hawaii

Oahu, Hawai'i Part 2, Waikiki, Farmers' Market and Beyond

maki — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 15:21:43 +0100

Continuing my trip report! As I mentioned, I moved down to a regular hotel in Waikiki for the last 4 nights of my stay. (Several people mentioned that I should have rented a cottage or condo, and even sent some useful links. I actually prefer to do this most of the time when I travel, but because of the short notice and some other reasons, I wanted to stick to hotels this time.)

Waikiki

I don’t have a lot to say about Waikiki actually. It is beautiful, pristine, crowded, and full of tourists.

To be honest it really isn’t my style, but for someone whose ideal vacation is lots of beach time interposed with lots of shopping and eating out, a little clubbing time and some spa treatments, it’s perfect. Food wise, there are tons restaurants there, in all price ranges, to suit every taste. If you are a timid eater there are national chains, and if you like Asian food you’ll be in heaven. And the ubiquitous ABC Stores, where snacks and drinks among many other things are sold, are so thick on the ground that you can’t go half a block without hitting one.

(Derail: Nowhere is it more evident how much Japanese tourists are catered to on Oahu than in Waikiki. I have heard that some people are not too happy about this for various reasons, but just from a very brief observation it’s not really surprising. The beach is crowded with people of all ethnicities and nationalities, but in the shops you mostly see Japanese tourists, especially in the high end ones. This is something you still see in other cities too - for instance, the last time I was in Milan a year or so ago, the Dolce and Gabbana store was packed with young Japanese girls. I popped into Kate Spade in the Royal Hawaiian Center (I love her handbag designs, though I actually only own one), and during the 15 minutes or so I was there, only Japanese tourists came in - and yes I do know they were Japanese and not other Asians. I’ve always found this shopping habit of Japanese people from Japan to be bewildering and vaguely embarrassing as a fellow Japanese person. It may be that young Chinese girls are following in the footsteps of the Japanese girls in their pursuit of high end brands, and that would be sort of bad, imho. But enough about that…)

The best touristy thing we did in Waikiki was to go to the House Without A Key at the Halekulani Hotel around sunset, for tropical drinks and dinner. The food was okay, but it’s the setting that makes it all worthwhile.

I think next time I will skip dinner and just have drinks and snacks there. Here’s a mai-tai with the cold pupu (appetizer), which has a refined version of ahi tuna poke.

Honolulu

I actually didn’t get to see much of Honolulu due to a lack of time. I did do a bit of Japanese-food browsing, which I’ve written about on Just Bento. I think that if your time is very limited, Shirokiya is the best store to go to for your Japanese-stuff fix. It’s in the Ala Moana Center, which has lots of other shopping for your pleasure. The only other store I went to there though was the Crack Seed Center to pick up some li hing mui powder (a highly addictive red sweet-sour-salty powder that is popular in many Asian countries, though not in Japan).

Here’s a rainbow that broke out in the early evening sky as we drove through Honolulu:

It rained quite a lot almost every day, but it never was a downer, since the rain cleared up quite fast. Besides it was still warm, and it was fascinating to see the sky above us changing - blue sky over there, dark clouds rolling over there - as we rolled down the road in our rental car (yep we got a convertible), or sat lazily on the beach. Tropical paradise, indeed.

Saturday Farmers’ Market

Wherever I travel, I make it a point to go to a local market or marché (such as at my yearly summer destination, Provence), and this time was no exception. The highlight of my Oahu trip food-wise was the wonderful Farmers’ Market. It’s held every Saturday morning at Kapiolani Community College and elsewhere on other days (website). I went to the Saturday market, which is a just a short drive from Waikiki. (I think you can also take the bus there.) It’s not huge, but had everything a good farmers’ market should have: great local produce, plenty of ready-to-eat snacks, and a lively, friendly vibe.

I loved the displays of locally grown tropical fruit.

I’d never seen rambutan on branches before. I think we pay about this much for a single rambutan here in Zürich.

Happy eggs, flowers and baked goods - must-haves at any market.

Sweet corn and sweet onions grown on the North Shore. I loved this tablecloth.

There were also fish (locally caught and/or aquaculture) and meat (locally and organically grown) stalls. The colors of the stall here just shout Hawai’i to me.

I was a bit wary of these sea asparagus inarizushi, but they were delicious. The sea asparagus (which I know better as samphire, also known as glasswort and sea bean) are hydroponically grown locally by Kahuku Sea Asparagus.

The Two Hot Tomatoes stall was doing a brisk business in freshly deep fried vegetables. The sausage stall right nearby was also good.

Mmm, fried green tomato.

I also tried a huge strawberry daifuku, a refreshing ginger-pineapple ale, poke, and too many fruit samples to count. (I saved the daifuku, inarizushi and a bag of macadamia nuts for a picnic later at the beach.)

Needless to say, I highly recommend going to one of the farmers’ markets if you’re even vaguely interested in great local food. There’s more bang for your buck there than any high-end restaurant.

