Recipe: Almond Cookies

One day, I was feeling like some almond cookies. Since I was in a cooking mood, I decided to make the almond cookies myself. To my surprise, the cookies were very easy to make and delicious! I have never used Crisco before this and was pleasantly pleased with how the cookies came out. You definitely need to use Crisco or the cookies won’t have the same crunchy texture.

160109-01Doesn’t this look yummy??

160109-02Cookies from scratch. I sifted all the ingredients together.

160109-03Wish I had round edges on my chopsticks, the red dot would have been more like a circle…

160109-04Here is how the cookie will look if you try to move it right after taking it out of the oven. You need to let the cookies cool on the pan for at least 5 minutes before you can move them. The cooling will allow the cookies to harden, fresh out of the oven will be too soft in texture.

160109-05Perfect Almond Cookie!

I followed the recipe exactly from House of Annie: Chinese Almond Cookie Recipe.

Ireh Restaurant – Keeaumoku, HI

Ireh Restaurant is one of my favorite Korean restaurants. They recently opened a new spot in McCully Shopping Center but I prefer the Keeaumoku location, the original. We did try to check out the McCully location but they have a very different menu from the other location. The biggest change I noticed from McCully is that they do not carry jook (congee), not quite sure why. I bet McCully has a bigger kitchen even! Just wanted to share food from a recent trip.

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Pickled Onion and Daikon – it’s delicious! Sweet and crunchy. No raw onion bite at all.

160107-02Homemade Kimchee Cabbage. Delish!

160107-03Pan-Fried Dumpling – $11.95

I love their mandoo, it’s stuffed full with filling and delicious. I always try to order this when I go there!

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160107-05Rabokki (Topokki + Ramen) – $11.95

So delicious. They do their topokki dish perfectly and you can request for less spicy if needed. I think we asked for mild this time but if I was alone, I would go for spicy.

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160107-07Rice Topped with Mushroom – $12.95

This was definitely the surprise dish of the day. We have never had this before but it was so delicious. They have at least three different types of mushrooms in this dish. This dish was light but flavorful over a perfect bed of rice. I can’t wait to order this again.

New Wing

Have you folks been to the new wing at Ala Moana yet? It’s quite beautiful to look at, but not much to browse through. The stores that are currently open don’t really appeal to me and I guess almost half of the stores to be opened have not yet. I took these pictures a few weeks ago right before the frenzy of holiday shopping and they had the decorations up already! Oh how I will miss Christmas. I am happy that we still have cooler weather though!

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A lot of nice sitting areas! I walked by this weekend and there was a performer on the stage which was nice.

160105-02Okay, so what’s up with this? On many occasions, I’ve seen kids playing with the koi fish. Literally. I’ve seen kids petting the koi fish which I am sure is unhygienic for both the child and the fish. I don’t know if you see it in this picture but the kid in the gray shirt is poking the fish with a stick! And what do the parents do? Just sit there. No reprimanding at all! Gosh, where is the respect nowadays? The parents should be teaching it! If not, how are the kids going to learn? Ah vent over. Hope all is well.

Thankful

Every year, my co-worker, Linda feeds our office to our very brim. Well, this year was a bittersweet experience. Linda retired last week but before she left, she cooked us one final feast. Well her husband did but does that really matter? They went all out, turkey, homemade dressing (a deluxe style stuffing), homemade gravy and garlic mashed potatoes. I’m drooling just thinking about it…and I didn’t have turkey this past Thanksgiving so it was perfection.

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The delicious lupcheong dressing and turkey.

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Look at that! He sliced up the turkey perfectly and separated the white and dark meat. I like the dark meat, how about you folks?

160103-03Dressing made from scratch? Yes, please.

160103-04Perfect mashed potatoes. I like my mashed potatoes smooth but these had great texture.

160103-05Gravy from the drippings, flavorful and not too salty at all.

