America’s Mayor on the campaign trail
Are you Kidding??!?!?
Me?? Calming?? Who writes these silly quizzes I wind up taking???
|
Your Blog Should Be Blue |
 Your blog is a peaceful, calming force in the blogosphere. You tend to avoid conflict – you’re more likely to share than rant. From your social causes to cute pet photos, your life is a (mostly) open book. |
They dun know me vewwwwy well do dey?? WHAHAHAHAH
|
You Are 76% Capitalist, 24% Socialist |
 In general, you support a free economy and business interests. You tend to think people should fend for themselves, even when times get tough. However, do think the government should help those who are truly in need. |
Now this one is a bit more accurate. Just a bit.
No London trips anytime soon
If you’re planning to fly to London on a mainline carrier and then hub out to other parts of Europe via low fare carriers, DON’T!!
The “brilliant” minds in the UK have DOUBLED the tax that you have to pay for inbound and outbound flights, unless you’re transiting through on the same ticket. If your final destination is London or anywhere in the UK, you’re gonna get reamed. So forget the UK! Apparently Amsterdam (?) is the new low fare hub for Europe. Informative article about the new parasitic tax here.
Now what do I mean by “hub out”? To “hub out” means to fly a mainline airline to a city that’s a low fare airline hub. Using that city as a base, then continue flying elsewhere using low fare airlines. Example: I usually fly Singapore Airlines (best flights I’ve ever had!) to Singapore and then will fly JetStar or AirAsia to other destinations (usually KUL or BKK). It’s a good way to stretch your travel dollar and it’s fun too.
Silver Oak 2007 Release Party
One of the advantages of living in San Francisco (The City) is that the Napa Valley is close by. VERY close by. 45 minutes (with no traffic) close by. That means that Wine Country events are within striking range from home. Which means, I wind up going to a lot of release parties…
Silver Oak had its 2002 Cabernet release party today. This will be the last release party at the current facility in Oakville as it was damaged just before last year’s release party and it was decided to build a new facility instead of rebuilding the old one. So my frens and I headed out at 0830 to Oakville.
A Silver Oak release party is when the winery releases a vintage for sale to the general public. Its also an excuse for food, autographs and US$20 bottomless glasses of the vintage being offered from 0900 to 1500.
Since the event runs from 0900 to 1500, there’s a small window of time to actually get here and enjoy yourself before the unkempt hordes arrive around 1200. You can also get free, close by parking if you get here early. We got here around 1000 and immediately began sampling the wine and provided snacks.
Prior to last year’s winery fire, the main building used to be open for viewing with food vendors inside, in addition to the ones outside. This year, there was just a handful of food vendors outside hawking chili, mini roast beef sandwiches and fruit cocktail along with the usual gift vendors.
A very interesting crowd gets here before 1100.
After the event, most people who are already here continue their Napa day by visiting other wineries. We visited Plumpjack, Heitz and ended the day at V. Sattui for a late lunch.
Plumpjack is down the street from Silver Oak and they were offering tastings of two wines and you keep the glass for US$10.00. The red was a 2004 cab that seemed pleasant enough for an everyday wine but had a strange aftertaste. It was a nice place for camwhoring tho.
New this year was a visit to the Heitz Winery. It has a swish tasting room that was recently built and they had a full FREE tasting of two cabs, a chardonnay and a kick ass port.
The nice thing about small wineries like Heitz is that you can discover some neat wines that you normally wouldn’t be able to try because they aren’t widely distributed. Also, the vineyard is usually behind the visitor’s center. Like so.
The end of the tasting day came at V. Sattui which is our traditional pit stop for food and still more wine.
You go inside and buy picnic sets and then you buy cheese and bread and wine and desserts. Then you go outside to the picnic area. Mind the signs and don’t stay that late because…
Then we went back in and bought more wine. I got two bottles of the Gamay Rouge and one of the Muscat. One of my frens bought a cases’ worth so we got the 10% discount! Cool!
As the day ended and the sun went down, it was a painful slog to get back to the City. Traffic. It took so long that I passed out when we left and sobered up by the time we hit Berkeley. Still 40 minutes away! It took a while to get home, but I wasn’t driving!
Silver Oak
915 Oakville Cross Rd
Oakville, CA 94562
Plumpjack Winery
620 Oakville Cross Rd
Napa, CA 94558
Heitz Cellar Tasting Salon
436 St. Helena Hwy
St. Helena, CA 94574
V. Sattui Winery
1111 White Lane (@ CA-29)
St. Helena, CA 94574
Tourist Traps, Waikiki and ramen
My brief visit to Waikiki Beach (5 hours total) over 5 days in O’ahu demonstrates my aversion to known tourist traps. But first, some clarification…
There IS a difference between a tourist trap and a tourist attraction.
A tourist trap can be an attraction that has allowed the area surrounding it to get all whored out with businesses whose sole purpose is to relieve dumb tourists from their money, regardless of taste or cost, because they are there.
