Hawai'i: Gina's BBQ and Longhi's with Noelle

Noelle and I had plans for 10am breakfast at Andy's today. But they were closed! So we went to Cafe Kaila in Marketplace City. But the wait was 30 minutes long! That is crazy.
So we walked a few doors down to Gina's and had Korean plate lunch for breakfast. It was a very, very good idea! We split the combination plate...it came out to just under $5 per person. Not bad, huh?
The plate comes with three scoops rice, mandoo, mini-eggroll, kalbi, bbq chicken, and bbq beef. Totally forgot about the meat and/or fish jun. Next time! And you can pick four vegetables.
We got taegu, bok choy, radish...and...MAC SALAD!!! YEAH!!! Mac salad is one of the things I get most excited about eating whenever I'm back home.
There was a lot of food and the woman knew we were sharing, so moved some of the food over to another plate for us. Thank you! Palama Market and Yummy's make my favourite Korean plate lunches, but Gina's is not bad at all.
Post-Gina's, we drove over to Longhi's for prosecco. It's such a beautiful day, it would be silly to not take advantage ;)
Halfway through our drinks, we saw the bartender turning out some very fun strawberry daiquiris. Gorgeous in the morning sunlight, and well, it's been a long long time since my last daiquiri, hehehh.
And because we had daiquiris how could we not have dessert?! Mint grasshopper pie it was! Extra fluffy. Brownie crust!!
Ah. Yes. A great Saturday morning breakfast indeed :D

Gina's BBQ
2919 Kapiolani Boulevard
Honolulu, HI 96826
(808) 735-7964

Longhi's
1450 Ala Moana Boulevard
Honolulu, HI 96814
(808) 947-9899

Sugar Rushed...

...for the week at Serious Eats New York. Plus the ICE CREAM SUNDAE roundup!!! :D And the Scampi Ravioli at Locanda Verde, two takes on Matcha Cakes, and plenty more ^_^
Lunch for One: Scampi Ravioli at Locanda Verde
Sugar Rush: Shortbreads at Cha-An
The 3 Best Hot Fudge Sundaes in New York City
Sugar Rush: Two Takes on Matcha Cakes
Lunch for One: Sandwiches at The Lobster Place
Sugar Rush: Vegan Cupcakes at Cocoa V
Sugar Rush: Hazelnut Cakes at Patisserie Claude
Sugar Rush: Eclairs at Duane Park Patisserie

Hawai'i: Ono Seafood, Tea Garden, and Shirokiya

This is the poke and tako rice bowl I had for lunch yesterday. It was from Ono Seafood, a place mom has been telling me about for months! She stop by for lunch pretty often...this is seriously one of the most delicious deals I've encountered in a long time. $6 buys a poke bowl. Or tako bowl. Or half-poke, half-tako bowl. I got the latter (poke on the left, tako on the right). Juice or soda is included too!
The poke and tako is tossed to order and you can specify if you want more or less of anything...limu, green onion, shoyu, chili pepper, onion, and kukui nut...I love it all! Extra chili pepper please!
Mixing in progress :)
Here's the interior of the shop. Pretty basic, most people come to get poke or tako by the pound for take home. $14 per pound is on the pricey end (it's about $7-$8 per pound at Foodland or Safeway), but it's very much worth it! They also sell raw crab and pretty good pickled mango.
Post lunch, I met my two aunties at Ala Moana for some shopping. We stopped off at The Pacific Place Tea Garden for an iced tea break...ginger peach tea, iced, for myself...
...and some sweets they brought from lunch at Chinatown! We call this "Cam Cake." It's like a fried mochi ball, similar to jin dui, only a lot chewier and topped off with a layer of crunchy caramelized sugar...
...here's what the inside looks like, filled with mashed and slightly sweetened mung beans.
Family dinner wasn't till 8pm, so I picked up up a mini sushi set at Shirokiya around 6pm...that's when most of the bento boxes go on sale!! hehehe. I got this one for only $1.95. Two futomaki and two "cone sushi," pieces. Perfect size to tide me over till dinner.
Shirokiya has gone through a lot of changes and renovations since my last visit! There's a whole new seating area near the cash registers. And lots of new permanent demo places. Looks like the okonomiyaki and takoyaki people are here for good, as well as the Ginza Barin Katsu place. They had SO MUCH mochi out...I gotta get back here asap!
Hope your Friday was delicious...I get one malassada from Leonard's for afternoon snack today! You can get filled ones too, but I wanted to keep things simple :)

Ono Seafood
747 Kapahulu Avenue
Honolulu, HI 96816
(808) 732-4806

The Pacific Place Tea Garden
1450 Ala Moana Boulevard
Honolulu, HI 96814
(808) 944-2004

Shirokiya
1450 Ala Moana Boulevard
Honolulu, HI 96814
(808) 944-2004

Leonard's Bakery
933 Kapahulu Avenue
Honolulu, HI 96816
(808) 737-5591