Lam’s Kitchen – Chinatown, HI

Lam’s Kitchen recently reopened after a renovation – I didn’t even know they were closed for renovation! Then again, I don’t make it out to Chinatown all that often. When I was a kid, I dreaded being dragged out to Chinatown with my parents. The smell of urine, the dirtiness (sorry), and just constantly running into people they knew. It would always lead to comments (more like snide remarks) about me so a shopping to trip to Chinatown always felt so much longer than it needed to be. You’d think my dad was running for mayor or something with the amount of people he talked to.

Anyhow, now as an adult going through Chinatown not knowing anyone, I actually find it to be quite joyous. I generally just shop at grocery stores so the large variety of items I can find in Chinatown is delightful. I can get past the smell of urine and not so sanitary conditions lol. Oh sorry, I got off-track. Anyway! Lam’s Kitchen is still in the same exact location, it looks like they just expanded out. It’s a very nice renovation with freezing cold air conditioning.

Beef Flank and Tendon Look Fun (no tendon) | $14.99

My friend doesn’t like tendon so she asks for just beef flank and they are absolutely fine with that request! If I remember correctly, they used to serve this with choy sum but this time it was lettuce. I’m used to Chinese folks serving up cooking lettuce but wanted to let you folks know.

Beef Flank & Tendon Mein | $14.99

I decided to get the same dish but with mein instead of look fun. I was full of regrets, I enjoy the skinny noodles but dang it looked like I got WAY less noodles than my friend did. I learned my lesson! How was the taste? Good as always! Wasn’t too hungry this morning so we didn’t get any side orders.

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Mixed Plate Friday

Jan23

Soon’s Kal-bi Drive-In

Bento Combination Plate | $15.95
BBQ Beef, Fried Chicken, Meat Jhun, Mandoo, Bean Sprouts, Cabbage, and Rice

Soon’s Kal-bi Drive-In has been around for decades – I used to go to school across the street from Salt Lake Shopping Center and the willowing smoke from their kitchen was a signature memory. There is a distinctive taste to their food, it’s hard to explain. It’s not authentic Korean, more of a local style Korean. But somehow, their taste is very distinctive to Soon’s. I’d say if someone fed me their meat jhun and banchan blind folded, I would be able to tell it was from Soon’s.

I got to try it the other week and am happy to report that the taste is all the same. How nostalgic that was. It was a nice treat to get after a Target run. I would definitely return! And for prices nowadays, $16 isn’t bad for all this food!

L&L Hawaiian BBQ Regular BBQ Chicken | $17.25

Uhhh…it’s been a while since I got a regular plate from L&L but does this look worth $18 to you? Especially comparing it to the Soon’s plate, I can’t help but feel cheated. Especially just for BBQ chicken! But heck, I felt like the good ole L&L style BBQ chicken so here we are. Tasted fine, wasn’t worth it.

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Recipe: Rice Paper Kimbap

Jan21

You read that right, rice paper kimbap! What a genius idea, I saw this on TikTok (obviously) but to add cred to the recipe, it was created by Koreans (from Korea lol). If you are trying to go for less carbs, this is a great way to do it…and this is coming from the rice queen herself. I didn’t miss the rice at all – the rice paper holds all the toppings in and wraps it up nice and tight!

This recipe starts with a full sheet of nori cut in half!

You need to find the smallest size rice paper. I compare it like a taco size? Here is the package I bought.

Soak the rice paper in water – I just do it for 10-15 seconds, flipping it a few times to get both sides

Since the rice paper is a bit wet and sticky, you immediately place it to the end of the nori. Be very careful, the rice paper is delicate!

Get the toppings onto the rice paper, I like to line it up at the edge of the rice paper to allow room for rolling up. You have to roll it up like a burrito – roll it up a little to gather the toppings together, fold in the sides and continue to roll!

See? Pretty easy, just keep rolling! The nori will hold onto the rice roll.

Boom! Mini kimbaps! I brush sesame oil on the rolls and sprinkle on some salt.

My knife isn’t even that sharp and it cut it just fine lol. Give it a try! The hardest part of this recipe is definitely getting all the ingredients prepped ahead of time and since it’s just half a sheet of nori, you have to cut all the ingredients down to size too. I think I will experiment with the bigger rice paper next time and roll up a full nori sheet.

Here’s the link to the tiktok video recipe!

Happy rolling and eating!

