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Mixed Plate Friday

Jun4

How’s these loaded tots I made? I think I made this back during the super bowl weekend even though none of us watch the super bowl and this was really just an excuse to make junk food. I think I just baked the tater tots as instructed on the package and then add the toppings and threw it back in the oven for maybe 5 minutes to melt the cheese.

Top tray is thinly sliced beef cooked in Halm’s Hawaiian Bar-B-Que Sauce topped with some some shredded cheese. Second tray is topped with pulled pork I got from Sam’s Club, nacho cheese sauce and sliced fresh jalapenos. The first tray was the heavy favorite, can we be any more Asian? I guess kids aren’t huge fans of pulled pork, was eaten but slowly. Sigh…

Got these noodles at H-Mart a while back. Yes, I saw a video about it on TikTok and got super curious. I love a sauced noodle and these were wonderful. A bit pricey (think I paid $14) but so good. Love the texture of the noodles and the sauce. It is spicy (hello sichuan pepper) but I like the spice. I think since it is popular, H-Mart hiked the price up to almost $17. No thanks, I can wait for the price to go down again. This brand has other flavors too which taste good too so give it a try!

Just a funny follow-up post to my Gulick visits. Upon V’s recommendation, I just made these damn rolls myself. No need pay like almost $3 for HALF A ROLL. ANNND I gave myself two takuan sticks instead of one. Oh and added furikake. It was a very enjoyable week of lunches. I think this is one of the few dishes I can eat a lot of and never tire of. Weird right?

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Mixed Plate Friday

May21

You folks ever been to Superb Sushi? Little take-out sushi joint on North King Street. Love their poke bowls and sushi offerings, they’ve adjusted to the pandemic and basically offer a take-out window where their door used to be so you don’t have to go inside…which is good because inside is basically their kitchen (lol). Here’s what we got on a recent trip.

Poke Shell (6 pcs) | $10.00

I think if you saw this on the menu, you would wonder what the heck is that? Thank god for Yelp – it’s spicy tuna cone sushi. Love the tempura crispies and fresh green onions on top. It’s a great dish, go for em!

Futomaki Unagi (8 pcs) | $7.00

Sorry, I ate a piece before I took the picture cause I was just HANGRY. I love their futomaki, it’s a dollar less if you get the oshinko (verus unagi). I felt like being high class so I went for the unagi, get so much things in the roll that it’s not like the unagi is super notice-able. No regrets and tasted great.

What do we have next? A visit to Gulick Delicatessen again. Nothing like going up to the front counter ready to order a single plate for lunch…and going a little too crazy that the lady has to bust out another box to fit all the food. Great job Jenny. Don’t order while hungry. No worries, I didn’t eat this all for one meal (but did all in one day, sue me).

I know, I know. That’s a lot of food. I’m so dumb.

From top left: Garlic Chicken ($3.60), Konbu Maki ($3.05), Egg ($2.65), Chow Mein ($2.95)

The garlic chicken is better than I expected, I never ordered before! Good! Konbu maki is good but expensive. The egg is good! I liked that it was savory and not sweet and people might not like this but I liked that the egg was small kine runny still so it was not at all dry, chow mein also better than I expected!

Tuna Musubi ($2.75) and Spam Musubi ($1.99)

I get these two all the time so it’s good. Why don’t I just make my own yeah? Ehh…I guess we can say that about a lot of things.

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Recipe: Instant Ramen Hacks

May7

Do I even have to preface these posts anymore? Yes, both hacks I am sharing are from TikTok. Both came out fine but nothing I would keep in my arsenal for future use, you know what I’m saying? Let’s goooo!

Hack #1

One Egg, Kewpie Mayo, Minced Garlic

Add the soup seasoning packet

Mix, mix, mix

In the meantime, cook and drain your ramen noodles. Add the hot boiling water to the mixture you just made…mix it as you add water. Add the noodles back in and voila, fake tonkatsu broth? Hahaha, okay so if you needed a way to make your instant ramen more fattening, here it is. Was it worth the extra calories? Edible but nothing special.

Hack #2

This time, you throw away the original seasoning packet (or save for something else), cook the noodles, drain and leave to the side. Then in a saucepan, you heat up butter, brown sugar, shoyu, minced garlic, red pepper flakes…

Add your noodles and mix…

Add an egg. I made three servings so here are three eggs. MIX.

Voila. Done. You can top with some fresh green onions and Everything but the Bagel Seasoning (which I left at work so I couldn’t do this). Well first, I added too much red pepper flakes (thought it said T, not t…so yeah). Was it good? Sure it was good. But I think if I’m going to eat a mixed noodle like this, I rather eat Indomie Mi Goreng (which is one of the best instant noodles ever made).

