SNAPSHOTS | HAWAII 2020 | DAY 5

Our second last day in Hawaii was actually my sister's birthday! We didn't have a whole lot planned in terms of activities but we made sure to do plenty of eating to celebrate. Starting with brunch!

Koko Head Cafe is one of the most popular brunch restaurants on the island. Headed by chef Lee Anne Wong, a Top Chef alumni, the restaurant is located in the charming neighbourhood of Kaimuki. The menu is an amalgamation of the many different cultures found in Hawaii. You'll find twists on Hawaiian and American classics with influences from Japan, Korea, and Portugal.

It was pretty much a full house when we arrived, so we put our name down and stuck around on the benches outside. It was 20 minutes or so before the hostess called us back in.

Everything on the menu sounded amazing but we were able to narrow it down to some of the restaurant's specialties. The donburi chen ($17.00) was one of our server's recommendations. It was a rice bowl topped with French-style scrambled eggs, miso smoked pork, five spice pork belly, house-made pickles, and a piece of chicharron. A very filling and meaty dish, but we all found the pork belly was a bit tough.

We also shared the koko moco ($17.00), their take on the Hawaiian classic, loco moco. It's a beef hamburger patty served over rice, smothered with mushroom gravy and topped with a fried egg. On the side were some pieces of tempura kimchi. Because it was served in the cast iron, the rice got nice and crispy along the bottom.

I love a good hashbrown and couldn't resist adding it as a side ($6.00). The hashbrown is served in triangle wedges with a side of ketchup. It's thick and crispy, but breaks apart into tender, fine shreds. 

Our final dish is probably the restaurant's claim to fame. The cornflake French toast ($16.00) is breaded with cornflakes and deep-fried. It's paired with a couple strips of billionaire’s bacon, Frosted Flake gelato and a drizzle of creamy black pepper maple syrup. The crust on the French toast was nice and crispy but the inside was still soft and airy. While it was good, LT and I both thought that nothing could compare to the French toast we had at Le Passe Compose in Montreal. (That was life-changing.)

After brunch, we walked down the street over to Pipeline Bakeshop & Creamery. We were beyond full but we wanted to make the most out of our journey to Kaimuki.

Like Leonard's, Pipeline is another bakery popular for their malasadas. Besides that, they offer homemade ice cream, cookies, mini Bundt cakes, and other treats. 

I was planning on trying their malasada bread pudding but thought the ube haupia mac nut bar ($4.25) would be a smarter, lighter choice. The bar consists of a macadamia nut shortbread base, ube filling, and then a layer of coconut haupia pudding. It was delicious! Not too sweet with lots of different textures coming into play.

While we were sitting at the table, my sister saw they had affogato ($6.50) on the menu and quickly went back to the counter to order it. Affogato is an espresso shot poured over ice cream. She was able to choose from any of their homemade ice cream flavours but I was able to convince her on the malafrozada gelato. Malasada cream base with bits of malasadas and sugar throughout. They even trademarked the name!

We ended up walking around the neighbourhood for 20 minutes more before catching an Uber back to the hotel. We took it easy before our parents wanted to explore around some places in Waikiki that we haven't been to yet.

One of those places was the T Galleria by DFS. It's a duty-free shop that sells upscale Hawaiian souvenirs and designer brands. Not that we bought anything, but window shopping helped kill some time.

My dad felt like something sweet so we stopped by Island Vintage Shave Ice, a small stand located right in front of the Royal Hawaiian Centre. We ordered one of their signature creations, the heavenly lilikoi ($8.95). There's a frozen yogurt base surrounded by the shave ice, which gives it a tart, creamy taste. Their fruit syrups use natural flavouring and you can really taste the difference! They also add a bunch of different toppings including popping boba, homemade mochi, and condensed milk. Probably the best shave ice on the island!

Around dinner time, we walked over to 100 Sails, located in the grand Hawaii Prince Hotel. The restaurant offers a daily buffet service, for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. When I made the reservation, I requested a table by the window because the views of the harbour are beautiful! We were also able to catch the sunset while we were there!

The buffet is priced at $62/person so a big appetite is a must!
 

A large draw of any buffet is the seafood! There was plenty of snow crab legs ready and waiting.

