Car Accidents & Ohta Wafer Factory

I'm a pretty bad driver. No speeding tickets, no parking tickets, but I hit a car while backing out of the Kahala Post Office last week. That was my first accident ever. And I do not plan on getting into any more car accidents in the future :( The thing with car accidents and attempting to be careful on the road is that the more you try to be careful, the more likely you are to get into an accident. You become so paranoid about not getting into an accident that you pretty much will yourself into getting into an accident! At least that's how it seems to work for me. My mom called just as I turned on the car engine, ready to head back to her office, "you're late, but just drive safely okay?" she warned. I responded with an exasperated, "okay, okay, I know!" Mom is forever concerned with my (or lack of) driving skills. I hung up the phone and started to back out. WHAM!!! I hit someone :( I didn't even completely stick the phone in my bag yet! WHAM!!! I hit it again. Oh crap. So that is my first car accident. No one was hurt, and the other car dented just a tad. But the bumper of our car was smashed in with the left side slightly hanging down. So........

Now I tell myself not to be too careful. You may think that is silly, but it works! Well I told you about that accident because I just saw an accident on the H-1 on the way to grandmas tonight, and it was quite a scary sight. One car completely was flipped over near the University exit, and 100 feet away and four lanes over was another car with the front completely smashed in. So the lesson today is drive carefully but not too carefully!

With that said, lets take a trip to Ohta Wafer Factory!!! I had not plan on coming here, and truth be told, didn't know this place existed until I had dinner at Minato a few days ago. While waiting for my dad to show up for dinner I looked out the window of Minato and saw a store that looked like the type of store I would need to enter and discover what they sold lest I remain tossing in bed all night cursing myself for not seeing what was inside.

And what was inside? Wafers of course! Lots of them! I'm actually pretty confused as to the difference between wafers, senbei, and fortune cookies, because they use all three terms for the same items in this store.

Space is tight, or cozy if you will. Open the swinging doors and you'll find yourself in a tightly packed room housing the store, machinery, and office!

Much like Iyasume (my previous post) and many mom and pops in Hawaii, the coziness of this place contributes much to its charm. The factory is run by Cathy and her husband Herb Ohta. Cathy was working out front today and she was more than helpful in helping me decide just what exactly I wanted (so many options I tell you!)

Just look at these! Fortune cookies come in flavors such as strawberry, green tea and chocolate.

After quite a bit of hemming and hawing (and a lot of wishing I could just buy two pieces of every single item), I decide on the chocolate fortune cookies and miso senbei.

First up are the chocolate fortune cookies ($6.50), crisp creatures that are slightly more thicker than your average fortune cookies. It's not super chocolatey, and the light chocolate flavor is just enough to notice. You know what would be super awesome? If they took a big chunk of dark chocolate, chopped it into shards and folded into the batter, yes, yes! My first fortune said, "worry is like a rocking chair, it takes you back and forth but gets you nowhere." So I told myself I wouldn't worry anymore and bought a pint of Haagen Dasz mint chocolate on the way home. Minty ice cream and crushed up chocolate fortune cookies pair pretty darn well!

The miso senbei ($2.50) grows on you very slowly. My mom doesn't like it and it wasn't till the third or fourth piece did I start thinking, hmmm, I'm kinda enjoying this. It wasn't that the miso element wasn't strong enough...it was the opposite. I couldn't make out any miso at all :( It tasted just like a mini, more shiny fortune cookie folded into a different shape. But then if you eat four or five it a row, a slight miso flavor starts to come through, just barely. I was hoping for something super miso-y, and I was a bit let down. Nonetheless, I'll be back for the strawberry and green tea fortune cookies - they're too cute to pass up!

Ohta Wafer Factory
931 Hauoli Street
Honolulu, Hawaii 96826
(808) 949-2775