Author Archives: Jeremy

A Tale of Two Restaurants

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Roy's Poipu Bar & Grill

The view from our table: Roy’s Poipu Bar & Grill kitchen

First, a big mahalo to the friends who recommended Roy’s Poipu Bar and Grill to us.  It doesn’t have fancy enclosed gardens lit by propane torches or even much atmosphere at all.  It lives and dies by its food—which is mind-blowingly good—and the staff’s attention to detail. We wanted a salad, and decided to use that as an opportunity to check out their menu.

Roy's Grilled Baby Romaine Salad

Roy’s Grilled Baby Romaine Salad with Blue Crab and Tobiko

But then the salad, a grilled baby romaine salad with blue crab, tobiko (flying fish roe) and a wasabi parmesan dressing was SO good, we had to continue with the Canoe for Two appetizer platter, which had samples of five of their appetizers. As Cyndi tried each one, she instantly declared it her favorite.  Szechuan BBQ ribs with the most amazing Mongolian sauce, Seafood Moon raviolis with Portuguese sausage, shitaki mushrooms and essence of lobster, Wild Boar Lumpia, Korean Kalbi beef gyozas and seared shrimp sticks that ROCKED.

Roy's Canoe for Two Pupu Platter

Roy’s Canoe for Two Pupu Platter: Left to Right: Mongolian Ribs, Ocean Moon Ravioli, Wild Boar Lumpia, Korean Kalbi Beef Gyoza, Seared Shrimp Sticks

Five-for-five out of the park, and the salad made six, so we decided to try the crab cakes.  Seven for seven.  By that time we were done, but mentioned that we’d be back for Cyndi’s birthday on Monday, at which point our waiter disappeared and brought us back a Happy Birthday Chocolate Decadence dessert, which made it a stellar eight for eight on the evening.  We’ll not only be back Monday, we’ll be looking forward to it until then.

[When we went back, we had a full pupu order of the ribs.  Pupu means “small dishes” rather than appetizers.  Most dishes on their menu were available as a half-order on the pupu menu.]

But I promised a tale of TWO restaurants, so for comparison, I offer up The Hukilau Lani in Kapa’a.  Now I’m such a foodie, and have loved cooking for such a long time, that I tend not to go off on restaurants unless they really deserve it.

Given that, I have one question for TripAdvisor reviewers: “What on EARTH possessed you to rate Hukilau Lanai in Kapa’a as Number 1 out of 286 restaurants on Kauai?”  Continue reading →

Up the Road a Bit

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Coming into Hanapepe, up toward Waimea and the canyon, but that’s for Saturday.  A few hours from now we’re off on Cap’n Andy’s NaPali Coast Sunset Cruise, so we’re just “killing time” exploring for now.

In other words, hours from now, we’ll be off the coast of this.

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By the way, this above is the end of Polihale Beach, which combined with Barking Sands Beach to the South make up the longest beach in Hawai’i at 17 miles, though a good part of it is taken up by the Pacific Missile Range Facility, so it’s not all accessible.

The PMRF is a remnant of the Reagan Star Wars Initiative, and is apparently the most used missile launch pad in the world as they fire off missiles, then try to shoot them down; and they do it from what would otherwise be some of the most sought after beach real estate anywhere.

Spectacular beach, but the accessible part above is pretty much surfers and experts only, as the wave surge, rip tides and undertows (along with the lack of a lifeguard anywhere within 45 minutes) mark it in signage everywhere  along the beach as one of the more dangerous beaches on the island.  And it looks SO inviting.

Laupahoehoe Point

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Laupohoehoe Point Waves

Serendipity again: we saw two guys looking at one of those point-of-interest plaques and stopped to see what it was about. Down below was a point, a lava flow leaf into the sea.  Lau = leaf. Pahoehoe is the ropey, slow-flow lava.

There used to be a town on it when the railroad was used, but the road passed it by.  There are still locals, but the point is a park now.  I have no idea how many pics we took, amidst just gawking in awe, but that was pretty impressive.  You’ll probably see a few more. 😉

Portrait

A helpful fellow tourist couple took this one for Laura. A wee bit windy.