Chinatown -- Honolulu, Hawaii

So ... my ex-husband's sister and her beautiful family are in Hawaii on vacation right now. She has been there before but the others haven't.  I am totally enjoying their daily updates of things they're doing complete with photos. They have been snorkeling and eating at cool places and the other day they went on a shark adventure.  They were on the north shore and now they are in Honolulu.  I hope they get a chance to go over to Chinatown for lunch.  

Chinatown was right up there as one of my favorite places to go while we were in Honolulu last year.  Gene and I are not your typical tourists.  We like to go where the locals are and it's not always glamour & glitz.  As a matter of fact, if it has any glamour at all we usually high tail it out of there quickly, although I do enjoy people-watching in glitzy places like Las Vegas. (I digress).   Chinatown is not glamorous but what it is ~ is colorful and interesting.  And, authentic.

I hope Ally takes her family over the Chinatown for lunch before they leave Honolulu. There  is a huge indoor market with tables in the center that are set up cafeteria style. There are food vendors all the way around the tables so everyone can pretty much get whatever they want for lunch. There are lots of really weird things to eat and  though I am not very adventurous culinary-wise, Gene is. 

Mostly, I really loved sitting with the Asian people who obviously live and work in the area. I pretended I was in a foreign country every day we visited Chinatown.  We went there 5 days out of 7 for lunch!   I believe  traveling to Asia is in my future .... 

If you go to Chinatown in Honolulu, I would recommend Ruby's Bakery, which is on the main street. We happened in there one day for something sweet and ended up sitting down for lunch. We found ourselves riding the bus there every day after that for lunch as it was the best food we could find for a decent price. We tried something new every day and near the end of our visit, the waitress suggested we try her cook/husband's special dish which was not on the menu. Garlic shrimp.  I'm not a big shrimp lover but who am I to disrespect the cook? OMG! I felt like family after being treated to such a great meal.  Everyday when we got ready to leave, the  waitress and her sister (family run business) would say, "we'll see you for lunch tomorrow".  The power of suggestion has never worked so well.

Chinatown.  Whenever you are in a city that has a Chinatown .... you should go there. Seriously.