01Sep / 2014

Happy September!

September! You know what that means right? Autumn! I consider this officially autumn and while Hawaii does not have seasons as much as I would like, I will still enjoy it and look forward to the holiday season. I was walking through Target the other night and noticed a new variety of Oreos. Is it bad to say that I half bought it to share the results with you folks? Ah, you guys are worth it…:)

This sounded really good when I saw it. I also hadn’t eaten yet so….

Here they are in the opened glory. How were they? Gosh, I hate to say it but it’s another dud for me. I really wanted to like it but the filling tastes so dang artificial that I can’t like it. The apple was a very weird waxy apple candy like taste…and I guess the caramel part was fine. I couldn’t shake the artificial apple taste from my mouth for a while so that bothered me a bit. This all could just be me. I hope my co-workers will like it better than I did.

So how did I spend my three day weekend? While I did have productive spurts here and there with housework – I mainly locked myself up and studied. As I explained last post, I am taking two courses this semester. So far, one course is super on it with the syllabus and assignments. The other…I don’t know yet. No syllabus and no assignments just yet. I spent all weekend reading up chapters (reading not necessarily understanding). Status update? Right now I have finished my assignment for this week and just finished the reading for next week. I plan to continue though. I also have to start thinking about the papers and projects we have to do.

My Saturday. Book open. Huge cup of coffee. Netflix sponsored fireplace. It’s awesome. It has a holiday version, plain crackling fire version and a easy listening version. LOL. I love it. You know what my brother asked me? Is there a season 2? Hahaha insane.

This is how everything looked yesterday. This was after I made a trip to Target to up my studying supplies. This is very similar to how things looked today. I hope you folks are all having a great three day weekend!

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29Aug / 2014

First Taste Friday

Okay, I never tried these on a Friday but I was trying to be witty. Today was one bomb day. Bomb as in terrible, not good. But I am still in high spirits! Surprisingly. I have decided to take two graduate courses this semester while working full-time. I am insane, I know. A lot of people are worried that I cannot handle but I am confident that I can. I plan to dedicate myself to it. Today was the class I was scared about but it ended up being a great class. I was scared only because I didn’t know if the material would be over my head or not…but I think I should do okay. The instructor seems great too.

Anyway, just a fore warning of possibly lesser posts in the next 2-3 months because of my work and course-load. I hope not though. Anyway! I tried a few limited time flavors of snacks recently and wanted to share my opinion.

How can I explain this Wasabi Ginger flavor? MSG Strong? It really does taste like you’re eating the old school uncooked crushed ramen coated with the MSG packet with a hint of wasabi. It’s not my cup of tea but many people like it!

I’ve been waiting for these to make their way over to Hawaii for a long time! Or more like, I’ve been wanting to get it for forever. How is it? To me, it tastes very coffee-ish. It’s interesting but once again, not a fan. Give me the regular oreos.

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24Aug / 2014

Updates

Work has been nuts. Like nuts. Like Planters got nothing on me. It’s nice being busy because the time just goes so fast but that’s also bad because I feel like I no can finish what I gotta do. Guess what I decided to do folks. I’m going to take another graduate course – these classes take up a lot of time but I think I can do it. It’s a benefit working from working there so I might as well take advantage. I hope that I can keep up with the blogging as I take class! I don’t know how much I’ll be eating out – definitely not as much so I hope you folks don’t mind other types of updates.

School is back in session on Monday! Who’s ready for the traffic? I sure am not. I can’t believe we’re heading into Fall again! But that means we’re getting closer to Christmas – my favorite season! Anyhow, I hope you folks are having a great weekend so far!

Beautiful succulent I received for my birthday! It’s in a handmade ceramic vase – isn’t it pretty? I will try my best to keep it alive…hahaha

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23Aug / 2014

Handmade Cards

Thank you so much Jalna for being so awesome and generous. I received handmade cards from her and they are absolutely beautiful! So beautiful that I don’t even want to give them away – so I won’t, hehe. People won’t appreciate the work that was put into it like me! I’m sure you folks already know her link but in case you don’t, here is her blog! Thanks for the awesome cards and for being an awesome person, truly!

What nice handwriting too. My chicken scratch got nothing on her.

Thanks a million!

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19Aug / 2014

Birthday Eve – 2014

My birthday was this past weekend and it was wonderful. I was lucky that it fell in the weekend and got to spend some great time with friends and family and of course grind on some great food. Today, I’m going to share some pictures from my birthday eve day. Please enjoy!

Road to Makapu’u

We made it to the top! What a gorgeous view.

After our hike at the Makapu’u Lighthouse Trail, I had dinner with my friend Kristian. He was generous enough to treat me to a dinner at Le Bistro. I’ve had a few experiences there before and it was all very nice. He made a reservation a week beforehand so we were all set. How did it go? Well…it started off incredibly rocky. We got seated right away, given menus and water cups filled. We spent a few minutes reviewing the menu and were ready to order pretty quick. Then came the waiting. I watched as waiters ran back and forth to several tables around the restaurant while we were being ignored. I knew what time we had arrived and guess what? They left us waiting for 30 damn minutes before a waiter came and greeted us. And what’s worse…he didn’t mention or apologize for the wait at all. I was livid. I mean he really showed up right at the moment I considered walking out with no regrets.

