hawaii foodie thursday

Thursday, I met up with my blog friend, Deb of Kahakai Kitchen. We've emailed and commented on each other's blogs but never met up face to face.

I had also received an email to meet up from another blog friend, Alan of Ma'ona and asked if he wanted to join us. Luckily, he didn't have any last minute meetings and took some time out of his busy schedule to join us.

It was the first time for all of us to meet each other.

We met up at Blue Hawaii Lifestyle Cafe at Ala Moana Shopping Center to try their acai bowl (US$7.50 +tax). It was my first time trying this and I really liked it---a tart acai "sorbet" topped with granola, fruit and some honey...delicious.

We chatted about blogging and other topics then Alan had to return to work. It was really nice putting a face to his blog and I think we all had a nice time.

After our acai bowls, Deb and I headed upstairs to the Pacific Place Tea Garden. The owner of this shop is actually a friend of my friend, Audrey. She had told me about this place awhile back but I had never had the chance to check them out.

Deb had been here before and highly recommended the tea floats, but since we had just eaten the acai bowl, we settled on iced teas and macaron instead.

Deb had their tangerine ginger tea (US$2.95) with a chocolate macaron (US$1.75) and I tried their passion for hawaii tea (US$2.95) with a matcha macaron (US$1.75).

The macaron was good but could have used more green tea flavor, it actually reminded me more of a pistachio flavor. I loved the tea, there was a lot of passion fruit flavor.

Besides taking time out of her busy schedule to spend time with me, Deb was also kind to give me some of her favorites...chocolates from Sweet Paradise Chocolatier, a chocolate shop in Kailua.

I tried them and each one was perfectly flavored and the chocolate surrounding them perfectly matched too. They were all so good that I couldn't pick a favorite....(I actually ate half of each one and saved the other half for my mom...if you were wondering.)

Along with the chocolates, she also included her favorite tea from Teavana. The tea is a rooibos tea flavored with blueberries and other herbs, can't wait to try it...

And as though she weren't generous enough, she also included two magazines.."delicious." and "edible hawaiian islands".

"delicious." is also a favorite of mine, Satoshi had brought a copy back for me from one of his business trips to Australia in the past and I try to buy a copy whenever I'm in Hawaii.

The "edible" magazine was something new to me. This magazine promotes local food and apparently there are many other cities that have publications so check out their website to see if your city has one.

I had a great time meeting Alan and Deb. (Thanks for a great day you two! and thanks for all those great foodie items Deb!)

Pacific Place Tea Garden (UPDATE: 2014, this shop is no longer here)
Top Floor
Ala Moana Shopping Center, concourse near Neiman Marcus
Honolulu, Hawaii
Phone: 808.944.2004

Sweet Paradise Chocolatier
20-A Kainehe Street
Kailua, Hawaii
Phone: 808.230.8228