16Apr / 2014

Costco BBQ Beef Brisket Sandwich

Ohhh…I recently tried the new Costco BBQ Brisket Sandwich. Bugga was gooood. Bugga is also one of the pricier (if not priciest) snack bar items at $4.99. Was it good? Take a look!

It’s a big sandwich. Pretty neat how they put it together. You can see all the yummy but unhealthy juices oozing out from the sandwich. The ring does a good job of keeping the sandwich together but fuhgeddaboudit when you start eating…

So how was it? It was very good! Definitely hit the spot. I’m not a fan of cole slaw but I enjoyed theirs. It’s more creamy than tangy so I thought it complimented the BBQ brisket very well. Delish! I’m really glad Costco is adding more variety to their menu. Give it a try!

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15Apr / 2014

Panya Bistro – Honolulu, HI

I have a soft spot for Panya Bistro because it is one of the few restaurants in Hawaii that serve laksa. I love laska. Panya moved locations from Ala Moana to the old PF Chang location in Ward. This is my first visit since the move and I wasn’t all that impressed. I came for a business gathering so I didn’t get to try the laksa – I felt like the dishes were overpriced and the wait staff weren’t too nice to us because we had a big party.

Garlic Stir-fry Edamame – $8.00

Fried Baby Octopus – $10.00
Good dish, it was served with a mayonnaise and shoyu sauce. I’ve never had that kind of sauce before – I did enjoy the baby octopus!

Steamed Clams with White Wine Bacon Sauce – $15.00
They ask if you would like it with garlic bread to dip in the broth – the garlic bread costs extra though.

Garlic French Bread – $6.00
Here’s the garlic bread – the bread and clams were just okay.

Pricey right? I just looked up my laksa dish on the new menu, $18 bucks! I don’t think so! I need to learn how to make it myself and just stuff my face then. lol…I just have to find a container of laksa paste. If you’re going to treat yourself to a good meal, I suggest you try Tango Contemporary Cafe.

Here’s the segment about laksa that started my love for it: Food Safari

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14Apr / 2014

Seed Restaurant – Waialae, HI

This is probably not going to be a well-received review of the restaurant but I have to be honest in my reviews. I am surprised that Seed Restaurant is averaging 4.5 stars on Yelp right now. Based on my experience, I’d give them a 2. But let me explain why. I also think Seed Restaurant is ultra cool for doing what they do in terms of being a justice restaurant. You can read more about their mission at their website.

We showed up to the restaurant at about 6 pm on a Saturday night. I expected it to be busy and to have a wait. We were greeted very nicely by the hostess, she was definitely training. While the trainer and the trainee herself were very nice – it was incredibly disorganized. They were constantly giving estimated seating times that were already passed (i.e. You should have a table at 6:30 – when it was already 6:45, etc.). They told us a few times that we would get a table soon because people were finishing up their meal. Well, we waited over an hour. There were a few tables of folks who were done with their meal and were just chatting for the longest time…I feel like that’s kind of rude if you see a whole bunch of people waiting to get in!

Anyway, I observed the service that night. Not only was the wait list a bit of a mess – I overheard a customer whose reservation was lost and it was for a big party. Anyway, after an hour or so – we finally get seated. We got our seat in the back corner and by the way – this restaurant doesn’t have air conditioning (just an FYI on how to dress).

Our waitress came up to our table and didn’t utter a single word. I had to say hello and then just tell her we were ready to order (since we had an hour to browse the menu). We tried to order fresh juices but were told the juicer had just broke. Disappointment #1. How was the food? Oh boy, here we go…

Baked French “Fries” – $2.50
What a disappointment. Even sliced so thick, the fries were dry and hard as a rock. I don’t know how they were able to overcook such big slices of potato but they did. Inedible.

Signature Fresh Catch (Ono) – $13.95

Sigh. Where do I start? Overcooked and underseasoned piece of fish. It was so dry – I felt like a can of tuna would have given better quality fish. There was no flavor at all, luckily my dining companion had dipping sauces I could use. What a waste…

Here are my mixed vegetables. I basically got all carrots – they trying to tell me something??

Shabu-Cut Grilled Meat Platter – $12.95
Does the meat look koge to you? It’s definitely not how dark the photo is, this is how it looked in person.

Doesn’t that look…burnt? My poor friend…he was not happy.

Here are his mixed vegetables. There are two dipping sauces, one is a garlic chili sauce and one is some kind of herbed oil but it basically tasted like oil. I was biting into the chili pepper to access some kind of flavor for my meal and paid dearly for that…lol.

We were originally going to order dessert too but definitely did not feel like ordering it after the food and service we received. I watched as our waitress talked to every table around us, making conversation, etc. I don’t know why she treated us poorly compared to others. Needless to say, we will not be returning anytime soon. It’s really too bad because I do want to support the mission of this restaurant. Maybe I can give them a chance after a year or so, they have only been open for a month.

