The awesome dinner in Hawaii with an all-star team of local food journalists was amazing, but it wasn't the only great meal I had there. I was in Hawaii for a journalism conference held by the East-West Center. I fully expected to learn a lot about trans-Pacific relations, but I had no idea that the EWC staff would give us a side lesson in Hawaii's food. The highlight was what they served at a working lunch.

The plate lunch above served as something of a greatest hits of the local cuisine: lomi lomi salmon (a bit like ceviche, but cured with salt instead of citrus juice), pork two ways (!) and rice. Kalua pork is a slow roasted marvel. Pork lau lau is cooked wrapped in taro leaves. For dessert we had haupia, a coconut treat I greatly enjoyed. We had it in pudding form, but it also shows up as ice cream and pasty filling. Speaking of pastries, on another day, we were served Liliha Bakery's iconic coco puffs, chocolate creme puffs iced with an astonishingly rich sweet butter frosting. Everything was "ono" - delicious.

And like I did at the dinner with food writers, I took advice Sporkful eaters gave in the comments as much as I could. Among them were a great seafood dinner at Orchids and superb shave ice with all the fixins at Waiola. Quite a trip - thanks again to my local dining companions and to everyone who sent along ideas! You eaters are my heroes. /mark