Giovanni's Shrimp Truck

YAY! I think my morning sickness is over and I'm finally able to finish my Hawaii entries and then I'm back to food blogging about good ol' Fresno. This post I'm most excited about it. This meal was so good and I remember it so fondly, too bad the thought of anything from the sea was nauseating the last couple of weeks. If you love shrimp, garlic and butter this is a MUST. This place is definitely worth the drive to the North Shore. It's approximately an hour drive from Waikiki and is located in the town of Kahuku.  There is only one road so keep your eye out for this sign.  

They serve big, juicy Kahuku farmed shrimp in your choice of sauce: #1 Shrimp Scampi (and #1 for a reason), #2 Hot & Spicy, #3 Lemon & butter. All plates consist of 12 shrimp in your choice of sauce, two scoops of rice and a wedge of lemon for $12. It seems a bit pricey until you take your first bite...worth every penny. Hubby got the hot & spicy which definitely has a tabasco base. So if you don't like the vinegar taste of tabasco, stay away from the hot & spicy. I personally liked it, until I tried my order... 

This is what all the commotion is about, the scampi. OH MY!! We were bummed we wasted $12 on the hot & spicy once we took our first bite of the buttery, garlic goodness of the scampi. Even if I was on my first date with Adam Levine, I would still order this and make him suffer through my garlic breath and kisses. This is SO dang good that I'm bummed it's only available in Hawaii. The shrimp is cooked perfectly, not over cooked and rubbery. And the sauce, they're generous with the sauce but I could have seriously had a gallon of it but my heart thanks me everyday that I didn't. Giovanni's, I miss you!
Giovanni's Shrimp Truck

83 Kamehameha Highway

Kahuku, HI 96731

Yum Meter: ***

Waiola Shave Ice

I've been stalling on finishing up my Hawaiian food journey because I honestly haven't been able to stomach much of anything lately let alone write about it. But I'm finally back and feeling pretty good. Let's hope the chapter of morning sickness is behind me.

Waiola Shave Ice is something I could eat regardless of my condition. You may have heard of Matsumoto's but I never understood the rave over that place. It's all the way over in the North Shore and it's average shave ice. This place on the other hand made me want a rental car everyday just so I could have it ALL the time. The ice is so finely shaved it's smooth. This is not your typical sno-cone ice. It's like powdery snow with all the toppings and fixins you could ever imagine and then some. Waiola offers a dizzying array of syrups, toppings, powders, and extras you could eat with shave ice. I went for something unique and big, the azuki bowl. 

Sweet azuki beans and chewy rice balls are smothered in "I could never get enough" condensed milk. This is an Asian dessert dream. This is also a sweet, easy snack for the birds who anxiously wait for the next sucker to order this beauty so they could swoop in for the kill. I'm not kidding. These birds are aggressive and will do whatever it takes to get their beaks on as many azuki beans as they can. By the looks of their pudgy, fluffy bodies, they're doing quite well for themselves. So once you order this: duck, cover and run as fast as you can to your car to enjoy in safety (leave the windows up). We went with some friends and all ordered something different and all combos were good but mine was exceptional. I'm normally the type that likes to try new things all the time but I'm sticking with the azuki bowl. I could try the fruity flavors from my hubby and toddler.

Waiola Shave Ice (2 locations to serve your shave ice needs)

2135 Waiola St.             525 Kapahulu Ave.  

Honolulu, HI 96826         Honolulu, HI 96815

808-949-2269                808-735-8886

YUM Meter: ***

Yakiniku Hiroshi

So I've been stalling to post about this place because every time I look at the pics to post my mouth and body yearn to eat it again. If you're staying in Waikiki, you DEFINITELY need to hit this spot. A bit pricey but worth every penny.

A Korean style BBQ restaurant done the Japanese way. The Korean part: order your desired cuts of meat and cook it on the grill in front of you. The Japanese part: you pay for all the additional fixins such as rice, kimchee, and salad.  The other special Japanese component of this restaurant is the quality of the beef. By far the best beef I've had in the United States. The beef is fresh, never frozen USDA prime. I didn't know US beef could be so marbled; I thought that only existed in Japan.

