Hawaii Day 6 Visited 5/23/2013 3 Forks, 4 Forks, 2 Forks

Giovanni's Shrimp Truck 66-472 Kamehameha Hwy, Haleiwa, HI 96712 - 3 Forks

Oahu seems to get a bad rap was being super touristy and not the true Hawaii.  I can totally see why that would be true, but I would say that if you just rented a car and drove an hour away from Honolulu and up to the North Shore, you will see a side of Oahu that's gorgeous and beautiful and just as nice as some of the other neighboring islands.  One of the best things about the drive up north are these fun random places you pass by along the way.  One of them is the famous Giovanni's Shrimp Truck.  Yes, it's super touristy but I did see a lot of locals there as well and it's far enough from Waikiki that has that "off-the-beaten" path feel to it.  It's literally a graffiti stained truck on the side of the road, you can't miss it if you're driving up to the North Shore.  Their menu consists of 4 things:  Shrimp Scampi, Hot and Spicy Shrimp, Lemon butter shrimp and a hot dog.  I opted to go for the most popular option of the shrimp scampi.  Since I was on the only one eating it, I went for the half portion option ($6.50).  This dish was 6 shrimp marinated in olive oil, TONS of fresh chopped garlic, and lemon butter and then served with a side of white rice and chunks of garlic on top.  Needless to say, your breath will totally reek afterwards.  The shrimp was extremely hot (they literally serve it to you right out of the pan/wok).  I almost burned my hand peeling the shell.  When I finally got them all peeled, I took a forkful with the rice.  It was definitely good and the shrimp was plump but I wasn't blown away by it.  Garlic shrimp is not a new concept nor is it that hard to make.  You can get it in most Chinese restaurants or even make it at home.  It was a nice snack and break from the drive and if I happened to be in the 'hood, I would totally stop by again but I don't know if it's really a must do.  I guess I might also be spoiled since I grew up in MD which is a big seafood state, so I guess if you're from the Midwest or somewhere where there's not a lot of fresh seafood, then this might be a more exciting adventure.

Opal Thai 6-197 C Kamehameha Hwy, Haleiwa, HI 96712

Since Deanna had graciously dealt with my shrimp truck excursion, I returned the favor and went on a hunt for this Thai food truck that she had read was the best Thai food on the island.  Since it was a food truck,  there wasn't an exact location and we drove around in circles looking for it and finally called it quits and pulled into a shopping mall to make a U turn out of town.  But as we pulled into the shopping mall we saw the sign for it!  Opal Thai was now a physical restaurant and no longer a food truck.  I honestly was a bit full from my shrimp snack so I was planning on just having something simple like a papaya or green salad.  But once we sat down the owner comes by and says "Have you had Thai food before?" - uh, yeah?  To which he then asked "Ok, name your 5 favorite dishes."  I started to get nervous and thought that he was quizzing us on our food prowess.  All we could rattle off was curry, pad thai, eggplant basil and I said whole fish.  He then takes the menu out of our hands and throws them across the room.  He then looks at us and asks if we have any food issues (Deanna mentioned that she was a vegetarian) and he says "Ok, got it" and then leaves.  No ordering, no telling us what we're having, no asking us any other questions.  Um ok.  At first I thought we were cool/special but then I watched as he did that to everyone else in the restaurant.  I think the restaurant only has about 5-6 dishes that day with some variation and the quiz was more to gauge what those variations would be for each table because as I looked around everyone was pretty much eating similar dishes.  Our first dish was fried tofu and basil.  Now, mind you it was about 100 degrees that day and the last thing I wanted was fried food but of course I can't say no to food when it's in front of me.  Despite the heat, the fried tofu was delicious.  It wasn't oily at all and you could tell that the basil was very fresh as well.  I was a bit nervous about having not ordered but so far so good. 

Next came our main entrees.  I got what essentially looked like shrimp pad thai.  Even though I wasn't in the mood for a heavy noodle dish, I totally devoured this entire dish.  It was fantastic.  It didn't have the heavy peanut-y taste that some pad thai have and I thought that the shrimp here was better, bigger and tastier than the shrimp truck.  It was probably one of the lightest pad thai dishes I've had, but I say that in a good way.  It wasn't overly oily, overly sauced or heavy.  For Deanna they made a veggie curry that I tried quickly and thought was flavorful and great as well.  It was full of local vegetables and had a nice heat to it.

After these 2 dishes (and the half order of shrimp I had earlier), I was totally ready to burst and was thankful that there wasn't a dessert option.  Since we didn't order I was a bit worried that he was going to charge us some crazy price but it turned out to be fairly reasonable at $25/pp with tax and tip and a drink.

Hale Vietnam 1140 12th Ave., Honolulu, HI 96816

For dinner, we decided to do something very local and away from the Waikiki area.  Deanna had read about this Vietnamese place that was supposedly very good and very veggie friendly.  This was great since we were dining with her co-worker who was also a vegetarian and we didn't want to go through all the trouble of finding places in the city that only had 1-2 side veggie options.  We drive through what I guess is the suburbs of Honolulu (some of it was a bit shady) and get to this totally random Vietnamese place that's not really near anything. 

Now this was definitely a place that was frequented by locals so I was hopeful.  If you've read my blog before, you know my life long love for pho.  It's one of my favorite dishes and if done right is quite possibly one of the best things in the world.  But the key to the pho is a good stock/broth.  If that's not right, I don't care what the noodles are like or what the meat is like, it'll just suck.  I ordered the pho with raw meat and the summer rolls to start.  The summer rolls were totally fine, your usual Vietnamese rolls with shrimp, pork, noodles and lettuce.  They were a tad too big in size for me, but since I was also the only one eating it, it may have just felt like they were too big.  But on to the main dish, the pho.

As you can kind of see from this picture, it was pretty underwhelming (although full disclosure I had already taken a few bites before I took this picture).  The broth just didn't have enough flavor.  It was boarding on bland and also needed more cilantro and onion to it.  I've definitely had much much better pho but I've also had worse as well.  It just didn't do anything for me.  Deanna had gotten the veggie sour soup and Amber and his wife had gotten the vegetarian style pho (I really have no idea how that works) and while I didn't try anyone else's soups, they all kind of looked meh.  It was a bit disappointing that our meal wasn't great because it seemed to have so much promise with lots of locals in there, but I guess locals can also often be wrong.  Total bill for everything: $63