160103-06Speaking of homemade, my other co-worker made cookies for everyone. They tasted great, sorry I didn’t get a picture of the cookies! It was two shortbread cookies drizzled with caramel. It was wrapped in parchment paper and tied up with twine, how rustic! It’s little things like this that warm the heart…

160103-08Here’s something I experimented as a Christmas Eve treat for my office. Chichi Dango Mochi with a chichi dango heart. I made a two layered mochi (green and white for christmas) and topped it with a red heart (or as red as I could get it). Chichi Dango definitely takes a bit of effort in making and cutting (oh the cutting!) but the effort was totally worth it. I’m so glad I got it to work!

160103-07Extra hearts? Thank god for Katakuriko. Aren’t these hearts the cutest? I can’t wait to experiment more with this mochi recipe, I bet it would sell well in a craft fair too! Ahhh…if anyone wants the recipe, let me know and I’ll try to post it up!

Sushi Bistro Shun – Honolulu, HI

Happy 2016 everyone! Gosh, 2016. Where does the time go? Well, 2016 is a nice even number. How have your holidays been this past year? I’ve had a pretty good holiday season, relaxed. I always do my holiday shopping online and it’s great. And luckily for me, I received all my packages before the holiday so it all worked out well. Christmas is always my favorite holiday but I find myself every year saying, I didn’t get to enjoy it as much as I could have. It’s really too bad. I spend the first half of December stressing out so much about school that when finals are over, I spend the rest of my time recovering. But what’s best for recovering? Eating. Folks, I have not stopped eating. I haven’t been able to update regularly but I have been capturing all the good eats. My latest share is from Sushi Bistro Shun, have you been? It’s located on King Street just after Gyotaku, it’s quite a gem of a restaurant. If you haven’t been there yet, I highly recommend it!

160101-01Special Tsukune – $3.75

Oh my, this dish was d-e-l-i-c-i-o-u-s. I think many people will be freaked out by the raw egg. You mix the egg with the shoyu based sauce in the plate and dip the meat ball in the sauce as you eat it. Oh it was so delicious. And surprisingly, all the sauce disappeared with the meatball. The sauce looks plentiful but it was perfect.

160101-02Diced Steak – $9.00

Served with a delicious daikon sauce. Delish!

160101-03Bacon-wrapped Asparagus – $3.00 (each)

I liked the way this was cooked. The asparagus was still very firm and crunchy and the bacon wasn’t too hard. I’m one of the minority that enjoys a soft bacon versus a crispy dried up piece of bacon. So those who want the crispy bacon, you won’t like the bacon on this stick.

160101-04Kabocha Tempura – $6.95

Yum. Cooked to a perfect crisp. Sliced perfect, sometimes restaurants cut the slices too thick. This one had a good flesh and crispy skin ratio. I loved it. They have a specials board and may not always remember to bring it by but ask them for it! It’s an actual board with pinned notes of all the specials. It includes this kabocha tempura and a white peach chu-hi that I like. 

160101-05Four Types of Sausages – $13.00

How can I explain this dish past its title? It is four different types of sausage. I don’t quite know how to explain the four, we weren’t given a description so I will try my best. From left to right, spicy sausage, chicken basil sausage, arabiki sausage and tomato italian sausage. I thought the sausages were alright but the thing is, they brought this out way at the end. After we finished all our food. This is definitely better as a starter, not a great ender to the meal. I wouldn’t order this again.

160101-06Sashimi Platter A – $31.00

I’ve heard this twice already. To get a better bang for your buck, order a sashimi set and get a side order of rice. You can then control the amount of rice you have with your fish and some say it’s cheaper this way too. My friend does not like wasabi so this will help him in eating just the sashimi and rice without having to constantly ask for no wasabi. I think this is a good idea all around! 

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Special Shun Chirashi – $23.00

What can I say? I’m a sucker for a great chirashi. This one is made up of very different ingredients which come together to create a delicious bite. If you don’t like natto or yamaimo, you won’t like this bowl. If you do, this would be heavenly! I left that whole chunk of wasabi in this bowl so I definitely cleared some of my sinuses up during this meal. I loved it though. I definitely think this restaurant is a hidden gem and will definitely return.