The staff at Foster recommended that we walk over to Chinatown and check out some places near the Chinatown Cultural Plaza Center.  Since it was between lunch and dinner time, we weren’t sure what was going to be open.  Actually, the first restaurant that we tried was closed because of a wedding or some other event.

We wound up in Won Kee Sea Food which was decidedly empty upon our arrival.  Since they were still serving dim sum, we ordered a bunch of items.

The Taro Dumplings had a good filling inside and I think the taro was fluffier in texture than we normally get back at home.  The Deep Fried Meat Dumplings had the usual nice chewy dough but the filling was a bit sparse.

The Deep Fried Shrimp Dumplings had a really crispy shell and plump shrimp inside.  The Bean Curd Rolls picture wound up a bit fuzzy.

Siu Mai is a fairly standard dim sum item that you’ll find anywhere.  Same with the Minced Beef Balls.

The Watercress Shrimp Dumpling has a thicker skin to it and it was a little difficult to pick up without falling apart.

The Beef Rice Rolls turned out to actually be Shrimp Rice Rolls but we weren’t complaining.

Since we skipped breakfast, we were starving and we might have ordered too much food.  The House Special Chow Mein had plenty of toppings served on top of the crispy noodles.

Some more standard dim sum dishes included the Har Gow and Spareribs.

In all, the food was pretty good (or it might have been that we were just really hungry).  Although there was nothing that really stood out, the prices were very reasonable with small dishes at only $2.30 each and large dishes at $2.95 each.

I’m not sure if this is usual at Won Kee or if it’s common in dim sum restaurants in Hawaii but I noticed that they didn’t clear off the empty dishes from our table.

100 N Beretania St
Honolulu, Hawaii

Facebook: Won Kee Sea Food Restaurant on Facebook

Sansei is known for their Japanese fusion dishes and is only open for dinner.  Since Hawaii is so close to Japan and fresh seafood is quite abundant here, this seemed like a good sign.

The interior is a bit dimly lit when the sun goes down.  If you’ve been to Hawaii (or anywhere closer to the equator), you’ll notice that darkness falls almost instantly after sunset.  The lack of twilight in Hawaii is quite noticeable if you’re from Vancouver because we’re used to summer nights being fairly bright well past 9pm.

There’s nothing better than enjoying some cool refreshments with friends.  The drinks here were pretty yummy.  We had the Pineapple Lychee Soda($4.95) that had big pieces of lychee and the Paradise Mojito ($11) – Hawaiian vodka, mint, lemongrass, and mango.  The drink that you see in the background was a Notorious POG – passion fruit, orange, and guava ($8.75) that was probably the best of the bunch.

Sansei has their own take on poke.  The pictures above are their Sansei-style Ahi Poke ($13.95) with cucumbers and Nalo Greens (a popular salad mix in Hawaii named after the Waimanalo region on Oahu).

We picked up a number of appies including the Hiyashi Wakame ($4.95) – seaweed salad in a toasted sesame dressing.  The Sunomono Combo ($7.95) is a bit different than the sunomono that we usually get in Vancouver that’s served with vermicelli noodles.  This version is made with thinly sliced wakame.  We topped it off with a combination of octopus, crab, surf clam, and shrimp.

The Kaki Furai – panko crusted oysters ($10) came served with a ponzo aioli dipping sauce.

The Grilled Miso-Yaki Chicken ($8.95) was one of the entées that we ordered and was made from tender boneless chicken thighs marinated in sake and sweet miso and served with napa cabbage.

The best plate was Sansei’s Mango Crab Salad Hand Roll ($9.95).  Part salad roll, part seafood, part fresh fruit… what could be better?  The blue crab meat, ripe mango and greens are wrapped up in thin mamenori (soybean paper).  We wound up ordering another serving.

We finished off our meal with Sansei’s Grilled Fresh Hawaiian Ahi and Asian Shrimp Cake ($28.95) with furikake yaki onigiri (a slightly chewy flavoured rice ball that’s been shaped) along with their Pink Cadillac roll.

The Pink Cadillac ($7.95) was a tasty combination of eel, shrimp, tamago, avocado, cucumber, and kaiware sprouts (sprouted daikon radish seeds) wrapped with pink mamenori.

The prices here tend to be on the expensive side but the seafood is fresh and the drinks are tasty.

