Oahu Hawaii Food Tour - 10 Best Foods To Try in Hawaii! 🍍

[Music] the Hawaiian island of aahu is one big Melting Pot of cultural fusion and nothing epitomizes this Fusion quite like The Eclectic food scene a little Japan here a little Korea over there a bit of the Philippines on the side a Sprinkle of Portugal over the top and obviously all of this lies on the foundation of the native Hawaiian culture simply put the food scene on Hawaii's most populated island is one of a kind forcefully unique and hard to find anywhere else during our weeklong stay we compiled a list of the 10 best things we tried here they are in no particular order because they were all incredible okay so number one is Hawaiian Barbecue now there's a lot of places on the island of Wahu where you're going to find really really tasty traditional Hawaiian barbecue but the place that we went to is called Bob's Barbecue it's this iconic Little Shack on the west side of Honolulu very unassuming from the outside if you drove past it you wouldn't think twice about it but it was so so delicious just a wide array of char grilled meats and always two scoops of white rice on the side and klaa maybe a scoop of macaroni salad as well that combination is known as the Hawaiian plate lunch and that's very very common on the Hawaiian islands and for some reason it just adds a lot to it I mean you could just have the meat by itself a lot of these meat selections are all you need but just get that little side of rice you can scoop up some of the sauce the co saw is always really good and then macaroni salad I mean how can you go wrong with that as a side Hawaiian Barbecue is pretty eclectic in itself it's kind of hard to Define as one thing there's a lot of different options especially a Bob's they're their menu is just huge and every single option looks tantilizing but the beef ribs really really gigantic and good Saucy Smoky the pork baby back ribs just like classic barbecue then you also have the kyula pork which I think is a really interesting I mean it's it's the definition of minimalism when it comes to food there's essentially only two ingredients to this it's pork shoulder and then it's Hawaiian sea salt and it has to be that very specific type of sea salt because for some reason it just unlocks the flavor and the sweetness of the pork itself this is usually cooked underground or roasted underground we've never like seen that process happen in person but I think it's really interesting how there's there's no spices or any sort of marinade or anything like that that goes into this pork it is just tender juicy sweet and delicious all by itself which I think is awesome it just kind of speaks for itself with the flavor at Bobs they do have teriyaki sauce and a bunch of other things on the side that you can put but the kyua pig you cannot go wrong with that option there's also another place called konos which you'll see a few of those locations I think the original one is on the NorthShore but this place has become really popular for koua pork sliders and um just different plates with pork like koua pork nachos a lot of different options this is where I have to ask a question if there's any native Hawaiians watching this we saw a few different spelling of Kala pork and I'm just kind of confused and curious what's the what's the proper spelling is it like the city that's on the east side of aahu cuz that's kind of what I was assuming uh but we also just saw it k a l UA which I think is what it is on on Bob's menu but yeah not entirely sure if that originated in the city of kyua or if that's just kind of like a fun name for it but kyua Pig kyua pork you'll see it on a lot of menus very very good now if you want to go a different route and go for another Hawaiian staple you can also get Loom Moco at Bob's Barbecue and a ton of other places on the island of aahu loom Moco is so interesting because I don't think I can compare it to anything else I've ever had it kind of reminds me of back in the school days elementary school middle school we used to have this lunch that was sometimes served called salisbery steak I don't know if anyone else is familiar with that but you kind of just think of like a burger patty with gravy on top of it we didn't have the rice that goes along with it for local mocha we had mashed potatoes at school but something about the flavor profile and the texture of the meat really reminds me of Salsberry steak it's somewhere between a burger patty and a steak maybe not as tender as a burger but somewhere between that and you put that on top of the rice the gravy just the rice soaks it all up and then of course a fried egg you got to have a fried egg on top for proper Loco Moco the third option at Bobs that I definitely want to mention cuz it is a Hawaiian Barbecue staple they have cby which is a Korean style short rib it's marinated in a very specific spefic Korean marinade and it's got this sweetness to it I think they're beef short ribs I think that's what kby is specifically but yeah just talking about that different influence I mean that's definitely a Korean influence with a short rib but you also have the scoops of rice on the side that's very Filipino and sometimes with a little garlic in the rice too so it's so cool to see how all of that kind