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Hokkaido Ramen Santouka – Honolulu, HI

Jul21

This might sound like an exaggeration but I don’t think I’ve been to Hokkaido Ramen Santouka for over a decade. I know for sure I haven’t been there since the pandemic and we’re already 5 years from that. Santouka never went down in quality but when I used to go, they were super super busy. I guess at a certain point, I didn’t feel like it was worth the wait and also tend to visit restaurants I can make online reservations at. Well, I’ve been hankering for some good ramen lately and decided to go on a weekday lunch break and take my chances. There were people dining in the restaurant but we got seated right away!

Toroniku Shio Ramen | $16.80

Toroniku Karamiso Ramen (Small) | $16.30

B Lunch Set (3 pc Gyoza & Salmon Ikura Rice Bowl) | $6.99

I loved that they have a lunch set! And I also love that you can size down or up your ramen bowl – so I downsized my ramen to get the set (yes, I bodied it all). It was SOOO good. The ramen was perfect cooked and seasoned. The gyoza tasted house-made and was grilled perfectly crispy and the rice? Oh the rice, high quality white rice with perfectly seasoned fresh salmon and ikura. It was just a perfect set. I mean, I am sitting here thinking about my next trip already. Gotta drag Chan here lol. So good!

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Mixed Plate Friday

Jul18

Le’s Banh Mi | Saigon Special | $11.50
Add Roast Pork | $2.00

I know you folks must think I am a paid sponsor for Le’s but I promise I am not. It’s just the best banh mi you will ever have on island okay. They make the bread fresh themselves and it’s not too thick and just the right amount of soft and crunchy. You’re not going to cut up your mouth eating this.

Will you look at that? The innards are glorious, GLORIOUS.

Kevin’s Kitchen Char Siu (1 lb.) | $16.95

Kevin’s Kitchen 1/2 Roast Duck | $20.00

I’ve talked about Kevin’s Kitchen in a previous post but came back here to grab some dishes to complete our home father’s day meal. Just wanted to show you how much char siu comes in one pound – a pretty good amount! And half roast duck, that’s a lot of duck too! Well worth it to me. And yummy!

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Café Kaila – Kaimuki, HI

Jul16

Would Café Kaila be considered more Kaimuki or Kapahulu? Sometimes, it’s hard to city-fy these restaurants! Café Kaila is located in Market City Shopping Center and has been a super popular breakfast and brunch place for many years. Can you believe I have never tried them before? Why? Well, everytime I walk by, there’s a long line of people waiting outside! But I had a leisure lunch with a friend this day and decided to swing by at 11AM on a weekday to see how it was. There were a few people outside but I signed in and got seated within 5 minutes. We were only a two-top so that may have helped us!

Breakfast Quesadilla | $16.00
A choice of spinach or flour tortilla grilled with jack and cheddar cheese, scrambled eggs and your choice of breakfast meat or mixed veggies, served with our famous homemade salsa.

This was my friend’s dish, shoot, I forgot to ask if she enjoyed it. I think she liked it!

Meat Loaf Loco Moco | $20.00
Two slices of our homemade meatloaf with two eggs any style, covered in our mushroom onion gravy, served on a bed of rice with a green onion garnish and your choice of toast.

Meat in the form of a loaf? Okay I’m in. Never had a meat loaf loco moco but it sounded so good. Got my white toast which is pre-buttered and enjoyed my entree. It was very good. The meatloaf is very soft and smothered in gravy. You can’t go with this dish.

All in all, I was super glad to have tried it. Am I dying to go back soon? Probably not. I’m not usually a brunch person but it was super nice to try! While they are always busy, they turn around the tables very quick so don’t let the line deter you!

