Monsarrat Ave Shave Ice – Diamond Head, HI

To follow up on yesterday’s post, I tried out the Shave Ice placed located right outside of Pioneer Saloon! Monsarrat Ave Shave Ice is literally in the alley between Pioneer Saloon and another place. Very small place and of course located outdoors. Not much place to sit and eat, but it’s okay – just grab your shave ice and go!

141231-01Miniatures <3. This is definitely a way to my heart.

141231-02Cute little cactus plants – I wish I could get my cacti to flower.

141231-03Their syrups are all homemade and they taste great. I got the a mango and lilikoi mix for my shave ice. I actually enjoyed the lilikoi much more than the mango. In the end, it all mixed together anyway and became a good slurpee. Very cute place and great shave ice, give it a try if you’re in the area!

Sweet Home Cafe – Moilili, HI

Sweet Home Cafe needs no introduction, I even have a previous post about them.  You should check out their Yelp page, there are currently some mixed reviews. It’s very interesting and I hope they can take any negative reviews and turn it into positives for themselves (barring the fake ones of course). I had a visit about a week ago and it was pretty much a common visit. I was mainly surprised that I didn’t have to wait at all for a seat on a Saturday night and then when I was served dessert before we were done eating and nowhere near the time limit.

140519-01

We got the House Special this time. For those who wonder what it tastes like, it’s a lot like a Pho broth.

140519-02Our stuff dumped in! The broth isn’t bad but healthy herb is still my favorite.

140519-03Raw beef

140519-04You see the yellow rounds floating in the soup? I tried it during my last visit and it has become a favorite. I think it’s called Egg Tofu – so good. It’s a really soft egg thing…you can’t taste the tofu at all. It almost tastes a bit like chawan mushi in texture…delish.

140519-05My dipping sauce! One of many, I never waste though. I don’t wanna go against Auntie, I just return to grab more when I need more. I also use a choke-load of cilantro. Fresh cilantro for the win.

140519-06The infamous dessert that was served to me while my mouth was full trying to finish my dinner. This is the exact kind of dessert you cannot be served early, it’s shave ice! We had to rush to finish dinner and eat this…it was rude in my eyes. This was Kristian’s first visit so he was not pleased either.

Sweet Home Cafe – Honolulu, HI

This is going to be such a weak post. I hardly took pictures of this meal because I was too busy eating. I got a picture of the food before we put it in and then the dessert…lol. If you haven’t heard of Sweet Home Cafe, you may be living under a rock. Okay just kidding but also not really. This place is still one of the more popular eateries and I can see why. Good food, reasonable prices and an awesome free Taiwanese Shave Ice dessert. How can you go wrong? Well…I guess the external factors can. The long wait time, the limited parking lot…these things can definitely put a damper on your dining experience. I know now to come super early. Like eat before senior citizens kine early to avoid a long wait. I do have to say, I hope everyone gets to try this place at least once. If you can’t wait, try Golden Eagle Chinese Restaurant two doors down. It’s a good Chinese restaurant run by a small family. Support small business! Okay, here comes the pics.

140117-01Meat meat meat meat. Or for us, meat meat lamb lamb. I suggest the lamb. If you haven’t been here, you order the soup and meat with the waiter. The rest of the food items are in the refrigerators so it’s like the Genki of hot pot restaurants. Color plates corresponds to the cost. They have a bazillion dipping sauces to choose from and raw green onion and cilantro to accompany your food. Rice costs extra. The small portion is very cheap and fed three of us. In fact, we had rice leftover.

140117-02This is like the same picture as before…but now you see all the meat.  I apologize for my terrible reporting on this meal.

140117-03Now, do you know what this is? If you’re Chinese, you probably do. This is a cold dish in the refrigerator, no cooking required. It just tastes great with some rice, nicely seasoned. The texture is awesome. I usually make people try this before I tell them what it is so I can get their true reaction. Do you wanna know what it is? Do you really want to? Comment if you do and I will give you the answer. If not, just eat em!

140117-04After stuffing my face, I finally took another picture. Here is their famous free dessert. It includes shave ice with like a brown sugar syrup. Lots of different flavors of jelly (i.e. mango, lychee). The middle is like a creamy coffee jello thing.  The white blobs are like chunks of almond float. They are very accommodating here. If you cannot finish the dessert, they can put it in a take out cup. They also ask if you want the soup after you’re done in case you want to take it home to use again. I don’t know about everyone else, but the soup I use (healthy herb by the way) is always all murky and sludgy after all the cooking so I usually decline. Give them a try! It’s worth the wait.

 

Day off – North Shore, HI

So as I have mentioned before, I was super stressed in December with a lot of different projects at work.  When my final project was complete, I totally took a vacation the day after.  Since I was taking the day off, I wanted to make it a productive one and I certainly think I did!  We drove out to Wahiawa to try Sunny Side Bakery, then up to the North Shore to get shrimp for lunch.  The day ended with dinner and a movie, while that included a lot of “doing,” I felt completely relaxed!  Let me share some pictures!

140109-01Pupukea Beach Park.  There was a guy sitting up front forever which ruined all our shots.  I finally got this when he left…hehe.

Continue reading