Examples: Waikiki Beach, Great Wall of China (Mutanyu Section), Fisherman’s Wharf (San Francisco), Times Square (NYC).
A tourist attraction is an place or item of interest where the “whoring out” that a tourist trap has is either non existent or unnecessary for the place or item of interest to exist as an attraction.
Examples: USS Arizona Memorial, USS Missouri, Diamond Head, North Shore.
I don’t think you can accuse the above Hawaiian attractions of being “whored out” or “tourist traps”.
Sometimes there are reasons to brave tourist traps. In some cases, it’s the only way to visit an ancient wonder (Great Wall) and in other cases, it’s the businesses that are part of the tourist trap area. In San Francisco, the only reason to go down there (if you live here) is that the Wharf has The City’s only (ONLY) In & Out Burger and Hooters as well as the old school seafood restaurants. In Waikiki Beach, there’s a firing range (yep) and several good ramen shops. And like the idiot that I am, I went to Waikiki Beach to eat ramen…
The first shop I hit was on my second night in O’ahu. Ezogiku Ramen is a chain of ramen shops that are scattered all over O’ahu along with the original shops in Tokyo and Sapporo.
Yes, I got the addresses to the shops in Japan and they’re on my “to eat” list now.
After reading about the history of Ezogiku and its Japanese roots, I asked the waitress (who was bringing me a beer, yeay!) what the specialty of the house was.
Waitress: “Miso Ramen”
Me: “One please!”
The miso had that “zing” that we all love in our miso ramen. Or maybe that was a touch too much MSG. But in either case, it was very well done. The noodles were snappy and the scallions were good too. The slice of cha siu was cold, like it was taken out of an icebox and put onto the bowl and the broth could have been a bit warmer.
Many of the customers inside the shop were Japanese and if I closed my eyes while slurping down the noodles in my bowl, I could imagine I was in Tokyo in some unknown ramen shop. Bliss. Until a squad of PRC tourists came in, excessively loud (in both dress AND volume) and hungry. Then when they all got their food, the slurping began. A great sound! Guess they love ramen too.
Ramen Ezogiku Waikiki
2146 Kalakaua Avenue
Waikiki HI 96815
808-926-8616
Warning: There ARE differences between shops that share the same name. There’s an Ezogiku Ramen on University Avenue down the hill from UH. Other than sharing the name, the ramen here was mediocre. I won’t go on further because it was a big disappointment as this was to be my last meal before I caught the red-eye back to the mainland. A word of advice: If you go to a ramen shop and you see the bowls coming out of the kitchen with heaps of bean sprouts on top, think carefully before you order. Too much bean sprouts on bowls of ramen is like maki (sushi rolls) that’s all rice and not enough fish. It’s FILLER!
Run away!!
Sunset from Portlock
Sunset from Portlock, near Koko Head, O’ahu
Final afternoon in O’ahu
When people think of “Hawaii”, chances are they are thinking of “Waikiki Beach”. Waikiki Beach is a very nice strip of beach but it’s also a big money shopping and hotel district along with some of the flotsam that these districts attract.
Of cors, you dun see that on the Beach, lah!
Beeyoutiful day to take in some sun!
More white sands, more people
I’m sure the scenery is better on the weekend. Must come back! Here you get BOTH shopping and beach for those of you who find both to be important…
Aloha O’ahu! Till next time!
Now back to the land of the cold and the home of the wet! Did I mention that I’m flying out on a Red-Eye?!?
Diamond Head and Good shaved Ice
Every place I’ve visited, I’ve sampled or devoured huge quantities of the local food/cuisines I’ve encountered (ramen anyone??).
Honolulu is no different. It’s extremely warm here, even in January when the rest of the states are freezing their collective asses off. And since it’s warm here, shaved ice is very popular here.
Now, you’d think shaved ice is the easiest thing to make. You shave some ice. Plop it into a cup. Pour syrup of different colours and flavours on top. Voila, instant treat AND hydration. But like an In & Out Double-Double, it’s deceptively difficult to make it well.
Think for a minute. A Double-Double is made of of ingredients. Two beef patties and two slices of cheese. Lettuce. Tomato. Onions. Thousand Island sauce. Fresh bun. You can try making this yourself, using the same ingredients but it won’t taste the same. Same thing with the shaved ice thing in Honolulu.
I hiked up Diamond Head today. Why? Because it was there and it was nearby the Waiola Bakery (more about that later). Also, it was just to see if I could still do it.
Mental note: Do this climb before the sun comes up next time! But once on top, the views were worth it.
I think all of Hawaii is about great views…
The visitor facility is inside the crater. That’s what you’re looking at.
Like an idiot, I began this hike at 1100 and didn’t come down until after 1300. In the parking lot, there’s a snack truck that sells snacks and beverages for tourists that didn’t plan ahead and have whiny loud kids. They have burgers, beverages, bottled water. And they offer shaved ice. In a moment of weakness (since I finished my water coming halfway down the mountain), I ordered one. The shaved ice tasted good enough since it was drowned in syrup, but the texture of the ice was like little chunks. Not really smooth but in the condition I was in, it was refreshing enough. I didn’t think much about it until I drove over to the Waiola Bakery.
