**** No food in this one. But we did go to a wonderful Farmer's Market and did a couple of hikes walks……
After our rather disappointing dinner at XO, we decided to take a short stroll. The Missus really enjoyed the shops on our previous visits to Kaimuki and we noticed that this shop was open.
It was one of those "zero waste" shops….ok, now we're really talking hipster, right? We had actually visited Origins Grocer when we did our Staycation at the Lafayette, so we were a bit familiar with places like this.
This place however, had kinds of "stuffs", and the Missus got a couple of things. The service was so friendly.
We'll probably return when we're in the area!
Keep it Simple Honolulu Zero Waste
3466 Waialae Ave.
Honolulu, HI 96816
We then "wen hele" back to the hotel and got back in time to see this lovely sunset.
We got up fairly early the next morning.
Funny thing, in the comments of my post on XO "Mar", a fellow ex-pat Kama'aina, mentioned the changes to various neighborhoods and made special mention of Kaka'ako. And man, is she right! So many developments! I remember when John Dominis was the fancy place and really stood out off Ahui street. In fact, I got a really funny story about JD's, but I think I'll save that for another day. I had first read about the Kaka'ako Farmers Market on Onolicious Hawaii, Kathy's fabulous blog….so much good info!
Anyway, it was Saturday morning and we didn't have to check out until 11, so we decided to walk on over. Man, so many changes in what used to be the Ward Warehouse/Ward Center area!
Things were just getting started and were pretty mellow when we arrived.
Some interesting booths…..
It was after Lunar New Year, so there was the "mini" Dragon thing going on…..
And of course, there were the pooches!
This one really cracked me up….
This is a literal definition of "doggy bag", right?
The Missus was intrigued with the bowls at this stand.
We ended up buying two wooden bowls. The woman running the stand was so enthusiastic and spent a good amount of time going over the curing and maintenance of the bowls. She even gave us paper instructions.
Unfortunately, we really didn't find anything we wanted to eat. So, we headed on back to the hotel.
Still, we had a fun time.
Kaka'ako Farmers Market
919 Ala Moana Blvd.
Honolulu, HI 96814
Saturdays 8am – 12pm
We walked on back to the hotel, stopping to pick up some coffee. After checking out, we got some stuffs to eat from Foodland Farms….we had a cooler which came in handy.
And then we headed to our next stop before driving back to Ewa Beach. Among all the places the Missus wanted to check out, the Diamond Head Summit was one of them. Like I mentioned in my posts on visiting Dole Plantation and doing the Makapu'u Lighthouse trail, these are places I hadn't been to in over a quarter of a century at least. In fact, the last time I did DHC was maybe more like over 30 years ago? Back in those days you didn't have to make reservations nor pay to visit. These days you do. Anyway, we arrived at the assigned time.
Of course the Missus thought of this as being a mere walk. All I could recall about my previous visits were the stairs……
Which weren't too bad. And of course the views are quite nice.
It was a lovely clear day.
After descending back into the crater we had a nice, light picnic lunch. Then headed on back to Ewa Beach…except….the Missus still wanted to do "something". As we headed past Moanalua I had an idea. There was a place I hadn't been to since the mid-80's. Some good friends took me there, just to check it out. Now, like 40 years later, I was interested to see how things were. So we drove up H-3, then over to Kam Highway, turning on Luluku Road. The Missus was wondering what the heck we were doing in what seemed to be a residential neighborhood. Eventually, the road becomes the access road to Hoʻomaluhia Botanical Garden, established in 1982.
There was ample parking and heck, I don't even remember there being a visitors center here when I last visited?
We enjoyed the displays and stories.
Especially this. And no, it's not what just entered your mind……
It's the seed of the Coco de Mer!
We decided to take one of the loop walks, which was fun and interesting.
The gardens have specific areas with different regions represented.
And the views of the Ko'olau is wonderful.
If I recall, the gardens sprouted (pun intended) from a project of the Army Corps of Engineers. To prevent flooding a dam was built and the gardens were created surrounding the reservoir. Which is named Loko Waimaluhia ("Lake of Tranquil Waters"). This is my favorite part of the gardens.
It is indeed quite tranquil. We were pretty much the only folks in the place. Well, except for the ducks who ran the place.
While this might not be a destination if you're just on Oahu for a couple of days unless you're a plant lover. If you want some relaxing views of the Ko'olau Range, this might be the place for you!
Plus, admission is free!
Ho’omaluhia Botanical Garden
45-680 Luluku Rd.
