Fumis Shrimp Farm

Posted on June 14, 2009 by OuOu

5/3

We left Laie Point, and kept on driving north.

It was right before sunset and hungry travelers must eat.

There aren’t many restaurants along Kamehameha Hwy. So, when we passed by Kahuku, we stopped by at the one the shrimp shacks to pick up some din din.

Fumi’s

K & R deciding what to order

They finally ordered Coconut Shrimp and I ordered Chili Garlic Shrimp which came with rice. We had the food to go since we had to rush to “Crater Beach” for a sunset shoot. I didn’t have the chance to take some shrimpy photos.

I am not too fond of any kind of fried shrimp. K & R loved the Coconut Shrimp and Radim couldn’t help talking about the it for the next few days.

Fumi’s certainly didn’t hold back on the spicing. My Chili Garlic Shrimp was off the hook spicy which gave me an endorphin rush. I would love to come back for more. 🙂

Hundreds of temperature controlled shrimp ponds next to behind Fumi’s.

Off to “Crater Beach” now.

Holo Holo Stop

Posted on May 29, 2009 by OuOu

5/2

After the Kualoa Park shoots, we were starving :kedizzy: ! On our drive back home (Kahalu’u, a few miles south of Kualoa Park on Kamehameha Hwy.), we passed by some interesting signs on the roadside.

Apparently there was a farmer’s market happening. And there was food! :ohseediamond: Oh yeah!

We quickly parked our car and assessed this very tiny farmer’s market.

There was a van selling roadside snacks under a huge banyon tree.

There are a few rules that I follow to increase the probability of getting good quality street food. First, observe the customers.

There were a line of local customers and they knew what they wanted to order (except the two tourists in the photo, can you spot them?) .

Good sign.

The stall name is Holo Holo Stop.

Second step, chat with the stall owner.

Keoki, owner of Holo Holo Stop

“What does Holo Holo mean?” I asked

“It means cruising, going places. We say I holoholo to the shopping mall. I holoholo here, I holoholo there. When you holoholo, stop here!” Keoki replied

“How long have you been in business?”

“Oh… long time. 15 years. 3 years at this location. I only open during weekend. Other days, I prepare food.” Keoki said

Wow. 15 years and still in business with line of customers to order his food, that’s a REALLY good sign.

Best shot of the menu. Keoki’s customers probably know the menu by heart and they don’t really need to see this menu.

R & K placing orders

First of, cooling coconut juice!

Coconut juice rules!

Laulau pork, kalua pork, tamale, coconut juice, Lomi salmon, poke

Laulau pork (pork wrapped in Luau leaf) with rice

Luau leaf is edible

Tamale

Yum!

All three dishes were very flavorful. My favorite dish was the laulau pork. The luau leaf had very soft texture and went well with the laulau pork.

So far on Oahu, I found more pork dishes on the menu than beef and chicken dishes.

This is not chili powder. It is Li Hing (prune, sweet) powder for pineapple and fruits.

Flower vendors under the huge banyon tree

Friendly local

Who doesn’t like flowers? Although I think buying cut flowers is a waste of money, we gotta support the farmers once in a while. Thanks, darling:)

A pair of birds of paradise and ginger flowers

The flowers are now gracing the dining table – adding so much colors to the space.

Next to the farmer’s market, there’s this ultimate outdoor gym. How refreshing it is to work out next to the mountain and water?

We enjoyed the food at Holo Holo Stop so much that we stopped by there twice during our Hawaii trip. Thumbs up.

Blue Water Shrimp & Seafood

Posted on May 19, 2009 by OuOu

I am a big fan of street food.

Street food is casual, and rich in local flavor.

Wherever I go, I am always in search of some roadside snacks. Sometimes I am lucky to discover a few good eats, like this Blue Water Shrimp & Seafood stall.

Blue Water Shrimp & Seafood is located on Kuhio Avenue, Honolulu. I have passed by this stall so many times and it was never empty.

Red carpet leads you to Blue Water Shrimp & Seafood (view from Kuhio Ave.)

Finally I decided to give it a try. We parked our car at the parking lot, so we didn’t get to walk on the red carpet. 🙁

This stall is actually a movable bus that has colorful tropical fish painted on it.

Dear God, please shed some light on what’s to order …

The menu is in both English and Japanese. I told you, Japanese tourists are everywhere in Honolulu!

