Helena's Hawaiian Foods

Previously:

Just Arrived in Honolulu, Hawaii - Stay Hotel and Around Waikiki

When you embark on a journey, immersing yourself in local cuisine is essential.  Embracing the unique way of life in the places your visit will elevate your experience, fostering a deeper connection with the community and culture.  Here in Hawaii, the distinction between Hawaiian food and local food offers a fascinating glimpse into the island's rich heritage.

Local cuisine in here is shaped by immigrants who arrived on the Hawaiian shores later on, diverse array of dishes they brought with them, blending the flavours from various ethnic groups to create a truly unique and beloved local food scene that embodies the aloha spirit.  

While Hawaiian cuisine is more like a traditional cuisine that native Hawaiians consume.  Hawaiian food is a vibrant reflection of the native Hawaiians', showcasing the indigenous people's traditional cuisine prior to Western contact. 

In this post, I'm going to show you the traditional Hawaiian cuisine from one of the famous restaurants, called Helena's Hawaiian Food in Honolulu.

The place was packed when we arrived there nearly midday.  I noticed that Hawaiian people are so chill and relax but service here was attended promptly.  We ordered the complete set menu that comes with kalua pig, lomi salmon, pipikaula short ribs and luau squid with a choice of rice or poi.  I just wanted to try everything when travelling so a set menu is perfect.  The set menu that we had cost around USD 43.  We first ordered only 2 sets for the eight of us.  But then the lady said that set menu was meant for only 1 person.  Oh wow!!!  I thought that was so expensive.  We then added a few other things from ala carte.  

When food came, actually the portion was not that small.  It could easily be for two persons.  For first timer, traditional Hawaiian food could taste interesting.  I'll go through every dish.  Start with my favourite, of course, easy to guess, it is the short ribs.  They are flavoursome and the meat was tender without losing their chewiness.  This is what ribs texture should be.  Not only they are delicious, but I would say that the short ribs here are the best one that we had from this island.  Eat them with some fresh onions, salt and a dash of chilli pepper water.  

My next favourite dish is the lomi salmon.  Lomi salmon is basically diced fresh salmon, mixed with some tomatoes, onions and shallot.  It was refreshing and made a perfect side dish.  Next on the set menu is kalua pig.  This dish is like a pulled pork dish and the meat was just falling apart.  A little bit salty and smoky.

Lets move onto the green dish in the middle which is luau squid.  This is made from luau (taro) leaves and squid and could be some coconut milk in it too.  I won't say I don't like it but I can't say I like it either.  Maybe if I have this a few more times, I will change my mind.  Finally, poi.  It is an interesting dish.  Most of Hawaiian eat poi instead of rice.  This starchy poi is made from cooked taro root that has been mashed and pounded until smooth.  It has a mild sweetness and a pronounced sourness.  For me, this is the least dish from all but I still have to try this otherwise my trip in Hawaii won't be completed.

At the end of dining, the waitress gave us a complimentary haupia or coconut pudding.  Very delicious and a great way to end the meal.

Menu D with small poi USD 43.30

Pipikaula short ribs

Kalua pig

Lomi salmon

Luau squid

Poi

Beef stew

This beef stew was pretty good too.  Beef was soft in tomato base broth with some big chunk of potatoes and carrots.

Complimentary haupia

Something very interesting in USA is their tipping system.  While tipping is technically voluntary, it is kinda expected in here.  If you come in a large group, a group of 6 or more, most of restaurants will automatically be added on your bill which is called large group charge.  Or another way of saying this is forced tips (but you don't need to tip again though, that is kinda you paid tips already, a fixed tips).  Apparently, waitresses or waiters need to carry more dishes to the table.  Weird excuse!!!

Helena's Hawaiian Food

1240 N School St, Honolulu

Ph: +1 808 845 8044

Stay tuned for the next blog still in Hawaii:

Pearl Harbor National Memorial and Historical Sites

Just Arrived in Honolulu, Hawaii - Stay Hotel and Around Waikiki

Let's ditch this icy cold city for a tropical paradise. Around early June we went for a two-weeks getaway and treat ourselves with some sun-kissed oasis and found serenity in a lush tropical haven.  The place that we visited was none other than, Hawaii, babieh...  

We flew with Jetstar that took around nine and half hours direct from Sydney to Honolulu (I heard that Jetstar will no longer operate flights for this route by October this year). Anyway, Qantas is still running as normal.  On the flight, we pre-booked the meal and entertainment which cost us cheaper than buy it up there.  We got the beef lasagna and it was delicious.  So cheesy and creamy.  It was better than I expected to be honest.

 

Our flight was leaving Sydney in the late afternoon and arrived like 5 am in Honolulu.  It could be good and bad.  Good that we have the full day but bad because Sydney time was kinda still midnight.  So, we were extremely exhausted and sleepy.  We bet our luck and headed straight to our hotel hoping that our room is ready.  There were so many taxis on the taxi stand.  It is very convenient if you don't mind paying a little bit more expensive.  Otherwise, you can call Uber.  For taxi ride to Waikiki, we paid $56 USD including tips and other fees.  Not bad actually.

