The Quest
On Saturday, I decided to go out to get a late lunch/early dinner. I decided on having Chinese food, but when I arrived at the restaurant the place was packed with people. Not a problem, Manoa has many restaurants to choose from. I walked over to a nearby Japanese
restaurant, but they were closed. I then went up the street to the noodle house, and they were packed with a line coming out the door. Darn those senior citizens and their early meal specials!
It was about this time that I was struck by a craving for lasagna. Such lasagna cravings are almost always present, but usually the craving rests latent beneath my skin. Now the craving had spread beyond the flesh and had entered the marrow of my bones. Unfortunately, with all the restaurants here in Manoa, there isn’t one authentic Italian eatery in the bunch.
I remembered seeing a little hole in the wall Italian restaurant several blocks away on King Street. The weather was clear, and the walk didn’t take too long. However, when I arrived at the restaurant, it too was closed. I then remembered seeing another little Italian style place a few more blocks up and began walking.
When I arrived at the restaurant and saw the Closed sign in the window, I just had to laugh. The craving had now turned into a quest, and lasagna had become secondary to my drive to find an Italian restaurant that was open.
Since I was now only a few blocks away from Ala Moana Center, I decided that I would see if they had something to satisfy my craving and that would put this quest to an end. If all else failed, I could lower my Italian restaurant expectations and visit the Food Court.
When I was about a block away from Ala Moana, I saw Pietro. I had seen the place several times through the years, but never actually ate there. But the name sounds Italian! I glanced through the window at what others were eating, and everyone had pasta. Jackpot! I now understood how Columbus must have felt at the end of his journey.
Pietro is a nice place. Not fine dining nice, but comfortable nice. You have to understand that I generally eat out in places in Manoa, where the food is great, but most times it is served on a paper plate or a plastic bowl, and breakaway chopsticks are somewhat the norm. So anytime I visit a place that offers a chair where all four legs touch the floor simultaneously, I’m usually impressed. Anyway, they didn’t have lasagna at Pietro, but at this point I didn’t care. I ordered the spaghetti with sausage and mushrooms. It was tasty, and the fried onion placed on top was a nice touch.