All good things must come to an end

Towards the end of our Hawaiian holiday we actually got a bit more active, which isn't the way I had planned it, but perhaps there was just some inherent, unspoken knowledge that the holiday was nearing its end and we tried to cram as much in as possible, including a second visit to the beach.

A quick funny pic addition too. I love browsing supermarkets when overseas. I like my own local supermarket plenty enough already, but I always feel like I'm getting an intimate insiders view of the local lifestyle when I'm in a foreign supermarket. There always seems to be the weird, wacky and wonderful in any given aisle.

Spam a lot? Check out the variations

Real cheese? You've got to be kidding!

Supermarket and other adventures aside, we visited a little izakaya (Japanese sake and food place) one night for another attempt at eating light. We walked up a staircase lined with Polaroid photos on the walls. I don't recognise anyone but then again, my knowledge of Japanese celebrities is somewhat limited.

We're seated at the bar and order drinks from the server. I'm not sure if he actually speaks English (there's a lot of pointing, smiling and nodding action happening as we order) but he's friendly and the drinks arrive swiftly.

Kirin from Tako-no-ki Izakaya (Royal Hawaiian Ave, Waikiki)

The idea behind izakaya dining is that you snack while drinking your sake or beer or whatever it is that you're consuming. Like peanuts and beer taken one culinary step further. There are a few tables of Japanese tourists about enjoying their sake and snacks, and even a family at the table seating. We're seated at the bar right near the grill, so the sounds and smells of what's to come are prominently parading themselves in front of my face.

My sometimes-more-adventurous eating companion has found a menu item that gives me the beginnings of a chill down my spine, but tako wasabi on the menu doesn't sound as bad as it looks.

Tako wasabi

When this tiny bowl arrives, I'm not sure how adventurous I want to be. Little pieces of chopped raw octopus swim in a sweet wasabi dressing with a few shallots. The dark skin in particular puts me off a little, so I delve for a small, skinless piece. I like the dressing - it has a proper wasabi hit and a sweet dimension that sort of enhances the octopus. But the octopus itself is of the strangest texture and doesn't quite conform to the notion of chewing and masceration. I chew and chew, then give up and swallow and look forward to the next dish.

Ahi poke

Another restaurant and another version of this Hawaiian specialty. Again this version is strong on sesame flavour and I'm a little disappointed to have to dig for my tuna under the masses of raw onion. Next the cooked dishes make their way to us.

Edamame and grilled Kurobuta sausages

Edamame is fast entering my list of comfort foods - I like them warm with salt sprinkled on them post-boiling and this is how they are served here. The sausages have come straight from the grill with a scrape of hot English mustard and a wedge of lemon. They taste a little of packaged frankfurts I'd get at home - obviously without the red skin and a little firmer in texture.

Lastly we're served our okonomiyaki (Japanese savoury pancake) which is pretty much the biggest version I've ever had.

Modernyaki (top) and close up of noodle filling (bottom)

It comes smothered in okonomiyaki sauce and mayonnaise with a few bonito shavings and ground nori, and comes with a spatula for self serving. This is the so-called modernyaki - a version with soba noodles encased in the pancake along with more traditional fillings such as cabbage and pork. It is huge, hot off the grill and smells amazing. Digging in to civilised wedges, the inner is cooked to a moist degree with the seasoned noodles being a standout in the overall concoction. It's really a meal that has it all: carbs, vegies, protein and mouthwateringly delicious to boot. It is, however, quite filling as we again fail our task of eating light.

The next afternoon following a brief stint in the water and sands of Waikiki Beach, it's almost a must to hit one of the beach bars. Most of these sit within a hotel right on the beach but are open to the public, and most welcoming to beach-goers straight off the sand. Most of them are also quite busy, especially as sunset commences, so it can be difficult to get a table or even a seat at the bar. They're not so much of the standing around and drinking type places.

We end up in one of the swish hotel bars where there's live music (Hawaiian, of course) and hula. It also doubles as a restaurant where there are many a dressed-up American tourist. I feel underdressed, what with my bikini peeking out of my mini dress, clutching a towel, sunscreen and book at the reception but we're seated by smiling staff nonetheless.

