The event is all-you-can eat and drink. Stands are set up throughout the garden serving food and all you do is go up and grab. The first stop was a pork adobo fried rice dish. It was wrapped in egg giving it an omelet feel. There were only a few pieces of pork on the plate but they were good. All and all it was good stuff. Right next to the adobo stand was a honey french toast with some kind of fruit topping, I think it was guava. Nevertheless, it was awesome. So there was an omelet and french toast. Felt like I was having breakfast, good start.
Up next was an onion tart. It looked like a small pop-tart with an herbal cream cheese spread with caramelized onions on top of it. Sounded odd, looked odd, so why not? Good thing I tried it because it was awesome.
We moved onto the next section of the garden. First we hit up a seafood stand. Not my thing because I'm not much of a seafood fan. It was a sweet-potato, a piece of grilled ahi, some type of sauce and a ginger foam on top. The foam was...well it was weird. But overall it was pretty good, especially considering it was a seafood thing. That area also had cookies, spaghetti and meatballs, wine, beer, a beef skewer, and a shrimp tempura. The spaghetti was pretty good but the were pretty bad. Cookies...can't mess up a cookie. Wine – good, beer – good, shrimp – not bad, meat skewer - pretty damn awesome.
The next area had some interesting stuff. First up was a kalua chicken tostada drizzled with poi. Yeah...drizzled with poi, that was different. Tasted pretty good because the kalua flavor masked the poi (not a poi fan). Next was a fried tako, skipped that, it looked gross. Then there was Chef Roy's stand. He served a “pepa” shave ice with raw fish. It looked really unique and people were saying it was really good so I gave it a try. Yeah, it was fish flavored shave ice. Gross. Then I had some sort of chili looking dish with a large slice of Portuguese sausage. Had a good spice that gave it a sort of southern feel. It was really good. Then there was smoked meat which was okay but would've been better if it hadn't been sitting out for a while.
By this time I had sampled a lot of food, most of it good, and I was halfway through the Taste of Hawaii. I finished the beer I was drinking and headed to the next area.
I was greeted by free-love music, a liquid aloha stand, and “all natural” food stands. I quickly realized I was in the hippie zone. My nose started twitching and my eyes felt hazy. Have I ever mentioned that I'm allergic to hippie? Anyway, I tried some humus - nothing special, and skipped most of the other “all natural” foods because they were mostly chips or some herbal thing that really didn't look too appetizing. I moved on.
My sinuses cleared up remarkably fast once I left the hippie section. I found a Chinese pork dish with some kind of 5-spice sauce. It was really damn good. Then I found a stand tucked behind a tree serving wasabi braised beef. Not a wasabi fan but the beef was so good it didn't matter. The thing was delicious. There was Indian curry, grilled chicken pesto, duck lumpia, and grilled bbq chicken served on a potato chip. The curry was good, but I think I'd still rather have Curry House. The chicken pesto thing looked like a green crab cake...but with chicken. Wasn't that good. I took two bites and tossed the rest. The duck lumpia was really good. Only problem was it was a hot dish and by now the sun was high and hot. The bbq chicken seemed odd because it was served on a ruffle potato chip but the saltiness of the chip went very well with the sweetness of the sauce. It was good stuff. Jamba Juice had a stand in that area. They offered coconut water combined with strawberry lemonade. It was really good and refreshing.
I crossed over an arched Japanese-style bridge and made my way into the final area. I was starting to feel full but had enough room to sample a few more things. I tried a taro patty served on top of bread. One bite was all I wanted to take. It went straight into the trash after that. There was another braised beef dish that was good but nothing special especially after the one I had earlier.
Then I found the drink stand I had been looking for: Honey Mead. I had heard about this drink. A fermented honeyed spirit. A strong drink with good taste. The drink of the Vikings! I was excited to try it. I approached the stand and saw a golden drink poured over slices of pineapple. Wait a sec...pineapple? I doubt the Vikings had pineapple in their drink. What the was this? I talked to the people serving the drink and learned that it was white wine with guava, pineapple, and honey. I guess the fact that there was honey in it gave them the idea of calling this drink mead, but this was certainly not mead. It was white wine with a hint of pineapple. Despite my disappointment in not getting to sample some mead I still had two cups of the false-mead...hey the advertising may have been misleading but there's nothing wrong with wine.
I had come full circle, my stomach felt satisfied, and there was just one thing left to do: go back around and get seconds of my favorites. Got me another beer, an onion tart, a beef skewer, and a cookie...can't go wrong with a cookie. I finished the day off with some Lapperts ice cream, good stuff.
Back at home we all enjoyed the kanak-attack. My brother lied on the couch playing Plants vs Zombies on his phone. My mom, dad, aunty, and uncle relaxed in their seats while talking story. I lied back in a bed that's set up in the living room and played on my dad's guitar. We basically lounged around the rest of the day like a bunch of lazy cats. It was awesome.
So the glutton-fest comes to an end. Good eats, good people, good times. I wonder how much weight I've gained over the weekend...
Damn you pig ass bastard, translation is I'm jealous.
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