2552 Kalakaua Avenue
Honolulu, Hawaii

www.sanseihawaii.com
Twitter: @SanseiWaikiki
Facebook: Sansei on Facebook

They take a hollowed out loaf of bread and toast the inside using a special toaster.  You choose the type of sauce and relish that you want and they put the whole thing together for you.

Unlike a traditional hot dog bun, you hold this one kind of like a burrito.

Originally called a “Puka Dog” (puka means hole in Hawaiian), they opened up their first stand in Kehaka/Kauai in 2000.

By 2007, they opened their shop on the Kuhio side of the International Market Place.

If you’re still feeling a little confused about the whole thing, they have a large sign in front of the shop that explains how to order your Hula Dog.

The main problem with this place is that there’s no consistency in the quality of preparation.  Our first Hula Dog was great.  When we came back later in the evening, we got a different person serving us and he didn’t make the Hula Dog as good as the first person.

Those red taps that you see in the picture below are their sauce dispensers.

On our first visit, we ordered a Polish sausage in FBI bread – don’t ask me why it’s called that (it’s some kind of honey oat bread I think).  We topped the whole thing off with the mango relish and lilikoi mustard.  As you can see, our first server took his time and carefully make sure that the “puka” was covered in the sauce before he inserted the sausage (and then he topped it all off with some more sauce).

As you can imagine, the first Hula Dog that we had was awesome.  In each bite, you got the flavourful sauce, the crisp/crunchy texture of the toasted interior of the bun, the meaty sausage, and the soft exterior of the bun.

On our second visit, it looks like the dude just poured some of the sauce into the bottom of the hole and then put the sausage inside.  The result was that 3/4 of the Hula Dog had little to no sauce.

So it really depends on who serves you here.  If they know what they’re doing, you’ll get an unbelievable snack.

Definitely try the lilikoi (passion fruit) mustard and their fresh squeezed lemonade is pretty good too.

2301 Kuhio Avenue
Honolulu, Hawaii

huladoghawaii.com
Twitter: @HulaDogWaikiki
Facebook: Hula Dog on Facebook

We were looking for a nearby spot for breakfast and came across this menu sign.

As we were perusing the breakfast selection, some of the staff must have noticed and started to come out and greet us and invite us in.  Actually, it seemed like all of the staff came out to greet us.

I guess being located at the far end of Waikiki limits the amount of foot traffic because the restaurant was completely empty.

We decided that this was as good of a place as any and it seemed like the staff were excited to get customers.

The Classic Breakfast ($8.95) comes with 2 scrambled eggs, bacon or sausage (I picked bacon… of course), toast and garlic roasted potatoes.  They didn’t skimp on the bacon as there were 5 large rashers of crispy bacon.

The Sunrise Sandwich ($6.95) was much larger than we were expecting as it came served on a large, crunchy ciabatta-like bun.  Inside the sandwich was a healthy dose of scrambled eggs, bacon, cheddar, and tomatoes topped with a remoulade sauce.

Just because it’s stamped with Wolfgang Puck’s name, don’t expect fine dining here (food is served on disposable plates and drinks/utensils are all self-serve).  But the food quality was good and they had healthy sized portions.

2570 Kalakaua Avenue
Honolulu, Hawaii

www.wolfgangpuck.com
Twitter: @WolfgangBuzz

Shave ice, to the uninitiated, is very similar to snow cones that you’d find in North America with a couple of differences.  The ice tends to be shaved a bit finer than a snow cone and it’s not uncommon to have a scoop of ice cream and red bean paste at the bottom of the cup.

The one that we had at Magoo’s Burgers at Diamond Head felt more like a snow cone.

The great thing about getting shave ice in Hawaii is all of the fresh tropical flavours that you don’t normally see in other places.

Even though it was lightly raining, we figured that we had to stop by and try the shave ice because Matsumoto is famous for it.  Fortunately, the line was moving fairly quickly and the rain wasn’t coming down too hard.

While Matsumoto is a grocery store and filled with various shave ice souvenirs, t-shirts and knick knacks, people really only come here for the shave ice.  Because it was raining outside, most people were huddled inside eating their shave ice.

Those green contraptions were the machines they were using to shave the ice and were working non-stop.

We wound up getting the mango, lychee, and papaya with ice cream and beans.  It was really good but I found that the ice cream melted on the bottom before we could get to it.

