We spent Memorial Day at home, BBQ-ing and relaxing with the family. Of course, we can’t celebrate this day without remembering the ultimate sacrifice that those in the military have made for the rest of us. Thanks to those who make those sacrifices to defend and protect, we can live in peace and we honor them on this day. We are forever grateful for their service.
We took things easy on our seventh day in Maui, because we were still pretty exhausted from the Road to Hana the day before, and because my brother Ted needed to get dropped off at the airport to fly home in the evening. We decided to just drive around and leisurely explore, hitting a couple food places we wanted to eat. One place we wanted to try together before Ted left was Geste Shrimp Truck!
One of the foods I’ve been dreaming of having again since our trip two years ago to Oahu was garlic shrimp from a shrimp truck. The shrimp at Giovanni’s Shrimp Truck in Kahuku had been pretty amazing, and I was eager to find out how Geste measured up, as the two are often compared to each other.
The verdict? Geste Shrimp was pretty good… but Dan and I agreed that Giovanni’s Shrimp Truck in Oahu is better, especially with their garlic shrimp and the garlic rice that accompanies it. In terms of their variety, though, Geste has a better selection of flavors to choose from.
After stuffing ourselves with shrimp, we drove over to Leilani Farm Sanctuary in Haiku for a Mio-friendly attraction — with goats, rabbits, donkeys, cats, peahens, pigs, tortoises, ducks, chickens, and deer residing at this animal farm, it’s known as “a paradise for rescued animals.”
We just returned on Sunday morning from our vacation in Hawaii! We actually hadn’t taken our honeymoon when we got married almost two years ago, and we’d always wanted to go to Hawaii since we had both never been. We took a little over a week off to finally go on a real “honeymoon” vacation — we thought it would be appropriate to go now, right before we hit the 2-year mark since our wedding and graduate from our newlywed status. We went to two islands, Oahu and Kaua’i, and we’d been diligently researching and planning all the things we could do for a couple months, collecting recommendations on places to go and things to eat from our friends. Thanks to their help and all the planning, we had a truly amazing and memorable trip!
Because we took so many photos and did so many things, it’s impossible to cover everything in one blog post, so we’re going to try to do this by each day… and Dan will most likely have some video footage to share here and there, too. 🙂 So here’s Day One!
We left San Francisco Airport in the wee hours or Friday morning on June 11th, and arrived in Hawaii in the late morning — there’s a three hour difference between California and Hawaii, which worked in our favor the way there (but of course, we lost three hours on the way back).
After landing and picking up our rental car, the first thing on our minds was lunch! We were pretty hungry from not eating anything on the plane, and we were ready to start getting our grub on with all the good food that we heard was in Oahu. We headed over to Andy’s Sandwiches & Smoothies, which my coworker-friend Tarrin had recommended.
It was a small eatery with a hole-in-the-wall atmosphere, and they are known for serving up fresh sandwiches and fantastic smoothies! They are especially known for their avocado sandwiches, but as I’m not a fan of avocado, I got the turkey sandwich without avocado.
Both the sandwiches and the strawberry smoothie we had were delish — big thanks to Tarrin for her recommendation. 🙂 But as if that were not enough, we decided to try some of the shaved ice in the area, too. Everyone who we’d talked to who really knew Hawaii well or had lived there in the past had recommended Waiola Shave Ice in Honolulu. Matsumoto Shave Ice in Haleiwa is of course the famous one that all the tourists go to, but they all told us Waiola was where it was at! So of course, I couldn’t wait to give it a try….
When I hear about shaved ice here, I’m usually very skeptical because I expect the rock-hard snow cones that are typically served here in the U.S., as opposed to the finely shaved ice that I grew up on (our family had a Japanese shaved ice machine that we’d bust out every summer). But the shaved ice in Waiola was the most finely shaved ice I’d ever seen! It was seriously the best shaved ice I’d ever had — I was blown away by how good it was! The flavors were great, too!
The hotel we were staying in while we were in Oahu was all the way up in the North Shore, so for the first day, we decided to drive along the Eastern side of the island and take in the views, randomly stopping here and there. It was a gorgeous day, which made for some breathtaking views and several stops along the way….
After a couple hours of driving (it took us a while since we were driving up the Eastern side of the island instead of cutting through the middle, and because we kept making stops), we finally made it to the Turtle Bay Resort, where we would stay for the next five nights.
After checking in and settling into our hotel room, we were hungry for dinner so we decided to eat dinner in the local area of Kahuku… at none other than Giovanni’s Shrimp Truck!
This was actually the only shrimp truck we went to at the North Shore during our whole trip. We wanted to try some of the other ones that are supposed to be good (like Macky’s, and Romy’s…), but we were down in the Honolulu area most of the time, so we never got the chance. I definitely could have gone for more shrimp during our stay! Thank you Estella, Megumi, Bryan… everyone who told us about Giovanni’s! It was so good, I am drooling now just thinking about it.
After dinner, Dan spotted a roadside fresh fruit stand on the way back to the hotel, and he was seduced by the big fat Iced Cold Coconut sign. Dan loves coconut! (Me? Not so much.)