Kaneohe, HI 96744
Open Daily (Except for major holidays)
9am – 4pm
After our nice relaxing walk, it was time to head back to Ewa Beach!
Thanks for stopping by!
Not sure why a place of this caliber would be serving surimi in one of their dishes. But whatever. We enjoyed the crisp "scorza", but the filling was too sour and salty. We really couldn't make out much. So, I guess having fake crab in this really didn't matter, eh?
The exterior was nice and crisp, but the calamari was super tough, the glaze salty which over-powered the entire dish.
The A-5 Wagyu was fine, if a bit overcooked, quite beefy in flavor. And you know me, if there's foie gras on the menu…… The foie gras was also a bit overcooked, but at least it wasn't what we call "dog food". It was pleasantly livery and sweet. I'm thinking it could have been elevated even higher with a nice glaze.
As we figured, this wasn't an aguachile in conventional terms. It wasn't overly acidic, but quite mellow. Though I will say the seafood, especially the bay scallops were sweet and tender, so were the shrimp. Both of which weren't over-cooked and tough. The sweet and ripe avocado and the briny cucumber added another layer. But what clinched it all was the nicely toasted and salted sour dough, which was the perfect foil for the dish. Yes, it's not a conventional version of the dish, but we enjoyed it. We both wished that the octopus had that nicely toasted sour dough with it as well.
The highlight of the dish for us was the pillowy and warm pita. After that, well, everything was way too sour. Man, that chicken might have been ok, but the puckery-tartness overwhelmed things. Same with the green salad. Yikes, the sharp sourness just took over. Kind of a bummer.
Like before, the bowl was delivered with a huge portion of iceberg lettuce. The soup on the side looked like a bowl of water which had some slices of green onion fall into it. It was very salty and other than a hint of white pepper really lacked flavor.
First off; I quickly determined that the simple squirt of sate sauce over the beef was all that was provided. There was nothing at the bottom of the bowl of the bowl. This meant that it was difficult, nay impossible to coat the noodles and even all the lettuce evenly. The basil was nice and fresh; but still attached to the thick and basically inedible thick stems. Now, I can imagine having this on the side and then one would tear off the leaves as necessary. Heck, even at the top of the bowl like this is ok; but having that all to precious sauce squirted on it. The customer would have to reach in and tear off the leaves and get sauce on your hands?
Because of the lack of sauce; I ended up dumping the whole bowl of "soup" into the bowl to moisten the noodles; which kind of defeats the purpose of getting this with soup on the side? The noodles were decently cooked, nice and al dente, and the beef fairly tender, but the lack of the flavor producing items in the dish was it's downfall. 
Which arrived to my table steaming hot. The soup had a bit more savory tones this time around, but was again, other than being a bit heavy in msg was fairly plain. The noodles were on the crunchier side overall, but not bad. The char siu was lean, tough, and though it had some decent porky tones, lacking in the sweet-salty-savory profile of said pork dish.
From the funky, savory salted crab, to the deeply fermented savory tones, to the pretty hot chilies, this was very spicy and refreshing. Even better than versions we've had here in San Diego! To make things even more fun, this was served with pork rinds!
Which turned out to be true…at least for me. Man, look at all that pork! The pork was nicely seasoned; though, at least for me, I'm all about proportion and balance of flavor and frankly, this was just too much pork, and where's the jamon? And the bread was just not up to the task as it got really mushy plus all of the pork muted the pickles. And was there even mustard on this….I do like a good counter-point to the rich pork. Still, if you want a very porky sandwich, here it is….. It's just not the kind of Cubano I enjoy.
This was much better than what we'd had here during our previous visit. Though still a bit short in the sour sausage department, the rice had a good ratio of crisp to regular rice. Each bite had a nice variation of textures. We could even make out a hint of coconut, though it was still quite mild in terms of spice.
Though it looked over-baked, the exterior wasn't flakey and crisp. The interior was on the doughy-bready-chewy side and the croissant, in my opinion really lacked butteriness. This was mediocre at best and was the same as what I'd had before from their stand. Well, at least they're consistent, right?
But the Missus cut into it and took a bite and made a face. She made me have a taste. The crust was doughy, gummy, and lacking in crispness. It was on the thick side. The filling was too sweet for my taste as well.
It was soft and doughy, lacking in that flaky-crispness that I enjoy. I'm not sure why they call this a "Butter Croissant" as sorely needed more butter flavor. The interior was a bit too "moist" for my taste as well. 
