Honolulu Foodie Adventure

 Ok, so I was just coming off of my Evening in Tuscany and wanted more!  Since we had a trip home planned for the weekend, I started thinking about where I wanted to eat (of course).  Normally I focus on shopping, but this weekend was all about the food!

Akemi and I flew to Honolulu...

Paul was already there and met up with us at the airport.

 Fast forward to the next morning.  After an early walk (I'm talking wake up at 4:30am early), we ate a light breakfast so as not to interfere with all the eating we would be doing at lunch!  Mom got some nice strawberries from Safeway, mountain apple from Aunty Arleen, and we brought some lychee that I got from my friend Debi (Thanks Debi!!).

It seemed like forever before we got to the restaurant!  Mom decided on Prince Court Buffet at the Hawaii Prince Hotel.  Normally she doesn't like buffets cause she doesn't eat that much, but this one was her favorite.

OK so I'm a bit disappointed in myself!  I guess I was so hungry that I didn't take any food pics!? What the heck Sakamoto?  Oh well, you'll just have to settle on my description and what few pictures I did take. LOL!

First off we have Akemi with her dessert plate. Earlier she tried out the fruit tart and I guess that was her favorite.  She went back for several more as you can see.

Made some favors for mom's party.  After we took this picture, she proceeded to collect everyone's cupcake and planned to give it away at her next party.  LOL!  She cracks me up.

We were so stuffed when we took this photo!  I think we made out on the buffet cause everyone pigged out on sushi.  I also liked the oxtail soup!

You can request a birthday dessert for the birthday girl!  Though, I think the dessert on the line was much better.  They have the best buffet desserts I've ever had!  You need to try the mac nut pie (signature pie), fruit tart, and coconut cake.

Since we were so stuffed that night, we decided to skip dinner.  Instead, we headed to Ala Moana to meet up with our friend who was visiting from Japan.  We ended up having a snack and tried out Nitro Genie.  The ice cream was pretty darn good!  We tried the nutella, peanut butter chocolate brittle, and lemon meringue.  I think my lemon meringue was the best!

Who says dessert is not scientific?

 After dessert/dinner, we met up with Ai!  She brought this gift for Paul.  He was soooooo happy!

After our meet up, we headed home.  Needless to say I was so tired.  Mom tried to wake me up several times the next morning to walk and I missed it!  Well, actually I did get up and got ready and walked out to see that she already left.  So I went back sleep.  LOL!  I paid the price later though as I still walked with Paul in the hot sun.  If you know me, Jenny + sun = unhappy Jenny.

So, after a very brief meet up with my friend Linda, we headed to another restaurant called Bread + Butter.  I had heard about it from Frolic Hawaii and wanted to try it out.  It's located where the old Pietro used to be, next to Shokudo on Kapiolani Ave.

Mom and Aunty Jan went early and got a table for us.  I was so excited cause I really wanted to eat there!  On Sundays they have Sunday brunch with endless Mimosas.  We didn't get that but probably should've!  We asked about some of the dishes I saw on their site and they said that theres a different weekend menu from the weekday menu.  Shucks.  Guess we'll have to go one weekday!

So Akemi is up first.  She chose the "egg slut".  Sounds gross right?  Well, its actually mashed potatoes in a mason jar with an egg.  It was pretty good, except she downed the bread pretty quickly.  I ended up ordering her another side order of bread so she could finish her meal.  Paul ate her salad.

 Up next is Paul's Kobe French Dip Pizza.  We later found out it was actually Kobe pastrami.  Not my favorite meat, so I left most of it for Paul.  He really enjoyed it and said it was good with the wasabi sour cream.

Mom ordered the Smoked Salmon benidict.  It was funny cause she was telling me earlier she was dreaming of eating eggs benedict, so she was happy they had it on the menu.  You could also choose asparagus or pork belly (I think).  Mom loved it!

AuntyJan ordered the taro pancakes.  It was really fluffy and tasty.  I loved all the fruit on it- we helped her eat a lot of it.  It was kind of like our dessert.

Finally shown here is my plate(s).  I ordered the Prosciutto with eggs.  The prosciutto was wrapped around the bread and you get about 4-5 pieces.  And they give a lot of prosciutto!  Plus you get salad and two soft boiled eggs.  They said people like to dip their prosciutto in the egg yolks.  It was pretty yummy!  The other thing I ordered but you can't see it is the clam chowder.  It was really good!  It comes with focaccia bread which was amazing.  I would definitely order that again!

Here we are... stuffed again!  OMG that was so delicious!  We are definitely going back there again... right Paul?  My mom was already making plans on who she was going to take there next.

That weekend was just what I needed!  Looking forward to my next trip home.

An Evening In Tuscany

OK, so this might not exactly qualify as a "travel post" but I thought someone out there might be interested in this event I went to this week. I was very excited when my friend asked me if I was interested in going to a Mystery Dine Around Event hosted by the Chamber of Commerce.  I had never heard of it before and it sounded so fun to me!  So three of us signed up and had a girls night out. 

My friend tells me that last year, the event started at the Yacht Club, then they were bussed over to a museum in downtown Hilo, then taken to separate restaurants.  After a special dinner, they were bussed back to the Yacht Club for dessert.  I was amazed that this fun event was actually in my backyard!

So, we all looked forward to this special night... my only complaint was that it was on a Wednesday. But I sucked it up and had a blast!

Before I tell you about our night, let me just send out a BIG THANK YOU to my awesome Mother in law who was our designated driver and baby sitter for the night!  She picked all of us up and told us to have a good time.  She's awesome.

OK now that that's out of the way, we headed to the Naniloa Hotel on banyan drive and checked in at the crown room.  We were then guided to grab our first drink (champagne) and then take a prom picture.  We opted to take a group photo to commemorate the night.

After we got our photo, we headed to the lobby, where they were serving appetizers and more wine.  Now I'm no really a wine girl, so I stuck to white wine.  Here's a couple of the appetizers that came our way.  Don't even ask me to try to identify them.  But they were GOOOOOOOODDDD!

Here you get a glimpse of our prom shot. LOL!

They also brought out several platters of antipasto.  Everyone loved it!

Here's another appetizer featuring my favorite- Hamakua Mushrooms!

Can't have a girl's night without a selfie!

After a few drinks and a lot of pupus, we were herded to wait for the "buses" that never came.  Instead, we followed the crowd to the hotel next door... Hilo Hawaiian.  This was our view of the sunset.  We were feeling pretty good by then.  Good thing I didn't fall down!

We were assigned to go to Florence...

 We actually ended up with people we knew on our table!  But I forgot to take a picture of them.  Next time.  Here's what everyone got... Chiopino (hope I spelled that correctly).  It was very tasty!

After dinner and more wine, we headed back to the Naniloa Crown Room for dessert.  They also had a live band and dancing.. but we were only interested in the desserts!  I had to try one of each...

 After that, we realized how old we were... and how we couldn't talk over the loud music. LOL!  So we called our designated driver about 9pm and waited outside.  I really thought I'd be suffering the next day but I was not sick at all!  I would totally do this again!  If you have the opportunity, you should definitely sign up!