Hawaii: Shave Ice Update

I've been a big fan of Hawaiian shave ice since I was a kid and discovered the old Island Snow chain in Waikiki. Even though those were likely sub-par examples, it was a revelation. A snow cone that was actually soft like snow, not hard and icy, with tropical flavors and ice cream on the bottom (only later on the North Shore would I experience the beauty of sweet beans mixed into the ice cream). I would sometimes eat a couple per day. When I go to Hawaii for vacation, I still eat an embarrassing amount of shave ice. Here's a run down of a few old favorites and some new ones from this trip. In tasting note fashion, each Shave Ice will be rated on three categories as follows.

1. Ice. The ice should be soft and melt in your mouth. This isn't a snow cone. Points off for big ice crystals or hardness.

2. Flavors. How do the syrups taste. My favorite flavors are strawberry, strawberry and cream and lilikoi, but I reserve the right to try whatever I feel like.

3. Add-ons. I like ice cream and azuki beans (sweet black beans) on the bottom of my cone. The beans should be sweet and soft so that they form a beany, fruity milkshake at the bottom of the cone. This is really the best part of a shave ice.

So, here they are in the order I consumed them.

Waiola Shave Ice, Kaimuki, Honolulu (pictured above right): This is an old favorite but many say it's gone down hill since a change in location a few years ago (there is another branch in Moilili). That's certainly true of the service, which was pretty bad and disorganized, but the shave ice is still very good.
Ice: Near perfect. Soft all the way through.
Flavors: Fantastic. Strong flavors that last through the whole shave ice.
Add-ons: Meh. The beans are too hard and not sweet enough which means they don't blend well with the ice cream and deny you of that lovely beany milkshake. It's like having canned kidney beans at the bottom.


Keneke's, Waimanolo: This storefront plate lunch stand makes a solid shave ice.
Ice: Good, some hardness and an ice chip or two, but mostly soft.
Flavors: Good. Nothing homemade tasting but solid stuff.
Add-ons: Good. Beans are a mashed paste, ice cream is fine, nothing to complain about. And hey, where else are you gonna' get shave ice if you're out there anyway.


Shimazu Store, Kalihi, Honolulu: This is one of the most popular shave ice places on Oahu. It's only been around for a few years but it's definitely got foodie cred. The shave ices here are enormous, the flavor list extensive with lots of innovative flavors. It's also a fun place and the proprietor is very friendly.
Ice: Very good. The inside of the cone is as soft as can be, but the outside of the cone tends to harden, possibly due to the size of the thing. This encourages you to burrow into the middle which leaves you with an icy outside shell, which is not a great situation to be in.
Flavors: I was actually not very impressed with the flavors. The lilikoi had an artificial-candy taste instead of a natural lilikoi flavor. The strawberry and cream was fine but not as rich as the Waiola version.
Add-ons: Beans were good, ice cream seemed a bit too sweet.

Aoki's, Haleiwa: I've stopped hitting the more famous Matsumoto's on my trips to the North Shore because the lines are just too long so instead, I went to nearby Aoki's.
Ice: Okay. Not super soft.
Flavors: Not very good. Flavors were weak and indistinct. Everything just tasted like sugar and citric acid.
Add-ons: Very good. Beans were sweet and mixed in well. Proportions of beans and ice cream were perfect.

Bonus - Snow Factory, Moiliili (pictured above). Technically, this isn't shave ice, it's shave ice cream, but the format is similar. Instead of ice, they shave a giant block of ice cream and add syrups and other add on such as mochi, cookies, etc. The add ons here are more similar to a Korean bingsu then a traditional Hawaiian shave ice.
Ice/Snow: The shaving of the ice cream creates a great, melt in your mouth flavors.
Flavors: Fruit flavors tended to be better than more traditional ice cream flavors. Maybe it's just the psychology of eating this as a shave ice, but I thought the lilikoi worked better in the shaved format, then say peanut butter.
Add-ons: Most were pretty good. The mochi balls go well with the ice cream, but the best were passion fruit pops. Little gelatinous balls that explode with passion fruit when you bite them. These reminded me of the "cherries" they serve at Jose Andreas' Bazaar and other molecular gastronomy treats.


