Kokoro-Tei – Moilili, HI

Kokoro-Tei has been in the Moilili neighborhood for many years now. I am super glad they were able to get through the pandemic and thrive. I say thrive because when I went to pick up today’s meal, they had so many orders stacked up and ready to go. You used to have to phone in your orders but they now have online orders, thank goodness. Chan was treating his co-workers for a birthday and I got to jump in on the order! Check it out!

Nori Shrimp Salmon | $11.98
Plate upgrade | $3.00

2 piece chikuwa, 2 piece fried shrimp, 1 piece salmon

Three people ordered this! Chan nicely upgraded their bentos to plates. Not super sure what you get more…it looks like the proteins are the same size so maybe more rice and side dishes? Anyway, it was enjoyed by the diners!

MEGA NORI | $18.98
2 pc chikuwa, 3 pc karaage, 1 pc croquette, 1 pc deep fried shrimp, 1 pc white fish, 1 pc regular salmon with extra large white rice

Maybe my picture isn’t showing the size in true fashion. The description sounds mega! Sounds like a great mix too! Chan enjoyed it!

Steak & Vegetable Bento | $21.98
comes with multigrain rice

This was my dish. For some odd reason, I was feeling like red meat so I went for this. I was also super excited for all the side veggies! How was it? Sigh. The steak is super tough and overcooked. They don’t ask how you want the steak cooked. I really enjoyed the garlic tare (sauce) they serve with the steak but Chan thinks it’s just a bottled sauce you can buy. Well, I want it then! Anyone know the secret? I still enjoyed this a lot because some pieces of meat were okay and the veggies were good as always!

Mixed Plate Friday

7-Eleven Lemon Butter Chicken Pasta | $6.49

Newish offering from 7-Eleven! How was it? Pretty good. Not like mind blowing but I’m glad I tried it!

FRENCH BUTTER

If you know me, you know I’ve been on the search for some freaking French butter. I heard so much good stuff about it and I’ve been desperate. Chan found out that Foodland Farms carries one and omg I AM SO HAPPY. Gotta get the salted one, not the unsalted because part of the appeal are the sea salt crystals in the butter. Toast some bread up and spread this bad boy on…I get the hype. I GET IT. So you go get it! Okay, only if you want bougie butter.

Ginger & Garlic – Chinatown, HI

Ginger & Garlic used to be my favorite dim sum restaurant. Hard for me to say used to be…it’s still one I will go to but the quality has really gone downhill in recent times. I went about a month ago? Found the dimsum to be much smaller than before and the restaurant just seems not to be aging well. It definitely did not make me want to return soon. Here’s some dim sum items we got!

Baked Egg Custard Tart | $5.50

Good stuff! I love this.

Deep Fried Taro | $5.50

Basic – nothing special.

Siu Mai | $5.50

Good, not great. I feel like they used to make it really well. Maybe the original chef left…

Seafood Bundle in Bean Curd | $6.50

One of my must have dim sum items. There’s another dim sum restaurant that I don’t want to name that is opening locations left and right and I don’t think they have this on their dim sum menu. What a shame! I love it.

Seafood Chow Mein | $15.95

Another must have item for me at dim sum, seafood chow mein. The aforementioned restaurant chain also doesn’t have this? This is a staple for me! Unless that restaurant chain ups their game, I’m good. I wasn’t impressed with their dim sum anyhow.

Recipe: Kona Inn Banana Bread

Hi everyone! So sorry for the unannounced break. This is peak busy season for me at work so it’s just been super hard. I also haven’t been eating out with good food lately so even moreso I don’t have much to post. Might be more mixed plate posts than not. I hope you folks are all doing well! I’m actually heading to Korea at the end of October and while that sounds like I have a lot of time, I really don’t (lol). Time has been flying by and October is in DAYS.

Before I get into the recipe, I can announce that KCC 220 Grille is currently back in service! Go support the culinary students and get some onolicious wallet-friendly food! Here is the link: https://sites.google.com/hawaii.edu/culinaryartsprogram-kapcc/220-grille?authuser=0.

Anyway, quick recipe post. Someone posted this recipe on Facebook – it was definitely a picture of an old school recipe book. Everyone was raving about it so I just had to make it.

Doesn’t look super good ah? Like…looks dry almost. I was not convinced. Not until I tried it. Oh my gosh, this bread is so nice and banana-y and super moist, dense but not too dense you know? This is how I found the pan at work…

Insane that people don’t throw things into a rubbish can that is like 2 feet away. I don’t know what to tell you! But safe to say it was a winner. I actually shared 3 loaves with the office and all three were gone in an INSTANT. Here’s the recipe!

Kona Inn Banana Bread

Original Recipe

Ingredients:
1 C butter
2 C sugar
6 or 7 ripe bananas, mashed
4 eggs, well beaten
2 ½ C all-purpose flour, sifted
1 t salt
2 t baking soda

Directions:
Cream butter and sugar thoroughly; add bananas and eggs. Sift dry ingredients; blend into creamed mixture. DO NOT overmix. Pour into two greased 9 x 5 inch loaf pans. Bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for 45 to 50 minutes.

