It is taking a bit of time to post pictures from our vacation in Hawaii. In the meantime, here is a reworking of David Fincher’s “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” teaser trailer. Please enjoy with the sound up.
Category Archives: Vacation
Selecting a Hotel in Hawaii: A Study of Tiki Torches
Hotels
We stayed in three hotels while vacationing on the Hawaiian Islands. We picked them by surfing the Internet. Nothing novel about that. All hotels have web sites – some very good – and they have very good descriptions of services and amenities. Personally, we are just as comfortable researching hotels with a computer as we are using a travel agent. Maybe more comfortable.
If hotels advertise with such accuracy, what more do you need?
While we found that hotels are very good about disclosing their superlatives, they were less than forthcoming about their shortcomings. This is not shocking. No hotel is going to tell you the lush gardens exist only near the lobby or that the concierge recommends only vegan restaurants.
This gets to an important point: What are Ruth and Doug looking for in a hotel? We like consistency and availability. Specifics are not important because we don’t know what we want until we want it. We’re on vacation. It’s all new, different, and intentionally hedonistic.
Ideally, there would be a fresh Mai Tai within reach at all times. At the pool: Mai Tai. Waiting for the valet: Mai Tai. In the shower: Mai Tai.
But that’s a fantasy. Here are some real questions that came up on our Hawaiian vacation:
- How long will it take me to get from the room to the pool?
- How long will it take for me to get/get to my car?
- Does my room bear any resemblance to the palace-like lobby?
- Is my walk to the pool as nice as the pool area itself?
- What percentage of the time will the concierge give me accurate information?
Notice that there are no correct answers. All hotels are going to be somewhere on a scale that has a lot to do with how much you are paying. Aside from price, is there any way to measure these non-tangable characteristics?
Tiki Torches
Hawaii offers a unique attribute for all hotels better than mid-grade: Propane fired tiki torches. It was our observation that the use of tiki torches across all hotels we visited provided a method of normalizing our comparison. Regardless of how big a hotel is, how far from the beach it is, or if it is independent or chain owned, they all have tiki torches.
Tiki torches are useful as a method of comparison because there is a uniform cost associated with operating and maintaining them. Also, there are variations in their placement (density and distribution) that allow for an apples-to-apples comparison of different properties. The study of tiki torches is an allegory for the quest for hotel perfection.
Here are common traits that can be used for comparison:
- Torches are planted either singularly or in pairs. The pairs look more impressive. We saw evidence of a hotel that once offered “triples”, but had since downgraded to singles, an obvious sign of decline in the hotel itself.
- Distance between torches. Torches were typically spaced every 20 yards or every 40 yards. Shorter distances were preferred for the comfort of being able to “see your next torch.”
- Distribution of torches. Some hotels loaded-up the lobby or pool area with torches, but used electric lighting to get you back to your room. Consistent torch use was preferred since we considered ourselves to be on vacation even when we were in our room.
Hotels vs. Tiki Torches
Based on this system, we have developed a chart to compare hotels using the common 5 star ranking system:
The relative association between hotel service and use of tiki torches.
The pictograms read as follows:
- 3 Stars: Torches near the lobby and electric everywhere else.
- 3 ½ Stars: Single torches placed evenly, but far apart.
- 4 Stars: Pairs of torches placed evenly, but far apart.
- 4 ½ Stars: Pairs of torches placed evenly and close together.
- 5 Stars: Pairs of torches placed evenly and close together with a high-end burner.
Yes, that last one was not previously discussed. To get 5 stars, you need to upgrade from the cone-on-a-pipe torch to the fancy artisan shade covering a burner more akin to your propane grill. These torches had a more refined look both because of the blue-er flame and because of the shadows cast from the shade.
Conclusion
If you’re planning a trip to Hawaii and you want to know if you are getting a good deal on your hotel or you require a certain level of service, we recommend asking about the tiki torches. Measurements are important, so don’t let them get away with saying “we have a lot of torches.” They all have a lot of torches. Get the facts and your will have a fantastic trip.
