Slingin’ Around Town
Fasten your seatbelts and eat to your heart’s content on a mobile food tour around Waikīkī.
✏️ AJA TOSCANO
📸 SKYE YONAMINE
ワイキキを飛び出し、移動式屋台ツア ーで思う存分食べまくり。
Television personality Lanai Tabura knows good food. Having been featured on local and international television shows including Food Network’s The Great Food Truck Race and Anthony Bourdain’s No Reservations, Tabura understands the importance of travel and experiencing a new culture’s cuisine. But, most importantly, he knows the significance of sharing the food culture of his own home.
“I love teaching people the difference between Hawaiian food and Hawaiian-style food,” Tabura says. “There is a lot of confusion on this topic.”
Hawaiian food such as poi, laulau, and poke taste the best in their simplest forms. In contrast, Hawaiian-style food came about during Hawai‘i’s plantation era, when diverse ethnicities and cultures brought various dishes and ingredients to the islands that were combined into iconic mixed plates such as chicken long rice, shoyu chicken, and saimin.
“We have some real special things here that are often copied but just can’t be duplicated,” Tabura says.
Tabura, who also hosts the local TV program Cooking Hawaiian Style, has teamed up with Slingshot Hawaii, the specialty auto-cycle rental company located on the first level of the International Market Place, on guided food crawls that celebrate these finds. Participants travel O‘ahu in Slingshot’s eye-catching racer, the Polaris Slingshot, which looks part hot-rod and part motorcycle but sits and drives like an open-ceiling automobile, making it ideal for sight-seeing.
On our tour, we zoomed down Kapahulu Avenue, a main thoroughfare that runs along Waikīkī and Diamond Head and is surrounded by iconic food joints and lesser-known hole-in-the-wall favorites.
“Every one of my tours is different,” Tabura says. “This tour shows that you don’t have to go far from Waikīkī to get a taste of Hawai‘i.” Depending on how far guests plan to venture out and how hungry they are, tours take about 2 hours on average.
LANAI'S PICKS
#1
LEONARD’S BAKERY
“Leonard’s is another icon here and most don’t know that it was invented from a marketing idea for Fat Tuesday. Lenny, who is the grandson of Leonard, has really kept up the tradition of this establishment. You can’t find malasadas like these anywhere else in the world.”
#2
RAINBOW DRIVE-IN
“One of the first plate-lunch restaurants in Hawai‘i, it’s the spot you go to after a great day of surfing or the place you grab your plate lunch before you go beach. Rainbow’s, as everyone calls it, has been around a long time, and the long lines are a sign that the place isn’t going anywhere soon.”
#3
FOODLAND
“Foodland poke has become one of the island favorites. These guys pump out poke by the ton and they don’t hold back on the taste. Fresh ‘ahi, amazing recipes, and lots of choices.”
#4
WAIOLA SHAVE ICE
“Waiola’s Shave Ice, which has a true mom-and-pop store feel, has been around since 1940, and I’ve been going there since I was in high school. It has really evolved into what it is today.”
#5
SIDE STREET INN
“A local watering hole that has an amazing kitchen. The menu here is a great example of the different nationalities within Hawai‘i, all blended together. From its poke to kalbi ribs to fried pork chops, it’s a local’s must.”
To book a food tour with Lanai, visit Slingshot Hawaii on the first floor at International Market Place.
While you’re waiting for your tour, fuel up with a treat like Magnolia Ice Cream & Treat’s tropical flavors or Burger Hale’s milkshake and shave ice combo at The Street.
