As you read this, I should be on my way to Japan. Another chance to make beautiful memories with Chan in one of our favorite places to travel. Our fear this trip is if the local Japanese people will hate us since we are foreigners and some foreigners are not doing us any favors with their bad behavior in Japan!
As always, feel free to follow me on instagram. I will be posting stories daily of our adventures! So excited for this trip, I am super burnt out from work and just life in general so I need this breather. Short blog vacay, see you folks soon!
I had a rare chance this day to have a lunch with two of my brothers. I used to go out with all three of them all the time – nowadays, 2 would be a rare outing. Most of the time, I’m with only one of them. It’s a good and bad thing. I surely miss the old days and being around them, my wallet doesn’t miss those days (lol). But another good thing is, it means they are growing and becoming more independent. I think all three brothers are growing up well.
Anyway, I decided to give them a taste of good Japanese food by taking them to i-naba. It’s a double edged sword, I give them a taste of good food and they either don’t appreciate it fully or maybe acquire a taste for it. Ha! Anyway, I really enjoyed it even though my wallet didn’t. It’s okay, another memory to add to their banks.
Tempura Soba | $30.00 2 shrimps, 1 white fish, veggie tempura, and zaru soba
Bara Chirashi Bowl & Soba | $34.00 chopped some kinds of sashimi served over sushi rice. also comes with regular size zaru or kake soba (we chose zaru).
Hana Soba | $36.00 cold broth soba, topped with tororo (grated yam), uni, ikura (salmon roe), green onion, dried seaweed and tamagoyaki. also comes with tempura (shrimp, squid and veggies)
I don’t know if you remember my previous post but the last time I came, I really wanted to try this Hana Soba. They said they were out of uni and could give more ikura which I said no to. I finally got to try it this time!
Miso Soup and Takuan
Mixed Rice
Bleh, not great.
Tempura
Their tempura is always so good. Lightly battered and fried crispy. So so so good.
The star of the show. Did it live up to expectations? Well…I think I’ll go with less is more for soba from here on out. Sure it tasted good but once everything was mixed up together – I couldn’t really taste the different between the tororo and the uni. It just all melded into a cold soba dish with no distinct flavor. The tamagoyaki felt super out of place, it was certainly a choice to add that in. While I was glad to have tried this dish, I would just stick to the plain zaru soba tempura set next time. Less is more as I said.
I saw this old school recipe online the other day and decided to make it as meal prep for my weekly breakfast. How was it? Good! The only thing is, I make such a huge batch that I get tired of it pretty easily. That’s the thing about meal prepping, I save a lot of money and time but get so tired of the food by day 3 or so. Wish I had the mentality of eating to live rather than living to eat. Hard life (lol). Anyway, I’ll share the recipe below. I think I found this from the Electric Kitchen website. The only thing I changed was to add rehydrated bean thread noodles at the bottom of my container before pouring over the stir-fry to make it a heartier dish and because I’m carb crazy.
Pork Tofu and Watercress Stir Fry
Ingredients:
1 teaspoon oil
1 pound lean pork, thinly sliced
1/2 cup shoyu
1/4 cup water
3 tablespoons sugar
1 medium onion, sliced
1 medium carrot, sliced
1 (1-inch piece) ginger, crushed
1 (20-ounce) block firm tofu, cubed
1 bunch green onions, chopped into 1-inch lengths
1 bunch watercress, chopped into 2-inch lengths
Directions:
In a large pot, heat oil and brown pork.
Add shoyu, water, sugar, onions, carrots and ginger.
Bring to a boil and simmer for 5-10 minutes.
Add tofu, green onions and watercress and simmer gently until watercress is wilted.
Pileus Cloud (If this photo is yours, please let me know so I can credit you)
Not much of a mixed plate today, just a bit of storytelling. About a year ago, I went to a conference and was speaking with a fellow attendee who is originally from China. Part of our introduction assignment was to discuss the origin of our names. I have never asked or been told about the origins of my Chinese name. My English name, yes. My parents did not know English and asked either the doctor or a friend to name me and were given the name Jenny.
Anyway, the Chinese colleague I was seated next to was so warm and genuine that I felt inclined to ask her about my name. I’ve had a complicated relationship with Chinese people, a lot of my family members are directly from China and I have been treated quite poorly in my upbringing which has brought a hesitancy to talk to or be nice to other Chinese people in fear of getting hurt like I have in the past. Anyway, I wrote my Chinese name out for her in Chinese and she diligently started up looking the characters to find the meaning.
