I took off one day in between my last day of work at the Office of the Public Defender (read all about my final bittersweet moments there in this post!) and my first day at my new job (why didn’t I take a longer break instead???), so my partner generously scheduled us a one day trip to Hawaiʻi island as I won’t be able to travel for the next year or so! We’ve previously taken a couple of these day-long inter-island trips to Maui but never to Hawaiʻi, which was a fun surprise! Maui is absolutely riddled with tourists and I hate seeing an abundance of colonizers, so my partner thought Hawaiʻi would be a better location for the time being. We flew into Hilo at around 8 am and spent the morning there. Whenever we travel together, we plan our days around the foods we want to eat (obviously…who doesn’t do this?) and try to fit in as many meals as possible by sharing dishes. Our first stop was Hawaiian Style Cafe for a giant shared breakfast of kalua pig hash with fried rice and a belgian waffle. Can you believe this whole meal was one order? I love when breakfasts come with sides of pancakes or waffles and this entire dish was delicious! The kalua pig hash was the star of the show with the waffle following closely behind. After breakfast we quickly visited my Uncle Brother at his house he’s living in/renovating and he got to meet my partner, which was so fun! We had a long drive to Kona where we shared a hamburger steak/Korean chicken mixed plate from Chubby’s Diner. We both adored the Korean chicken and the mac salad was my partner’s favorite! We didn’t spend a ton of time in Kona, but we did visit multiple KTAs to look for my partner’s most beloved cookies, which alas, we did not find. We had to be back in Hilo by 3 pm to pick up our giant Two Ladies Kitchen order full of fresh peach, butter, peanut butter, and brownie mochi. My personal favorite was the peach, which was sweet and crunchy on the inside! I saved the best for last because the fish and chips from Mohala’s Fish and Chips were absolutely amazing! Now that I’m obsessed with fish, we try to eat an order of fish and chips wherever we vacation. We picked ono and had it with tartar sauce and malt vinegar aioli. The basket came with five large pieces of flaky ono, crispy homemade fries, and a small scoop of mac salad. I loved every single bite and ate way too much of it all. It was the perfect last day before work!
