Today was the last day of my holiday. For dinner I thought back to a lunch I had in Hawaii, viz., a saimin burger and went about making a saimin salmon salad for dinner tonight.
In case you’re interested, I cooked the noodles in hot water and then fried them in egg rings. I added a little olive oil, soy sauce, Tabasco sauce and maple syrup.
Saimin burger from L&L Hawaiian BarbecueSaimin salmon salad for dinner
I spent my last day of my holiday at home cleaning up and unpacking, washing more clothes and catching up on personal e-mails. I also went for a walk around Lake Ginninderra and shot some photographs.
Today is the last day in the North Shore. We drove through the middle of Oahu and onto Diamond Head before arriving in Honolulu.
We had to clean out the refrigerator so that meant I had to eat the rest of the spam while Bron made Cinnabon.
I took advantage of the extraordinary sweetness and cinnamon happiness in Cinnabon and combined it with the jalapeño spam, the last of the asparagus and a couple of eggs.
While I was preparing breakfast I processed a nice photograph from the Pali Lookout.
After breakfast we sadly had to pack our stuff to leave the North Shore so we can spend a night in Honolulu before our flight back to Sydney and then a bus ride to cold frigid dry painful Canberra.
On departing the North Shore I ate at two more food trucks before noon. The first was Giovanni’s which has legend status but according to reviews has gone downhill a bit of late. I’d already had garlic prawns and hot and spicy prawns so I thought I would try their lemon and butter prawns. For $USD13 I was given 12 small prawns which were a little overcooked and tough. The sauce was mostly lemon juice and a little butter. I was pretty disappointed.
Given the disappointment we headed off in the direction of Romy’s food truck in the hope of better quality prawns.
We weren’t disappointed and as a treat I had some sweet and spicy pineapple. The meal was very expensive though, it cost me $USD21. The prawns though were well cooked, the shells were tender and the garlic was strong.
As we drove through the ‘centre’ of Oahu we contemplated a Dole whip from the Dole Plantation but drove past thinking of the Diamond Head crater trail walk ahead of us.
As we approached Diamond Head I was thinking of lunch but thought it may be best to wait until after the climb given it’s a gentle trail but a steep climb at the end. It was a hot day and I think it was best to wait until after the walk.
The view of Waikiki from Diamond Head
Check out the walk I posted on RunKeeper. What it doesn’t show that well is the elevation.
After the walk we went to Leonard’s Bakery to try their legendary malasadas. My blogging friend Spencer Lum recommended them as a MUST DO in Oahu.
And try them I did. I bought four and ate them all. I had a cinnamon malasada, a chocolate malasada puff, a custard malasada puff and a coconut malasada puff.
They were all very good.
I wonder if I can get malasadas in Canberra.
On arriving in Honolulu we checked in again to the Aqua Waikiki Wave for the last night in Hawaii
After a walk around Waikiki we found a Mexican restaurant to have our last meal in Hawaii. We sat down at La Cucaracha Mexican Bar and Grill in Waikiki. I asked for some jalapeño poppers because I’ve fallen in love with them plus a couple of fish tacos. Sorry about the quality of the photographs. The lighting was dim and very red. The food was okay, it didn’t make my mouth sing but it was not too bad.
So ends our stay in Hawaii. Tomorrow we’ll have breakfast and then head to HNL for the flight to SYD.
I’ll catch you in a few days. I hope you’ve enjoyed the story of the #Hawaii #holiday
Please let me know what you have thought.
Have you walked up Diamond Head? Did you enjoy the view?
Pali Lookout was quite good but we were over run with busloads of tourists.
The views are really very nice.
After Pali lookout we drove down to Kailua Beach. We couldn’t find that many places to eat and ended up at the L&L Hawaiian Barbecue shop. It was like visiting a mortuary. I thought I was in the land of the undead. We decided to take our food to the nearby park and eat there.
I chose a saimin burger and a plain spam musubi. Both were good. I’m going to have to try to make these when I get home.
The beach there was beautiful. The water was so blue and clear.
After the beach we stopped at Island Snow and I had a pineapple, coconut and lime snow cone topped with condensed milk. The condensed milk topping really adds a different dimension to the cordial flavoured shaved ice. It’s not just the sweetness and creaminess, it’s the caramel.
For dinner we went to Opal Thai Food (66-197 C Kamehameha Highway Haleiwa, HI 96712). The chef and owner makes a point of greeting each patron and asking what they know about Thai cuisine and then he chooses dishes for them. This meal was spectacular. We started with a radish apetiser and then two mains. One was a duck dish and the other a prawn noodle dish. I could eat them forever.
This was a crisp crunchy radish dish.
Garlic prawn noodles
Roast duck with fried basil leaves and lots of garlic.
