Roadside food, Facebook & Travel Guides

While I love most of the foodie blogs I read, I never thought I’d be writing one. But somehow today I’ve been musing over an amazing meal I just had, the value of Facebook and how travel can still delight in unexpected ways…

Today’s story started back in December when we were visiting the Tech museum in San Jose with friends; or maybe it started back in 1980 when I first met my friend Steven S. (or I guess we could try to imply causality back to Adam & Eve or the big bang, but I’m not trying to stretch this posting out that much).

First, let me start with the amazing meal I just had. It was at Kalama’s a small shack by the side of the road off the beaten path near Kealakekua Bay on the Big Island of Hawaii. Josh and I had just finished a great afternoon of kayaking over to the Captain Cook memorial followed by some of the best snorkeling I’ve ever done (incredible numbers and diversity of fish). Did I mention that we saw a several spinner dolphins in the bay as we were kayaking across to the memorial? Suffice to say we were already in high spirits. Somehow I find that some of the best more memorable meals are based not only on the quality of the food but the context of the experience. I still remember an A&W root beer float I had thirty years ago while on a bike trip through Vermont. I doubt it was any different, or better than the many others I’ve had since, but somehow having earned it after a long day of cycling up hills imprinted it into my memory better than the others.

The sign for Kalama’s, from the road:


Back to Kalama’s. As a vegetarian, it’s often tough to find good diner or roadside food. I’ve had numerous bad chef salads (hold the ham & turkey), grilled cheese sandwiches, pasta from the kids menu, etc. So I wasn’t expecting too much when we pulled into Kalama’s (the person who recommended it said they served a great mushroom hamburger). Not only did they offer vegetarian burgers, but they suggested I try their ‘special’ – the Spinach Nori wrap. Here’s how it’s made – first they take a spinach tortilla and then put a piece of Nori (the dry seaweed used for sushi rolls) on top. Then they add brown rice, shredded cabbage, some wasabi aioli and your choice of meat (or in my case, strips of the vegetarian patty). It’s then rolled up and the result is truly scrumptious. It’s nice to know that in a world where I thought I’d seen most of the possible sandwich combinations, creative chefs are still coming up with innovative pairings. And, according to Josh, the mushroom, bacon, cheeseburger was also great.

Whiteboard menu with the Spinach nori wrap highlighted:



But, beyond the great entrée, the dessert of shaved ice was what helped make the meal blog-worthy and memorable. Shaved Ice, for those who haven’t been to Hawaii, is the local version of a sno-cone. Finely pulverized ice (with the consistency of fluffy snow) is put in a cup and then flavored syrup is poured on top (most places we’ve been include three flavors in a serving). Josh went with the mango-lime-root beer and I had a strawberry-lemon-root beer combo. I’m sure there are those in Hawaii who can differentiate between shaved ice vendors on a range of qualities. In my mind, they all use the same syrups (although some have more options than other) and similar machinery, so the only way to differentiate is on portion size or ambiance. Regardless, this was a great shaved ice and it was too large for me to finish (Josh was more than willing to help out).

Josh’s mango-lime-root beer shaved ice:


My strawberry-lemon-root beer shaved ice:


The shaved-ice menu:

[Note: a “snowcap” is when they put condensed milk on top.]

And, if the meal wasn’t enough on its own, there was an added surprise. When we asked to use the restroom, they apologized that they didn’t have one, but sent us up the street to the Kona Pacific Farmers Cooperative visitor’s center / salesroom. Not only did the coop have nice, clean restrooms, but they had a self-guided tour of coffee and tropical fruit trees and a tasting room where I sampled (and bought) some wonderful Kona coffee (and also bought some great dark chocolate covered Kona coffee beans and sampled chocolate- and sugar-coated macadamia nuts).

So how did we come to ask Peter from Ehu & Kai’s kayak rentals about a good place to eat? The best travel guidebooks I’ve ever used are a series that’s (unfortunately) limited only to Hawaii and published by Wizard Publications called Hawaii Revealed (they have one for each island). They’re everything I’ve ever wanted in a guidebook – good advice, unbiased views of places and restaurants to avoid, insightful writing that adds history and context to the areas, etc. Every one of their restaurant and beach reviews has been spot-on, and they provide great detail on how to explore some of the more out of the way places, which is how we found out about where to rent a kayak from to explore Kealakekua Bay – they mentioned Ehu & Kai’s and we called them up. Of course, when we got to the bay there was no store with an Ehu & Kai sign (there were no stores period) so I called the phone again and the nice person on the other end told me to meet him at the end of the parking lot – our kayak was ready. In any event, the kayaking was fun (thanks to the playful dolphins en route), the snorkeling superb and when we got back I asked Peter, our kayak impresario, where to get a bite to eat. Without hesitating he told me about Kalama’s, a mile up the Nap'opo'o road (not the road we had planned to take, but it wasn’t far out of our way).

So, once again, the Hawaii Revealed book guided us well. Of course, I didn’t figure out the need to bring Hawaii Revealed on my own… The book was recommended by Laura, the wife of friend Steven whom I saw last month for the first time in 25 years. That’s where Facebook gets credit. Several times over the past year, I’ve ended up connecting with people that I would not have linked-up with had it not been for the wonders (& perils) of Facebook. My first realization of the unique way that FB can connect people was back in March, while I was still living in London and a high school friend that I was facebooked to (and whom I learned was living in Italy) mentioned he’d be in town and we should have dinner. Without FB we never would have realized we were on the same continent let alone find a convenient way to communicate and plan a nice dinner (and, back to the food theme, I even discovered a great Thai restaurant in Kensington as a result of that rendez-vous). In early December, while visiting the super-cool Experience Music Project / Sci-Fi hall of fame I mentioned how impressed I was via my Facebook status, and a few hours later got a message from a former co-worker (based in Atlanta) saying that he was arriving in Seattle in the AM and could we get together for coffee (which we did).