Some other culinary notes

I did not get to really a whole lot of Hawaiian food, because I just ran out of time. Also, I had some stomach troubles for about a day and a half, during which I just had onigiri (rice) from ABC and fruit, which I did not mind at all. (Fresh coconut…apple bananas…bright pink guava slices…incredibly sweet pineapple with li hing mui powder…) Next time I’ll try all those things that people urge me to.

I tried a loco moco…it’s a hambaagaa with a fried egg on top, rice and gravy. Was not bowled over. (My hambaagaa is much better than the one I had, which didn’t help.)

The Dole Plantation was quite Disneyesque, in its bland all-American-ness. The gift shop looked just like a Disney boutique. The best snack there is probably the Dole Whip, but the last time I had a Dole Whip was at Adventureland in the Magic Kingdom at Disney World. We were there just briefly, mainly to look at the pineapple display garden out back. The little farmer’s market stall outside was good though (though you can find similar stalls along the North Shore roads.)

The Macadamia Nut Outlet is another tourist trap, but more endearingly down to earth. We got some coffee coated macadamias there.

Lead by a rave write-up (and a coupon) in one of the free Japanese magazines, not to mention the name, we went to Makino Chaya, a buffet in the Aloha Center. It was ok, but to be perfectly honest, they have better buffets of the type in the Northeast (specifically, Minado). But I did get to eat an indecent amount of poke there.

Wrapping up

Only 6 nights, which allows for 4 full days plus an evening and a morning if you come in from the mainland, was just too short a time to spend on Oahu. Next time I will plan a whole lot better, give myself more time, and will venture to the other islands too. I will be back for sure!

Some additional notes

If you’re at all interested in getting out of Waikiki/Honolulu and exploring the rest of Oahu on your own, a car is really good to have, even though the bus system covers the whole island basically. We rented a convertible, which was totally worth it. We also rented a GPS, which was not. It wouldn’t pick up a signal in some parts of Waikiki, probably due to the density of the buildings, and could not give instructions to natural landmarks like beaches or such - which is a serious oversight for Hawai’i! A good street map was way more useful.
Quite a few people have suggested it’s better to rent a condo or cottage in Hawai’i. I would agree. However, if you’re looking for a hotel, especially in Waikiki, be aware that most of them charge $20-30 per night for parking. The main reason we picked the Waikiki Parc was that the rate (which I found on Expedia) included parking. (The other reason was that it had access privileges to the Halekulani’s spa and things, for less than half the price. We ended up not going to the spa at all, and the House Without A Key was accessible to anyone, but at least the ‘free’ parking was worthwhile.)
Even if you don’t understand Japanese, it might be worth picking up a copy of the free KAUKAU magazine, which you will find at several magazine stands around Waikiki. It is packed with coupons for restaurants, shopping, spa treatments and such, and each coupon does have an English description. Oahu Gold (an English publication) has lots of coupons too, especially for things like tours and such.
Don’t be as unprepared as I was, and bring sandals and flip-flops from home! I ended up buying a pair of both, which ate a bit into my budget. The best footgear is a really good pair of walking sandals, which you will wearing around town as well as on the beach. Socks are like, so superfluous.
Web sites I found very useful include ‘Ono Kine Grindz, Go Visit Hawaii, and this forum thread on Trip Advisor. Someone took the advice offered there and made this handy Google Map of Oahu.

Oahu, Hawai'i Part 1, North Shore: Kahuku Shrimp and Shave Ice

maki — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 19:38:11 +0100

I’m back home now from my U.S. trip, which included an unplanned, low-budget yet glorious trip to Hawai’i, Oahu to be exact, as many of you guessed. Here’s the first of my food-centric reports before the memories fade…

The shave (no d! ok!) ice in the previous post was in fact from Aoki’s Shave Ice (warning: auto-playing music), which is in Haleiwa on the North Shore of Oahu, on the Kamekameha Highway. This area is known for being a surfer’s heaven, and has that laid-back, slightly scruffy vibe (though it is still quite commercialized). There are swimmable, calm waters as well as big waves, depending on the beach (most of which are blissfully empty). The people watching is great:

Not to mention the non-people watching too:

Back to the shave ice! We actually landed at Aoki’s because the store sign is much easier to spot than Matsumoto’s, but I don’t regret it at all.

Love the store hours:

But of course, Matsumoto’s is just a few steps down the same road; it’s just called Matsumoto Grocery Store and the shave ice logo part is rather small and hard to spot while driving by. In any case, later on we went to try them out too. Here’s a shot of a Matsumoto’s ice with the wooden paddle spoon thingie.

Aoki’s shaved ice is just a bit less sweet than Matsumoto’s, so I may prefer it personally - but they are both very good. And Matsumoto’s has way cooler (and a much bigger variety of) t-shirts. I bought three.

We saw at least two big vanloads of Japanese tourists disgorge their passengers into the store while we slurped on our ices.