By the way, thanks everyone for the kind words on my last entry. I’m sorry I haven’t had time to respond – it’s been hectic and I had to get a new post up. Will definitely respond soon. 🙂 Today, we went to bai san for my Mom. I do appreciate my family coming together to show up for her. She didn’t have her family here in Hawaii but my Dad’s side always shows up in spades. Much mahalo for that. Hope you folks are doing well – I’m excited for the three day weekend. Look at me, it’s not even Monday yet. Happy Monday folks!

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10Apr / 2014

Rant

I was going to update with a quick food post today but I just had to share my day. I’ve been having not so great days lately, and it’s nothing specific going on – I just feel like I’m in a slump. Anyhow, I drove home today from work and as I approached the driveway to my house (it’s a shared driveway between different houses) – there were two Pacific Islander kids blocking the driveway. It was a sister and brother I assume, both must have been under the age of 10. They were blocking the lane but as I turned in, they moved off to the side. I look to the back and see the boy calling me the B word. This young kid. I stopped my car and got out. I usually do this anyway. I stop my car and get out to get our mail. The two kids were standing there. I’m looking at both in the eyes and you can tell the boy has a guilty but naughty ridden look on his face.

What did I end up doing? Well. I nicely said hi to both of them to which they both said hi as well. I asked how they were going and the sister and brother both say they are okay, the sister friendlier. I grab my mail, close the mailbox and wish them both a good night and she tells me, you too. I drive off and as I’m parking, I see they are both watching me. Not sure what to make of that but fine. What does one do in that scenerio anyway? I could have reacted poorly because I know for a fact the boy called me the b word, but what would that accomplish? Nothing. Might as well kill a person with kindness and hope they will pay it forward in the future. What happened certainly ruined my night but I feel good in how I handled it and in the end, I don’t feel anger – just a bit of sadness. You never know what people are going through in their lives to make them lash out the way they do.

I hope everyone has a fabulous Friday and weekend! Here’s a picture I took when I took a hike up the Makapuu Trail.

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08Apr / 2014

You Hungry? – Honolulu, HI

You Hungry? has been around for a few years now but has moved locations a few times (or have they expanded?). I had a meeting in the downtown/Kakaako area and we had to drop in when we drove past this truck! It’s located in a parking lot and it was pretty busy! Everyone must know they’re there. Let’s get to the food!

Here’s the menu for the day. The prices are great!

Furikake Mahi Mahi and Garlic Chicken Combo – $8.25

My co-worker had this plate and she actually enjoyed the fish more than the chicken! I don’t know if you can tell but the fish was cooked perfectly, very moist! The chicken was just all right.

Roast Pork with Fresh Rosemary – $6.00

$6.00 is a steal! It comes with salad and very generous portions of rice and meat. How was it? S-A-L-T-Y. I was so disappointed. I should have thrown this out but I’m Chinese and can’t. The meat itself was heavily seasoned when it was first cooked – then you add dark brown gravy on top? It was all too much. I wouldn’t recommend this dish at all. My original dish was not available so this was my second choice.

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06Apr / 2014

Recipe: Green Chicken Curry

This Thai green chicken curry is one of my favorites! I hadn’t made it in a while so I busted out my old recipe book to make it. Very easy to make and super yummy if you like coconut milk. I’ll share pics and recipes below!

Doesn’t look all that great but it is! I can smell the coconut milk and lime now…

You only need 1.5 cups of coconut milk but I just used the full two cans – I’m pretty gangsta. By the way, the Hawaiian Sun brand coconut milk is much thicker than the right can. I prefer the Hawaiian Sun brand.

Chopped Onions

Sliced Chicken Thighs. If I wasn’t in a time crunch, I would have trimmed the fat a bit more.

Green Curry Paste – definitely essential to make this green curry. Hehe…I found this at Foodland. I’ve found it at Safeway before too.

Fish Sauce. Also necessary, pungent but necessary.

Green beans washed and broken into pieces, ready to add.

Cilantro. I guess this can be optional but for me, this cilantro makes a huge difference for the dish. You just top off your curry right before eating…yum!

Lime juice and lime zest chilling, ready to flavor up the curry

Sizzling onions with the green curry paste…

Wooo, coconut milk added. I also put a small amount of water into each coconut can and woosh around the excess and added it back into this.

Chicken and beans added, ready to simmer

There you have it! A nice and hearty bowl of green chicken curry served on top of a bed of rice and topped with fresh cilantro leaves ready to be consumed. It’s so good. Give it a try!