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Hong Yeon – Moilili, HI

Jan14

Back for another visit to Hong Yeon, if you remember my previous post, I came here when they first opened for their $10 jajjangmyun deal! This time we came back after things have settled in and tried their lunch combos! I think the lunch combos are the best deals in the restaurant, they only have it on weekdays so plan accordingly. Also, the parking lot is junk with limited stalls so I recommend coming early! Let me just say, this restaurant was pretty bustling full of Korean customers. Whew. I wanted them to continue to be busy because I don’t want them to close! The wait staff was a mix of Chinese and Korean folks, that was interesting. It doesn’t matter cause we got great service! Here’s the lunch combos menu.

Daikon, raw onion slices and black bean paste are the required banchan. I don’t make the rules. (Kimchi would have been nice though).

Tangsuyuk (Sweet and Sour Pork)

The combos are either jajjangmyun or jjampong with your choice of side dish. We both chose tangsuyuk as our combo choice. They brought this out first and placed it on the table and I wasn’t sure what was going on. Did they combine our two sides into one and serve it? I say that because it’s a pretty big portion of pork. Guess what? Nope, this was just the first one! They brought out a second one that was the same exact size. Crazy! We both packed up the other plate to go home which fed very satisfied S.O.’s (significant others).

Small Jajjangmyun

When the waitress placed this dish down, she mentioned it’s the small size. I think because the regular size when you order it ala carte is way bigger. I think this is the perfect portion size for a combo!

Jjampong!

I decided to try something different this time and got this. No regrets, it was SO good! Not as spicy as it looks, the broth has great flavor. Lots of seafood too! I was concerned about getting my clothes dirty so I started making a napkin bib when they came around and gave me a disposable bib to wear! Thank god they did, I needed it (lol). Love the thick noodles too. I’ve been to other restaurants where they have split bowls and you can order both the jajjangmyun and jjampong as one! Wish a restaurant here would do that.

Noodle Pull!

Definitely would recommend checking this restaurant out – it’s nice to have another option for Northern Chinese cuisine.

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Homemade Naengmyun

Jan12

You read that right. Homemade naengmyun! Well sorta. We basically bought the kit from the store and cooked it up ourselves…but, there’s a catch! Chan decided to buy a big slushie machine and this is the first thing I thought of making with that machine. Ice cold naengmyun broth slush! Check this out…

Naengmyun Broth in action!

Here are the bowls ready for their ice bath! Hard boiled eggs, pickled daikon, raw onion and cucumber slices serve as toppings.

The icy broth melts perfectly as you eat, it was so good! We also had leftover kalbi so it was just a meal meant to be. It was so good. What else can we slush? Anyway, I wouldn’t mind eating this again soon!

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Mixed Plate Friday

Jan9

2025 Christmas Seafood Boil

I actually made my family a seafood boil back in late October when it was a brother’s birthday. For some odd reason, I felt like seafood again so I didn’t make my typical prime rib and tortured myself making this. It was expensive and takes a lot of time. My brothers also for some reason were not hungry so my god, the leftovers were crazy. I spent like over a week trying to eat down the leftovers. Talk about first world problems but it’s still a problem okay? It was good but I am off seafood boils for a long while.

Spotify Listening Age: 81 Years Old

Everyone seemed to get a kick out of this when I posted it on my Instagram feed. Did I expect 81 years old? Absolutely not. I was watching people post their ages which was always in the early 20’s. LIES! What are you guys listening to! Anyway, yeah I’m an old fut who listens to old fut music. So wot? Haha, have a great weekend.

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Yakiniku Like – Ke’eaumoku, HI

Jan7

Yakiniku Like is a newish restaurant near Ala Moana. This is a chain restaurant from Japan and they offer up premium meats at a good value price – they also offer up a smokeless grill environment. I didn’t even know that was part of the restaurant until I was there and I was pleasantly pleased that I didn’t smell of grilled meats when I left! That’s a big plus. They have a lot of great value set menus, the only thing I didn’t like is that you have to pay right when you order. It’s a QR code ordering system (of course it is) so they do not take cash, you have to place your order on your phone and pay right away for them to prepare it and bring to your table. So yeah, you basically have to pay tip before you even get any service. No good. The service was pretty attentive so I was okay with it – I don’t give a huge tip for restaurants that I cook my food myself. Especially this one where they drop the food and that’s it, not like an AYCE where they have to constantly bring you plates and plates of food.

Also, they have a $9.99 special every month which comes with 2 choices of meat, rice, soup and salad. We didn’t go for the special, we wanted to try the other meats!