of melts together to create something that is specifically Hawaiian if you do go to Bobs make sure to peek back in the kitchen and just see them charring away it's so so tantalizing just see the meat on the grill they're always just putting a perfect amount of char on it and that's why we really enjoyed it uh it's like I said I mean you you would not think twice about this place if you passed it in the car but uh definitely stop if it's in your way and also if there's any Hawaiians or people that have been to the island of waho before let us know your favorite barbecue places on the island of ahahoo cuz there's no shortage of them and I'm sure that Bobs is just one of many great options okay moving on to number two on the list of the best things we had on the island of aahu spam massui the salty Sensation that every person in Hawaii seems to have an opinion about some good some bad some people think it's a total bastardization of traditional Japanese onigiri but dang it if that bastard isn't delicious we really enjoyed spami and it was perfect for when we were going on Hikes and everything just a really good salty snack to kind of get you through the noon afternoon time and then uh carry you over over to dinner but there's a lot of different options believe it or not you can find some of the best spam mubi at gas stations if you see a 7-Eleven they have really really good spam MBI if you're not familiar with this it is essentially a bed of rice with a thick slice of grilled spam and yes we are talking about the brick of processed meat that that spam became very popular on the Hawaiian Islands uh during World War II before World War II a lot of GIS uh stationed there and that was often all that was there it was something that was very transportable something that didn't uh spoil you could you know had a long shelf life so you could have it there for a while and uh high in protein so that was kind of the thinking behind spam I think it definitely is kind of gross like when you just take it out of the can looks like a big slimy ball of meat but when you grill that thing up and you put some teriyaki sauce on it right on the bed of rice and then wrapped in the seaweed it is really something and we enjoyed it um it was something that people told us we had to try in Hawaii and I know that it may not be the most traditional thing when you're talking about the native Hawaiian food but it is very very good and a good example of something that is just a hodgepodge of influence some Japanese some American you know just just a whole bunch of things the Teriyaki ones were my favorite but they also had a few other ones one of them had Portuguese sausage in the middle and Portuguese sausage if you're looking for another salty snack that was something that was very very popular in a wahoo that we noticed and the funny thing about it we did some research into it and it's not even necessarily Portuguese it's an Italian sausage that was made by Italian immigrants in Brazil and then they eventually brought it back over to Portugal but it did not originate in Portugal but everywhere you see it it's it's labeled as Portuguese sausage it's really good really sweet and a lot of times you'll see like fried rice that has portugu sausage and spam in it a little bit of a sodium overload there but definitely really good option if you're just going for it the one thing I will say about spam masubi that may take some getting used to if you're not a sushi person you don't like that seaweed kind of fishy taste there is a lot of that when it comes to the spam Missi and for me sometimes that can be a little overpowering so sometimes I'd take a little bit of the Seaweed off and just enjoy the spam and the rice itself but it's definitely part of the experience it's got a seaweedy fishy taste to it all right moving right along to number three on the list of best things we had in aahu it was the traditional Hawaiian shave ice and this is something that we were not sure about at first it sounded super gimmicky super touristy and it made us think of like snow cones we used to have snow cones at like little league baseball games and stuff like that so we were just thinking like you know obviously shaved ice and then some of that syrupy sugary stuff on top it was a lot better than that and a lot better than I expected we went to Matsumoto Shave Ice which we heard is the best place on the island to get it it's right in the historic Hala town and it was so so good and I guess what they do is they create their own syrups so it's made from purecane sugar and fruit oil extracts and things like that so it's very natural and even though it is very very sweet it's not something that's completely overpowering and it's not sticky and artificial feeling so we really enjoy that and it's interesting too how they literally do shave the ice it's a big block of ice and then they pat it down into like this perfect circle with this tool that they have it's really fun to watch it you kind of get to see the whole assembly line process at the Hal evaan location so really enjoyed that I got the Lily koyi flavor which is passion fruit uh it's the Hawaiian the native Hawaiian word for passion fruit it's another fruit that's very very popular on the island you'll see it in a lot of the