California Grubbin'

Let's hop on a flight from Cali to Hawaii, shall we? Cus I wanna tell you about this cool temple located near Honolulu on the island of Oahu in a city called Kaneohe. As you can see it is very grand, but the interior is simple. Buddhism is somewhat known for its minimalism thanks to its de-emphasis on possessions so there is simply a lone Buddhist statue, some flowers and a stand for offerings. They don't like you taking photos inside for obvious reasons but I found a pic. One cool thing you can do here (pretty much the only thing besides take pictures) is ring this huge gong. It is very loud and you will probably hear it a lot during your visit because everyone else wants to do it too. There are a bunch of koi, as one might expect at a Japanese garden of sorts. And on a more morose note, a bunch of graves on the drive up. One unexpected encounter you will have on your journey to the temple: there is a bunch of cats roaming around outside. They're ...

food: 5/5 experience: 4/5 overall: 5/5 Needed something to eat after the beach. Checked out the local restaurants. Nothing looked too exciting but this place has some delicious looking photos and an interesting menu. I was curious. Almost didn't go though because wtf Greek food? What even is. Fabuloussss. We got the spanakopita, feta salad, and gyros. Spanikopita is already delicious but theirs is just so flaky and soft and mmmm. Shame they only give you two pieces. The Greek salad is pretty filling. But the gyros, man. The gyros. Yee -ros. Meat is so flipping tender I didn't know what to do with myself. Did not leave any on my plate whatsoever. The salad with it is pretty good, hummus on the plain side as is the pita, but it's still very soft and nice. And that yogurt tzatziki stuff I just never like anyway so that's a wash. If only they replaced that with more gyros. It's a cute little place with checkerboard tablecloths. If you're in t...

Part two of my California Livin' series! Leggo... Hooray, the zoo! Who doesn't like the zoo? Vegans. Vegans don't like the zoo. Good thing I'm not vegan anymore. Lots of animals here I've never heard of. Apparently they came out with a new kind of primate called a tamarin? And a duiker which is some kind of antelope that we couldn't see. Then there was the typical zoo fare. A couple formerly-black now red-with-mud rhinoceroses (rhinoceri should be a word). The African hunting dog which was pretty. Elephants are classic zoo. So are lions but we couldn't really see them. Lions are lions I guess. More zoo fan favorites, giraffes and zebras. Spots and stripes do go together, eh. And a whole lot of birds and primates. Gorilla close-up. This zoo is definitely kid-friendly. They have a playground. They also have the Keiki zoo for kids where you can crawl in the exhibits, along with what looks like a classro...

food: 4/5 experience: 5/5 overall: 4.5/5 Man, I ate way too much food here. Then again we walked hella on vacation so I guess it evens out. Ugh I feel sick just thinking about it. Is it possible to wake up suddenly fat? This place is kinda hard to find. It's inside an outdoor mall I guess, and it is upstairs. There's a long wait to sit outside but when we went it was raining anyway so the bar area sufficed. We got the Caesar salad, fish tacos, and the "luau plate." Plus a side of green beans to be a little healthy. The Caesar salad was obviously the healthiest of the three, excluding the green beans. It's one of those that doesn't come chopped; it's full leaves with cheese and all that, so that was different. You have to kind of fix it yourself. The fish tacos were delicious and made with raw fish (poke). I don't think they serve them that way anymore though. The luau plate alone was like one and a half meals. Salted pork, pork wrappe...

food: 5/5 experience: 5/5 overall: 5/5 Thanksgiving in Hawaii. Ah, screw it, we're having fish. All these turkey-themed restaurants are so overpriced. We made reservations earlier in the day and they didn't have them for some reason so we almost didn't get a table. Thankfully we did, and we got the opportunity to try some great food. At first they seated us way in the back corner but we talked our way into getting a seat outside, close enough to hear the music playing. Props to the DJ, the music here is good. As soon as we sat down the Biebs came on so I knew it'd be a good night. We went "big" for Thanksgiving, ordering the bigeye tuna sashimi with Yuzu sauce, chicken karaage, double happiness roll and Doraku tuna tataki. Chicken karaage is your basic Japanese fried chicken. And who doesn't like fried chicken? A sweet and savory breading with a teriyaki-type sauce, this one was a win. The double happiness roll came wrapped with cucumber ...

