Saturday, August 6, 2011
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| A flower shop in Honolulu's chinatown |
During our short stroll down Maunakea, we saw things we had never seen before, especially in the many produce and flower shops that line the street. In front of every shop were white plastic buckets filled with a variety of brightly colored tropical flowers, like the bird of paradise and red torch ginger. We also got a glimpse of fresh leis being made by hand.
The produce stands were filled with many varieties of strange looking fruits, including noni, lilikoi, longan, bread fruit, soursop, huge jackfruit, stinky durian, dragon fruit, weird forms of mangos, passion fruit, lychee, guava, yuca, and star fruit. They also had many different kinds of bananas, like 'hand' and 'apple' bananas, which were ridiculously cheap, about $1 per bunch.
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| A street vendor selling leis in Maunakea Market. |
Mesmerized, we wandered into the Maunakea Marketplace, which is made up of a number of vendors, selling everything from Aloha shirts to wood carvings. The most interesting store here was the meat and fish market, which sold every weird sea creature imaginable. We saw tanks of live fish, squids, dried cuttle fish, ahi tuna heads, and live abelone.
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| Produce stand, selling dragon fruit, mangosteen and longan. |
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| Durian |
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| Maunakea Marketplace in Chinatown |
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| Live abalone stuck to the walls of a glass tank at the fishmarket |
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| Michelle with a statue of Queen Lili'uokalani |
Around lunch time we happened on a small dim sum restaurant on the corner of Maunakea and N Hotel Street called the Happy Garden. We tried all sorts of delicious dumplings and steamed buns, along with loose leaf green tea. It was some of the best dim sum we've ever had.
After lunch, we trekked a few blocks east to the Iolani Palace. We missed the guided tour, but were able to get headsets and roam around the palace on our own. The palace was the home of the Hawaiian monarchy, and the place where Queen Lili'uokalani, under pressure from American business interests, relinquished her crown. The most interesting room here (besides the modern looking kitchens and bathrooms, built in the 1800's) is the throne room, which has on display the royal crown worn by King David Kalakaua. It is the only royal palace in the United States.
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| Michelle with a banyan tree infront of Iolani Palace |
Before heading back to the hotel, we stopped at a Chinese bakery, near Maunakea and King St, and tried some delicious sweet potato squares and various mochi rolls stuffed with banana fillings. We also ordered some Chinese wedding cakes, which are mochi wrapped in dough, and turned out to be quite disgusting when we ate them the next morning on our hotel balcony. Jerry left them out on the balcony for the birds to eat.
In the evening, we went to dinner at Nobu, a trendy, modern "new style" Japanese restaurant in the Parc Waikiki hotel. The highlight were the Shishito peppers, which were simmered in salty hot oil. Most were mild and tasted amazing, but very few turned out to be incredibly spicy. This took us by surprise, especially since they looked exactly like the non-spicy ones. Another delicious dish was the steamed sea bass with a black bean sauce. Unfortunately, while eating it, Jerry swallowed a fish bone, which would turn out to be the first in a series of minor disasters of the trip.