If you’ve lived in Iowa long enough (like, a week), you’ll realize there’s no good seafood here. So, I decided to shovel in as much seafood as I could on this trip.

Here is my order: Furikake Blackened Ahi (seafood plate)

Note: Seafood plate includes sweet corn, rice and green salad. Furikake is a dry Japanese condiment that typically consists of seaweed, ground fish, etc.

I was asked how I wanted my ahi done. Did I hear it wrong? I could even choose how I want my tuna? Hmm… expectation was getting higher!

There’s only one way I want my ahi done – seared. Nothing upsets me more when my ahi tuna came out medium rare, it should have been seared! Raw fish lovers out there, you know what I mean!

Let’s see if Blue Water Shrimp can deliver.

My order came in a to go box … yeah, it’s street food, so don’t expect anything too fancy.

I opened the box and first thing I did was to cut the tuna. To tell you the truth, I only had tiny faith that the fish would come out the way I wanted it.

My perfectly seared ahi tuna

To my surprise, the tuna was so fresh, tender, juicy and perfectly seared. 🙂 Score!

I was smiling all the way when enjoying my fish and rice. Thumbs up!

The corn was sweet and yummy. I didn’t care much about the salad and garlic bread.

Choose to carry out or eat in under the shade. The environment is clean.

I highly recommend this stall!

There’s another van next to this stall, which is Healthy Mexican Food. I didn’t try it, so I don’t know if it’s any good.

Healthy Mexican Food

Healthy Mexican Food menu

Radim ordered tacos from them.

Tacos

It’s hard to judge the taste from the photos. So, come here and taste for yourself. 🙂

La Cucaracha Mexican Bar & Grill

Posted on May 9, 2009 by OuOu

4/30/2009

After 13 hours of hard work today, the tradeshow was finally over. Celebration time for all of us! Yeppi!

Tonight was the last night we will be staying in Honolulu.

It was after 8pm and my stomach was playing a crazy symphony!

We were not in the mood of driving, looking for parking, and all that crap. So, we looked for a restaurant nearby in walking distance.

There was one restaurant that caught my eyes the other night. It was the La Cucaracha restaurant. I mentioned this restaurant to Radim and he immediately started laughing!

La Cucaracha literally means the cockroach in Spanish!!

The restaurant is located just one block across from our apartment, so La Cucaracha that is!!

La Cucaracha Mexican Bar & Grill (photo by Radim)

We reached there after the rush hour, so the waitress was able to seat us at the outdoor patio. It’s always nice to enjoy fresh air while eating a good meal.

The atmosphere was festive, happy and clean.

The service was quick and friendly.

We were served the usual chips and salsa to start off our night.
Note: There’s extra charge for second basket of chips.

Then, I spotted a giant COCKROACH on our table!! Can you see it?

It’s right there!! Look Closer!

Did you see it? A giant cockroach chilling under the palm tree? That’s sooooooo cute!

My virgin pina colada and Karan’s margarita (photo by Radim)

Cheers! (photo by Radim)

I ordered today’s special – Kalua (Hawaiian style pork) taco.

Radim ordered Puka fish with olives and grilled artichoke.

Karan ordered some kind of burrito. I forgot which burrito, but it was yummily yummily good.

We all enjoyed our dishes. You should know that Radim has had many Mexican dishes before (thanks to his lovely Mexican wife, Clara) and he found the dishes that we ordered very authentic. He especially loved the Kalua taco.

Kalua Taco

Hot sauces (photo by Radim)

After the delightful meal, we couldn’t resist having some desserts!

Dessert: flan (oven-baked caramel custard) & fried ice cream (photo by Radim)

Radim was taking photos here and there. After taking a look at his photos, I felt like tossing my little point and shoot camera into the ocean (yes, blame the tool) T_T. We were in such low light situation and his camera performed so well without the flash! See for yourself! Radim’s photos are the ones with (photo by Radim) in the caption.

See this one. I had to use flash. But still, can you tell that the ice cream was yummy? 🙂

Fried ice cream

Our friendly and pretty waitress lend us some Mexican hats for our amigo shot.

