The Last Supper

It would not be a trip to Honolulu without a meal at Maguro-Ya. We go there for sushi every single visit.



Nothing is particularly new or original, but everything tastes good.



The fish, it's like buttah.



I hate to finish this meal. Afterward we say goodbye.

Rush Hour in Paradise

Our last evening in Honolulu and we are heading out to meet important people and do insignificant things.



The view from out hotel hallway window is beautiful and strange.



I don't know why, but I always love taking pics of sundown rush hour in Honolulu. Maybe it's the juxtaposition of the Hawaiian landscape against the familiarity of the taillights ahead.



People play soccer in fields along the Ala Wai Canal.



With Waikiki blocks and blocks to the south and Punahou on our immediate right, we are almost there.

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!

A Special Lunch

After a very long swim up and back Ala Moana beach, a special lady treated us to a special lunch at nearby Longhi's. Lunch tends to be my favorite meal of the day when on an active vacation. I am surprised I had never been to Longhi's on one of my many trips to Honolulu. It was delightful!



The interior has a deep-South meets tropical paradise kind of feel. The wide open plantation shutters give it a breeziness. The cane chairs are slightly distressed. The slowly rotating ceiling fans and checkerboard floors made me crave a mint julep on the front porch while waiting for Ashley's afternoon visit.



They start everyone off at lunch with irresistible pizza bread. There is nothing like water sports to elevate your appetite to monstrous proportions, and we literally devoured all that bread in about 10 minutes. I focused on the one with jalapeno and jack cheese.



For lunch I started with a beautiful artichoke that was unfortunately soaked in butter. Swimming, potentially drowning. Delicious yes, but a little OTT, if you text messagers know what I mean.



D started with a hearty salad of Big Island grown lettuce with bleu cheese, red onions, Maui tomatoes (safe from the recall, dontcha know?), and green beans.



Next we shared a massive BLT on toasted wheat bread with cheddar. A nice melty twist on the classic.



Anyone who has been to Hawaii know about all the beautiful little birds. The majority of them are fairly unafraid of humans.



Because the walls were basically open shutters, a few birds would flit in and out seeking any errant crumbs on the checkerboard floors. Luckily the restaurant was pristine in its cleanliness, so they didn't stick around long.



Add to that the fact that I was serene from all the swimming and blissful from being on vacation, and you might deduce that I was charmed rather than grossed out. That, and they make for beautiful photographs.

Izakaya Nonbei

One Chowhounder very quietly rec'd Izakaya Nonbei in a query for good izakaya in Honolulu.



http://www.chowhound.com/topics/512784

We were unable to get into the other two more adamantly rec'd izakaya the night of my brother's high school graduation, so I steered everyone to Nonbei and we had a great meal.

http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/2003/Sep/26/en/en13a.html

Above, the Honolulu Advertiser gives them a good review and details many of their dishes I didn't get a chance to try. They say,

"Izakaya Nonbei serves a bit of everything in a very homey and warm atmosphere; they offer a good way to get acquainted with Japanese food while satisfying conflicting palates. You'll be enjoying your dinner bellied up to a bar, so it's a friendly and social style of dining. Nonbei is not only a "happy drinking place" — it's also a happy eating place."

The interior is cozy and mysterious. There are tables designed for patrons to sit on tatami mats whilst dining, and large party tables. On the wall writ in Japanese characters are something that must be part of the menu, as a couple had "sold out" written across them on post-it notes.



We took up a sweet corner of the bar, introduced Dad to unfiltered sake, and got started.



First came a generous portion of mackerel sashimi with ponzu sauce.



Next served was a giant wedge of daikon stewed in a thin brown gravy with some cooked albacore. I have had this in several other izakaya, so it must be traditional.



Out marched pickled vegetables, sea eel in a light bbq sauce, and broiled butterfish.







