Mai Tai & Pulled Pork Paved Road to Happiness Tour: North Shore Shrimp and some liquid absurdities

There are very few TV shows that Tiz and I watch and one of them is "The Living Room".
They have a travel section in which they send Chris Brown, a vet and now media personality, and Miguel Maestre, a chef and media savy Spaniard, off to all sorts of places as "travel reporters". Most of the stuff they compile is quite worthless to the viewer, unless you have a crew to pave the way for you and a budget that looks like a telephone number.

But, occasionally they come up with article that make the viewer, or least two viewers from Rosanna, think "Mmmmmm, we might do that."

The particular report that made us go "Mmmmm ..." was one about Giovanni's Shrimp Truck in Haleiwa.
We were in Oahu, about one hours drive south of the truck, we had a Jeep (not just a car, a JEEP!) and we had a hankering for shrimp!
Off we went.
It took us far less than we had thought it would so we stopped off at a marketey type of place just up the road from the shrimp truck.
It had some interesting shops including one that made all sorts of pork "stuff" including milkshakes!
You don't believe me? ........

There it is, in black and blue.

FAMOUS KALUA PORK

.....

MILKSHAKES

How good is that?! Yummo. nom nom nom

But it was a bit too early for something as solid as a pork milkshake, as delicious as it would be.

We though maybe something light would suit us better. A beer, maybe.

Lo and behold, just across the way and a smidge past the incense shop and just before the rasta tie-dye t-shirt place was .....

Cholo's - a Mexican eatery.

This place had some interesting concoctions on its drink list ....

..... including the "Michelada"

"Icy cold beer with our own spices. Habanero and Clemato.

Here is our travelling companion and drink model showing off our drinks order, as well as the free corn chips and ripping hot salsa.

You may notice that to the far right of the pic there is a glass with what appears to be tomato juice and a salt and chili rim, which is exactly what it is.

Next to it is a Corona, la cerveza mas fina.

Tomato juice with salt and spice = yum.

Corona beer = yum.

BUT, when you pour the Corona into the spiced tomato juice, in my humble opinion, you have ruined both and end up with a drink that taste like .... you know what I'm getting at.

Meh, to each their own.

Here are some more pics of the rest of the market place.

It was time we got serious and head down to Giovanni's Shrimp Truck.

As we approached the smallish car park in which it is situated it was evident that this place was full to the brim, and overflowing.

We drove down the street a while looking for a place to park and from which we could walk to the truck. We found a big near empty car park and drove to the end, past a few parks with "Customers Only" on them.

We parked in one without such a sign.

Here is a pic of the cark park.

As we cross the road I hear "Aye, you can't park here. Go and find a spot at Giovanni's."

He was, as I found out later, the operator of the "Big Wave Garlic Shrimp Truck".

He must have gone through this countless times, watching people park in front of his truck to go down the road to eat at the opposition.

Inside, I felt sorry for him.

On the outside, I said "Wanker."

He didn't look that well but he wasn't all that smart either.

I'm no marketing genius but if he had said "Come and try my garlic shrimp because they're better." or something along those lines he might have won us over. But instead I went and got my Jeep, (yes, I rented a Jeep!) and with a tiny bit of patience ended up getting a spot right in front of Giovanni's truck. I then spent $39 for 3 Garlic Shrimp serves.

Very yummy they were too, but I'm sure that the ones from grumpy guts from Big Wave, down the road, would easily have been a comparable product.

When all is said and done they are deveined, still in the shell prawns, that are cooked in loads of garlic and butter and served with slightly soggy medium grain rice.

I'll bet there are loads of food trucks up and own the coast of Oahu that serve similar, and in some cases maybe even better, fare.

What they don't seem to have done is get themselves on a travel or cooking show, that I know of.

Here are some pics of us doing the garlic shrimp thing Giovanni's.

The ordering

The dish

The eating

The aftermath

We had achieved yet another goal on our stay in Oahu and now it was time to see some more of the island.
We, being a euphemism for me, as I was driving the Jeep (yes, I rented a Jeep!), decided to drive clockwise, or down the east coast if you prefer, to get back to Waikiki.
It felt like everyone else on the island were doing the same thing. The roads were very very busy.

As we crawled along the coast road we saw a sign for a farmers market.

Given that we all needed to visit "the little room" and we really wanted to enjoy a local farmers market we couldn't pull off the road quickly enough.

I'm not really sure how it gets it's name as it isn't anywhere near the town but it was a great setup.
All under cover in a truly beautiful valley setting.
Loads of vendors that hadn't quite realised that the '70's have well and truly come and gone, man.
And, to boot, some really good tucker on sale. Here is the pictorial proof