Blaisdell Farmers Market (Wednesday evenings)

I went to the Blaisdell Farmers Market specifically for Andrew Le's "The Pig & The Lady" booth (Street inspired Vietnamese cooking) but got distracted but a bunch of other yummy things.

Apple banana bread pudding (can't remember the name of this booth...2 guys who do catering...)

 And their homemade pastrami on homemade foccacia sandwich. Must try this next time.

 Yummy fresh produce...just $1 for this ginormous bunch of green onions!

 Pupus from the Otsuji Farm stand...they sell their own produce but also yummy dishes made from their produce. The poke topped tempura "dino kale" was a winnah.

 Close up:

 Then finally made it to The Pig & The Lady. It was mobbed...a line to order and every seat taken up.

We tried:

"Dau Hu Nhoi Thit Sot Ca Chua" Pork & Shiitake Mushroom stuffed Tofu braised in Tomato sauce

 " Xio Ga " Savory Vietnamese Sticky Rice, steamed chicken, lup cheong, topped with a fried egg

Must go back to try the pho and the vegetarian curry. The Blaisdell Farmers Market is put on by the Hawaii Farm Bureau Federation every Wednesday from 4 to 7 pm. They have a higher concentration of prepared foods (similar to the KCC farmers market) so it makes a great stop for dinner on the way home, or if you're visiting Hawaii without access to a kitchen to make use of the produce.

Neal S. Blaisdell Concert Hall Lawn
777 Ward Ave
Honolulu, HI 96814

http://hfbf.org/markets/

2 stellar mediterranean / lebanese meals

I go through phases of only wanting to eat one type of food: hot pot, hawaiian plate, or poke. Recently, it's been mediterranean food. The garlicky-ness of the hummus and baba ganoush, the lemony flavor of the tabbouleh or grape leaves, and the spicy meats in the lamb or chicken shwarma.

Recently, I tried two (new to me) mediterranean restaurants, although I believe they've been around for quite some time.

The Olive Tree Cafe: on the backside of Kahala Mall, right next to Wahoo's Fish Tacos AND their own wine / greek ingredients deli / grocery. Perfect to pick up a bottle, since OTC is BYOB.

 Seating is limited but includes indoor & outdoor options. Tough to get seating unless you get there right when they open at 5 pm.

 We started with the baba ganoush AND the hummus.

 Close up of the hummus...

 ...and the baba ganoush. Both were delish, but if I had to pick one, I'd go with the baba ganoush (roasted eggplant mashed with garlic)

 Fresh fish shwarma (lamb or chicken are also options)

Then today we walked downtown with the intent of heading to the Doner Kebab place off of Fort Street Mall, but ended up at "good & healthy" lebanese, which is in the alley off King btw Alakea and Richards St.

The "lebanese veggie platter" ($9): tabbouleh, hummus, a grape leaf, tahini dressing salad, and 2 falafel balls.

 

The deets:

Olive Tree Cafe

Yelp

4614 Kilauea Ave
Ste 107
Honolulu, HI 96816
Neighborhood: Kahala

(808) 737-0303

Good & Healthy Cafe

Yelp

212 Merchant St
Ste 3
Honolulu, HI 96813
Neighborhood: Downtown

(808) 566-6365

Recent sweet treats: Palm d'Or, Bubbies & Bubble tea in Chinatown

Sweet treats

There was a line out the door on a Friday evening after Christmas (this was a few weeks ago...oops!). All the kids were back home for Christmas vacation and wanted to get one last Bubbie's before they headed back to the mainland.

What a classic - it hasn't changed in years.

Fridge case of all their hilarious ice cream cakes.

The mochi ice cream list keeps expanding...with seasonal flavors including candy cane, red velvet, strawberry chocolate chip, chocolate egg nog and cranberry.

The signs haven't changed in 20 years.

Mmmm strawberry cheesecake ice cream.

And some mochi ice cream.

There's a new bubble tea shop at Maunakea Marketplace. Feels like it's straight out of Hong Kong. It's in the center courtyard, right next to my favorite spot for fruity drinks, Thangs. I just realized I don't even know what this place is called. But it's easy to recognize with the poster of drinks, the pot of boiled corn, and the pictures of Chinese waffles.

Left: milk tea with grass jelly (xuan cao nai cha? my mandarin is failing me) and right: soy milk matcha bubble tea. Both were delish. The milk tea was super strong, like only in HK.

And then new to me: Palme d'Or at Ala Moana Shopping Center. Left: strawberry cream drink (tasted like a melted strawberry milkshake). Right: iced tea with pineapple jelly on the bottom. Perfect for a girly tea stop after shopping.

