19Feb / 2025

Sushi Que – Honolulu, HI

We were fortunate to be invited by friends to dine at Sushi Que. Sushi Que is a newish-still sushi joint, very small mom and pop run shop on King Street. They are located near Golden Pork Tonkotsu Ramen Bar. Parking is obviously very limited so we actually caught an Uber over. This is a very small shop so you definitely should not show up as a walk-in. And it also seems like their reservations are booked out months in advance so keep that in mind when you plan your trip. For an omakase restaurant, it’s about $100 which is very cheap compared to the other omakase restaurants (where it’s usually $150 minimum). Even though it’s a cheaper price, they do not skimp on quality or service. It’s BYOB but no corkage fee, wow! That’s a super rare find, just make sure you offer up some drinks to the Taisho and staff! 🙂 This is going to be a long post, strap in.

Seafood Bouillabase Soup Starter

Deeply rich in seafood flavor, you can taste every layer. Rich flavor in a light broth.

Ankimo (Monkfish Liver)
monkfish liver, cucumbers, wakame, daikon and goma served with a sweet ponzu sauce

Ankimo is one of my favorite dishes in any Japanese restaurant. This was no exception, so creamy with a clean taste – no fishiness at all. Delicious!

Himalayan Pink Salt

I have never seen this before! They served each dinner your own slab of himaylan pink salt that you can add a squeeze of lime to (I think it was lime). This goes with the sashimi slices coming up in the next picture.

Sashimi
Hamachi, Red Snapper, Salmon, Octopus (2 pcs), and Snapper Belly (for me, amaebi for everyone else)

They were very nice in accommodating my raw shrimp allergy and the red snapper belly was amazing. The octopus pieces actually contains a sucker, very interesting texture – crunchy and fresh. A bit chewy but not tough. So yes, you can use the himalayan salt slab to dip the sashimi into if you want! No soy sauce. It was wonderful.

Fresh Washington Oyster
served with sea grapes and ikura

I love oysters so much and these were so fresh and delicious. Clean ocean taste, the crunchiness of the sea grapes and the richness of the ikura only help to accentuate the fresh taste of the oyster.

South African Lobster Tail

This was the same lobster used to make the bouillabase soup. Very light on the seasoning for this lobster which was good because it allowed the tasty and fleshy piece of lobster’s taste shine through!

Otoro

Do I really need to say more? Can you get much better than Otoro? No. It was everything you could hope for. Melt in your mouth goodness. Love the tare he brushes on, nice dashi taste.

Flounder Fin with Ume Shiso Leaf

Ding ding ding. I don’t know if I have ever had flounder before this night and now I will never forget it. This was probably my favorite dish of the night. I loved it. Soft and tender piece of flounder with a light punch of ume and shiso – they blend so well together.

Hotate Scallop (not pictured, oops – got too excited to eat)
served with yuzu pepper, fresh, tender and sweet.

Caledonia Shrimp

Best shrimp I have ever tasted. Simple preparation and seasoning, nothing to overpower the natural taste of the shrimp. So good. This one is cooked so I was able to partake!

Ikura Nigiri

Another miso soup? Gosh I’m getting confused with the order of my photos!

Uni Wrap

Fresh uni from Japan wrapped with a crunchy piece of nori. Oh gosh, you know this is good uni because there is absolutely no bitterness to it, just sweet creamy goodness.

Otoro with Takuan Hand Roll

Omakases usually end with a nice handroll and this was great. Nice negitoro with otoro meat and the minced daikon adds a nice sweet crunch.

End of the omakase brings out the ala carte menu in case you want to order any extras or maybe a dish that wasn’t part of the omakase!

I ordered another flounder fin sushi – it was that good.

Shirako | $9.00

IYKYK what this is…was excited we could order it! Super creamy so I know it was fresh and good quality. They warmed the dish up in a broth and it was so nice.

Saba

Egg Omelet? I don’t even remember getting this??

Sujiko Hand Roll

Another order of Otoro!