Green Chicken Curry

Preparation time: 20 minutes
Total cooking time: 25 minutes
Serves 4

1 tablespoon oil
1 onion, chopped
1-2 tablespoons Green Curry Paste
1.5 cups coconut milk
1/2 cup of water (take the water and swish out the remaining cream in the coconut milk cans)
1 lb 2 oz. chicken thigh fillets, cut into bite-sized pieces
3/4 cup green beans, cut into short pieces
6 makrut (kaffir) lime leaves (these are hard to find for me so I don’t use them)
1 tablespoon fish sauce
1 tablespoon lime juice
1 teaspoon grated lime zest
2 teaspoons soft brown sugar
1 bunch of cilantro, cut the leaves for topping

1) Heat the oil in a wok or a heavy-based pan. Add onion and curry paste to the wok and cook for about 1 minute, stirring constantly. Add coconut mik and water to the wok. Bring the mixture to the boil.

2) Add the chicken pieces, beans, and makrut lime leaves to the wok; stir to combine. Simmer, uncovered, for 15-20 minutes or until the chicken is tender. Add the fish sauce, lime juice and zest, and brown sugar to wok; stir to combine. Sprinkle with fresh cilantro leaves just before serving. Serve with steamed rice.

Note: Chicken thigh fillets are sweet in flavor and a very good texture for curries. You can use breast fillets instead, if you prefer. Do not overcook fillets or they will be tough.

Credit: A really old Thai cookbook that is no longer printed…lol. Sorry!

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05Apr / 2014

Meatball – Kapahulu, HI

Meatball opened a few weeks ago in Kapahulu and I was super excited when it did! I love meatballs and thought a restaurant specializing in meatballs gotta be good! So how was it? A mixed bag. This could just be growing pains but I have a few thoughts. First, let me explain how to order. The base order includes the meatballs, your choice of sauce, and two small slices of garlic bread for $8.50. Then to make it a “meal” which means adding starch, you have to pay $3.00. Yes, if you want to add plain rice – you would have to fork out $3.00. Let’s get to the pictures and details.

Chicken Meatballs with Bacon Alfredo Sauce on Shells ($11.50)

This comes with 4 meatballs. My coworker got this dish and she was incredibly unhappy. The meatballs were just okay and they cooked the pasta all wrong. The shells were still hard and I don’t know if you can see it, but there are clumps of shells stuck together that were also not edible. She ended up throwing out most of the dish.

Vegetable Balls with Mushroom Gravy – $8.50

Another dish from my coworker. She didn’t have nice or mean things to say. I asked how the taste was and she mentioned it tasted like…vegetarian balls. Sometimes places are able to make their meatless dishes taste very meaty – I don’t think they succeeded here.

Beef Meatballs, Mushroom Gravy ($8.50), Rice ($3.00), Side Egg ($1.50) = $13.00

Here’s the garlic bread turned over. I guess it’s good that it’s made inhouse? It definitely was not memorable.

This dish is PRICEY. I can’t get over how much rice is and how little you get for this price. How’s the meatball? I will admit the beef meatball is very unique in flavor. There is a bit of game-y taste but definitely in a good way. I enjoyed the mixture of different meats in the meatball.

So do I recommend this place? I can’t say I can. It’s very pricey for a small quantity. I always try to give places another chance so perhaps I would return when they settle into their space a bit more.

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04Apr / 2014

Hokkaido Ramen Santouka – Honolulu, HI

Another post on Hokkaido Ramen Santouka! I’ve been back at least twice since my first bad experience. Service has gotten better and it’s not as busy as it has been in the past. I think the ramen is good – but not the best. I actually went to Japanese Kai Ramen this week and that might be my current favorite. I’ll have a post up on that one next week sometime. Let me share the pictures from my newest visit to Hokkaido, our eyes were bigger than our stomachs and we ordered the bigger size…by the way, my first visit is detailed here.

Miso Ramen

You really do feast with your eyes first…doesn’t this look delicious? My friend had this dish, she enjoys the broth and char siu. I think she prefers a firmer noodle but I wonder…maybe next time we could ask for firmer noodles. I think they would comply!

Toroniku Kara Miso Ramen

Red hot! Well not for me, but it looks red hot!

Toroniku. This is the limited quantity special each day. The char siu made of the pork cheeks which is extra tender and soft…so good yet so bad for you. They leave the char siu off of the broth I think to preserve the softness and prevent overcooking.

Not sure why they leave the other toppings off too. Here are the toppings I tried to place nicely. Good dish, broth definitely looks more spicy than it actually is. I still say it’s great to see these new Japanese ramen shops pop up. Have you folks tried them all yet? 🙂

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03Apr / 2014

Vanilla Cupcake with Strawberry Guava Jam Frosting

I must confess. I work with a master-baker. He works so hard to make wonderful desserts – all from SCRATCH. No cake mix, no funny stuff. I give him a lot of credit, it’s not easy baking from scratch but he does and he does it great. Here’s a recent cupcake he shared with me.

