Eating My Way Around the Big Island
30 Dec 2009 Leave a Comment
in Good Eatin', Places I Go Tags: adventure, food, hawaii, historical landmarks, malasadas, road trip, sushi
- Lots of Driving
View Larger Map on Google Maps.
Mom, Grandma and I went on a serious drive today and ate our way around the island. We started out in Kealakekua and began our journey north.
Stop 1: Brewalalai (pink arrow)
Hualalai is the name of the dormant volcano that overlooks Kailua-Kona. It is scheduled to erupt again, oh, any moment now, but my neighbors don’t seem concerned. This coffee shop, on the slopes of its namesake, serves up coffee al fresco and sells its own unique brew. We were going to need it at 8:30 this morning if we expected to have any kind of get up and go for the 5 hours of driving ahead.
Stop 2: Parker Ranch, Waimea (purple arrow)
- In case you were riding a horse, and not a car
Traditionally, we stop here in Waimea to use their fantastic restroom facilities…
- I would also prefer if you weren’t broken, Mr. Hand Dryer
… and the view:
- Green Rolling Hills of Cowboy Country
I couldn’t take any pictures of the horses, cows, sheep, goats and the occasional emu because we were too busy speeding past them to get to our next stop. Believe me I tried, as you can see here. Just kidding about the emu, by the way. No such thing as emu’s on the Big Island… right?
Stop 3: Tex’s Drive-In (Yellow Arrow)
- Tex’s Drive In
- Malasada
Malasadas are (depending on who you talk to) pastries from either the Philippines or Portugal. They’re balls of fried dough dipped in regular cane sugar. If you’re gonna plan on getting fat, I say simplicity is best. We used to stop here at Tex’s all the time to pick up a dozen or so to bring to family members on the Hilo side as an Omiyage (trans: gift in Japanese). Not so much anymore seeing as carbs are such a bad thing nowadays. Damn you, Dr. Atkins!
I couldn’t justify passing up this opportunity today, however. Today was a day of throwing caution to the wind. And when your day starts off with fried dough, you can’t expect to spend the rest of your road trip eating carrots. It’s only gonna get better.
Stop 4: Paauilo Store (blue arrow)
- Paauilo Store
- Variety of Maki Sushi Bento Rolls
This roadside shop sells all sorts of sundries and was set up in an old plantation style building, probably the plantation’s credit union. It still has the sign from plantation times, which you can see in this flickr set, along with other plantation style buildings (including the neighborhood where my grandma grew up). But we didn’t come for the history! We came for the food!
I’m used to Grandma’s futomaki, which is a roll of rice wrapped in nori, filled with a center of pink and white fishcake, seasoned canned tuna, dried mushrooms, cucumber and fried scrambled egg. They’ve innovated the concept at the Paauilo Store by filling the maki rolls with teriyaki chicken OR fried chicken katsu with katsu sauce, fishcake, furikaki and SPAM. Oh, the comforts of my childhood. These we were going to save for later, though.
Stop 5: Cafe Pesto, Hilo (light blue arrow)
- Cafe Pesto
- The Waterfront
This is a favorite of my mom’s and mine. It faces the waterfront, which was once destroyed by a Tsunami in the 1920s. The town is still very quaint, and feels a bit like you’ve passed through a time warp. See the rest of the pictures of the town’s antiquated architecture in this flickr set. But again, we’re not here for the history. So bring on the food!
Grandma had the Pesto Burger, Mom had the Wood-Roasted Chicken Risotto, and I had the Hakalau Sandwich and for dessert… Oh dessert. Check out the whole menu on their website here.
- Pesto Burger
- Risotto
- Hakalau Sandwich
Coconut Tart
Creme Brulee
Lilikoi Cheesecake
As it always goes whenever I come home, I’m just so excited to be having food with my family that I always ALWAYS eat too much and my stomach was hurting for hours. But was the meal worth all the pain? It SURE WAS.
There were pros and cons to each of the dishes. Mom felt the risotto was a little too salty, but Grams was impressed with the size of the burger. The Hakalau Sandwich, while simple with just the kalua turkey filling didn’t need much else, the mango chutney was a nice addition.