My personal favorite dish of the evening was the poke. I love poke everywhere. The poke at Izakaya Nonbei was delightfully garlicky with lots of green onions and some fresh tangy sprout-like things.



Our served suggested we end the meal with a large bowl of ramen covered in a variety of fresh and pickled veggies in a light steamy broth.



Our meal was delicious with several stand out items, the poke and the broiled butterfish especially. Our service was attentive and friendly. Dad cannot wait to go again and take someone to share his discovery. Afterward, we headed over to the graduation ceremony where I promptly fell asleep on D's shoulder. I missed a couple of reportedly long and arduous speeches. I awoke just in time to pay attention to the talented students' musical performances and didn't miss a second of the traditional balloon naughtiness.

Ho'omaika'i 'ana & Pomaika`i, Punahou grads. Live happy lives!

Carolyn Castano in Honolulu

How cool was it to run across a couple pieces by Carolyn Castano at the First Friday art walk in Honolulu after mentioning her here, in my blog?

http://foodshethought.blogspot.com/2008/04/phantom-sightings-art-after-chicano.html

I was first taken with her work at LACMA during the Phantom Sightings exhibit. Here us a blurb about her from the LA Times.

http://www.latimes.com/features/printedition/theguide/la-gd-art1-2008may01,0,1279869.story

She is adjuct faculty at Chapman University, and here is their brief bio about her:

Carolyn Castaño is a Los Angeles-based artist whose work explores notions of desire, consumerism and artifice through mixed-media paintings, works on paper and video. Her work has been recently featured at The Pasadena Museum of California Art in Liquid Los Angeles: Contemporary Watercolor Painting, International Paper at the Hammer Museum, Semi-Precious at The Public Art Fund, New York, and Three Great Walls and Bay Area Now at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco. European venues include LA Now: Emerging Artists, Galerie Dominique Fiat, Paris and Honey-Traps at 38 Langham Street in London. She has had solo exhibitions with Kontainer Gallery, Los Angeles and Lombard-Fried Fine Art in New York. Carolyn's work will be featured in an upcoming exhibition at LACMA, Phantom Sightings: Art After the Chicano Movement, scheduled to open April 2008. She has a Masters in Fine Art from UCLA and a Bachelors in Fine Art from the San Francisco Art Institute."

These are the two installations painted directly on the walls at the gallery in Honolulu's Chinatown.





Chinatown reminds me very much of Hayes Valley in San Francisco, about 15 years ago. There is an interesting mix of ethnic influences, a few dive bars, a couple of edgy restaurants and a crowd (on First Friday anyway) of non-touristy humans roaming the streets, popping in and out of galleries and shops and saying hello to their friends. This was truly a treat.

Un Gout du France dans le Paradis

Our first night in Honolulu, we were treated to a whole new (new to us) side of the city in the Chinatown neighborhood. It was the First Friday art walk, and we started at Brasserie du Vin for wine and supper.



http://www.brasserieduvin.com/

This is indeed a taste of Paris in paradise. And if not really Parisian in feel, definitely San Franciscan, Silverlakian, or maybe even Old Town Scottsdalian.



Brasserie du Vin is a wine bar with a lovely indoor/outdoor dynamic happening. There are several indoor rooms to dine in, even one with air conditioning. I could feel it as we walked past on our way to a lovely table overlooking the back patio, replete with Martini & Rosso umbrellas, cobblestones and shade trees.



We started supper with brie en croute with cranberries and fresh fruit. For supper I ate the catch of the day, what I think was Opa, with manchego cheese served on a bed of chilled white beans. I was trying to be sensitive to the fact that not everyone will enjoy being in the presence of someone snapping away on a camera the entire evening, so I didn't take pics of the rest of the meal. It was truly delightful. I will definitely come here again when I return to Honolulu next year. A refreshing departure from the fried food beachside at Dukes, ubiquitous and mediocre sushi in Waikiki and the celebrity chefs that have taken over the culinary scene in every metropolitan area from here to Timbuktu.