Hula's Island Grill & Tiki Room @ Monterey

Am fantasized by anything tropical. The beaches, the umbrella, the Mai Tais, the flip flops, bamboo, tiki, so on and so forth. That said, the "Tiki" was more than enough to drag me to this cozy little bar and restaurant. That, and a glance at their menu, online. They seem to have a vegetarian option in most of their dishes, or rather, exotic dishes.

The long drive to Big Sur and a hike to Andrew Morela Beach resulted in a growling stomach and an insatiable hunger. We reached at around 8:30 pm and were seated right away. It was a sunday night and kind of quiet.

We got the Jungle Tofu : fried tofu, plantains, jungle curry sauce, peanuts.

This dish was packed with protein. There was tofu and lots of black beans and brown spanish rice. It had a slight mexican flavor to it.More of a fusion, I would say. It was like digging into a huge salad bowl.

From the "Fresh Fish" list, we picked the vegetairan option - Coconut Crusted Tofu, with tropical lilikoi sauce, rice, slaw. Oh boy! This is a wonderful creation, no doubt!

I don't know of any other restaurant that has such a wonderful Carribean-Spanish-Tropical fusion. If you are in Monterey, I definitely recommend dining at this little Tiki Bar.

Amir's Kabob House

By the sound of it, I pictured it to be a take-out kind of restaurant, where the menu would be hand written on the wall and the smell of charbroiled kabob would be wafting from the smoky open kitchen. But, I was pleasantly surprised to see an ethnic decor, middle eatern music playing in the back ground and a couple of belly dancers who were more than eager to entertain us with their hip drops and belly rolls.

The waitress brought out some Afghani bread to start with. The first round of bread is complimentary. We didn't need any more after that, though. We ordered the Kadu - Pan-fried butternut squash with onions and garlic served on sour cream.

Fantastic. The flavor and texture of Kadu was one of a kind. I haven't had anything like this before. Next, we asked for Bulani Plate - Grilled turnover filled with mashed potatoes and herbs served with plain yogurt.
 

This is very similar to Aloo Parantha, the Indian stuffed bread. We heated the left overs the next day and munched them on the way to Big Sur. Was fresh and as good as new.
A got the Vegetarian Platter - Served with rice, sabzi, gulpee, and banjan.

Sabzi is Sautéed spinach with onions and garlic, Gulpee is Cauliflower steamed with tomatoes, onions, and crushed peppers and Banjan is Pan-fried eggplant baked with tomatoes, onions, and garlic served on sour cream. The rice was very flavorful as well. A fantastic platter! The food was not spicy. It was perfect after the Habanero episode ;). We were really amazed to see so many vegetarian options. I highly recommend this restaurant if you are visiting Monterey.