Preparing to go on Vacation, and other Random Musings

Once again, I'm a slacker. I should probably stop saying that -- rather, my problem is that I sometimes have too MUCH to share! For example, last weekend I went to see Burn After Reading and a few days ago I went to see a special viewing of Flash of Genius (thanks Vegas Girl for the invite!). As far as food goes, I've been wanting to share a number of places. After Flash of Genius, we needed to find something that was open at 10 p.m., and I remembered some friends telling me about Kanpai, which is in the former Dixie Grill/Tio's location -- I'll post a formal review later, but suffice it to say that the food is good! I've also been wanting to share some of my favorite, somewhat regular places with you such as Kiawe Grill, Diamond Head Market and Grill, 3 Star, and Jus' Tacos. *Sigh* those will come in time, which I'm running out of.

My primary focus now is my upcoming trip to Florida. Part work, part play. I've been a little bit in denial about the trip. I think a lot of people are like me in that they experience different emotional phases prior to going on a trip. At first it's, "yay! I'm going on a trip!" and countless hours are spent trying to figure out where you're going to stay, which flights to book, and what there is to do in the area. Then there's a lull. As the trip approaches, it's kind of like, "yay! I leave in a month!" but I don't do anything else, and I lose sight of it again. Then I hit a point where I felt like I should be excited, but I really wasn't. And about a week ago, I discovered a special event going on in Disney World, but I kind of put off calling because of the time difference. I finally called a couple days ago, only to find out the event is booked. Boo! I tried again this morning, but still booked. Now I've hit an, "oh crap, I leave in a week" point. So right now I'm working on a packing list.

Why am I making a packing list? Part of it is simply because I am anal retentive. It's in my nature. And I once stayed a weekend in Waikiki and forgot to pack underwear, and I had to go to Ala Moana to buy some, so that was an experience that scarred me a little. The other reason is that I am a sucker for gadgets. And I can't leave home without them. And if I can't leave home without the gadgets, I can't leave home without the chargers, extra memory, and accessories that go with them. So this year, for the first time, my packing list has subcategories. So under the "Check in luggage" category, I have an "Electronics" category, which reminds me to bring the chargers for my point-and-shoot camera, my Zen Vision, and my cell phone, as well as a power strip to plug all of these things into. But that's not all...last year I bought an SLR camera, so I have to carry that on with me, along with 4 lenses, extra memory, and the charger. And of course I'm carrying on the devices, so in addition to a bag especially to carry the SLR and accessories, in my carry on bag I will have my cell phone, point-and-shoot camera, and Zen Vision, plus my laptop and laptop charger since it's a long flight and I might have a chance to charge it while I'm sitting in the airport in Houston waiting for my connecting flight. *WHEW!*

I don't own the gadgets, they own me. And typing all this just reminded me that on Monday I should be receiving a tripod I ordered. Should I take that with me too??? Thinking about all of this makes me tired. Which is probably what set me into a lull with regard to thinking about the trip in the first place!

But, I have to get serious. The planning really does help because I won't be wasting my time trying to figure out what to do once I reach my destination. Of course, I'm not so anal and inflexible that things can't be changed, but at least there is some kind of plan in place.

I'll share more details in a future post, but in summary, I'll be flying into Tampa for a conference. Three of my coworkers will also be attending the conference. I refer to them as coworkers here, but they're my friends too. I feel very fortunate to have coworkers that I am close to and that I have fun with. In a way, it's sad too, because the reason we are so close is that we probably spend more time with each other than our own families and non-work friends! But that's okay...we have a good time together and that's what keeps us sane during some pretty stressful situations.

Anyway, so we'll be in Tampa for a few nights attending a conference, then we are all going to Disney World together (plus one coworkers' husband who will be meeting us there) to have some fun! This will also be a picture taking adventure for me. Hopefully my partners in crime will be patient with me if I have the urge to stop and take pictures!! I'll save the details of this for another post.

My plan is to provide quick updates to my blog daily, but we'll see if that happens since I had the same plan last year and I haven't even finished up those blogs!! Slacker...

Whole Foods

I told myself when I heard that Whole Foods in Kahala Mall was opening on Sept. 10th that I would wait until the crowd died down a bit before I attempted to even go there. But even though I kept telling myself that, especially since in my old age I have grown to dislike crowds, a part of me REALLY wanted to go there. Last year I went to the Whole Foods in Henderson, Nevada and I fell in love with it. We ended up buying just as much omiyage from Whole Foods as we had from the Hawaii-favorite Trader Joes. Also, I just missed having a grocery store there. Although Star Market isn't my favorite grocery store, the convenience of having it in the mall couldn't be beat, and I actually used to enjoy cruising Star Market while waiting for a movie or killing time. They had a fairly decent wine selection there.