We're in the outdoor section of House Without A Key and the atmosphere is incredibly laidback. There's a touch of posh to it, but we disregard price tags as this is one of our last night's in Waikiki. As such, we can't go past the cocktails.

Planter's punch (left) and mai tai (right)

Big points on presentation and alcohol content, but I admit I'm still a novice when it comes to rum. Despite the fruity additions, I find it a little difficult to appreciate the taste of rum - of which the mai tai includes two shots, I think. The Planter's punch is a sweeter drink, the juices blending to a fairy floss flavour in my mind. Suffice to say, by the second cocktails I don't mind the rum taste so much. We also get a huge basket of complimentary kettle cooked potato crisps.

We order a cold pupu platter to further snack on, again visually stunning and with tastes to match.

Jumbo shrimp (left) and ahi poke (right)

The shrimp look gorgeous, probably king prawn sized, and are served with a spicy Thai sambal dressing that doubles as a dip for our crisps when the crustaceans are gone. The ahi poke is served almost tartare style with the only addition being shallots. The tuna is firm with a stronger fishy taste than most others we've tried, with a subtle sesame and soy dressing.

We kick back and take in the scene: the sun setting on to the beach horizon, palm trees swaying with musicians in the courtyard, accents from around the world surrounding us (even a few other Aussies) and cocktails in hand. This is our Hawaiian holiday.

Shopping centre eats in Honolulu

Holidays, shopping and eating - another fantastic day. I'm particularly excited about lunch this day as we're planning to go to the casual dining restaurant by the guy who has the restaurant that is consistently voted the best in Hawaii. The fact that it's located within a department store doesn't hurt either.

We have a fun trolley bus ride to the shopping mall on a dismal day - perfect shopping and dining weather. The mall is packed with designer names as well as plenty of American chain stores and department stores. I get excited at the sight of Gap, Banana Republic, Abercrombie & Fitch and other American mainstays and try very hard to not think about the exchange rate.

But lunch is the feature event of the day so we happily enter the womenswear department at Macy's and seek out the Pineapple Room by Alan Wong. It's a light-filled room of white tablecloths and linen napkins, but manages to maintain a casual, approachable feel, probably helped by the racks of glitzy dresses and print shirts right nearby. There's a complete mix of patrons: shoppers on a break, ladies who lunch, tourists, business lunches and meetings.

It's a small menu (thank you!) consisting of a handful of dishes in small plate, large plate, sandwiches and entree categories. I hadn't known this beforehand but entrees in North America actually refer to main meals, not the course preceding the main as we know it. Anyway, there are many dishes I want to try from this concise menu, which has the feel of someone who knows what they want to serve you. With such menu choices, I'm happy with that. We're started with complimentary garlic and onion foccacia with chilli aioli while we make our menu choices.

Chilli aioli and garlic & onion foccacia from the Pineapple Room
by Alan Wong (Ala Moana Center, Honolulu)

The foccacia is warm and fresh, soft with a definite flavour of garlic. The chilli aioli is a delight, thick and creamy with just a hint of the chilli kick. The foccacia doesn't last long. There's a number of Hawaiian specialties on the menu, most with a modern twist. I spy a salad on a nearby table that makes me change my order at the last minute, and boy am I glad I did.

Calamari somen salad with mixed greens

Visually it's a sight to behold, with an array of colours and shapes attacking the senses. It looks like a work of art but a temptingly scrumptious one. The green leaves in the middle, along with a few colourful flower petals, cover a neat pile of somen noodles, similar to vermicelli. Scattered around the centre pile are deep fried squid pieces in something like a salt and pepper batter. There's a few prawn crackers and a small bowl of an Asian-style vinaigrette, similar to the dipping sauce used for Vietnamese rice paper rolls.

The squid is well seasoned, needing not a drop of dressing which I've poured all over the greens and noodles. The somen is bland on its own but takes on the flavour of the dressing well, and the greens are crisp perfection. It's one of the best salads I've ever had at this point and I don't leave a scrap on the plate.

