Text 23649, 73 rader
Skriven 2012-04-12 23:30:00 av MICHAEL LOO (1:123/140)
Ärende: feb trip report 534
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The hotel is well enough situated that for the first morning
we wandered the grounds (very pretty but somewhat debris-ridden
beach) and just sort of did nothing.

Kalapaki Joe's is on the south side of Lihue, sharing a mall
with several other restaurants and watering holes and a number
of junk souvenir shops and the like. It also has a decent rep
for food. After searching unsuccessfully for a more authentic
and less touristy place, we decided to go with the validated
parking thing and eat here. We were seated out on the balcony,
where periodic gusts ensured that menus, napkins, and sometimes
condiments kept flying about, threatening to land in the parking
lot or the creek behind.

I had the ahi and avocado, a big serving of quite good but very
soy saucy poke and half an avocado fanned next to it. Garnish was
spiral-shredded daikon and carrot. A pretty good dish, not too
expensive. Lilli's pulled pork also seems to have hit the spot.
Kona Longboard is the standard beer on the island. It's acceptable.
The staff were friendly and laid back.

As we had the car, it made sense to see the good parts of the
island, which Lilli had not been to. The good parts are, on the
whole, the unbuilt parts.

Koke'e is the end of the Waimea Canyon road, well past the
canyon itself - it lookes out on Wai'ale'ale, I think that's
how it's spelled, the wettest spot on earth, to the east and
the utterly gorgeous Na Pali coast to the north and west. To
get to the most interesting overlooks one has to slide down
some ankle-turning inclines coated with that red mud for which
the islands are famous. The views are worth it.

The canyon is worth a day in itself as well. It is said that
Mark Twain referred to it as the Grand Canyon of the Pacific,
and there is a touch of that awe-inspiration, though in bright
hues of red and green. Many overlooks by the road, some of
which have widened into parking lots and concreted walks and
places where people sell native merchandise and the local
feral chickens beg for whatever the vendors have not managed
to cheat the tourists out of. The landscape is more beautiful
than the rest of the experience.
--
As eating out is quite expensive anyplace, but here we had
the island surcharge as well, and as we had a minimal food
prep area at the hotel, Costco was a must-see. I don't recall
whatall we got, but Mumm's Cuvee Napa Brut Rose was a real
bargain but too expensive for every day, so in addition to one
bottle of that, for a special occasion, we picked up several
hits of the incredibly cheap Lindemans Cawarra Shiraz-Cabernet
(grapy, a bit sweet, hit you over the head with fruit sort of
wine) and a huge bag of Golden Island pork jerky, grilled barbecue
flavor, which served for several meals (sort of char siu taste).
--
Lilli wanted to take me to get seafood, as she knows I love the
stuff, and I tend to avoid fish places, as she won't eat it, and
she sort of sensed that I was getting wistful for fishy comestibles
especially being as we were surrounded by salt water. Shrimp
Station is a small chain that specializes in garlic shrimp.
For not too much money, you get a dozen very fresh (I believe
there are eco-friendly shrimp farms on the island) and very
medium shrimp in a salty butter sauce with much garlic, and two
scoops of starch, which in my case were rice. The shrimp were
snapping fresh, the sauce was strong as Atlas, and the rice, as
is so often true in Hawaii, was warmed-over wallpaper paste. Lilli
did not starve, having a perfectly respectable hot dog and some
okay French fries for a couple bucks less than my shrimp dinner.
Root beer was fine with, as they didn't serve the real stuff.
Unfortunately, it had caffeine in it, and so I spent a gray if not
a white night.
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