Summary: Overall, I would say Waiola still has the best flavors and ice. Keneke's may be my favorite for the add-ons. Even though Shimazu is a big hit with pretty much everyone these days, I didn't think it lived up to the hype.

Hilo Sweets

Part two of my Hilo, Hawaii Report focuses on desserts.


SHAVE ICE

Wilson's By the Bay aka Wilson's Ice Shave

That most popular of Hawaii frozen treats, the shave ice, is referred to in Hilo as ice shave. Wilson's, located in the touristy strip of Kamehameha Avenue, had fabulous shave ice, certainly comparable to the best I've had on Oahu. Wilson's had everything you want in great shave ice: soft ice with the texture of fresh snow, strong flavors and goodly portions of ice cream and sweet azuki beans. Like most shave ice places, it takes its time but is definitely worth the wait.

Wilson's By the Bay
224 Kamehameha Ave.
Hilo, HI 96720
(808) 969-9191


Kawate Seed Shop

Kawate Seed Shop, for some inexplicable reason, seems to have a better reputation for shave ice than Wilson's. I thought it was just okay. The ice was more coarse than I like and the flavors were lacking, with the exception of their li hing mui, the sour/salty/sweet dried plum that is probably the most popular variety of the Hawaiian snack known as "crackseed." My standard shave ice flavors are strawberry, coconut and li hing mui. While most li hing mui syrups are sweet with a vague saltiness, Kawate's version was boldly sweet, sour and salty with little bits of li hing mui in it; it gave you the true flavor of the real LHM. You would expect that, I suppose, from a crackseed shop with such a wide variety of plums and powders (the picture above is from Kawate). Now if I could only get their li hing mui on a Wilson's ice shave...that would be icy heaven.

Kawate Seed Shop
1990 Kinoole St
Hilo, HI 96720
(808) 959-8313


NUTS AND SNACKS

Mauna Loa Visitor Center

I don't tend to frequent tourist traps or factory tours, and I didn't have much in the way of expectations for the Hershey-owned Mauna Loa Macadamia Nut Visitor Center, but it's actually fairly unobtrusive. The Visitor Center is a three mile drive through the Mac Nut fileds off Highway 11, south of Hilo. The Visitor Center experience is a fairly simple affair, including (1) a self-guided factory tour in which you get to look through the factory windows and watch videos narrated by an animated, talking Mac Nut; (2) a small garden of unlabeled tropical plants and Mac Nut trees; and (3) a large store stocked with every imaginable flavor of Mac Nuts and a few choice samples. The whole experience takes only 15 to 20 minutes, so if you love Mac Nuts, why not do it.

Mauna Loa Visitor Center
16-701 Macadamia Road (off Hwy 11 - you'll see the sign)
Keaau, Hawaii 96749
(888) 628-6256


Big Island Candies

Big Island Candies is sort of a local version of the Mauna Loa Center. Big Island Candies specializes in shortbread and assorted chocolate dipped snacks. The factory includes a large store with a window onto the factory floor where you can see workers dipping all manner of things in chocolate. The store is as big as Mauna Loa's, but Big Island Candies is more generous with the samples. The shortbread is excellent, sweet and vanillay with that melt-in-your-mouth quality that great shortbread has. They have it in a variety of flavors, such as guava, ginger and olive oil, all of which were good, but I think I liked the plain shortbread the best. Oh, and when I said they have all manner of chocolate dipped snacks, did I mention the chocolate dipped dried squid? Sorry folks, I left it on the shelf for braver souls than I.

