Suddenly we are on the Las Vegas strip – or so it seems – which is a bit of a shock after being in much more low-key communities including Volcano and Hilo for the past week. We arrived here at about 5:30 p.m. and I haven’t figured out yet where one hotel ends and the next begins – or even where exactly our hotel ends since it seems to be an endless shopping mall that has engulfed our hotel. But it’s all good – interesting in its own way.
Hilo turned out to be much nicer once we got out of the car and started walking around (at first glance, when driving through a few days ago, it looked grimy and gritty.) Today it looked funky and charming. The farmers market was a densely packed assortment of stalls selling gorgeous flowers, vegetables and fruit – only some of which I could name – and all manner of homemade concoctions from pad thai to various semin (sp?) – a flipino sweet that’s sort of a pressed patty of coconut, rice and who knows what else wrapped inside a banana leaf. We visited a mochi shop – Two Ladies kitchen I think was the name – that is known as having the best mochi in all of hawaii. It’s a tiny place where it’s made fresh and although I don’t like this japanese sweet that much I bought a piece in honor of my sister-in-law Heather who loves it and first introduced me to it (she lived in Japan for awhile.) We also got great Poki – raw tuna lightly dressed in sesame oil and I dont’ know what else) at Ocean Sushi which is a popular spot w/locals (we found out about it by asking a local where to find Poki.)
We ate our meal – including our new favorite Hawaiian fruit, apple bananas – near the waterfront in the Lilipxxxx. (can’t remember the spelling) park with its lovely startling green lawns and japanese gardens and palm trees and little coconut island where signs warned us to beware of coconuts falling on our heads. A bunch of dare devil boys did dives and back flips off an old ruin of a ledge near the harbor. Can’t imagine what it must be like to grow up here.
Our flight to Honolulu was quick and uneventful – good viewing from the plane window of the other islands en route to Oahu. We had a fantastic dinner tonight at another place popular with locals – the Side Street Inn. The place was packed and we can tell why – we had the special fried rice with the bits of char sui pork, vegetables and amazing sizzling korean short ribs atop sautéed vegetables. The couple next to us turned out to be farmers from Illinois so we shared our food with them and they shared theirs with us since the portions were so enormous and we ended up sharing a cab back to Waikiki Beach with them. (We’re here for a national farm conference…so lots of farmers around, and lots of very well-heeled looking japanese people.)
One bummer: I seem to be missing my cell phone cord so that may mess up things a bit. Will work around it if need be.
TakeBetsywithyou 