As I ranted about on my Facebook page last week, I was planning to see a movie last weekend, not even planning to go near Whole Foods, and I couldn't find a parking stall! It was crazy --- worse than the holidays! Later on I found out that on top of the Whole Foods crowd, there was also some kind of Aloha Festivals activity going on that day. A few days later, on a weekday after work, I went to the mall to go to Barnes and Noble, but I didn't go to Whole Foods since I wanted to get home and go for my afternoon walk.

Third time is a charm...today I decided to go to the earliest showing of "Burn After Reading" (which I'll review sometime soon -- suffice it to say that I didn't think it was all that great), and I had some time to kill before the movie started, so I went into Whole Foods. At about 10:30 a.m. on a Sunday morning, there was a pretty big crowd there, but not big enough to detract me.

I thought I had died and gone to grocery store heaven. I walked in and immediately headed for the prepared foods section. The selection was amazing, and very fresh. Almost anything you could think of that you'd want on a salad was there. The baked goods looked amazing too. And the sushi...the sushi was pre-made, and very expensive -- about $10-$13 for a bento container -- but the quality of the fish was excellent. A million times better than the crap I bought from Kozo Sushi a couple weeks ago.

Then I moved on to the butcher counter. YES!!! Finally a store with a real butcher counter. Safeway Kapahulu has one too, but the selection isn't as extensive. Again, expensive, but the quality can't be beat. And they have unusual items like buffalo. One day I will splurge on an aged rib eye from here. What's amazing about this butcher counter is that they also have fowl available -- I think Safeway only has meat and fish.

I kept moving along the perimeter, since the fresh items were what I was most interested in. I got to the fish. Again, a nice counter. And the poke had me at hello...if I weren't going to a movie, I would've bought some on the spot. I decided that I'd have to come back after the movie to get some. I could already tell by looking at it that it was going to be delicious. No stringy stuff like at Fresh Catch, nice color, ingredients I liked...I had to have some. But it would have to wait until after the movie.

I went to look at the cheeses. Probably not the biggest selection I've seen, but some unusual items that I hadn't seen in other stores. What I like about their cheeses is that the had reasonably sized wedges for purchase. A lot of stores have ginormous hunks of cheese that is just way too much for most people unless you're serving a big group. I thought for the quality, the price seemed on par with other stores. By the way, in terms of a giant selection, I don't think Kapahulu Safeway can be beat.

The wine selection at Whole Foods was quite nice, although I didn't browse that thoroughly. They did have more regional variety than most other grocery stores. I will have to spend more time there to make a better assessment. Again, prices seemed fair on the wine. I sped through the produce section before heading to the movie.

After the movie, I came back and went straight for the poke. I ordered a half-pound each of the ahi limu and ahi alaea at $13.99/lb. I know, most of you are saying that's expensive. Especially compared to the $7.99/lb. I paid at Fresh Catch. Again folks, this is about quality. One of the best poke I've ever eaten was at Ruger Market, which also charges $13.99/lb. But at Ruger, I can see the body of the fish lying behind the counter. And they don't mix the ingredients until you order it, so it's like custom poke. Whole Foods isn't exactly custom, but lemme tell you, it's fresh. The batches they produce aren't excessive, so it's unlikely that the poke on display has been sitting there all day. And who knows, maybe if you asked them, they would custom make some poke for you?

My next stop was the cheese. I'd been wanting to make a salad with romaine, apples, pine nuts, and blue cheese, so I picked up a wedge of Danish blue cheese. I decided to take a quick peak down some of the aisles. While they had some unusual brands, they also have some of the standard brands you'll see anywhere, like Lee Kum Kee brand sauces, Hinode rice, Coral tuna, etc.

Now I'm going to get on my soap box about prices. People say it's expensive. Of course it is...you're paying for stuff that's organic, free range, GMO-free, etc. You cannot go to Whole Foods and expect to pay Safeway prices. And Whole Foods will probably eventually be one of the biggest supporters of local agriculture (and I'm not only talking about fruits and vegetables, I'm talking about beef and poultry too -- I LOVE local beef!). My hope is that one day our agriculture industry will be able to grow so that we become sustainable and will not depend on beef and produce to be flown in from the mainland -- which, I might add, adds to our carbon footprint because of the fuel used to ship that stuff here. If our local agriculture grows, hopefully the prices will come down at some point.

