Hawaii (Part 2)

This post is on Hawaii: What I ate. To begin with, I definitely ate more than what I'm showing, but this was the good stuff (for the most part, at least when I remembered to take a picture.) My family and I had quite the sushi craving and after a few days, we were finally going to leave the lunch plates and find a place for sushi. Someone recommended to us a place with a late night happy hour so we figured we'd put the little ones who don't eat raw fish anyways to sleep and head out for some pupus (appetizers) and sushi. One of the dishes we had a salmon sashimi with maui onion... reallllly good.
Then we introduced my younger cousin (I suppose he's really my nephew) to the good stuff. We started with uni. I'm actually not a huge uni fan. I suppose it's acquired. I don't not like it but I'm not obsessed with it. This uni was ok. Everyone else said they've had better... for not the market price it was at. But the real winner was definitely this otoro. The person who took us to sushi (family friend) made sure to clarify it's from Japan and not Hawaii before we were allowed to order it. And my god, it was the most amazing piece of fish I've ever had in this world. I've had plenty of toro. And much of that toro was fairly good. But this one, I couldn't even get it off the rice to dab in some soy sauce. That's how soft and fatty it was.
My family and I are avid travel channel/food network fans. So of course, we had to try everything Adam from Man vs. Food had. To begin, the challenge: the macadamia nut pancakes from Mac 24/7. Ohhh my goodness it was huge. Definitely bigger than the baby (ps, isn't he adorable?) There were 9 of us, and I think we didn't even eat half of it.
Next we went to Helena's for the Pipikaula short ribs. They were pretty yummy and not the same as your traditional asian short ribs. Also pictured is the Kalua pig which was ok and the luau squid which was really yummy. It was a taste we couldn't really describe, but essentially pretty good. We even saw Helena herself!
And finally we finished up the Man vs. Food Honolulu episode with the Hokilau Cafe over on the other side of the island. Up until now, the only people eating were "the kids" even though we range from the bebe, to 10 all the way to 42. You're pretty much a kid as long as you don't have a kid on the trip over the age of 10. (hence you can be 42 and still part of the kids group because bebe is only 20 months. ) But since we were heading to the other side of the island for the tour, the grown ups had to come along to Hokilau Cafe. Our family of 25 took up the entire place. And yes, the burger is fantastic. The other stuff isn't bad, but not worth the drive. The burger is worth the drive.
And when in Hawaii, you must have shaved ice. This was recommended by the big sis as well as everyone else. So it must be good right? It was quite good. Wish there was natural fruit toppings but other than that, it was pretty good. The shaved ice itself was extremely fine and you could add topping such as red bean, ice cream, mochi, and flavored syrup.
Finally, one of the things our family could not get enough of were malasadas. They're essentially fried dough balls. Sometimes they come filled. We started off with the filled ones and I thought they were pretty good but then I got them not filled and found a better love for them. Best when fresh out of the fryer and simply covered in sugar... yum.
We also went to Puka Dog on Anthony Bourdain's recommendation (forgot to take a picture) and for a hot dog, really good. I had a polish sausage with jalapeno lemon garlic sauce, mango relish, and lilikoi mustard. Soooo good.

I have never had a huge desire to visit Hawaii, but now I really can't wait to go back to Hawaii again... and eat. and maybe layout a little. I did start getting a nice tan.