Pyramids in Polynesia: All the Food

I think as soon as our plane touched down in Hawaii, I decided that the theme of the honeymoon would be "Nobody Gets Hangry."  I mentioned last time that we had one little afternoon where hanger set in, but once over twelve days isn't too bad!

Before we jump in, I should make a few things very clear: Sphinx and I love to eat.  We're all about trying new foods and cooking together, even if we don't have especially adventurous palates.  And there's no such thing as too much garlic in our household.  Also, I wasn't actively dieting before the wedding, but I was watching what I ate and apparently Hawaii was the time to make up for all that.  And that's pretty much all you need to know.  Let's talk about some food. 

Giovanni's Shrimp Truck

www.giovannisshrimptruck.com

So the first one isn't really a restaurant, but that doesn't mean it wasn't some of my favorite food on the trip.  We heard tales of the these shrimp trucks on the north shore, and that Giovanni's was the place to go, so we that's where we headed after our surfing lesson. Our GPS was directing us to the wrong intersection, so we got a bit turned around, but just look for the open lot with all the trucks in it.  Duh. There's several trucks in that area, and I was really tempted to try food from several stands to determine the true winner - but we were starving after our morning in the water and only wanted to wait in one line.

Sphinx waiting for our order while I grabbed a picnic table.  

Sphinx isn't much of a shrimp fan, and ten shrimp just didn't sound it would be that filling, so we also ordered two jumbo garlic hot dogs (one with rice, one on a bun) with our plate of shrimp scampi.  Let me make sure you heard me right: garlic hot dog.   We've got some mad love for a good hot dog, and this one was slathered in sauteed garlic (see note about garlic love above).  Ain't nothing wrong with that.


And the shrimp were fantastic too, Buttery, garlicky, a good bit messy, and quite filling afterall with all that sticky rice (covered in omggarlic!).  This was on Wednesday and we were in Oahu til Friday.  I "joked" a few times about making the hour-drive up to Haleiwa to eat there again.  Seriously.  Go there, eat garlic and shrimp, be happy.

Lulu's
www.luluswaikiki.com

Lulu's was included on a list from a coworker of mine who did her grad program in Hawaii (lucky!), and it was within walking distance from our hotel.  We made a night of it and strolled "the strip" for a little while, grabbed a drink at the Moana Surfrider beachside bar, and then headed back to Lulu's for dinner.  It's got a fun, casual vibe, with a live band and areas for darts, pool, and other bar games.  We sat by one of the open windows and ordered some local beers and a few different appetizers to split.

Of course we had to try the Beach Boys nachos, because I think there was an unspoken rule on our trip to try anything with kalua pork, but the other dish was a new favorite: ahi poke.  We tried some while having lunch with my cousin after the Pearl Harbor tour, and it was delish.  What I really didn't expect was for Sphinx to like it - he doesn't even do cooked sushi, so raw tuna was a huge surprise!  But seriously, that stuff is amazing and we ordered it whenever we got the chance after that, and the one at Lulu's was excellent.

Duke's
www.dukesmaui.com

There's a Duke's in Waikiki, but we didn't eat there knowing that there was a Duke's at our resort in Maui.  And we ended up eating at that one twice.  The first time was for breakfast before our drive of the Hana Highway.  I started the day off with a POG mimosa and a giant breakfast burrito.

Beach House Mimosa with Papaya-Orange-Guava Juice

Sphinx had the breakfast sandwich with kalua pork, egg, and pepperjack cheese on Hawaiian sweet bread.  I don't think I've ever seen him so excited for a meal.  We went back a second time for lunch while we were hanging out at the resort, and he ordered it again.  So it comes with a Sphinx stamp of approval.

This was actually a picture from the second time we ate at Duke's.  He ate the first one so fast, I didn't get a pic!

Mama's Fish House
www.mamasfishhouse.com

We made lunch reservations at Mama's Fish House on the recommendation of our own Mrs. Buffalo.  It was definitely the most expensive (not exactly fancy, but more upscale) place we ate at on our honeymoon, but it was totally worth it.  We'd also recommend going for lunch, since half the experience is the beautiful view!  We were seated right by an open window, and it was lovely.

The amazing view from our table.  

Apparently the mai tais at Mama's are world famous, so I had to partake.  This little guy was strong, so I sipped on it throughout the entire meal.

Mama's menu changes all the time, but they are famously known for dishes using local, fresh-caught fish.  The menu even includes the name of the fisherman who brought in that day's catch!  We started off with drinks, lobster guacamole (amazing) and some Maui onion soup.  For entrees, I had mahi-mahi stuffed with crabmeat and lobster with a macadamia nut crust and Sphinx had seared ahi tuna with a sesame crust (I think - it's not on the menu anymore).  And somehow they convinced us to order the chocolate caramel pie after all of that. I mean, I don't regret it, but were absolutely stuffed for the drive back. And then we had a couples massage at the resort - we basically fell into a relaxation/food coma for the rest of the night.  The life of a honeymooner is rough, y'all.