We returned to the hotel for the evening, taking dips in the pool and just relaxed. The Turtle Bay Resort was right on a beach, so we had a gorgeous view not only from the pool area but from our hotel room as well!
Only Day One, and we already ate so much good food and saw so many beautiful sights! We were definitely excited for the days to come. Stay tuned for more of our adventures in Hawaii!
The weather has been amazing for the last week here, and this past weekend was no exception. It’s regularly been sunny and 70 degrees, and it really feels like spring has finally arrived. I am not a huge fan of rain, so I couldn’t wait for the rainy season to be over. (The weather in the Bay Area is pretty nice all year round, with the exception of about eleven straight weeks of rain, during which I am miserable.)
Dan and I decided to spend Saturday in San Francisco, since we had tickets to go see the Tutankhamun exhibit at de Young museum in the evening. I’d been wanting to see the exhibit since it came to San Francisco in June of last year, and it happens to be ending next weekend. (Talk about waiting until the last minute, huh?) We spent the afternoon walking around Baker Beach, which sparkled under the California sunshine. The beach also has a great view of the Golden Gate Bridge.
After the beach, we drove through Golden Gate Park and headed over to dinner, past the rolling hills of San Francisco…
…and arrived at San Tung! The dry-fried chicken wings here are out of this world! I’m usually not that crazy about wings because they are so messy to eat, but these are the best I have ever had. Ever!
The shrimp and leek dumplings are pretty yummy, too…
Plus the seafood noodle soup! Yes, we ate all of this between the two of us.
Full and content, we headed over to de Young Museum to see the exhibit “Tutankhamun and The Golden Age of The Pharoahs.”
I realize that my blog post title is a little misleading, because we didn’t actually see any mummies. King Tut’s mummy and his three nested coffins and stone sarcophagus have actually never left Egypt, and he continues to rest in the Valley of the Kings. I wanted to see the gold mask of King Tut (which apparently travelled around the world for different exhibits back in the ’70s), but the Egyptian government no longer lets it travel outside of Egypt, as it has been declared a national treasure (and rightly so). Still, the exhibition at de Young was very impressive, showcasing over 130 outstanding works from King Tut’s tomb, as well as those of his royal predecessors, family, and court officials. It’s incredible how intricately and artfully crafted those pieces were, when they were created over 3,200 years ago. During my four years of taking art history courses in college, I remember studying some of those works in my archaeology course with Profess or Knoblauch so it was sort of surreal to see them in person. I feel really fortunate to have been able to catch the exhibit in its last week. Although Tutankhamun is leaving San Francisco at the end of the month, it’ll be making its way over to New York, Toronto and Denver in the coming months, so I definitely recommend it for anyone who is interested and lives near one of those cities!
I love going out to eat and exploring new delicious dishes and then seeing if I can make them myself at home. It’s usually pretty hit or miss — a long time ago, when I was obsessed with P.F. Changs chicken lettuce wraps, I tried to recreate the appetizer at my college apartment and failed miserably — all we could taste were the crunchy water chestnuts. (I’m hoping to redeem myself by trying again someday.)
One of my absolute favorite dishes is linguine frutti di mare, which is essentially mixed seafood pasta. Linguine tossed with “fruits of the ocean” and loose red sauce — just thinking about it makes my mouth water. I have a hobby of trying the seafood pasta every time Dan and I go to a new Italian restaurant for the first time, and going around comparing. So far, some of my personal favorites have been Luciano’s in Oakton, The Cellar in Blacksburg, Buca di Beppo (various locations in California), and The Milanese Caffe in Berkeley. There were many other good ones, but we try to support unique, non-chain restaurants, so we don’t often dine at the likes of places like Olive Garden (although theirs is not bad, either).
The other evening, I was having a strong craving from more seafood pasta, and decided to try to make it myself. We made a quick run to Berkeley Bowl to gather some ingredients and I produced this delightful dish (while Dan made salad, because that’s what he’s good at). It was très délicieux! Just like the ones at some of the restaurants. I’m so excited that I can now whip this up in the comfort of my own home; I just wish I’d attempted it sooner!
Here’s my recipe:
Linguine Frutti di Mare
(serves 2)
Ingredients:
1.5 lbs linguini
1 tablespoon olive oil
3 cloves garlic
1 cup (8 oz) marinara sauce
1 cup (8 oz) clam juice (sold in cans)
10 oz mussels and/or steamer clams
4 oz squid, cleaned
10-12 medium shrimp
(Note: The mussels, clams, and squid can easily be bought all-in-one if you buy one of those frozen seafood mixes)
Directions
1. Heat the olive oil in a pan, and add the chopped garlic and sauté until garlic starts to turn brown.
2. Add the mussels and/or clams and squid and sauté for 2 minutes.
3. Add marinara sauce and clam juice, sauté until mussels and/or clams open.
4. Boil the pasta, drain and toss cooked pasta in with the sauce.
5. Mound pasta with sauce onto plates and place the mussels and clams around the pasta. Garnish with lemon wedges and enjoy!