Hawaii based food blog with foodie travels!
Happy Aloha Friday! No food in this post. Just a few pics from the Vegas Strip. I’m not big on being on the strip, too much people and too expensive. I remember the days when parking used to be free at the hotels, now they all charge minimum $20-$25 which is insane. Also, no validation even if you dine at their restaurants! Check out some pictures from the Bellagio! They say Vegas is slow now but dang, you wouldn’t know it if you were here! Enjoy.
Another visit to Vegas, another success. This is one of the meals Chan and I look forward to most. I lose out the most because we are helped by an awesome sommelier – unfortunately I don’t drink. He did try to include me by giving me a non-alcoholic drink which I enjoyed a lot! It was like a tea infused champagne. Don’t worry, I still got my mocktail! Second visit to Sparrow + Wolf, this restaurant will be a forever visit as long as Nick the sommelier works there. For my first visit, go here. Let’s get to it!
Sage Me From Myself (proofless) | $12.00
cold pressed blueberry, raspberry, pineapple, and fennel bulb
scented with sage and lemon
Delicious as always. $2 more this year but what can you do. Still good!
Peruvian Steelhead Trout | $23.00
ikura roe, koji mango, ninja radish
Nick basically takes care of us all night and orders all the food for us to pair with various drinks. I thought this was salmon but as you can see it is trout! This was good! Such interesting ingredients…
Oysters on the Half Shell | $27.00
cold pressed rhubarb, strawberry, opal basil flower
They really mix the most interesting ingredients to create one dish, and I think I would not order these dishes if I saw it myself on the menu. Good thing Nick knows what he’s doing. I haven’t had a bad dish yet!
Hearts of Palm | $21.00
spring peas, kizami wasabi, cucumber blossom
This was good, very pretty but nothing super special.
Grass Fed Beef Tartare | $22.00
confit egg yolk, grilled ciabatta
Mmm beef tartare, one of my favorites as you know. Good dish!
Steamed Clams | $26.00
green curry, peanuts, thai chili preserve
Oh this was so nice. Nice spicy curry – wish I had a big bowl of rice to sop up all the clams and sauce!
Foie Gras | $28.00
milk bread, pineapple, onion chili compote, mole blanco
Okay, this wasn’t quite as memorable since I had foie gras the day before. But the grilled pineapple added a nice acid to the rich foie gras!
BÁNH CUÔN | $20.00
ground duck, wood ear mushroom, habanero, coconut
Another great dish that I wish I had a bowl of rice for! Nice and spicy, so good!
Lumina Farms Lamb | $46.00
artichoke, saffron, matbucha, almond, vaduovan, lamb jus
I love lamb and this was good, but there was a protein that blew my socks more so below
Charred Broccolini | $16.00
green goddess, black garlic, fines herbes crumb
What a wonderful way to eat broccolini! I loved it! Yet another dish I probably wouldn’t order on my own.
Black Pepper Honey Pork Secreto | $38.00
sweet potato banana puree, peanut nuoc cham
Here’s one of the best dishes of the night! A humble pork dish but the flavors were amazing, still waiting on that bowl of rice lol
Vietnamese Coffee
maracaibo cremeux, coffee ice cream, black okinawa sugar, condensed milk espuma
Yes, we had some room for dessert at the end. Don’t worry, the three of us shared this. It was very nice, I enjoyed this deconstructed take on vietnamese coffee!
Posted in Food, Restaurant, Travel
Kamamalu Market Spam Musubi
This is my lesson in…just because it’s on social media doesn’t mean it’s good. This may be a controversial opinion since the ratings on Yelp are so high for this place and their spam musubi but it was not good. It’s just plain spam musubi. The spam I think is full sodium so no thanks already and there is no seasoning to the spam…so what am I missing here? I got the regular and the spam and egg one – both were just whatever. I mean, I make better musubi at home (sorry). Would not recommend.
Toshi’s Delicatessen & Restaurant | $18.70
I’ve expressed my love for Toshi’s in the past and will continue to do so. They have great food and I love that’s it run by hardworking folks but I definitely could not afford to eat here regularly. I’ll just continue to do my random check-ins when I have time and money lol.
This plate includes 2x chow fun, 1x veggie stirfy, 1 shoyu chicken thigh, 1 hot dog (lol). This was almost $20 – whew. But as always, I love the old school wrapping and we just don’t have shops like this anymore. Gotta keep them in business!!
Posted in Food, Restaurant
One Plus One Drive Inn is a small eatery tucked away by Longs Moilili – not in the most savory area but they are consistent and serve up good food for a good price. We recently ordered a party pack there for an office lunch. Here is their Party Pack C which costs $398 (feeds 28-32).