My fellow diner is still in the grips of a love affair with kalua pig and has ordered a Hawaiian twist on a BLT sandwich.

Kalua pig BLT with half Caesar salad

I didn't taste this sandwich, which was filled with tender, smokey kalua pig in addition to bacon, but I'm told that it was heavy given the thick toasted bun. I'm still in a rhapsody from my salad and not too keen to potentially affect this mood with anything but my fellow diner insists, so we share a mini sized dessert.

Haupia tapioca 'halo halo'

Looking a lot like an ice kacang, our dessert arrives in a little glass tumbler bursting with colours and ingredients. Banana, orange, a couple of berries, a cube of coconut pudding or haupia, and some other jellies sit atop sweetened coconut-flavoured shave ice. The layer beneath the ice is red bean and sweet corn kernels and the final bottom layer is coconut flavoured tapioca or sago. It's a nice, refreshing mix although the fruit is overpowered by the sweetness of the other ingredients. Nonetheless, a light way to end the meal and for a change we're not stuffed to the gills.

Now here insert about five hours of shopping and we've again reached a point of needing and wanting to eat. It's a vicious but fun cycle. And it probably won't get more fun than this next eating experience.

Bubba Gump Shrimp Company (Ala Moana Center, Honolulu)

Made an almost household name by Tom Hanks, I'm excited to go to Bubba Gump's for reasons beyond just the culinary. And I'm also hanging for some shrimp especially as my travelling companion refuses to let me go to the shrimp truck that's just down the road from our hotel for supposed hygiene reasons.

There's a small waiting list when we get to the door but we easily wile time away in the adjacent gift shop, packed with Gump memorabilia. I pick up a few too many items, but can I really leave without a Bubba Gump tee, a Gump stubby holder, Gump playing cards, a Bubba Gump soft toy and a Gump keyring? No, I can't. We just finish paying as we're called to our table, a booth surrounded by walls of Gump, shrimp and hot sauce paraphernalia. Kitsch is an understatement.

By now we're veterans of this American system of food - we know what we're getting in terms of serving sizes and we order comfortably. At Bubba Gump's, it's all about the shrimp. As Bubba says in the movie: "Shrimp is the fruit of the sea. You can barbecue it, boil it, broil it, bake it, saute it. Dey's uh, shrimp-kabobs, shrimp creole, shrimp gumbo. Pan fried, deep fried, stir-fried. There's pineapple shrimp, lemon shrimp, coconut shrimp, pepper shrimp, shrimp soup, shrimp stew, shrimp salad, shrimp and potatoes, shrimp burger, shrimp sandwich. That - that's about it."

The restaurant concept is based on the movie with cute touches absolutely everywhere. The drinks and desserts menu is shaped on a ping pong paddle; there's flip signs on the table with 'Run Forrest Run' and 'Stop Forrest Stop' to indicate when you want your server to pass or stop at your table; the bathrooms are labelled 'Bubba' for men and 'Jenny' for women. It's all a bit of fun.

We have a Caesar salad for our greenery with other dishes of shrimp and more shrimp.

Shrimp and salsa cocktail from Bubba Gump's

This dish is downright odd. A server brings the food to the table: a dish of shrimp, a dish of salsa, a pile of tortilla chips and a cocktail shaker. Before we can say "mai tai?" the server has the shrimp and salsa in the shaker and is shaking vigourously by the table. She pours this mixture out onto a dish and thus serves us the shrimp and salsa cocktail. It's a far cry from the 80's style prawn cocktail that my friend was expecting but we dig in interestedly.

The shrimp is served chilled - they're just boiled but certainly verging on raw. The salsa is made up of tomato, Spanish onion, avocado and coriander and is a nice partner to the shrimp with lime juice all over. The sizeable chunks of both the shrimp and salsa make it hard to scoop up with the chips, but it's a healthy-feeling dish. My order is somewhat less healthy feeling.