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Khan Skewer Restaurant – Moilili, HI

Jul14

My middle bro graduated high school and Chan generously treated him to a celebration dinner! He said he has always wanted to try Khan Skewer Restaurant so off we go! Khan is located on Isenberg in the old Agu Ramen spot. I haven’t tried a Mongolian skewer place before so I wasn’t sure what to expect…

Every table top has this wooden block with a sheet pan on top, there is like a small little tea light they light inside. I supposed it’s to help the food keep warm but we ate it up so fast, never need!

Meat and Meat and Meat

This post won’t be super detailed because they bring out the skewers FAST. You can either order 3 skewers or 5 skewers at a time.

More meat lol

Salad, jk more MEAT

Whatever they season their meats with is divine. I know it’s a mixture of cumin and other stuff but wow, we all enjoyed it a lot. Chan wants to learn the seasoning to grill up meat like this!

Homemade Green Onion Pancake | $6.99

Blah, not so good. I wouldn’t order this next time.

Deep Fried Calamari | $10.99

Fried super crispy but eh I don’t need this dish. Get other good stuff to eat!!

Pork Belly w/Enoki Mushroom | $4.99 per skewer

Not as good and I thought it would be! Maybe it’s just me but the mushrooms didn’t taste so fresh you know? Anyway, I wouldn’t order this again.

Griddle-fried Spicy Shrimp | $28.99

Man. This was hands down one of the best dishes of the night, if not the best. There were various chunks of like potato and veggies underneath the shrimp too. And of course the shrimp itself was so good! Could definitely slam down a big bowl of white rice with this dish. Oh, they charge separately for rice. $2.99 per bowl.

Honeydew Snow Fluffy Ice Milk | Free!

What a nice icy treat! You get the first order free with your meal. If you want any more orders, it’s $8.99 each. I don’t usually like this kind of milky honeydew treat but this was good! Being free helped lol. We enjoyed this restaurant a lot and would definitely return!

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Mixed Plate Friday

Jul11

TKG Sauce Packets

Sorry, I’m late to post this. I wasn’t late on the trend but just late to post lol. I was lucky because my cousin actually went to Japan and bought me this whole pack to try before it arrived in Hawaii (and got sold out in like a day). I love TKG rice – I don’t know how they do this. Is the “yolk” part real yolk? How is it shelf stable? I was surprised when they were able to import it here. Have you folks tried it yet?

It looks just like the ketchup and mustard packets Japan made famous years and years ago

Hmmm…

Hmmm…!

Verdict? Ehhh…to me, it doesn’t taste like TKG rice lol. I’m trying to pinpoint what it does taste like but I can’t quite think of it right now. It tastes okay but like I’m not a huge fan. I gave the rest to Chan so he can have quick meals with this. I don’t think I would buy it if I saw it, I rather eat fresh TKG rice!

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Recipe: Chinese Braised Tofu

Jul9

How do you folks get your recipes nowadays? I have a whole bunch of cookbooks but I never touch them, I rely on social media and YouTube. Been on a Chinese kick, just wanting to cook up comforting Chinese dishes. I found this video on YouTube and it looked so good and it’s actually quite simple to make! I made adjustments from the original (I always do). Check it out!

Chinese Braised Tofu

Ingredients
2 blocks of firm tofu, sliced into 1/2 inch rectangles – drained and patted dry (extra firm okay too)
6 spring onions – white sliced thin and at an angle, greens sliced into 2 inch sections (reserve greens on the side)
5-6 garlic cloves, minced
1 tsp black pepper
1 tsp chicken bouillon
1 tsp sugar
2 Tbsp light soy sauce
1 Tbsp oyster sauce
1 Tbsp cornstarch
1 C water

1 Tbsp neutral oil for panfrying tofu

For sauce, mix in green onion whites, garlic, black pepper, chicken bouillon, sugar, light soy sauce, oyster sauce, cornstarch and water. Mix well. Set aside.

Pan fry tofu slices – brown on both sides. I had to do this in two batches since my pan wouldn’t fit two blocks of tofu in a single layer.