Salmon with Nira Sauce

Konbu Roll with Fresh Wasabi and Daikon Cubes

I don’t remember lol

Fresh Fruit

It was a wonderful perfect night of great company and food. The folks who run this place are SO nice and down to earth. It’s a nice restaurant but the humble atmosphere makes for a very relaxing experience. All the diners seem to talk story with one another and the Taisho, his wife and the staff. Lots of drinking (not me lol). We super enjoyed this experience and are looking forward to our next experience. In fact, one couple flies out from Maui to eat here. I wanna have that kine money (lol!). Would definitely recommend this restaurant!

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14Feb / 2025

Mixed Plate Friday

No. (Don’t go shopping hungry)

Remember the huge tree that fell over onto Keeaumoku/Kapiolani during the heavy rains for that ONE day? That was so crazy because I drive there all the time! Freaked me out a bit. I took a picture of it the day after as I was driving there (proof I drive there all the time lol). Isn’t that crazy? And the way it’s planted, I think it might belong to Pacific Guardian. I really hope no one was harmed because that tree looked like it crushed at least 2 cars.

Le’s Banh Mi – Saigon Special add Roast Pork | $11.50 + $2.00

When I say that Le’s Banh Mi is the best on the island, please take me seriously. I don’t think you can get a better banh mi anywhere else. We’ve talked about this. Have you tried them yet? They make their own bread and it’s so soft and light yet crispy. And the toppings, I love their pate and the roast pork is chef’s kiss. I just give them a call before I head in to get it…takes them about 10 minutes and it’s ready when I’m there! This was even good reheated because we couldn’t eat it right away.

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12Feb / 2025

Onkee Korean Grill House – Ward Village, HI

Chan’s friend Mai visited Hawaii last week so we got to try Onkee Korean Grill House for the first time! Onkee is super high end as a warning so you won’t be surprised by the prices. They are located in one of those new condos in Ward right by the theaters. The interior and decor was so pretty, very new restaurant so everything is perfect so far.

Banchan – Kimchee

This was good! I thought by looking at it that it wouldn’t be fermented enough, but it was! This is made from regular cabbage versus chinese cabbage.

Banchan – Shredded Daikon

Banchan – Soy Pickled Red Onions

Banchan – Potato Salad

My least favorite kind of potato salad lol. The potatoes are cooked almost al dente, they were kind of hard. Then you add on big chunks of raw carrots and apple slices and I am out of there. No thanks.

Banchan – Seasond Dried Radish Strips

Soysauce Marinated Shrimp | $32.00

This is the dish Chan was looking forward to. Mai enjoyed it too! I really wish I could eat this. Raw shrimp and raw crab call my name but alas, my body doesn’t want to agree. I did try a bit of the shrimp and my mouth said nope. My mouth and throat immediately started getting tingly – I had to put the white flag up and hand the rest over to Chan.

Stir-Fried Squid | $28.00

Good dish! Not as good as Frog House but I think you folks have heard me say Frog House enough. FROG HOUSE! No wok hei, just okay.

Beef Tartare | $32.00

The dish I looked forward to lol. I love beef tartare – manini portion but it tasted really good. Reminds me of the time I was in Korea and went to their Todai and they had this dish on the buffet. Girl, when I tell you I went for broke…I WENT FOR BROKE. Delicious. You mix it up with the shredded cucumber and Korean pear slices! Yum! This is one of the rare times I enjoy fruit in a savory dish.

Combo B | $190.00
Tenderloin, Ribeye, Hanger Steak, Thin Skirt Steak

Expensive but not awful considering it was for 3 people and we were stuffed after this. Nice quality meat, some cuts were better than others (of course) but enjoyable overall.

Very big plus, your waiter/waitress cooks all the meat for you. ANOTHER UPSIDE: I don’t know what kind of ventililation system they have but you will leave your meal not smelling a single bit like smoke. There’s no big hood hovering over your table so I really don’t know how they do it. Must be some way the grill is built but seriously, I couldn’t smell a single scent of Korean BBQ on us from this meal.

Kimchi Stew | $24.00

A little pricey for stew but they do nice chunks of tofu and pork belly in it. Very nice and flavorful soup.

