More food in Hawaii that we ate:
The first poke and more poke. Our first stop after we landed was Costco. I’ve heard so much about poke at Costco that I had to try. Live and learn, it was not good poke. And it wasn’t cheap compared to what we had later.
I read in the Costco magazine that where poke was invented was a must eat. It was in a little local grocery store with a little asian lady behind the counter. The poke was definitely much better than Costco. I was satisfied…until we found out locals didn’t think it was the best. Our zipline guide told us that every other grocery store had better poke than that place! That was a good tip, because we found that most markets or random grocery stores sell poke by the pound at the deli section. There is a good variety – octopus, clams, even tiny crab, and different flavor marinates of the ahi tuna. We stopped by a random Foodland and got some salmon poke, a perfect protein snack for someone like me on a low carb diet. It was really good.
We went to the Foodland close to our airbnb for our last meal – poke from the deli section. My eyes were bigger than my stomach, we ended up throwing away about 1/4 pound of it.. Wow, that never happens! Why can’t we sell poke by the pound here instead of by the scoop? And such small scoops there is never enough! To think I had too much poke in Hawaii…I miss that. Did I tell you it’s not expensive? It’s $9.99 a pound!
Zippys. It’s a fast food chain with local Hawaiian food. It’s great comfort food. I had the best oxtail soup, recommended by Lorin. My husband had the miso honey chicken, it was good too. Everything comes with 2 scoops of rice, so Asian here,. I like that even though I don’t eat rice.
Liliha bakery. That was on Lorin’s list for the cocopuffs. It’s a cream puff filled with a lot of the custard, it was worth eating a half of 2 different flavors – green tea and original. The green tea was not great but good.
Liliha was also a restaurant so we went back for dinner. Again, it’s Hawaiian comfort food. I think I like Zippy’s better.
Ala Moana Maiki food court. I don’t recommend. I understand it’s food court, not gourmet, but still could be better. We were there 1/2 hour before closing, at a steak place. The steak was tough and not much flavor. But of course, it’s a food court and it was cheap so what did we expect? I was hoping for a little better.
Uncle Clay’s shaved ice. We don’t love shaved ice. It’s just sugar syrup. We’ve had really good shaved ice in Taiwan, but Uncle Clay’s is suppose to be the best. It did not disappoint. Taiwan was better though.
McDonald’s. I know. But it was a block from our airbnb so we went there for breakfast. My husband just want to get food. I don’t eat food, I eat for the experience. The draw to McD was the taro pie. It was definitely worth my limit of 1/2 the pie. I really wanted to eat the whole thing. It would sell here in our Asian community.
Aunt Pat’s cafe at Kualoa Ranch. This was in the Kualoa Ranch after ziplining. Grass-fed 1/4 pound burger (raised on the big island of Hawaii) was really good! And considering it’s a tourist trap the price and quality was excellent.
Waiahole Poi Factory. From the name you would think it’s a restaurant. It’s actually just a little place by the side of the road recommended by our zipline guide. So after Aunt Pat’s where we split the burger, we drove 10 minutes to eat laulau, poi, and lomi salmon, the real Hawaiian food experience. It was good, except for the poi which apparently no one really likes but you’ve got to try it. Also splurged on their ice cream with a warm mochi on the bottom. That was worth my sugar as well.
To be continued…