Mixed Plate Friday

Yummy’s Korean B-B-Q Bibimkooksoo | $16.95

Oh the pricey. So pricey. But so good. I get this one from the Ala Moana food course and I order it spicy because I am trying to prove to Chan that I am the Spice Queen (I’m not). I think they give a lot of veggies and meat and a good amount of noodles so it’s worth it for me. I’m always up for a nice good cold noodle dish.

Chinese Roast Pig!!!

Look at that thing! It’s funny to look at, I guess I’ve never seen the pig chopped up and put back in like this? It’s good they were willing to chop it up though! When we get our pig for bai san – we gotta chop our own. Not sure where this is from, was good but not super great. I thought the skin was too hard and not a light crispy, you know?

First Round

The roast pig was part of our UH Football Viewing Party. Chan and I brought Chun Wah Kam Ginger Chicken Fried Rice and Orange Chicken. Was delicious. Then I thought there was a pot of chili so I made my own chili nachos but learned it was baked beans. LOL, was good anyway. Have a good weekend everyone!

Olive Garden – Ala Moana, HI

It was the labor day holiday and I decided to take all three brothers out to Olive Garden because they have the special Never Ending Pasta Bowl promotion going on. I mean, this is the way to go when you have three ravenous teenage boys (soon to be all men – cry face). It’s a great deal, you get never ending salad, soup, bread sticks and of course pasta! Well I got full super fast so it was wasted on me but at least one of my brothers went ham so it was worth it. It was laborious to get there (joke intended) but I hope they enjoyed.

House Salad

Bros ate this up! We got two servings. I went for the soup.

Zuppa Toscana
spicy italian sausage, kale and potatoes in a creamy broth

First soup up! First time trying this. Not creamy, I mean it looks creamy but it’s very thin. Not full on the fillings either, but I guess it’s meant to be a lighter soup. Tasted ok.

Chicken & Gnocchi
a creamy soup made with roasted chicken, italian dumplings and spinach

Got this just to try it. It wasn’t that good and was salty. I didn’t even finish it cause I had to make room for the pasta!

Fettuccine Alfredo

Creamy Mushroom Angel Hair

My pasta. Super good but super rich and I got full fast. Foolish mistake! And since angel hair is so thin, they give you more! Wasted tummy space!

Creamy Mushroom Angel Hair with Crispy Chicken Fritta

Meat Sauce Rigatoni with Meatballs

So there are two different deals with the bowl, you either get the pasta with no toppings (proteins) for $19.99 or you can choose to have toppings with your pasta for $27.48. Here are your choices when creating your pasta bowls:

Pasta:
Spaghetti
Rigatoni
Angel Hair
Gluten-Free Rotini

Sauce:
Traditional Marinara
Five Cheese Marinara
Creamy Mushroom
Meat Sauce

Toppings (extra $7.49 and not the full topping menu):
Meatballs (3)
Italian Sausage
Crispy Chicken Fritta

I’m perplexed why grilled chicken is not a choice but the crispy chicken comes with it. Weird. Also, the first plate of pasta is a full portion. After that, you basically get half orders which I don’t mind. You can order to your heart’s content. Also! They allow you to take home the leftovers…and! They don’t limit it to all or nothing, so only two brothers got toppings while me and another brother got the plain pasta. But honestly, you can probably sneak meat off the other person if they don’t mind I guess. It’s easy to make reservations because they are on Open Table. If you can eat plenty, go check them out!

Rainbow Drive-In – Kapahulu, HI

Decided to do a last summer lunch order before school started. I wasn’t craving anything special and wanted some comfort food so we went to Rainbow Drive-In! There is a Rainbow Drive-In near my home but that one pales in comparison to the original. Now that Richie’s is a disappointment, I had to give Rainbow Drive-In a go! The online ordering system makes it so much easier.

Mix Plate | $13.75
a combination of our BBQ Beef, Boneless Chicken and Mahi Mahi

Why do they serve gravy with the boneless chicken in the boneless chicken plate but not in the mix plate? A bit baffling and I didn’t feel like ordering extra gravy. Man oh man, if you check out their ordering site, they have really nailed down how to add things to your plate. I know in the past you could say gravy all over and it would be free, now gravy all over it 95¢. I thought the plate would be too dry but it was okay in the end. The boneless chicken had good flavor and I was surprised that I liked their bbq beef, I usually dislike meat prepared this way but their meat was not hard or rubbery at all!

