The Rainbow Drive-In

This is a guest post from my husband, Michael, who travels the world and brings home stories of his many culinary adventures.

When traveling to even familiar places it’s nice to know a local. My friend Donn has lived in Hawaii all his life and when I asked him about the Rainbow Drive-In his face broke out in a grin as he chuckled, “It’s not very touristy.” In Honolulu with all the visitors, crowds, and overhype something like this simple drive-in has a certain appeal. Read more

Hawaiian Shave Ice: Which One Is Our Favorite?

For some, sand and surf are the first things that come to mind when thinking about Hawaii, for us it is shave ice.  We’re not talking about snow cones, that’s totally different. With shave ice (not “shaved ice”), the ice comes out in fine flakes which absorbs the syrup flavors better and melts like snow in your mouth. On a hot day, there is nothing better in the world.

We did the research before our trip, so we knew that the North Shore was the place to go for the best shave ice; specifically, Matsumoto Shave Ice or Aoki’s Shave Ice, both in Haleiwa. The directions we got from the hotel were not the best and we went past the turn off for quite a ways before we figured out we had to go back. If you are approaching Haleiwa from the south via 99 coming from Honolulu/Pearl City, watch for the brown sign indicating a left turn into historic Haleiwa. If you are approaching from the north via 83, look for a similar sign indicating a right turn. Both shops are on the main drag on the same side of the road, separated by a church and parking lot.

Because this was vacation and we knew we would have shave ice on multiple occasions, we decided it was vital that we sample from both stores so we could make an informed decision on which one we thought was the best. This is important stuff, you know, and we were as scientific as possible, but in the end we thought weighing the ice and measuring the size of the flakes would be a bit of overkill and probably not endear us to the proprietors or other customers. We just watched closely while they made our ices and sampled several flavors. This is vacation, after all. Read more

Diamond Head and KCC Farmers’ Market

Saturday morning we woke up very early and hiked up Diamond Head. The park opens at 6 am, and I highly recommend going early to beat the heat and the crowds. The early part of the hike is on concrete walkway and very easy, but the last part is like doing a StairMaster workout (271 steps!) and everyone was panting as we hit the top. The only person who didn’t seem bothered by the workout was the female athlete who ran to the top! I felt inspired, but was still trying to catch my breath. I was sweating like a race horse and the breeze felt so good!

Kapiolani Community College is located right on the road to Diamond Head, and we noticed they had a farmers’ market going as we passed by, so after our hike we stopped by to check it out. There was lots of great local produce and food to sample as well as gorgeous flowers.

Our First Day in Hawaii

I’m trying to stay on East Coast time, so we’ve been going to bed early and waking up really early. At 4 am it’s still dark outside and we can’t see the ocean even though we are almost right on the beach, but I can hear it as I’m writing this near the hotel balcony. We’re staying at the Hilton Hawaiian Village in Honolulu and have a beautiful view of the ocean from our 11th floor room.

After arriving at the airport, Michael took me to get some lunch at Big Kahuna’s Pizza, which has moved from it’s old location in the shack on Pu’uloa Road to the strip mall at 550 Paiea St. near the airport. We had the barbecued pork sandwich which is served on a huge round bun and cut in half. Good stuff! I forgot to snap a photo, but you can get an idea of what it looks like by viewing the photo of the sub on ‘Ono Kine Grindz.