Big Island Candies
585 Hinano Street
Hilo, HI 96720
(800) 935-5510


PASTRIES

Puff City



One of my favorite Hilo finds was Puff City, a downtown pastry shop specializing in cream puffs. Their standard puff is a chocoalte custard with a chantilly topping. Hawaii locals and frequent visitors will immediately recognize this as a direct challenge to the famous Liliha Bakery and their famous coco puffs. So how did Puff City compare? Well, their pastry was excellent. Liliha is so big now that most of their puffs come out of the fridge and the pastry gets soggy, but Puff City's pastry was fresh and had more flavor than the Liliha standard. The Puff City chocolate filling was good but a bit too sweet for me, and while I liked Puff City's chantilly topping, it didn't have the complex sweet/salty flavor that makes Liliha's chantilly so compelling, but hey, you're in Hilo so it's not like you're going to fly out to Lilhia, so you should enjoy these puffs. Puff City also makes an excellent lilikoi puff with a fabulous lilikoi cream filling and a nice mini-chocolate silk pie with a well made, sweet pie crust filled with chocolate cream and whipped cream. Puff City has some lunch items as well, but I stuck to the sweets.

Puff City
187 Kilauea Ave.
Hilo, HI 96720
(808) 961-6964

Vacation Journal: North Shore Updates

On every trip to Oahu, I make a mandatory pilgrimage to the North Shore to partake of fresh shrimp and shave ice. Not much has changed since last year's sojourn, but I have a few updates:


Giovanni's Shrimp Truck

They now have hot dogs! The dogs are dipped in the garlic scampi sauce, and no, I didn't try one. I just couldn't resist the shrimp, but they looked good.


Shave Ice

A new shave ice vendor, Haleiwa Shave Ice, joins Matsumoto's and Aoki's, but doesn't bring much to the table. Haleiwa's flavors were weak and watery and they skimped on the azuki beans. I'm always looking for a North Shore alternative to the lines at Matsumoto's, but this wasn't it.


Pickled Mangos

This was the hit of the North Shore visit. I'd long seen the small sign advertising pickled mangos at the corner of Haleiwa Road and Kamehameha Highway but had never before acted on it. Just up the road on Haleiwa, across from the boat entrance to Ali'i Beach Park, there is another sign identifying the house where the mangos are. This isn't a fruit stand; it's just a house with a mango tree. The folks who live there make amazing pickles from their home grown mangos, pickling them in sugar and vinegar, with a li hing mui plum in the traditional style for home cured pickled mango. The mango slices are firm and crunchy with a perfect sweet/sour balance and a very slight mango inflection. They are sold in one pound bags for $9 and are highly addictive. Check it out!


Next Week: Farmers Markets, Hilo and More.

Hawaii Journal Day 9: Dim Sum and More

Day 9: Monday

So, the trip is winding down. Today is the second to last full day. It's time to start winnowing the choices and going back to any places we simply can't resist.


Breakfast: Mei Sum Dim Sum Looks Fun



If you are a regular reader, you know that both my oldest daughter and I are big dim sum fans, so we headed back to Chinatown for a morning of dim sum. Mei Sum is a small restaurant, a far cry from the usual palaces, with a fairly typical dim sum menu; while they do have carts, at least during off hours, you order off the menu. We had all the standards, served in bamboo steamers, which was refreshing as most everywhere you go these days has metal steamers. The dim sum was good, though nothing too different from what we're used to in the San Gabriel Valley. The one thing Mei Sum excelled at was look fun, the wide rice noodles that encase various meats. The look fun at Mei Sum were delightfully greasy and porky with a great, chewy texture. We had two look fun dishes: shrimp and char siu. The char siu was stuffed with julienned pork strips...great stuff. My guess is that these were hand made look fun, either made in-house, or more likely, made by the nearby Ying Leong Look Funn Factory, one of the last factories making handmade fun.

Mei Sum
65 N. Pauahi St.
Honolulu, Hawaii 96817
(808) 531-3268


Lunch: Gulick Deli

With our time here growing short, we really had to start getting to places if we wanted to visit. One of the things we definitely wanted to do was spend a day on the beautiful beaches of Kailua on the windward (east) side of the island. Unfortunately, we chose to do this on a Monday, and my two favorite Kailua eateries, Kuulei Delicatessen and Agnes' Portuguese Bake Shop (for malassadas), are closed on Monday.

Instead, we brought food from yet another Honolulu okazuya. There is really no better beach food than okazu. You pick it up early, it's good luke warm, and you can wipe the grease off your fingers in the ocean.