Moto
We have watched Future Food on the Planet Green Television Channel. It depicts Chefs Omar Cantu and Ben Roche attempting the save the world by finding inventive ways to recycle food. The show is ridiculous.
Aside from questioning whether it’s even reasonable to try to reuse prepared food (over and above reheating your leftovers), the energy cost of processing food is anything but green. Green or not, the show does teach some pretty cool ways to cook using liquid nitrogen, centrifuges, high frequency agitators, and a variety of chemicals used to change the consistency of everyday ingredients.
Moto is the restaurant in Chicago where all of this takes place. While the show is sometimes silly, the restaurant serves highly acclaimed food (or at least highly debated food) and looked like a fun place to go. Plus, we had already eaten at WD-50 where similar cooking techniques are used, so a comparison seemed worthwhile.
The taxi drivers in Chicago are great. This is important to know, because when arrive at Moto’s address the middle of the meat packing district – at night – you might question if you are in the right place.
You are. Tucked in with the warehouses and loading docks is a very unassuming doorway. The fact that there is sign next to the door lends little comfort. The building is dark and it took the valet standing on the street to usher us inside.
Inside it remains dark. The room is dimly lit and starkly decorated in ultra modern fashion. The host greets us warmly and we are seated right away.
The first thing that comes to mind is that there is no bar. There must be one somewhere, but the room doesn’t look anything like on TV. Our conclusion is that there is a separate doorway to another part of the restaurant.
Two tasting menus are offered: a 10 course and a 20 course. We had selected the 10 course when the reservation was made, so we were immediately given the edible list of things we would be dining on.
Yes, the menu is meant to be eaten. This is a good start to a dinner that promises to be weird and inventive. Is the menu tasty, you ask? Well, it’s a cracker, but the spinach purée was a good accompaniment.
The evening is a bit of a blur; although, there were memorable high points.
The Snow Man is presented in a bowl atop a pile of raw tuna. The snow man is made of lime foam and has a face drawn on with black sea salt. The server then pours a Margarita-like liquid over the snow man, melting it like the Frosty the Snowman, and forms a kind of instant ceviche with the tuna. Really tasty and Ruth’s favorite course.
The White Steel was interesting combination of escolar with grapefruit as a different kind of acid to serve with the fish. The Maitake and Pork Belly was really good, but when is pork belly not good?
Things started to get more creative with the Quail and Cracker Jack with combined flavors of peanuts, popcorn, caramel – and quail. A definite winner that included more soy ink printing. The Rabbit Maki was a clever presentation of sushi that is not sushi, also very good.
The Reuben Lasagna was good, but a but obvious. The Mexican Cannoli might have been good, but since we had just eaten at Topolobampo, we deemed the molé sauce to be very much sub-standard.
The desserts were a little disappointing. Given the technical nature of dessert making in general, we though this is where Moto would excel. We found the desserts to be overly simplistic.
The Frozen Yogurt was an interesting presentation with the yogurt frozen in a big squiggle, but not amazing in flavor. The Chamomile and Pineapple was an unfortunate flavor combination that we just didn’t enjoy.
The Banana Split was a fun dish, allowing us to squirt the ice cream with chocolate, cherry, and caramel sauce from individual pipettes. The flavors we exactly as expected, which was a bit of a let down. The Tuber Melanosporum is a cute way of saying truffle, in this case chocolate. We can no longer remember what accompanied it.
We excitedly awaited the packing peanut. The edible packing peanut was featured on the TV show as a food/packing material. We had seen other tables receive them an we saw that they were served atop a beaker containing super chilled liquid that caused people to blow vapor from their mouths. Ours was delivered while we were still eating the truffles and it warmed up before we could drink it. Bummer.
Regarding the service: it wasn’t great. At this price point, we expect perfection and it wasn’t. Courses didn’t come out very consistently. The restaurant wasn’t overly busy, but the waitstaff seemed distracted at times. When the people next to us got their snow man waiter forget to melt it. We had to waive them off from eating the tuna pre-ceviche.
The bathrooms were unexpectedly plain. We have a picture of the flushless urinal, but when not in use, it just looks like a urinal, so no picture posted.