Alan Wong's Pineapple Room

During my trip to Honolulu, I desperately wanted to visit Alan Wong's on King Street and sit at the chef's counter. However, busy happy family things took precedence over decadent meals. As a substitute, on our last day there we ate at the more casual Alan Wong's Pineapple Room at the Ala Moana mall. The food was shockingly delicious. Maybe even better than the food at Mariposa. It didn't have the same atmosphere or view as Mariposa, but yes, I think I agree with myself, the food kicked ass.



D started with this amazing tomato soup. I have no idea what the exact enticing and very savory ingredients were in this, aside from tomato and the big shrimp on top, but we seriously scraped the sides of the bowl.



We shared this unusual preperation of eda mame. These were sauteed Chinese style, the way long beans are done at one of my favorite Chinese places in Los Angeles, Mandarette. It was nice to have soy beans done this way. They were very garlicky, and worth every moment of compromised breath.



For an entree I ate the shrimp & crab Caesar. Again, emphasis on garlic but this time balanced nicely with anchovies. Here, like several other of the restaurants on this trip, the menu explicitly listed the provenance of much of the local flora and fauna featured on the menu. The menu had a nice balance of surf and turf, something not always seen in Hawaii with the obvious typical emphasis on seafood.



On the way back to the car I stopped to say hello to the beautiful koi. Hello fishies!