Add sauce mixture and cook until sauce thickens. Add green parts of the green onions and cook for an additional minute. 

Notes: Perfect dish to serve over rice – a bit salty. I would probably add a maybe 1.5 T of soy sauce next time. Take this with a grain of salt (heh), I’ve been into blander food lately.

Recipe Credit: Linda Guo’s Kitchen

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Moobongri Soup & Yakiniku – McCully, HI

Jul7

Moobongri Soup & Yakiniku is located in the old McCully Buffet location aka the old Camellia Buffet location. Moobongri is a popular restaurant that specializes in soondae, which is a Korean blood sausage dish. This restaurant is fairly new, we came early for lunch on a weekday so we wouldn’t catch a crowd. They did a great job renovating this place, everything was so clean and new looking. The Korean waitresses were very nice which is a bit of a departure for me but I’ll take it lol. As we lunched, more folks came in and the majority of them were Korean so that’s a good sign. They have a pretty big private parking lot which I was able to self-park, not sure what the parking is like at night but lunch time is chill. Let’s get to the food!

Various Seasonings

Their menu has an expansive soup section – I love that they have all these seasonings for your soup at your table! I didn’t have to use any this time but would definitely use them if I didn’t get such a flavorful soup!

Broccoli Banchan

Great side dish, it’s steamed broccoli with goma dressing. How simple is that? Since I have to stuff myself full of more vegetables, I totally bought myself broccoli and the dressing to make at home too. Quick blanch of the broccoli to retain the crunch and just a bit of dressing. Perfect summer cooling dish.

Daikon Kimchee

Nice banchan! You can tell this daikon has been properly fermented. I don’t like it when it’s too fresh or too sour, this was just right!

Kimchee

Can tell this was house made and it was good! Looks sour but it wasn’t too sour at all! I enjoyed it!

Poke

Don’t usually see poke as a banchan but I was very happy to see it. I’m thinking this might be kajiki but I like kajiki so it was good! Seasoning was like a simple sesame oil and salt with red chili flakes. So good. They even offered to refill this which I absolutely said yes to and finished both plates myself lol.

Kimchee Pancake | $13.95

Good pancake! They actually mistakenly gave us Seafood Pancake at first but I had to correct them since my fellow diner did not want the seafood pancake. They weren’t mad and took it back and brought us the new one after. It was delicious!

LA Kalbi & Cold Noodle Lunch Combo Special | $24.95

Not my dish but it was enjoyed heartily! I think they are generous with their portions and even the slices of the meat in the naengmyun was pretty “tick”. And of course they offered to cut up the noodles for her when they served it.

Spicy Soondae Sooup | $17.95

Yes, you read that right. Spicy. I am the spice queen after all *ahem*. When Chan saw the pics, he was saying the soup is only half full. He is correct but actually this bowl was quite big (bigger than the usual bowls they serve soups out of) so it was a lot! And it’s chock full of blood sausage and offal that most folks probably wouldn’t like.

Well, more for me! I like it! It was so delicious! I had enough leftover to eat it for dinner too. Delicious. We both really enjoyed it and plan to return soon!!

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YuXiang Korean Chinese Cuisine – Las Vegas, NV

Jul2

I couldn’t leave Las Vegas without my proper Korean fix and here is where I chose! YuXiang Korean Chinese Cuisine – this was after Chan got over his little bout and boy was I ready to go for it! Well we ordered too much food, as usual (lol). What I really like about this place was that they offer “mini” sizes of food – you know I can’t be distracted from my black bean noodles!

Complimentary Banchan

Mini Tangsuyuk (Sweet and Sour Pork) | $12.99

Perfect size to share between two people while you slurp those yummy noodles!

