Our first full day in Hawaii! Warning: lots of eating ahead!
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Marukame is a Japanese-based noodle chain with over 1,000 locations worldwide. The restaurant is set up like a cafeteria where an assembly line of workers prepare your noodles. As you go further down, you can also pick-up a variety of tempura and musubi. It's easy to go a little overboard because everything is just so affordable!
Once you pay at the very end, there is a self-serve station where you can pick up water, cutlery, condiments, and garnishes. Seating wasn't hard to find since there's a constant turnaround, but we did have to split into two different tables for our group of five.
Between my siblings and I, we decided to share two bowls of udon and an assortment of tempura and musubi to share. Their best seller is their nikutama udon (regular size $6.80) which includes an onsen egg and a sweet beef and onion topping.
To be honest, I wasn't expecting much even with all the hype. I assumed everyone ate here because it was cheap. To my surprise, it was actually super delicious. The udon is perfectly soft but chewy. The broth also clings to the noodles really well; it's light but extremely flavourful. I also liked how the egg provided some creaminess while the beef and onion was soft and sweet.
As for the sides, I thought the tempura was good, although quite standard. A good thing about Marukame's popularity is that the tempura gets replenished fairly often so it's pretty much guaranteed to be fresh and crispy.
After we finished, we headed over to Hawaii's only Starbucks Reserve Bar for a pick-me-up. The Reserve locations are larger stores that are a bit more specialized in their coffee and production methods. They still carry regular Starbucks menu items, but you'll also find cold brew, nitro, and pour-overs.
Next up, we headed over to the International Marketplace. It's an open-air shopping center that was completely renovated a few years back. We found ourselves here a lot since our hotel was directly across the street.
The mall has a mix of low and high-end stores. There's also plenty of dining options, including a third floor solely dedicated to restaurants. There's also a large banyan tree that runs through the middle, which they've preserved during the renovations.
One of my favourite stores in the mall was Mitsuwa. It's a Japanese supermarket that sells a variety of Japanese groceries, snacks, and prepared food. They also had a few independent food stalls towards the back, including Hokkaido Ramen Santouka, matcha LOVE, and MoDo.
I was really excited to try MoDo, as they specialize in mochi doughnuts! The shape of the doughnuts brought me back to Japan, with Mister Donut and their signature "pon de ring".
I would definitely recommend going earlier in the day if you want the full selection of flavours. We were there quite early but we saw someone leaving with boxes and boxes of doughnuts which meant two of the flavours I wanted to try were already sold out. (Ube and lilikoi, I'll come back for you!)
In the end, I went for black sesame, cookies and cream, matcha, and strawberry. The doughnuts were individually priced but they were all under the $2 mark. Each doughnut has the same mochi base. It's fluffy, chewy, and surprisingly not greasy or oily to the touch. Out of the flavours we chose, my favourite was the strawberry glaze. It didn't taste at all artificial; instead, it reminded me of a really fresh strawberry ice cream.
While we were in the mall, we also stopped at the Honolulu Cookie Company (HCC) to pick up some souvenirs. Like ABC Stores, you'll find HCC at almost every corner. They make the best shortbread cookies.
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To beat the heat, we stopped at Banán. It's a "beach shack" located on the side of Royal Hawaiian Center. They specialize in dairy-free soft serve made entirely from frozen bananas.
We went for the cup-sized Riss Moore ($8.00) which is a swirl of their original banana flavour and their açaí flavour. It's surrounded by papaya, pineapple, strawberries, granola, puffed quinoa, shaved coconut, and a drizzle of honey. The banana flavour is pretty strong, so if you aren't a fan of bananas, it probably won't be your cup of tea. It's definitely a sweet treat that you won't feel guilty eating!
Later on in the day, we took an Uber over to Ala Moana Centre. It's the largest shopping mall in Honolulu and also the largest open-air shopping centre in the world. We browsed through a few stores but didn't go crazy since we were already getting tired from all the walking.
For lunch, we stopped at Shirokiya Japan Village Walk which is a sprawling Japanese food hall in the basement of Ala Moana. If you were overwhelmed with the choices at Waikiki Yokocho, wait until you see Shirokiya! I think we took multiple laps around the place just trying to decide on what to eat.
My sister and I weren't very hungry so we picked up a snack at Takoyaki Yama-chan. They sell a variety of different takoyaki, okonomiyaki, and yakisoba. We went for a 10-piece combo set where you can choose two different flavours. We opted to try the regular, topped with takoyaki sauce, mayonnaise, seaweed, and bonito flakes, and the cheese flavour, which includes the same toppings along with a healthy sprinkling of cheese. A pretty standard takoyaki but I do like how they make them fresh the traditional way!
Another popular offering at Shirokiya is cheap beer!
My dad and my brother wandered off on their own, so I'm not too sure on which stall they ended up buying from. My dad went with a steak and shrimp combo over rice. It also comes with a side of green salad and corn. The steak was quite tender and the shrimp was covered in a creamy, garlicky sauce.
My brother opted for the same, only with creamy pasta and a side of garlic bread. He had no complaints.
While everyone was busy eating, I went off on my own in search of Hello Kitty waffles! The waffles are sold at kulu kulu, a Japanese-style cake shop with a variety of different desserts. The waffles are exclusive to the Shirokiya location.
There's a minimum purchase of six pieces for $4.00. I went for the plain mochi, red bean mochi, chocolate, custard, green tea custard, and strawberry. They were just okay. The waffle is soft and doesn't come with very much filling on the inside. But they're really too cute to pass up!
When we exhausted our shopping options at Ala Moana, we took another Uber back to the hotel.
Around dinnertime, my brother and I headed out in search of food while everyone else rested up. We decided on Maguro Brothers since it was conveniently located around the corner of our hotel. They specialize in fresh raw fish, in sliced sashimi or poke form. Their original Chinatown location is only open for lunch, while their Waikiki location is only open for dinner. It's also take-out only so we planned to enjoy our dinner out on the balcony. They open at 5:30pm and close when they sell out. We got there around 5 minutes before they opened but there was already a line 15 people deep! In total, it took about 30-40 minutes to order but only a few minutes before we got our food.
We got an XL poke bowl ($12.75) with half spicy mayo ahi and half shoyu onion ahi . What I like about poke in Hawaii is that it's just simply marinaded fish and rice. While I enjoy a good poke bowl loaded with toppings, this is the traditional way that allows the freshness of the fish to shine. I just wouldn't order the spicy mayo again because it was too spicy for us.
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- CT
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