For my first couple of plates, I grabbed mainly seafood! Nigiri, sashimi, and salt and pepper shrimp. My favourite item was the fried oysters which I definitely grabbed seconds of.

A cool part of the buffet was the made-to-order temaki station! Choose from California, spicy tuna, scallop with masago, tuna salad, salmon skin, or tamagoyaki for your filling!

It's not a buffet without a prime rib carving station! Other hot items included mussels, Korean fried chicken, sauteed mussels, and mushroom ravioli. 

Every month, the buffet puts out a different special. During February, it was oxtail soup! I didn't try any but my mom said the soup had lots of collagen. Great for your skin apparently.

The dessert section wasn't too big, but I did manage to fit in some fruit, flan, a creampuff, raspberry cheesecake, and a strawberry tapioca pudding.

Also more cheese. Always have to get cheese.

I tipped them off that it was my sister's birthday and they brought out a special cake for her! We ended up taking it in a to-go box which they were happy to oblige with.

Not wanting to risk food coma, my mom encouraged us to walk off some of the calories but I knew she just wanted an excuse to shop some more. We ended up walking all the way to Don Quijote since it was only a 15 minute walk away. We were here just the day before but magically were able to find more stuff to buy!

Another ABC run to end the night! This lilikoi lychee juice sounded interesting but I found all the Hawaiian Sun drinks to be watered down with very little fruit flavour.

Only one more day in paradise to go!

- CT

SNAPSHOTS | HAWAII 2020 | DAY 4

On this particular day, we were finally breaking free of the confines of Waikiki to explore the North Shore of the island. We made a reservation for a car rental just across the street in the International Marketplace. It seemed like a lot of people had the same idea, as we waited half an hour in line before we were finally given our keys.

 Once we located our car in the parking structure, we were off!

 

We stopped for breakfast at Button Up Cafe in Pearl City, about a 30 minute drive west of Honolulu. Located in an older strip mall, Button Up Cafe is the definition of a hole in the wall. There are only 7 or so tables inside, with a maximum capacity of 15-20 people. But let me tell you, looks can be deceiving. This locals' favourite is churning out some pretty amazing breakfast and lunch dishes, served up on paper plates no less.

We didn't forget about the sheer volume of American portions, so we ordered four dishes to share among the five of us. One kalua pork hash benny ($14.95), two orders of the Korean braised short rib benny ($15.95), and one Portuguese sausage and spam omelette ($13.95). Each dish is served with your choice of tater tots, potato hash, rice, or fried rice. (Tater tots ftw.)

The omelette came packed with cubes of sausage and spam, but at the end of the day, it was an omelette. If you really want to be blown away, the Korean braised short rib benny is the one to get. The eggs are perfectly poached and the short rib is incredibly tender and flavourful. I think we were all fighting over who got the last piece of meat in the end! If we weren't so full, I would be all over their giant stuffed French toast!

Although the restaurant is mostly self-service, we found the staff to be super friendly. My entire family loved everything and declared it to be our favourite meal in Hawaii. We do have a penchant for no-frill places and this fit the bill perfectly. 

The next plan on our agenda was a short detour to Waikele Premium Outlets. Out of all the outlets I've been to, it was definitely on the smaller end. It has a majority of the usual suspects (Kate Spade, Coach, Michael Kors, etc.) but it didn't take us very long to walk through the entire center. I would probably give it a skip next time.

20 minutes on the road later, we arrived at the Dole Plantation!

We wandered through the gift shop first, and tried to resist every pineapple piece of merch we came across. They had everything that you could think of. Besides plushies and t-shirts, there are pineapple chocolates, pineapple dressings, and pineapple candies in every shape and form imaginable.

At the back of the store, the Plantation Grille serves up plenty of eats. The main thing that we came for was of course dole whip. We ordered ours with extra pineapple topping ($6.95). A bit more tart than what I was expecting but still really refreshing!

I didn't initially plan on it, but my parents wanted to ride the Pineapple Express train after seeing everyone else line up for it. It probably took us 45 minutes in line, and honestly, the tour was a bit uneventful.

Seeing baby pineapples at the end was probably the best part!

Moving further up the Kamehameha highway, we stopped in the community of Haleiwa for lunch.

