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| Kauai, Hawaii - May 10, 2008 |
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Other Kauai Pictures:
05/08/2008 |
05/09/2008 |
05/10/2008 |
05/11/2008 |
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Kapaka Road and 56
Hanalei, HI 96714
Rating: Chopsticks of Pleasure
Beautiful views and easy riding on well groomed horses. Just be prepared to be a little saddle sore!
Mike mounting his horse
Mooooooo.
Old Blue
Hey-Keung's horse eating
Inside of a guava
Saturday morning we went to Princeville Ranch Horseback Adventures. We signed up in advance for the 90 minute Ocean Bluff tour for $80 and they asked for our weights and heights so they could select appropriate horses.
After checking in at the main stable, they sent us to another location for our actual tour. Our guide, who was actually from southern Louisiana, informed us that we were the largest group she'd ever led and that most
tours are with just two people. What that means to me is that a standard tour is basically a bargain private tour if you don't need to choose your destination, though I suppose there's some risk of being paired with another group.
We were given a brief introduction on how to control our horses after which we met to our horses. I was given Blue (left above), a larger and older (more stubborn) horse with some Clydesdale blood (interesting since I'm from St. Louis).
One by one we mounted them from a small stand (right) and then we were on our way. Blue was an interesting horse that I would describe as an old codger. He kind of ambled along a bit lazily and sometimes he would just stop and start eating
grass until I pulled him away with the reigns. He also nipped or kicked at a couple other horses too for being too close to him. Hey-Keung's horse (Rudy?)
also liked to stop and snack but Hey-Keung couldn't muscle any sense back into him so she started to fall behind (left) until our guide went to help her out.
There are a lot of cows (right) in Kauai because beef (for eating) is the industry that took over after Hawaii became a state and minimum wage made cane sugar too expensive. There are also lots of guava trees so our guide picked some for us. If you've never had fresh guava, the inside is full of small hard seeds (left) which can make it tricky to eat. You can't chew the seeds or you might hurt yourself so I started just sucking the flesh from the seeds until our guide said that she just swallows the seeds even though some people claim it gives you "mud-butt."
We stopped a few times for picture and when we arrived at the coast, overlooking the ocean and reefs, our guide lined up our horses for a group picture before heading back to the stable. One thing to note, unlike the ATV ride which went through the woods alot, this ride was 100% in the sun which really toasted a lot of us, even people who were wearing sun screen, so be prepared!
Here are some random horseback videos: Horses (WMV, 0:15, 1.9MB) and Cows (WMV, 0:19, 2.5MB).
 Kong Lung Center
Kilauea (Lighthouse) Rd
Kilauea, HI 96754
Rating: Chopsticks of Displeasure
Decent food, mediocre service, rude management.
 Kilauea (Lighthouse) Rd
Kilauea, HI 96754
Rating: Chopsticks of Ambivalence
We took pictures from afar because entering the lighthouse property costs $5.
For lunch we went to Kilauea Bakery & Pau Hana Pizza. Some people ordered smoothies, sandwiches, soup or salad while Ashley and I ordered a medium Island pizza (a hawaiian pizza with chipotle peppers as well).
One little mishap occured when a kid took one of our large smoothies instead of the small that he had ordered so they had to make a new one for us. Once we were situated
at our table, the manager who had rung up our order brought out a pizza and asked if it was ours. It looked like ours so we said yes so she brought it to our table and gave it to us.
A couple minutes later an annoyed customer came in asking if his pizza was ready. The manager realized that she had given his pizza to us so she refunded his money and gave him our medium pizza and
put a second medium pizza in the oven to make up the difference. Then she came over to our table, accused us of taking someone else's pizza and demanded that we pay the difference. Now I can certainly
understand her desire to make up the lost money but she could have politely explained the situation and asked us to help her out. Instead she basically bitched us out which really annoyed everyone.
When we were finished eating, I went to pay the difference. The manager snapped at a couple employees to calculate the price difference but they were too busy (shouldn't the manager know that or be able to
figure it out herself?) so she became flustered and very insincerely said, "We'll let it pass this time, just don't let it happen next time."
I thought to myself, "Sure, no problem since there won't ever be a next time."
After lunch, Ashley and I went to check out the Kilauea Lighthouse which was just a couple miles from lunch.
It was a beautiful view from the scenic viewpoint but entering the lighthouse grounds would costs $5 so we elected to pass.
We returned to the hotel to freshen up and then went to explore some local businesses to find supplies for our grill out dinner at the hotel.
Moloa'a Fruit Stand
Chicu Fruit
Taro Bagel
 4460 Hookui Rd
Kilauea, HI 96754
Rating: N/A - Closed?
