Yesterday was beach day. We spent most of the day at Kailau beach enjoying the water and wonderful temperatures. Last night we went to a Christmas concert in Honolulu that we read about in the paper. It was a benefit for Toys for Tots. It was a variety of artists including Jim Nabors, Amy Hanaialii Gilliom and our favorite for the night – Jake Shimabukuro. He was awesome on the ukelele. I promise I’ll do a beach post next.

Today we drove back up to the North Shore to go to the Waimea Valley Audubon Center. It is an excellent garden and it also has a nice waterfall.

But in addition to enjoying the plants – we made it a food day. I wanted try several unique items to Oahu. The first was Malasadas. These are a Portuguese sweet – balls of yeast dough are dropped in hot fat and then rolled in sugar. You can also get these filled with custard; plain, coconut or chocolate flavored. We just had to try them and the best place is Leonards. They are in Honolulu but fortunately they have a mobile truck that is parked in the Foodlands parking lot in Laie. We got a half-dozen filled with custard and then headed to the nearest beach for a messy but oooohhh soooo good breakfast treat. We had no problems putting three of them away in no time. We saved the other three for later.

After touring the garden, it was time for lunch. We wanted to try one of the shrimp trucks that are at Kahuku. Giovanni’s is the most well known but the Oahu guidebook suggested Romy’s. I had the garlic prawns and G had the sweet and extra spicy shrimp. Both were great. They raise the shrimp locally in ponds in the area. Next time I’m getting the shrimp instead of the prawns. The shrimp were so sweet. I ended up eating several of G’s spicy shrimp after finishing off my prawns. We were so glad they had a large sink to clean up after eating – They were messy!

It was time for dessert so we drove a little bit and pulled into Malaekahana Beach. It was a lovely curved beach overlooking a small island. We brought along the rest of the Malasadas and relaxed in the shade.

To finish the day, we headed back to Kailau to go to the farmers market. It had a nice selection of local produce. Lots of great looking lettuce, fruit, local cheese, honey and eggs. There were also an excellent selection of local plants and orchids. I had to pull G away.

I got to try a lot of fun local food and G had a wonderful time at the garden. Satisfying day in Paradise.

Leonard’s Malasada Truck in Laie

Breakfast at the beach

Leonard’s Malasadas

Romy’s Shrimps Menu

Sweet and Spicy Shrimp from Romy’s

Kailau Farmers Market