Shrimp New Orleans

It looks healthy. And aside from the load of butter in the sauce, I think it was healthy. A good, generous serving of sauteed shrimp with rice and garlic bread in a supposedly spicy Cajun sauce. Maybe they meant spicy in the way of 'lots of spices' rather than 'hot' spicy. Either way I was very happy with this dish. The shrimp was firm with a fresh crunch; the sauce most closely likened to a diane sauce that you get with steak; and the rice perfect for soaking up the sauce. I don't know any Aussie dish that would be so generous with its prawn/shrimp serving, but I happily clean this plate up.

Again, I feel like dessert is completely superfluous but again, I am encouraged. Or forced. I earlier noted a Key lime pie in the desserts menu and my interest is piqued as I've heard of this dessert often in American movies or television shows. Once it arrives at the table, I wholeheartedly regret it.

Key lime pie

Aside from the huge glob of cream, the pie filling itself looks thicker and richer than cheesecake. I am honestly scared as I take a small spoonful. The biscuit base is thin and a touch too oily. The filling is oh-so rich and sweet, but tartly lime as well. We concede defeat about halfway through the shared dessert. I do note the lime zest sprinkled on the cream is really sharp but sweet, better than the lemon zest I've had in my experience.

The Key lime pie has tipped me over the edge and as we manoeuvre ourselves back into the gift shop for another pack of Gump playing cards, I have to worriedly wonder if the new denim short shorts I just bought will still fit me.

A happy eating new year

The new year has come with little event and for a change, I'm not disappointed. The times of expectation and hype are behind me and I look forward to just living my life. This of course includes eating and eating well.

We started off 2009 with a late morning. Who am I kidding, it was afternoon when we ventured out for fresh air and food. We'd passed a restaurant a few times that was simply teeming with people at dinner time, and still attracting a small crowd this new year's day lunch. The Cheesecake Factory is a restaurant chain and entices with a fridge cabinet full of delightful looking and sounding cheesecakes at the front of the restuarant. We point greedily at different varieties: think peanut butter, cookie dough, cookies and cream and many more, and promise to save space in our tummies for them.

Cheesecakes on display at the Cheescake Factory (Kalakua Ave, Waikiki)

The menu offering at the Cheesecake Factory is enormous and a little confusing. There's no way that I can pinpoint a style of food, other than maybe calling it upmarket casual, as there are strong American influences along with Mexican, Chinese, Vietnamese, Japanese and a few others still. On top of this, the segregation of the menu has me a little overwhelmed, with appetisers, pizzas, specialties then lunch specials, pasta, fish, meat, salads (in addition to the salads mentioned in the appetisers section) - a bit of simplicity is all I ask! I need a drink just after my first glance at the menu and we opt for non-alcoholic beverages this afternoon.

Frozen iced mango (left) and strawberry fruit smoothie (right)

The frozen iced mango is a very sweet blend of juices with mango served with raspberry puree fetchingly swirled into the glass. The strawberry smoothie comes in a huge tumbler, thick, cold and fruity. Complimentary white and brown bread rolls and butter are also brought to the table with the drinks. When we finally manage to whittle down to our choices from the menu, we think we've ordered considerately enough to leave room for a shared cheesecake, as these too come in huge servings with piles of cream as seen on neighbouring tables. We polish off the soft, fresh bread as we wait for our meal to arrive.

Buffalo wings

We start with an appetiser sized serve of buffalo wings - we're giving them another go - that come with celery sticks, a blue cheese sauce and a hot chilli sauce. I wonder why they are served with celery sticks? The token vegetable presence? These wings are deep fried well with a spicy coating covering mid-wings and drumettes. I find the blue cheese dressing strong but complementary and the chilli sauce unnecessary. Next arrives my rather thoughtless choice of the kalua pig pizza - thoughtless because of the ingestion of two bread rolls before the meal.

Kalua pig pizza

The pizza smells fantastic, as even the server comments. It's colourful and gourmet-looking. There are generous handfuls of my new favourite kalua pig; smokey, tasty and tender. Other toppings include Spanish onion, capsicum, chopped parsley and cubes of mango. There's a lot of thick, stringy cheese and the base is bready, probably about three times the thickness of an Italian pizza base. Finally we've ordered our vegie fix in the way of an appetiser salad.

