18Oct / 2024

Mixed Plate Friday

Buldak Fried Rice | $7.99 (on sale)

My brother loves buldak noodles so when I saw this in the Longs ad last week, I had to get em! At first I was disappointed because I kept looking around the oriental aisle thinking this was just like a powder seasoning I add to my own rice to make the fried rice.

Just by chance, I went to the freezer section and it’s actually the whole dish there! You just gotta heat it up on the stovetop or microwave. It comes with two individual packets inside.

Sorry, but I think the portion is kind of small. This is actually both packs heated up. It was enjoyed, also wasn’t that spicy but that’s according to my brother.

Homemade Bossam

Odeng!

I love Sundays with Chan. Sometimes we plan meals on a whim and on this Sunday, I told him I felt like odeng but odeng with the fish cakes on the skewers (just like you see in the Korean dramas). So we made our run to Hmart and got the kit and also picked up some fixings to make bossam! Bossam looks nice and seasoned yeah? It’s all thanks to Chef Chan’s skills. What a delicious dinner! Have a great weekend folks!

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16Oct / 2024

King Restaurant & Bar – Ala Moana, HI

I was so disappointed when I heard Yung Yee Kee Dim Sum closed down. Chan and I liked going to eat there and grabbing take-out from there. No worries, they still have their take-out location at the Lanai in Ala Moana but that’s just not the same to me. King Restaurant & Bar started serving dim sum recently so we decided to give them a try! They make great lunch/dinner food so let’s see how the dim sum is!

Sesame Mochi w Red Bean Paste Ball (Jin Dui) | $6.50

I’m not usually in the mood for like deep fried dessert items but I had that craving this day! I enjoyed it a lot. And it wasn’t super greasy like I’ve had in other places.

King’s Pork Hash (Siu Mai) | $5.95

So puny looking. I enjoyed it! Tasted good, just like the other Chinese restaurants. If I look at this closely, it looks like they put an ikura on top? Usually places put a carrot lol.

King’s Shrimp Dumpling (Har Gow) | $5.95

I’m impressed by the look and size of these har gow. Nice and soft skin with jumbo tender morsels of shrimp inside, would recommend!

Pan Fried Chives & Shrimp Dumpling | $5.95

Chives and shrimp make such a great combo together, especially in a pan fried dumpling. I don’t make the rules okay? They have a steamed option but I think the pan fried option is the only way to go.

Stick Rice in Lotus Leaf | $8.50

Chan loves sticky rice so we got this. He enjoyed it! I need to make him my version of sticky rice, nice home cooking that will have a lot more innards and flavors than restaurants (sorry, not sorry!)

Twist Cruller | $3.50

Another favorite of Chan’s. I’d like to get this next time with their jook. I love eating this with jook.

Chicken Feet w/Special Sauce | $5.95

Okay, no need gag. Yes, I eat chicken feet. Just me. I only like chicken feet dim sum style. They did a good job!

Beef Chow Fun (Dried) | $16.95

Can’t have dim sum without one noodle dish. I usually like to order seafood chow mein but they make a good beef chow fun here and it has nice wok hei taste. What is wok hei? Look em up brah! Shootz.

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14Oct / 2024

Recipe: Spicy Nametake Tofu

Not much of a recipe today folks. Went to a potluck and someone brought a dish similar to this and I loved it so much. The recipe was of course…oh just throw these things together (lol). So I had to just guess at what to throw on. I just got a block of soft tofu, a bottle of the nametake (seasoned mushroom) which I mixed with some crunch garlic chili oil. Oh brah, I can just eat this whole block of tofu in one sitting.

Look at how pretty! I usually buy the tofu from Sam’s or Costco so you know it doesn’t look like this. I bought this one from a grocery store, forgot the brand but if you want this one, just look at the bottom of the tofu package for this design and you will get this!

Yum yum yum.

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11Oct / 2024

Mixed Plate Friday

7eleven Kibun Sesame Tofu Noodle | $4.19
new, ready-to-eat tofu noodles with delicious sauce packet included. the noodles, made from tofu, are very simliar to somen noodles but lower in carbs and 0 cholesterol. healthy with only 110 calories and 7g of protein. can be eaten cold or warm by heating in the microwave for 1 minute.

I saw this at 7eleven last weekend and just had to try it. I was so curious how the noodles would taste. I almost didn’t get it because let’s be real, $4.19 for this little packet didn’t seem worth it. But something told me just go for it.