66-087 Kamehameha
Haleiwa, Hawaii

www.matsumotoshaveice.com
Facebook: Matsumoto on Facebook

We tried using the navigation system in the car but we were having trouble with it all day (it kept telling us to make u-turns wherever we went).  Fortunately, Kamehameha Hwy is really the only major street so we stuck to it until we saw a large shanty town/trailer park filled with cars.

It’s hard to miss Giovanni’s… it’s the former white food truck that’s been covered over by the signatures of countless patrons.

There’s actually more than just Giovanni’s located here.  There’s a few tents selling souvenirs as well as a few other food trucks serving the likes of bbq meats and corn as well as a Thai food truck.

The main reason people stop here is for the shrimp.  Just right next to the shrimp truck is a covered area where patrons can enjoy their shrimp plates.  We tried both the Shrimp Scampi and the Lemon Button ($13 per plate).  The scampi was the best and it’s no wonder that it’s their most popular dish.  They marinate the shrimp (shell on) in olive oil, fresh chopped garlic, lemon and butter and sautée them in a pan.  A bit sticky and messy but tasty nonetheless.

Perhaps not the best shrimp that I’ve had (mmm… thinking about spot prawns right now) but the scampi is a must try if you’re headed to the North Shore.

Note:  There is a water tap next to the covered dining area where you can wash up after you’re done.  There’s also a couple of washrooms located behind one of the buildings – just remember to lock the door because the stall inside the washroom doesn’t have a door.

56-505 Kamehameha Hwy
Kahuku, Hawaii

www.giovannisshrimptruck.com
Facebook: Giovanni’s Shrimp Truck on Facebook

I suppose if you’re looking for seafood, you’re not going to get much fresher unless you’re actually on the fishing boat.  The breakfast menu is a little limited but they open at 6:30am and serve breakfast until 10am so you can start out your day pretty early.

The Fish Omelette came with a tremendous amount of fresh ahi folded into the eggs for $8.95.  Incidentally, that bag that you can partially see in the picture below was filled with some of the best shrimp chips that we’ve had (see below for more details).

I settled on the Fish and Eggs ($8.95) which comes with 2 eggs and the fish of the day… ahi.  Looking back, I probably should have opted for the side of rice instead of the fruit because it would have been easier to soak up the glorious runny yolks that oozed out of the soft poached eggs.  The fish was a generous serving and quite fresh.

After our trip to the North Shore, we stopped by Nico’s for dinner and the restaurant was much busier than it was during breakfast.  We started with the Popcorn Scallops ($11.95).  Hmmm… we must have a thing for “popcorn” food because we ordered popcorn shrimp at The Cheesecake Factory recently.

Our other “pupu” (appetizer) was the Poke Sampler ($13.50) which was definitely fresh and had 4 or 5 different preparations for the raw fish… my favourite was the spicy ahi.

The special for the night was a local fish (‘uku’ or ‘luku’ – I’m not sure which) that was served with a shiitake ginger cream sauce over rice for $21.95.  The white flesh was made up of small flakes.  They didn’t skimp on the portion size because it was a rather thick fillet.

I decided to order the Fried Ahi Belly ($16.50) with a side of Macaroni Salad ($2.55).  There were 3 large portions of deep-fried fatty tuna belly that was topped with a spicy tomato salsa.  The tuna belly felt like it just melted in my mouth and was quite rich and luxurious.  Despite how filling the ahi belly was, I was glad that I tried the mac salad.

Service was friendly and portion sizes were good.

Now, about that bag of shrimp chips that I mentioned earlier in the post.  In the Fish Market, they sell these awesome chips from Ono Giant Shrimp Chips.

We picked up a bag of the Ryz Ranch flavour.  Super crispy and super tasty.

Ono is a local company and the chips are made in Hawaii.

If you get a chance to visit Nico’s, do yourself a favour and pick up a couple of bags of these tasty creations and you won’t be disappointed.  You might even decide that you want to smuggle a bag in your luggage to bring home with you.

They also sell these at a few other locations… try Google if you’re looking for them or hit up their Facebook page.

