Yes Hawaii. As I was in Canada, and then its west coast it only seemed right to go to Hawaii. There were no direct flights from Canada then so it took me around 14 hours to get there, looping around the States, but it was all very much worth it.
Of course I went to Hawaii, to see its magic, surf, hike and eat great fish. All of which I ticked off with the addition of meeting a bunch of great people, snorkelling with sharks and coming back with my hair two shades lighter.
Seafood
It's what I ate the most and not once did it disappoint. Hawaiian food is also very meat heavy, but that was not of my interest, although if thats your thing there is a multitude of options in that direction as well.
Plate Lunches - These are basically a combination of rice, salad and a protein. Here are my favourite seafood plate lunches.
I sometimes ate in lowkey restaurants but mostly just trucks & little stops like the one below.
Poke - I mean its Hawaii, I ate lots of Poke in the land of Poke, and never was it not good.
In total I went to two fancy restaurants, and had wondrous seafood. The flavours in Hawaii are a fascinating mix of classic Hawaiian flavours with a great influence of the East Asian palette including but not limited to Korean, Japanese and Filipino.
Fruits
There is fruit growing everywhere. Walking past peoples front yards you spot everything: mangoes, oranges, guavas, coconut and papayas, to name some.
Breakfast
I surfed almost every morning and so almost always needed a good breakfast. My favourite of course always being any savoury option on hand, and here it was spicy rice with egg.
Musabi
It would be wrong to go to Hawaii and not go to a funky Musabi place, and this most definitely was that.
Shaved Ice
People are made about it and I do like shaved ice but lean towards stronger, sour flavours. I went to the original Matsumoto shop in North Shore for it.
Hawaii is magic, just magic. Every adventure, surf, hike, swim - all of it, was so wildly special for me.
Shanzé