fruit bowls and just as a topping to salads and things like that that was awesome and then I had to try the guava and I had to try the pineapple of course we'll get into those two things later a little bit more but guava is something we saw all over the place in Hawaii it was really interesting they had guava juice in cans which is absolutely delicious it was the perfect level of sweet and then a lot of the barbecue sauces we saw that accompanied the Hawaiian Barbecue we were talking about a lot of those work guava barbecue and konos themselves they are famous for their guava barbecue sauce one thing that caught us off guard the pineapple syrup was blue I don't really know why it was a blue color but it was very good and it tasted exactly like pineapple it was just kind of a funny uh your brain's kind of telling you it's something else but very good pineapple flavor even though it was blue Matsumoto also offers a lot of toppings that you can put on your shave ice and I mean a lot of toppings and a lot of things you wouldn't really expect I guess in some of the Shave Ice that you see over in Asia a lot of times they like red beans on top of it I'm not really sure where that comes from or who decided that that mix as well but you'll see red beans if you want to do that and then there's H condensed milk which you'll see a lot in Asian coffees if you get a coffee on the Hawaiian Islands it's probably got some condensed milk in it absolutely delicious if you drizzle little condensed milk on top of the Shave Ice it's literally just like frosting on top like a really rich frosting really really good and then I also got five Mochis on the side they were pretty flavorless um but it was just kind of a fun little thing when I think of Mochi I think of like a fruity sweet flavor but they were kind of just plain but definitely a lot of options for toppings if you're looking to add a little something extra to your shave ice at matsumoto's okay number four and I have to say this one was pretty memorable for me it was absolutely delicious garlic shrimp you're going to find this all over the North Shore of aahu and I guess there's actually a pretty long history of shrimp carts that would go on the beach and sell people fresh shrimp as they're relaxing and enjoying the waves and that was something we found out after we got there but I'm very glad that we discovered this so you might have heard of the famous Shrimp Truck which is giovanis and giovanis actually has a couple different locations along the North Shore but we went to one that was right next to giovanis called honos and the reason we did this is because there was an insanely long line for giovanis and I guess this is usually the case so if you really do want to try that one make sure that you're planning at least 45 minutes extra to weit in line but maybe even more it's very very popular so because of that there's been a lot of other shrimp trucks that have popped up that just go right next to gvan and I'm fairly certain it's relatively the same thing but who knows if you're a Giovani Super Fan let me know is it actually that much better than honos or is it just the hype and you know the the online presence that it has I don't know but we tried honos we absolutely loved it what's really good about the shrimp is that it's got this sauce on it so you can get either spicy or non-spicy but we got the spicy one it was so spicy I mean not just like a little tingle like you're definitely feeling this all the way through your tongue through your mouth just like taking over your taste buds and it's really good cuz it kind of counteracts the garlic flavor there's a very very strong garlic flavor and you can actually kind of see the little individual pieces of garlic that are on top of the shrimp so just a total flavor overload and then it comes with in that you know Filipino influence style comes with two scoops of white rice and then you'll see a Col saw on the side and it's actually just a dry Co saw and you can pour your own vinegar over it it was so good oh my God that was one of my favorite things that we tried in Hawaii and it's just something that I didn't expect to try there but it was very good I guess all of the shrimp used to be sourced locally now you're starting to get you know with it being so popular and having to keep up with the demand there is more importation of the shrimp but the shrimp tasted fresh to me and the real attraction to this would be that sauce and that garlic and everything that goes on top of it just absolute flavor overload and I cannot say enough about hono shrimp number five another Discovery we made on the island Leonard's malasada Donuts this was something very very special it's a yeast leaven doughnut and I guess it's actually of Portuguese origin so we talked about all these different influences especially in the food so Portuguese would definitely be one of those ironically not the Portuguese sausage but these Donuts definitely Portuguese donuts and so so flavorful so good something about the yeast leavening it definitely creates a very pleasant texture it was really fluffy and really really delicious and of course it's loaded with sugar on the top and it's always with a cream filling you can get a lot of different flavors of that cream filling