Island Glazed Assorted Donuts

I’ve been wanting to try Island Glazed for such a long time but they are located out in Aiea and I am never out there so imagine my surprise when we got a special treat surprise at work! And we got a mix of their coolest flavors! So thankful to work with such nice people. They have really interesting flavors like strawberry mango, lihing pineapple, etc. Good donuts! The office ate them up!

Mixed Mushroom Crisps | $8.78

I’ve talked about this brand before because when I went to Korea, the sold their garlic bread potato wedges at Costco and that was GOBBLED up. No garlic bread potato wedges in the U.S. (yet) but I found these mixed mushroom crisps at Sam’s Club! It’s very interesting. Similar to the wedges, the mushrooms are whole but somehow taste hollow? How do I explain that? You bite into it and it’s a bit hard to crunch down onto but it just doesn’t have a solid meaty mushroom structure. Hard to explain, you gotta try it yourself. Interesting taste, strong umami! Give it a try at Sam’s Club while we still have it!

Le’s Banh Mi – Saigon Special add Roast Pork | $11.50 + $2.00

Yes, I went back again (lol) but this time I wanted to show you a cross section of this glorious sandwich. Yummy…

Vietnamese Dish

I don’t know what these dishes are called lol. The top I’d like to just called crystal dumplings because I had a variation at a restaurant before but this one was basically filled with a big dried shrimp that has been rehydrated. Definitely needed the dipping sauce for the dumpling. The bottom two pieces, very sticky mochi rice balls. Similar to cha gor if you’ve had it, they are usually filled with a savory filling. This one had a savory filling too but nothing like the cantonese ones I get. It was good and nice to try! Not sure I would try this particular one again…

The next picture is the reason why I wanted to go to Chinatown in the first place. In fact, I may have gotten a red light ticket for this trip. I honestly was in the intersection to turn left and when I reglanced at the light, it was at a full red. The light went so fast that I even question if I ran it but I would never go on a red so let’s see how it goes. Can’t sweat it unless it happens.

Anyway, as usual, I got this craving from TikTok. Nem Chua is a fermented pork or beef dish. Everyone who ate it made it look so scrumptious but a lot of people are put off by the color of this dish – but also put off that this dish starts with raw pork or raw beef and does not get cooked with heat. It is basically fermented so it’s akin to like cured meats like salami. I didn’t let anything deter me.

Nem Chua from New Cholon

Not sure how much these were each – but I paid $5.50 for 4 pieces. I got two beef (top row) and two pork (bottom row). Not sure why the pork ones get more garnish but it’s okay. I made Chan try it with me, he was not too excited but took one for the team.

We tried the beef one first and I actually super enjoyed it. It has a bit of sour sweet taste due to the fermenting but I enjoyed the texture especially with the strips of pork rind mixed in. I saved the pork one for last and eh….I didn’t enjoy it as much as the beef one. The beef one seemed to have a bit more texture in the beef while the pork one is pressed so hard that it’s like a meat block. No real texture. I also decided just to go for the chili pepper on the pork one and I think I stopped existing as a human being for a full 10 minutes while Chan just laughed and shook his head.

I enjoyed trying both but I wouldn’t make a special trip back out just to get it. Maybe if I were in Chinatown, I would definitely pop in to grab a few of the beef ones. Yum!