So believe it or not, living in Paradise can get monotonous, just like anywhere else I suppose... although, I don't know if monotonous would be the right word, but let's just say, sometimes beautiful sunsets and 80 degree weather year round can just get a little stale... :D so it's good to get creative with your time, you know, just mix it up a bit. So last night, a friend and I decided we would mix things up a bit and walk from one end of Waikiki to the other and back, sampling Mojito's at various beach front establishments. For those of you who may not be familiar with a Mojito, it is quite possibly, the finest mixed drink known to man (or at least to tropical island visitors everywhere). It's a mixture of sugar, lime juice, light rum, club soda and crushed fresh mint leaves, and it is by far the best tasting drink I've ever had. I first had the pleasure of trying this particular imbiber at the Hale Koa's 'Barefoot Bar' back in July I believe, when I was here on... ahem... house-hunting leave. I happened to be sitting at the Barefoot bar on a sunny day, as I was staying at the Hale Koa at the time, and was taking a break from the hard work of locating a place to live, when I noticed the bartender crushing leaves of some sort and putting them in a clear drink... I asked him what it might be that he was preparing when he told me it was the famed Mojito, which I'd only heard of, and never sampled, or thought to order. So, I thought, why not try one, so I asked him to make one for me... never before had my taste buds been quenched in such a manner... I immediately placed this drink at the top of my list of favored mixed drinks. Since then, it's been a favorite of mine, although I don't drink it too often... until last night. As my friend and I were walking along the beach in front of the Hilton Hawaiian Village, I thought to myself how refreshing a Mojito would taste at the moment, so I mentioned to my friend, that we should try sampling a Mojito all along the beach... the next thing you know, we were bellied up to the Barefoot Bar at the Hale Koa, sitting next to a retired French Horn player in the Marine Corps band and his wife on holiday from Colorado. We told them of our plans to sample the Mojito's of Waikiki this fine evening and they approved with laughter and enthusiasm...
So starting at Hale Koa, almost spoiled the night for us. We were treated to probably the finest Mojito here in Honolulu... but after sampling one, we moved on to the next. The Shorebird Restaurant and Beach Bar was next... they had a nice sampling of the Mojito, and we sat next to a couple of locals that had lived here for 8 years or so. We also listened to a great guitarist playing some great hits from the Eagles. The Mojito's here were pretty sweet... they started with a not much of a taste and ended with an explosion of sweetness. I think it was because the lime and the soda-water were added last neutralizing the taste until the sugar and rum and mint leaves came through. These were quite tasty. After saying goodbye to our new local friends, we proceeded to 'Rum Fire Waikiki' a new and beautifully nouveau decor upscale bar/lounge on the beach at the Sheraton.
Friends and I have made this one of our regular stops for socializing on the weekends, and it provides by far the best atmosphere of probably any place on Waikiki at this time. In fact, we stayed for the sunset here (picture) and even had some delicious Wok Fried Onion Rings to hold us over until we could get our dinner at Dukes...
After leaving Rum Fire, we made our way down the beach to the world famous Duke's Canoe Club, formerly owned by the world famous surfer and olympic medallist swimmer, Duke Kahanamoku. We were planning to dinner here, but alas, Duke's, while being well known for it's Mai Tai's, served no Mojito's... and carrying on with the theme of the evening, we just couldn't interrupt our trend. Our server graciously informed us that upstairs at the 'Hula Grill' they did in fact serve up our evenings beverage, so upstairs we went to try the next round of Mojito delight. Our barkeep at Hula Grill was quite the entertainer, using our 'table pager' as a simulated cell-phone while mixing up a Mojito of average taste. He was a Flight Steward / Flight Steward Trainer for United Airlines moonlighting at the Hula Grill Bar as a bartender. Even if the Mojito was only average, his antics were worth it. We finally got a table and had miscellaneous servings of Macadamia encrusted Mahi-Mahi, Swordfish and Butterfish, and then moved on in our quest for the next Mojito. Along the way, while allowing our food to digest and some of the fuzziness to disappear from our earlier Mojito's we stopped and watched a street performer paint with with some inspirational gospel-country music... it was pretty inspirational... I wish I could remember the name of the song. I'm not sure who sings it, but it was a good one... male vocalist, country twang, good words, moving chorus. You know the one. Anyway- after that we headed to Chili's, because we were starting to make our way back to the west end of Waikiki, and being out of memorable beach-front establishments, why not start working on the corporate-america chain restaurants? Well, Chili's didn't come through with a Mojito's on the menu, but their assistant manager pointed us towards another well-known corporate monster, the one and only 'CHEESECAKE FACTORY.' Well, we made our way over there, and along the way, ran the gauntlet of street performers on Kalakaua Ave. First we watched very talented Pan-Flute player, followed by a man painted completely silver, (yes, completely silver) stand completely still and silent while operating a creepy Elmo hand puppet. The same one that freaks out my dog when I walk him by there at night. He doesn't say anything, just makes his Elmo puppet look around while he stands completely still, and periodically he squeezes the little squeaky toy inside Elmo to get kids attention (and freak my dog out). Then we passed a girl who played the guitar very well and performed an exact duplication of Fergie's 'Big Girl's Don't Cry' and a guy trying to get us to take a brochure for his shooting gallery. All this and more happens, by the way, on the streets on Waikiki on a nightly basis. At any rate, having run the gauntlet, we finally found ourselves in view of the almighty Cheesecake Factory Waikiki... finding our way inside, we were lucky enough to be served right away at the bar, and had a unique variety of Mojito's to choose from. My partner chose the pineapple one and myself, being a fan of Pomegranate Juice, chose the Pomegranate Juice Mojito. Quite a tasty delight... at this point in the evening we concocted a story that should we meet anyone else, we'd tell them we were from Lafayette, Indiana, students at Purdue, hoping we didn't meet anyone actually from there. Unfortunately (or fortunately) we never did get to try this story out, but it sounded like a good one here in the dim lights of the Cheesecake Factory and the din of rum inspired conversation. From here we decided we'd probably already had one too many Mojito's, but we decided to finish where we started, so we made our way back to the ole' trusty Hale Koa. On our way, we stopped at 'Roy's' Waikiki just because, well, we passed it, and it seemed like a good idea at this point. The bar was relatively empty... and after tasting their Mojito... one could see why. Entirely too much Club Soda... in fact, it was mostly just Club Soda and Lime Juice... but at least we know now. Anyway- at the expense of being long-winded, we headed from there back to the trusty Hale Koa for two more Mojito's before calling it a night...
All in all, a good night. Definitely fun, and definitely something different... my favorites were probably the sunset at Rum Fire, and the taste (not to mention the prices) at the Hale Koa...
By the way- if you are interested in reading about the history of the Mojito, check this site out...
The short of it is, legend has it, Sugar Cane workers in Cuba created the concoction... Hemmingway made it famous. And I love it.
Cheers, or as they say in English bars in Cuba... Enjoy your Mojito!
No comments:
Post a Comment