Frank and I had our first date ever at an izakaya. Now mind you, Los Angeles and Orange County have some amazing food. But, I was still pretty young and somewhat naive when we met, and I had absolutely no idea what an izakaya was. As Frank ordered what seemed like an endless amount of food, I stared down at the plates being casually placed on our table. There were squid skewers, tongue, bacon-wrapped okra and asparagus, sashimi and onigiri, gizzard, neck and chicken skin. But, none of it resembled chicken parts I knew; specifically “drumstick.”
Well, folks, I’ve come a looooong way from being inhibited by what I don’t know.
This open-minded approach has really served us well on our travels. While I can’t say I have ever eaten a grasshopper (will pass on that unless I can slap some sriracha on it), our culinary adventures have been nothing short of the most delicious trip ever.
We have had many amazing culinary adventures. But, I think one that stands out a lot is when we got all the distinctufully delicious tastes of Oahu in just one day. Let’s start with:
Leonard’s Bakery
Donuts! Get ’em hot.We are a couple that does not discriminate against donuts. If it’s a piece of dough that has been fried and stuffed with cream or topped with some kind of sugar, then we definitely want it. That’s why we couldn’t say no to two dozen portugese-style donuts at Leonard’s. These donuts–or “malasadas” –were freshly-cooked and stuffed with different kinds of creams, like chocolate, sweet and sour cream, coconut, custard and plain. There’s nothing better than a piping hot donut!
Rainbow Drive-In
Meat on meat on meat: Meet my stomach it’s locoNow, I may be way off, but I think Rainbow Drive-In might just be the Hawaiian version of comfort food. It’s the perfect balance of way too many carbs and far too much of the delicious kinds of protein (think: fried anything). The drive-in is known for its loco moco plate. I don’t know about you, but I grew up–well, Mexican– and used slang like: “chonies,” and “flaco.” So “loco moco” has a far different meaning for me than how it’s used at the drive-in. I was so glad when the loco moco plate didn’t end up being a giant plate of crazy boogers.
The non-moco treat actually happens to be a plate of rice, with hamburger patties and a couple of over-easy eggs. We also ordered a bbq mixed plate with flattened steak and more hamburger patties on top of rice and a side of macaroni salad. Rainbow Drive-In’s slushies are also pretty amazing. We got so much food for less than $20.00.
Musubi Cafe Iyasumi
a pyramid of spam musubiSpam and rice. Those two ingredients together makes life so much better. The things that Musubi Cafe Iyasumi can do with spam is pretty cool. There was spam musubi topped with cheese, or bacon or shiso and a whole lot more. The musubi was all wrapped up and portable for snacks on our drive around Oahu. They stayed fresh, too! Right around 3:00 pm, we stopped to view Makapu’u Lighthouse and, sure enough, our spam musubi was ready to eat.
Matsumoto Shaved Ice
Simple sign, simple idea, maximum deliciousness. Would like five of these on a hot day. Thank you.True story: the host from Restaurant: Impossible was filming at Matsumoto Shaved Ice. I’ve never seen the show, but Matsumoto must be a really famous shaved ice place. I, for one, love everything dessert and Matsumoto did not fail to disappoint. I ordered a heaping pile of ice that encompassed vanilla ice cream, flavored in cotton candy and bubble gum and topped with condensed milk. Frank ordered shaved ice atop azuki beans, flavored in guava and lychee and topped with red plum powder.
Giovanni’s Shrimp Truck
The truck. The shrimp.When I was a kid, my grandma had a little farm in her backyard. There was a goat, a pig and a couple of chickens.
I loved those chickens and showed my love by chasing them around the backyard. I’ll bet those chickens really appreciated how much I loved them…
I bring up this story because Giovanni’s Shrimp Truck is surrounded by free range chickens. It took all my strength for the five-year-old in me to not try to catch the chickens. Giovanni’s is pretty simple: you get three choices of flavor: spicy, lemon butter and shrimp scampi on top of rice. I ordered the spicy one and, yeah, it’s actually pretty spicy. Husband ordered the scampi.
Marukame Udon
Udon and a side of chicken. Good.Anytime we see a line at a restaurant, we have to think: “hmmm, is it good?” There has to be a reason for the line. Well, here it is: because it’s good and because the place is pretty tiny. So, we had to wait in the line that lasted about half an hour. Line-waiting is a great way to bond with your friends and family, so there’s always a plus side to all that waiting around. As for the udon, it was good. But, we’re from LA. Our city is the mecca for food and I can think of quite a few places here in our hometown that could school this udon place (and that, folks, is why you should come to LA).
Ramen Nakamura
Oxtail RamenFrank gets really excited with dishes that contain oxtail. Naturally, we had to try the oxtail ramen from Ramen Nakamura. The meal set came with a giant bowl of oxtail ramen, pork fried rice, and gyoza. Again, we were spoiled with top notch Japanese options here in LA. Ramen Nakamura was good but it’s nothing new. If you are from an area with limited authentic food options, we’d definitely recommend braving the line and giving this place a try.
Shirokiya
Just like any other mall food court, there’s plenty of different kinds of food to eat. They’re all Japanese-inspired in this court. The one thing that stood out and was fun was the biergarten. For about $3.00, I got a liter of Sapporo! And there were so many people there having fun on a Thursday afternoon! Unfortunately the food was so good and we were so hungry, we didn’t stop to take a photo. Our journalizing skills go way down when we’re hungry.
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