We couldn't find this bright pink cafe so it may have closed.
Kuhio Hwy & Koolau Rd
Mile 17 on east side
Moloaa, HI 96703
Rating: Chopsticks of Ambivalence
Nice fruit stand with fresh fruit smoothies but their taro bagel tasted like Wonder bread.
4-1543 Kuhio Hwy.
Kapaa, HI 96746
Rating: Chopsticks of Ambivalence
5 minutes before closing, their fresh fish didn't look so fresh so we passed, but it may be significantly better in the morning.
Our first goal was to find some fresh fruit so we went to look for Mango Mama's Cafe. We followed the directions from the Nuvi which brought us to
the right road but we couldn't find it. Based on the addresses in the area, we found a day care center which supposedly shares a parking lot but we didn't see any signs
for Mango Mama's so I can only assume that it's gone.
We continued on to the next option, Moloa'a Sunrise Fruit Stand. They had a small selection of local fruits and vegetables including bananas, onions, guava, papaya, oranges, meyer lemons, tomatoes and a basket of brown fruit called Chicu (left).
Their smoothies sounded good since you can choose your fruit and juice so I got a pineapple, guava, lilikoi (passion fruit) smoothie but it was kind of sour and I didn't find it that special.
I also ordered a taro bagel hoping it would have some good taro flavor. If you look carefully, you can see some bits of taro in it (right) but otherwise I couldn't taste any. Unfortunately, the bagel itself wasn't very tasty eiether. It just sort of tasted like pretty plain white bread and I suspect that it was really just bread in the shape of a bagel.
Lastly, I bought a chicu because I've never seen or heard of it before. It was about 2" in diameter but I was filled up by the smoothie and didn't eat the chicu until the next day so I'll talk about it then.
After this we went to Kapa'a to look for some local grocery stores. We found one in a strip mall but it was pretty dingy and dirty. They had some kalbi and other asian marinated meats, but they all looked kind of un-fresh, as did their limited produce so we didnt' stick around too long there. Sorry, I didn't catch the name but it's next door to the Windward Market.
Windward Market caught our eye because of its fresh seafood sign. When I went in their selection seemed pretty small:
they only had two fresh fish available, a local Hawaiian fish and some tuna. It didn't look all that fresh to me and it turns out that it was because
they were getting ready to close for the day. They had several pre-packed and frozen seafood or beef options but nothing that really caught my eye.
I wish I had known about it earlier and I would have gone in the morning to get a better selection. Oh well, maybe next time.
So in the end, our attempts to find local food weren't very successful and we ended up going to Safeway (same as Dominick's) to buy all of our groceries.
The one interesting thing was that they had taro leaves so I picked up a bunch to experiment with and try to re-create lau-lau, a taro leaf wrapped pork that I like.
I'll share the results of the barbecue below.
McDonald's Mango Peach Pie
McDonald's Mango Peach Pie
Participating McDonald's
throughout Hawaii
Rating: Chopsticks of Pleasure
Fried pie with chunks of mango and peach. A faint artificial flavor finish so not as good as the Taro/Poi Pie but still pretty darn tasty.
Our last stop was McDonald's to pick up some condiments for grilling. I also planned to pick up a Taro Pie which I'd been raving about since last year.
I was sorely disappointed to see that they did not have it. Instead it was replaced by the Mango Peach Pie so I decided to try one.
Like all pies in Hawaii, it was fried which automatically makes it superior to the pitiful baked ones on the mainland.
The pie had chunks of fruit and you could taste the peach with a little hint of mango.
Unfortunately, there was a slight aftertaste that seemed a bit odd and I believe it was some sort of artificial flavoring.
It wasn't nearly as good as the taro pie but overally it was still pretty good.
Returning to the hotel Mike grilled the strip steaks, ribeyes, corn and sausages that we bought while I experimented with the taro leaves.
I knew that taro leaves have to be cooked for a long time but I wasn't sure if it had to be boiled or cooked in any way.
I wrapped some seasoned strip steak in the taro leaves and cooked them over indirect heat on the grill for an hour.
The top of the leaves were nicely roasted brown so I thought they should be done and tried a small piece.
Within 30 seconds I felt like something was scratching the inside of my cheek and throat.
It wasn't an itching feeling, but a sensation that something had scratched the inside of my mouth with a dozen razors.
I expected my throat to swell up too like an allergic reaction but that didn't happen.
Still, it was one of the most unpleasant things I've ever felt and it grew in intensity for a couple minutes before it started to get better.
It remained annoying for about 15 minutes and took an hour to disappear. I'm glad that I only ate a little!
Next time I'm boiling those things for at least an hour!
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