and I have to say this is another thing where guava comes in the guava was my absolute favorite I think a lot of the other ones that we tried there was a pineapple there was just a plain cream a lot of them were maybe just a little mild when it came to the flavor but I thought the guava one it really came through so that guava Portuguese doughnut was definitely very memorable for me Leonard's is the most popular place to get melis satas I think there's a few more places you can get but Leonards does have multiple locations and they actually do have their own trucks so sometimes you'll just be at the beach or you'll be you know somewhere near the hiking trails and you'll see the Leonard's truck so we're very glad that we made a stop there if you want to knock two of these out in the same afternoon there is a Leonard's and I think it's actually the original one there's one that's located right right next door to konos so if you want to get both of those at the same time that's definitely a good way to go moving on to number six on the list we're staying in these sweets category we really enjoyed the dle whip that's served at the dle pineapple farm so there's a really interesting history with Dole and pineapples and we actually learned how pineapples were not native to the Hawaiian Islands which makes it kind of weird that when you think of Hawaii and a lot of like the marketing and stuff you'll see pineapple imagery and there's a lot of connections to pineapples in Hawaii there are a lot of pineapples nowadays that are grown there but they actually did not originate on the island so something interesting that we learned there but at the Dole Plantation Farm you know it's kind of familyfriendly a little more geared towards kids there's like a maze which I guess is like the L one of the largest mazes in the world and a few other activities and stuff you can do while kind of learning about the dle pineapple company but if you go inside they serve something called dle Whip and it is absolutely amazing we learned afterwards cuz we were kind of thinking it was an ice cream when we were eating it but it's like a dairy free I guess it would be more like a sorbet and you'll definitely notice that when you're eating it it's got a lighter texture to it so it's not one of those like heavier ice creams there's absolutely no Dairy involved it's just pure pineapple Bliss it's so refreshing literally tastes like you're just immersing yourself in a pineapple and very very good on a hot day especially to have a nice thing to cool down with we saw it served at a few other places sometimes restaurants will have it for a dessert and we even saw some places in weiki beach that were serving it but I think if you want the real thing the thing that everyone kind of raves about it's definitely at the pineapple farm that they serve the best stuff number seven moving back over to the Savory category Udan noodles more specifically marami Udan although it's not something that's distinctly Hawaiian it is a great example of the heavy Japanese influence especially on the island of aahu and there is so much Delicious Japanese food if you want really good ramen really good sushi anything like that going to White Beach or going pretty much anywhere on the island you're going to find really really delicious Japanese food but we were really taken aback by udon noodles this marami udon place I think it originated in Japan and now there's a location here there's a location a few other places in the world too it's essentially like a big Buffet so you go in you tell them which noodle dish you want there's a few different options and then on on your way you can kind of pick up whatever you want they have MBI there so if you want to spam MBI on the side you can definitely do that there's a lot of tempura options like crab Lobster or uh different things that are just kind of lightly fried and definitely a great snack to have on the side but no doubt the udon is the main event that's definitely something that's always interesting to me for some reason I always kind of forget about the curry that's used in Japanese Cuisine cuz you think about India and you think about Thailand and there's very specific things you think about when Curry comes up but you don't think of Japan right away but there is a lot of great use of the of the curry spice in Japanese Cuisine and one of these Curry udon bows that we had was just absolutely incredible it's not an overpowering curry flavor but it's just something that goes really well with this thick broth that you have and then the really really thick noodles too maybe not the best thing to have on a hot day which is something that we learned we were outside in the sun all day and our faces were just like beat Red by the time we were out of there cuz it's very hot with all the Steam and it's a very hot bowl of noodles but absolutely delicious and a great example of the heavy Japanese influence in the Hawaiian Cuisine number eight on the list something that has become a worldwide phenomenon and something that Hawaii definitely doesn't have complete domain over but I would argue Hawaii has some of the best available in the world assai evil this is something that originated in Brazil and it has become a worldwide sensation anywhere you go