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Mixed Plate Friday

Apr30

Time for another edition of Mixed Plate Friday with your host Jenny (maybe?). Just some random thoughts and pictures.

Yeah another TikTok thing. I hate cooking bacon on the stove top and I’ve seen recipes telling you to bake the bacon. Cool. Well this TikTok trend told you to twist the bacon up and bake, it achieves the perfect balance between crispy and chewy and you still get to like lose the fat as it seeps out through cooking.

Here’s the after photo, I’ll let you judge for yourself if you wanna do this or not. There were good comments on this one.

Along with that meal, I made eggs and rice. And of course the eggs were cooked in bacon grease, come on. But my all time favorite? Longanisa sausage. Oh so good. Pretty easy to cook too! I pick up a pack from Don Quijote every now and then if I want a treat.

Okazuya Pac | $13.25
Zippy’s rendition of popular Okazuya Plate. Fried Noodles, Hot Dog, Corned Beef Hash, Hoki and Fried Chicken.

Jumping off of the okazuya post I did the other week, I got all excited when Zippy’s started offering an Okazuya Pac this month. Oops, I think today will be the last day you can get this.

Let me save you the trouble, I don’t think it’s worth it. I don’t know if you can tell but this pack is actually in one of their like mini plate containers, this is not a full plate. The chicken was dry as all heck and it’s just not worth $13.25 to me. I think I was also salty cause I ordered an Apple Napple and got Ube Napple and didn’t know until I got home. Ugh.

A little experiment I made last week. Bought cone sushi wrappers, boiled up some somen noodles that I dressed with Gyotaku Wafu Dressing. I then topped it with tuna mayo (kewpie mayo), chopped up ocean salad and chopped up taegu to throw on top. I really enjoyed this dish. I wanted to use a more savory dressing (wafu dressing versus oriental dressing) for the somen noodles cause there’s already sweetness in the cone sushi wrapper and ocean salad. One feedback I received was that the noodles could use more dressing…I actually liked it this way and it passed the kids taste test with flying colors. Would make again!

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Mixed Plate Friday

Apr16

Today’s post forreal going to be one mixed plate. From three different restaurants! Let’s gooooo!

Lamb Biryani (Spicy) | $16.95
traditional aromatic rice tossed with variety of herbs and spices, garnished with nuts

One day, for some odd reason, I got a hankering for Biryani. It’s weird because I have never even had biryani but I must have seen a picture of it online and really wanted to try it. I love me rice dishes and basmati rice is the best. I looked up Indian restaurants on Yelp and found Kamana Kitchen, they are located in Downtown so it’s not the easiest restaurant to dine in…no parking that I can think of. I was able to grab a pick-up buddy and wait curbside. Fair warning, there are a number of homeless around the area too. I’ve had a few occurrences when picking up (yes, I’ve had this dish more than once!).

I love this dish, they ask what spice level you want and I always say spicy. Well, it is SPICY. Do not go for spicy if you no can handle. Nice chunks of lamb in this dish though you can’t tell in the pictures. They give you raw onions, fresh lemon and side of some type of yogurt sauce (helpful for the mouth fire). I’ve also had their samosas and they were good too! Give them a try if you want some Indian food!

Iyasume Pac | $6.48
fried chicken, arabiki pork sausage, teriyaki sapam, egg tamago-yaki

Okay, when did Musubi Cafe Iyasume open up like 10 locations? Granted they are all located within 5 miles of each other, haha…but still good! I headed to the Keeaumoku location after a shopping errand. I hope that price is still correct, I thought it was a pretty good deal! Nice portion, not too much but not too little.

Konbu Maki | $3.05
Hot Dog | $1.80
Tuna Musubi | $2.60
Spam Musubi | $1.99
Chow Fun | $2.85
Side Order Nishime (not shown) | $3.35

Ho brah, now that I type up the prices…am I made of money? I took a trip out to Gulick Delicatessen cause I was hankering for some okazuya. Do you folks remember when they used to be on South King Street? It was so convenient to pick food up before work, I was so sad when they closed down. Their Kalihi location isn’t the easiest place to go, get a few stalls for parking but they are hard to secure. I went super early before work one morning and decided to die of carbo loading. I couldn’t help it. When you’re ordering at the counter, there’s no prices so you just go for it. I found the receipt in my wallet and decided to type it out for you folks. HO THE PRICES. That one konbu maki is 3 bucks! But hey, konbu maki is a pain to make I bet so I think you’re paying for the labor. $1.80 for one hot dog? Come on guys!