That being said, I'm not defending Whole Foods pricing altogether. When I do shop here, I will probably stick to the perimeter and stay away from the aisles. Why? All those name-brand things I mentioned earlier that you can find in "regular" grocery stores ARE expensive, maybe even up to twice the amount you'd pay at Times or Safeway. Of course, you're paying for convenience. Eventually I will familiarize myself with their products and will know what I can find at Times (where I usually do my grocery shopping) at a lower price. For now, my plan is to go to Whole Foods for the perimeter stuff only, an go to Times for non-perishable items.

Ooh, and one more thing about Whole Foods...there is a truffle counter! I didn't get a chance to look closely at it because it generated a huge crowd, but it looked interesting! They also offer quite a bit of seating both inside and outside the store if you want to eat there.

So, for those of you in town, go and check it out sometime. Even if you can't afford it, you will find something there that will amaze you! I can't wait until the Kailua location opens, which will be the largest one in the islands.

Fresh Catch

My computer situation is a little scattered right now, so I'll have to add the pictures later, but I wanted to post about Fresh Catch on Waialae while it's fresh in my mind.

Fresh Catch just opened maybe a month or so ago in the building that used to be Pizza Hut (you can totally tell that it used to be Pizza Hut, except that it's now blue instead of red). Click here to read Nadine Kam's review of Fresh Catch in the Star Bulletin. She gives it four stars, which is really generous for her, so I expected a lot.

One of my friends described it very succinctly as being like a Yama's (on Young Street), and I agree with her assessment. It's like a poke counter/take out restaurant/convenience store. When you walk in, there is a rack of pre-made bento, which wasn't all that appealing to me. I've seen better. There's also some shelves with other food items that I didn't look closely at, and some refrigerators stocked with drinks. There are also tables to sit down to eat your grub.

The main attraction here is the counter. There is a poke counter and a menu behind it if you want to order meals. It looks like they have some items every day, and each day of the week they have an additional "special" item. Be sure to ask if they have any other specials besides what's listed. The Sunday special is clam chowder, but he also rattled off a couple of other specials that weren't listed like a fried ahi belly and a baked salmon. I really want to try the ahi casserole (you can see a picture of it in the Nadine Kam article) because it looks a lot like the crab stuffed ahi I used to get from Masa's on King Street a long time ago. But that's a Thursday special. Today I had my heart set on poke.

The selections they offer are quite interesting and diverse. They had something that looked like a cross between tako poke and lomi salmon, and they also had some poke that were made out of smoked fish. I had my heart on something basic like ahi limu or ahi shoyu poke. I was a little disappointed in the quality of the fish, based on appearances. It wasn't as fresh-looking as I imagined it being, and not as high quality either. I could see the stringy stuff in the ahi limu poke, and it wasn't as red as really fresh fish is. Although, I'm not sure if they can get fresh fish on Sundays, so I will try again on other days to see if the quality differs. Based on appearances, the ahi shoyu looked the freshest, and also closest to being gone, indicating to me that a lot of people ordered it, so I asked for a half-pound (today it was $7.99/lb).

There was a woman in front of me when I arrived, who apparently knew one of the guys behind the counter. She had also ordered the ahi shoyu poke, but she ordered something called ahi dynamite. I looked at it, and it looked like something that would be on sushi -- chunks of ahi mixed with mayonnaise, what I presume is Sriracha sauce, and tobiko, and a few green onion slices. I thought it would be awesome over a bowl of hot rice, and I did need something for dinner tonight. So I got a half-pound of that too ($10.99/lb). They gave me exactly half-pound of the ahi dynamite, and .48 pound of the ahi shoyu poke -- this kind of impressed me because 90% of the time when I order stuff by the pound, they will always try to give me over the half-pound mark.

Service was friendly too. Not the fastest, but the two guys behind the counter were very nice and helpful. The guy who rang up my purchases knew the lady who was behind me, who I started up a conversation with, and we ended up talking to the guy behind the counter who packaged my food when he found out we were both first-timers to the shop.

I didn't really eat lunch since I had a late breakfast, so I snacked on the ahi shoyu poke when I got home. It was pretty good, but a little sweet for my taste, closer to teriyaki sauce than shoyu. For me it was above average, but I've had better at Yama's and Ruger Market (which is probably the best and freshest, but also the most expensive), and even Foodland.

