Continuing the culinary war between Hawaii and Paris, I ventured to Chinatown with the Hickam Travel Club, aka, Renee, Nadja, and Ivy. First stop, Liliha's Bakery for coco puffs (read this link). Rest assured, our stop had an "Asian theme."
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| Upper left, chocolate topped, creme filled puff. Upper right, creme puffs, sugar topping. Lower left, green tea creme filled puff. Lower right, the original coco puff - chocolate cream filled with cream topping. |
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| Ivy helped her mom, Nadja, picked out the puffs. |
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| You can guess which is the green tea. |
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| It wouldn't be Hawaii without pineapple! |
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| Malasadas are Hawaiian donuts .... |
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| ... azuki beans are also found in shave ice .... |
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| .... haupio is coconut. |
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| 10 minutes later, we arrived in Chinatown. It grew from its proximity to the commercial piers. |
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| Nadja has seen Uha while snorkeling. In fact, she swam away from them as they can bite. Their "parrot like beak" enables them to nibble away at coral. |
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| We found exotic fruit, including the Rambutan ... |
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| ... and Longan. Both are native to Southwest Asia. |
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| We found several "apothecaries" ... |
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| ... with the "card catalog" drawers. |
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| Not to be outdone by Paris ... |
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| ... we found haute couture. |
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| Renee noticed this sign along Hotel Street, so named for the sailors who rented rooms during shore leave. |
Do you have an ethnic neighborhood near you? One randomly selected commenter (from this week's blogs) will win a WHY HAWAII RIVALS PARIS gift box. It may include a few trinkets from Chinatown! This giveaway is open to all readers. Comments are open through Saturday, February 11, 10 pm in Hawaii. I'll post the winner on Sunday, February 12.
Mahalo,
Kim in Hawaii
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| We waited for Danno and Chin Ho. |
The Chinatown here is supposed to be the biggest in the US, but I think some people would argue that San Fran's Chinatown is bigger. We also have a Little Italy.
ReplyDeleteThere is a large Aboriginal community here in town. Often when you walk through the park on a Sunday there is a man playing the didgeridoo. It's haunting.
ReplyDeleteIn the city next day we have a section which is Armenian. I have never ventured in that section as it is not know for friendliness.
ReplyDeleteThe city I live in is small and we don't have great places like that to go to.
ReplyDeleteMy daughter lives in Edmonton, Alberta and they have many ethnic communities to go shopping. She freqents the Ukranian shops and the Chinatown shops.
When we lived in Vancouver we frequently visited Chinatown, I love going to different area shops.
Oh how I would love to go here !!!!
ReplyDeleteWe have a sort of china town here it's a whole block long shopping center with chinese restaurants and gift shops. My dad went to one of the gift shops last year for my step mothers birthday because she wanted a Jade necklace and he found a nice one for her there.
ReplyDeleteWhat a fun post! I can see why coco puffs are a new favorite for you. We don't have one specific ethnic area noted as such, but we do have a lot of various cultures intermingled here.
ReplyDeleteThe Haupia Malasadas look delicious!
ReplyDeleteIn past years, D.C. and most other East Coast cities had thriving ethnic communities. Some still exist, but it seems more consciously preservation than living enclaves.
ReplyDeleteWe don't have one large Chinatown here in Houston,
ReplyDeletewe have scattered smaller areas focused on Asian
life styles. You can't drive down a major street
without passing by a Chinese, Vietnamese, or the
occasional Japanese restaurant! Love it!
Pat Cochran
p-cochran@juno.com
Looks like you had a lot of fun! The food looks very good.
ReplyDeleteI live in the suburbs of Philadelphia so there are not ethnic neigborhoods right where I live but you can travel less than an hour to visit Philadelphia's Chinatown.
ReplyDeleteWe have "Little Italy" in downtown San Diego which has several nice Italian restaurants. We don't have a large chinatown here though. I've always enjoyed the one in San Francisco. :)
ReplyDeleteAlso, those chocolate topped cream puffs look sooooo good.
in tn, there aint nothing but southern food rest
ReplyDeleteWhen I lived in Chicago I would visit Chinatown, Little Italy and Greektown several times a year. Chicago has so many different communities. It really is a melting pot.
ReplyDeletegeishamom73 AT yahoo DOT com
i live in a small little town and we have nothing like that. i must come visit! lol thanks for sharing! love the pictures!
ReplyDeleteReally enjoyed this post, Kim! We also have a Chinatown as well, so it was interesting to see what other Chinatowns would be like in another place.
ReplyDelete