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For some time now, Chuck and I have been going out every night for dinner. Here’s a food recap of last week’s food trips.

On Monday we went to L & L Drive In and got two Kalua Pork and Cabbage plates which were so “ono” (delicious). We also tried their new offering called the “ healthy choice” and got the garlic shrimp salad which was great especially if you’re a true garlic lover.

For Tuesday, we went to Mahaloha Burger at the Royal Hawaiian Center at Waikiki. We both got their house special burger called the “Mahaloha”. Chuck was exceptionally hungry so he got the ½ pound version while I opted for the slightly smaller 1/3 pound. We were surprised on how good and tasty the burgers were and they can be a formidable competitor to Teddy's Bigger Burgers.

Wednesday, I had my shrimp and delicious melts in your mouth opah (fish) at Brennecke’s in Kauai while Chuck dined and ate steak at home in Oahu.

Thursday, me and my co-workers had dinner at Kauai Grill in Lihue and Chuck dined at home again.

On Friday, we went to S&T Thai at Keeamouku and had Tom Yum seafood soup, Pad Thai noodles with pork, Penang Curry and Thai fried chicken. Make sure to tell them mild if your spice tolerance is low like mine.

We gave Golden Coin one last chance on Saturday. We have eaten here several times before but it is always a hit or miss, a little inconsistent when it comes to their dishes. If you want Filipino barbeque in Honolulu though, this is the place to go. We got four barbeque sticks, a side order of chicken papaya soup (tinola), three spanish rolls and two pandesals.

For our Sunday dim sum, we went to Harbor Village cuisine and got our usual plus tried the deep-fried taro as an offering to Chuck’s former student and good friend Louie.

I was fortunate to visit the garden isle again last week on a 2-day business trip after just coming back from Vancouver.

There were 8 of us traveling together from work so we all left Honolulu on a 5:40am flight to Lihue via Hawaiian airlines. Because the flight was too short, I was not able to finish an interesting corn article about Dr. Jim Brewbaker in the "Hana Hou" in-flight magazine.

The drive from Lihue to Waimea is about 40 minutes.  We checked-in to our Waimea Plantation Cottages. These are private seaside cottages set amidst a 27-acre coconut grove. The cottages have been fully restored but offers a nostalgic glimpse into Hawaiian life during the sugar plantation era. It is also ranked as the #1 hidden romantic getaway by sunset magazine.

I got the master bedroom of a 3-bedroom cottage just 10 meters from the shoreline. My room had a big deck, and a nice shower. The night sky was filled with all these beautiful stars and the sound of the waves at night was very relaxing and soothing.

While there,we drove through the "tunnel of trees". We had dinner at Brennecke’s where I had shrimp and opah (fish), we also ate breakfast at Obsessions and lunch from Waimea Plantation Restaurant which were all very good.

We also ate dinner and played pool at Kauai Grill. We also bought the very famous lilikoi pie and manju to bring back to our families in Oahu.

Our flight back to Oahu was at 7:50 pm, we landed at 8:20 pm and the flight was short as usual but enough for me to finish the article I was reading on the way in.

For a year now, Chuck and I have been going to Harbor Village Cuisine in Hawaii Kai at Koko Marina for our Sunday dim sum.

We have tried dim sum places in Chinatown, Kaimuki and even the one at Ala Moana mall but this is the one for us. This restaurant is very quiet, tables not packed closely together, good service, efficient servers and a very friendly owner.

Dim sum is served up to 3 pm everyday. We almost missed it today because we needed to return a 2-day old Droid phone that Chuck and I found at Waikiki Beach last night.  Find out more about that story from Chuck here later. So anyway, we got there 4 minutes before they stop serving dim sum for the day so Chuck let me off the restaurant door and I ran to tell them we were there and I am not taking no for an answer. The owner gave me a big smile and said ok, take your usual table and my day was complete.

Dolphin, our regular server asked where Chuck was and I said there's no way we are missing dim sum today so he had to park the car alone. So with the 4 minutes I have left to order, I just told her bring us our usual. Which I might add, is about 14 sets.

We usually get 2 of the following: Pork Hash, Baked Crispy Char Siu Bun, Shrimp Dumpling, Seafood Bundle, Spinach and Shrimp Dumpling, Scallop Dumpling, Seafood and Chive Dumpling.

Chuck said the tea was exceptionally good today. They might be a little more pricey than other dim sum places but with a 10% kamaaina (local) discount, quality and overall dining experience, I would not mind paying for more at all.

Chuck and I just came back from our 8-day Vancouver summer adventure.

We arrived Vancouver at 5 am from an 8:40 pm direct flight from Honolulu via Air Canada.

The very energetic Robson downtown area was our choice for a place to stay, very famous for it's over 200 shops and cafes. We stayed at the 26th floor of the Blue Horizon Hotel overlooking a 180-degree view of the city and the waterfront.

On our 8 days there we managed to visit popular attractions like Canada Place, the Vancouver Lookout, the 2010 Olympic Cauldron, the Gastown Steam Clock, Dr Sun Yat-Sen Park, Stanley Park, Vancouver Aquarium, Chinatown, Granville Island, the Capilano Suspension Bridge, the Treetop Adventures and the Cliffwalk. We also rode the skyride at Grouse Mountain and the chairlift to the top. We drove the "sea to sky highway" to Shanon Falls in Squamish BC and drove further to Whistler.

Another interesting part of our trip was the food! We tried a couple of restaurants including a Banana Leaf (Malay cuisine) at Denman and had a 9-course meal for 2. We ate breakfast at the oldest family restaurant "Tomahawk" at North Vancouver and had lunch at a northern chinese cuisine restaurant in Chinatown. We also experienced an "all you can eat" Mongolian beef place across the hotel.

For Korean food, we tried NorBoo Restaurant also at Robson. We had our best Korean dinner ever on this one so we had to go back one more time on our last night there.

I would always get my chicken plate from a DONAIR Spot across from the hotel for brunch and our night cap of chicken wraps from the Babylon Cafe around midnight after a delicious dinner from the many restaurants at Robson.

Temperature was high 60's and low 50's. I managed to go with just wearing a T-shirt and flipflops while Chuck put on his 2-layers of shirt and sweater.

Our 8-day vacation was way too short and we can't wait to go back and be in Vancouver again.