It’s hard enough taking around out-of-towners to my favorite local eateries.
Imagine taking food writers and editors.
That was my assignment this weekend — a gig with the Oahu Visitors Bureau to serve as tour guide to about two dozen writers, editors and bloggers who know a thing or two (or more) about food — and I was worried.
Not because I wouldn’t be an interesting tour guide. (I’m Portuguese; I have stories for days.) I was worried we’d be taking them to places they’d already been to — or wouldn’t be impressed by.
Critics are the toughest to please, for sure, but this group was eager, interested and definitely hungry. They sure made my job easy!
Here’s what the tour looked like:
18 Comments
Hello Cat,
Great places to eat!
Don’t forget Ono Hawaiian Foods
We had Helena’s on our original list, but the restaurant was closed that day. Too bad, though. But I don’t know if the group coulda fit more food into their stomachs!
Saimin from Palace Saimin (they are now open from tues – sat, 11am – 11pm)
Poke from Tamashiro Market (since it is a full service fish market, maybe they can get to see poke made from start to finish)
Shave Ice from Aoki’s Shave Ice
Hawaiian food from Helena’s
Nice list.
We were thinking about a shave ice place. Had to be in Honolulu, though. Aoki’s is too far. Ailana? Shimazu?
Let me go do some more research this week and i will get back to you!
Waioli Shave Ice in McCully. I think it’s the best and they are also in Hawaii 5-0!!!
Hawaii Fish Auction, maybe an early morning tour and watch it in progress
Taro Patch, to see where taro comes from, maybe watch it being pounded and try a sample. Taste more better like that.
Oh a visit to Sun Noodle Factory if you can arrange that, learn the difference between saimin and ramen noodles
Great ideas! I know they went to a loi and to Heeia fishpond the day before. And that morning they hit the KCC Farmers Market. They had some itinerary!
Haven’t been to a few of those places in it seems like a couple of decades, added them to my list of must eats when I come for a visit.
I have to laugh about the boiled peanuts. Now that I live in the Carolinas and have traveled a lot to GA, you can find boiled peanuts at roadside stands and even in gas station stores along the interstate. I personally don’t think the ones here taste as good as in Hawaii. But, nonetheless, it is kind of weird to find them here. Yum!
Waiola has good texture but I think the syrup quality has dropped some. Shimazu’s portion size is generous and their syrups have good flavor.
Lee Ho Fook for cake noodles.
Cat, do you have readers who don’t know what musubi are?
I’ve had boiled peanuts in Chinatown in San Francisco, and I’m pretty sure you can also get them in Gardena.
Cool assignment. I second a Hawaiian food plate. It’s a must! If Ono’s is closed, Haili’s isn’t a bad next bet. More affordable, as well. I like the fish auction suggetion, too.
I agree with your Gulick and Alicia’s picks. It’s cool to visit places with history, and I get the plate lunch backstory at Rainbows. But, I hate to say it — I don’t really understand the big deal about their food. I’m born and raised here and have had it all my life, but I tend to think of it as a fast, low cost bite. Not great quality and not remarkably better than many of the “Hawaiian” plate lunch places popping up across the Mainland.
Wow…I’d have performance anxiety for sure. Once I had to take a not very gracious or nice New Yorker out for several meals who was here to work with me on a project. All she could talk about the entire trip was how nothing would ever compare to New York. I would agree with that statement but would also agree nothing compares to Hawaii either. I officially gave up when she informed me she hated fish and only wanted to eat steak (goodbye Pacific Rim….).
All great choices. And important that those establishments have the culture and tradition of being local behind them. Yeah, you could argue that there may be others with equal or better quality/taste, but not the “localness.” So glad you started with Rainbows… And what more can you say about Alicia’s Market?
Ono’s or Helena’s would definitely fit. Too bad no more the old Kewalo Basin lunch wagons…hardy lunches on paper plates and wrapped in waxed paper.
I want a chocolate haupia frappe. Oh my how good does that sound!
Very nice! been stalking you via twitter and was going to request something similar for my trip next week. I didn’t even have to beg!