But the ahi dynamite really is dynamite. I made a nice batch of fresh, hot rice (using my microwave rice cooker and my expensive rice that I thought was Japanese but is actually produced in California that I bought before the rice prices skyrocketed) and put a generous serving in a bowl. I sprinkled furikake over the rice, then topped it with not quite all of my ahi dynamite, then I sprinkled some additional green onions on it. It is an awesome meal! By itself, the ahi dynamite is pretty spicy. It's still spicy with the rice, but the rice tames it a bit. But be sure to have a glass of water on hand when you're eating it.

While I wasn't as impressed as I thought I would be with Fresh Catch, I haven't tried enough stuff to form a solid opinion of it. And I was impressed enough to want to go back and try other things. My only slight disappointment was the quality of the fish used in the poke. Hopefully I will be able to go back on Thursday for the ahi casserole, and maybe the fish in the poke will be a little fresher.

Their posted hours are 8:00 a.m. to 7:30 p.m., except for Sundays when they close at 5:00 p.m., and they are closed all day Wednesday. (I heard that they will instead be closed on Mondays instead of Wednesdays.)

Vicky Cristina Barcelona

This afternoon I went to see Vicky Cristina Barcelona. Based on previous reactions, I'm guessing most of you have never heard of it. It's a Woody Allen film that I had seen in some movie trailers, and I think I may have also read about it in a magazine. It seemed interesting, so I selected it as my movie of the week, and it didn't disappoint.

In simplistic terms, this movie is probably best described as a romantic comedy. My take on it is that it's a movie about love, and how everyone has a different interpretation of what "love" is and what they're willing to do to find true love.

The story begins with Vicky (Rebecca Hall) and Cristina (Scarlett Johansson), two friends on their way to Barcelona for the summer. The movie is narrated, which some people may find annoying, but I thought it added to the movie's charm. The narration begins by explaining that Vicky and Cristina have very different views on love, Vicky being very practical and Cristina being more spontaneous and unsure of how she really feels. Vicky is engaged to someone who will provide her security, but is otherwise seemingly boring. They are staying with a relative of Vicky's, Judy (Patricia Clarkson) and her husband Mark (Kevin Dunn), who have what seems to be a perfect life in a beautiful home.

The adventure starts when Vicky and Cristina go to an art exhibit and Cristina is immediately enamoured with a man in a red shirt, who Judy explains is a painter who had a tumultuous relationship with his ex-wife. After the event at the art gallery, Vicky and Cristina are having dinner when they spot the painter, Juan Antonio (Javier Bardem), and he approaches them. Basically, he propositions them. He says he is going to another city for the weekend and invites Vicky and Cristina to go with them. Vicky immediately rebuffs his advances and his invitation, while Cristina is intrigued. They end up accompanying Juan Antonio.

It is from this point on that the story takes some twists and turns. Suffice it to say that both Vicky and Cristina have different types of encounters with Juan Antonio. For a while, Cristina and Juan Antonio seem to have a pretty good thing going. Until Juan Antonio's ex-wife, Maria Elena (Penelope Cruz), shows up, then all hell breaks loose. Really, it's not an exaggeration. In my opinion, Penelope Cruz stole the show. She was feisty and hilarious, and her exchanges with Juan Antonio were priceless. Those scenes alone were worth going to see the movie.

I'm not sure the movie ended the way I wanted it to, although I really can't imagine any other ending. I think it ended the way it probably should have.

One thing I appreciated about this movie was that it made good use of all of the characters, and I felt satisfied that their stories were told to their fullest. I've seen some movies recently where I felt like some of the characters were underdeveloped, so it was nice to feel "complete" walking out of the theater.

Vicky Cristina Barcelona is a great way to spend a couple of hours if you want to laugh and have a good time. While this is probably on the "chick flick" side of the movie spectrum, I hope men aren't turned off. The humor should appeal to just about everyone, and the men will probably also enjoy the women in this movie. And again, Penelope Cruz is terrific in her role as the somewhat psychotic ex.

Coming up next weekend (if all goes as planned): Burn After Reading.

Facebook and Finding Long Lost Friends

I think this blog template is a little too pink...I might have to change that after I post this.

Anyway, I was reminded today that I never followed up on my class reunion. It was held at the Koolau Golf Club about a month ago. I went with my gal pals, the ones I met in intermediate school and still hang out with til this day. I should note that one of these gal pals, who I'll call Elastagirl, is actually a year younger than me, but she hung out with us more than she did people in her class, so we invited her as our guest. We met The Stuff Guy (TSG) there and grabbed a table. The atmosphere was casual, which was nice. It was in a place called "Honeys," a place I presume is normally some kind of a restaurant. $25 got us heavy pupus, which was actually a pretty decent meal -- except there was no rice, which was odd considering that mac salad was one of the dishes. No host bar.

