December 5, 2025 Lunch - Moke’s in Kailua Dinner - Istanbul Hawai’i.

December 5, 2025 Lunch - Moke’s in Kailua Dinner - Istanbul Hawai’i.

We woke up and I talked with Rahim and Dan in the morning. I had awakened several times in the night to check the market and it slid into losses as the day progressed with Meta and AMD being the only bright spots as the market did its Friday derisking sell off.

We drove across the island to Kailua to a highly rated breakfast restaurant place named Moke’s. Hawaiian couple was eating as we entree and I asked what she was eating and she’s said, “Loco Moco and it is really good.”

So I ordered Loco Moco. 

Loco Moco*

$17.95

An island classic with our home-made beef patty
Served over white rice with two over-easy eggs and topped with our home-made brown gravy.An island classic with our home-made beef patty

Served over white rice with two over-easy eggs and topped with our home-made brown gravy.

Suzette ordered her favorite, Corn Beef Hash that was homemade.

Our impression was that the food was average, not very exciting.

After breakfast Suzette walked down the street to a coffee roaster and bought a bag of Hawaiian coffee.

We then walked across the street to Tali’s bagel shop and bought two everything bagels, 8 oz. of white fish salad and a container of cream cheese for breakfast tomorrow on the flight back to Albuquerque.

Suzette checked and found that there were over ten coffee roasters located in and around Kailua. We wanted to visit a coffee roaster but first we wanted to walk the beach. Kailua like many towns on Oahu has beach front parks maintained by the city and County of Honolulu. 

We then drove to the beach and walked the beach a bit.

                               This rather lovely cardinal has been introduced 

Then we drove to an industrial park just north of town to Tradition Coffee was located. It was a coffee shop and sales store for its coffee. Suzette bought 2 12 oz. Bags of roasted Hawaiian coffee for $100.

We then were told that a chocolate company two doors away so we walked there and one of the owners was at the door and was kind enough to give us a tour of their state of the art facility, Manoa Chocolate, an artisanal chocolatier, specializing in Hawaiian grown cacao.

       My favorite was a Hawai’i Macadamia nut coated with dark Hawaiian chocolate

We ended up in the sales shop where all their chocolates were available to taste. We bought eight bars of Hawaiian dark and milk chocolate as gifts.

It was 2:30 when we drove back to the hotel. 

We napped until 5:00 when we grabbed our half bottle of Trapiche Malbec and drove to the long beachfront park near the hotel where we watched the sunset until 6:00 

We then drove to Istanbul Hawai’i, another restaurant recommended by the evening bar tender. Istanbul served Turkish family recipes. We tried to keep it simple. We ordered a Mediterranean Salad, lettuce, cherry tomatoes, cucumber slices, a few black kalamata olives dusted with feta dust and dressed with a light vinaigrette.

Then I ordered a 1/2 pita with a bowl of tzatziki that was warm and delicious when dipped in the tzatziki.

Then our entrees arrived, a grilled boned Branzino served with Rice pilaf and a thick leek sauce that was strongly flavored.

The other entree was a whole baked eggplant split open and stuffed with a tomato filling served with a bowl of tzatziki in a bowl filled with rice pilaf.

We drank water.

After dinner we filled the tank with gas and drove back to the Equus Hotel. We packed and I ate the complimentary gingerbread cookie with a cup of Ear Grey tea.

Suzette went to bed shortly after 9:00, but I stayed up to blog this entry.

The natural beauty of Hawai’i is impressive. We have driven north, south, and east on Oahu and loved the scenery everywhere. I can see why folks like to retire here.

I walked 5200 steps today which is back to a reasonable level including two beaches.

Bon Appetit

December 4, 2025 Lunch - Koko Head, 1120 12th Ave., Honolulu. Dinner - Fete, Chinatown, Honolulu

December 4, 2025 Lunch - Koko Head, 1120 12th Ave., Honolulu. Dinner - Fete, Chinatown, Honolulu

We worked on Rahim’s transaction until 10:00. Then we drove to the Laundromat and washed a load of clothes and during the wash cycle we drove to Koko Head for brunch.

Suzette must be craving Mexican Food, so she ordered Chiliquiles. I had difficulty deciding but finally picked the most unusual dish I could find named Strata, it was a large muffin of Italian bread pudding topped with a large spoonful of a mixture of tuna and Ricotta cheese, gourmet greens, and a soft boiled egg.

I drank water and Suzette drank a Bloody Mary.

The bar tender at Equus, our food maven on this visit to Honolulu had recommended both Nico’s and Koko Head and he was batting 1000 so far.

My Strata was a very interesting small gem of a meal.