Soon, she told me it meant little cloud which was amazing to me because I just never assumed my name had any meaning (much like Jenny). Then something told me to look up my mom’s name and asked her to look it up as well. I forget the exact meaning of my mom’s name but it is associated with clouds as well which really touched me, that I was called little cloud after my mom.
Now about a year later, I got asked about the origins of my name again but decided to do the googling on my own. I looked up the name myself and pulled up pileus cloud. Do you see that image on the top of this post? Apparently the iridescent pileus cloud occurred in China, isn’t it just such a majestic sight? I feel so creatively charged when I think about this image and my name’s connection. I think about how much thought and consideration was taken in coming up with my name. The meaning is so deep. I do hope I have a chance of seeing an iridescent pileus cloud in person one day. Something about my name now brings me such a heartwarming feeling. If you don’t know the origins of your name, I do hope you go out and find it. You could be very pleasantly surprised like I was.
Another visit to Murphy’s and whew thank god they are not closing down! There was rumors circulating around that they were but the owner came out and refuted that real quick! I was able to join Chan and his workers for a quick lunch. It was wonderful and we had John as our server and he is just the sweetest server ever. I’ve been to Murphy’s before and have been served by him before and he is consistently the most caring and attentive staff member. It makes a big difference.
Fried Spicy Chicken Wings | $18.00 (full order) served with ranch dressing
One of their specialties – super good. Tastes like homemade ranch dressing too. I forgot to get a picture of the basket of fries we ordered but their fries are super good too. Fried up perfectly.
Irish Dip | $22.50 thin sliced sirloin on baguette with horseradish mayonnaise, served with guinness au jus
Open Face Turkey Sandwich | $21.50 in-house roasted turkey on white or wheat bread, topped with gravy, served with mixed vegetables, mashed potatoes, and fresh cranberry sauce
I have never tried this but I would love to one day! One look at this dish and you’re like…where’s da sandwich? The bread is hidden underneath all that turkey! One of their most famous dishes.
Gaelic Steak | $29.50 new york steak topped with a green peppercorn sauce, served with mashed potatoes and mixed vegetables
Chan’s dish! The steak is cooked well and it’s a very nice gravy. The veggies are good and of course the mashed potato is fluffy and buttery, yum!
Fish N’ Chips | $19.50 cod fish and fries served with malt vinegar
When there is fish and chips on the menu, I’m there. Actually this might be sacrilegious but if I could have, I would have subbed the fries for white rice. I’m too Asian. Super good fish and the fries of course I said before is super good!
Another bougie and expensive restaurant review brought to you by Jenny who benefitted from a very generous friend of Chan’s. I will not even post the cost of the meal here but you can easily look up Mugen‘s website and get a sense of it. Very thankful for this dining experience and spending time with friends.
Quick funny story about this night. We didn’t know the parking situation with this restaurant so Chan decided to park at the International Marketplace and walk over. Before we headed to the restaurant, we decided to walk through Target in case we could find something to buy to cover part of the parking validation. This Target location is crazy busy with tourists and the 1st floor is packed full. As we are making our way through, we suddenly hear a loud “excuse me!” behind us coming from an older asian man. Not sure if he was a tourist – either he was local or from the mainland. Anyway, obviously Chan and I stop and he then walks around us. As he is passing us, he loudly screams, GEEZ! Well guess what? I am old now and am no longer patient so I immediately yell back at him, GEEZ WHAT. He doesn’t stop and doesn’t look up, just continues walking away. And get this guys, we weren’t even walking in a tight aisle or anything – it was a huge walkway in Target so he had every chance to get around us without this commotion. He better watch out cause Target’s cameras almost caught this chinese chica “ch-row” hands. Okay onto dinner. 🙂
Pretty centerpiece
Chic Cutlery!
Pinky Promise | $15.00 lychee & guave puree, lemon-lime soda
Mocktail of the night for me. Oh this was so good…so so good.
Amuse Bouche
Nice starter bite for everyone to start off with. I can’t quite remember exactly what it was, like a fish ceviche/poke served atop a brick of crispy rice. It was pretty good!
Bread and Butter
How cute is this bread! It is so teeny tiny but in the best way since there is so much food coming. And look at the butter! It’s a herb butter and strawberry butter in puzzle pieces! Isn’t that so cute. I would take this bread over the Mariposa popovers anytime lol.
Kona Kampachi Starter kupu place nasturtium, green apple ponzu, trout roe
My starter, it was good but nothing special. I got a different starter from Chan so we could taste different ones. I would get his over mine any day!