The drinks here were kind of pricey, which was probably a good thing since it helped to control how much I drank. I decided to limit myself to two drinks, in part because at some point I would have to drive from my friends house in Kailua to my house in town, and in part because I got plastered at my 10th reunion and had to have a friend drive me home.

Although I always enjoy seeing old friends and finding out what's going on in everyone's lives, this reunion wasn't as much fun as the 10th. I think part of it was that I wasn't involved in any of the planning, which is one of my "things." I'm pretty sure anyone who has known me fairly well at any point in my life, including now, will tell you that I was always involved in organizing or planning something. Nonetheless, it was still a somewhat eventful evening.

People seemed to hang out with their old high school cliques. I didn't socialize nearly as much as I did at the 10th, although I did speak to a couple of people that weren't part of my high school social circle. I was able to socialize with those I was most interested in catching up with, like our class president. At our 10th reunion, she had 3 children and said she and her husband wanted a total of 6...and they obtained their goal!

Ooh, and there were also door prizes, so that was cool. I won a $10 Starbucks gift card and a bag.

There were a few surprises in store for me. The first one was seeing a guy I had a love-hate relationship with in high school. I think the last time I saw him was probably about 18 years ago. He was literally the only person I knew in high school that I did not recognize at the reunion. I only knew it was him by looking at his name tag. So it was nice catching up with him in a civilized manner. The other surprise is one of the long-lost friends I got back in touch with earlier this year. He was supposed to return to the mainland before the reunion, but managed to stick around to attend.

It ended up being a fairly early night since we got kicked out of the place sometime around 10:30. Some people were going to head off to a bar in Kailua to continue the party, but my group chose to go home.

So what do I do when I go home? What I do practically every night...I log on to GMail and do other stuff on the computer. And who do I find also on GMail? TSG. Remember when people used to call each other on the phone? Although I had a number of people in the intermediate, high school, and early college days calling me, usually because they needed someone to talk to and I kind of became the Charlie Brown psychiatrist, I was never really much of a phone-talker. I always liked writing better, so GMail chat is great for me. Plus you can walk away if you need to and come back to the conversation when you're ready. Anyway, I'm getting side-tracked...my point is that TSG and I were chatting, and then I got Elastagirl to sign up for GMail since she and I were e-mailing each other back and forth at the same time. That way we could group chat.

Then Elastagirl sends me a link to the Facebook page she just signed up for. I look at it and immediately dismiss it as a Myspace-kinda-thing that I have no interest in doing. I'm telling TSG about it and commented that I can't even keep up with my own blog, why would I want to do Facebook? But I sign up mainly to look at Elastagirl's page. Then Facebook ends up "finding" people I know! Cool! So I add them as friends too. Now, one month later, I'm up to 45 friends and I spend time on it every day while I'm doing other stuff on the computer.

I've been questioned about "what's so great about Facebook." I have nothing else to compare it to, so I can't tell you whether it's "better" than MySpace, but I can tell you that Facebook can be used for many purposes and those on Facebook have a great deal of control over what they want to share on their pages and who they want to share it with. I've seen people use it primarily as a source of advertising for their business or cause, and some people who just use it for plain ol' fun, which is me.

It's also been a great tool to reconnect with people who seemingly dropped off the face of the earth. For example, I found a couple of high school classmates that I don't think I've seen or heard much of since high school, but I was curious about, especially after the reunion. I was actually amazed that they remembered me...or perhaps they're just not very discerning about who they add as "friends" on Facebook. =) I've also been able to reconnect with people who have moved and I haven't heard from in over 10 years.

Ironically, I don't necessarily chat or otherwise communicate with some of these people, but it's fun to look at their Facebook pages and see how their personalities are reflected through the content of the page. Some pages don't really have much on them, but others have all kinds of stuff like what their favorite tv shows, movies, and music are. I also really enjoy looking at the pictures people have on their pages. I try to find what I enjoy looking at on other people's pages and add those features to my own page.

Facebook has also helped me to develop relationships with people I know through work. There are people in my building who I have as Facebook friends that I have probably chatted with more on Facebook than I have in person! I also get to see a more personal side of these people than I would at work. It's nice to find something in common with people I work with, other than work.

