Archive | October 2023

Mixed Plate Friday

Oct20

Yeah, I tried the plant-based katsu musubi so you don’t have to. Well it’s up to you. It tastes fine, but they deep fry it katsu style so how can it be junk? And yeah, you can totally tell it’s plant based so if you’re looking for a good spam replacement, this wouldn’t be it. Also it’s $3!!!!

Speaking of musubi, I made this assortment for one of the UH football game gatherings the other week! Ger regular spam, red hot dog spam and plain musubi with some furikake. I enjoy the spam musubis I make lol.

I made this the other week because I had a hankering for Korean style oxtail soup. Trying to replenish my iron levels with meat and can you tell I love green onions? Haha, it was good! I had some glass noodles at the bottom too. Was good but got pretty tired of it after a while…hard to make a dish that you then gotta eat up yourself for DAYS.

Post Views: 1,276

Sandy’s Cafe – Chinatown, HI

Oct18

Chan and I are on the hunt for good Chinese grindz, but specifically, good Chinese breakfast grindz. And ding ding ding, we have a winner! Sandy’s Cafe is located in the Chinese Cultural Plaza so we came in on a Sunday morning for a nice leisurely breakfast. They are also known for roasting their own meats and have been rated pretty high on lists, are they worth the hype?

Lemon Tea (Cold) | $5.00

Gotta start the meal off with a nice freshing Hong Kong style lemon iced tea. If the lemon slices don’t take up half the cup, what are you even doing? (j/k).

Crispy Gau Gee (4 pcs) | $7.00

Fried nice and crisp and packed full of stuffing. Homemade and delicious!

Beef Brisket & Tendon Funn in Soup | $19.00

Chan loves this type of dish so he’s been trying it all over. He likes the one from Lam’s Kitchen a lot but he liked Sandy’s version too! I had a slurp of their soup, very flavorful! Tasted more homey to me, which I like!

Ginger Chicken Sauce Chicken & Roast Duck on Rice | $19.00
Opted for Thigh meat | $2.00 upcharge

So yeah, you read that right. To get the dark meat, you gotta pay TWO DOLLARS. There was a bit of confusion and she came back to confirm if I wanted thigh for both meats. I ain’t going to pay $4! Sorry, but generally duck is good in all parts…especially the breast! I only wanted chicken thigh meat. Yeah they gave me chicken thigh meat with a couple pieces of breast too. I actually originally wanted the char siu and roast duck on rice plate to try their roast meats but they said their char siu wasn’t ready. I think she said it would be ready at 9 or 10. Okay this is a lot of complaining but I actually enjoyed the dish a lot. Even if the waitress got a bit snippy at me when I got confused by her thigh questioning – they are all actually quite nice and the restaurant is nice and clean and bright! We will definitely return but according the sign on their door, they are taking an extended break until about mid-November? Definitely recommend! Though, I still think Asian Mix’s roast duck is betta.

Post Views: 1,801

Tali’s Bagels & Schmear – Honolulu, HI

Oct16

Hi folks. Apologies are in order, life got super busy and I just didn’t have the time, motivation or energy to post. I even had a whole bunch of pictures edited and ready to go but now I look at them and don’t want to. LOL, so I’ll put those pics on the side and start anew here.

Did I ever tell you folks I never learned to swim? So one of my bucket list items was to learn how to swim. My co-worker suggested looking into the Parks and Rec program and what a great idea! It was just in time for the new term and lo and behold, I found the beginner’s courses. I got super excited. I bought swim clothes, goggles and was ready for the courses.

Sorry to say, the excitement soon faded. Everyone in my class were not beginner swimmers, not even close. I was super excited to learn from our instructor because he is so gentle and patient but eventually, he had me learn alone with this younger guy while he taught the others. The first time I had that happen, I thought this is awesome – I get my one on one instruction! Well sorry, but while this younger guy was nice, he was not teaching me anything and seemed bored. So as I did the same thing over and over, I watched as the main instructor was having a ball with the rest of the students. I felt defeated and by the time it happened a second time, I kind of just cried driving home because I felt so isolated and wasn’t learning much.

What can you do when it’s a free course right? I am a bit irritated that all these swimmers are taking up the spots in a beginners course, it feels pretty selfish to me. Folks like me who actually need to learn how to swim gets jipped you know? Sigh. For now, I guess I’ll just watch YouTube videos and practice in Chan’s pool. I don’t know, my shoulders are still junk so it limits me too. Sorry for the boo-hoo’ing but that was part of the reason why I was busy too.

Let’s get to the meat of the post! I checked out Tali’s Bagels & Schmear the other week (omg it was August, I just checked the date) because I had a hankering for some NY style bagels! A bit pricey but I thought they were good all in all?

They are located in Ward Center – it used to be the Mocha Java spot. Man, I heard they are going to tear down Ward Center too. How many condos is too many condos?? I never got over Borders closing haha.

OG NYC w/Everything Bagel | $16.00
acme premium center-cutlox, tomato, red onion, dill, capers, and our classic schmear

How was it? Good. $16 good? I don’t know. I guess I’m not a bagel snob so I can’t tell the difference between a super good bagel versus a basic one. I feel like I could just buy my own bagels and make my own sandwich and put choke more smoked salmon lol.

Aww Zhuga Zhuga w/Classic Bagel | $15.00
slow cooked chicken breast drenched in house-made zhug (cilantro-based hot sauce/middle eastern spices), roasted bell peppers, onions and melted mozzarella

What possessed me to get this? I had no idea what zhug was so I really took a risk to get this one. But you know what? It was delicious! It’s like a slighty spicy pesto sauce, it was a good sandwich! I would get this again if I had to return here. But yeah, I don’t think I’m itching to come back again until I get another bagel craving.

Post Views: 1,140