The big winners were the desserts. Mom and Grandma both share a sweet tooth, so the Tart with vanilla syrup and Cheesecake with the Fruity sauce and layer of chocolate on the crust completely satisfied. As I said before, I like to fatten myself in simple ways, so the brulee was perfect. It was also the straw that broke the camels back and it took a long while before I recovered.
I've got custard coming out my ears!
Rows and Rows of Fabric
After visiting with some family members, it was time to head back. We decided to go the south route, completing our ‘Round the Island journey. But first, Grandma needed to get some fabric from the old Singer store (Stop 6: green arrow) and I needed to get a few patterns. Guess what you’ll soon be subjected to, blogosphere! My crappy attempts at dressmaking!
Returning home, we passed Na’alehu (Stop 7: Closed Bathroom-red arrow) where lots of happy cows call home. Here are some sights of the landscape there. You can, of course, see the rest of the pictures on the flickr set. I also took some gratuitous pictures of myself that I can’t seem to get looking right on the blog, so check em out here.
A Love Letter To The Folks I Meet In Los Angeles
28 Dec 2009 Leave a Comment
in Los Angeles Tags: adventure, Los Angeles, people watching
After reading this post, I felt the need to write a similar letter, considering I’ve been running into such interesting characters recently. Maybe it’s because I’ve been hanging out with a friend of mine from Chicago and through her curious and open eyes, it’s easier to remember the things that I absolutely love about living here.
Dear Mr. Homeless Person Talking to a Lamp Post on Cahuenga on my way to Cinespace: I’ve seen other people talk to inanimate objects before, but it always seemed like they’d reached a breaking point with their psychoses before an argument began. You, however, seemed to be having a very peaceful conversation with your lamp post, like you had accepted the weirdness of your brain and made peace with it. Who am I to say that the lamp post wasn’t responding just because I can’t understand the language that you’re both speaking?
Dear Teenage Spoken Word Poet at the Greenway Court Theatre: I love how much you love yourself. You rock a pair of plastic yellow Ray Bans like no one has ever rocked a pair of yellow Ray Bans before. The amount of swagger you’ve got tells me that you can’t be older than 18. As the years go by, that self-assuredness slips away from most folks, but hopefully it won’t slip away from you. You go ahead with your bad self, girl. You speak your poetry like it’s the dopest thing ever to have been bestowed unto mankind.
Dear Mr. Peacoat at the Cha Cha Lounge. For a straight man, you had the most delicious style. You awkwardly asked me for my number, but never called. It was probably because we met each other 10 minutes before the bar closed and that’s always an awkward moment to meet anyone. I didn’t get to ask you what you did for a living, but I’ll go on imagining that you’re writing a novel somewhere with influences rooted in Jungian philosophy and/or Nitzche.
Dear Actor guy from the Milk Commercials. You’re in a band aren’t you? Yeah, I think you’re in one of the bands that plays at Spaceland with a friend of mine. I see you all the time walking down the street in Los Feliz, but I never have the guts to say hi. I also think we went to college together, but now that you’re in those Milk Commercials, that’s all I can see. It’s really your mustache that does it. You’re like Tom Selleck meets Frank Zappa only blonde.
Dear Asian Man with the PitBull on 5th and Main. You don’t look so tough, I’m not gonna lie. If you didn’t have your dog with you, I’d probably want to mug you because you had a pretty expensive looking jacket on. But your beautiful pitbull puppy reminded me not to fuck with you. Not that the pitbull was so scary looking or anything, it’s just that beneath those doe-eyes I know that it’s still a pitbull. Maybe that’s indicative of who you are. Maybe you look one way on the outside, but you could really tear a bitch apart.
Dear Couple Making Out at the Downtown Art Walk: Half of me is saying, “Seriously?” The other half of me is saying, “I guess all you really need is Love.” I mean, messy PDAs aren’t so fun to watch, but they sure are fun to be a part of, am I right?
Dear Lesbian Woman Who Drew A Moustache Onto Your Upper Lip: “AWESOME!”
Originally posted here.
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