The case of fancy Japanese pastries.

Happy hour at Epic in Chinatown

Happy hour at Epic

I’d read really good things about the happy hour at Epic ($4 mojitos or glasses or wine or beer, pupu menu is mostly $7 or under) from 4:30 – 6 pm. We wandered over one day after work and found it next to empty. We got a table right by the window, and there were a few people sitting at the bar. 1 or 2 other tables came in while we were there.

Started with a mojito, but it was too sweet and not alcoholic enough, so switched over to beer. Also tried the kalua pig spring rolls, the short rib sliders, and the korean tacos...none of them were fantastic enough to entice me back. Which is too bad, because it’s quite a nice atmosphere (newer and nicer than Indigo) but the food and drinks aren’t anything to write home about.

Entrance on Nuuanu and Pauahi

 Kalua pig spring rolls

 Short rib sliders

 Bulgogi tacos

1131 Nuuanu Ave
Honolulu, HI 96805

(808) 587-7877

www.restaurantepichawaii.com

Some lunches: Da Kitchen, Fort Street Cafe, and Shirokiya

A melange of lunches I've had recently:

1) Da Kitchen
Ok, so this place isn't that new in Honolulu (it's originally from Maui) but new to me. I'd been hearing about it all over, but hadn't made it over to Isenberg to check it out. It's right next to Maple Garden, and they have a decent size parking lot in the back.


We had the fried musubi (omg, why didn't anyone else think of this before? I can't believe it's not on every menu in Hawaii - it epitomizes island food - spam, rice, and deep fried goodness). $4.50
And the special of the day: shoyu ginger opakapaka plate lunch (I was expecting it to be grilled, but it came fried). $15.50

2) Fort Street Cafe
After reading on Nonstop Honolulu about their extensive search for the best garlic chicken on the island, I had to go try their #1 pick, Fort St. Cafe. I had assumed it would be in small, mochiko chicken type of pieces, so I was surprised to see these big pieces of chicken. They had each been pounded flat, fried, and then a clear, sweet-garlicky sauce was poured on top.

3) Shirokiya
Shirokiya makes me wish I worked near Ala Moana shopping center. I would eat here every day. Heck, if I ever open my own company, I will put our office near Ala Moana just so I can eat here every day.

Bento (which I picked because of the flavored musubi: one had salmon flakes and the other had this sweet - salty konbu type of thing, but I'm not exactly sure what it is. It also came with a piece of fried chicken, nishime, and pickles.Shirokiya spam musubi (with egg and furikake)

Coffee break downtown

When one of my friends moved home to Hawaii, the first thing she did was search all of the cafes and coffee shops downtown, so she could explore them and find her favorite place to sit and read or work online (unlike when I come home, I look up all the wine shops, so I can figure out where to buy some yummy alcohol :) ).

Today she took me to visit one of her favorites: Downtown Coffee Honolulu. We had excellently made cappucinos - a double shot in even the small size...a big caffeine rush!

Conveniently, Hokulani Bake Shop has a kiosk right outside Downtown Coffee (well, maybe not so convenient for my waistline, but oh well...). Now, I am a true Cake Couture devotee, and I have trouble wasting cupcake calories on inferior cupcakes. But Hokulani was right there, and I'd never tried their cupcakes, so I thought why not give them a shot.

Hokulani wins on offering more flavors (I could barely decide between strawberry guava, coconut, and all sorts of other yummy tropilicious flavors) and having cute Halloween cookies, but I didn't think the frosting or the cupcakes could compete with Cake Couture. CC's cupcakes are moister and have a better texture, and they put a lot more frosting on the cupcake (you have to really, really like frosting!).

Here are the Hokulani strawberry guava cupcakes:

And the cute halloween cookies:

Downtown Coffee
900 Fort Street Mall
599-5353
Yelp

Hokulani Bake Shop
532-2253
Yelp

Lunch @ Downtown

Downtown

Hawaii State Art Museum
250 S Hotel St

Honolulu, HI 96813
(808) 536-5900

Yelp

Lunch with my high school girlfriends – we decided to go to Downtown at the Hawaii State Art Museum. Love all the local farms they are supporting – reading through the menu we had to ask is that a new kind of vegetable or the name of the farm (e.g. Sumida Watercress) since the menu descriptions include the farm location of locally sourced produce and meats.

Special of the day – Kahuku prawns, a white fish, and taro cakes

The salad plate – Hamakua mushrooms, orzo with feta and kalamata olives, and long beans with grape tomatoes and mozzarella