We were fortunate enough to land reservations Friday night during the opening week of Senia. A restaurant that specializes in farm to table cuisine leveraging the culinary skills of Chris Kajioka and Anthony Rush, former chefs at Per Se, a restaurant by Thomas Keller. I should also add that Anthony had worked at the French Laundry before Per Se....

A quick drive out of Waikiki, you can find Sushi Izakaya Gaku. A place that has been serving up creative dishes for izakaya while also providing some elaborate sushi. We happen to come here primarily for the izakaya. Not to say we didn’t sample some of that wonderful fish. But mainly we wanted a festive...

When it comes to food, the first thing people tell me about the Big Island was that I had to visit Da Poke Shack. A small place located in a set of condominiums that served fresh poke. Of course, they branched out to another location, but we wanted to try the original. Not to mention,...

With over 30 varieties, Cafe 100 has been an institution for this iconic local favorite, the loco moco. It’s a dish composed of four simple building blocks, rice, hamburger patty or patties, gravy (lots of it) and a fried egg on top. Though most historical records indicate, the fried egg was introduced after the original concoction. I...

Not to be confused with the original Umeke’s, Umeke’s Fishmarket Bar and Grill is the full restaurant with a bar. Plenty of room here to meet up with friends to eat and drink. With all of Sunday dedicated to happy hour why wouldn’t anyone want to spend it here. Well, that’s if of course you were tired of...

It was all about hitting the late night eats tonight. That’s because we did our run during the day. Something that set us up for the “I don’t give a fuck what’s for dinner” attitude. A perfect way for us to try out new places. At first we went with a suggestion from our friend...

Yep, another hike, a popular hike too. Filled with tourists chugging up the path. It’s not a difficult hike, but it can be a hot one. There’s really not too much shade and if there’s no breeze, make sure you have that bottle of water handy. However, when you get to the top it’ll be...

The day was dedicated to being on a boat, a catamaran to be exact. You know those boats with two hulls in the water and like flat top for you to lay out on. They are awesome. Fast and nimble, they got us to the first snorkel site in under an hour (getting out of...

It was time for snorkeling. Rounding up a group of twenty friend and family was challenge we accomplished by simply starting off with a mass text, “Leaving for Shark’s Cove at 10am.” And then we were off, in our little subgroups. Room after room left without the need to caravan with one another. We just...

It’s not often you can get all your friends and family together. Especially when you grow older and time becomes more of a precious commodity. But somehow we got about twenty eight people together to watch a few friends renew their vows. Maybe it was allure of Hawaii or the prospect of just getting away....

Cousins were due to arrive by 2:50pm right in the middle of the afternoon. What else to do, but to hunt for some good eats near the airport. I read about this place, Nico’s Pier 38 from a couple of blogs. Little did I know, Yelp had two entries for this and I followed Apple...

Day one of my vacation and somehow I was convinced to do physical activity. I realized this after I was halfway up a trail over in Kailua, sweat soaked and regretting why I decided flip flops were okay. The trail was short but steep. Within minutes I saw the first military pillbox perched on the...

Why is there a picture of musubi, albeit my favorite cucumber, egg, spam musubi from Iyasume? Well, that’s because I wished I had one while we were hiking. Not that it was a difficult hike. It didn’t even take half an hour to get to the top. No, I simply was dreaming of this stuff....

It was a scattered rain storm day. And rain storm isn’t quite the word. It was a chaotic down pour if you got caught in one of these rain clouds roaming the island. Unfortunately, one of them came out to Waimea Bay to ruin our snorkeling and beach afternoon. We ended up searching for other...

Today was all about staying around the hotel. I mean why wouldn’t we venture out in this great part of the island. Can’t let the tourist scare you away. Oh wait, I’m a tourist too ain’t I? Well, the stuff that’ll scare you are all the street performers and brochure hand outs that make you...

So I don’t usually do the touristy stuff, but it’s my third time here and I haven’t checked out one of the most historical landmarks here in Oahu, Pearl Harbor. The very place where tragedy struck only to make a country more resilient. Impressive. And even more impressive was the Missouri, a battleship that was...

It was a day of kayaking and swimming. Kailua beach may be windy but it’s a nice escape from busy Waikiki and not as far as North Beach. Not like 30 minutes further meant that much further, but you know what I mean. Just a close get away. We rented a kayak for half the...

Gotta do a luau in Hawaii right? Gotta try it at least once, right? Well, it’s my third time and this time, we’re going all out at the Polynesian Culture Center. Must say, moving up to the prime rib option was well worth it. A break from Hawaiian/Japanese food into good old American gluttony with...

You kinda realize it when you’re walking past people, getting agitated in line, and trying to get straight to the point, which was to relax. Problem was, my mind was still at silicon valley speed. Not quite like New York light speed, but that under the skin angst that you know time is limited. Oh...

First stop in Oahu and what do should we do, eat. C’mon, 5 hours of flying and having nothing more than peanuts and airline food what did you expect? Not to mention I was nursing a kick to the head by das boot from Supenkuche. So what else to have in Hawaii but Vietnamese food....