Gulick Deli is an esteemed okazuya in the Kalihi neighborhood which now has a branch on King Street. We stocked up for the beach trip with all manner of okazu from chow fun to fried shrimp. Unfortunately, most of it was just average. There were a few stand outs, though. The spicy chicken, a fried, sweet glazed chicken was very good, as was the butter fish. Butter fish is an extremely oily fish, related to Chilean sea bass and black cod. The appropriately named fish melts in your mouth like...margarine. My experience has been that it's good almost everywhere; Gulick served its butter fish as broiled steaks.

Gulick Deli
1936 S. King Street
Honolulu, HI 96826


Dessert: Shave Ice at Keneke's

On our way back from Kailua, we had a hankering for shave ice, so we stopped by Keneke's in Waimanaolo (see Day 2 for a review of their excellent plate lunch). I know I've had Keneke's shave ice before, but I had no discernible memory of it, which means it was at least 20 years ago.

Well, it turns out, they do a fantastic shave ice. The flavors were crisp and rich, the ice texture was soft and the quantity of ice cream and beans was good. Instead of whole azukis, Keneke's uses a mashed beans paste, which has the unfortunate quality of looking much like canned, refried beans, but the taste is pure azuki. This shave ice certainly rivals the best on the island. It will become a regular part of my Keneke's visits.

Keneke's
41-857 Kalanianaole Highway
Waimanalo, HI 96795
(808) 259-9804


Dinner & Dessert: Diamondhead Market and Grill

Ever since my first visit to Diamondhead Market and Grill on Day 3, I've been obsessing over it. It's definitely the most exciting new place I've been this trip, and I know that the next time I eat a scone in LA, I will sigh dreamily thinking of the wonder that is the Diamondhead blueberry scone.



Given all of this, I wanted to try their dinner plates. We ordered a teriyaki chicken burger, a teri hamburger and a kalbi plate. All of these were good, but none was excellent. Breakfast is definitely the thing to get at the Grill.




For dessert, we bought a few treats at the adjacent market. These were great. The blueberry cheesecake is lusciously creamy with just a dollop of pureed blueberries. The haupia sweet potato pie is a shortbread crust topped with a layer of Okinawan sweet potato and some very good haupia (coconut pudding) - a dessert with real Polynesian roots. The Diamondhead tort is essentially a banana cream pie with peanut butter; even though I'm not a big banana fan, and it was very strongly banana flavored, the salt of the peanut butter served such a good counterpoint to the bananas that I munched it down.

So got to Diamondhead Market and Grill for breakfast and dessert, but skip the dinner plates.


Diamondhead Market and Grill
3158 Monsarrat Avenue
Honolulu, HI 96815
(808) 732-0077

Tomorrow: North Shore Part II and a Rotund Chef

Hawaii Journal Day 5: Shrimp, Shave Ice and Cream Puffs (Hey, Where's the Pork?)

Day 5: Thursday

Breakfast: Okazu at Sekiya's

We're heading to the North Shore today, so we grabbed breakfast on the go from Sekiya's Okazuya. An Okazuya is often described as a Hawaiian deli, but it bears little resemblance to any mainland deli. Okazuyas date back from the early days of Hawaii when families would come out to the fields to sell lunch to laborers. The okazu (food sold at the okazuya) generally include a variety of savories such as dried fish sushi, various musubis (rice balls), fried snacks, teriyaki glazed meats, Spam dishes and hot dogs glazed with a scary, bright red sauce.

Most okazuya have limited seating and variable hours. They tend to open early, for the going to work crowd and close when the food runs out, which can be as early as noon.

At Sekiya's we took out a variety of okazu, but the highlight were the hash balls. Little balls of corn beef hash, battered and deep fried. If only the LA County Fair knew about these.

