Kauai Update, Part I - What We Ate

Dear Friends and Family,

We're back. Wow! Boy, did I need a vacation badly.

Mr. mouse is taking a nap, so I figured now is as good a time as any to start the vacation recap. We took the week off and headed out to Kauai, Hawaii. More on this later.

What We Ate

I refuse to eat at the hotel when traveling in Hawaii. There's too much good food at great prices to justify not taking advantage of the deals. Hawaii wouldn't be complete, for me, without POG, spam musubi and Korean plate lunches.

Ramen Hawaiian Style = Saimin. It's a noodle based soup dish, meat broth, toppings ranging from pork and scallions (for me) to scallions, pork, fish cake, veggies, boiled egg, and other unidentified bits (for Mr. mouse would got the house special). We hit Hamura's Saimin Tuesday night. Dinner for two was under $20, including a stick of chicken teriyaki. There was one other obvious tourist couple (too pale to be local) and a bunch of locals chowing down on the yummy soup. It was my first time, but definitely one to add to the roster going forward.



Orange Juice Hawaiian Style = POG. POG stands for Passion Fruit - Orange - Guava. It's my morning juice when on the islands. I don't normally have juice with breakfast, but I can't resist POG. We picked up a quart every night and I had two glasses each morning. We found it in a can, so I brought home two 6 packs. I'll have to space it out to make it last.

We stopped by a sandwich/smoothie hut on Wednesday. Mango Mama's specializes in organic foods. We picked up a turkey sandwich loaded with greens, tomatoes, onions and sprouts. Yum. Yum. And, we got two bananas. The bananas on Hawaii are half the size of bananas on the mainland. They've got another name... strawberry bananas? apple bananas? something like that... They're tangier and sweeter at the same time. So good. They were out of hummus, so we stopped by the supermarket for the second half of lunch.

Sashimi Hawaiian Style = Poke. We hit the local Safeway and picked up two containers of rice and three containers of poke. Poke is raw fish marinated in spices, soy sauce and herbs. We got some ahi poke, salmon poke and octopus. The octopus is cooked, but the concept is the same. My favorite was the salmon. Again, full meal for two, under $20. Nice.


Korean barbecue Hawaiian Style = plate lunch/dinner. This is a points buster, but we made it work by eating only half of it for dinner and saving the other half for lunch. It's Korean barbecue modified a little but still recognizable as Korean. But, what you'd expect from a lunch truck, not a restaurant. What's really different is the proportions. Double the rice, triple the meat and an infinitesimal portion of veggies. For some reason, a scoop of macaroni salad gets added on the side. Go figure. We stuck the leftover meat in a baguette we picked up at Safeway. Alone, right around ~$20 for two. Once you amortize over two meals, well south of $20.


Thursday night, we tried something new for dinner. We went Polynesian Cafe. Their slogan is gourmet food, paper plate. It was packed, so we took it as a good sign. I ordered the ahi sandwich and Mr. mouse ordered the Kalua pork Po Boy. My sandwich was heavenly. The fish was cooked just right and the bread and sauce complemented the fish without overpowering it. Mr. mouse's sandwich was great as well. The pork had the smokiness imparted from being cooked luau style. Another great meal for under $20.


Snow cone Hawaiian Style = Shave Ice. We had to try it after seeing so many signs for it and reading about it in the guide books. So, after dinner, Thursday, we got one to share. It's literally ice that's shaved from a gigantic block using a shave ice machine. Then, it's flavored with syrups. We got cherry lime. And, for giggles, we had it topped with condensed milk. It's rich. It's sickeningly sweet. It's huge. It'd be a 10 year old's dream come true. I had a couple of spoonfuls, but let Mr. mouse have most of it. The sugar rush that late at night would have sent me into orbit. But, it's part of the experience, so we had to try it.


Friday lunch and dinner were very simple affairs. We picked up some sliced turkey at Safeway, used the second half of our baguette and made sandwiches. We also got some pre-sliced pineapple. ABC supplied the rest of Friday's food finds. We got 2 Chinese buns, one with char siu, Chinese barbecue pork, and one with lap cheong, Chinese sausage. Which brings us to the last, but not least, saving the best for last, food entry. Spam musubi. I grew up on Spam. I grew up on rice. Spam musubi is rice topped with spam. How can life be any more perfect? A trip to Hawaii wouldn't be complete without it. All of Friday for less than $20.


Okay, I hear Mr. mouse stirring, so I'll continue later.


Cheers!
mouse

PS: Pictures will be added once we're back at the house.