Mixed Plate Friday

Sushi Set #12 | $12.95
garlic salmon and spicy tuna bomb

I love getting sushi at Jay’s Sushi, the sushi tastes great and the prices are reasonable. I would definitely recommend them. They are also located next door to the best bubble tea place haha!

Kimchi Mandoo | $6.99 (sale price)

I went to Hmart in Pearl City last weekend and I was blown away. Oh my god, such a better store than the one in town. Just in terms of space and their offerings, makes it almost worth it to drive out there. They also had sample booths! Sample booths are so smart. This lady was making both the regular mandoo and kimchi mandoo and let me tell you, she was giving out huge pieces. But it works. I bought two bags because this mandoo was so good! I would definitely recommend it if you see it. I like to pan fry and steam…yum!

Roast Turkey Dinner | $18.00
slow roasted turkey, buttered corn, portuguese sausage stuffing, smashed potato, dinner roll, turkey gravy, cranberry sauce

Your eyes do not deceive you, we had ourselves a nice little thanksgiving feast in September. We got this plate from Hamada General Store, it was one of their daily specials. A bit of a funny story, we were actually eyeing out a sandwich place (what is with me and sandwiches lately?) who was offering a seasonal thanksgiving sandwich which was basically the contents of this plate. The sandwich is $18.50 (yikes) and when I went to their online ordering site, they charge $3.00 if you want gravy. What??? That’s $21!!!!! Then we saw this special for Hamada and decided to pay $18 for the whole she-bang. Best decision ever. This was DELICIOUS. The turkey was moist and the sides were all great. Would definitely get this again. Wish they would make it to sell on Thanksgiving.

Noods Ramen Bar – Kaimuki, HI

Okay, I tried Noods Ramen Bar back in March so please forgive my memory. Their play on words in their title is funny, a little crass but I don’t mind it. They have shirts that read send noods (haha). We gave this place a try for an early dinner one day, they weren’t that busy but it was definitely a rough start for service. When we were finally serviced, the food came out pretty quick and they were around enough for us not to be mad.

Truffle Shoyu Ramen | $16.00
shoyu based broth, green onion, chashu pork, aji tamago, menma, nori, truffle oil and truffle powder

Not my dish but I remember being told it wasn’t truffle-y enough.

Black Garlic Tonkotsu Ramen | $14.00
pork bone based broth, green onion, chashu pork, aji tamago, menma, nori, sesame seeds, garlic chips, and black garlic oil

I ordered this as level 3 spicy, I wanted extra choy sum or should I say just choy sum in general so I coughed up an extra $1.00. I think the ramen was good, nothing great again. I guess I am just biased with Wagaya huh?

Garlic Fried Rice | $4.00
house made garlic fried rice (vegan)

This was the dish I wanted to try the most. Crazy yeah? But any dish with choke garlic and rice is for me. This did not disappoint. I could just eat this and be satisfied. CAN’T GO WRONG WITH GARLIC AND RICE.

Over Easy – Kailua, HI

This past week was the anniversary of my mom’s death. This was a big one. 20 years. This anniversary also marks the unfortunate milestone that my mother has been out of my life more than she has been in it. I am doing okay, I decided to make a day out of it and had a nice little brunch out in Kailua, hitting up the Target in Kailua and then do my leisurely visit to my mom’s grave. I bought flowers the night before at Costco and they looked wonderful. As we were leaving, we looked at some of the Japanese graves. I don’t know a lot about them but just see these huge granite structures everytime I visit my mom. I was told that the names behind the stone signal who is buried there. I wasn’t trying to be disrespectful, and I hope it wasn’t being so. It was just interesting to sort of piece together family histories through the listings. In fact, I found the grave for the Hata family. Yes, it’s probably the Hata family you are thinking about.

Anyhow, I’ve been wanting to try Over Easy for a few years now. I’m not much of a brunch person but since they get such high ratings on Yelp, I just had to give it a try!

Kailua Eggs | $16.00
sunny side eggs, bacon cabbage broth, portuguese sausage, rice (microgreens and dehydrated cabbage too)

Yeah, it’s as weird as it looks. I guess it’s like an ochazuke? The broth definitely did not have strong hints of any flavor, especially not bacon. They have dehydrated cabbage in it that is rehydrated with the soup. Just fancy term for pickling the cabbage perhaps? I think the dish was okay. Not great, not bad. I wouldn’t get it again. It was an awkward dish to share.

Kalua Pig Hash | $18.00
kalua pork, okinawan & fingerling potatoes, lomi tomato, OK Poultry Farm eggs, green goddess, cilantro

Best dish of the meal. Well, we only had two dishes so there was no real competition. The kalua pig and potatoes tasted great. Can’t go wrong with OK Poultry eggs and I love the cilantro sprinkled all around. I would definitely order this again.

All in all, glad to have tried it. Don’t have an urge to return again, I can find brunch food in town. They do not have any parking so you do have to find street parking. I went on a weekday after peak brunch time so I was able to find a parking stall pretty fast. Definitely was surrounded by tourists.