Piper J. Drake | True Heroes Foods IRL!

In April of 2017, I went to Hawaii for a long weekend to research locations, people, and food on Oahu. For readers new to my books, I try to make my stories action-packed with robust love stories and there's always at least one character with an intense appreciation for food. Oahu has some great local dishes and here's a bit of insight into the research I did on each of them. Some of these might pop up in TOTAL BRAVERY, or my characters might enjoy them in future books. Loco Moco

This meal hits all the right spots either late at night, early in the morning,
or just about any time of day. It comes in many variations but the basic concept
is white rice topped with one or more hamburger patties, a runny fried egg, and
brown gravy. It's savory and rich, hot and filling.

Matthew J. Drake, our friend (we'll call him The Roaming Artist), and I tried
loco moco in several places at several times of day. Our hands-down favorite was
late night at the Rainbow Drive-In served simple, with no-frills, on a Styrofoam
plate and eaten with plastic cutlery. It was amazing.

Actually, we didn't get a picture of it because we wolfed it down so fast, so
I've included another loco moco picture from a sunny day at the Dole plantation.

Hawaiian Shave Ice

Shave ice is available all over the island and it's a refreshing snack or
dessert. We went to Matsumoto Shave Ice on the North Shore and literally got the
Ichiban Special: a foundation of slightly sweet azuki beans topped by a huge
ball of shave ice generously flavored with lychee syrup (you can choose your
flavor, lychee is one of my favorites) and drizzled with sweetened condensed
milk served in a waffle dish with chewy mochi balls on the side.

Musubi

The simplest form of musubi is sushi rice layered with a cooked slice of Spam,
wrapped in seaweed. My personal favorite includes a layer of omelet in with the
Spam and the rice. I didn't expect to enjoy it as much as I did at first and
once I'd had one, I made sure to always have a couple in my bag as we traveled
around the island because you just never knew when you'd be in need of a snack
and these were perfect.

Musubi can be found in most convenience stores on the island. There's also a
couple of really good little shops for both musubi and onigiri (rice balls).
I've started making these at home now because I've become so addicted to them as
snacks.

Soft Serve Green Tea Ice Cream

I'm used to sweet vanilla or chocolate soft serve and when we stopped for a cool
treat, this green tea soft serve was so surprisingly wonderful. It wasn't too
sweet and kept so much of the fantastic macha green tea flavor – it literally
blew our minds. Both Matthew J. Drake and I loved it and he normally doesn't go
for sweets at all.

So there you have them, some of our favorite food adventures during my research trip to Oahu for the True Heroes series. Of these, do any look good to you?

Play Find the Piper around the Internet for insight into her frequent travels
and inspirations for her stories.