Oahu's Chinatown

Playing: Miss You-The Feeling
Reading: Time Vol. 178, No. 5 2011 (August 8, 2011)
I go to all the Chinatowns that I can find because I like to compare and contrast. I've been to the San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York City, London, and now the Oahu Chinatown. This one was actually really nice compared to the New York City and Los Angeles ones, which are kind of gross...San Francisco's Chinatown has nicer buildings and feels more like China than all of them and the one in London, I can barely remember anything because I was so little.

This is probably the most popular building in this Chinatown because it's one of the few with Chinese architecture. According to my dad, this is where all the tour buses drop people off.Overall, this Chinatown was very clean and neat. It was fairly big and expanded over a large area of land.

My family grabbed some Chinese BBQ pork from Fong's Meat Market. The meat was very juicy and tender compared to most Chinese BBQ pork that I've had. However, it was chopped into cubes, while most of the pork I've had has been cut in slices. I don't think that really makes a difference, though.

Poke is a raw fish salad served as an appetizer in Hawaii. At Ishimoto, you can get it in many variations, such as Spicy Tuna or Kimchi. While you're in Hawaii, I highly recommend trying poke because it tastes great and Hawaii is the only place that sells it. Think of it as a sashimi salad.

My dad would always get me a lei, when we came to Hawaii from  Cindy's Lei and Flower Shoppe. You can actually watch the girls make it in front of you and all of the flowers are fresh, so it smells great. There's a wide variety of leis for both men and women. If you want one that'll last forever, they have ones made out of Kukui Nuts.

At Ohana Market, you can buy fresh lichi  and dragon eye along with other fresh fruits. They sell drinks and smoothies there too, including boba. My family got pineapple coconut water instead and some lichi. Both were absolutely delicious and refreshing in the humid weather.

I Love Country Cafe/Bakery serves up interesting flavored mochis, such as banana and guava. I bought the guava and it was delicious, although a tad too sweet after awhile. They aren't that big, but for $1, what do you expect? Since it's so sweet, I doubt you'll want more than one mochi roll. Even though, I only showcased the food in Chinatown, there is much more such as the typical red paper lanterns and the good luck charms that every Chinatown has. There are tons of touristy things too like paper parasols and Buddha statues. If you're looking for nice jade jewelry, then there are stores for that too. Hope this made a decent guide for you, should you decide to go to Hawaii!

Which Chinatowns have you been to? How'd you like them?

By the way, I probably won't be posting because I'm going to be out of the country soon. The hotel I'm staying at says they have free Wi-Fi, but I'm not sure how well it'll work, so I doubt I'll be able to post for a week or so. I'll try to write a few posts before I go and post them throughout the week. Even if I do post, I probably will not have time to reply back to comments.