Tomato and mozzarella salad

Which comes out on an oval platter sized plate. Appetiser? More like a meal in itself! Half the platter consists of fresh, leafy greens with a very light vinaigrette dressing. On the other side of the platter is tomato layered with slices of milky mozzarella. This is then topped with sun dried tomatoes, Spanish onion, crumbled blue cheese and a small amount of basil. I guess this is supposed to be the American 'bigger and better' embellished version of insalata caprese.

Most likely because of the bread before the meal and the huge serving sizes of everything, we manage to finish only the salad. Half the pizza stares sadly back at us along with a few wings minus their celery stick partners. We tried our best but can not even contemplate more food, let alone decadently sweet and rich cheesecake with naughty flavour and topping additions. Next time?

We somehow manage to fill the time in between lunch and dinner undertaking non-eating related activities. Mostly. But when dinner does eventually roll around we stay a little more local, exploring near our hotel. We chance upon a little Japanese ramen store with a queue of almost entirely Japanese tourists snaking across the footpath towards the road. It looks promising so we jump onto the end of the line at Ramen Nakamura and wait.

About 15 minutes later we find ourselves seated at the end of the narrow, rectangular bar seating next to and across from Japanese tourists both young and old. (There's a little boy opposite us that is almost falling asleep into his huge bowl of ramen. He has his eyes closed yet picks up noodles with his chopsticks and eats all the while. We fear that sleep may conquer and he'll end up with a hot, salty head but he doesn't.)

The server is friendly and very efficient, and brings us glasses of iced water with our menus. We pretty much know what we want, having stood waiting outside assessing the menu options. Their specialty is an ox tail ramen, but we both order more familiar sounding choices.

Miso ramen at Ramen Nakamura (Kalakaua Ave, Waikiki)

As the ramen arrives hot and steaming in massive basins, my companion and I look and grin at each other. We're in for some big eats tonight! The miso ramen of my companion's looks thick and creamy - the hit of miso flavour confirmed in the first mouthful of hot but not scalding soup. The noodles are accompanied by bean sprouts, bamboo shoots, shallots, a thin slice of roast pork and sprinkled with sesame seeds.

Gyoza and shoyu ramen

I've ordered a set that comes with three gyoza and opted for the shoyu ramen. The soup is darker in colour but lighter in consistency, and tasting light and meaty. Mine also comes with the same additions as listed above. Actually, both bowls of noodles are also garnished with a few slices of deep fried garlic - crunchy when not soaked in soup but releasing their pungent aroma once submerged in soup. You end up with a slight garlicky taste that's quite unique. The bean sprouts and bamboo shoots are cooked soft, the pork is tasty albeit a little fatty but the noodles are sensational. They're a little thicker than I've normally seen with a bit of bite to them and perfect with mouthfuls of the flavoursome soup.

The gyoza are close to the best I've ever had, if not the best. Obviously fresh made, the pastry is thin yet capably encasing the meat and vegies. The pan fried bottom is superbly crunchy and the first bite has vibrant, soupy juices running out to greet you. A dip in soy (not necessary even) and I'm in dumpling heaven. I wish that my stomach wouldn't fill so I could just eat these forever. Inevitably it does fill and we leave completely sated and very, very satisfied for a new year's day.

Custom bowls at Ramen Nakamura

Onwards and upwards... to Diamond Head

We plough on through our eating adventures in Hawaii, even on this day that we plan to hike up the extinct volcano that is Diamond Head; a landmark oft seen in photos and other memorabilia of Waikiki and Hawaii.

One can not hike without proper sustenance and nutrition - even if it's just a 40 minute hike - so we made our way to the nearby McDonalds. Really. Although Maccas are generally the same around the world, there are always some slight localised variations. In this we revel. Spam, eggs and rice are on the breakfast menu, at a very reasonable price too, but we choose otherwise.

McDonalds breakfast on Kuhio Ave, Waikiki

One such local variation is the addition of a small box of pineapple with all value meals - how very Hawaiian, and healthy at that. My orange juice is the size of a medium drink in Australia - at this point I'm still adjusting to serving sizes.

