Ets and I wondered if it were perhaps a sign from up high that maybe we just weren't meant to go to the Big Easy. I mean, a catastrophic event that cancelled almost all flights less than 24 hours before you're supposed to fly is not what I would call 'subtle'. Even when we made it to Narita Airport and the flight to Dallas was delayed by over 2 hours, we still got on the plane surrounded by hundreds of people who had been there since the day before. Add to that some of the worst turbulence I've ever experienced and you start to seriously doubt if your well-laid plans were indeed well-laid. But things started to look up. We had completely and irrevocably missed our connecting flight to New Orleans but the nice American Airlines people had put us on the next flight an hour later and even upgraded us to First Class (which sounds nice but wasn't given the plane was only a tiny one). Suffice to say, we arrived safe and sound (even if our taxi driver was a speed freak Haitian) and are looking forward to starting our French Quarter explorings.

Ets and I rang in the new year in paradise. She was there for a holiday and I was there to present at a conference (and a bit of the former).

We arrived early in the morning and had most of the day ahead of us. But tired as we were from the long flight, we only had the energy to listlessly wander around Ala Moana shopping centre. Still, that gave us the chance to get the lay of the land and plan our big shopping trip.

Ets already knew where she wanted to have breakfast the next day. We both read in
various books and travel sites about Eggs 'n' Things which should be an institution unto itself. Famous for pancakes, the restaurant is almost always packed. In fact, we were there at 8am and we didn't get seated until after 9am. The pancakes, for me at least, were okay but what they came with (spicy fried mahi mahi) was what sold me. Meals in general are huge, just like the people, and we found that we were usually fine until dinner time.



Suitably stuffed, we went for a much needed walk around the main Waikiki drag and further into central Honolulu to the Nordstrom Rack for me to buy shoes. We came across a delivery truck for a meat supplier in town and had to take a picture. The sign should be a shirt for the entire Wong Clan. Dinner time rolled around son enough and we went to the Side Street Inn located in what appeared to be a sketchy part of town. Apparently, this is a local favourite being substantially off the beaten track, I think we were the only tourists there. I'd read good things about the food (you will see this as a recurring theme) and felt that it was worth the effort. We went with the waitreses' recommendation of the Aku Poke (marinated raw tuna in chilli pepper water, spring onions, and sesame oil), and the famous pan-fried pork chops. Both very, very good although the pork chops were a little on the dry side (they were saved by the crispy, well-seasoned crust).

 

Labels: drink, food, pictures, travel