Well, right after we got greeted – service was much better. It took a while for me to uncross my arms and get the bitch look off my face…it must have loosened up 3/4 into his sharing of the daily specials. So anyway, we put our orders in and the food came out reasonably quick afterwards. Here are the pictures.

Mojito for me. It wasn’t great, I wouldn’t recommend it.

Bread with butter. The bread was mini baguettes sliced thin. The bread was okay, it wasn’t crispy and it was at room temperature.

Fricasse Of Shellfish – made up of mussels and clams. Delicious! The sauce was buttery goodness – we got a refill of bread that we quickly used to soak it up. The mussels tasted great, Genki Sushi got nothing on them…lol.

Quartet of Beef

Filet Mignon and Garlic Mashed Potatoes from the Quartet of Beef
Delicious! I got my meat dishes medium rare.

Burger with Foie Gras
Totally un-PC dish but delicious nonetheless.

Ribeye from the Quartet of Beef
Delicious! It comes with a cube of cooked daikon (a bit random) and a fingerling potato (mine was completely burnt)

Short Ribs from the Quartet of Beef
This dish was alright – nothing special. The beef was cooked for a long while but not enough where it was soft and tender…a bit tough.

Surf and Turf Special

Halibut with Lobster – drool….

Miyazaki Tenderloin from Japan
The waiter said it melts in your mouth – and it does! Also melts the money in your wallet…lol. It was so good though!

Spumoni Ice Cream Cake

Complimentary Creme Brulee for the birthday girl (me!)
To get this dessert, you better have no shame cause they gonna sing to you in front of the entire restaurant. I’m Chinese so no worries, free dessert! It was good! The strawberries were sour! My face is scrunching up just thinking about it.

So the service and food after the rocky start did make the meal enjoyable to a point. The lighting got super dark afterwards so I apologize for the bad quality pictures. I have had their lamb in the past and those are my absolute favorite. I wanted to try something new this time and whlie it was pretty good, I would go back to the lamb next time!

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13Aug / 2014

Miniature Japan

I have a total thing for miniatures. Not in a weird way, but I really enjoy realistic looking miniatures of stuff. Like miniature furniture, food, etc. I’m pretty picky about it too, it can’t be too cartoonish or anything. I don’t know where this came from and while I am not a big collector of them, I can definitely appreciate the work that goes into them! I love when there are handmade items but I guess the appreciation isn’t there from the public since miniatures can be mass produced. I’ve always wanted to try my hand at miniatures but it takes so much time, tools and skill. I guess I’ll just admire them from afar. So what does Japan have to do with this? Firstly, Japan makes some of the BEST miniatures! Secondly, I was browsing through some of my Japan pictures and found these! We were in the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building and I started snapping pictures with the miniature filter on my camera and the pictures look so cool! Check them out. 🙂

Looks unreal yeah? I love it! Have a good one guys!

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12Aug / 2014

Shrimp and Stuff

Stuff. Lots of stuff has happened this past week. The hurricanes came and gone without much damage to Oahu, thankfully. We also got a day off from it which was great. I kind of spent the day sleeping. I got back to work today and just had a major stress out. So much work I had to catch up on! Then at lunch, I find out Robin Williams passed away. It was such a shock, it still hasn’t sunk in. He was too young to go, it’s all so sad. He’s definitely an actor I took for granted. He brought me so much laughter growing up and his serious roles were great too…it’s a big loss for Hollywood for sure.

Then I get to my car after work and it’s another scratch. Seriously guys. This is gonna sound real petty after talking about a passing, but I just no get how my car can get scratched 5 times in less than 6 months in the same parking lot. If I get to work early enough and park in my usual spot, I know my car will be good. Well, I can’t always get that spot and I can’t guarantee I don’t have to go to meetings during the day to save my spot. I just no get it. When I get in and out of my car, I am so damn careful about opening my door. I even put my hand on my door’s edge so I squish my hand rather than hit someone’s car. It seems like the people I park with just like flinging their car doors onto mine. Terrible. Anyway, the past few scratches have been on this replaceable molding on my car. Today…today was a scratch on my car’s body. Damn – I just give up already.

It’s times like this where I need to find my positive place. I need to have something that can make me appreciate the bigger things in life…the better things in life. Or be thankful for what I have. Shucks. Sorry for the rant guys. I hope you are all doing well.

Well, as the title promised, this post would be shrimp and stuff. The stuff is done so on to the shrimp! Just a quick post on a recent trip to Romy’s. We went during a weekend and the line was very very long. Of course. But what surprised me was how fast the food was cooked after ordering, usually it’s a long line to order and then a long wait. Yay! Big prawns are to die for. Sorry Darren (friend and reader).