And all the servers were really sweet about it being our honeymoon, and made sure we got some pictures together before we rolled on out of there.

"I really should have unzipped this dress a little before the pictures" - Mrs. P.'s inner monologue

Side Street Inn 
www.sidestreetinn.com

There are two Side Street Inns, and we visited the one closest to our hotel right after we landed and checked in.  It was pretty much empty (might have been the time of day), but it hit the spot.  The portions are pretty huge (family style), as our waitress warned us when we were contemplating ordering two appetizers and two entrees.  But I wanted to try so many things on their menu!

So, this is where we learned that garlic fries seem to be a big thing in Hawaii. We also have a big thing for garlic fries and ordered them no less than three more times throughout our vacation.  I really can't figure out why we haven't moved there yet. We also ordered some Kalua pork sliders on bao buns with grilled pineapple and some of their signature fried rice which included bacon, Portuguese sausage, and Char siu.  We did our best to make a dent in that giant pile of rice, but it was still ended up taking a lot of it back to the hotel fridge.

This is also where I had a realization and exclaimed "I don't have to fit in a wedding dress anymore!" and started shoveling in everything in sight.  Like I said, I wasn't actively dieting beforehand, but not having the dress hanging over my head gave me such a sense of freedom.

Shout Out to Snacks

Mac Nuts & Sweet Maui Onion Chips 

We got a small bag of these chips and a single packet of the chocolate covered macadamia nuts on the plane - and the rest is history.  I know not how many boxes of those nuts I went through on the trip, but I know I came home with four boxes in my carry on (only because Sphinx said we couldn't make room for the "buy 6, get 1 free" deal in our luggage).  Obsessed.  And the chips were great to keep around in our hotel room for snacking.  Fortunately, most of the convenience/souvenir stores we came across had these for sale.

Leonard's Malasadas
www.leonardshawaii.com

Alright, so I know I've said plenty of things already are my favorites, but donuts are really, really one of my favorite treats.  So of course I had to try out these famous malasadas, and with Leonard's close to our hotel we picked some up on the way to the north shore for surfing.  Sphinx really doesn't have much of a sweet tooth, so he got a Portugese sausage wrap pastry, and I ordered a sampling of the malasadas.  I'm going to try to defend myself here and say that for some reason I thought these were bite-sized, and not full-sized donuts.  So I ordered a dozen.  For myself.  Obviously I didn't end up eating them all, but they were a nice snack later on that day.
My favorite was the custard filling with the cinnamon sugar coating, but they've got different specialties every month!

Shave Ice

In NOLA, we have snowballs and they are far, far superior to any snow cone nonsense.  So of course we were a little hesitant with the Hawaiian shave ice and didn't even think we needed to try it. After we finished up at the shrimp truck, we passed by a shave ice truck (don't remember the name) just to take a peak at the stuff.  We were so full, we almost didn't order any, but the guy talked us into trying the cookies and cream flavor.  I'm not sure if this is how all the shave ice stands are, but this one was super creamy, because the base was more like ice cream instead of something fruity/juicy - if that makes sense.  That bowl looks huge, but it actually was really light and melted right in your mouth, so it was the perfect treat when we had just indulged ourselves in garlicky goodness.

I also tried a pineapple and strawberry flavor after our hike at Diamond Head.  This one wasn't nearly as smooth and fine of ice, but it was still tasty. 

Kona Coffee & Banana Macadamia Nut Bread

Enjoying some Kona coffee and banana nut bread while reading on our lanai in Maui. That is the life.

On my last post someone asked me if we stopped to get the banana bread from a roadside stand the Hana Highway - yep, we sure did!  And we ate it for the next few mornings for breakfast, along with some authentic 100% Kona coffee.  We brought some coffee home with us and have ordered some more since then.  We don't drink it every day - it's a nice little treat for our weekend.  Definitely a nice reminder of the honeymoon months later.

Take me back there, please!

So those are our most memorable and recommended food experiences while in Hawaii!  We had such a good time incorporating some of the "must haves" into our trip, and obviously we really enjoyed everything we came across.  As of yet, we haven't tried to recreate any of these dishes, but I've found recipes for the shrimp scampi and the Kahlua pork and they're on our list to try.

And with that, I think I've talked about everything I wanted to regarding our honeymoon.  If you've planning a trip and got any questions, go ahead and drop them below or send me a message, I'd be happy to help point you in the right direction!  Next up, wedding recaps will be coming your way very shortly!

Pyramids in Polynesia

Logistics and Details
Activities Part 1 - Surfing, Pearl Harbor, Diamondhead
Activities Part 2 - Hanauma Bay Snorkeling, Road to Hana