Scallops chinese black bean & smoked kurobuta ham veloute, trout roe, celery root
Chan’s scallops. Oh these scallops were so meaty and tender and seasoned wonderfully – I loved this dish!
We got this to share for the table. I love beef tartare so I have no complaints here, it was delicious!
Maui Beets pickled mustard seeds, spiced pepitas, sweetland tomme tuille, ko cho jang vinaigrette
Another shared starter, isn’t that tuille so pretty? The beets tasted good, nice huge chunks and sweet. It was good but I prefer a beet salad with goat cheese myself.
Nigiri
The menu was comprised of tasting menu sets, you could get a tasting set with nigiri if you wanted to. I didn’t get that option but here is the sushi it comes with!
Maine Lobster truffle nori risotto, hon shimeji mushroom, parmesan foam
How can you go wrong with lobster? Also, the two choices you had was lobster or shima aji. I think the choice is a no brainer – gotta get the lobster! It was delicious. So so good. One of my favorite dishes of the night.
Not my main dish but I don’t think it was worth the extra price tag. I got to try a piece and when I cut it, it was a bit stringy to cut but the texture was just fine when you chewed it.
Marrunga Marble Lamb brown butter ulu puree, pineapple chimichurri, coconut aji amarillo sauce
I’m going to be honest, I was so stuffed by the time this dish came I couldn’t enjoy fully it. The lamb was good but gamey for those who want to know. Good dish but I was too full to enjoy it.
Koloa Rum Toffee Cake date cake, hawaiian honey yogurt gelato, honey meringue, koloa rum toffee sauce
Isn’t this so pretty? So pretty but not my dessert. If I wasn’t stuffed, I would have tried a taste because it sounds like sticky toffee cake which I love. Well, Chan reported that it wasn’t that good and was nothing like sticky toffee cake so we are good.
Passion Fruit Custard lilikoi gelee, chantilly cream, sable, seasonal fruit
Yet another dessert ruined by me being too full. This was my dessert, I would have enjoyed it if I wasn’t so stuffed. Got a few bites in and it was nice and tart. Seasonal fruit? Sure. There was canned lychee in there so not really fresh seasonal fruit you know?
I don’t know the rules about this but it’s okay, I took a picture of the flowers I placed for my mother’s memorial day. Actually, Chan paid for the flowers so it was from him. Aren’t they pretty? Always such a nice day when I go to visit when it’s not raining – what I don’t like is that it is so close to the Byodo-In Temple so I have to be around all the tourist parking hassles.
Lego Lei
Look at the beautiful lei my friend made for me for my birthday! Isn’t it so beautiful? I knew he would be able to create this kine stuff all on his own. Lego leis were a trend this past graduation season and I would love to learn how to make it myself. I got many compliments when I wore this lei. It’s a beautiful lei and it’s a forever lei – I think more people should make and sell these leis! Moreso my friend because he has such good taste in how he makes them.
Japchae
Chan’s Mom made japchae and it is absolutely one of my favorite dishes ever from her. I got to basically keep the entire container and I was ecstatic, it’s the best I have ever tasted! So lucky…
Chan and I were at Kaimuki getting vaccines up the yang (for me anyway) and was here at the perfect time to try HIGOTO Japanese Eatery. By the way, I don’t get any commission for this but if you are in need of vaccines – please do consider going to Longs Kaimuki. My cousin works there and they are very good! Help them out since they also have quotas they have to meet! No wonder she keeps giving me vaccines, but in the end, I’ll assume it is all for my health. I think my body is currently made of more vaccine than water/blood.
Anyway, sorry for the sidetrack. I’ve ordered from Higoto years ago and took the chance to grab lunch here with Chan. They had a line as they always do and they do have a sign on the door that says limit 3 people since it is a small store space. I will tell a story about what happened – and you can see if you would react like me or like Chan (LOL). So we’re patiently waiting in line behind a family of four, when it’s their turn – all four of them go in. Okay, that’s cool. You don’t wanna leave a kid outside by themself. They finish browsing and the parents go up to the register to pay while the two kids come back outside to wait. So at this point, no one is in the bento area browsing so Chan and myself head in to start looking since the other two are already paying. One of the workers comes out and loudly says, we only want 3 people in the store at one time. Nicely but loudly so I was just like okay and let myself out to let Chan browse since he’s never been before. I go back outside and joke to the girl behind me that…wow they strict ah? I wasn’t mad about what happened but Chan was lol. He even says, no brains no business about what they did. How would you have reacted? Technically yes, there was already 2 people in there but they were already done browsing and was just paying…and they let the four of them in before us.