Nah nah, it’s okay, to me it was worth it. Their chow fun is really good and I enjoy the spam musubi. It’s not like 7-11 kine spam musubi but I like the plain white rice and unseasoned spam…the side nishime was for another meal. The side order nishime comes one of those poke clear containers (I think a 1 lb container). I like their nishime!

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Mixed Plate Friday

Apr2

Happy Aloha Friday! If you’re like me, you may be laying about today because it is a holiday! Sometimes it pays to be a state worker yeah? Can’t complain when we get the holidays off. Time for a mixed plate post!

I took this picture of Waikiki a few months back, I believe it was in September? Pretty crazy shot right, broad daylight and not a soul around. Real pandemic shot. Well if you go out now, it’s like a pandemic is not around anymore. There are so many tourists and people out and about, let’s not go backwards people!

Random donut post. These are my favorite donuts right now and you can find these at 7-11, I hope they still have it! Sometimes they are sold out so I haven’t had them in quite a while…I like them because the dough is not too dense and the glaze is not too sweet or overpowering. I even prefer these over Krispy Kreme (which are nice and soft but too sweet).

Can you tell what I’m doing here? I bought little mini canvas boards…applied strips of painter’s tape to create an abstract pattern. Before I started with colors, I painted the entire thing with white paint (supposed to help with keeping clean lines). Then I randomly added a few coats of color.

Be patient enough to let it dry a few hours and get the satisfaction of peeling off the painter’s tape. I had a few touch-up areas for white paint but overall, I am pleased with how it came out! I have this proudly displayed in my office which one no one sees because I am all alone there, lol. Yes, I have a mini easel (duh).

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Mixed Plate

Mar5

Time to bring back mixed plate posts! Happy Aloha Friday!

This is very much part of being my friend. I found this online and had to get it for my friend’s birthday. If you haven’t seen it…the box actually contains air to blow up the balloon (not helium) so you make the giftee press the big red button and it blows up the balloon. Do you know what OLD AF means? One of the waitresses actually asked me what it meant and I couldn’t bring myself to give her the answer…until her coworker came by and said it straight out (Ha!).

So OLD AF means…Old as F**k. My friend and I just love ribbing each other on age. We are the same age but he likes calling me noona when my birthday comes and I am a few months older than him. Haha…I loved embarrassing him in the restaurant. Was WELL WORTH THE COST.

Saw this online the other week and thought it was pretty cool. I guess if you already have these kind spices in your cabinet, you can just make your own seasoning mixes! I also found it interesting to know what is actually in these mixes! Handy key.

Another neat TikTok recipe. Doesnt it sound refreshing? So easy too. I bought a bottle of sprite (either 20 oz or 16 oz) and stuck two tea bags into the bottle…closed the lid and place it in the fridge to “marinate.” I think I did it for two days and yes, the sprite turns into a nice light golden color. No bitterness at all from the tea bags…added some lemon slices and voila…black tea sprite. So good!!

Okay this one is a bit of a tip and secret. I don’t know about you guys but I was sweating it out finding clorox wipes (still hard to find!). I’ve lucked out twice so far at Costco…when I was there and they had a small pallet out.

I’ve been watching Amazon and they sell out of the wipes quite easily too. They sell three bottles (versus the five pack at Costco) for about $12.00, not as great as a deal as Costco but I will take what I can find. Well let me tell you, they sell it in these soft packs too for the same price and amount. For some reason, people snap up the canisters but these soft packs have been available this whole time. Here’s the link to it if you want to purchase some for yourself: click here.

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Welcome Back

Feb8
A puzzle I started during the pandemic that I definitely finished
(no, I didn’t).

How’s that? I just welcomed myself back and this isn’t even a full post. How are you folks doing out there? I know it’s been a long time – and I hope you are all taking care during this neverending pandemic. I am trying to hold on as well. I do have to be honest before I continue, I’ve been dealing with some health things these past few months and I’ve really been through the wringer. Not to worry, nothing life threatening (well let’s not make it life threatening).

Anyway, in a bid to take better care of myself – I’ve been playing around with recipes to eat better. I’m trying to make realistic changes in my life so that I can keep to this lifestyle versus fad diets that are bound to fail. The past 3 months or so have been the lowest so I definitely lost all motivation to do much of anything…but I’d like to say I am turning the corner a bit.

