🦃 Turkish food on Turkey Day in Hawaii?


👋 Hello from Honolulu!

I wrapped up my time on Maui with an early Thanksgiving with my family (including a special trek upcountry for our favorite pumpkin pie from Komoda Bakery) to cap off a few weeks of delicious memories. I hope that you and your loved ones also had a nice holiday!

Next I headed to Honolulu for a special Thanksgiving dinner invitation to finally try Istanbul Hawaii! I've been following Chef Ahu & Chef Nili eagerly from Turkiye, and watched as their restaurant came to life. Over the years, they've picked up many accolades and I couldn't wait to try for myself.

See my friend @Melissa808's reel about the special dishes we tried:

Now it’s another Black Friday and this year I decided at the last minute to discount Google Map Magic again to $1 this year. It’s a flash sale in order to show off the new update and audio companion that I’ve added recently!

(If you have the older version and haven’t received an email to get access to the audiobook yet, just hit reply and let me know! 🎧)

Tomorrow is Small Business Saturday and that’s really the “holiday” that I’d shop, if any. It’s the small businesses and local multi-generational institutions that need our support, not the billionaires!

But just in case you DO need to shop for something, I’ve got a list of my favorite Black Friday deals for travel, local deals in Hawaii, and for business-related products that I use. I'll keep it updated throughout the weekend as I hear of other deals.

👉 Will you be shopping this weekend or have you cut back or stopped shopping altogether? I love learning about my readers and I do read and respond to all replies, so hit reply and tell me!

New on Shoyu Sugar 🎉

I've loved hearing the Hawaiian language spoken in more places since I've been back in the islands. Next I'll be switching to Japanese to prepare for the next two months in Japan.

Are YOU studying a language? Looking for some tips or direction in your studies? Take $5 off the normal price for a language learning consultation with me:

This email may contain affiliate links, which means purchases made through those links earn me a commission, at no extra cost to you. For details, please see my privacy policy. You can unsubscribe from this list at any time from the bottom of the email.

Destination Inspiration ✈

Feeling Lucky🍀

  • Win a trip for 2 to Switzerland including airfare, a luggage set and a $1000 gift card for accomodations and meals. Details here.
  • Win an 8-day river cruise from Universal Studios to celebrate the Downtown Abbey Grand Finale. Enter by 12/3. Details here.
  • HGTV is offering a chance to win $5000 cash in their $5k for Holiday giveaway. You can enter once per day until 1/7. Details here.

Have a great weekend!

✈ What's new in the community?

Join our Savor the Journey Facebook Group and get a daily dose of travel and food stories and a chance to engage with like-minded travelers. Come join in discussions on the sake scene in Niigata, Japan and memorable meals from over the years this week.

✨ New language course alert!

The Meal-a-Day Method shows you how to use one meal a day as your language practice anchor, with a short video and printable guides you can use on your next trip. Just $5 for newsletter readers.

Learn More→

📬 Want a postcard from the road?

There’s something about ink, paper, and faraway postmarks that feels like analog magic, don't you think? If you’d like a handwritten postcard from Hawaii, just reply with your mailing address and I’ll add you to my list. ✨💌

👋 Hi, I'm Malia Yoshioka!

I'm a freelance food and travel writer and guidebook author from Hawaii, slowly eating my way around the world and sharing the flavors with you in these weekly updates and on ShoyuSugar.com

You're on my list because you signed up on my website, purchased one of my products, or watched my presentation at a summit. I hope you'll enjoy the weekly content here, but feel free to use the "unsubscribe" button at the bottom of any email from me if you need to. No hard feelings!

👉 Catch up on past editions of the newsletter here

This newsletter is a labor of love from me to you! 💌

I hope you enjoy the behind the scenes look at my work as well as specially curated food, travel and language news from around the world.

If you'd like to help to support my work, please feel free to use my virtual tip jar.

My inbox is always open and I'd love to hear from you if you have questions, feedback or suggestions. And of course if you no longer want to receive these newsletters, no hard feelings. Just click the unsubscribe button below.


440 N. Barranca Ave #4598, Covina, CA 91723

Unsubscribe · Preferences

Shoyu Sugar

Malia Yoshioka is a freelance Food & Travel Writer and ESL Tutor from Hawaii. She's slowly eating her way around the world, 43 countries and counting so far! Get behind the scenes news, travel tips and the best food stories from around the web in her weekly Savor the Journey newsletter.

Read more from Shoyu Sugar
The sign outside of Tasty Crust in Wailuku Maui, reads "Tasty Crust" World Famous Pancakes" above a red and white Coca-Cola logo. The local diner is visible with its parking lot to the left, a Wailuku road to the right and blue skies above.

👋 Aloha friends, Whew, I made my deadline! Now I’m taking a little time to visit friends and family and make my way to as many local spots as possible before it’s time to go back to the rails. Two "firsts" that have been on my Maui list for a while: First Friday in Wailuku and something people might be surprised to hear… my first time trying the "World Famous Pancakes" at Tasty Crust! Tasty Crust is the kind of local diner where generations have gathered. My dad told us about going there...

👋 Aloha friends, If you joined me through the 2026 DIY Trip Summit, another warm welcome. I hope your trip planning is going well! After nearly three months in Japan, I’ve swapped plum blossoms and takoyaki for trade winds and poke back home in Hawaii. I’ll have my head down this week, putting the final touches on a guidebook update. It’s not glamorous work, lots of fact checking phone calls, photos and on-the-ground research, but I'm grateful to be able to show visitors some of my hometown...

🌸 Greetings from Osaka, The first blossoms are beginning to open against blue skies, such a contrast to the snow from only a week ago. This month I’ve been taking a food writing course, and there's one idea I keep returning to when the rest of the world feels too heavy to be writing about something like food or travel. Writing about food is rarely just about the food. It opens into culture, history, language, identity, power. It is a way to stay curious and connected. During Mahina ʻŌlelo...