Mililani Sunday Farmer's Market

This morning, a Sunday, we got up relatively early (or tried to) in order to make it to the Mililani Sunday Farmers' Market. Mililani is about half an hour from where we live, but since we got every possible red light on our way to the highway it probably took us a little longer than that.

This is pretty much the entire Mililani Sunday Farmers' Market. Considering there were only around twenty vendor stalls, the selection was very good.

This farmers' market is open every Sunday from 8-11 a.m., but since we'd never come here before we wanted to arrive as soon as it opened. We got pretty close, but it didn't really matter since crowds weren't a problem.

Vendor from Ba Le

The vendor in the photo above was from a local Vietnamese restaurant chain called Ba Le. They sold all kinds of bread as well as various Vietnamese foodstuffs. Ba Le is well known for their sandwiches, and we bought French baguettes and pickled vegetables from them so that we could make our own Vietnamese sandwiches at home.

Lining up with a fistful of huge scallions.

It wasn't long before both our stomachs started complaining, so I led us toward a sign I'd spotted a few minutes earlier. Not surprisingly, Hawaiian farmers' markets generally have lots of people cooking and selling local fare. There are almost never any vegetarian choices, and the meat dishes tend to be heavy and rich. That's fairly typical for Hawaii generally, and I guess it makes sense that the farmers' markets would reflect that predilection.

Somehow, I generally prefer something sweet rather than savory for breakfast, but I didn't have much choice today. There were people making omelets here, as well as fried rice, "gourmet" chili, kalua pork, and shrimp scampi.

They also sold deep-fried taro mochi, but my wife wouldn't let me buy any. If only my metabolism wasn't so abysmally low...

This probably wasn't much better for me to eat, but it was more my wife's style, so we got this version of coronary thrombosis instead of the sweet, crunchy, deep-fried variety. What is it? How about a chili and kalua pork omelet with rice and a side salad? We also ordered a cup of 100% Kona coffee, which was a nice way to finish the meal while also copping a pleasant caffeine buzz.

Here's a nice little shot of our breakfast.

When we got home I basically dumped everything we bought, including that orchid, onto our dining table and took stock of all our purchases.

We stocked up on a lot of fresh vegetables this weekend. My in-laws are visiting for a couple of days before we fly to the Big Island for a quick getaway together, and I expect we'll cook a lot before leaving town. More mouths to feed = twice the groceries I'm used to having on hand.


Our stop at the Ba Le sandwich shop proved worthwhile, as did our purchase of Japanese cucumbers and cilantro. Even though we only had about half the ingredients available for the kind of Vietnamese sandwiches we like most, this was a decent effort. Of course, the test is in the taste, and to me it tasted great.

Now, where did I put that coconut pudding I bought this morning...