Anyway, I haven’t stopped eating…that’s the point of this post! Yes, I try to eat healthy during the week but I still try to eat some ono food on the weekends. Got plenty of recipes to post and of course good eats. For those who have stuck around and are reading this post, thank you. I just bought a new laptop so I should be able to post easier and more frequently. Take care guys…new post soon!

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Mixed Plate

Apr24

Gotta have posts like this here and there, I don’t always fully capture my meal so you will have to get it in bits and pieces. 🙂

Romano’s Macaroni Grill
Mama’s Trio | $25.95
chicken parmesan, lasagna bolognese, fettuccine alfredo

Is Mama trying to kill you? Yes, I think so. This wasn’t my dish but look at this…hefty portions of hefty dishes. It was not finished, had to be packed up to take home. No waste!

Romano’s Macaroni Grill
Shrimp Scampi | $24.95
sauteed jumbo shrimp, capellini, garlic, rosemary butter, roma tomatoes

Yeah, I had the shrimp scampi again. So wot? Like fight? Nah, getting it a second time means it was good ah? Was good.

Little Sheep Hot Pot
Half & Half Pot | Original & Spicy

I can’t say I was super impressed when they first opened, I was still a huge fan of Sweet Home Cafe. Well sorry to say, well not really sorry, but I basically only go to Little Sheep now. Love their sauce bar and now they have all you can eat deals for lunch and dinner. Service is hit or miss (you better be willing to flag anyone and everyone down to help you). Delish!

Ja Gal Chi Restaurant
Bossam | $30.99
steamed pork with oysters

Gosh, can anyone help me? There used to be the most bomb bossam restaurant by Ala Moana, it was located where Dowon Chinese Restaurant is now. They specialized in Bossam and it was soo good but alas, like most businesses, the owners decided to retire and they closed for good.

Anyway, I don’t think a lot of Korean restaurants offer this but Ja Gal Chi does and boy oh boy was it a treat. I mean look at it, of course it was a treat. They give you kimchee and the little salted shrimp sauce too. It’s just heaven.

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Asakusa View Hotel – Tokyo, Japan

Feb11

Do you folks want to see hotel pics? Well, I didn’t get much of my Osaka hotel but I did of the Tokyo one! So here it is, Asakusa View Hotel!

The toilet and the bath area are separated and the main sink is outside of the bathroom. There is a shower and it’s located in the same room as the bathtub and the floor is the drain. It’s a trip! Big bathroom in this hotel, the bathroom in Osaka was HUGE. Like such the opposite of my past experiences, especially in Airbnbs. The thing I missed the most though? Washer and dryers from the Airbnbs! This was a longer trip too so I really had to stretch some clothes…good thing the weather was cold.

Beautiful city views from the hotel! We didn’t pay enough for the Skytree view from our room. Ah well, I don’t really need it. What was nice was that they had a viewing room in the hotel, it was on the 20-something floor and it had a very nice view of the Skytree. Why pay when it’s free? Haha, anyway…it was a nice hotel. I liked that the hotel limousine stops right at the hotel. I do feel like Asakusa was situated a bit away from just about everything…but that’s okay. I don’t mind walking around and catching transport in chilly weather.

Oh wait, I have a funny story to tell. So the first night of our stay, my body full of Denny’s sangria came back to a very warm hotel room. I kept tinkering with the AC to no relief. Then we noticed our fancy Japanese toilet was broken. Ugh. We called the front desk about it and they sent a very nice worker up. I think she was Filipino but fluent in English and Japanese of course. I asked her why they room was so hot. Here’s the Hawaii girl, apparently it’s so cold that the heater kicks on. No AC. I was not happy. She asked if we wanted her to open the window. Sure.

So here I am looking like a freak with my head practically out the window to get some nice chilly air. Then I ask about the humidifier in the room, it was blinking a red light and I didn’t know how to fix that. She mentions casually that I just need to fill it with water. Well, I was already kind of irritated and never worked a humidifier before so I ask her to help with it. We had a humidifier in the Osaka hotel but the maid staff must have been refilling it for us every night. Well it did not happen in this hotel, I had to refill it every night.

She offered to bring a fan into the room and we took her up on the offer. They fixed the battery in the toilet and she mentions that when we want the window closed, we just need to call down to the front desk because they have to close it with a key. Well, I just told her to close it already because I didn’t want to have to call down to close it later. After we cooled down a bit after our showers, I actually just turned off the “heater” that read air conditioner and the room cooled down considerably. It was quite nice with no heater on in the room. I never had this before, I could always just control the temperature in the room…didn’t realize we had to deal with a heater only. Glad we found a fix in the end though!

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