food: 4/5 experience: 4/5 overall: 4/5 A bit of a wait at the height of breakfast time but definitely worth it. Had to treat myself to at least one nice Hawaiian breakfast during our stay in Oahu. Our hostess could have had a little more enthusiasm but our waitress more than made up for it. We got the Hawaiian delight, which was a stuffed papaya, and the chicken mango sausages and eggs. Chicken mango, what a delectable combo. They serve the dishes separately which is kind of annoying because ideally you don't want to finish yours before the other person starts, but you also don't want your food to get cold. The fruit side came a lot faster (obv). The papaya was nice and fresh. Came with blueberries, strawberries, granola and whip, all good. They sure pile on the whipped cream here, shoot. Every plate that was coming out of the kitchen had a mountain. Ours were no different. The portions are huge. Two eggs looked more like four, and they came with cheese. The sau...

food: 4/5 experience: 4/5 overall: 4/5 I always feel weird going to another hotel for dinner, like I'm cheating on mine or something. I promise we'll be back, Sheraton, really! It's not you... it's uh... Anyway. This spot is located in the Outrigger hotel. They have live music in the front. Unfortunately we couldn't see any of it but on a little flatscreen black-and-white TV in the bar because we were seated in the back. Another thing we couldn't see: the menu! Our table was only lit by a lone candle. The menu is small. Mostly fish-oriented items. We got the French onion soup, ahi katsu, and soup of the day. Both soups were on the salty side but good. When they say a cup, they really do mean a cup. The onion soup had a ton of cheese though and was super filling. The ahi katsu was like a sushi roll almost, just made with fried ahi and sauce on top, plus a little salad underneath with champagne dressing. Pretty good. The sauce had wasabi in it so...

food: 3/5 experience: 3/5 overall: 3/5 It's times like these when I realize there is no ladylike way to finish a taco. Dunno why I opted for this place. I guess after getting into the Hawaii-Mex groove at Maui Taco I wanted to try more. This restaurant was the first that came up in the search. Not too high a rating but with a name like Surf N Turf it's hard to resist. Their tacos are alright but the amount of fish is so small. These were the grilled fish taco with taro tortilla, and carnitas taco. Taro is a purple edible plant as you can see (very technical description, sorry if I lost you). That was cool. Purple tacos. The carnitas taco was good but not filling, especially for the price. It's a little hole in the wall so I wasn't expecting to be impressed but damn they sure do sell high here in Waikiki. Nice music, cute decor. Eh, s'whatever.

food: 4/5 experience: 5/5 overall: 4/5 Man I'm a mess when I'm hungry, everything looks good. Put me in a food court I can never decide. Finally just settled on this place because it wasn't busy. Ordered the Waimea salad and Baja grilled fish taco. Trying to eat a little healthy on vacation. Pretty big salad, could only finish half of it. The dressing was kinda weird tasting. Wouldn't recommend that one. Fish taco was excellent though. The cashier gladly wrapped up the remains of my salad and we were good to go. Went back a second time after my pleasant first experience and ditched the diet, got a huge Hookipa burrito instead (bomb) and a fajita salad (also bomb). This Hawaii-Mex fusion cuisine is my shit.

food: 3.5/5 experience: n/a it's a bakery overall: 3.5/5 A solid 3.5 for The Cookie Corner. Supposedly they have been voted "best cookies" five years in a row. I dunno about that but it's hard to go wrong with cookies either way. Can't beat one dollar cookies. I'm not sure if the price has risen since I last went, I imagine it has. The coconut and snickerdoodle are good but a little too buttery for my taste. Chocolate chip is kinda alright. Standard. Same with sugar. The oatmeal raisin and peanut butter are delicious though. We bought a pack of all five flavors of their mini cookies. They look (and are) so dry and not fresh. They tasted okay I guess. I mean they were gone within the day. Unfortunately when I went the double chocolate was not available but that shit looks delicious. Cookie of the year? Yeah, I dunno. Must not be too much competition. For ten bucks' worth of tiny cookies I expect a little better but I guess it's Hawaii...