Steamed Rice | $3.00 each

You see that right. We had to pay for rice separately even with all the entrees we ordered. Crazy yeah?

This ends with a bit of a rant and it could have just been an off night for me but this interaction left a sour taste in my mouth. I ordered soda which comes with free refills because I don’t drink alcohol. Well, they serve it in smaller cups so I had to ask for a refill during the meal. Well, as we are nearing the end, with our waters warm – I wanted one last refill to cut into the taste of the meat in my mouth. When the waitress came over, I gave her the cup to ask for the refill and she made a face at me. This is where my childhood trauma may come in but it reminded me of the faces I would get from older Asian women when they were about to say something really mean to me (sorry, that’s just how it is growing up with immigrant relatives) and I got triggered so I gave her a look back but didn’t say anything.

I wonder if she knew then that she pissed me off because for sure the rest of the night I was not even looking at her and my vibe was not good. I just didn’t want to deal with her any longer which is fine since Chan was doing the ordering all night anyway. She certainly didn’t make any face when my dining companions were ordering more beers but I guess it’s all about money. I do wonder if that’s why we got the above slice of cheesecake for free. Whatever. I could be projecting my own emotions at this situation but I usually have a pretty good read on people and it just soured the night for me. In the end, the restaurant was beautiful, the service was good (up until that point) and the food was good. Now, do I think it was worth the price? Ehh…I think I would rather come and check out their lunch specials because you get more bang for your buck. By the way, I’m looking at their menu and they even charge for lettuce to make wraps ($6) and the green onion salad ($9!). This was definitely a splurge of a meal.

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10Feb / 2025

Recipe: School Kine Pizza

Do you folks remember the school kine lunch pizza? I sure did. The rectangular slices of pizza that had a super soft and bready crust with the pizza sauce, cubed pepperoni and cheese on top? Simplicity at its best! Well I am WELL out of school age but still think about this from time to time. Apparentely I am not the only one since there are many recipes out there. I went crazy and bought all the ingredients to try to make this at home. The recipe calls for a “pourable” crust, I’m intrigued. So how did it go?

Dry Ingredients! It didn’t call for sifting but I did it anyway.

Grease your pan and add a thin layer of cornmeal.

Yup, it’s a pourable crust. Here it is! Let it rest in the pan for 20 minutes before baking.

I made this recipe twice, the first time – the crust was not enough so for the second time, I made 1.5 of the crust recipe and I think that did the trick in terms of thickness of the crust. The first time it was much too thin and burned at the edges.

Spices for your homemade pizza sauce!

Oh my gosh, this pizza sauce recipe was so easy to make. Who knew?? It was mainly a can of tomato paste but you have to buy a bunch of seasonings including marjoram which I never used before. But boy was it easy to make…

I went a little hog wild with the toppings, I wanted pepperoni and italian sausage for the second round but they don’t sell the italian sauage little balls in stores! You know? Like the ones you get when you order pizza?? So I had to buy a tray of the italian sausage myself and then ball them and fry them up before using them. Ugh. But here is the meats and sauce on top of the pre-baked crust…

So. Much. Cheese. You use a lot of cheese for this recipe. You actually add a bit of cheese to the pizza sauce too and then the rest goes on top. How much did I use? Well the big two pack shredded mozzarella cheese from Sam’s, I used a full bag.

Voila! All baked and ready to eat. What was the verdict? Mixed. I didn’t care for it myself because the crust isn’t what I liked or remembered, wasn’t soft. This crust is kind of hard and super bready/doughy. The brothers, devoured it. My coworker, she liked it! Chan? I think he just thought it was just ok. So yeah, not much of a winner. Perhaps I could just buy the Pilsbury pizza crust in the can and just make the pizza sauce myself next time. I’m glad I tried it to finally simmer down my interest but I don’t think this recipe matches what I had in school.