Sorry those images of the Thai food are blurry. I was trying to shoot the photographs quickly.
Tonight was our last night on the north shore. It’s been fantastic.
There is a small food truck scene in Canberra but Hawaii is the home of food truck.
Today we completed our third day on our Hawaiian holiday adventure. It was a big day. I think it’s the first day I’ve not done much walking but I’ve eaten way over and above what I needed to but everything I ate I wanted to eat.
The day started with you guessed it…SPAM! Yesterday I restrained myself and bought only two cans of SPAM (heaven in a can). For this morning’s breakfast I chose the chorizo version. It had a lovely smoky spicy flavour. The eggs were also good topped with a little Monterey Jack and Colby cheeses!
My mini tower of SPAMTwo thin slices frying in PAM olive oil spray with some Challenge Butter. The smell was divine.Here’s the Colby and Monterey Jack cheeses!The egg yolks seem paler than back home but they cooked very well in the butter.My breakfast of chorizo SPAM, fried eggs sunny side up and cheese
After breakfast we went for a short walk to Kuilima Cove. We had to walk through the Turtle Bay Resort which is a very large golf course resort that overlooks the Turtle Bay beaches, coves and other geographical spots.
Apparently this cove is good for snorkeling which we plan to do tomorrow.
Kuilima Cove
After a short walk on the beach and a sit on the sand to watch people we went for a drive west along the north shore.
Bron has been great driving the Impala. The traffic today seemed very thick and slow moving.
Bron mentioned we should try out a pie at Ted’s Bakery. Apparently Ted’s pies are world famous. When we walked in there were plenty of people in line to buy pies and other pastries. We went for a chocolate haupia cream pie.
Haupia means coconut I think. It’s a good thing I like coconut jelly dessert The chocolate wasn’t too sweet but the whole thing was a little too smooth and not much texture. That said, it was a pleasant morning tea.
One of the things you apparently do is rip off the label and stick it to the pole of the table umbrella. We did it!
The pole of the table umbrella is adorned with stickers
After our morning tea we stopped at Sunset Beach. This is a really nice stretch of sand with beautiful water and a view of the Pacific Ocean. The sand is quite coarse and it’s easy to pick up large chunks of bleached coral.
The east side of Sunset Beach, North Shore Oahu Hawaii. Dare I say, this is a lovely beach but no better than any of those on the Sunshine Coast north of Brisbane and the Queensland sand is orders of magnitude finer and whiter than the sand on Oahu’s North Shore.
After a spot of people watching and sand sitting we ventured off for some grocery shopping and then had lunch at a food truck.
This was to be our first Hawaiian food truck experience. We chose Fumi’s Kahuku Shrimp (prawn). Bron went for the classical garlic butter and I chose hot and spicy prawns.
They were really good. Like a good oriental I chose to eat my prawns shell (including tail) and all. It’s nice to add a bit of calcium carbonate to the diet. With each meal you get some rice that has the sauce from the prawns soaked in plus some crispy crunchy lettuce in a ranch dressing plus a slice of delicious fresh pineapple. We look forward to doing many more food trucks.
After quite a lot of sand and sun and food we headed back to the condominium for a rest.
Later in the evening I made salmon and salad Saturday!
A nice healthy way to finish the day…well the croutons, bacon bits and almonds may not be that healthy but the currant tomatoes were amazing. So sweet.
Salmon and Salad Saturday in Turtle Bay Oahu, HI
Have you eaten from an Hawaiian food truck? What did you have?
Today I ended up have salmon sandwiches for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Who would have thought I’d ever do that?
I basically repeated breakfast and lunch but changed the carbohydrate from a quinoa pane di casa to a poppy seed bagel. For dinner I had the last quinoa pane di casa and cooked some salmon. All three salmon sandwiches were essentially the same with minor variations.
Tomorrow is Sunday. Will there be salmon on Sunday?
Breakfast | Smoked salmon, capers, and cream cheese on quinoa and whole grain pane di casa
This was a nice light breakfast and it had quinoa
Lunch | Smoked salmon, dill, capers, and cream cheese on a bagel
I went and bought some dill especially today after breakfast because salmon needs dill.
Dinner | Atlantic salmon, dill, capers, and cream cheese on quinoa and whole grain pane di casa with potato gems
The big difference for dinner was adding the potato gems. I love potato gems.
This afternoon I went for a walk around Lake Ginninderra and shot some photographs.
Cloud porn over Lake GinninderraBig yellow tree on Lake GinninderraLake Ginninderra
Do you like salmon sandwiches? What do you put on them?
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The chocolate wasn’t too sweet but the whole thing was a little too smooth and not much texture. That said, it was a pleasant morning tea.
