Well, sorry about the lack of posts. Things have been quite busy, activities and exploration every day! Plus, I'd been having issues with WiFi in some areas and was unable to download photos from my phone until yesterday.
Anyway, after leaving Oahu, where the heck did we go?
Well, this photo will just give it all away!
You know where right?
We arrived rather late in the evening and after catching the train, which was fast, efficient, and inexpensive, then taking a short walk to our hotel. We settled in with just one full day.
In order to familiarize ourselves with the area….arriving when dark can be somewhat disorienting; I booked a private walking tour for the morning which did a great job of getting us oriented with this city of over 5 million!
The friendliness of the people, the cleanliness of this large city was wonderful.
And the range of wildlife, all protected, was something to see. Imagine walking down the street to see a wild turkey scrounging around? And most creatures seemed quite colorful!
Strangely, our dinner in the city was our only rather disappointing meal to date. Though the service was wonderful.
Soon, we were off to see something that has been on our "bucket list" for ages. Located in an area appropriately called the "Outback" resides a massive monolith!
It has always provided an air of mystery to the Missus and I. We flew in and stayed at the nearby town and did both a sunset program and a sunrise visit. We came to learn much about the native people of this area, though we just scratched the surface. We gained so much respect for their beliefs and the efforts being made to preserve both the area and those beliefs.
We got a taste of some of the indigenous flavors.
Though after our third meal of kangaroo; the Missus had eaten enough!
Which was fine because our next stop was a fantastically laid-back beachfront city. We had things going on every day.
On the first evening we decided to make a visit to the aquarium on the spur of the moment. Upon arriving, we made the decision to purchase tickets for the small group after hours tour, which ended up being one of our favorite things we've done so far. The small group was led by a Behavioral Biologist and she was wonderful. More on that later.
In short, she knew all the creatures by name!
One of our favorites was this curious puffer fish.
Who is appropriately named "ET"!
We also booked the Skyrail, the cable car that took to and above the oldest rainforest in the world!
We enjoyed our time exploring the village at the top and taking a nice walk thru the rainforest.
And the views from the train that returned to the city was quite good.
We also did two boat trips, which included three snorkeling adventures in the largest coral reef in the world.
Our favorite was a boat trip to a nearby island.
And a snorkel with a Marine Biologist.
Where we learned so much about the reef systems and the animals that inhabit the area!
Of course, this is a food blog, right?
Well, let me tell you right off that we were so pleasantly surprised at the food in this city! Especially the seafood!
And whether it was fusiony type dishes or straight up Chinese, all the seafood was fabulous!
Yes, we had a flamin' good time!
We're now back where we started. We'll be heading "home", then back to San Diego soon after!
Thanks so much for stopping by! I'm hoping to resume regular posting soon!
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.
Let's take a look at that chicken. It's a huge piece but does it look "crispy" to you? Also, it was fairly tender, but quite dry for confit, making it somewhat bland; the supposed nuoc cham edged to the sweeter side of the scale. The fried garlic was fine; but the garlic rice was super hard and dry. It was like trying to eat barely cooked rice. Now come on, how can you mess up rice?
Again the greens and tomato was outstanding. But take a look at that rice, it's the same as the "confit chicken" and the photo shows more clearly how hard and dry it was. Speaking of dry; you can add the ahi belly as well. It was dry, lacking in that rich, fatty, texture. It was also strangely fishy in flavor; the Missus had one bite and was done.
The tacos were served on blue corn tortillas, that were very dry, tough, and really didn't add anything to the dish. Likewise the sweet chili sauce provided. 
thru nicely. I believe the the version from Soup du Jour (funny, I thought I did a post on the place, but I guess not?) is better both in texture and flavor.
I appreciated the way things were packed though I told the woman I'd be eating this close by. There were containers of spicy vinegar and a decent chili oil (which I used) included in my package.
Which led to an interesting concoction. The duck was breast, quite lean, a bit more chewy then I enjoy, with a touch of five spice seasoning, not bad at all. The fried shallots added a nice savory and crunchy texture. The broccoli really gave off "Panda Express" vibes but at least I got some veggies.
On an interesting note; while searching for addresses I found that Onii-San opened a Sando shop named Ototo last years as well! Makes perfect sense.
It was cooked to a perfect medium rare, loved the beefiness. I was told this is grass fed beef, so I expected it to be more toothsome. The cauliflower was delicious; at least that's what the Missus said as She quickly poached them all from the plate. The jalapeno mashed potatoes were quite creamy and not really spicy at all.