Sausage and hot cakes

My fellow hiker goes for the savoury sweet combo of hot cakes with a sausage pattie. I don't believe you can get this in the Aussie stores, but I could be wrong. It comes with maple syrup and whipped margarine, and is standard Maccas fare. I go for the relatively exotic-sounding sausage and egg McGriddle in a meal.

Sausage and egg McGriddle

What on earth is a McGriddle? I'm still none too sure. You've got your sausage pattie, fried egg and plastic-looking, artificially yellow cheese enclosed in two pieces of what seems like pancake. It's sweet, fluffy, a little on the oily side and quite unusual. Again, it's a bit of a sweet and savoury combination that sort of works, and sort of doesn't.

A meal at Maccas for me usually means I've had a big day/night or I'm about to have a big day/night. This time it's the latter as we conquer Diamond Head amid plenty of complaining, sweating and photography. Below were my rewards:

View of Waikiki from the top of Diamond Head

Shave ice
(here with pineapple and passionfruit flavourings)

Note: the shave ice was rewarded upon our descent back to the bottom of the mountain, not at the top - although a store at the summit would be an interesting business venture.

Shave ice is another Hawaiian specialty. Similar to a snow cone, it is literally just ice that has been finely shaved and packed into a cup then doused with flavouring. The ice in shave ice (note that it is 'shave ice' not 'shaved ice' - a distinction I felt compelled to make many a time) is supposedly finer than what you'd find in snow cones elsewhere, hence the difference and attraction. Either way, by the end of the hike up and back down we're thankful for anything that's cold and drinkable. As we reach the bottom of the large cup most of the ice has melted leaving a sugar-concentrated liquid. We think to conserve the health of our teeth and toss it out.

While resting up back at the hotel we attack some of the snack foods we've acquired from the nearby ABC Store - one of the more interesting pictured below:

Fried cuttlefish legs
(and yes, Twinkies in the background)

Think fishy, super chewy and savoury. Not much more. Okay washed down with loads of Coke. Following more rest and long showers, dinner beckons and this night we venture down to the beach in search of a light feed. We take a number for Furusato Sushi and wait outside with others to the sounds of the quite talented buskers singing on guitar nearby.

The restaurant is small with about eight tables and seating at the sushi bar. We're nearing a ravenous state after the short-ish wait and dive right into the menu. With Kirin and edamame (soy) beans to whet the appetite, a range of raw and cooked foods arrive to the table.

Ahi poke from Furusato (Kalakaua Ave, Waikiki)

This is the Japanese version of a Hawaiian version of a Japanese dish. Sort of. This poke is heavy on the vegies and sesame flavouring, and light on the serving size. The tuna is as fresh as any and we demolish this appetiser rather quickly. Next up is my fellow diner's order of uni sashimi; that is, sea urchin roe and lots of it.

Uni

It's not the most visually appealing dish, but it's the biggest serve of sea urchin roe I've ever seen. Served raw with a knob of wasabi and nori sheets as its only partners, the flavour of sea urchin is not one that I tolerate well. "Creamy" is the word my fellow diner often uses to describe it, and while I concede that the texture is indeed creamy, the taste is foul on my tongue. But each to their own, I say as I retreat to the safety and warmth of my bowl of udon noodles.

Udon

Thick white udon noodles caress my tastebuds, as if shooing away the bad memories of uni. The soup is so flavoursome that I drink it all up along with the bean curd sheet and fish cake. It's beautiful in its absolute simplicity, and probably made so much the better after my taste of the uni.

California roll

And we finish with a California sushi roll made fresh and filled with real crab meat (none of this crab stick business), cucumber and avocado, and sprinkled with just some sesame seeds. It's a satisfying meal early in the night although when 2am rolls around (after a beverage or two) and we're walking through the streets back to the hotel, we could go for a bit of a snack. We stumble upon (not quite literally) a little takoyaki store in a side street and we pounce. Funnily enough, we're by no means alone in our early morning food endeavour and we watch as our octopus balls are made fresh in front of our eyes.

