We had tried for Max's Beefy Burgers (Swisher had
never tried it, though it's a mile or two from his
stomping ground), but it was closed on Sunday, so we
swung back next day and discovered it to have been
renamed Max Burger Hawaiian BBQ (under new management).

It's in a square space that must have been an outlet
of some chain or other in a previous incarnation - I
vote for KFC.

We were greeted by a cute possibly part Japanese
cashier who however didn't offer to help me read
the menu, which was just at the limit of my field
of vision. All the food appeared to be sourceable
from a frozen commissary, but it was late to back out.

Neither of us had a burger, opting instead for things
that cost twice as much.

My seafood platter- 3 shrimp, 1 fish, 2 scallops,
2 oysters - was the high ticket item. It was cheap
for such a platter, but I hoped against hope that
it wasn't all frozen. It was. The shrimp were from
a good purveyor, though, and the 32-36-cters,
butterflied to make them look bigger, tasted good,
as did the thickish breading. Oddly, together they
were less than the sum of the parts, so I peeled
off the coating and ate it separately, then the
shrimp, which were nicely done and nicely shrimpy.
The scallops and oysters were clearly from a different
source - the breading was different, untasty, and
of a strange flavor that in the case of the oysters
obscured and in that of the scallops dominated - good
in both cases, as the oysters were a bit funky, as if
previously canned, and the scallops (actually one
bisected one) totally tasteless jelly. I was
apprehensive about the fish and saved it for last.
Turns out it was a quarter pound or more of juicy
halibut, done to a turn, no doubt from the supplier of
the shrimp rather than that of the other stuff - it
was actually excellent and of a quality that would
grace a real restaurant. I substituted rings (pretty
good though extremely salty, quite crunchy and with
reasonable onioniness) for the fries that normally
come; I was charged the difference in price, $2.45.

Swisher's Hawaiian special was teriyaki beef with a
scoop each of mac salad and steamed rice. He liked
them enough to have scarfed it all down before I
reached the halfway point of my pretty sizable dinner.
I had a taste of the beef, which was okay and pretty
much as expected, though less gristly than most of
what I've tasted in the Islands (that is a minus).

On the way out, the cashier took off her glasses
and smiled at me. My heart melted.

We hung around the condo until time to pick Lilli
up around midnight. During that time, we consumed
the rest of that godforsaken bottle of Sauvignon
Blanc, a few beers, and some spaghetti sauce that
I'd made a day or so before, over angel hair that
Swisher fixed.
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