I grew up in Hawaii (apart from the first two years of my life), but now, as a college student at Pacific University in Oregon, I spend nine months of the year away from home. Pacific University is home to one of the biggest Hawaii-state student populations outside of Hawaii, so while I'm surrounded by the familiar, I still miss things from home. And that often centers around food.
Why? With a chef-father, I've been around good food all my life. Plus, as a wrestler, having to control my weight to get in and out of weight classes and sometimes skipping meals to do it, it makes you a little food-fixated. On top of that, Hawaii's culinary landscape is of the stuff you can't find anywhere else. You can bet on that five-and-a-half-hour flight home, I'm thinking about where to eat. My first stops are Ba-Le Sandwich Shop, shave ice at Shimazu Store and Mei Sum Dim Sum.
Ba-Le Sandwich Shop makes the greatest sandwiches of all time, so say I. These Vietnamese-style sandwiches take classics like ham and turkey, adds on ethnic flair such as (my favorite) lemongrass or tofu, and exotics such as headcheese and pate, and pairs them beautifully with pickled cucumbers, daikon radish and carrots. Put it on a croissant — buttery good. (Photo: Ham and pate sandwich on croissant. Jen Russo/Creative Commons)
There are a couple dozen locations around Oahu: closest and easiest if you're staying in Waikiki are the Ala Moana Center, Kahala Mall and Ward Centers locations. On the Big Island, there's one in Kona. On Maui, you'll find Ba-Le in Lahaina and the Maui Marketplace in Kahului. On Kauai, there's one in Kapaa.
Of course, you have to have shave ice. But there are many places that have mediocre-at-best shave ice. Shimazu's is the best. They have such a range of flavors it could make Ben & Jerry's jealous, from the ordinary but popular strawberry and blue vanilla, to the extraordinary red velvet, chocolate peanut butter, mojito, kahlua, cherry coke, crème brulee… even durian fruit. You could spend a month trying all of the flavors that Shimazu's has to offer; trust me, you'll want to. And as weird and un-shave-ice worthy as some flavors sound, they're delicious. (Photo: Karen Chan/Creative Commons)
Make sure you apply some sun screen before you go as the line is always long and there is little cover for those waiting outside. Also, come hungry. The small size at Shimazu's is big. The large is about the size of the average human head. The extra large is about the size of a child. (I'm only exaggerating a little.)
Mei Sum is one of the most popular dim sum places on Oahu. It's not only delicious, it's inexpensive. You're not likely to spend more then $15 a person for a lot of dim sum and noodles. The Hong-Kong style dim sum includes pot stickers, pork hash, char siu bao, half moon and, my personal favorite, chicken feet. Dim sum dishes are wheeled around on steel carts; pick what looks good to you as it passes.
Ba-Le Sandwich Shop makes the greatest sandwiches of all time, so say I. These Vietnamese-style sandwiches take classics like ham and turkey, adds on ethnic flair such as (my favorite) lemongrass or tofu, and exotics such as headcheese and pate, and pairs them beautifully with pickled cucumbers, daikon radish and carrots. Put it on a croissant — buttery good. (Photo: Ham and pate sandwich on croissant. Jen Russo/Creative Commons)
Of course, you have to have shave ice. But there are many places that have mediocre-at-best shave ice.