It’s been a long time blog readers. I could go into the specifics of how this blog had died, but I’m resuscitating it back to life with a new series, new adventures, and also apparently a completely new layout to WordPress. (I don’t even know how to add tags to these posts now) Let’s kick it off with a new food tour series from when I decided to do some Covid-19 Pandemic mental therapy and live in Hawaii for five weeks!
Broken Rice was actually not the first place that I ate at. In fact, being there for five weeks led to many food trips. It was actually starting to widen the hole that was already in my wallet from rent almost doubling in the two months between buying my plane ticket and when I got there. But, as this is a jumpstart to new blog life, I’m just going to dive right in and throw these posts out there. The main purpose of this website was for friends and family to have a reference of what to eat and how to plan trips to the places that I’ve been. So hopefully if you’re not friends or family, you will possibly become one and benefit from this “guide” as well!
You can find Broken rice in the Kaimuki area of Honolulu. It’s not far, but it’s not walking distance from Waikiki. In fact, most of Hawaii will require a car. I was in Hawaii only for a few weeks, but was already craving Pho. Having come from NYC where authentic pho restaurants were far and few to little, I was suprised to have the craving hit me in Honolulu. Thankfully, a friend (and also coincidentally fellow Yelp Elite) introduced me to Broken Rice! As this was about two months ago, COVID was still relatively low. However, the tourist surge kept me really vigilant and so I went as soon as the restaurant opened. It is first come first served so if you want a table, go early. There is a parking lot (paid) nearby otherwise, it’s standard HNL parking – difficult (for street).
While I wanted to get the beef pho, my friend had eaten something that caught my eye. CRAB bun rieu. I had to get it. And another thing caught my eye – fresh baguette with pate. HOW COULD I NOT?
Crab bun Rieu
PROS
- big freaking crab claw right on top
- huge portion
- very flavorful soup: not just the spices but the taste of seafood. It wasn’t bland at all. It wasn’t super salty either!
- great balance ratio of noodles to other ingredients.
CONS:
- none
Baguette and Pate
PROS
- FANTASTIC quantity – it’s definitely meant to be shared, and I fortunately did not have anyone to share it with because I LOVE pate.
- bread came out warm and fresh!- large amount of pate (which is great for the ratio of pate to bread) but also came separate so you can spread it yourself!
CONS:
- none!
Oh man, I would definitely go back. I rarely give five stars, but I will have to go back for sure. I want to say that given the issues of COVID and how many are on unemployment (and many collecting more than they would with a job), there have been a lot of service industries who have found it hard to fill their staff back up to match capacity. This is also not counting the surge of tourists. I had really good service even though it did take a little bit longer than most restaurants to get the food out. Not to mention it is definitely authentic! The price was way more than it is in pho restaurant stateside but I can understand the increase given the lack of pho in the area, the lack of business overall due to COVID and the costs of living in Honolulu. For what I got and it’s flavor, it was worth it to me.
Living to Eat,
R/g
Rammiegirl 2.0 