There aren’t many xiao long bao restaurants in Hawaii, and when I have tried it, I haven’t loved them as much as I thought I would. Din Tai Fung is a big restaurant chain and I have watched countless video features about them! Well, when I got to Hong Kong, I knew I had to give them a try! So here is my experience…

Drunken Chicken in Shaoxing Rice Wine

Oh man, this dish was not good. It tasted like it was only shaoxing rice wine, not just a sauce made with the rice wine. This chicken must have died from alcohol poisoning, the alcohol overpowered everything. We barely ate this dish.

Sautéed Spinach with Supreme Broth and Garlic

My favorite dish of the meal, funny right? A simple vegetable dish sauteed with garlic is one of the ways to my heart. Absolutely recommended.

Noodle with Spicy Sesame and Peanut Sauce

I’m a sucker for noodles. This dish was good but nothing memorable.

Vegetable & Pork Wonton Tossed with Special Sauce

This was probably my second favorite dish of the meal, I love wonton and spicy sauce.

Steamed Black Truffle and Pork Dumplings

Okay this is the funny part of the night. We ordered Xiao Long Bao but totally made a mistake and ordered ALL BLACK TRUFFLE dumplings. It was insanely expensive and my cousin hates truffle so she couldn’t even enjoy it. We were also so full at this point that we couldn’t finish it, you best believe I asked for take out boxes (which they charge for) because I can’t waste truffle and all this food. And I was trying to maneuver between the use of my camera and snapchat so this is the only shot I had of the XLB.

I am going to end my Hilo food posts with my most favorite meal! Cafe Pesto is an awesome Italian restaurant in downtown Hilo. If the service was good, it would have been a perfect experience! But it’s okay, good food fits the bill for me.

Started off our dinner with a Hilo Sunrise – this is fresh lemonade with lemongrass, lime leaf and Island honey. It was delicious and comes with complimentary refills!

Complimentary Bread with Pesto Butter. Delicious! I was so hungry, that bread was devoured.

Smoked Salmon Alfredo

Grilled Chicken and Hamakua Mushroom Risotto

I don’t usually order risotto but something about this dish made me want to get it. A lot of the food reviews seemed to like this dish as well so I went for it. I’m so glad I did, it was delicious! The chicken was cooked perfectly especially for chicken breast. I would definitely recommend this!

Volcano Mist Salad

I don’t usually post the appetizer last but I can’t help it. This was my absolute favorite dish of the trip. And I know what you’re thinking, what salad? Well, buried under the mountain of fried onions and tomatoes, there is a small amount of romaine lettuce…lol. This salad was so delicious. Smoked mozzarella, local tomatoes, crisped onion rings, a citrus balsamic dressing…it just all worked so well together. I was tempted to order this dish to go right before we came home. Mmm…can’t stop thinking about it.

Da Poke Shack was rated the number one place to eat in the U.S. by Yelp. That’s big. That’s huge. Granted it was 2 years ago but I knew that I had to try this place out while in the Big Island. Was it good? Yes, definitely. They are a small shop along the highway, their set-up reminded me a lot of Ono Seafood. They are also next to a small building with very limited parking and only outside seating…which was barely any. We ate in our car. The line to get your plate was LONG. But the front service staff were patient and very kind. As I stood in line, I couldn’t believe the amount of kalua pig plates being ordered. No offense to anyone but I’m not going to Da Poke Shack to get cooked entrees. The poke bowl comes with two choice poke, one scoop rice and one side. I almost went for the plate since I was out there but I don’t think I could have eaten 4 choice poke, 2 choice side and rice. Ah, maybe next time…haha. A reason to return. Their prices are based on market price, their fish is never frozen, only fresh. The bowl was about $14 dollars while the plate was about $26.

From bottom left to right: Rice (you can get hapa or white, furikake is optional), Pele’s Kiss (spicy), Clams (this was a side dish! Clams!!), Wet Hawaiian (inamona). How was it? Delicious. I loved it, and the spicy one was actually kind of spicy. Wish we had a location here to try more. But lucky we do have Ono Seafood which currently ranks higher than Da Poke Shack on the 2016 list. 

We made a grave mistake this night. We didn’t complete our research in full and missed out on bringing home omiyage from Nori’s Saimin & Snacks. Yes, this trip I missed out on my favorite Chocolate Mochi Cake. Maybe it’s for the better, I probably would have gobbled that thing down before sharing it with anyone. The food here? I like the variety on the menu but I am pretty sure it had plenty of MSG because I was thirsty all night. The workers are nice but they were very busy with very little help, it was a bit of a mess. And hot. So hot. I will not miss the lack of air conditioning at restaurants in Hilo, lol. This post will include some random other things since I didn’t have much to share from Nori’s.

Curly Ramen Won Ton – Large Special

Special bowls comes with one BBQ chicken stick. The chicken stick was hard, not great.

Next couple of pictures consist of the decor inside of Big Island Candies. I like how detailed they are!

It’s a bit random to share a shave ice picture but I really really enjoyed this one! I got it from Da Hawaiian Brain Freeze Shave Ice & Ice Cream. How can you go wrong? This is their Keiki Size. KEIKI. Cute they serve it with a genki sushi kine plate underneath. I got lilikoi with li hing powder. It was perfection. Perfectly shaved ice, nice syrup and the li hing powder was not at all sour and complemented the dessert so nicely. I would definitely return here!

The semester ended in May and I have rested until now. Well between then and now, I have traveled to Chicago for a conference and also took a long weekend trip to Hilo. Traveling can be tiring! But I must say, my timing is impeccable because I start a summer course tomorrow which will be an intensive three weeks. I will try my best to schedule some posts out! The next few posts will be from Hilo. I took a trip out there over the Fourth of July weekend and had a great time. Lots of driving. One day was driving out to Kona and the other day was out to North Kohala. Saddle Road used to freak me out a bit but I must say, it was a pleasure to drive through it this time around.

Today, I’d like to share an early morning breakfast we got from Kawamoto Store. Totally old school, totally delicious. I love okazuyas and wish we had more on the island that I could grab food from before work…on the way to work. I was pretty bummed when Gulick closed down on King Street. Kawamoto Store was delightful, the workers were all so nice and patient with us out-of-towners. I’m sure they could totally tell we were townies.

Ah…what did I select…

Spam Musubi, Shoyu Chicken, Fried Mahi and Fried Noodles

And you cannot go to an okazuya without ordering nishime! My breakfast was delicious! My least favorite was the fried fish but generally, you never know how it will be in fried form. This one was a bit dry for my taste. I loved the shoyu chicken, noodles and especially the nishime. They give good portions for good prices, it feels great supporting local.

Last picture of the day is from the drive on Saddle Road. People who know me know that I drive all the time so it was nice to be a passenger during this trip. I mean look at this awesome shot I got from it! No filter! Have a good one folks.