Dinner for 2

travelling with family, meant that DH and I were able to get away for dates. So on the second night of our vacation, we headed out to the very swish 21degrees at Turtle Bay resort. We were running late for our reservation but the maitre d was very obliging. We were led to a table right along the front window and could see the waves of the pacific ocean on the beach. Very beautiful!

I had the entree of Pipikaula Risotto, Green Vegetable Medley, Pea & Mint Puree - the fish was lovely but the risotto not so much. It was somewhat grainy, not what I expected..

For dessert I had the warm apple galette, DH had the trio of creme brulee - Vanilla Bean, Kona Coffee and Pistachio. I am usually quite good with picking my choice of meal, however this time  -DH's meal was much better than mine.

We had a lovely time, but  if we were locals we'd probably choose something that had better value for money.

Japanese food in Oahu

they say that it's good for a couple to have/develop a common interest - M and I certainly have one developed around food. So it was natural for me to seek out good restaurants for our holiday.

After scouring the various food blogs and travel forums -  i discovered that right under the condos that we were staying was a highly recommended Japanese restaurant! We had to try it out, and what a great decision it was. Tonkatsu Ginza Bairin on Beach Walk was this gem. Both times we got takeout for lunch, and they had a lunch special of  organic karage which was absolutely scrumptious.. fried chicken always it.! and all for a princely sum of $11 and taxes. 

shrimp shacks

What's a holiday without good food.. Well as we were vacationing here on the north shore of oahu. It made great sense to check out the famous shrimp(or prawn - as we ozzies would call it)
On the first day - we checked out Romys about 2 mins east of the condo for dinner. As L usually shares our meals  - i went for the safe option of steamed prawns, my MIL had the garlic butter shrimp and M had the egg roll wrapped shrimp. With no other shrimp trucks tested - it was a good meal, albeit a little pricey for what we got.

The next day, we decided to have shrimp again, but this time M tried another truck - Fumi's.
Now I have to say that i much prefer the garlic butter shrimp than our previous night's experience. The shrimp were and deveined,   and the flavours of the butter and garlic were very subtle, very yummy
M had the coconut shrimp - which he enjoyed..  We enjoyed our meal so much that we went back the next day!

hawaii 2012 - north shore

on Hawaii - i love hawaii - a few years when M and i went for our first trip there.. Now i had been there once when i was a child - i still have the photos of me in that hawaiian print dress and the hula dancer..(might have to dig it out and have it scanned)
What's not to love about a city that has great beaches  and warm tropical waters, nice weather year round and friendly people.

This is our first family trip away overseas. We had high hopes of L sleeping all the way there given we were on an overnight flight.. he had other plans. So no one slept much on the flight there.. 2 tired parents and a tired toddler. We were smart enough though to have loaded the ipad with his favourite show - Fireman Sam or AM as L calls it. And that was a godsend for the hours that he was awake.
so here's my tip for those travelling with a sub 2 year old. If your child has a favourite show and you have a portable device like an ipad - make sure you load a few hours of the show on it.
Admittedly despite the lack of sleep, L was really well behaved.

We had 12 glorious days in oahu - the first part to be spent on the north shore, the second down in waikiki.
I had booked in at a condo in the estates at Turtle Bay. After resolving some issues with the keys - we were able to settle in and all have a desperately required kip.

My MIL arrived later in the afternoon and we all headed out in our large Jeep to get acquainted with the neighbourhood east of our location. First stop Foodland for supplies. We then headed back to our condo, and as you travel with a little one, ours has dinner around 5 so we decided to stop at Romy's for shrimp for dinner.. L had at least 3 of my shrimp and some rice. I tasted one of MIL garlic butter shrimp. Which was quite tasty and then back home for the normal routine for L.

our condo is really well situated.. about a 10 minute walk to the beach as we discovered - a perfect little cove - Kuilima Cove that was not overcrowded - which was great for L's introduction to daily beach life!