The cherry on top of a long weekend is a short week. Last weekend really jump-started our
motivation to explore every inch of Hawaii and I cannot wait for this one. Valentine’s
Day was super low key. I went to the
farmers’ market in the morning and it was delightful. I’m definitely making that a weekly
tradition. For dinner we stayed in (we
swore off going out to eat on V-Day years ago due to the crowds and pricey prix
fixe menus) and Lloyd cooked the roasted
cod on large garlic croutons I had the ingredients for. The only swap we made was the fish – we used
saba instead of cod, which threw our taste buds for a bit of a loop. Saba is a
type of mackerel and high on the “fishy,” or more politely, “oceanic”
scale. Maybe not the best choice for a romantic
Valentine’s Day dinner.

In contrast, Sunday we had friends over for grilled abalone,
which were mild and marvelous. In fact,
we were all so enamored with them that they got gobbled up before I could get a
picture. But this will be a re-do in the
very near future.

The weekend wound down with a drink and appetizers at
Haleiwa Joe’s just up the road from our house.
We tried traditional poke for the first time. Poke is no chicken wings
and nachos. It’s probably the most healthful
appetizer I know – pieces of raw, fresh fish mixed with minced vegetables and
seaweed. It was so good. Lloyd and I fought over every last little
tuna cube.