Beef Lovers Set!! | $19.95
kalbi short plate (100g), misuji (100g), and harami (50g)

Best Duo Set!! | $19.95
kalbi short rib (100g) & pork belly (100g)

We got both sets and shared the meats! I think the beef lovers set is the better deal and for the same price! The quality of the meat is pretty good and the grill cooks pretty fast. We enjoyed our meal! I think it’s worth it and I would return (maybe not soon soon but one day). Their parking lot is junk – get chance if you go super early, if not, good luck with street parking.

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Merriman’s – Honolulu, HI

Jan5

New year means a new meal with one of my nearest and dearest friends. This year, we decided to try a new restaurant (new to me) Merriman’s located in Ward Village. They are open for lunch and dinner but the lunch menu is a better value has has better food (to me). Let’s check it out!

Lilikoi Pop (Zero Proof) | $7.00

Another year, another (non-alcoholic) drink. Yum! Love the sourness of the lilikoi in this drink. The zing comes mostly from the foam sitting up top – it started going down the sides and I absolutely did not lick the cup (I did). Delicious!

Tako & Country Bread | $27.00
octopus “a la escargot,” cognac parsley garlic butter

I didn’t think my friend would want to get this dish since he isn’t an adventurous eater. He reminded me that he’s had real escargot before and yeah it was probably because of me. Anything swimming in garlic and butter will not taste bad. This was good. The octopus was super soft and tender. Delicious!

Fish & Shrimp & Chips | $29.00
hana koa brewing co. ‘breaktime’ beer-battered mahi & wild shrimp, rosemary sea salt fries, malt vinegar aioli, lemon

I was the most excited for this dish. I love me some fish and chips, I didn’t read the menu clearly since I didn’t know it was shrimp too! It comes with two big shrimps and 2 pieces of mahi – perfect to share. A bit disappointed that this was not served with tartar sauce, not a big fan of the malt vinegar aioli. The dish itself wasn’t bad – I just think we got too much fried items and everything was too greasy after a while. Wish they had tartar sauce (yup I’m stuck on that).

Steak Frites | $45.00
black peppercorn crusted prime sirloin, rosemary sea salt fries, herb compound butter

Yup, more fries. Too much fried food! I’ve been wanting to try a good steak frites plate for a long time now. The keyword is good. The steak was tough and hard to chew – it was also overcooked. A very blah dish for me especially for the price. Would not get this again. Need to find a place that makes this dish but with a good cut of meat.

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Totoya – Kaimuki, HI

Dec29

Totoya opened a few months ago with pretty big fanfare, I didn’t dare go because of the long lines! They are a super small shop so unless you lined up early, you would have to stand and wait for the next seating. I came on a random weekday for lunch the other week and luckily for us, even though we came 30 minutes after opening, we scored our two seats! Had more seats open after we sat too…so I guess they aren’t as busy as before. They also opened a second location by Ala Moana.

Totoya specializes in rice bowls – specifically negitoro or kaisen bowls. In other words, if you don’t like raw fish, don’t come here. So was it worth the hype? Check it out!

Nagomi | $22.90
Add Egg yolk shoyu | $1.50
original negitoro, red shrimp, salmon (2pc), scallops, tobiko, nori (2pc)
aosa seaweed miso soup

Matsu Negitoro Bowl | $34.90
Add Egg yolk shoyu | $1.50
tuna, scallops, cucumber, kazunoko, green onion, tobiko, nori (2pc), sesame seeds
Matsu: luxurious bowl topped with sea urchin and salmon roe
aosa seaweed miso soup

Miso Soup

Shoyu Egg Yolk (honestly, not needed)

This was my bowl. Ooh…it’s a lot of food! I liked it the first few bites and then it was just…too much? Too much rice? Too much stuff. I think since it negitoro – it’s also very mushy. We also added the shoyu egg yolk and well, that’s just triple mush lol. It just becomes a bit too much at the end. It was good but nothing I would return for. I think I’d rather go to a sushi restaurant and eat sushi by the piece! If you love negitoro and rice bowls, please have at it!

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Nihonbashi SUI – Machida, Japan

Dec22

A visit to Snoopy Museum means a visit to Grandberry Park and our favorite kaiten sushi place, Nihonbashi SUI! Machida and Grandberry Park is such a cute neighborhood, I’ll bet it’s expensive to live here too. If I was rich, I wouldn’t mind living here! Not much to say in this post, just look at al the food we had. We really go crazy at this place. This time, there was no line. We were the first ones there but it did get busy after we started to eat.