The best restaurant in Hawaii, by far, is Vintage Cave Club, serving French-Asian fusion, plus a Japanese sushi bar. This is where 19 Picassos are on the wall and a shot of Macallan 50-year old scotch costs $6000. I was last there on March 2 and January 19.
The owner, Takeshi Sekiguchi, was prominent in the build-up of Ko Olina and the Grand Wailea Resort on Maui. He also has in his portfolio Shirokiya and Vintage Cave Cafe, an Italian restaurant on the Ewa side of Ala Moana Center:
Mystery lady and I were joined by Joyce and David, long-time friends of mine. She went to St. Francis Nursing School with Pearl and went on work for Pan American and United Airlines for 42 years. Their claim to fame is that they have been on more than 80 cruises, and they particularly favor Regent, Crystal and Seaborne. They're next will be in May on Cunard's Queen Mary 2 from New York to Southampton, then on to somewhere else before returning to New York.
My favorite story involving Joyce is captured here:
When I first met my wife Pearl in 1962 we were already looking forward to at least 29 more years together, for she knew that on her birthdate in 1991, July 11, there would be a total solar eclipse right over her favorite mountain, Mauna Kea. To the right is the only souvenir remaining from that experience.
We stayed at the King Kamehameha Hotel in Kailua-Kona. However, the general region seemed a bit cloudy, which was somewhat worrisome. I brought a bottle of Dom Perignon, given to me by Joyce Patrick, who was working in first class when I had just returned on United Airlines from Japan just prior to the Big Island flight. I had dinner with David and Joyce last month.
If you clicked on that link, you will read that we talked about cruises.
And the story goes on:
So anyway, back to 1991, we went to the home of a friend who ran the energy program for the State of Alaska, and also lived on the Big Island. He had invited JoAnn Yukimura (left) and her husband John. I had known JoAnn since she was a high school student and I was a process engineer at the Kilauea Sugar Company on Kauai. I had just graduated from Stanford, and she was on her way there next.
JoAnn, of course, is a former Kauai mayor and still plays an important role in the politics of the island. But, back to food, here was my appetizer, Smoked Salmon Mousse Crostini topped with Osetra Caviar, according to the menu:
Except I'm sure that was not Osetra, for this type of sturgeon egg is almost always a kind of grayish-tan color, very rarely pure black. I can't tell the taste difference anyway, but one strike. The next was a very artistic Prosciutto and Papaya with mint foam:
Colorful, but the taste lacked something. The Red Kidney Bean Soup I thought was a missed opportunity:
While I'm making this sound like the meal was terrible, it was the opposite. I'm just looking for perfection, and each dish so far had some faults. They were, in any case, almost excellent.
The star of the evening was the Fresh Spaghetti with Truffle Cream Sauce:
While this was the best pasta I've had in a long time, my recommendation would be to use, perhaps, 25% less sauce.
I shared with Mystery Lady her Rack of Lamb and my Braised Beef Cheeks:
Her lamb was perfectly prepared, while my cheeks were inundated with much too much sauce.
The Chocolate Lava Cake with Vanilla Gelato was terrific:
While at this point I was beyond supersaturation, notice again a work of art. As critical as I have been, I think this is the best Italian restaurant in the state.
Let me close with my kind of meal and outing. Sushi King--miso soup, soba and oyako donburi, with cold beer and hot sake--followed by a Sunday Rainbow baseball game at Les Murakami Stadium:
I'm getting ready for my trip to Orient. I depart on Friday.
I've never really shown the aquarium next to where I compose these blogs, with neon tetras and algae eaters.
Guess what that last photo is about.
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