Hilo, Hawai'i

Kea and I went out to Hilo today to pick up some chocolate-dipped shortbread from Big Island Candies. Yeah, it's expensive and all, but so good that we drove an hour to pick some stuff up for our neighbors who've been watching our place and some other folks on O'ahu. The classic chocolate dipped and Dark Dipped Coffee Shortbread are our favorites. They've got a lot of other cool treats but it's really the shortbread that makes it I think--their other chocolates are nothing special.

So we wanted to do more out there than just go pick up cookies so we stopped by Laupahoehoe and saw where the tsunami hit in 1946. We also decided to have lunch at Ken's House of Pancakes. I'd heard a lot about this place--I can't even remember if what I heard was good or bad; it just seems like this place is sort of legendary. The inside looks kind of like Wailana except open air and just less Waikiki I guess. The table set-up was similar anyway.

And the menu was huge. I guess typical diner: burgers, omelettes, pancakes, sandwiches, hot entrees. A good deal of local stuff like saimin and kalua cabbage. There were really too many options. I guess it's similar to the Anna Miller's menu. Anyway, Kea and I of course had our eye on stuff we can't get in Michigan so I settled on the lup cheong and green onion omelette and he ordered the macadamia nut pancakes with a side of Portuguese sausage. The great thing about the omelette was that the default was two carbs on the side--like rice or hashbrowns and toast or something. I can't even remember. However, you could also trade out carbs for two slices of pineapple or three slices of tomato. I think there were other options too but these were the ones that appealed to me. I went with the pineapple, but was a little disappointed to see that it was canned pineapple.

The omelette, however, was pretty awesome--at least to start with. The lup cheong was sliced real thin. And the omelette was very greasy, but at first this was a good thing. It was almost crackly if that makes any sense. The omelette also looked different than any I'd seen before. The egg wasn't smooth but looked like it had been drizzled like batter or something. Anyway, it was awesome, but as it cooled, it was just too greasy. There was also cheese in it even though I thought the menu indicated that cheese could be ordered for an extra charge.

Kea's pancakes were also great although the side order of sausage was almost four dollars! The service was also excellent though. My water was filled constantly. While the restaurant was slow at the time (around 2:30) I get the feeling these are like professional waitresses. Bottom line: we were happy with our choice but I kind of wished I had ordered the saimin afterward. Of course saimin is my favorite.