Young Radish Kimchee

I made this discovery way too late. Way. Too. Late. Have you guys heard of young radish kimchee? Oh my gosh, it is so good! Here’s the story. I went to Queen’s Supermarket to grab my usual kimchee and decided to try some of the fresh kimchee selections. I saw the whole radish kimchee and totally had to try it. I love watching Korean dramas and those crazy people who take a bite out of the whole radish in the middle of the night out of anger. I’m weird, I know. Anyhow, there is this leafy green on top of the radish and I enjoyed it at a lot. Then I realized they sell the leafy tops on their own! It’s called young radish kimchee and it is glorious. The texture is what makes it the best. It looks a bit like choy sum but has the texture of super crisp ong choy. It’s SO good. Please give it a try when you have the chance!

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Crunchy. Fresh. Delicious. Spicy. Awesome.

Recipe: Strawberry Poke Cake with Lemon Whipped Topping

Long name for a recipe huh? I didn’t want to call it a lemon frosting because I feel like frosting makes it sound so sweet when it was my goal to make a not so sweet topping. So here is what I came up with! It was my brother’s birthday and I wanted to make him a cake – it was a success! His brothers enjoyed the cake more than him but eh…as long as it was being eaten, it’s fine! Let me share some pictures and the recipe!

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I was running out of icing to write the words so excuse the messy handwriting. Admire the fresh fruit. 🙂

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My recipe makes a lot of whipped topping! So I think you could make a layered cake but it’s hard to do that with this cake…since there’s jello in it. I guess you could do it after the jello sets!

Strawberry Poke Cake with Lemon Whipped Topping

Cake:

1 pkg.  (2-layer size) white cake mix (I used this one)

1 cup  boiling water

1 pkg.  (3 oz.) JELL-O Strawberry Flavor Gelatin

1/2 cup  cold water

Lemon Whipped Topping:

1 tub (12 oz) Cool Whip Whipped Topping, thawed

3 lemons worth of squeezed juice

2/3 can of condensed milk (7 oz. can)

Decorations:

1 6 oz. container of blueberries

1 16 oz. container of strawberries

Prepare cake batter and bake as directed on package for 13×9-inch pan. Cool cake in pan 15 min. Pierce cake with large fork at 1/2-inch intervals.

Add boiling water to gelatin mix in small bowl; stir 2 min. until completely dissolved. Stir in cold water; pour over cake. Refrigerate 3 hours.

Gently combine lemon whipped topping ingredients in a bowl and frost cake in the pan. Decorate cake with sliced strawberries and blueberries as desired. Refrigerate at least one hour before serving.

Notes:
– The frosting has the perfect amount of lemon juice, the condensed milk adds a sweet touch. I really like the frosting because it complements the cake, doesn’t overpower it. 
– The fruits should definitely be used, makes a big difference in the taste of the cake! Delicious.
– Strawberry Poke Cake recipe courtesy of Kraft Recipes, frosting by me! 🙂

Dim Sum Brunch – Happy Days Seafood Restaurant

I hope you all had a great 4th of July! I did a lot of eating and then sleeping. Ha! I joined the gym at work on Thursday, only paid for a month in case I ditch out. Don’t wanna lose out money. Well for someone who hasn’t worked out in a long while, a spinning class wasn’t the best start. I also had a very late lunch and ate too much….I think you guys know where I’m going with this. Long story short, I threw up afterwards. Hahaha..but I am still intending on going back! I enjoyed the class but will try to be better prepared next time. I’d like to at least do simple workouts since I already paid into the membership for a month and I have no excuse since the gym is at work!

Anyhow, not much else to update. Just wanted to share a recent brunch I had at Happy Days. I love myself some dim sum. Always willing to dim sum more. That was a bad joke, I know. Here are the pictures to make up for it.

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Black Bean Spare Ribs

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Seafood Bundle (includes fish, imitation crab, scallop, shiitake mushroom, and shrimp wrapped in a thin bean curd skin)

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Meat Ball – this has a type of green mixed in. I want to say it’s watercress but I am not entirely sure.

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Siu Mai

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Bean Curd Rolls

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Pan Fried Shrimp and Chive Dumpling

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Taro Puff

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Turnip Cake

Restaurant Do-ne Japanese Food – Honolulu, HI

Restaurant Do-ne Japanese Food is a cute little Japanese restaurant that opened up recently. It’s pretty hard to find if you don’t know where it is, and the parking can be a bit confusing but at least there is parking! You gotta turn into the lot that is located behind the building, just go straight into the lot and park along the back. There are stalls on the side but they are reserved for another business. There is a map of this parking located on their door which is kind of pointless cause you already parked…haha but I digress. It’s a small shop so I went super early to get seated right away. Luckily I did because a big group of Japanese folks came in and took up almost the entire restaurant after us. That’s a good sign of a good restaurant, native Japanese people coming in droves. So how was the food? Delicious! Join me, won’t you?

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Salmon Ikura Don Set – $13.50
Doesn’t this look fantastic? What a great deal! And the detail in the side dishes? It makes a big difference I think.

140703-02Great quality fish – generous for the price!

140703-03Seasoned Tuna Don – my dining companion got the same set but got the seasoned tuna instead. Doesn’t that look great? The ahi is so red and no white stringy things! Delish.

140703-04Salad with a delicious dressing!  The dressing was onion based and tasted great.

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140703-06Seasoned eggplant with bonito flakes. Delicious!

140703-07Seasoned Kabocha. Good, not great. I believe it was a bit firmer than I would like.

140703-08I don’t know the exact name of this but it was agedashi tofu dish. I enjoyed it a lot. It was a great meal! Great service and great food.

Happy July!

You know what I just realized? I missed my blog’s one year anniversary! It was last month! I cannot believe it’s been a year! I feel like it was just yesterday that I started this blog. I had another food blog a few years ago but I hadn’t updated it in a while. I hesitated buying this domain and starting up this blog but sure am glad I did. Thanks to everyone who reads my blog – I really appreciate it! Sorry I haven’t blogged too much in the past week, I’ve had up and down days. I hope to get active again soon! I spent a lot of time in the kitchen yesterday failing at recipes…lol. I lost inspiration in cooking for a bit, I hope to get my cooking mojo back real soon.

I hope you all have a great first day of July! Friday is a holiday, YES! I’ll just leave you with a quick update. We’ve had a few pot lucks lately and I made baked spaghetti for both. Oh this one in the picture was killer. I thought I was totally set and got into a total groove as I was cooking. Pasta was ready, sauce was going…oven was preheated and then guess what? Yah. I forgot to buy a can of those tomatoes with celery, onion and stuff. Here I was, 5:50 in the morning wondering what I should do. I did some morning business and jumped in my car to head out to foodland to grab a can. Whew, they had it. Thank god. Anyway, the spaghetti was a hit both times at the office. Each time I make it, I add more cheese. I gotta stop that. Have a good one guys!

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