whether you're in Los Angeles New York or anywhere in Europe anywhere that's got kind of like a grungy alternative Vibe you're going to find assai EOL and you're going to find people enjoying assai eols because they're so so delicious but what makes them awesome in Hawaii is that they're using some of the most fresh fruit available I mean a lot of the fruit that you're going to have in your bowl was probably picked either that day or the day before just absolutely as fresh as it can be mango bananas papaya pineapple kiwi I could go on and on about the things you can put in your assai evil but there's two places in particular that we really enjoyed both on the NorthShore one of them is called the sunrise Shack you have to go pretty far far way down it's kind of in the main surfing Hub of the NorthShore there's an area near Sunset Beach and Bonsai Beach that's considered some of the best surfing in the entire world and there's just this little literal Shack on the side of the road called sunr Sunrise Shack you're going to see a lot of chickens and everything going around it very chill very laid-back which seems appropriate for an asai bow stand the prices not as much aoha there you're going to pay probably $15 to $16 a bowl but it's because the fruit is Loc sore so fresh all of that stuff and if you don't know what an asai bowl is I'm sure that most people do but it's got a base of mashed up asai berries that are usually Frozen so you get like a nice it's almost like an ice cream taste to it or not taste but texture and temperature so it's something that's really nice to cool down on a hot day as well we really like putting almond butter in ours that seems to be something that is catching on to kind of a trend with aai bowls so that's something that's a great ingredient you could put in with most asai places you can kind of make your own customization but these places also have their own menu items that they've kind of curated too so Sunrise Shack and Hal Eva Bulls which is more towards the Hala Town itself great spot great spots for acai bulls and Hawaii in general you'd be definitely missing out if you didn't try an asaio in Hawaii number nine on the list it was a place called hola dog it's a little bit off the beaten path in weiki Beach they have a very specific type of hot dog which I think is so fun because we've learned throughout the years of traveling that something that a lot of places have that you wouldn't think is a specific type of hot dog that they enjoy we've seen that in a lot of places Denmark is one of them for sure uh Chicago obviously has their own style of hot dog but Hawaii has their own style of hot dog it's called a hoola dog and it's so different than anything you've probably ever had before first of all it's usually not a hot dog itself it's usually a Polish sausage that they put into the bun I don't know how much polish influence they're actually is on the Hawaiian Islands but for hoola dog it's definitely going to be a Polish sausage so I got pineapple habanero and then also a Hawaiian mustard there should be an interesting mix of things I don't know how it's all going to go together but we're about to find out besides the Polish sausage itself it actually reminded us of one of the things we had when we were in Poland we loved going to this place called jabka it was essentially their version of 7-Eleven and they'd serve these kabasa Polish sausages in inside a bun so the bun would literally like surround the hot dog so that's something that we saw with the hoola dog as well that's that's how they serve it but it's even better about the hoola dog and this is where the Hawaiian influence actually comes in it's served with POI bread so the bread that goes around it is traditional Hawaiian POI bread that's made with Ube so Ube and Tero those are two things you're going to see a lot in Hawaiian Cuisine they're a version of like a yam or a sweet potato I guess the Ube one is very specific spefically from the Philippines but tarot you're going to find in a lot of places in Southeast Asia they're very purple so I think that's part of the fun of it too it's a great taste they have Ube ice cream U tea like all sorts of crazy U things that you can find but when it comes to poy bread specifically PO is so delicious cuz it's sweet and it's got that Ube flavor to it and it's purple a lot of times it's purple with either the U or the Tero so that's always kind of fun to open up the bread if you get like a roll at a restaurant and you see that's poy bread it's going to be a little bit purple on the inside the last touch to the hoola dog is guava sauce and then habanero sauce so you can choose between a fruit sauce and a spicy sauce and they put that right into the POI bun that surrounds the dog it is so delicious that combination of sweet spicy Savory all going on at once really really good it may be kind of a tourist gimmick but we enjoyed it the something that we saw on Anthony Bourdain and I guess they changed their location and then eventually changed their name they used to be called poop dogs which I don't know if that's just kind of sounds wrong for some reason but they changed it to hola dog it is really really good something I definitely recommend trying and then on top of that just make sure you try