Friday, September 7, 2001
Day #3 in Kauai.  Day #3 of business trips to Kauai, Hawaii. Kauai is approximately 90 miles from Oahu and takes 20-minutes by plane. The flight is so short that it feels more like a short commute rather than an inter-island flight. It's funny because if you think about it, it takes longer to drive from Hawaii Kai to Haleiwa than it does to fly from Oahu to Kauai.

I visited the offices on the south side of Kauai today: Makaweli, Lawai, Koloa, and Kalaheo. Everywhere you look, the landscape is so green. It's no wonder that they nicknamed Kauai the "Garden Isle." 

First stop was Makaweli. The office is literally in the middle of a cane field and if you blink, you'll surely miss it. Sugar cane fields as far as the eye can see, lush and green, swaying and bending in the wind. Trade winds carry the thick scent of fresh cane. 

The only thing that disturbs the peacefulness of the scenery are the little critters that occupy the dark corners and enclosed spaces in the office. Cane spiders and centipedes invade the office daily and when it comes time to burn the cane fields for harvest, these creepy crawlies come en masse. We talked to Daniele who works at the Makaweli office about these unwanted visitors and she shared her proactive anti-spider plan which consisted of keeping the office neat, clean and uncluttered. Cans of spider killer also help, although she says that it usually takes almost half a can to kill a cane spider. Buy stock in Raid, folks.

Cane spiders are ugly creatures. Curled up in a corner, they don't look too intimidating, but once you get them riled up and running, they stretch out their legs and look even more hideous. We found one sitting outside all cozy in a corner of the ceiling. Arnold, being unafraid of our 8-legged friends, grabbed a fallen monkey pod from the ground and started throwing it at the unsuspecting Cane Spider. Immediately, the spider stretched out his legs and started running across the ceiling toward us. Naturally, we screamed and ran the other way. I managed to snap a couple of shots of the spider before fleeing. 

If you didn't know, Cane Spiders are quite aggressive and have been known to jump at their attackers if they feel threatened. This one was no exception. He launched himself at Arnold and just missed him. Arnold deftly avoided the spider's attack and quickly stomped on him to seal his demise.

Imagine, Hubby once told me that when he was living in Ookala on the Big Island, that he woke up to find Cane Spider sitting on his face. I don't want these guys any where near me, much less on my face. That would be enough to give me a coronary.

Okay, enough about spiders. I'm already giving myself the heebie-jeebies. Ick.

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Hamura's Saimin. Aside from seeing my first live Cane Spider, nothing particularly eventful happened in Kauai. We did our conversions and everything pretty much went without a hitch.

Actually, even more eventful than the Cane Spiders in Makaweli, was our trip to  Hamura's Saimin in Lihue, Kauai.  Go read my review of Hamura's Saimin stand. I've included quite a bit of photos in attempts to capture the essence of the establishment. However, you can't truly experience it unless you visit for yourself and have your own bowl of Saimin.

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Birthday Dinner with the Hubby. I've been doing a lot of good eating recently. Tonight was no exception. Hubby took me to L'Uraku in Downtown Honolulu for a belated birthday celebration. 

I have a taste for fine dining, so when Hubby left the decision up to me, I consulted a little pamphlet published annually by the Honolulu Advertiser called O`ahu's 100 Best Restaurants for some ideas. After all, we are creatures of habit and often find ourselves dining at the same old restaurants. A few of our tried and true favorites are Okonomiyaki Chibo Restaurant (Royal Hawaiian Shopping Center), Indigo Eurasian Cusine (Nuuanu Street in Chinatown), John Dominis Restaurant, 3660 on the Rise, Neptune's Garden (Pacific Beach Hotel), Palomino Restaurant, Roy's Restaurant (in Hawaii Kai), Ruth's Chris Steak House (Restaurant Row), Sam Choy's Diamond Head Restaurant, and dozens of others. Our casual dining list goes on forever, too. (Yes, we eat out quite often.) I wanted to go someplace new.

I saw L'Uraku's review in the restaurant guide and this quote piqued my interest: "Entering L'Uraku, you realize something special about the character of the light in this room. The place glistens." Glistens. Funny how a single word can reach out and grab you.

Then, I saw the L'Uraku ad that was featured in that same publication and was curious about their tag line that stated, "...where umbrellas are always in full bloom!" Umbrellas? That's definitely different.

I was looking for someplace that was different that offered not only good food, but also an interesting atmosphere. For me, ambience is an important part of the dining experience.

So it was decided, L'Uraku it is.

From the time you step into the elevator leading to the restaurant, you are greeted with bold, bright colors with the spontaneous brush strokes of artist Kiyoshi.

When we got to the restaurant, the first thing that I noticed was that the lighting was quite bright for a fine dining establishment. Actually, the whole place had a bright, cheerful feeling about it. Oftentimes, fine dining meant dim lighting, sometimes bordering on gloomy. L'Uraku's decor was anything but gloomy.

Even the waiters were clad in brightly colored silk shirts.

You just get this festive feeling while you're sitting at your table observing the brightly colored umbrellas suspended upside down from the ceiling overhead.

The service was impeccable. My water glass and iced tea never went dry. They were extremely attentive to their patrons and our waiter was very pleasant and efficient. 

The food was absolutely delicious and the presentation was very creative. I had the 10 oz. Garlic Ribeye Steak which is served on steamed vegetables with light teriyaki sauce and micro arugula salad. The steak was tender and juicy. Covered in a generous layer of garlic, it was full-flavored but not overpowering.

Hubby had the Pan-Roasted Pork Chop with Crispy Shrimp dish which he seemed to enjoy thoroughly. 

The dinner was perfect and I was very happy with everything about the evening. However, Hubby had only one gripe. He had planned to surprise me by having the waiter put a candle in a piece of chocolate cake in honor of my birthday, but the waiter somehow got mixed up and ended up sticking a candle in the scoop of Green Tea ice cream of the Capsized Cone dessert that Hubby ordered for himself. Instead of raising a fuss, we simply shared the Capsized Cone dessert (3 scoops of ice cream: Mango Sorbet, Vanilla Ice Cream, and Green Tea Ice Cream; with azuki beans and mochi balls). I don't have a photo of the dessert because I was too excited about eating it, that I didn't think about taking a photo before devouring it.

A beautiful dinner with my favorite person. What could be better? :-)

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