I guess I really shouldn't be surprised that I ended up liking Facebook so much. Like I said, I was never much of a "talker" (believe it or not...I know some of my friends are laughing at that comment and saying, "yeah, right!"), and as soon as I learned about chat rooms, like Interact way back in the early 90s, as well as other discussion boards, I was in them. Facebook allows you to keep in touch with others as time allows and in the manner you're comfortable with.

So, if you're interested in keeping in touch with your current friends, or maybe finding some long lost friends, check out Facebook. But beware...you could become an addict like I have.

Longhi's

Last Wednesday I had lunch at Longhi's with several of my coworkers. I had been there twice before, once for my birthday a REALLY long time ago shortly after it first opened, and about three years ago for a holiday dinner with a couple of friends. This was my first time having lunch there.If you've never been to Longhi's before, the first thing you should be warned about is that they don't have rice. At all. For me, it's not that big a deal. I'm not the type that needs to have rice with every meal. But if you are that type, you may have some issues with Longhi's. But get over it, because it's worth going there even if they don't have rice.

First of all, the atmosphere is somewhat casual. You don't need to be super-dressed up to eat here. At lunch, a number of people were wearing shorts. Some, like us, appeared to be taking a break from work. I like this because the food is upscale, but the atmosphere and service are down to earth. Also, you can't beat the view. It was a gorgeous day...

On to the food...two of us shared a half-portion Longhi Longhi salad, which is essentially a Caesar salad. The croutons on this salad were amazing! They appeared to have herbs in them and were freshly prepared. They also served us some very yummy bread, kind of like bread sticks -- one had a marinara-like sauce on it, the other jalapenos, and both were covered with cheese.

Making a decision on an entree was difficult because of the many tempting choices. Our waiter immediately tried to sell us on the fish, a house special. Although his description of the fish was tempting, the veal scallopini caught my eye since I rarely get to eat veal. There are four different preparations available: picatta, marsala, parmesan, and Mediterranean. I immediately had my heart set on the picatta. My other friend also had her eye on the picatta, but she was curious about the Mediterranean preparation. Our other two dining mates both wanted the fish. When our waiter described the fish, he said it was served over a piece of garlic toast. However, it was unclear whether the veal was served with pasta or some other kind of starch. We asked, and he explained that "they" (the powers that be -- he actually seemed quite apologetic and not really understanding of the logic behind this) believe the veal should be served alone, but that he could have some pasta served on the side. He said we could get any type of pasta that they had available, and that one side order should suffice for two people. My fellow veal-eater and I ordered a side of cappelini (angel hair) to share.

We all enjoyed our meals immensely. We each tasted each others dishes and everything was equally delicious. The fish was cooked to perfection, and the garlic toast, seemingly a strange partner for the fish, was quite good -- although it was clearly a heart attack-inducing piece of goodness. Both of the veal dishes were excellent. I loved the picatta, and I piled a mound of the pasta on my dish to absorb the sauce. My friend did the same with her Mediterranean veal. The Mediterranean had a bit of a kick to it, but it was quite tasty and not overpowering.

I feel that the portions served here are "right-sized." I really believe that too many restaurants serve portions that are way too huge, unless you plan to share one dish between two people. That creates a lot of waste, not to mention obesity, but that's a topic for another soap box. Anyway, for me the portion is just right.

Although the portion was "just right" and I was pretty full after the entree, dessert was irresistible. I think any restaurant who wants to sell desserts needs to use a dessert tray, rather than a menu. I can tell you that I am far more likely to order a dessert that's sitting in front of my face, than one that is only described through words on a menu. Longhi's goes one step further by letting you take the dessert that's on the tray, so there's no waiting. We ended up sharing three desserts: a carrot cake, a berry glace, and a banana creme pie. All were extremely yummy! The carrot cake was the largest carrot cake I've ever seen in my life. I selected the berry glace because I remember ordering it on my last visit and I enjoyed it a lot. The banana creme pie was full of banana flavor and was probably the favorite of the table. We must've eaten it very quickly because I didn't even get a chance to take a picture of it. We ended up taking most of the carrot cake back to the office to eat the next day. It was terrific, but we decided that was the one that would hold best for one more day.









All in all, an excellent meal. The service was pretty good, although we seemed to have lost the attention of our waiter toward the end of the meal. But when he was there, he was great. Our waiter was very good about bringing us things we asked for and providing descriptions of items we asked about. The next time you're in the mood to splurge on a nice leisurely lunch, consider Longhi's at Ala Moana.