 Ala Moana Boulevard, Suite 201, Honolulu, HI 96815.
Our last meal of the trip was at Blue Water Shrimp & Seafood Market, which was convenient since it was in the food court in the resort. They have a nice selection of traditional options, meats and of course seafood. We had a tough time deciding what to get because of all of the options, so in the end we created our own combos. Sonia had the ahi poke and the giant prawns while I got the garlic shrimp and the steak. We couldn’t find one thing wrong with either of our meals, and actually regretted not trying this place sooner. Definitely, the perfect way to end the trip.
Blue Water Shrimp & Seafood Market is located in the Hilton Hawaiian Village at 2005 Kalia Road, Honolulu, HI 96815.
One last thing to note though about Hawaii. If you get a chance, go to McDonald’s and get a haupia pie. Looks like Hawaii may be the one state left where they still fry the pies.