Taxi stands @ the airport

Stay Hotel Waikiki

It was nearly 8 am when we checked-in.  We were soooo lucky, there was room available and we can get in straight away (without paying any early check-in fee too).  We dropped our stuff in the room and grabbed a quick breakfast (I planned to get something from the famous Musubi store near the hotel, but the queue was unbelievable so we changed direction to an ABC store instead).  And free coffee is available in our hotel lounge.  That was enough for morning snacks.  

Complimentary coffee at Stay Hotel

We chose this hotel because of their location and reasonable price.  It is not a 5-star hotel.  It has parking space underneath the hotel; however, it is limited and on the first come first serve basis.  You need to pay USD 45/per night for a car park.  There is coin laundry facility, beside there isn't much from the hotel.  Oh!!!  Filtered water machine is also available near reception.  You can also borrow some beach towels, beach seats and umbrella, but again these stuffs tend to run out very quick.  So, do come early and get them from the reception.    

The room itself is pretty spacious.  There is queen bed and sofa bed, so very comfortable for the four of us.

Duke Paoa Kahanamoku Statue

Right after breakfast, we had a snooze and when woke up again, it was sometime in the afternoon.  Feeling fresh and power up, we went for a city stroll and a hunt for some delicious dinner.  

Waikiki beach

We didn't go too far and stopped in International Market Place for dinner.  Nothing really planned for tonight's dinner.  Just go with the flow.  We spotted this poke restaurant on the second floor.  Bought two bowls of poke for a start.  Then we got more food from Kuhio Ave Food Hall on the ground floor.

Shrimp and salmon poke bowl USD 18.75

Spicy tuna poke bowl USD 18.75

Baby back ribs with 3 sides USD 19 (mac & cheese, potato salad, and garlic rice)

Hawaiian Pizza from Aloha Pizzeria

Let's toast for a wonderful trip

Shave ice USD 8

As we walked back to our hotel, we saw this shave ice from a Korean food truck.  Not from one of my list of places to try though (like Waiola or Matsumoto) but why not!!!  We did not know how shave ice taste, but this first one that we got was totally below standard.  It was kinda plain grated ice with some flavoured syrup.  No wow factor at all!!!  But it didn't stop us to try more shave ice from another store (Shave ice from Waiola blew my mind and made me understand why they are so popular, will be in my later post - so stay tuned all).  

Stay Hotel Waikiki

2424 Koa Ave, Honolulu

Ph: +1 808 923 7829

Uncle Sharkii Poke Bar

International Market Place, Shop 208, 2330 Kalakaua Ave, Honolulu

Ph: +1 808 256 3676

Cheehoo BBQ

In Kuhio Ave Food Hall

Open: Daily 11:00 - 19:00

Aloha Pizzeria

In Kuhio Ave Food Hall

Ph: +1 808 470 3463

Open: Daily 11:00 - 19:00

Stay tuned for the next blog still in Hawaii:

Helena's Hawaiian Food

Airport Lounge in Shanghai

Previously:

Hangzhou

Before our plane departed, we enjoyed a few more Chinese meals at the Airport lounge in Shanghai.  Not many choices but they were spotted on.  Soup noodle was warming and tasty.  Both red bean soup and beef with carrot soup were surprisingly delicious too.  They are simple but tasted great.  They have a huge dining space.  Of course, being Asian, food is always number one.  

Thank you for reading my Shanghai and Suzhou posts.  This has now come to an end.  The trip happened during the New Years break.  However, it takes me a little longer to post them.  Let see you all again in my next journey.  Take care all 💖

Hangzhou

Previously:

Breakfast at Pan Pacific Suzhou

We did a day trip to Hangzhou during our stay in Suzhou.  As I mentioned previously that we booked a van and driver included to travel around for convenient purposes as we travelled in a big group and we have young kids and elderly too.  But to be honest, if you can catch a train, please do so.  It would take faster because going on the road, traffic in town was so bad.  It took 2 and half hour to arrive.  So, we didn't have much time left wandering around the town.  We've got to visit the Pagoda and Xi Lake then had late lunch at one of the shopping malls.  

We have just found out that most of restaurants here in China they close during the afternoon break after lunch time and re-open for dinner.  We were there like 3pm and could not find anything to eat while we were so starving.  Then we spotted this restaurant that similar to three-choices type of shop in most of food court in Sydney.  They have a few dishes ready on a hot bar.  This is definitely what we needed as our tummy was rumbling so badly, no need for us to like order food and wait for them to cook which will take 20 minutes easily until we can eat the food.   

"Don't order food while you're hungry", this idiom is so true in this situation.  Between us 2 families, we gone crazy and ended up with 13 or 15 small dishes.  But no regret because every single dish was absolutely delicious.  Cheap and convenient.  Turned out to be one of the meals to remember while we're in China. 

I bet you all know Heytea.  There are some branches in Sydney too, but we never have gotten to try it.  We vowed that we have to try this in the birth country.  But we made mistake the queue here was even longer and took us more than half an hour to get our drink.  We sound stupid yeah!!!!  They were quite a few people in the shop, we didn't think that would be too long.  Unknowingly, lots of order come from uber, so deceiving.  Anyway, lucky their drinks were refreshing and totally satisfying.

Stay tuned for the last blog in China:

Airport Lounge in Shanghai