Nothing says vacation like a few days of walking on beaches, napping intermittently — and dining on new foods. It took only a day in the 50th state to embrace the “aloha” frame of mind, and now I’m back with some Hawaiian specialties to talk about. You might have to plan a trip to Hawaii to try most of them, but soon enough, you’ll be able to get some dishes in Colorado Springs. More on that later.

First, let’s talk about . . .

- Shaved ice. Shops offering this version of the snow cone are sprinkled everywhere. Ice is finely scraped from a larger block of ice, creating a shower of frosty flakes collected in a plastic cup. The ice is molded in the cup and topped with a choice of 30 or more flavored syrups, many with a tropical bent, such as passion fruit, mango, ginger and litchi. Typically you pick three flavors. Some shops are even more exotic, offering red adzuki beans, mochi balls (tiny rice balls filled with adzuki bean paste) or sweetened condensed milk to add to your cup of shaved ice.

- Sweet bread. When my granddaughter saw it on the menu at Low International Market in Hilo, she asked, “Is that intestines?” Thankfully, the answer was no.

This is a popular sweetened bread, flavored with whole exotic fruit such as passion fruit, mangos, guavas, coconut or taro root. The bread takes on the pastel shades of the fruits — pale pink for passion fruit, pale orange for mango and soft purple for taro root.

The bread is served grilled in butter. It makes for a delicious, crunchy, sweet treat.

- Teri burgers. We spotted these — and teri chicken — on several fast-food menus. The burgers and chicken are soaked in a teriyaki soy sauce mixture before being cooked. We really liked the teri burgers topped with a fresh slice of grilled pineapple, lettuce and tomato. This dish can easily be duplicated.

- Poke. Pronounced POEkay, this is the Hawaiian version of ceviche. It’s raw fish cut into bite-size pieces and seasoned with seaweed and salt. We liked the ahi tuna version best.

- Plate lunch. Hawaiian “plate lunches” are hot meals served at delis and fast-food joints such as Low International Market or the very popular L&L Hawaiian Barbecue. The meal is starch-heavy, consisting of a meat choice, two scoops of rice and a scoop of macaroni salad drenched in mayo.

At L&L, we got the Mixed Plate Lunch, which included hamburger steak, teri beef and beef curry, along with the two starches. And we ordered Loco Moco, another favorite with the natives, consisting of two hamburger patties on rice covered with brown gravy and topped with two fried eggs.

We also had a Musubi Combo that looked like sushi rolls on the menu but didn’t have anything to do with fish. One roll was a wedge of sticky rice topped with teri chicken wrapped in seaweed nori. Another roll featured fried Portuguese sausage rings.

And finally — who would’ve thought? — a third roll was topped with fried Spam. When you learn that Hawaiians are the highest consumers of the canned meat, this ingredient choice makes sense. Yes, it was way too much food for us, but everything tasted very good — even the sort of weird Musubi collection.

If you want to experience a plate lunch, Musubi Combo or Loco Moco, you won’t have to buy an airline ticket. L&L Hawaiian Barbecue has more than 200 outlets in the U.S., including one 14221 E. Cedar Ave. in Denver. And one will open here in a couple of months at 5850 Barnes Road.

Teresa J. Farney’s column appears Wednesdays. Reach her at 636-0271.