So how was it? Good as always. Do you see the specks of black in the cake? That’s fresh vanilla. Fresh vanilla people! My only feedback to him was that the cake was a bit dense and dry. Not sure if it was the recipe or how long ago it was made (only like 2 days old!) but other than that – so awesome. I really wish I were rich so I could open up a bakery for this guy to fill everyone’s dessert deficiency.

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02Apr / 2014

Recipe: Jean-Georges’s Fried Rice

I first saw this recipe a few years back when I saw it on Mark Bittman’s cooking podcasts. I was very interested in trying this fried rice recipe, it is a very simple recipe but looks absolutely delicious. I’ll share the link to his video at the end of this post but I do not suggest using the amount of shoyu and sesame oil. That’s too much!

My first time using leeks! Have you used one before? It looks a lot like the big Japanese negi onion but it’s definitely not the same. Also, you cannot use the green part at all – it is very tough!

Leeks sliced up and ready to sizzle…

Minced garlic and ginger. Lots of minced garlic and ginger.

Fry the ginger and garlic in oil until they are golden and crispy.

Oh yeah…almost there! Once they are golden brown, you drain them and let them sit out a bit while you cook the rest of the dish. Letting it rest a bit lets them get even crunchier!

I couldn’t waste the aromatic ginger/garlic oil so I used it to make the fried rice! Here are the leeks ready to be sautéed.

This recipe is SO easy to make. It’s very simple in how it’s made but oh so delicious. I topped mine off with a fried egg too. I’ll share the recipe and video below with a few tips.

Jean-Georges’s Fried Rice

1/2 cup peanut oil if you’re Mark Bittman, chicken fat if you’re Jean-Georges (Corn Oil if you’re Jenny)
2 tablespoons minced garlic (an entire bulb if you’re Jenny)
2 tablespoons minced ginger (a medium sized piece if you’re Jenny)
Salt (Jenny didn’t use this)
2 cups thinly sliced leeks, white and light green parts only, rinsed and dried (I didn’t have two cups – I only used one stalk of leek)
4 cups cooked rice, preferably jasmine, at room temperature (see note below)
4 large eggs (or as many eggs as people)
2 teaspoons sesame oil
4 teaspoons soy sauce

In a large skillet, heat 1/4 cup oil over medium heat. Add garlic and ginger and cook, stirring occasionally, until crisp and brown. With a slotted spoon, transfer to paper towels and salt lightly. Alternately, you can pour the oil into a heat-proof bowl through a fine-mesh strainer, then return the flavorful oil to the pan, reserving the ginger and garlic bits.
Reduce heat under skillet to medium-low and add 2 tablespoons oil and leeks. Cook about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally, until very tender but not browned. Season lightly with salt.
Raise heat to medium and add rice. Cook, stirring well, until heated through. Season to taste with salt.
In a nonstick skillet, fry eggs in remaining oil, sunny-side-up, until edges are set but yolk is still runny.
Divide rice among four dishes. Top each with an egg and drizzle with 1/2 teaspoon sesame oil and 1 teaspoon soy sauce. Sprinkle crisped garlic and ginger over everything and serve.
Note: Use leftover cooked rice if you have it. Here are some tips if you’re cooking the rice fresh, to make sure it isn’t too soggy: When the cook time is done, leave the rice undisturbed in the pot (uncovered) for 5 minutes. Spread the rice on a tray (or two) to dry out. While you prep the rest of the ingredients, put it by an open window or a fan, or pop the tray in the fridge or freezer if you have room. Jaden Hair at Steamy Kitchen also recommends starting with 1/4 to 1/3 less water when cooking the rice.

Recipe courtesy of Food 52.

The Minimalist : Jean-Georges’s Fried Rice – Mark Bittman

Jenny’s notes:
– You must use Jasmine Rice or long grain rice – the medium grain rice I had was too mushy! Also, the rice must be at least a day old! It’s gotta be cold and hard!
– I added a splash of shoyu and sesame oil before eating – it’s really up to the person eating! This dish is so delicious and easy, but it’s the garlic/ginger crunch that makes it pop.

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maybeitsjenny

Monthly Archives: April 2014

Costco BBQ Beef Brisket Sandwich

Panya Bistro – Honolulu, HI

Seed Restaurant – Waialae, HI

Rant

You Hungry? – Honolulu, HI

Recipe: Green Chicken Curry

Meatball – Kapahulu, HI

Hokkaido Ramen Santouka – Honolulu, HI

Vanilla Cupcake with Strawberry Guava Jam Frosting

Recipe: Jean-Georges’s Fried Rice