I opened the cellophane and drained out the water. I ate it cold with the sauce packet. Doesn’t look like much in this picture but bugga was GOOD. It really does taste like regular noodles. How do they do that! It was so good, but dang, I wish they would sell this in bulk at Costco or Sam’s so I can get a better deal. I would absolutely get this again.

When I sent a picture of this to Chan, he mentioned he had it in Japan before and really enjoyed it! They finally brought it over to us! Give it a try!

Sushi Robot Breakfast Bento | $5.00

I’ve talked about Sushi Robot before, they are located in the food court of Kaheka Don Quijote (the indoor one not the outdoor one). They used to be outdoors. Well, they are the only ones who open super early which helps me since I do my shopping early. They open at 6 but when they have some foods ready, they just open at 5 something.

I was actually staring from outside to see if they had food out but didn’t have…was about to leave when the lady waved me in. I reluctantly went in and she said she can make whatever I want. I said I wanted the portuguese sausage omelette bento. I didn’t know the real name but they knew exactly what I was talking about and put this together fresh for me! They already had all the different components cooked and ready to go. And yes, $5.00 total…this is with tax. Where else can you find prices like this???

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09Oct / 2024

Gyotaku Japanese Restaurant – King Street, HI

REDEMPTION POST HERE. I came back to Gyotaku after my recent disasterous visit and I can happily report that this visit was SO much better. Super good. And I got the right food! Also, my cousin treated me for my birthday so how can this meal go wrong?? FREE! Check it out!

Watermelon-ade | $8.50
refreshing watermelon juice served over ice & topped with mint & lime

Not good. Not awful but it just soounds much better than it tasted. Maybe the watermelon taste wasn’t as strong as I would have liked…

Pele Lava Roll | $17.95
california roll topped with spicy ahi tataki, green onion, volcano sauce & wasabi aioli sauce

Yummy appetizer to start! If you know me, you know I love spicy ahi. We ate too much at this meal but hey, it’s my birthday and I’ll eat if I want to, eat if I want to.

Miso Soup & Salad

I don’t have to explain this one right? This is their signature! Signature for a reason, love their salad and dressing.

Assorted Poke Don & Tenpura | $33.45

YESSSS!! I got the right dish this time and it was heavenly. I’ve been missing this dish for YEARS. I am so dang happy they brough it back. It’s a simple sesame oil salt seasoning for the poke but I feel like the different cuts of seafood just creates the perfect taste and texture profile. You know? Plain ahi poke is boring to me, but this dish just has almost any seafood you can imagine. I love it. And it’s not just random seafood they plop in, it’s consistently the same seafood each time when I order it.

Hit you with the last shot. So good. The limu and sprouts work well with it too. Man…I want to eat it again…

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07Oct / 2024

Kokoro-Tei – Moilili, HI

Kokoro-Tei has been in the Moilili neighborhood for many years now. I am super glad they were able to get through the pandemic and thrive. I say thrive because when I went to pick up today’s meal, they had so many orders stacked up and ready to go. You used to have to phone in your orders but they now have online orders, thank goodness. Chan was treating his co-workers for a birthday and I got to jump in on the order! Check it out!

Nori Shrimp Salmon | $11.98
Plate upgrade | $3.00
2 piece chikuwa, 2 piece fried shrimp, 1 piece salmon

Three people ordered this! Chan nicely upgraded their bentos to plates. Not super sure what you get more…it looks like the proteins are the same size so maybe more rice and side dishes? Anyway, it was enjoyed by the diners!

MEGA NORI | $18.98
2 pc chikuwa, 3 pc karaage, 1 pc croquette, 1 pc deep fried shrimp, 1 pc white fish, 1 pc regular salmon with extra large white rice

Maybe my picture isn’t showing the size in true fashion. The description sounds mega! Sounds like a great mix too! Chan enjoyed it!

Steak & Vegetable Bento | $21.98
comes with multigrain rice

This was my dish. For some odd reason, I was feeling like red meat so I went for this. I was also super excited for all the side veggies! How was it? Sigh. The steak is super tough and overcooked. They don’t ask how you want the steak cooked. I really enjoyed the garlic tare (sauce) they serve with the steak but Chan thinks it’s just a bottled sauce you can buy. Well, I want it then! Anyone know the secret? I still enjoyed this a lot because some pieces of meat were okay and the veggies were good as always!

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04Oct / 2024

Mixed Plate Friday

7-Eleven Lemon Butter Chicken Pasta | $6.49

Newish offering from 7-Eleven! How was it? Pretty good. Not like mind blowing but I’m glad I tried it!