Takoyaki in the making (place on Seaside Ave [I think], Waikiki)

I'm fairly sure that all the takoyaki I've ever tried in restaurants are of the frozen variety, especially as they tend to be very similar from every Japanese establishment and also perfect sphere shapes, so I have high hopes for these freshly made ones. We see a piece of octopus being added to the batter in each hole followed by pickled ginger and shallots. When cooked through they are served covered in okonomiyaki sauce (which looks like barbeque sauce), Japanese mayonnaise, fine bits of nori and a ration's sprinkle of shaved bonito. (I say that because the shavings are one of my favourite parts - I love seeing the bigger pieces move and sway about in the steam emitted from the takoyaki).

Takoyaki

With high expectations usually comes disappointment. That's a pessimistic view but we are unfortunately disappointed in the final result. The takoyaki are soggy with the dough close to being raw. Perhaps the cook was a little overwhelmed by the masses of waiting late night snackers, though I would have been happy to wait a little more for better cooked versions. Also the octopus is a little bit tough, in all making it a less than satisfactory snack to end a long day.

Hole in the Wall food tour in Honolulu

I was very excited to find and book this tour online, and even more excited the morning of the tour. A food tour! Ingenious! Combine food and travel - these are a few of my favourite things. So let's get started before I break out into the Sound of Music tunes.

This is a guided four hour tour of foods and sights mostly in Honolulu that you may not normally get to taste and see otherwise. It's like a local 'in' to the so-called melting pot cuisine of Hawaii. And you get picked up from your hotel doorstep, bus-ed from eating place to eating place, and dropped off at your hotel when it's all over and you can barely waddle anymore.

At a respectable 10am start, my fellow traveller and I are joined by three others for a small eating party on this day. All the more to eat and question the guides, I guess. We start with something breakfast-appropriate called a baked manapua from an establishment on the outskirts of Honolulu's Chinatown, at the riverside where Chinese men gamble around stone tables and roof-less seating.

Kalua pig baked manapua (denoted by the 'K')

These are based on Chinese char siu bao, which were originally brought to Hawaii by Chinese immigrants. Rather than steamed buns, these are baked with a variety of fillings ranging from the traditional char siu, Chinese sausage (lup cheung) and coconut to the less traditional, more fusion-like curry chicken, Portuguese sausage, sweet potato and my choice, kalua pig.

Kalua pig manapua (top) and Portuguese sausage
manapua (bottom) from Royal Kitchen

We receive the buns delightfully oven warm and soft, and we rip into them as though we're breaking a fast. The bun is light and fluffy, and my kalua pig filling is smokey, savoury and generally moan-worthy. It is so good that I don't want to share with my friend as promised before making our orders, but one should share happiness. The Portuguese sausage is no comparison, but decent anyway. It's of a firm texture, strongly contrasting with the fluffiness of the bun, with a bit of spice flavour.

One of our guides tell us the story behind the name, 'manapua'. Apparently Chinese food peddlers back in the day would be selling their char siu bao, translated as "mea ono" for cake or pastry and "pua'a" for pork. The peddlers, in their bastardised Hawaiian would call out "manapua" instead, and it seems the name has stuck to this day.

Following fluffy buns and scrumptious fillings, our tour heads to a bakery where the guide warns that passing out has occurred previously. I'm skeptical but anticipating greatness in the name of a coco puff.

Coco puff from Liliha Bakery

Striking more than a strong resemblance to a profiterole, this little lump packs a sweet punch. The choux pastry puff is filled with a chocolate custard-like mixture that tastes not-so-vaguely like chocolate Yogo (that dairy snack we'd have as kids - remember?). The pastry has softened from its chilling but is still delectable, however a little defeated by the weight of the filling and icing. The icing is another story and meal in itself. I'm told it's a Chantilly icing made of butter, egg yolks, sugar and evaporated milk, whipped to the unusual looking consistency seen in the photo. My second mouthful of the puff with icing starts to hurt my teeth. I discard the majority of the icing and disregard what this little puff will be doing to the rest of my body. I just think and visualise: yum.

Next we hit Chinatown, which I'm really looking forward to. I love being able to compare Chinatowns from all over: Sydney to Melbourne to London, Amsterdam and now Honolulu. We're even privvy to some behind the scenes action in addition to exploring the markets and stores. Chinatown in Honolulu spans quite a block of area although it is in no way as dense as the one in Sydney. I've been told that the Honolulu Chinatown area isn't the type that you would hang around at night time and there are visible signs of this in the streets on the outer area of the region.