School Lunch Pizza

Pourable Pizza Crust
Ingredients

½ teaspoon (7 g) Active Dry Yeast
1 ⅔ C (375 ml) Warm Water (110 °F)
2 ½ C (320 g) All-purpose flour
¾ C (55 g) Instant, non-fat dry milk
2 T (25 g) Sugar
¼ t Salt
1 ½ t Vegetable Oil (or more, enough to grease pan)
1 ½ T (15 g) Cornmeal

Revised Crust Recipe (1.5 size measurements)

10.5 g Active Dry Yeast
2.4 C (562.5 ml) Warm Water (110 °F)
480 g All-purpose flour
82.5 g Instant, non-fat dry milk
35 g Sugar
½ t Salt
2 ¼ t Vegetable Oil (or more, enough to grease pan)
22.5 g Cornmeal

Directions

For best results, have all ingredients and utensils at room temperature.

Dissolve dry yeast in warm water. Let stand 4-5 minutes.
Place flour, milk, sugar, and salt in mixer bowl. Using a whip, blend on low speed for 4 minutes.
Add dissolved yeast and oil. Blend on medium speed for 10 minutes. Batter will be lumpy.
Coat sheet pan with oil and sprinkle cornmeal on pan evenly.
Pour batter into pan. Let stand for 20 minutes.
Prebake until crust is set: Conventional oven: 475 °F for 10 minutes. Convection oven: 425 °F for 7 minutes.
Top each prebaked crust with desired topping or use Pizza With Ground Beef Topping recipe (see D-31), or Pizza With Cheese Topping recipe (see D-30).
Bake until heated through and cheese is melted: Conventional oven: 475 °F for 10-15 minutes. Convection oven: 425 °F for 5 minutes.
Portion by cutting each sheet pan 4×5 (20 pieces per pan).

Recipe Credit: Tasting History with Max Miller

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07Feb / 2025

Mixed Plate Friday

Pillsbury Zero Sugar Chocolate Fudge Brownie Mix

I saw this in the store and had to try it. Zero sugar you say? Intriguing! I think you can only find this at Safeway so that means you’re paying a lot more, this mix was almost $8.00 and it only yields an 8 x 8 pan, you have been warned. I only have a 9 x 9 pan so my brownies came out much thinner than the picture on the box.

Looking pretty good out of the oven! So what was the verdict? Honestly, it tastes good! Can’t really tell it’s zero sugar. Chan actually liked these brownies more than regular brownies cause he thinks it’s less sweet, in a good way. So yeah, if you’re craving brownies and want to watch your sugar – give this mix a try!

High Key Mini Chocolate Chip Cookies

These cookies tastes like it’s description. Oh if you can’t see the package, it says the cookies have less than 1 gram of sugar. Yeah, it tastes that way. Also, it’s made with almond flour. It tastes like that too lol. Hey, I’m trying my best okay? Have a great weekend!

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05Feb / 2025

Recipe: Korean Spicy Baby Octopus with Pork Belly

I’ve been ordering Korean Spicy Baby Octopus with Pork Belly at Frog House many times and I absolutely love it. While I can’t recreate the dish with the proper wok hei at home, I think I did pretty good! I made a batch and ate it with Chan. He liked it too! It’s a bit of a hassle recipe so I think I rather go eat it at Frog House lol.

Holy Grail Sauce

Sliced Zucchini and Carrots

Sliced Onions

Baby octopus massaged with flour – this helps to take away the smell

I found this in the frozen seafood section of Hmart – another name for it is webfoot octopus.

Look at how cute it is after parboiling. Almost too cute to eat, not really though, I’ll eat it.

Frying up the pork belly, adding sugar was an interesting step but a good one! Caramelized pork!

Frying up the pork with the onions

Frying up the octopus and onions with the zucchini and carrots – adding the octpus, sauce and green onions…

Voila! Done! Serve it with somen noodles or white rice!