For dinner they offer two chef's dinner which includes various cuts of meet and some fixins for a set price. We chose the cheaper (if you can really call it that) dinner. I should have wrote down all the cuts but I was starving and had a cranky baby who wanted nothing to do with this yakiniku house. But I think I recall most of the reasons why we picked our dinner besides the price: beef tongue, rib eye, kalbi short rib, Hiroshi's salad, kimchee, daikon kimchee, namul, rice and dessert.  Honestly, I think I recalled the full dinner (see mommy-hood doesn't kill all your brain cells). The set dinner cost us $50 per person, which was a really good deal considering that price included tax and tip, and there was no way we could get all those cuts and the sides for that price a la carte.  

Our meal was orgasmic. Since enjoying Kobe beef in Kobe, Japan, I have not enjoyed beef this much. It made me appreciate why I'm not a vegetarian and why I could never be one. The meat had enough fat for it's juicy goodness to be enjoyed even if you over cooked it (easy to do with a toddler). My baby is not too fond of beef but she got one taste and the whole restaurant could hear her say, "MORE pulease!" Maybe that's why I was still hungry. I believe there were two dipping sauces which is more than a Korean joint. One was a ponzu type and the other I think was a ginger based sauce. Both sauces were good but I love ponzu. Hiroshi's salad was good and refreshing but the portion was only enough for one person so the salad didn't make it past the first cut of beef which was the tongue. OK, I know, you're thinking GROSS, but seriously the Japanese know how to cook and use beef tongue to where you would never know you were eating it unless you were told or are familiar with it. Seriously, don't knock it till you try it.

For a Japanese restaurant, the namul and kimchee were not bad. They even served us kim (toasted seaweed) which my daughter enjoyed. Back to the beef, I was gobbling and enjoying this stuff so much that I hardly touched my rice and was seriously contemplating ordering another dinner and throwing our budget out to sea. The beef was seasoned with salt and after grilling it however you like, you put this hot piece of juicy meat in your mouth and lead your taste buds to ecstasy. Each bite releases more juice and some delicious fat. It's so tender you're teeth hardly have to work then you swallow and let your tummy enjoy a bit of what your mouth just did.

Hiroshi also serves other items to be grilled that I've never had grilled before. Ddeok was a pleasant and tasty surprise. The kabocha was good too. After the beef love making, we were served a dessert mochi ice cream and homemade candy wafers. I didn't think anything could properly conclude this meal but those wafers were DANG good. It was a thin crisp of toffee with various nuts. They sell them for a hefty price tag and I so wanted them but hubby said no, they're too expensive, which they were. A small bag of maybe 6 pieces (about the size of a nilla wafer but square) cost $12. I wish money grew on trees so I could eat as decadently to my mouth's content. They give you a small bottle of water on your way out which was a nice and memorable ending to our fabulous meal.

Side dishes: kimchee & daikon kimchee

Beautiful rib eye & kalbii seasoned with salt. Check out the marbling!

They had high tech grills that sucked up the smoke pronto.

Yakiniku Hiroshi

339 Royal Hawaiian Ave.

Honolulu, HI 96815

808-923-0060

http://www.yakinikuhiroshi.net/flash.htm

YUM Meter: *** (off the charts yummy!)

Ono Hawaiian Foods

OK so November was a bust for blogging but definitely not for eating. My family went on a vacation to Oahu in November and Hawaii has some good eats. First YUM-O spot hit was Ono Hawaiian Foods. A girlfriend and I stumbled on this place the very first time I visited Hawaii back in '98. We were drawn to hole in the wall eateries which are hard to find along the Waikiki beach with all the beach front hotels. This state treasure is a quaint little hole in the wall that serves up Hawaiian dishes like kalua pig, lau lau, chicken long rice, haupia, etc. I stop by here every time I'm fortunate enough to visit Oahu. This post is a little light on the pics because I was too hungry to snap pictures before I devoured my meal which consisted of: chicken long rice (pictured below), pipikaula (Hawaiian dried beef), lomi salmon, poi, and haupia. I really need to stop blogging on an empty stomach during my lunch hour. 

Chicken Long Rice Plate $12

My chicken long rice was as good as I remembered but everything else didn't live up to my previous visits. Not even the haupia which is my FAVE. Everything was over salted and my haupia lacked coconut flavor, actually it lacked flavor period. Maybe it's because I ate a haupia malasada from Leonard's right before we sat down to eat. Or maybe it was just a fluke night. 

Ono Hawaiian Foods

726 Kapahulu Ave.

Honolulu, HI 96816

(808) 737-2275

www.geocities.com/napavalley/9874

YUM Meter: * (but usually ***)