Manukea Marketplace however is colourful and bustling with fruit and veg lining the sides of the pedestrian street. It is here that we enter a rice noodle factory and witness an almost lost art of hand made rice noodles: cheung fun and hor fun. It is simply amazing and you feel almost transported back into a different time; one before machinery and stainless steel have taken over.

The workers are mostly over the age of 50, for there is no interest or motivation for younger generations to engage in such labourious work. It's a little sad but I still watch in wonder as women ladle rice noodle batter (with shallots and pork or dried shrimp for cheung fun and plain for the hor fun) onto oiled rectangular trays and stack them for steaming. The batter cooks to produce thin layers of noodles that are then cooled by fan.

Cooked rice noodle sheets

The male workers then take the cooled cooked rice noodle sheets and roll (cheung fun) or fold (hor fun) each by hand. I'm not sure if there is a purposeful separation of men and women in tasks, but it's quite apparent that the women were in the kitchen and men in the outer prep room behind the store. It's a not a fast process but it's obvious that these guys are old hands at it, quickly rolling or folding and returning trays to be re-oiled and refilled.

Pile of cheung fun rice noodles, ready to go

Following the behind the scenes look, we get to sample what we've just seen. You're not going to get rice noodles any fresher than this! After watching the preparation and production for a few minutes, I'm quite eager to taste this handiwork as I get the feeling that our noodles bought from Chinese supermarkets back home are probably not hand made.

Squid balls (left) and cheung fun (right)

After being doused in some soy sauce we pick at the cheung fun, which is lukewarm and soft. It's a little thicker than varieties that I've tried back home which makes for a different texture altogether, but the pork addition is a definite winner. We also sample some freshly cooked squid balls: deep fried balls of a squid and cuttlefish mince (probably with some fish, flour and other ingredients too) with little bits of squid in it too. These are undoubtedly the best meatball-style food that I've ever had. I'm not sure if it's the freshness or light coating of Chinese five spice powder, but they are unbelievably good and moreish too. We 'sample' again and again.

The tour continues through Chinatown to uncover a little 'crack seed' store, filled to the brim with Chinese groceries and all manner of dried snacking foods ranging from savoury shrimp, squid, cuttlefish and the like, to the sweet (and sour) plums, mango, ginger and more. I would never have thought these foods to be popular outside of the Chinese culture, but apparently they are in Hawaii with kids having grown up eating their favourite 'crack seed' snacks from the Chinese stores. We also visit a Chinese BBQ shop and sample some stickily sweet char siu and salty, crispy-skinned roast pork.

Our next stop is lunch at an eatery that's renowned for its bento boxes and plate lunches. Hawaiian plate lunches are a fairly basic yet eclectic mix of edibles: two scoops of rice, macaroni salad and a meat item that could range from Chinese char siu to Korean beef ribs to Japanese teriyaki chicken. Apparently it's ideal for surfers who need their carbohydrate and protein fix before (or after?) hitting the waves. We have a garlicky deep friend chicken and rather chewy teriyaki beef with our steamed rice and creamy macaroni salad.

Last stop on the tour is the well-known Leonard's Bakery for malasadas which are a Portuguese doughnut. They come in a traditional sugar coating or a cinnamon sugar version, or filled varieties with custard, chocolate, coconut, strawberry or even green tea flavours.

Cinnamon sugar malasada

We receive them fresh and hot out of the deep fryer. My cinnamon sugar version looks just like a jam ball doughnut from the outside, but is light and airy in comparison to other doughnuts. They are delectable eaten hot, with a slight crunch to the outer, and surprisingly not too oily so I could probably eat a couple of these had I not been eating all day long.

Thus concluding our food tour. We get dropped off back to our hotel and lie about awhile like beached whales. With some sunshine making a rare appearance on our trip so far, we force ourselves to the beach where we resume the beached whale pose on the sand and sun of Waikiki Beach.