Medium Pan House Noodle
Good, not great. A bit bland, I definitely needed my hot sauce.
Medium Pan Mochiko Chicken
Good!
Medium Pan BBQ Chicken
Always good, and don’t all drive inn’s have the same recipe for this lol
Medium Pan Teriyaki Steak
Not my thing but I’m sure this was good
40 pieces Fried Shrimp
Really good. The shrimp is cut flat and breaded so nicely. It was light and crispy. They give you a big tub of tartar sauce for this.
Small Pan Macaroni Salad
Basic
Medium Pan Oriental Chicken Salad
This salad looks great but my complaint is that it’s stuffed into this little pan. Wish they would give you this portion but just place it in a bigger pan – it was very very hard for folks to eat from this since the lettuce is buried below. Good otherwise!
Posted in Food, Restaurant
Kevin’s Kitchen is the newest Chinese restaurant in town and it’s very popular! They are in the same lot as Times Supermarket on Beretania – right next to Epi-Ya Boulangerie & Patisserie. They specialize in Cantonese/Hong Kong food and are known for their roast meats. Roast Duck? I’m there. There are some really high reviews on Yelp so I had to come! They are a sit-down Chinese restaurant but also offer take-out plates in the back of the restaurant. Just walk into the restaurant and let the staff know that you are there for take-out and they will direct you towards to end where there is a cashier and the roast meat chopping station. They have some great lunch bento specials for a great price – that’s what I’m here for!
First things first, the staff are all pretty calm and nice right now. Even though the restaurant is crazy busy – I didn’t sense any anger, hear any bad mouthing in Chinese, etc. It was a bit chaotic but they didn’t seem frazzled. The restaurant is full of people but a good mix of Chinese people and local folks. The lunch specials are only until 2PM and though their online menu says there is a mini and large size – their menu on display does not show any sizes so it’s basically all the large prices. What am I doing? Let’s get to the food!
One Choice Bento (Roast Duck) | $13.00
$13 bucks for all this roast duck is a freaking commodity. Someone said this was the juiciest and tastiest roast duck they’ve had and well, they’re not wrong. This was really good roast duck. I appreciate the choy sum, abundance of rice with the succulent roast duck. It tastes as good as it looks. Highly recommend!
Char Siu / Roast Pork Bento (Large) | $13.00
I had to sample each roast meat to give a full opinion. I really really enjoy the char siu, the meat was nice and tender that was sweet but not too sweet. I would recommend this. Roast pork is more of Chan’s thing and he mentioned that it was good but not as good as Mei Mei since the skin isn’t as crispy. Caveat is that we did have this not fresh – though I did air-fry the pork to eat. You be the judge!
Roast Duck / Shoyu Chicken Bento (Large) | $15.00
All roast meat plates that come with duck is 2 dollars more, makes total sense to me and I don’t mind it. The shoyu chicken was good, nothing mind blowing but it’s what you expect from Chinese shoyu chicken! Nice anise shoyu flavor, tender pieces of chicken.
If I came back, I would get the char siu and roast duck combo for sure, winnahs!!!
Posted in Food, Restaurant
No visit to Vegas is complete without a visit to Ikea (and Trader Joe’s)!
Swedish Meatballs (ftw!)
Breakfast Plate with Pancakes
served with eggs, potatoes and bacon and swedish pancakes and lingonberry jam
Did you know they had breakfast plates? I didn’t! Their pancakes are more like crepes. The jam is also located at the ordering counter and they don’t give it to you automatically so you gotta ask! This was Chan’s breakfast, he liked it fine.
Here’s a picture of a random Chinese take-out I did while playing nurse at the hotel. Thank god we got a hotel that came with a full kitchen and washer and dryer. The kitchen came in very handy. The food was alright, do you see the top right? That’s honey walnut shrimp. It’s like sitting in a mayo soup, it was quite odd. The food was not bad, not great either.
Posted in Food, Restaurant, Travel
Shang Artisan Noodle is one of the restaurants we gotta go to every time we’re in Vegas. The location in the Durango Casino and Resort is the easiest for us since it’s slower and we can gamble afterwards. Durango is probably my favorite casino right now, it’s nice and bright and doesn’t feel too smokey.
Spicy Wonton | $11.85
pork wontons with spicy soy sauce, green onion
Always a great dish. They usually take longer to make this than your noodles, just as a warning.
Shang Beef Noodles (Spicy) | $17.82
beef & chicken broth (brown), braised beef brisket, veggies, green onion
Shang Beef Noodles (Mild) | $17.82
Okay, so I wanted to make big body and order spicy like Chan and started regretting when I was ordering lol. The waitress was very nice and said she can give me the spicy sauce on the side so I can add as much as I want. That’s very nice of her!