Sekiya's Restaurant & Delicatessen
2746 Kaimuki Ave.
Honolulu, HI 96816
(808) 732-1656


Aperitif: Matsumoto Shave Ice

After okazu, it was on to Haleiwa town in the North Shore and Matsumoto's Shave Ice. Matsumoto's is probably the most prominent shave ice in the island and by 11:00am, there is a line out the door, so we go early and treat it as a palate cleanser. The beauty of Matsumoto's is the plentiful quantities of ice cream and sweet, black azuki beans that blend together with the ice flavoring to form a little milkshake in the cone. Good stuff. If you don't feel like eating early morning shave ice but don't want to wait in line, Aoki's Shave Ice, just down the street is almost as good without any wait.

Matsumoto Shave Ice
66-087 Kamehameha Hwy
Haleiwa, Hawaii 96712


Lunch: Giovanni's Shrimp Truck



Giovanni's Shrimp Truck is a North Shore institution. Founded by a couple from Mozambique who opened their first truck in the midst of the shrimp farms of Kahuku, they have been cooking up fresh shrimp for years. The cult of Giovanni's is so intense that it has spawned a multitude of imitators. From one side of tiny Haleiwa to the other, I counted at least six shrimp trucks other than the original, and several now share space with Giovanni's spot under the bridge on the west side of town. There are many more in nearby Kahuku.



Giovanni's has built up its loyal following through a very simple recipe. Fresh shrimp (at one time, caught that morning - I don't know if that is still the case), doused in oil and tons of sauteed garlic and accompanied by two scoops of rice. You will find yourself sucking every last bit of sauce and garlic bits off of each plump shrimp before shelling it and licking the oil off of your fingers...talk about finger lickin' good.



At $12 a pop, the Giovanni's scampi is a bit pricey for lunch truck food, but not for big luscious shrimp. Eat it at one of the picnic tables or take it to go and have lunch at beautiful Haleiwa Ali'i Beach Park. It's one of the best meals you will have on any trip.


Dessert: Coco Puffs at Liliha Bakery



Conveniently on the way back from Haleiwa is one of our favorite spots. Liliha Bakery is a little diner with counter space seating in the Liliha neighborhood of Honolulu. They serve good breakfasts, including nice fluffy pancakes, but the real draw at Liliha is the Coco Puff.

The Coco Puff is a cream puff, but so much more. Stuffed with a pudding like chocolate cream and topped with a miraculous substance they call chantilly. What makes the puff is the chantilly topping, a rich, buttery, somewhat salty cream with a grainy texture. The combination of the chantilly and the chocolate filling makes these puffs immensely craveable.

Liliha Bakery
515 North Kuakini Street
Honolulu, HI 96817
(808) 531-1651

Tomorrow: Spam, a lot.

Hawaii Journal Day 2: Pork and Doughnuts

Day 2: Monday

Breakfast: Leonard's Bakery of Quality

Among the earliest European settlers of the Hawaiian Islands were the Portuguese, who came in the mid to late nineteenth century. Their culinary legacy survives primarily in two forms. One is the ubiquitous breakfast sausage linguica, which you can even find on the breakfast menu at local McDonalds. The other is the malassada (alt. spelling malasada), a puffy, spherical doughnut served warm and dusted with sugar. Leonard's is probably the most popular malassada bakery. A few years ago I did a side by side comparison with their nearby rival Champion Malasadas. Leonard's have a nice chewy texture where the Champion are more cake-like; I prefer Leonard's, but it's a different style. (Later in the trip, I'll try to make it to Agnes' Portuguese Bake Shop in Kailua, which makes my very favorite of all malassadas). So, grab a dozen of these and munch them down while warm. Would you expect anything less than greatness from a "Bakery of Quality"?


Leonard's Bakery of Quality
933 Kapahulu Ave.
Honolulu, HI 96816
(808)737-5591


Lunch: Keneke's



Waimanalo is an economically depressed little town set against one of the world's most gorgeous backdrops. It is sandwiched between some of Hawaii's most beautiful beaches and the sheer, majestic, ridged mountains which rise up behind it. Since the mid-1980s, Keneke's Waimanalo lunch stand has been doling out some of the best plate lunch in the Island. Plate lunch, of course, is the fast food staple of Hawaii, the combination of one to three greasy or fried meats or sides with an ice cream scooper full of rice and another of macaroni salad.