FRENCH BUTTER

If you know me, you know I’ve been on the search for some freaking French butter. I heard so much good stuff about it and I’ve been desperate. Chan found out that Foodland Farms carries one and omg I AM SO HAPPY. Gotta get the salted one, not the unsalted because part of the appeal are the sea salt crystals in the butter. Toast some bread up and spread this bad boy on…I get the hype. I GET IT. So you go get it! Okay, only if you want bougie butter.

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02Oct / 2024

Ginger & Garlic – Chinatown, HI

Ginger & Garlic used to be my favorite dim sum restaurant. Hard for me to say used to be…it’s still one I will go to but the quality has really gone downhill in recent times. I went about a month ago? Found the dimsum to be much smaller than before and the restaurant just seems not to be aging well. It definitely did not make me want to return soon. Here’s some dim sum items we got!

Baked Egg Custard Tart | $5.50

Good stuff! I love this.

Deep Fried Taro | $5.50

Basic – nothing special.

Siu Mai | $5.50

Good, not great. I feel like they used to make it really well. Maybe the original chef left…

Seafood Bundle in Bean Curd | $6.50

One of my must have dim sum items. There’s another dim sum restaurant that I don’t want to name that is opening locations left and right and I don’t think they have this on their dim sum menu. What a shame! I love it.

Seafood Chow Mein | $15.95

Another must have item for me at dim sum, seafood chow mein. The aforementioned restaurant chain also doesn’t have this? This is a staple for me! Unless that restaurant chain ups their game, I’m good. I wasn’t impressed with their dim sum anyhow.

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30Sep / 2024

Recipe: Kona Inn Banana Bread

Hi everyone! So sorry for the unannounced break. This is peak busy season for me at work so it’s just been super hard. I also haven’t been eating out with good food lately so even moreso I don’t have much to post. Might be more mixed plate posts than not. I hope you folks are all doing well! I’m actually heading to Korea at the end of October and while that sounds like I have a lot of time, I really don’t (lol). Time has been flying by and October is in DAYS.

Before I get into the recipe, I can announce that KCC 220 Grille is currently back in service! Go support the culinary students and get some onolicious wallet-friendly food! Here is the link: https://sites.google.com/hawaii.edu/culinaryartsprogram-kapcc/220-grille?authuser=0.

Anyway, quick recipe post. Someone posted this recipe on Facebook – it was definitely a picture of an old school recipe book. Everyone was raving about it so I just had to make it.

Doesn’t look super good ah? Like…looks dry almost. I was not convinced. Not until I tried it. Oh my gosh, this bread is so nice and banana-y and super moist, dense but not too dense you know? This is how I found the pan at work…

Insane that people don’t throw things into a rubbish can that is like 2 feet away. I don’t know what to tell you! But safe to say it was a winner. I actually shared 3 loaves with the office and all three were gone in an INSTANT. Here’s the recipe!

Kona Inn Banana Bread

Original Recipe

Ingredients:
1 C butter
2 C sugar
6 or 7 ripe bananas, mashed
4 eggs, well beaten
2 ½ C all-purpose flour, sifted
1 t salt
2 t baking soda

Directions:
Cream butter and sugar thoroughly; add bananas and eggs. Sift dry ingredients; blend into creamed mixture. DO NOT overmix. Pour into two greased 9 x 5 inch loaf pans. Bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for 45 to 50 minutes.

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13Sep / 2024

Mixed Plate Friday

Yummy’s Korean B-B-Q Bibimkooksoo | $16.95

Oh the pricey. So pricey. But so good. I get this one from the Ala Moana food course and I order it spicy because I am trying to prove to Chan that I am the Spice Queen (I’m not). I think they give a lot of veggies and meat and a good amount of noodles so it’s worth it for me. I’m always up for a nice good cold noodle dish.

Chinese Roast Pig!!!

Look at that thing! It’s funny to look at, I guess I’ve never seen the pig chopped up and put back in like this? It’s good they were willing to chop it up though! When we get our pig for bai san – we gotta chop our own. Not sure where this is from, was good but not super great. I thought the skin was too hard and not a light crispy, you know?

First Round

The roast pig was part of our UH Football Viewing Party. Chan and I brought Chun Wah Kam Ginger Chicken Fried Rice and Orange Chicken. Was delicious. Then I thought there was a pot of chili so I made my own chili nachos but learned it was baked beans. LOL, was good anyway. Have a good weekend everyone!

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