Mix Plate | $13.75
Add Chili on the Rice | $3.75

a combination of our BBQ Beef, Boneless Chicken and Mahi Mahi

My co-worker’s plate. Do I think it’s worth it to get chili on the rice for $4.00? Ehh…

Boneless Chicken Plate | $12.75
tender, boneless chicken thighs seasoned, breaded and fried golden brown on our griddle served with gravy

Chili Tots | $6.50
Add Cheese | 95¢

Got some chili tots to share with my coworkers and yes I had to pay like $1 for cheese on top. Blah! But it was good. Super good. Worth it. This was definitely a good run! We placed the order and it was ready when we got there. We lucked out with parking, had choke tourists there.

Mixed Bowl Friday

Ahjumma XL Ramen | $7.99 (sale price)

Haha this is gonna be one short post. Yup, something I saw on Tiktok that I found at Hmart that I had to try. Well, the brothers and I tried it. It’s exactly what it says, XL ramen.

I see folks on tiktok trying to eat this themselves. Well as you can see, this is like 4 huge servings of ramen. Kind of disappointing that it’s not one huge brick of noodles and just four regular ones thrown in haha.

Threw in some red hot dogs because why not? It was a nice ramen, just your typical spicy Korean ramen (much like Shin ramen). It was fun to try and eat together from one container but once was good enough. Have a great weekend folks!

Ruth’s Chris Steak House – Honolulu, HI

Ah yes, another birthday celebration! Good food and great company, can’t be beat! I don’t think I am ever disappointed by Ruth’s Chris Steak House. IDK what the name means but we came on a Sunday evening with a 5:30 PM reservation. We should have reserved for 5 because we showed up early and they were actually seating everyone at their assigned times so we had to wait basically 30 minutes. Just a heads up.

Nothing new here, everything is so expensive but I spocked out a early bird dinner menu. It’s like a prix fixe menu that they call Ruth’s Classics. It’s only available from 4:30 PM – 6:00 PM so go check it out. It includes a starter, entree, personal side and a dessert! My friend and I got the two entree options so you can see below what you get and the cost!

Complimentary Bread and Butter

We were huuungry. I was hangry. I basically ate all the bread except one slice. The butter was so good too. Why does butter taste so much better in restaurants? Forreal! This was a fatal mistake because I couldn’t finish my dinner but it was worth it!

Starter Caesar Salad
starter options: steak house salad, caesar salad, louisiana seafood gumbo

Oh my goodness, this was a HUGE salad. And we each got one. It felt like the regular salad that could be shared. Was so good. Too good. That dressing is addicting!

Personal Side: Garlic Mashed Potatoes and Creamed Spinach
personal side options: creamed spinach, garlic mashed potatoes, steamed white rice

You must be asking the question, what happened to Jenny? Why was white rice not ordered? Well I tell you what, I was super close to doing it but decided last minute that we should just share both sides and included a veggie side. Although creamed spinach isn’t really healthy yeah? Both classic sides and both are great!

Steak & Shrimp | $68.00
our tender 6 oz. filet with three large shrimp

Yes, $68 looks expensive but you get so much! The petite filet and shrimp ala carte $81(!) folks. Delicious as always, great cut of meat and great seasoning on the shrimp. Highly recommend!

Steak and Lobster | $78.00
buttery cold water lobster tail paired with a 6 oz. filet

Great deal! Look at the size of that lobster! You gotta get their prix fixe menu so you can enjoy this.

Chocolate Ice Cream

The dessert choices were the sorbet, ice cream or the bread pudding. I was pretty full so I went for the chocolate ice cream. Can’t beat the classic.

Creme Brulee | $5.00 (up-charge)

So, if you want to have another dessert on the menu that doesn’t come with the prix fixe, you have to pay an up-charge. What I don’t understand is…all the desserts, including the bread pudding is the same price so why is it an upcharge for the others? Who knows. It was enjoyed nonetheless.

Flaming Strawberries

A complimentary dish for birthdays. I didn’t know this was coming and wish I could have just told them to give me the strawberries with chocolate sauce. No need alcohol and the whole show. It burns for like at least a minute and the strawberries get all mushy. This time, it was mushy AND burnt. Sorry to sound unappreciative. It just feels like a waste you know? Anyway, great meal. I always choose the restaurant row location.

Mixed Plate Friday

Glutinous Sweet Potato Bun | $9.99

Good lord, this was $10? This shows that I go blind shopping because I was waiting for these to come to Hawaii for MONTHS. Saw it on social media and was intrigued because it looks like a mini sweet potato but it’s actually a dessert. So it’s actually a mochi filled with sweet potato. I didn’t want to airfry so I heated it up in the microwave. Tasted okay, the outer layer mochi is a bit salty, maybe to balance with the sweet potato? I wasn’t a fan. And dang I paid $10 for 3!

Sorry, not trying to gloat but just wanted to thank Chan for the beautiful birthday flowers. Glad I got it the Monday after my birthday so I can enjoy it all week!

Chan’s birthday present! Isn’t this keyboard so pretty and dreamy? And he knew I wanted a creamy keyboard and this one is just that. He even got me other key options if I decide I want to change things up. I love it! I keep taking typing tests all day long to hear the keys…

This is an intended brag. I need to get better! Have a great weekend!