Somehow I wrote this blog post on the plane home from Oahu and completely forgot to publish it! Oops! It’s a little delayed, but here’s a recap of our final night in Hawaii!
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Our final evening in Hawaii began on a double decker trolley. Just after 6 p.m. we boarded a Waikiki Trolley for a ukulele serenade through Honolulu en route to the final dinner of the press trip.
The man playing the ukulele had such a mesmerizing voice and in between the time he spent singing old Hawaiian songs, he told us stories and facts about Oahu.
He made sure to point out historic sites…
And the apartment building where President Obama grew up! 
We were moving quickly, so my picture is pretty cruddy, but his old apartment building is the tall one that is the farthest away in the above picture.
I love island music and could’ve listened to the ukulele and soft singing of the ukulele player for hours. It was so relaxing. I asked him whether or not he had CDs available for purchase and he said, “No, you just have to come back!” His jovial, fun-loving attitude was so refreshing and seemed to be characteristic of the local people we met during our stay in Hawaii.
Both Ryan and I commented on how kind everyone seemed to be not only to tourists, but to each other. Maybe it’s a goofy thing to notice, but drivers seemed to let each other into traffic more and most of the locals we spoke to seemed so genuine. When I mentioned this to the director of the Honolulu Museum of Art over lunch earlier in the week, he joked that everyone in Oahu has to be nice to each other because you’re bound to run into each other again since the island is so small. He said that the whole “six degrees of separation” thing is really “one degree of separation” in Oahu. That made me laugh!
The trolley eventually stopped outside of Café Julia, our dinner destination of the evening, located inside the YWCA.‘
I started the evening with a lager from Aloha Beer Company.
When I went to put my purse down at my place at the table, I got a kick out of the text on the placemat in front of me.
When Ryan saw it, he said it was perfect for me, since I somehow manage to get crumbs and food particles everywhere when I eat, cook or bake. He’s absolutely right and it’s kind of ridiculous how I’ll find a piece of cilantro from lunch or something in my hair an hour after we’re done eating. It’s a gift.
Though dinner was served in the beautiful courtyard location at Café Julia, the meal itself was a collaboration between the head chef at Café Julia and the two chefs behind the pop up dinner duo, Miso and Ale. Apparently pop up dinners are quite popular in California and other places in the United States, but I was completely in the dark and thought the concept was so unique! Just in case you’re new to “pop up” dining like I was, restaurants lend their kitchens to other chefs who are able to “pop in” and use their space to create their own meal for the afternoon or evening.
Our meal included five courses of some of the best food I had since my arrival in Oahu.
The first course included a local farm-fresh salad with Waialua asparagus, MA’O Farms organic greens (we toured this farm earlier in the week!) and Ka Lei eggs in a lemon vinaigrette.
As a huge fan of dippy yolks on my salads and vegetables, this course was easily one of my favorites of the night. The little toasts you see in the above picture were topped with cheese and sealed the deal on this course for me. A winner!
The second course of the evening blew everyone at my table, including myself, away.
The dish included grilled local lemon-pepper shrimp with Kahuku corn sauce.
The corn was incredibly sweet and added the perfect texture to the dish. It was my favorite course of the evening!
The third course included kampachi prepared two ways.
The yellow sauce had quite a kick to it!
The fourth course featured a braised short rib with the most fantastic purple sweet potato. This course was like comfort food on a plate!
The fifth and final course was dessert and involved a fun demonstration from two of the chefs from Miso and Ale.
They made ice cream in a KitchenAid mixer with liquid nitrogen.
The ice cream tasted like creamy gelato and they used it to make a “deconstructed bananas foster.”
No bite was left behind!
When we were done eating, our press group said goodbye to the fantastic women who organized our trip. We spent so much time with them during our stay in Hawaii that it was really sad to say goodbye. Our time in Oahu was absolutely unforgettable and I am so grateful for the memories!
P.S. The Fashion page was updated.
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Julie-
I enjoy your blog so much! I was wondering if you have ever considered applying for sponsorship through a program like Athleta has:
http://www.athleta.net/featured-athlete-faq/
I think that you would be a perfect fit for trying out athletic gear and sharing your athletic adventures in that type of way!
Check it out!
Sounds like a super wonderful way to end a great vacation! I bet everyone in Hawaii is so nice because the weather is too great to ever be in a bad mood.
Looking at all that food is making me so hungry!!
Whoa. That’s, like, LITERALLY a fried egg – I’ve never seen such! Way cool!
WOW…that fried egg!! It seriously looks like the best. thing. ever.
I’ve eaten at Cafe Julia! It was really good! I’m so glad you enjoyed your last day, what a fantastic trip!!
“Dippy” egg yolk is THE BEST salad dressing out there!! Rich and creamy but healthy and you get the bonus of the egg white in your salad as well!! One of my staples for sure. 🙂
I would love to try a purple sweet potato sometime. They look so peculiar. As a big beet and red cabbage fan, I’m all over those deep red/purple veggies!
And I have to comment on the dessert — because flash freezing ice cream is epic and the whole plate just looked delicious!!
It must have been so hard to leave the island after such a great night (well, such a great week, actually!!). 🙂
I need seafood stat. Glad y’all had such a great vacation!
I’ve never been to Hawaii, but now I really want to go! I’ve also noticed how nice the locals are in some other places I’ve been – always makes we want to move there 😉
You can blame the jet lag! better late than never 🙂
wow, that is an awesome dinner! It must have been quite a fun experience to see them make the ice cream right there~!
I saw a link to this on Pinterest and thought you might find it funny, as you seem to be as obsessed with ms. Sadie as I am with my doodle
http://dog-shaming.com/page/3
Im so jealous of where you always eat !(;
I can completely relate to that placemat and the knack for getting crumbs and food particles in miscellaneous places. I am notorious for crumbs or small spills on my shirt. I even had a friend make me a giant bib for a recent birthday. Although I try to be so polite when I eat, food gets stuck to my fingers and then later ends up on my forehead or nose or hair or whatever. My boyfriend says it’s because I get really excited about what I’m eating and I’ll “help my food out” sometimes by pushing it onto a fork with my fingers. But hey, if you’re excited to eat, you’re excited to eat!
I like the concept of a pop up dinner. The food looks delicious.
better late than never! I love how everyone is so genuine and lovely 🙂
Love the idea of the deconstructed bananas foster!
Holy yum that food looks good!!!
Love the placemat! I have never heard of pop up dinners before. Everything looks so delicious!
My husband and I went to the Bahamas for our honeymoon, and could not stop talking about how everyone was so friendly. Though, if we are going off the small island theory, then that’s perfectly understandable, because Great Exuma, we were told, is only 60 miles long and 7 miles wide. Once when we were in a taxi, the driver seemed to honk every 2-4 miles, it seemed. She’d say “That’s my uncle,” or “That’s my cousin’s wife,” or “That’s my brother’s friend.” It was hysterical and heartwarming all at the same time.
Please Julie dont tell me you are an Obama fan?????
Egg yolks, ice cream…I’m in heaven! Seriously, my favorite things. 🙂
The gentleman serenading you was Waianuhea Ah Quin, a Hawaiian historian, musician, and man of a thousand tales. Mahalo for taking the journey!
WOOHOO pres Obama!
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