Maple Garden, Star Garden, and Tamashiro Market

Earlier this week, we went off gallivanting around town (I like that word – gallivanting – reminds me of my grandma who used to always use it).

First off it was lunch at Maple Garden. We were with my parents, two couples visiting from Tokyo, and an executive sous chef from a Waikiki hotel. We had a fun time with this diverse group and the buffet wasn’t too shabby either. I think I did a good job tasting almost everything from the line as you can see from my plate below.

Our friends from Tokyo were laughing at how much I had piled onto my plate – and here I was thinking I was holding back! Anyways, after lunch we all headed around the corner to Star Market’s Garden Store.

One of the folks from Tokyo is an orchid expert and wanted to see some orchids while in Hawaii. And I wanted to buy some orchids for my mom as her Christmas present. She was with us so I basically just told her to pick out her two favorites and we would buy them for her. She chose these two…

After that my dad went on with the Tokyo couples to visit more orchid farms around the island. We took my mom and went shopping around Kahala Mall and then to Tamashiro Market.

We were on a mission to find fresh fish for our Christmas dinner at Tamashiro Market. It’s a small neighborhood store, though people mostly just come here for seafood, as they usually have a huge selection.

My mom had seen an onaga the day before at a supermarket but it was something like $50.00! We wanted something a little more affordable, so after a cruise around Tamashiro’s…

my mom decided on the opakapaka below. Can’t wait to taste it at the Christmas dinner!