Dun look like much, does it?
The Waiola Bakery has a bakery on site, through the doors on the left. On the right, they make shaved ice. Back in the day, there were many local, family run establishments like this. Sadly, they’re an endangered species as the local attractions they served (such as the old Honolulu Stadium that used to be across the street) shut down or get demolished.
The menu for shaved ice. All sorts of options.
Besides the basic “rainbow” where you get three colors (flavors) of syrup on your shaved ice, you can get it topped with different toppings or even get ice cream or nuts or fruit inside the shaved ice. I got the “rainbow”.
Here’s a “rainbow”, 2/3rds of it gone!
It was very very VERY good! The ice is shaved finely, unlike my Diamond Head shaved ice. Because of the finer shaved ice, the syrup gets completely absorbed instead of just collecting at the bottom of the cup with the melted ice, nee water. So you get a sweet treat AND hydration! Because it’s hot here and you’ll need it. Just get here before 1830, because that’s when they close!
Waiola Bakery & Shaved Ice
525 Kapahulu Avenue
Honolulu HI 96815-3854
808-735-8886
The Green Door Cafe
It’s Sunday night and normally I’d be watching football. Instead, I was prowling Honolulu’s Chinatown for a place to eat.
But since I’m in Hawaii and Hawaii is two hours behind California, which is three hours behind New York, watching football becomes an early morning thing. Which means that if you can get up early to watch the games, you still have the rest of the day to do stuff.
Generally, the early Sunday game begins at 1300 EST. That translates to 1000 in San Francisco, which means 0800 in Hawaii. The afternoon game begins at 1100 in Hawaii. And Sunday “night” football during the regular season begins at 1500 here. That means if the game ends on time, it’s 1900 here and you can actually do stuff afterwards. Back in SFO, the late game ends around 2100 which means it’s time to clean up and to pack it in for the evening.
Tonight, I had dinner at the Green Door Cafe. It’s a very small restaurant with four tables and one chef/waitperson. I walked by this place and smelled the mix of spices and food wafting out the door and ducked inside to take a look.
The menu changes each day, depending on what’s available to cook and the owner’s mood
Inside, there was a redhead in a red dress who was waiting for a table and her two roommates for dinner. During the ten minutes she was waiting , she wound up with two more dining companions; a friend who saw her standing on the street as he was driving by and myself, for a total of five.
We ordered a LOT of food and devoured it. The Green Door Cafe specializes in Nonya cuisine (hailing from Malaysia and Singapore, primarily) which was not too spicy but with a lot of zing and punch to it. Yum!
There was roti canai, sticky rice, Nonya pork loin, Tai Tom Sum shrimp soup, Malaysian Chicken Curry, mixed veggie curry and fried tofu with bean sprouts on our table. Also two bottles of wine since it’s BYOB and no corkage here! WAAAAAH!
Fantastic food (often referred to as Chinatown’s best restaurant) and the smells and tastes here made miss Singapore (and a certain individual) that much more. Eat! But eat early, they close at 2000 and last orders are taken at 1930…
The Green Door Cafe
1145 Maunakea St.
Honolulu HI 96817
(808) 533-0606
Secret Spots on O’ahu
Many of my friends that travel to Hawaii are snobs, I think. They think of O’ahu as simply an airport as they jet off to Maui or Ha’waii (big island) because it’s “more beautiful”. True, O’ahu is the most urbanized because of Honolulu, but the city is NOT the island.
There are places all over O’ahu that make it seem like Honolulu is a jillion miles away. But one advantage to the City being so close is that these spots are easily accessible, unlike Maui or the other glam islands. These are some of the spots I found by mucking about. In a Roadster.
Tantalus: The drive here is fairly easy. Past the Punchbowl National Cemetery, there’s Tantalus Road. Turn right and go up. Within 3 minutes, the houses will thin out and you’re in rainforest. Within 20 minutes you’re at the summit.
About 2 minutes down, there’s the Puu Ualakaa State Park with a lookout that puts all of Honolulu and a lot of ocean at your feet.
Urban Honolulu with Diamond Head looming in the background
From the right, HNL, Hickam Field and Pearl Harbour
This is the gate to the Puu Ualakaa Park. Please note the sign. What happens after you leave a message?
I hope someone checks the machine…
I also found a lookout that evening near Koko Head near the Portlock, Hawaii Kai area. It’s a cliff that overlooks the ocean that you have to shimmy between two houses and a very steep sandy path gets you here.
If this were in CA, there would be warning signs every 10 feet and a fence.
It’s a little part of O’ahu that’s frequented by locals. Not many tourists come out here, according to a fellow photographer.
Also got photo shoots happening here too.
While I was here watching the sunset, I heard and saw a whale go by, flapping its fin. Cool!
kersploosh
Finally, showtime!
The end to a good day
…a shining house on a hill…
You must be logged in to post a comment.