Keneke's is aggressively Christian, complete with bible verses scribbled on the wall, Jesus fish, psalms on the cups and posters touting their very successful Fear God Powerlifting Team sharing wall-space with anti-meth slogans. They clearly have a sense of humor about it with their slogan, "Divine Grinds."

I've been going to Keneke's for many years. I've had Kalua pig there, the salty luau style shredded pork similar to a non-fried version of carnitas, that is among the best I've had anywhere. Today, though, the Kalua pig wasn't as good as the pork adobo, the garlicky Filipino pork dish. The adobo has the feel of one of those age-old, passed down recipes, perfectly spiced, succulent and juicy. Also excellent was the lau lau, the traditional Hawaiian dish of pork wrapped in taro leaves, bundled inside of ti leaves like a Hawaiian tamale. The pork emerges tender and juicy and flavors the Taro leaves which come out with the texture and taste of a slightly bitter version of spinach. Lest you think they are a pork-only type of establishment, they make an excellent shoyu chicken and a good fried mahi mahi.



Take your plate lunch and continue a mile or so up the coast to Waimanalo Bay Beach Park (not to be confused with the more residential Waimanalo Beach Park) to enjoy your pork products on one of Oahu's most amazing beaches.



Keneke's
41-857 Kalanianaole Highway
Waimanalo, HI 96795
(808) 259-9804


Dessert: Waiola Bakery & Shave Ice



There are few desserts I enjoy more than Hawaiian style shave ice. Served in a cup or paper cone, it misleads people into thinking it's a snow cone, but it is so much more. Instead of the unpleasant icy crunch, it has the melt in your mouth quality of fresh snow, doused in sweet syrup foisted on a scoop of ice cream and sweet, black azuki beans. I'll take it any day over any snow cone, and enjoy the Hawaiian style more than the Korean bingsu I can get at home.

There is a strong disagreement in our family about the best shave ice on the islands. I give the edge to Matsumoto's or one of the other excellent North Shore purveyors, whereas my significant other holds that Waiola is the best.

Waiola, located on Kapahulu, just up from the zoo, makes a very fine ice, smoother than Northshore ice, and it has some of the best syrups around. The lilikoi (passionfruit) is tart, the lychee is specked with fruit pulp and the strawberries with cream is divine. But my favorite part of a shave ice is after you've eaten the top layer, and the bottom combines with the melted ice cream and beans to make a flavored sweet bean milkshake. This is where the North Shore excels. The chewy, not sufficiently sweet beans are Waiola's downfall, making the shake less than it should be. Still, the ice and the flavors are the best, and it's a whole lot closer to us than Matsumoto's.

Waiola Bakery & Shave Ice II
525 Kapahulu Avenue
Honolulu, HI
(808)735-8886


Dinner: Mekong II

The first place I ever had Thai food, in the early 1980s, was Keo's in Honolulu. The same Lao family that owns the now several Keo's had first opened the more modest but similar Mekong and Mekong II. The Thai offerings, largely unchanged since the '80s, are pretty tame by today's standards. Overall, I felt that Mekong had dropped a notch on this trip. Someone who eats regularly in LA's Thai Town will be unimpressed by the noodle dishes and the papaya salad which used to be quite good but seemed lackluster. The crispy, rice paper spring rolls, once a favorite, seemed a bit over fried and came with a much smaller medley of vegetable condiments than previously. Still excellent, however, are the curries made with island fresh coconut. It is something you simply can't replicate in LA or any other place that doesn't grow fresh coconut. The thick, creamy mouthfeel, the ability to temper spicier ingredients and that pure, rich coconut flavor makes you understand what Thai curry is all about. I'm hoping my experience at Mekong this year represents only an unfortunate blip and not a more serious decline, but if nothing else, we'll always have coconut curry.

Mekong
1295 S. Beretania Street
Honolulu, HI 96814
(808) 591-8841

Mekong II
1726 S. King Street
Honolulu, HI
(818) 941-6184

Tomorrow: Loco Moco, Burgers, Scones-To-Die-For, and Tropical Fruit