Kahuku sweet shrimp at Giovanni’s and Macky’s

The other touristy food thing to do on the North Shore is Kahuku shrimp shacks. This is Giovanni’s Aloha Shrimp in Kahuku itself, again on the Kamekameha Highway, in the eastern part of the North Shore. I zeroed in there because it’s rated as the top eating destination on the North Shore by the Trip Advisors, and also because of the rave review on ‘Ono Kine Grindz. It’s a tradition for guests to scribble on the van apparently, but I didn’t have a pen and it was pouring rain so I missed the opportunity to add my own mark. All the more reason to return there someday.

Unfortunately, I committed the cardinal food blogger’s sin of forgetting to take a photo of my food before I tucked in. I just remembered before the last shrimp was gone! Here it is, the garlic shrimp version. Boy was it garlicky.

There are many other similar shrimp trucks on the North Shore. They are all set up similarly - there’s a big van where they cook the food and where you place your order, and a few picnic benches set up around the van. The one that seems to be trying the hardest in terms of promotional activity is Macky’s, which is in Haleiwa a bit down the road (heading west) from Matsumoto’s and Aoki’s. I just had to go to Macky’s because of the name.

At Macky’s I did remember to take a photo before tucking in. This is the spicy hot shrimp plate. It was indeed very spicy!

A slightly disconcerting feature of Macky’s is the family of chickens running rampant around the tables. They peck up any spilled food eagerly.

Here’s the cockerel, who at one point walked calmly right over my sandal-shod feet:

You can get a $2 off coupon in the free Oahu Gold magazine you can pick up everywhere, including at the airport, but a better deal is the 20% off coupon you can find in KAUKAU, a free magazine for Japanese tourists. This one is available all around Waikiki, as well as at Matsumoto’s, and while it is in Japanese the coupon pages have writing in English too, so if you are diligent you can spot the deals. (KAUKAU is quite visually overwhelming, in a very Japanese way - I brought back a couple of issues as souvenirs.) But the coupons don’t mean that Macky’s isn’t good. I actually slightly preferred them over Giovanni’s (though I didn’t have the same flavors so the comparison may be unfair). One telling thing is that Giovanni’s shrimp seemed to be pre-cooked, since we got our plates right away, while we had to wait a few minutes at Macky’s. The shrimp plates are $12 before coupons and discounts at both locations (and I suspect at all the other shrimp shacks too), and come with two scoops of white rice and about a dozen big shrimp. Macky’s plate also comes with a wedge of pineapple and green salad. You should try several shrimp shacks if time and your belly allow. I read that Romy’s, also in Kahuku, is also great.

Laie Inn, I so wanted to love you…

If I may digress from food for a bit: Initially, I booked my stay at the only affordable hotel that I could find online on the North Shore, the Laie Inn. The other hotel option in the area is the Turtle Bay Resort, where the available rooms (actually villas) started at $880 per night. (Of course I was booking with very short notice; Turtle Bay also has regular rooms for around $220, but were all booked up.)

Location wise the Laie Inn is terrific for exploring the North Shore. It has free wifi, free parking, a simple free breakfast, and you can walk over to a very nice beach. It has a McDonald’s next door and you can walk over to the Polynesian Cultural Center (though I didn’t go there in the end), not to mention a handy strip mall with a Foodland supermarket and ATMs. I so wanted to love it and stay the whole time there. But…it is just too grotty for me, and I’m not the pickiest person by any means. The toilet tank was cracked, as in almost falling in half, the air conditioning gave out the oddest smells and was very, very loud, the corners of the room smelled strongly of bleach and mold, and the carpet had the disturbing texture of a slightly moist washing up sponge. And the bathroom had some…mysterious…stains..some of which looked like blood or something. The bed linens were at least clean…and the front desk staff were really sweet and welcoming. So if all you require is something more solid to sleep in than a tent, it could be right for you. I guess I am too old and used to basic comforts…which makes me sort of sad. But, I really wish someone would renovate this place so I can go back, even if it means higher rates!

In any case, after 2 nights at the Laie I moved down to a regular modern hotel in Waikiki for the rest of my stay.

Part 2: Waikiki, Farmers’ Market and Beyond.

This was me, yesterday.

maki — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 16:32:58 +0100

I am mostly a plan-ahead, cautious type of person. But once in a while I like to do something just on a whim. Usually these whims turn out to be wonderful. (Sometimes not.)

Anyway, a couple of days ago, near the end of a rather difficult business trip, with my wrist/hand/arm still feeling stiff and wonky and feeling rather sorry for myself, I logged onto my [insert frequent flier miles program name] account and saw that I had a whole bunch of miles nearly expiring. And I decided I needed to spend them. Now.

So, some 48 hours later, I was at a location doing this:

Where might this be?

(Yes, my wrist/arm now feel a whole lot better - thank you! May need some attending to when I get home but am functional. However, blog updates may be a bit sporadic until next week as I may be spending a lot of time you know, chilling out. Lots and lots of chilling out.)

[Update:] Yes about half of you were right. I am in Hawai’i, on Oahu to be exact. My FF mileage didn’t quite add up to a trip to Japan (but that’s ok…I’m planning a serious long trip there next year anywho). But no one got the shaved ice shop right though :) It’s from Aoki’s, just a few steps down from Matsumoto’s. More to follow.