Macadamia Nut Tempura Fried Ice Cream, Sansei Seafood Restaurant & Sushi Bar, Waikiki, Honolulu

A few nights before this we went out but John and Susan weren’t with us. Someone asked where they were and I said “They’re having a romantic dinner alone. I guess when you’ve been dating for almost 3 years you don’t do that,” referring to the fact that when we go to Hawaii we always do things in groups and Dallas and I hadn’t had any romantic dinner night alone. And then he actually surprised me by saying, “well we could do that on Friday” and then we did.

We went to Sansei Seafood Restaurant and Sushi Bar, located in our hotel, the Waikiki Beach Marriott Resort & Spa. This is a photo of our dessert, Macadamia Nut Tempura Fried Ice Cream with house made caramel & chocolate sauce, but dessert wasn’t the only good thing we had. Everything was spectacular. Dallas and I couldn’t decide what we wanted to have for entrees, so we just ordered a bunch of pupus and maki and some soup and everything and shared. I didn’t take notes on what we had but I remember -

• Various, maybe 3?, different maki rolls
• DK’s Dungeness Crab Ramen “Taste of Lahaina Winner”: fresh ramen with a black truffle butter dashi, julienne Thai basil, cilantro & diced jalapeno peppers with dungeness crab
• Hamachi Kama. This was a special that night. The kama is the collar, or the area of the hamachi fish surrounding the first fins near the face of the fish.
• Mango Crab Salad Hand Roll: ripe mango, blue crab, Nalo greens and crunchy peanuts wrapped in Mamenori and served with sweet Thai chili vinaigrette
• Lobster & Blue Crab Ravioli: filled with sweet lobster, blue crab and rock shrimp in a rich truffled shiitake mushroom and madeira cream sauce
• Macadamia Nut Tempura Fried Ice Cream: vanilla ice cream wrapped with buttery pound cake rolled in roasted macadamia nuts, flash-fried and served with chocolate and caramel sauces

At about 10pm the lights dimmed, there was a last call for the full menu, and some karaoke people started setting up their rig. No one in the place was volunteering to sing, though, so the man with the machine and his wife started singing. They were so into it, it was hysterical. And they played the maracas with every song. It was funny. When we got home we were listening to some music and I said to Dallas, “you know what this song could use? Maracas!”