Do you know people who are creatures of habit?  What exactly does it mean to be a creature of habit?  At this moment, I am using the term to refer to someone who, when they find something they enjoy, like a restaurant, go to the same restaurant over and over again. I mean, a lot.  An example is my son.  He is a picky eater and so he is a creature of habit. He could eat the cutlet loco or smokie loco from Cafe 100 in Hilo every single day. He will not tire of it. He is not adventurous when it comes to food.

I recently went on vacation to New York City with my family. On a previous trip, we discovered Sake Bar Hagi, an izakaya in the theater district. It is a restaurant where you’ll find a lot of locals filling the small but crowded space. My picky-eater son loves Japanese food and so of course, he loves it. The proximity of the restaurant to the theater district where we usually stay makes eating at Sake Bar Hagi a convenient choice for my family.  In fact, we were in NYC for one week and went to Sake Bar Hagi three times!  I would have preferred to try different restaurants, but I was outvoted by my husband and my son on this decision.Also in NYC, a Buffalo Wild Wings was located right across our hotel.  My daughter loves buffalo wings, so each day as we pass the restaurant, she would beg us to take her there. I prefer to go to smaller, non-chain kinds of restaurants but we decided to indulge her and stop there for a late-night snack after watching a musical on Broadway.  Big mistake!  My husband ended up enjoying it so much, we went there for a second late-night stop and a final late-night take out.  Three times at Buffalo Wild Wings! This time, my husband and my daughter were the ones to outvote me on choosing somewhere different.

Ultimately, though, no matter what we ate or where we ate it, whether it was a meal in a restaurant, gyro from a diner, Halal takeout from a food truck, caviar from a gourmet deli, or a pretzel from a cart in Central Park, our family had a great time exploring and enjoying NYC together. Spending time with family in a place that we all love–even if it was extremely cold–is the experience I love.  I’m a creature of habit for family time.Living Hilo Style in NYC!