Okay story time over, I’ll post the food. This experience had an effect on Chan’s dining experience.
Ume Shiso Musubi | $2.70
Tuna Mayo & Apple Cucumber Musubi | $2.80
I can’t comment on the other two musubi since I didn’t taste them and I’m sure Chan will just say they were just okay (lol). I’m a sucker for tuna mayo so this was mine. I don’t know what apple cucumber is and also after eating this, don’t need something so special. Regular cucumber would have sufficed. It was good, basic. I would try a different topping next time.
Cheeseburger Musubi | $3.20
Shrimp & Veggie Tendon Bento | $17.80
What I like about their bento is the level of detail and toppings they place in it. I liked the little dish of hijiki, edamame, corn, one cherry tomato, and the lotus root! This particular bento was just okay mainly because the tempura obviously was no longer hot out the fryer so it was just all soggy. I liked that they drizzled tentsuyu on top and also included a small container of it on the side for dipping.
Fish Lovers Bento (w/multigrain rice) | $19.80
This was the bento was the one I wanted to try. A bit pricey but hey that’s the price of things these days and it’s understandable since this was all seafood. The fish contents of this bento differs day to day but my bento included chikuwa, fried white fish, shrimp tempura, butterfish and salmon. This was a nice bento and I liked the multigrain rice.
In the end, when you come here you will be getting some nice bentos to eat. You do have to wait in line and they do not have an online ordering system. I believe you can pre-order through their instagram page and just pay when you pick-up. You also do not have to stand in line when you have a pre-order, just have to peek in and let them know you have a pre-order and they come out to help you. I’ll give my rating for the food based on just the food, we’ll see if Chan gets mad enough to comment on this post.
I risked my life driving in a very unfamiliar part of Kalihi for this post. Yes, I was influenced yet again by Yelp and social media. Heard about T&L Market and their Saturday Huli Huli chicken special. Small mom and pop shop that huli’s whole chickens every Saturday. People seems to be big fans of the chicken and the dipping sauce so I had to try it!
Yes, you read that price right. Pricey but I really wanted to give this place a try especially since it is a local mom and pop. So how was it? Well…there’s nothing special about this chicken. There’s supposed to be a lemongrass seasoning to it, didn’t taste that. The breast meat was a bit dry and tough and the dipping sauce was like a chili vinegar dipping sauce. Nothing special honestly. I could buy my Costco rotisserie chicken and make my favorite crying tiger sauce. I’ll try to post the recipe to that sauce one day.
They do serve it with a little brick of sticky rice so if you like that, you’re in for a treat. In the end, I am glad to have tried it but didn’t think it was worth $25 and probably wouldn’t buy it again.
Chicken Bento | $10.00 (around)
I wasn’t sure what the chicken came with so I got this bento to try too. Since the chicken did come with rice, I let my brother eat this. He ate it up – I think this was a good price for the portion you get. The fried chicken was a nice big thigh piece. He said the fried chicken tasted like Genki Sushi’s chicken karaage which sounds like winners to me. The spam slice was “tick” too. Good deal. They have basically NO parking so I can’t find myself returning anytime soon. Nice to have tried.
Had a quick breakfast at Yogurstory and you can’t go wrong with the fat pig fried rice. I must be getting old because oh man was this dish salty. I really prefer blander foods now other than spicy (ha!). It was very good but I always forget how the dish comes and find myself asking where the portuguese sausage is. It’s just chopped up as part of the fried rice! Duh! Anyway, good dish but like I said…salty and probably get MSG.
Garlic Shrimp Spaghetti | $14.25 including 2 pc garlic bread
Mini Cold Ginger Chicken (all rice) | $9.89
Back at Lucky Box Restaurant again – can’t go wrong with their food. Tried a new dish this time, the garlic shrimp spaghetti. How was it? Good. It’s just garlic shrimp scampi on spaghetti noodles and well, the noodles are a bit bloated because I think they pre-cook it and just throw it into hot water again to warm them up for orders, so yeah…not at all al dente. That’s okay with me though, I like noodles in all shapes, sizes and textures. The garlic shrimp tasted good. And the cold ginger chicken? Well nothing new there, still good as always. I think I like their cold ginger sauce the most of all that I’ve tried. I am pretty sure they add garlic to it too which makes it lip smacking good. Love it!
