Tuesday, December 20, 2011

Click here to watch a short video of tropical fishes & corals

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The intermittent light morning rain has us walking through the mall on Kalakaua Ave to Eggs ‘n Things for breakfast. Yes, we’ve been there before but no on feels like getting in the car and driving around. As much as I like to eat, I find the attempt to dine at a different location for every meal very challenging. So being creatures of habit, we go for what we know. It’s also a short walk away and across from the beach.

Eggs ‘n Things
2464 Kalakaua Ave
Honolulu, HI 96815

I’m having a plain waffle and a side of bacon again. Arick likes the banana pancakes with turkey bacon & eggs, Michael repeats his breakfast choice of turkey bacon with eggs & blueberry pancakes. Bryan likes French toast with a side of turkey bacon. The wait is not too long and the staff is friendly.

Our plan to spend time on the beach is delayed due to the continuing rain. The sun is up there but the winds have the rain clouds moving swiftly above us. We’re going to hold out and wait for the rain to stop; blue skies are nearby!

We take a stroll along the south end of Kalakaua Ave; pass the Honolulu Zoo and through Queens Surf Beach Park. We noticed that the parks around here don’t have open BBQ grills for public use-wonder why? We come upon the Waikiki Aquarium and decide to go in.

Waikiki Aquarium
2777 Kalakaua Ave
Honolulu, Hi 96815

The general admission is $9 which includes a free easy to use audio tour guide. It’s a fantastic way to learn about all the fishes in the aquarium. This place is small compared to other facilities but you get to see wonderful displays of tropical fishes and corals unique to Hawaii. One of the outdoor exhibits includes a habitat area for the Hawaiian Monk Seal.

My favorite is the Jelly Fish display; it’s quite beautiful!

The aquarium is a great place to spend a few hours of the day! It’s still lightly sprinkling as we walk make our way back to Queens Surf Beach Park. There’s a rainbow stretched across the big blue sky-WOW!

Arick and I get a spot at the SE end of the beach and make ourselves comfortable-it’s great here; there’s less people! To get a decent tan, I have to remember to turn myself over after about 30-40 mins. Arick’s enjoying swimming out in the water and playing on the sand.

We return to the hotel after 2-3 hours of beach time and clean up, rest, etc, etc. For a late lunch/early dinner, we’re going to have Hawaiian food.

Helena’s Hawaiian Food
1240 North School St
Honolulu, Hi 96734

The 5 miles drive to Helena’s takes us over half an hour; there’s plenty of traffic congestion on the highway and streets of Honolulu. Good luck is with us and we get a parking spot right in front of the restaurant.

From the menu, you can order combination dinners or a la carte items. We have a large order of short ribs Pipikaula style along with Poi, Lomi Salmon, Kalua Pig, Rice, Laulau, Luau Chicken, fried Butterfish Collar and Haupia.

The Pipikaula is delicious! It’s tender, juicy and full of flavor. The short ribs are marinated and hanged dried over the stove for a few days and fried to a light crisp before being served. This beef is very addictive; I’m going to learn to make this at home!

The Kalua Pig (cooked in imu) is another fabulous dish! It’s moist, juicy and very tasty.

The fried Butterfish collar was fantastic too! The skin was crunchy and the fish was moist through and through.

The Laulau is tasty too; a piece of pork is wrapped in taro leaves and steamed to a “melt in your mouth” texture. Lovely!

Poi is made of taro root which is boiled and pounded into a paste, mixed with water and allowed to sour for a few days. It is an aquired taste.

Lomi Salmon is a cold diced tomato and salmon salad. It was refreshing and a good dish to cleanse the palate. I liked it.

The Luau Chicken is simmered chicken with taro leaves and coconut milk. The result is a smooth and creamy dish with a nice coconut taste at the end. Yummy!

Haupia is a light coconut gelatin type dessert. It was the right ending to this meal.

We ate everything; it was all so good! This is a “definite come back to” restaurant.

We saw another Shaved Iced place on the drive out to Helena’s, so the plan is to make a quick stop there to try it out.

Shimazu Store
330 North School St
Honolulu, HI 96817

We get to the store and order a large shaved iced with ice cream and azuki beans with lychee and guava syrup. They offer a whole variety of syrups, creams and condensed milk.  The cone we got was HUGE-it was almost the size of my head! It was more than enough for us to share.

The shaved ice was light and delicate with a smooth “melt in your mouth” feel. It was refreshing! We thought their shaved ice is better than the one we got at Matsumoto’s!

We’re back at the hotel, Bryan and I head down to the Jacuzzi for some R & R.  I’m so happy that my boys want to spend time with us. Life is great!

After missing out at Fatty’s last night, Arick and Bryan want to go there for a late meal. Fatty closes at 10 PM so we arrange to meet up at 9 PM. The walk over there is very short and they have 3 counter spaces available-great!

We all love saucy chow fun, so we get a Beef Chow Fun with Black Bean Pepper Sauce, Roast Duck Soup Noodles and a plate of Stir fried Bean Curd Ong-Choy. You can’t go wrong with eating more veggies!

The boys loved it! Everything was fresh and tasty. Most importantly, the stir fried dishes had the distinctive “wok’s breath’ taste. DELICIOUS!

We have another day and a half left here; what shall we do?

>>>>>>>>>One generation plants the trees; another gets the shade>>>>>>>>>