Mini Yan Jang Pi | $27.99

What is Yan Jang Pi? Here’s a quick description I found online: Yang Jang Pi is a chinese influenced dish very popular in Korea, often served as an appetizer. It is a great dish for parties, because it has a mix of everything – fresh vegetables, seafood, sitr-fry beef or pork with noodles, mushrooms and not only! Everything is served in thin slices creating a rainbow-coloured dish, topped with a spicy mustard sauce where yellow wasabi is the main ingredient.

I’ve had this once before in Hawaii and I love it. It’s definitely a dish to be shared and we really shouldn’t have ordered it because we had so much food but I really wanted to try it. This is also considered a mini! Nothing about this looks mini to me and I’m scared to ask what a regular would look like. It was so delicious but we couldn’t finish it of course.

Jjamppong

Chan’s spicy seafood noodles. Look at how red that is! He was really taking a leap eating this after just getting better but he can handle spice better than anyone I know! Chan super enjoyed it, he plans to return here when we go back to Vegas!

Seafood Ganjjajjang

Ah….I love jjajjangmyun and this was heaven. I like to get the ganjjajjang because it’s less saucy (I’m plenty saucy). This was so good. I had to eat it all, sorry. They also offer a mini size so I’ll get that one next time! This restaurant was very clean and the food came out quickly. The Korean waitresses were very nice so it was a well rounded experience. Wish we had this restaurant here and can’t wait to return!

Noodle Pull!

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Kaiseki Sanga – Las Vegas, NV

Jun30

Kaiseki Sanga is a omakase restaurant that Chan was really excited to try. Unfortunately, this was at the peak of Chan’s food poisoning spell. This restaurant is one that requires a deposit to make the reservation and there is a fee if you don’t cancel with at least 24 hours notice. So…we had a big dilemma. What ended up happening was Chan’s friend and I decided to go dinner to avoid the fees and explained to them about our third diner being out. The restaurant was very nice and understanding about it but wished that we had given them an earlier heads up and just requested that we go for the alcohol pairing and didn’t charge the no-show fee. I don’t drink alcohol but Chan’s friend could definitely do it up, he enjoyed every thoughtful sake pairing they had! The cost of the kaiseki was $250 per person.

The night’s spread before the meal started – yes, you already know this meal will be pricey…

Amuse
Amadai (Tilefish), Hokkaido Uni, Tofu Skin

Appetizer
Sakura Mochi with Ma Tai / Kani Chawanmushi / Hataru Squid / Hotate / Cuttlefish with Miso

Soup
Cherry Salmon, Goma Tofu, Edamame

Sashimi
Aka Ebi with Caviar, Chu Toro, Hirame

Grill
Sawara, Bamboo Shoots

Turf
Wagyu, Iberico Pork

Akami

Ma Aji

Wagyu

Anago

Otoro

Negitoro with Uni

Red Miso Soup

Dessert
Strawberry Ice Cream and Warabi Mochi

Matcha Tea

All in all, it was a wonderful meal. I did however miss Chan too much to enjoy it, really wished he could be with us to enjoy it. It is a bit pricey but I guess you are paying for the high quality imports from Japan. It’s a very small restaurant, just enough seats at the main bar to serve maybe 10 people or less? I can see why they have to be serious about no-shows. Would love to experience this place with Chan one day in the future!

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Mixed Plate Friday

Jun27

I saw this sign the other week and thought it was so funny and oddly specific. It’s like this place had it UP TO HERE with Nan, Inc. vehicles in particular and had a special sign made for them. I couldn’t help but laugh.

Tuna Mayo Omusubi | $2.49

Unagi Hijiki Omusubi | $3.99

I went to Marukai Wholesale Mart the other day and love to peruse the ready made food section – especially after work since they are marked down (I am Chinese after all). I was super excited to try these musubis because I think they are made with a special rice and you even have to get the fresh nori from the cashier as you pay. The tuna mayo musubi was basic, exactly what you would expect. The unagi unfortunately was a bit of a bummer for me. The mixed rice was a bit mushy and sweet for my taste and the unagi was just okay. I probably wouldn’t get this again.

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