Korean Spicy Baby Octopus with Pork Belly

Ingredients

300 g Pork Belly, thin – 2 inch slices
300 g Webfoot Octopus
100 g Green Onions (sliced angled – 1 inch sticks)
120 g Onion (half onion), sliced thin
50 g Carrot, sliced thin
2 medium zucchinis, sliced thin
20 g chili pepper (optional)
1 T sugar
⅔ C water
Sesame Oil to taste (1 T, more or less to your taste)
2-3 T Flour (to clean octopus)

Sauce Ingredients

3 T Red Pepper Powder (Gochugaru)
2 T Red Pepper Paste (Gochujjang)
4 T Soy Sauce
½ T Oyster Sauce
1 ½ T Corn Syrup
1 ½ T Sugar
25 g Garlic (5-6 cloves)

Directions

Place 2-3 T of flour on the octopus and massage for 1-2 minutes, rinse octopus thoroughly in water and drain.
Combine sauce ingredients and set aside.
Parboil octopus in boiling water for 30 seconds. Drain and cut octopus into more bite size pieces (in half works fine), set aside.
Cook pork belly in large skillet for 1-2 minutes, add 1 T sugar and continue browning pork belly over medium high heat.
Add onions and cook while stirring for about 1-2 minutes until the onions are nice and browned.
Add ⅔ of the sauce and continue to stirfry for about a minute. Add ⅔ C of water and continue to stir fry for another minute.
Add sliced carrots and zucchini (chili pepper too if you are using it), stirfry for 3-4 minutes until vegetables get a bit tender.
Add octopus, green onions and remaining ⅓ of the sauce and continue to stirfry for 3-4 minutes. Sprinkle on sesame oil right when the dish is complete and mix it in.
Serve with bowls of hot rice or over cooked and drained somen noodles!

Recipe Inspired by: hoon & elen’s today cuisine

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03Feb / 2025

Tanto Gyoza and Ramen Bar – Manoa, HI

Decided to give Tanto Gyoza and Ramen Bar another try! It’s close to my work and yeah I did get tummy ache before but I think that’s just me and not their food. They are known for the gyoza but the ramen is good too! I’ll admit that I still like Wagaya better but this place is good too! And they are pretty fast at whipping out the gyoza and ramen! Tanto is located in the same lot as Nijiya Market in Manoa, free one hour parking. This is yet another restaurant where we went over the hour by like five minutes. I had to pay by machine again!!! This time it was $3.00.

Tanto Gyoza Hamamatsu Style (16 pcs) | $15.75

From top to bottom: Magic Gyoza Salt, Garlic Chili Sauce, Gyoza Sweet Ponzu Sauce

We got the gyoza to share as a table! Delicious gyoza. It was kind of funny, they brought out the gyoza and apologized that it was missing one piece and that it was coming out soon. Well, they then brought out three more so I guess we got a few for free! Score!

Mix Black Mazesoba | $17.75
tonkotsu shoyu & miso sauce with black garlic oil
mazesoba is a type of brothless ramen made with thick ramen noodles topped with spicy minced meat that has been stir fried with soy sauce, chili and garlic, and freshly chopped chives/spring onions and a poached egg

Tanto Creamy Goma (Chicken Broth) | $17.75
sesame paste/peanuts/meat miso/green onion/spinach/red onion

Tanto Tonkotsu Black (Tonkotsu & Chicken Broth) | $17.75
black-garlic/char siu kikurage/green onion/red pickled ginger/ajitama

My ramen! Yummy, I love black garlic oil. And I was hangry so I ordered kaedama (extra noodle) too which was $2.50 extra. I didn’t need that kaedama but I ordered when I was hangry so there we are. Very good ramen! We all enjoyed our dishes! I would recommend!

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31Jan / 2025

Mixed Plate Friday

Kalihi Bar-B-Q Drive-Inn BBQ Chicken & Garlic Fish Combo Plate | $17.50

I saw someone feature this place on TikTok and I am so easily swayed because it looked so good. I was super craving it so I got it during my Saturday errands. I didn’t even know this place existed even though it is in my hood. I ordered it without knowing the price and wow $17.50!! But I guess it’s expected for a seafood combo plate. Yes, it was actually very good. Look at all that garlic, how can it be bad? BBQ chicken is on par with other BBQ places. I enjoyed it! And they give big portions so it’s more than one meal!

Pringles Mingles | Cheddar & Sour Cream

When I am hungry and go shopping, purchases like this happen. I was curious how this would taste. It was interesting cause it’s puffed up like a cheeto puff but it’s harder in texture. How do I explain that?? I guess cause it’s made of pringles material? It’s just okay, the seasoning isn’t great. I rather just eat the cheddar and sour cream ruffles, those are the best.