1133 N Nimitz Hwy
Honolulu, Hawaii

www.nicospier38.com
Twitter: @NicosatPier38
Facebook: Nico’s at Pier 38 on Facebook

While not actually invented in Hawaii, the Mai Tai’s tropical nature seems to lend itself with the culture.  I’m not a drinker but I thought this cocktail was pretty strong.  Our server brought over some more pineapple juice to try to dilute it down for us.  I suppose if you’re looking for a stiff drink before heading out to the beach…

We had a pretty long day and a late lunch/early dinner at Marukame Udon so we just wanted some appys to nosh on.  Surprisingly, there were still some people having the buffet late at night.

We settled on an order of Steamed Clams and a plate of Volcano Chicken Wings.  The chicken wings weren’t overly hot… it was more like a sweet chili sauce.  Not sure if it was the Mai Tais working their magic or not but the chicken wings were quite tasty.

When you enter the restaurant, you walk past the dessert bar.  If I wasn’t so full and tired from earlier in the day, I probably would have wanted to try it out.

2552 Kalakaua Avenue
Honolulu, Hawaii

Waikiki Beach Marriott
Twitter: @MarriottWaikiki

Back in the 70′s, a Japanese company bought the rights to open Lawson stores in Japan and it is now one of the largest convenience stores in Japan and carries things like bento boxes, onigiri (like the Spam musubi that we had at Marukame Udon recently), and mochi ice cream.

In an interesting twist of fate, Lawson returned to the US in 2012 when 2 shops were opened in Hawaii bringing the uniquely Japanese convenience stores to Kalakaua Avenue.

Mochi Ice Cream is made from pounded sticky rice cake with an ice cream filling.  They have a number of different flavours to choose from including mango, lychee, guava, strawberry, passion fruit, vanilla, green tea, macadamia nut, and li hing mango.

Definitely try out the mango, strawberry, passion fruit and vanilla flavours if you get a chance.

Speaking of Spam earlier…

We tried a can of Spam macadamia nuts but I didn’t really think it tasted like Spam.  The ingredients listed show that it’s just regular Dry Roasted Macadamia Nuts, Salt, and Spam Brand Flavoring.

What exactly is “Spam Brand Flavoring”?

Apparently, it must sound better than what the original packaging listed: “Maltodextrin, Sugar, Salt, Natural Flavoring, Yeast Extract, Cornstarch, Sunflower Oil, Silicon Dioxide, FD&C Red #40 Lake, Onion Powder. Contains Sulfite”.

And if you wanted to get more technical, that Red#40 is 6-hydroxy-5-[(2-methoxy-5-methyl-4-sulfophenyl)azo]-2-naphthalenesulfonic acid.  The “Lake” at the end of the word just describes that the dye has been changed into a solid, non water soluble form by mixing it with aluminum hydroxide.

And who said you couldn’t learn anything by reading this blog?  In any case, the macadamia nuts tasted more salty than anything else.

The store is open from 6am to midnight so you can get your favourite mochi ice cream or origiri before or after you hit the beach.

2365 Kalakaua Avenue
Honolulu, Hawaii

hawaiilawson.com

Besides being tasty, they’ve put a lot of thought into the design and branding to appeal to their customers (mostly tourists I assume).  Just love the colour palette that they use for their packaging (combining silver, chocolate brown, and a pearly mint green).  While they offer a few other specialty shapes, the one that draws the most attention is their signature pineapple shaped cookie that comes in 15 flavours.  A bonus is that they have free samples in the store so you can find the flavour that you like the best.

If you can’t decide which flavour to get, you can get all 16 flavours in the Ultimate Collection XLarge Signature Gift Box (55 pc) which includes Butter Macadamia, Chocolate Dipped Macadamia, Triple Chocolate Macadamia, Pineapple Macadamia, White Chocolate Coconut, Dark Chocolate Coconut, Coconut, Dark Chocolate Macadamia, Dark Chocolate Kona Coffee, Kona Coffee, White Chocolate Kona Coffee, Dark Triple Chocolate Macadamia, Mango Macadamia, Lilikoi Mango, Dark Chocolate Lilikoi.  If you can’t bring yourself to eat all 15 different varieties, go with either the Lilikoi Mango or the Dark Chocolate Lilikoi.

They also make smaller mini pineapple shaped chocolate chip shortbread cookies.

While they do offer shipping overseas, the shipping costs are a little high… wish they would open up one of these shops in Vancouver.

2552 Kalakaua Avenue
Honolulu, Hawaii

www.honolulucookie.com
Twitter: @honolulucookie
Facebook: Honolulu Cookie on Facebook