Mmm... Food...

I had a great time with Joel and Camie Woolf while they were vacationing out here!  It was fun to have visitors to go and do cool things with!  In fact, we did SO many cool things, I'll be blogging all of it separately.  Otherwise, you'd be reading a 25 mile long post!  And I'll be spacing the blogs out over a matter of weeks, so you're not overloaded with my Hawaiian Adventures! :)

Maybe because Thanksgiving is this week and I've been planning it, or because I'm ready for Rob to be home from work so we can have dinner, lol, either way, the first blog I decided to do was FOOD! 

 Now, Hawaii isn't really known for it's awesome cuisine... but we did find some tasty, and sadly, some not so tasty spots.

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The credit for the first delicious find goes to Joel!  

Boston's North End Pizza Bakery, doesn't sound like a restaurant you'd find down the street from me, in Honolulu, but it is!  And, man, was it amazing!  

They just do pizza.  No salad, no wings.  Just pizza ... HUGE slices of delicious thin crust pizza!

(Isn't Camie just the cutest!?!)

YUM!

The crazy part is, this larger-than-my-head slice of pizza is HALF of what you get when you order a slice at Boston's Pizza Bakery!

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On Tuesday the 15th, we went to dinner with Camie's cousin and his wife.  They live here too, he's in school at the University of Hawaii. 

And I thank them VERY much for introducing us to these next two places!

Japanese Ramen!!!  Sooo good!!!

Yeah chopsticks!

This was Camie's dinner

Joel's dinner

And mine!  I devoured it!  And...I'm wishing I could eat a bucket of it right now!

I can't believe Brea isn't Camie's cousin!  They sure look like they could be related!  But actually Brea's husband, Brint, is Camie's cousin.  They were super fun to hang out with!

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After dinner, we went out for dessert with Brint and Brea.

They took us to Bubbies!

I had to take a picture of this menu!  Camie and I were reading it and giggling like little school girls! teheheheee

This is Mochi!  And it is AWESOME!  I had (starting from top left and working clockwise) Raspberry, Mint Chocolate Chip, and Strawberry Dark Chocolate Chip.

Mochi is a Japanese ice cream.  To make it, you simple take glutinous rice flour and mix it with sugar, water, and vanilla.  Then cook it until it's a dough consistency.  When it's cooled, you shape it around a scoop of ice cream, any flavor of your choice.  The mochi is chewy and fun, while the ice cream is creamy and delicious!

Obviously we were BIG fans!

Mmm... mint chocolate chip

Here's an easy recipe if you'd like to try it

I know I plan to!

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After our long day of hiking on Wednesday the 16th, we treated ourselves to Hawaiian Shaved Ice at Shimazu Shaved Ice.

  

Sugary deliciousness!  I got blue pineapple, orange cream, and red raspberry.  The ice was very fine and they had a ridiculous variety of flavors!

Can you believe this is a SMALL?!?!  And you can sure bet I had a headache from all that sugar!

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So here we come to our first misadventure.

We wanted to try spam.  So we went looking for a place that had spam and rice.  It's VERY popular out here, so I didn't think it'd be hard to find.  We went to L&Ls (Hawaiian food restaurant), but they didn't have it.  They did have...

The Moco Loco.  I've had a couple people recommend it to me and it made my heart hurt just to hear what was in it!  It's hamburger patties on rice, with eggs, and brown gravy.  All with a side of macaroni salad.  

Ugh.  It makes me sick just thinking about it.  It wasn't good and you can bet I'm not gonna get it ever again!  It was just heavy, and not super flavorful (I can't find a single place out here with good macaroni salad), and all in all, gave me an AWFUL stomach ache!

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On our way to the Polynesian Cultural Center on Thursday the 17th, we passed by this place...

The Shrimp Shack!

Everyone talks about the awesome shrimp shacks on the North Shore, so we HAD to stop and test it out.

We all got the Spicy Garlic Shrimp - medium heat.

(our table)

Camie's looking forward to it!

YUM!

This pic is for my mom.  EVERY time I told her I was on the North Shore, she'd ask if I had shrimp.  So this time, I finally did!

Delicious!  

Funny side note.  Shrimp is not found in the waters surrounding Hawaii.  They actually have a shrimp fishery here where they raise the shrimp found in Hawaii.  Funny huh?!?

Joel was such a GREAT sport!  He doesn't like shrimp (or foods that make his hands messy), but Camie and I really wanted to eat here, so he agreed.  

Here he's quite grossed out about having to de-leg his shrimp.

And he wasn't a fan of the eating it part either! lol  Camie tried to convince him to get a steak!  lol

So the Shrimp Shack goes into the Tasty/Not So Tasty category.  Great if you like shrimp!  And smelling like garlic for the whole day!  Lol Of course, there are other options than the garlic shrimp.

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So, some hits and some misses, but all in all, I think the best food in Hawaii... comes from my kitchen! lol