Chan and I recently celebrated our anniversary and I try to do thoughtful things and the gift for this anniversary was cotton so I decided to cross-stitch this for him. I’m not good with knitting/sewing, etc. Boy, did I fumble this a lot. It is not easy for me already and I was getting quite frustrated. I definitley used up too much of the thread from the kit and had to go on the hunt to find extra thread. Then I had to find a way to fit it into this frame lol. Don’t pay attention to it being crooked okay? I tried my best and this was made from hours and hours of my love. Cute yeah?

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29Jan / 2025

Middle Eats – Manoa, HI

Middle Eats currently operates out of a kitchen in Downtown and they do take-out orders but how often am I really in downtown? I’ve been following them on Instagram and to my happy surprise, they are doing a stint at the UHM campus! Maybe not enough fanfare going on. I hit them up last week and spoke with the very nice young gentleman, I asked how business was and he said it wasn’t as busy as they would like. I asked if they have to give a semester commitment to gauge if they would stick around, I think they don’t have to do long-term commitments so if you wanna try, better go fast! Here’s the schedule for food trucks at UHM.

Menu | January 2025

I had to ask at first, is it the difference between a mini and regular plate? LOL. It’s actually the price of the plate or a gyro. Duh! Look at the top of the sign but I didn’t make that connection…guess us locals are just too used to regular versus mini plate prices. But look at those prices. I’m sorry, but I can’t see students being able to afford to eat here a lot. I wanted to get a plate but it was a bit too pricey for me so I went for the Lamb Kofta Gyro for $15.00.

Lamb Kofta Gyro | $15.00

Upon first glance, didn’t look so great. But it’s actually a big portion and was very filling. I enjoyed it a lot. The lamb tasted great with the gamey taste I like. There was a almost neon green sauce he poured on, not sure what it was but I don’t think I like that sauce too much. Other than that, it was good!

Cumin Fries with Garlic Toum | $8.00

They have an 8 dollar menu, I guess it’s supposed to be a value? $8.00 for fries? I don’t know, I’m not trying to be a negative sue but that’s not cheap. But I also get that all food costs are so expensive now and they have to make a profit. While my lunch was a bit pricey, the gyro and the fries were absolutely delicious. I loved it! Maybe I can check them out again after payday…lol

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27Jan / 2025

Seasons Taiwanese Eatery – Chinatown, HI

YES! I’ve been wanting to try Seasons Taiwanese Eatery for years! They used to be in the middle of the Chinese Cultural Plaza (near the stage) but now they are located on the river side more towards Legend Seafood Restaurant. They specialize in a Taiwanese Beef Noodle dish and for some odd reason, I was expecting the same kind of beef noodles from other restaurants like Lam’s Kitchen but it is not. Don’t get it twisted! I think the other restaurants serve more of a Cantonese version while this is Taiwanese!

Taiwanese Popcorn Chicken (Medium) | $9.98

Medium portion is huge! More than enough to share between two people and still have leftover! Oh this was so nice. I loved the fried basil leaves and the chicken is spiced nicely. Not a hot spicy, maybe more of a five spice taste? So delicious!

Classic Beef Broth (Beef Only – Mild) | $16.98

Retro Spicy Broth (Combo Beef & Tendon) | $17.98

I gotta go for the spicy one. So they have a level of 1-5, I tried to order number 3 and the waitress’ face turned serious and she sternly said, it’s very spicy. So yeah, I lowered it to 2. Looks pretty red yet yeah? Compare that to the classic broth! Was it spicy? Yeah, maybe small kine leakage but I think I could have still handled level three! How do I describe this dish? There’s a sourness to the broth. It’s very different from the noodle soups I’ve had before, I liked it though. I would definitely return!

Parking, I think the first hour at Cultural Plaza is free, after that, you gotta pay and we just went over by a few minutes…and ugh, I had to pay at the card machine. I hate having to pay $1 with a credit card but they don’t take cash! Technology isn’t always helpful. Anyway, give them a shot!

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