LOOK AT THAT. I don’t know if you can tell how big and deep this bowl was but this was like quarter cup of straight chili oil. That’s crazy. I did not use that all lol. I think I will stick to mild next time.
NOODLE PULL!
Posted in Food, Restaurant, Travel
Chan found Sea Salt Live Sashimi and we were all excited to try it out! Although, Chan does think this meal is what did him in. Poor thing…there was one item that neither me or his friend ate so he assumed it was that. I wonder if Chan would still go back to this restaurant, you know…I think he would! They were kind of slow the night we went, I hope they get more business so they stay open!
Assorted Banchan
Salad and Dipping Sauce (samjang?)
This salad was like…dressed with soup. It spicy and sweet dressing but there was SO much of it. Salad soup lol.
Cheese Corn
Steamed Egg
Veggie Pancake
Gosh, I gotta ask Chan what this was again. Maybe like a pumpkin soup? Super thick and starchy – super sweet. Never had this served to me mid-meal before.
LA Kalbi
So, I didn’t know how this restaurant worked but since we only got sashimi – I wanted a side dish of something meaty so we got this LA Kalbi, Was good, basic. If I knew what else the meal came with, I would have never ordered this!!
Sashimi Combo (Halibut and Assorted Sashimi)
Raw Abalone
Look at how fancy this is! This was definitely a show. It took quite a while for them to serve up both dishes but I think Chan told me they kill the live seafood and then prepare it. I guess the name of the restaurant makes sense, Live Sashimi. Haha, delicious! Both were stellar, super fresh seafood and great quality.
Rice with Assorted Tobikko
So yeah, these dishes came out way after we were almost done with our sashimi. I was super confused.
Assorted Tempura
We were dying from being so full already…
Soft Tofu Stew
This was the last dish! Man, I kind of wish this was served with the food in the beginning. I really didn’t know what was coming out so this was all crazy. So. Much. Food.
Nurungi (Scorched Rice)
I’m not a fan of this particular dish and honestly I was so full that I didn’t even touch it. Great meal, enjoyed that we had our own booth so we had some privacy. If you come here, be prepared to EAT.
Posted in Food, Restaurant, Travel
Peanut Udon Noodle Salad
Meh. Just okay, not great.
Lemon Basil Pasta Salad
Not good.
Truffle Mousse Pate
Yes. A million times yes. This one is made with chicken. Since Chan was not feeling well, I ate this entire thing over the course of the trip. Yeah. I did. Ate it with some golden round crackers (think Ritz Crackers). No regrets here. Chan told me probably get this kine in Hawaii but I haven’t tried it locally yet. IT WAS GOOD AND A GOOD PRICE AND I LOVED IT.
From the last trip, no trip to Vegas is complete for us without a visit to Hell’s Kitchen. Previous post here. Yup, you gotta pay expensive parking to be on the Strip but the food is well worth it. Chan and I both ordered the prix fixe menu – I think next time we should order one prix fixe and just one entree cause it’s too much food!
Hell’s Red Infusion (Mocktail) | $12.95
apple, strawberry, rhubarb puree, simple syrup, fever-tree ginger beer
Mocktails are my treat! Got this last time and this time did not disappoint, delicious!
Steak Tartare | $26.95
piedmontese beef dijon mustard aioli, black truffle caviar, sous vide egg yolk
Another repeat dish. Not the biggest fan of these big triangle crackers haha but I guess it’s just a vehicle to get the beef to your mouth! I like raw beef, I know it’s not everyone’s thing.
Pan Seared Scallops
corn, prosciutto di parma, maitake mushrooms, citrus beurre blanc
I know it says prosciutto but it really just tastes like bacon bits on top of the scallops and I’m saying that in the best way possible. Super crunchy salty bits that off-set the soft and sweet meat of the scallops. Delicious!
Beef Wellington add Foie Gras ($22.95)
potato puree, glazed root vegetables, red wine demi-glace
We went a little bougie with the first sit-down meal and both added foie gras to our dish. Oh boy, was that rich and delicious. As you can see the beef wellington is perfectly cooked as usual. Winners dish but definitely share-able.
Sticky Toffee Pudding
speculoos ice cream
This is probably the star of the show every time and I’m not usually a big dessert person but this beautiful toffee cake…hot and ready for that scoop of speculoos ice cream to melt right into it. Man, Chan and I love this dessert but once again – for future, we should just share it. It’s a lot of food! So the scallops, beef wellington and dessert is part of the lunch prix fixe menu which is $105.95 a person. It’s pricey but a good deal if you were planning to get these dishes anyway. Yummy! Great start!
Posted in Food, Restaurant, Travel