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