There are shrimp trucks all across the North Shore, but arguably the most famous and most popular one is Giovanni's. They have two locations along the highway, with one of them parked in a cluster of other food trucks in Haleiwa. 

It was definitely past the lunch rush, but the line for Giovanni's was still quite impressive. I heard mixed reviews about Giovanni's from friends and family so I wasn't too excited for it.

Instead, we had our eyes set on their neighbour! Like Giovanni's, HONO's Shrimp Truck also serves garlic shrimp plates, along with kalbi and other flavours of shrimp. We didn't have the luxury of time to try both trucks, but we were happy that there was no line at HONO's!

We ordered two plates of garlic shrimp ($13.00) which comes with two scoops of rice, a dozen shrimp, shredded cabbage salad, and plenty of garlic sauce. We also wanted to try their kalbi but they were all sold out for the day.

The shrimp are sauteed in a buttery garlic mixture. Seriously. So. Much. Garlic. It's quite messy to have to peel the shrimp but you can also eat them with the shells on if you're so inclined.  

Lots of roaming chickens around so you have to be careful and guard your food!

Another North Shore staple is shave ice! Yes, not shaved ice, but shave ice.

The most popular spot among tourists is Matsumoto Shave Ice. The line seems daunting but it moves rather fast! They have a good system going on -- very streamlined and efficient.

We ordered a large ($3.50) along with extra condensed milk ($0.50) and mochi ($1.00). You can choose up to three flavours of syrups or any of their combinations. I appreciated how they wrote out the flavours in the colour that the syrup came in. Great for photos! You wouldn't want to get three flavours that all came in white, would you?

We decided on guava, mango, and lychee. The texture of the shave ice is similar to a snow cone, just a bit finer.

Just 5 minutes down the road, we stopped at Laniakea Beach. It's better known as Turtle Beach as sea turtles like to bask under the sun on the sand. We weren't lucky enough to catch a glimpse of them so we just spent a few minutes admiring the waves and some of the surfing action going on!

Back to the city! It was raining lightly all day so we caught a giant rainbow on the drive back.

Since we had the car at our disposal, my parents wanted to stop by Costco. I normally don't like shopping at Costco very much but there was lots of interesting things to look at. It's also a great place to pick up souvenirs!

Our cart! (This is how you can tell the tourists apart from the locals.)

It's a lot more cost efficient to buy macadamia nuts and chocolates in bulk rather than at ABC stores!

For dinner, I had to quickly look for a spot that would appease everyone's taste. My parents were craving Chinese food (typical), while us kids didn't want something that we could easily get back at home.

Enter Jolene's Market, a relatively new spot located in the Chinatown Cultural Plaza. It's a restaurant with a number of different concepts all under one roof. Part seafood shack, part Hong Kong style cafe, part bar, and part dessert house. A tad confusing but definitely interesting.

My brother and I both ordered from "Da Buttah Lobstah" part of the menu. We each got a lobster roll with corn & bacon chowder ($15.00). The lobster is tossed in a sweet, creamy mayo, before being adorned with shredded romaine, pickled Asian veg, onion, cilantro, and Cajun butter sauce. We were both pleasantly surprised at how good this was! It's a small roll, but had plenty of fresh lobster meat! The corn and bacon chowder was sort of an afterthought but it was nice to have something on the side. 

My parents and sister shared a few of the Hong Kong style dishes, including the cold ginger chicken with rice ($13.95) and the wonton and braised beef lo mein ($15.95).

The handmade potstickers ($10.95) were my sister's pick. Unfortunately, my parents weren't overly impressed with the Chinese food here. 

We still had some time before we had to return the car so we stopped by Don Quijote. Think of Don Quijote as Hawaii's Japanese Wal-Mart. It was our favourite store while we were in Japan! While it wasn't of the same caliber in Hawaii, we were still so overwhelmed by everything in the store. Also, it's open 24 hours!!

So many different kinds of spam! We picked up garlic, teriyaki (x2), and Portuguese sausage.

We were so full but the prepared food looked so tempting!! We could have easily spent more time in Don Quijote but we did have to return the car before the rental place closed. (Don't worry, we came back a second time.)

- CT