hawaii shops and eats

Yesterday, I met my Aunty M1 and Kathy at Town for lunch and had seen mixed reviews on various websites.

I have written about Kathy before, she is my Aunty's friend and was teaching in Japan. She returned to Hawaii in March after her contract was up.

We all chose the baby arugula salad with grilled beets, oranges, ricotta salata & pecans (US$7), though my aunty added some fish to her salad (plus US$5).

I'd say that the salad portion was just right, though I would have like a little more "stuff" in my salad, especially more pecans.

We also had dessert, I chose the chocolate-hazelnut gelato (US$4)...dark chocolate gelato with a nice hazelnut flavor. The biscotti it came with was rather bland, but overall a good dessert.

My Aunty chose mango sorbet (US$4) and Kathy had their lemon ice box cake (US$7). The mango sorbet tasted like you were eating the fruit (which is how sorbet should taste) and their ice box cake was lemony and delicious! (I wonder if their gelato and sorbet was from La Gelateria??)

My overall experience was a good one, my only regret was that I didn't see their free parking area and ended up parking on the street, which meant feeding a meter. (Thanks for lunch Aunty!)

I parked near Tamura's Wine near 10th avenue, which my "cousin" Steven works at (hadn't seen him in ages!). He was kind enough to change some $$ for me for the meter. (Thanks Steven!!)

After lunch, I checked out Tamura's chocolate selection and was impressed with all the varieties they had, way more than all the usual places I've checked out on my past trips home.

I picked up Lindt's swiss bittersweet, Nirvana's 72% with nibs, Vivani's 70% and Waialua Estate's 70% mini bars...I hope these are all good.

I didn't get to check out their wine selection but it looked like it was pretty good sized.

Ooh and this pua keni keni lei. I got this from Kathy. She has a pua keni keni tree in her yard and gave me 2 lei. In Hawaii, most people have fruit trees, flowers growing in their yards. The flowers usually can be made into lei and the abundance of fruits are usually shared with neighbors, relatives and/or friends.

These flowers can't be refrigerated, you can put them into a plastic bag and float them on water, if you put them into the refrigerator they will turn black. The fragrance of these are so heavenly. (Thanks Kathy!)

It was nice to see Kathy, re-connect with Steven and lunch with my Aunty.

It is a 3-day weekend (4th of July weekend) here, hope you have a safe but fun holiday!

Town
3435 Waialae Avenue
Honolulu, Hawaii
Phone: 808.735.5900

Tamura's Wine
3435 Waialae Avenue
Honolulu, Hawaii
Phone: 808.735.7100