some poy bread or I could go one further just make sure you try something with terot or Ube in it cuz it's a really really nice flavor profile and a fun color as well okay number 10 on the list the final item on what honestly could have been a longer list but this is just something that's very succinct what comes to our minds the best things we tried on the island of aahu number 10 is just going to be a wide spectrum of breweries particularly the Maui Brewing Company you've probably heard of Kona Brewing which is also I guess originated in Hawaii but now it's distributed in a lot of different places we really enjoyed Maui Brewing Company and then there's also one that's specific to aahu or weiki I guess it is weiki brewing company they have a really good restaurant that goes along with that but the Maui Brewing if you go to the actual location that's in weiki they have really good food you're going to find some guava barbecue there for sure if you're looking for something like that and the favorite beer that we had of theirs was the pineapple Mana so this was a beer that was almost a little more like a fruit juice combination of beer so if you ever had like a redler in Germany or just one of those beers that has lemonade in it that was kind of like that but with pineapple juice the pineapple mon beer was really good it was actually a little bit of a wheat flavor too so it had some wheat beer to it but it was also very bright flavorful and sweet can't recommend pineapple Mana enough from Maui Brewing Company and then talking about the Maui theme just to kind of go on for beer if you're having beer if you're at a brewery another thing that you can definitely add on to that experience is potato chips and in Hawaii Maui onion potato chips are the absolute best there's something about the Maui onion specifically that's just a little sweeter than most onions and there's a very specific company which I think is called Maui style if I remember correctly yeah Maui style so if you look at just in any grocery store or any of those ABC Stores which are kind of like their version of 7-Eleven the convenience stores you'll find in weiki and all over the island you'll find the Maui style Maui onion chips and those were the best potato chips I think we've ever had we're not really potato chip people most of the time if we can help it obviously not something you want to eat all the time but it is such a delicious salty snack and goes well with the pineapple Mana beer for some reason I'm always going to associate those two things together because they have that little bit of influence of Hawaiian flavor with the Maui onion and then the pineapple and the beer that is going to wrap up our list of the 10 best things we tried on the island of aahu it's a very unique food scene there and it's kind of a foodie Haven so even if you want to go off the beaten path and not try something specifically Hawaiian Japanese Korean whatever you're actually looking for they have great Middle Eastern food there there's obviously great places for burgers and a lot of the American food considering it actually is part of the United States you can find anything on the island of Wahoo it's a foodie paradise and we really immersed ourselves in that it was absolutely so much fun a little honorable mention I didn't talk about coffee at all there's a lot of really good coffee in Hawaii Green World coffee Farm which is directly on the way if you're going to the North Shore from Honolulu it's a really cool like a locally grown place you can actually go in the back and walk through their coffee fields and they have a lot of really awesome flavor profiles with a lot of their Blends there's macadamia nut there's coconut you can even find some pineapple there as well so it's a really good place to stop if you're going either to the Dole Plantation or going up to the North Shore there's definitely a few other things that come to mind here and there that we could have added to this list but I think this is a great overall snapshot of the most memorable food experiences we had on the island of aahu but I am sure that in our week there we barely scratched the surface so if you are from the island of aahu or if you know someone that's from there or if you've been there a few times there's anything we missed be sure to put that in the comment section because we actually may be returning to aahu at some point so we' definitely love to hear what you have to say Hawaii is something that maybe doesn't come to mind right away as a food destination but it absolutely is especially if you're particularly going to the island of aahu so we can't recommend it enough and hope you enjoyed the video don't forget to like And subscribe if you did enjoy it and we'll see you in the next one [Music] [Music]

Channel: Max and Sidney

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Keywords: travel vlog, travel, travel videos, hawaii, hawaiian islands, hawaiian vacation, hawaii travel, hawaii travel vlog, oahu, best of oahu, oahu hawaii, street food tour, what to eat in hawaii, where to eat in hawaii, what to eat in oahu, where to eat in oahu, oahu food tour, hawaii food tour, ultimate hawaii food tour, hawaiian food

Id: u26JzdvRc50

Length: 28min 11sec (1691 seconds)

Published: Sat May 25 2024