3 Amigos

The waitress (I forgot to ask for her name) suggested a good bar for us to go to after our dinner. But the outdoor was so great that why would anyone stay indoor, in a bar? In fact, I wouldn’t have any blog entries on the nightlife here. Although the nightlife here supposedly to be decent, we were so pooped out everyday with our 6am to 10pm schedule that we just didn’t feel like going to any clubs or bars or karaokes!

Before heading back to our apartment, we did stroll along the busy Waikiki beach streets. 🙂

La Cucaracha Address:
2446 Koa Ave
Honolulu, HI 96815
(808) 924-3366

Honolulu Chinatown Markets

Posted on April 30, 2009 by OuOu

4/27/2009 – 4/28/2009

Many people are wary of going to Chinatown because they’ve heard it’s scary or they think it’s a high crime area. Maybe this is partly true, but I still love going there since my Chinatown experiences have always been pleasant. You should come here and see for yourself.

Since I didn’t have a detailed Chinatown map with me, I just let myself loose and simply roamed around. The traffic police was extremely helpful. I have no problem asking for directions. There was one time when a couple police were trying to figure the direction for me, a few locals stopped by as well trying to help. We chatted a little. The police told me that you’ll get a $30 ticket if your parking meter expires. He was smiling when telling me this, so I wasn’t sure if he was telling a joke or it’s a fact. Anyway, just don’t let your parking meter expires if you park at the roadside.

A shopkeeper at a bakery saw me crossing the road and she told me that it’s $130 ticket if I get caught not using the traffic light. Oppps! I didn’t know that. Thanks for the advice from all these friendly people. 🙂

I visited Chinatown pretty early in the morning (7-8am ish). It was an indescribable good feeling to see the merchants open their doors one by one and get ready for business.

Guide book says Oahu Market has the freshest poke (fresh raw fish mixed with seaweed, sesame sees and other seasonings) on the island. So, Oahu Market, here I came!

There are three markets in Chinatown, namely Maunakea, Oahu and Kekaulike. They are all next to each other, but on different streets.

Maunakea Market, Honolulu Chinatown
Maunakea Market. It has a food court inside.

Maunakea Market, Honolulu Chinatown
Maunakea Market, second entrance

Kekaulike Market, Honolulu Chinatown
Kekaulike Market

Oahu Market, Honolulu Chinatown
Oahu Market

Pig, Honolulu Chinatown
Hey. Look at me! Now, that is a bit scary….

Fresh produce, Honolulu Chinatown
Lots of fresh produce – the turnover is high

Fresh fruits, Honolulu Chinatown
Fresh fruits, anyone?

seafood, Honolulu Chinatown
Fresh seafood is abundant. You can get sweet island shrimps here

Pig head, Honolulu Chinatown
I tried not to look at this pig head when I passed by this stall.

Fish head, Oahu Market
How about fish head soup for tonight?

POKE!!!! I found you!

Poke, Oahu Market
Good selections of poke

Limu Kuku Onion Poke, Oahu Market
I tried this Limu (seaweed) Kuku Onion Poke

There were three stalls selling poke. I just randomly picked one stall. I am a big fan of raw fish and seaweed. But I didn’t like the poke that I bought. The taste of seaweed was too overpowering. 🙁 No regret for trying though.

Karan and Radim joined me for a late lunch/early dinner at the Maunakea Market food court. This food court offers a good assortment of Asian food stalls: Singaporean, Malaysian, Thai, Filipino, Korean, Japanese and Vietnamese.

Maunakea Market Food Court, Honolulu Chinatown
Maunakea Market Food Court

Maunakea Market Food Court, Honolulu Chinatown
Some vendors offer fully-cooked meals ready to take, as well as short-order items like fried noodle cooked to order.

Of the more than dozen stalls here, almost half offer Filipino foods. Radim and Karan ordered Abodo Chicken and loved it. We intended to have a snack here but ended up sampling different regional foods.

Maunakea Market Food Court
Happy camper Radim tries some food from Karan’s plate. $3 for a plate of white rice and Abodo Chicken. Can’t beat that!

Maunakea Market, Honolulu Chinatown
Before leaving the market, Radim didn’t forget to tease the crabs/lobsters in the tank.

~ OuOuBorneo ~

Explore. Experience. Evolve.

Category Archives: Eating Places + Various Foods

Fumis Shrimp Farm

Holo Holo Stop

Blue Water Shrimp & Seafood

La Cucaracha Mexican Bar & Grill

Honolulu Chinatown Markets