Day 4 - Sunday

Today I went to Hanauma Bay with a fellow summer associate. She's never been snorkeling so I was excited to show her this snorkeling spot that works so well for first-timers. We got there around 10am and low tide had been at 9am. It was pretty shallow water at first but after watching the obligatory video and getting down there the water was already much higher. The water was pretty clear since we went in the morning. In January 2009 I was at Hanauma Bay at like 4pm and the water was really cloudy, so I was happy to see it was much clearer earlier in the day. There were a good number of huge parrot fish and other kinds of fish, but I didn't see any sea turtles. Oh wells.

After soaking up some sun we took the bus to Kahala Mall Center for lunch at The Counter. This "The Counter" looked exactly like the ones in Palo Alto and Pasadena. I ordered the Special Burger which was a papaya grilled chicken burger with sprouts, tomato, baby greens mix, and grilled onions on a taro bun and I added avocado to it. The chicken was good but I wasn't impressed with the taro bun, it was too chewy rather than bread-like.

Kahala Mall has a Whole Foods, so we headed there for some groceries after lunch. It was really exciting to see familiar foods like my soy yogurt and soy mac and cheese, but everything was so expensive! Everything I bought was about 15-20% more than what it is at a CA Whole Foods. I just missed the bus that takes me right to my house (22) so I asked the bus driver of another bus route (14) if he goes by Kapiolani Park. The 14 does go to Kapiolani Park and before that it goes through a very expensive area of East Oahu which was nice to see, but this bus went on the opposite side of Kapiolani Park than where I live. This meant that I had to walk 1.5 miles home while caring my groceries! By the time I got home my ice cream was definitely soft. Oops.

I was so exhausted after this that I showered and vegged out watching Forrest Gump for the first time. And then after the movie was over it was already past 7pm. I headed out for dinner at Kiwami Ramen. I ordered the spicy dipping noodles with cold noodles. I brought along the book Dune to occupy myself while waiting for the food. The noodles were really really good. Very al dente and just delicious. However, I was disappointed that the sauce was not hot but rather lukewarm, so as I'm dipping the noodles in the sauce, the sauce gets colder and colder. They weren't able to heat up my noodles and they had no hot water to add to the sauce. So admittedly the dish got worse (but spicier) as the meal went on. The flavor of the sauce was good but a little too oily. If I had ordered hot noodles it may have been better. Also, the two pieces of pork were very fatty. In short, good noodles but it didn't quite work all together.

After Kiwami Ramen, I walked around Waikiki looking at the shops. I took a stroll through the International Marketplace which was really touristy with all the shops having the same things. I was still a little hungry because Kiwami Ramen was not very filling and I had had a big day, so I headed back to Menchanko-Tei and tried their standard menchanko. It took quite a while for the food to come out and I read a lot of Dune, but man was it AMAZING. Menchanko is apparently derived from a stew that sumo wrestlers eat. It consisted of thick doughy noodles, shrimp, pork, bean sprouts, cabbage, green onion, tofu, tofu skin, and mochi in a rich broth. And it is served in a caste iron bowl which is super hot. This was absolutely delicious - more so than their ramen even, which I really loved. The broth tasted really clean and light yet hearty. Anyway, it was great and I was so stuffed after finishing it. Considering both the spicy dipping noodles and the menchanko cost the same ($9.60) the menchanko was definitely the better deal and I think I've found a regular spot.

I came home and watched Cupcake Wars on the Food Network followed by Ultimate Cake Off on TLC. On Cupcake Wars they had to make 1,000 cupcakes into a presentation for a golf tournament. (Eeks!) I would never want to go on that show, it would make me hate cupcakes, I think. Ultimate Cake Off was awesome because the cakes they were making were like 500 pounds!

I also watched a Travel Channel show about Oahu's food. If I can, I'd like to check out Helena's Hawaiian Food maybe for lunch or after work. There's also this cool place up in Northshore, so if I make it up there, I'd like to try Hukilau Cafe.

Anyway, work on Monday so need to get a good night's sleep.

Hawaii Kai on Dwellable