Finally, the week before Christmas we were visiting San Jose’s Tech museum with a friend from college (and her family) and once again I noted in my Facebook status what a great museum it was (Josh and I especially liked the modified whack-a-mole game that was called whack-a-spam). I got a message from my friend Steven’s mother (who I’m also facebooked to, a story too long for even this extended post) reminding me that Steven lived in the area and Steven and I then arranged to meet up a few days later. When we did, I met his lovely wife Laura for the first time and, in talking about our trip, they mentioned that they had spent a lot of time in Maui. As we were picking their brains on things to do, Laura mentioned the Hawaii Revealed guidebook (and gave me her extra copy of the Maui edition) and told me what a great book it was. We promptly bought the Oahu and Big Island editions at the Borders in Union Square San Francisco and the rest, as they say, is history.

So, if you’re planning a trip to any of the Hawaiian islands, make sure you get one of their guidebooks. Here’s the link to the Wizard Publications Web site and here’s the Amazon.com link to their books.

Time for introspection

One of the more challenging aspects of the trip has been finding the balance between the adventures we want to have and the home schooling / chill out time that the family needs. Today is a great example. We’re only on the Big Island of Hawaii for four days and I want to fit in as many of the “must sees” as possible. Josh and Simon, on the other hand, are concerned that they’re falling behind in school (they’re not) and feel like we’ve been doing too much and want to hang out by the pool after a morning of school work. I would have preferred to spend the morning snorkeling, the afternoon kayaking and the evening watching lava flows, but instead we’ve spent the morning lazing around, and will do a swim in the afternoon before, hopefully, heading out to see the lava flowing at night.

Have I always wanted to fit in as much as possible and been disappointed when we don’t get it all done or am I trying to make up for lost time and have lots of adventures / unique experiences while I can?

Like most marriages, this trip has required a lot of compromise and patience. I have to keep reminding myself how lucky we are to be able to take time off from work to travel; to show the kids parts of the country we’ve never seen before; to learn more about each other than we had before (and lots of TMI moments). Instead of looking at all the places / hikes / museums we’ve had to skip, I should try to focus on all of the opportunities that we have taken advantage of. As Wendy always recommends, it’s better to focus on the positives, but sometimes I can’t help but think of all the lost opportunities, too.

When we started planning this trip I thought I would have lots of time for introspection, reading, blogging, etc. Instead I’m amazed at how quickly the time flies and how little we seem to get done / accomplish on some days. I wouldn’t do it much differently if I had the chance to do it over – I would get a larger RV, do more advance planning, spend more time in fewer places and a whole host of other things that I’ll need to write down in a future blog, but overall the experiences have been great. However, I never realized how much of our lives is taken up by the pedestrian – preparing meals, driving, planning cleaning, etc. Even in incredibly beautiful places like our rented condo by the beach in Hawaii, we still can’t seem to get the ratio of interesting / exciting / thrilling to have-to / boring/ everyday more than 20% to 80%. Maybe I need to take more joy in the mundane and/or learn to appreciate that I’ve climbed so high up Maslow’s pyramid that I can appreciate how narrow the top usually is; actually, I think Maslow simply defined it as a hierarchy, but when I look at the time spent on the foundational food / shelter / clothing / sleep / hygiene layers, a pyramid would have been more apt.

Nonetheless, some of the best parts of the trip have come at unexpected moments and not been part of a greater adventure -- like today’s coconut experience. This morning, Simon found a coconut on the ground near our condo. Simon has never liked coconut (or any other fruit or vegetable), but perhaps because this was something that he found, he was very keen to eat it. So, we (all four of us) then spent a substantial amount of time, individually and collectively, trying to get the coconut open. We used a screwdriver and hammer, we used rocks, we threw it on the stone patio. After 10 or 15 minutes of trying, we’d give up and go back to our other projects, only to have another one or two of us try again for an additional 20-30 minutes. Finally, four hours after the initial tries (and with about an hour and a half of cumulative effort), Josh dealt the splitting blow with a large lava rock that was lying nearby. It’s difficult to state just how delighted Simon was to actually eat something he had found. And it was great hearing Josh and Simon argue over who deserved more credit – the one who found the coconut or the one who split it open. And, although I’ve always believed in an “eat what you kill” policy when it comes to salesperson commissions, I’d never imagined the benefits of enacting it as part of family meal planning. Simon is now so excited about the free food that him and Josh have gone off on an adventure walk to find more!

Well, the dishes are piling up in the sink, Josh needs help with his schoolwork and Simon needs consoling about something – as they say, “another ho-hum day in paradise.”

Aloha.

PS – A few readers have asked why I don’t blog more?

I don’t mean to whine but while Josh, Simon and Wendy are writing their weekly (or more often) blogs, someone has to maintain the Web site, upload all the photos, do the route planning and a number of other chores aimed at preventing our adventure from disintegrating into chaos. If you haven’t had a chance to check out the photos yet, I think there are lots of good ones. They’re neatly divided into albums by date / location and are accessible at www.flickr.com/photos/familyadventure and, they’re all geo-coded in case you want to view them on a map.