Number 5 Prawns Plate – $19.95 (yikes!)
Oh boy, I never realize I paid 20 bucks for this. They really keep raising the price. Was it worth it? Heck yah. This is probably my favorite seafood. The head is the best part, absolutely. I get it with butter garlic sauce, so good yet so bad for you. Go big or go home!

Number 1 Shrimp Plate – $13.75
Much better price and they give you a good amount of shrimp too. You can get the number 1 with prawns too but it’s the small prawns – not the jumbo ones like number 5. They still have their stamp card! It’s just scary how much you have to spend to get that one free plate…

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07Aug / 2014

New 711 Goodies

Okay, I went to Target last night and well it was pretty empty by the time I got there. We got there around 8:15 pm and there was parking right off the bat. How was the store? Pretty good! Felt like a typical shopping night. However, once you got to the food shelves, a lot of them were wiped clean! Especially the bread. I was able to pick up most of what I needed (no batteries left) and after my brother broke a glass lantern holder by mistake, I got out of there. We apologized and reported it but I felt so bad by then that I didn’t want to stay. Their water was all gone too! I heard you can head to the water bottlers directly to grab some water for those who still don’t have any. I’ll remain positive and hope for the best – I really hope it weakens and there will be minimal damage.

I also decided to go to Costco after Target for gas. It was 9:15 pm and the line was still out to the road. The line moved pretty fast considering how congested it originally was. Glad I got my gas last night, I was actually running low anyhow. Take care everyone and stay safe out there.

Anyway, onto today’s post! 711 is stepping up their gourmet game! I’ve noticed quite a few new items lately and decided to give a few a try. Here they are!

Curry Doria! Isn’t that awesome?? I got this from the cold case and followed instructions to heat it up in the microwave. The instructions lied! I even put it in an extra 30 seconds and it was still cold on the inside. The top was completely hot and melted so I thought the whole thing was heated through. How was it? Other than the hard cold rice, not bad! A tad too salty for me but I am definitely glad I tried it!

Spicy Ahi and Seafood Poke Bowl. Translation – a few chunks of ahi and a lot of imitation crab in the spicy ahi sauce. The price is good so I didn’t mind! How was it? Bleh. Not good. The spicy ahi and seafood mixture didn’t taste that great, I prefer a stronger sesame oil taste. The rice? Super mushy and sweet. I think they were going the Tanioka’s route in terms of a sweet rice but they didn’t execute it well. I would not get this again.

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15Jul / 2014

Bad Day

Hi folks. I hope you don’t mind me venting a bit in this post. I just had a terrible day and I almost feel like I need someone to show me there is still good left in the world. I’ll provide an answer before the question pops into your mind. No, I do not have PMS. Hahaha. I have been super stressed at work and I think it could explain why I am maybe a bit hyper sensitive now. Anyway, I had a pretty junk day at work and it followed me home. I am making a batch of fresh haupia for an office event tomorrow and had everything all ready to go. It was simmering away when I decide to taste it. HO THE SALTY. Can you guess what I did? Yes, I used salt instead of sugar. God, I was so upset by then I just wanted for give up.

Well I gathered myself up. Dumped the ruined mixture away and headed to Foodland to grab more coconut milk. I got the coconut milk and decided to grab a small box of sugar cause of the salt incident. As I’m grabbing the pack of sugar, one of them is full on leaking. Like even the shelf is a mess. There is a clerk behind me moving things around on a shelf. I wonder to myself, should I be that good samaritan and let her know or ignore it? My back story to this? Everytime I have done a good samaritan deed, it has busted up in my face. I think you know what’s coming. So I turn around to her and say very nicely, I think this sugar is leaking – maybe you want to take it off the shelf? She glares at me and then proceeds to put it back on the shelf. Yeah, seriously. So I just turn around and say okay and walk away. As I’m walking away, I can totally hear her muttering something at me (I couldn’t hear the exact words). I sure as hell didn’t want to stay in the store any longer after that. Anyway, I was so damned upset as I drove home. I am still upset now. Just bad experiences with people is tearing my spirit down today. It doesn’t help that I still have the taste of salted coconut milk in my mouth..haha.

I hope to make a successful haupia recipe tonight – I have never made fresh haupia before so we will see how it turns out. Hope you all are having a better day than me.

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10Jul / 2014

Bibimkooksoo – Palama Supermarket

Dang, my favorite jajangmyun is no longer being served at Palama Supermarket! It looks like they revised their entire menu and carry a lot less stuff now. I would say they now only serve very typical Korean BBQ take-out dishes which saddens me. I hope they one day carry these noodles again. Since I was already there, I got their bibimkooksoo. I gotta say, it was a pretty good deal! They give a lot! Check out the pics.

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maybeitsjenny

Category Archives: Snapshot

Happy September!

First Taste Friday

Updates

Handmade Cards

Birthday Eve – 2014

Miniature Japan

Shrimp and Stuff

New 711 Goodies

Bad Day

Bibimkooksoo – Palama Supermarket