Recently in Hawaii Category

As you travel around Hawaii during your stay at the Sheraton Waikiki, you might hear locals mention some odd phrases. "Crack seed?" "Shave ice?" Don't worry, you're not stumbling onto drug deals, just popular snack foods - these tasty local delicacies are not as weird or scary as they might sound!

Crack seed once referred simply to sweet, salty or sour preserved fruits, whose seed had been cracked (to increase the flavor, supposedly), but in modern Hawaii the term covers all manner of dried fruits, seafood, crackers and other bite-sized snacks sold by the pound. Crack seed stores are wildly popular with Hawaiian kids and adults alike. Step into Crack Seed Center, about a mile from the hotel, to sample such delicacies as "red hot football" (spicy preserved olives), sweet-salty-sour "tourist plum" and clam jerky, along with more mainstream options like gummi bears. Wholesale Unlimited is another favorite, with stores dotting Honolulu.

You might think you know what shave ice is, but this is no ordinary snow cone. That summer favorite is taken to whole new heights in Hawaii with a much finer texture to the ice and the addition of sweetened condensed milk, sweet beans, ice cream and other goodies, — not to mention far more syrup flavors than your typical carnival concession stand. Waiola Shave Ice is a top choice near the hotel, while Shimazu Store in downtown Honolulu offers such unorthodox flavors as buttered popcorn, red velvet, mojito and even li hing mui — salty dried plum, the original crack seed! The shop boasts the biggest shave ice on the island: Larry's Head, named for a customer who'd order three larges at a time.

[Image via Shave Ice Snobs]

If you're spending Mother's Day weekend in Honolulu, you're in luck — what better place to celebrate mom than on one of the most beautiful islands in the world?

The Sheraton Waikiki's own Kai Market will offer a "farm-to-table" Mother's Day brunch featuring locally harvested produce and proteins, including honey-rubbed country ham with pineapple and rum raisins, Kahuku shrimp scampi, "Kahlua-drunken" roasted Maple Farms duck and local-style kimchee fried rice. For dinner, Twist will have a special Mother's Day prix fixe menu that includes a local watermelon and Serrano ham salad, lemongrass-poached sunfish and Waialua chocolate crunch bars with fresh strawberries and lemon-lavendar sabayon.

In downtown Honolulu, Brasserie du Vin will have special Mother's Day hours, and will serve a limited but lovely menu of French dishes with a hint of Hawaiian influence, such as steak frites with roasted garlic and pan-fried moi with tiger shrimp and sauce provençal. Pair it with a show at the Hawaii Theatre, right across the street.

Few places in the world love spam as much as Hawaii — in fact, it's the only place other than Minnesota where you'll find a festival devoted to the stuff. The 8th annual Waikiki Spam Jam takes place April 24, right in front of the The Royal Hawaiian. The festival features spam dishes from some Honolulu's great restaurants (non-spammy dishes, too!), music by local bands on two stages, and a marketplace devoted to all things spam, as well as arts and crafts by island artisans.

If you're not a big spam aficionado, I recommend starting out with spam musubi, one of Hawaii's signature dishes melding Asian and American flavors. It's basically a sushi handroll, but with a thick slab of fried spam taking the place of fish between the rice and seaweed. And another spot to try it besides at the festival is Iyasume Musubi, a favorite among locals for its excellent spam musubi and other musubi options. If you don't want to trek downtown to try it, there's an "express" location in the food court at the Waikiki Shopping Plaza near the hotel.

If ever there was a place destined to be a great town for sushi (outside of Japan, of course) it would be Hawaii. Smack dab in the middle of the ocean, with a large Japanese-American population and a major Japanese tourism base, sushi in Honolulu is world class. Stake out a spot at the bar at these spots when you stay at the Sheraton Princess Kaiulani.

At Sushi Sasabune, you can order off the menu only at a table: the bar is reserved for those willing to let chef-owner Seiji Kumagawa decide what to feed them. And those who do are rewarded handsomely. Possible dishes include squid stuffed with crab, baked oysters, blue shrimp and some of the finest toro available. Be prepared to spend $300 for two, however.

Mitch's Fish Market & Sushi Bar is mostly a fish market, run by South African expats. But don't discount it for its low-budget looks — just head to the sushi bar (stopping beforehand to pick up some drinks; it's BYOB) and put yourself in the chefs' capable hands for some of the best sashimi you'll ever taste. The specialty of the house is live lobster sashimi, expertly sliced and accompanied by a miso soup made with the rest of the lobster.

If you're looking for more style with your rolls, head to Doraku, which gives sushi a "hipster vibe" despite its shopping mall locale.