This post is part three of three from my weekend in Hawaii. Check out part I here and part II here.
I had a wide variety of meals during my weekend in Hawaii. Because school was unable to cover our food costs, I packed some snacks from the mainland to try to minimize expenses. Breakfast was provided and I had a few lunches and dinners that consisted of some of my favorite snacks – Trader Joe’s unsulfured unsweetened dried mango, rosemary Triscuits, granola bars and fruit leather.
Eating on the cheap made me feel great about having one great meal out our last evening in Oahu. Brady took us to a little hole-in-the-wall shaved ice shack called KokoNuts that also served Acai Supreme Bowls. These bowls were amazing and consisted of yogurt, acai berry sauce, bananas, strawberries, toasted coconut and granola – all for about $8. You don’t have to take my word for how great the place is, President Obama agrees!
Even though an Acai Supreme would have been enough for a meal, when Brady found out that I had never had a Poke Bowl, he suggested I check out the nearby Paina Cafe to get one. Roughly, a poke bowl is the fillings of a spicy tuna roll spread over a bowl of rice. For the price of about one roll back at home, we got a huge bowl of fresh tuna. I was over the moon! I love sushi and this was some of the best as well as the most affordable that I have ever eaten.
The moral of the story for eating Hawaii? Go off the beaten path. Below are some photos of the plastic food on display in the window of one of the restaurants in the Hilton Hawaiian Village complex. Are you for real? Is anything less appetizing than seeing a waxy, lifeless replica of what you could have the opportunity to pay up the whazoo for? Needless to say, we were far happier with our Acai Supremes and Poke Bowls!
Oh, and this trip wasn’t all fun and games! I also helped make sure elections for the governing body of the American Medical Association Medical Student Section were run fairly and that the people’s voice was heard. And I presented my research.
But mostly, it was fun and games!
Photos by Matthew Kutz Photography
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