We then returned to the laundromat to dry and fetch our wash and then drove to Diamondhead State Monument which includes the crater of the extinct volcano that created Diamonhead. We were not interested in the 1 mile climb to the Lookout so I bought a Pineapple/orange juice drink and we sat under the trees near the trailhead and watched the four different species of birds, a sparrow, doves, a plover, and Myna Birds. When we left we stopped at a lookout outside the cone that had a view of the coast and a mountain range on Oahu and Maui in the distance. It was an extremely clear sunny day.

Finally, we drove back to the hotel and rested until 5:30 when we got dressed and drove to Fete in Chinatown for our 6:30 reservation.

I was feeling better, but feared of over eating, so we decided to split a daily appetizer and entree. The appetizer was steamed beets, marinated in white wine tarragon vinegar and served in a salad with gourmet greens and a sliced avocado.

  We loved it.

Wine is always an issue, but tonight worked out well. We tasted a basque white that was syrupy, when I noticed Cheverny on the wine by the glass wine menu. We tried it and liked it and ordered two glasses.

We like the high acidity of mostly Sauvignon Blanc grapes in Cheverny. We ordered another glass with the entree of Mahi-Mahi wrapped with prosciutto and grilled served with roasted potatoes and a macadamia nut pesto with fried capers and bits of lemon. It was an aggressive dish, but the fish was delicious and the potatoes with pesto were delicious.

We stopped after the entree and third glass of wine. 

We drove along the beach and walked out to the water and put our toes into the warm Pacific water and looked at the super moon and after those romantic moments, drove back to the hotel.

                                               The super moon

I blogged and Suzette watched a Christmas movie, the Holiday.

I had a cup of herbal tea and blogged.

We are liking Honolulu.

Bon Appetit

December 3, 2025 Tokyo - Breakfast - Leftover Sushi and French toast with egg. Brunch - Oyster and tuna at Tokyo Fish Market Dinner - Pork Cutlet with rice in curry sauce Honolulu - Lunch -Duck and Comte sandwiches, Dinner - Nico’s k

December 3, 2025 Tokyo - Breakfast - Leftover Sushi and French toast with egg. Brunch - Oyster and tuna at Tokyo Fish Market  Dinner - Pork Cutlet with rice in curry sauce

Honolulu - Lunch - Ducj and Comte sandwiches, Dinner - Nico’s Pier 38

We spent December 3 in Tokyo. Then took an 8:10 p.m. flight to Honolulu that arrived at 8:30 a.m. on December 3.  So we gained a day when we crossed the Date Line, thus traveling two December 3rd’s.

I started the day in Tokyo at our apartment eating leftover sushi.

Then we packed and secured our luggage in the lobby and taxied to the Old Fish market that is now dominated by seafood restaurants. We first went upstairs to the Yonomoto Coffee shop favored by Yoko Ono and John Lennon when he was alive.

We ate breakfast. Suzette ate toast, a hard boiled egg, and coffee, I ate 

French Toast, an egg, and Earl Grey tea, and Willy ate a ham and egg toast with coffee. 

We then said goodbye to Willy and walked through the fish market. We were not very hungry but ate a large raw oyster and shared a tuna sampler.

We then returned to the hotel and took our luggage and taxied to Terminal 1 at Narita Airport.

Suzette had reserved a wheelchair for me so we were able to obtain Assistive services to check our luggage and obtain our boarding pass. We then went through security and water at our gate four hours for our 8:45 flight.

The lady at assistive services gave us bulkhead seats, so we had a little extra leg room and we slept four or five hours after we were served dinner of fried breaded pork cutlet on rice in curry sauce with a cured salmon salad and a regular salad.

When we arrived at 8:15 I was wheeled through Immigration to baggage claim where we took our luggage and walked to Budget fast track to pick up our big Chevrolet Malibu and drove to the North Shore. We stopped at Foodland and bought a tatami mat, a big bottle of water, and a baguette and made duck and comte sandwiches at Pipeline beach watching the surfers.

We then went to a the small historic village of Haleiwa and stopped to look at shells and then drove back to our hotel at Waikiki Beach.

We rested until 6:00 and then went to the bar for our complimentary drink. The bartender was extremely helpful recommending restaurants. We made a reservation at a highly rated Turkish restaurant for Friday night and then drove to his recommended Nico’s Pier 38 for a fish dinner.

Nico’s is on Pier 38 overlooking a portion of the Marina.

It had four choices of fresh fish.  Suzette ordered an Aji tuna steak on rice with crisp sautéed string beans with a sweetened, miso teriyaki cream sauce. It was a wonderful sauce that we will replicate at home.

My choice was a breaded and sautéed pomfrey steak on a bed of linguine and spinach in a black truffle cream sauce with rinsed capers served with two slices of grilled garlic toast.

It was an even better sauce than Suzette’s with little specks of truffle visible in the sauce.

We each drank a glass of German Riesling and could barely finish our meal.

We saw the blue moon as we walked back to our car for a perfect ending to a lovely evening.

Bon Appetit