One of the people who inspired me to start blogging was Christa Wittmeier, who does the Honolulu Nightlife Diaries. If you haven't seen her blog, check it out! Whereas mine is full of words, hers is full of photos.

She's been the hottest thing on the web for six years. Since she covers the most exciting events with the most beautiful people, everyone clamors for the chance to be in her blog. I can now brag that I've made it into her blog maybe two or three times. ha!!

Well, promoters Flash & Matty Boy are big fans, too, and they've been in her blog about 68074890 times. So they're throwing a party in her honor tomorrow at Pearl, to celebrate the sixth anniversary of Christa's blog.

Hope to see you there! You gotta come...if nothing else, for the chance to be in Christa's blog!

SuperCW.com Anniversary Bash
Pearl Nightclub, Ala Moana Center
21 & up, stylish attire.
FREE before 9pm, $10 until 10pm, $5 guest list closes at midnight.
Pupu menu available til 11ish.
Email Guestlist@flashandmattyboy.com with your full name and number in your party to get on the guest list (but don't think you can get on the list if you just email a couple hours before the party!). Put "Candy Bar" in the subject line.

Sorry, everyone, I got hit with several hundred spams to my blog last night. I was about to post something but I'm gonna have to get thru this first!

I'd been meaning to try Hukilau on Bishop Street for the longest time! If you've worked downtown for decades, as I have, you know that the space has gone through quite a bit of turnover. This seems to have had a lot of good word-of-mouth reviews, though.

One of my regular lunch buddies, Cindy Goo, reminded me that we needed to try it once and for all. It's located in the basement of the Executive Center, just past the hotel's front desk.

The menu is fairly extensive for a lunch place. Everything looks good, so you're faced with the eternal dilemma: be good or be naughty with the diet? Cindy and I try to be healthy, but the sandwiches just sounded sooo tempting. She had heard good things about the portobello katsu sandwich, and our waitress recommended the teriyaki steak sandwich.

If you're going for a business meeting, I probably wouldn't recommend the steak sandwich because it's not made for clean eating. That being said, though, I have to admit the taste was good. Here's a close up so you can see how juicy the thing really was!

Now remember: Cindy and I were trying to be healthy. Once we finished our sandwiches, though, that all went out the window! We decided to split the famous brioche bread pudding with vanilla ice cream and caramel sauce. We liked it a lot, but I think we would have enjoyed it more if we weren't filled with guilt. If you were a fly on the wall looking at our faces, you'd know how downright criminal we felt. But for the moment, it was worth it!

Hukilau is really convenient for downtown denizens, whether you live or work there. Hey! Maybe it won't take me so long to get there a second time.

Hukilau Honolulu
1088 Bishop St.
Honolulu, HI 96813
808-523-3460
http://dahukilau.com

This is a REAL quick blog, but please check out all my photos at Metromix.com.

Are any of you into Indian food? I love it, but it's hard to find a lot of it in Hawaii. Media maven Pam Davis used to live in London, where there's Indian food at every turn, so she knows where and what the good stuff is.

Pam and I recently went out of my area to eat at Cafe TajMahal on Waialae Avenue, across City Mill's lower parking lot. She already knew that the owner, Kabir Chowdhury, was the opening chef for Maharani. She also knew what to order, since she often runs in for takeout. Perfect!

To be honest, you can get the best value by ordering one of the combo plates (depending on the size of your party), which has a little bit of everything for about $18. We went the piggy route and ordered items ala carte; part of the reason was that we hadn't eaten all day and were starving! Look at all that food!

We had two samosas and several (large) ala carte items, and it all came out to about $68. While that sounds like a lot, keep in mind that the spread could have fed four to five hungry people, easily. Our eyes were bigger than our stomachs!

Check out each dish on Metromix.com. If you decide to go to Cafe TajMahal, be sure to make reservations--it was full even on a Monday night!

Cafe TajMahal
3036 Waialae Avenue
808-732-6496
Hours: 11 a.m.-2 p.m. and 5 p.m.-10 p.m. Wednesday-Monday (closed Tuesdays)

I got a call on Saturday morning from my cousin Adrienne in Caifornia: "Hi, I'm in a funk. I got a ticket to Hawaii...and am arriving tomorrow!"

Chaos! Anarchy! Fire and Brimstone! I had 24 hours to clean my apartment and make it hospitable for another human being. Thankfully, she was only staying the night before heading to Maui to see our other cousin, Mimi. Then she twists my arm: "Wanna come to Maui with me?"

Well, the air fare was only $27 one way, so why not? It's not like I have to worry about work or anything. I decided to give up my Monday (what a sacrifice) to join Adrienne on Maui.

After a busy morning of talking story while watching the sun rise over Makawao, and checking email, we finally got moving and headed to Komoda Bakery. Alas, we arrived too late: they were out of their famous cream puffs.

"I'm still hungry," Adrienne announced after a malasada and an an pan. So off we went to Hali'imaile General Store for lunch.

Adrienne's calamari salad, which she ordered without onions. She recommends you order it with the dressing on the side.

Slurrrrrp! The sashimi napoleon is a little pricey ($18) but so worth it! Not sure why it's on the pupu menu as you can eat a whole one yourself. Not to mention it gets too messy to share.

Then we went to visit Mimi at work. She's the general manager of Macy's at Queen Kaahumanu Center, so I figured it would be good to stop in and boost her sales.

Bonny, left, giving Adrienne a makeover at Macy's. That's Mimi standing behind Adrienne!

"Time for a snack," Adrienne announced.
"I want to see whales," I whined.

Our compromise was to drive out to Kihei, eat a snack, and sit on the beach and look for whales.

Talk about having it all! We had Pass-o-Guava shave ice, then saw some whale fin & tail while on the beach. Fabulous!

At that point, it was about 4 p.m.
"Time for happy hour," Adrienne announced. Five Palms in Kihei has half price pupus from 3 to 6 p.m. daily, so off we went. I don't have photos of the food since it was fairly standard.

Something about happy hour followed by a Maui sunset is really satisfying. Aaaaaahhh.

So that's how I spent my Monday...kicking it on Maui with my relatives! Even Mimi's dog, Uno, got in on the relaxation--she took a lavender bath in the morning, and had a massage in the evening. This is Uno heaving a big sigh while doing a true "downward dog." Namaste!

That was my holiday. How was yours?