Sponsored Edition: Mid-Afternoon Delight

It’s Monday morning and you’re already dragging. Your alarm clock didn’t go off. You spilled your coffee on your brand new dress getting out of the car at work. You open your e-mail and find 40 messages (all marked urgent) in your inbox – including one from your boss, who needs to see you in his office. Right Now.

Maybe it’s time for an extended lunch break.

Head over to Royal Hawaiian Center for the H.I.S. LeaLea Food Festival. Sure to put the pep right back in your step (or at least something yummy in your tummy), Monday’s food festival promises to bring out tasty bites from all your favorite local eateries. Set your phone to go straight to voicemail, then stroll around the Royal Grove and contemplate your options.

Feel like burying yourself under a layer of cheese? Opt for the quesadillas from Senior Frog’s. Looking for comfort in local-style grinds? Head straight to Okonomiyaki Chibo Restaurant’s booth, where you can snap up ahi poke and fried yakisoba.

If juicy steak sliders will beef up your Monday un-fun-day, stop by Wolfgang’s Steakhouse by Wolfgang Zwiener’s booth. And finally, soothe your bruised ego by treating yourself to something sweet. Local favorite, Panya Waikiki, will be offering up mini-sweets just perfect for assuaging the pain of a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day.

And since you’re already at the mall, you might as well take a few minutes to shop any one of Royal Hawaiian Center’s many fabulous stores. You do, after all, need to replace that coffee-stained number.

Do all that and still make it back to the office by 2:30 p.m.?

Now that’s a power lunch.

H.I.S. LeaLea Food Festival, Monday, April 30, 2012, 11 a.m.-2 p.m., Royal Hawaiian Center, 2201 Kalakaua Ave. Admission is $40 for eight tickets, each good for one dish. For more information, click here or call (808) 923-3412.