At the Farmers Market
Saturday, November 1, 2025
We took the Waikiki Trolley to the Farmers Market near Diamond Head. My calves were still screaming from yesterday’s hike — every time I looked up at the crater, I kept thinking, Did I really climb that?
I’d heard great things about this market and was glad to finally see it. Plenty of food stalls. We started with a Portuguese sausage sandwich, then spotted a stand from The Pig and the Lady, a Vietnamese spot we’ve eaten at before. We grabbed a bowl of Bún Chả (pork and noodles), wandered a bit more, and then caught the trolley back to the hotel.
The rest of the afternoon was pool time. Finding a seat was ridiculous — at any moment, 80% of the chairs were empty but “reserved” with a single towel like we were back in grade school saving seats at an assembly.
What really stood out, though, was how many people spent the entire time staring into their phones. I made it a point to actually be there: the sound of the ocean, Hawaiian music drifting in the background, the Royal Hawaiian’s pink umbrellas, the breeze, the smell of flowers and sunscreen. Meanwhile, everyone else seemed mentally somewhere inside Facebook. Why come all the way to Hawaii just to fall into the same screen you stare at at home?
That night we went to another Hawaii Food & Wine Festival event, this time at the convention center. In past years it was held on the rooftop, but this year it was inside a giant ballroom. Honestly, I preferred the air-conditioning over the “under the stars” vibe. At one point the room erupted into cheers — someone yelled “Let’s go Dodgers!” and I realized they must have won the World Series.
The event itself was fantastic: tons of well-known chefs and wineries, lots of great dishes, and a few surprises I didn’t expect to like. I’ve been to a lot of food festivals that I never bother returning to. But I’ve been attending Hawaii Food & Wine Festival events for close to ten years now — that says something.
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