A few weeks ago, I had the pleasure of taking one of the tastiest tours in Hawaii. Anyone who has been on one of my tours, knows how much fun it is to get to sample the different treats from all over Oahu – but it’s not often that I get the chance to go out and discover hidden gems here on my own turf! This was one of those opportunities.
My new friend, Chef Matthew Gray picked me up at the Ala Moana Hotel with his fun team of foodies and a couple of other guests. There were nine of us all together. Now, just a heads up – Matthew, Gio, and Krystal took me to some incredible places – I’d been to a few of them – but mostly – they took me to hole in the wall places that after seventeen years of callling Oahu home and more than a decade as a guide – I had never been to! You might be waiting for me to spill the beans about where they took me – but I’m not going to. I’ll give you the gist of it, share a few pictures, and describe some of the foods we ate and a few of the secrets I learned – but to get the rest – you are going to have to take this awesome tour.
Heres’s the info to Book a Tour – Tell the Chef that Vagobond sent you:
For Information & Reservations
Call 808-926-FOOD (3663)
or Email Hawaii Food Tours
First off – I love that this wasn’t an all day tour. If you’re here on vacation you can take this tour and still have plenty of time to go out and enjoy the beach, play some golf, or even take another tour – personally though – after this tour was done, I just wanted to relax with a Mai Tai. They’ll give you some recommendations at the end for where you can do that – or you can figure it out. The tour lasted from roughly 9am to 2pm. I was the last pickup so 9:30am and the last dropoff at 2pm. We were a small group so if you are with more or less folks at different hotels than your tour time may vary a bit.
From Ala Moana we headed into Honolulu where we sampled a little bit of everything. We had baked maunapua for breakfast and from there we took a trip into Chinatown where we visited a rice noodle factory, explored the shops and stalls, and then had a delightful walking tour that ended with a wonderful urban picnic right next to a busy marketplace. The colors, smells, sounds, and tastes were overwhelming. Gio and Christina brought tasty treat after savory delight for us to sample. I’d love to spill the beans here and tell you where and what – but that wouldn’t be any fun at all.
Of course we had the rice noodles we’d just watched being made and a variety of fresh tropical fruits as well as Chinese and Korean meats and other treats with Chef Matthew’s yummy sauces (he’ll share the recipe after the tour). Finally, we went to one of the most famous bakeries in Hawaii and ended with a sugar overload before falling into food comas on the way back home.
Through the day we were entertained with history, stories, culture, and recipes. This was a lot of fun and I recommend it highly. Thanks for the great day Chef Matthew! A hui ho!
