The UH Manoa campus food court serves up a MEAN Cobb Salad. They have a great salad bar…so when I feel like a crapload of toppings with a side of greens…this is where I go. You gotta admit, a cobb salad is really just a masquerade of healthy. I don’t care, I believe it’s a healthy salad and I’m sticking to it. 🙂
I get my dressing on the side and substitute bacon for beet – that counts right? 🙂
My coworker just returned from a Japan trip recently and he graciously shared some snacks with us! I just wanted to show you a quick update of them.
I don’t know how many of you folks can read Japanese but this is wasabi Kit Kat! Interesting right? Now you see the wasabi plants all over the cover huh? How’d it taste? I couldn’t taste the wasabi like at all. I was even trying to see if there would be notes of it after I finished chewing, nothing! A bit disappointing, I wanted it to clear my sinuses…lol.
Tokyo Banana. I heard a lot about this treat and it seems to be a popular omiyage. I’m a fan of banana but not too much a fan of this treat. I could tell they were trying to create a cake that tasted a lot like the real thing…not a fan. Give me some good old banana bread anyday.
Would this qualify as healthy? Well, I tried my best to make it healthy for this particular post. I was eating brown rice with canned salmon. I usually eat it with a bit of mayonnaise, sesame oil and sriracha which essentially creates a spicy ahi type sauce and it’s GOOD. Well, one day I wanted to remove the mayonnaise and add soft tofu instead to try to mimic the texture. It didn’t work and it tasted very bland. Ah well, I did try!
It doesn’t look too appetizing…
I ended up adding some mayonnaise anyway…lol
So yesterday, I showed you the bad things that can happen when you eat street food. Let me share a few pictures of the GOOD things that can happen! While the corn dog was a set-back, I would still try street food!
Okay, this is gonna make me look like I only want sausages but CHECK IT OUT. Five different meats on a stick. It was DELICIOUS. I believe this was in Myeongdong.
I always see this on Korean TV shows so I had to give it a try. It’s an odeng food cart, the Korean version of Oden. This is fish cake, it’s the only thing I got this time because we were between meals. Was good!
Sundae. My gosh, I was so disappointed by this. I got it at the E-mart next door to our apartment and it was terrible. The ones in Hawaii are much better but I am sure it’s because I got it at a chain grocery store. I gotta try a good one from a food joint next time.
I didn’t get to try this food stand but I thought it look super cute. There were a lot of these types of carts in the Myeongdong area…I really want to go back to Korea SOON.
Oh you read that right. During my trip to Korea, in a crowded Edae Shopping Street…I met my match. A nice old Korean man was selling corn dogs covered with crinkle fries out of a cart. Let me repeat that, CRINKLE FRY ENCRUSTED CORN DOG. I had to get it. I did. You know what else I got? For those who have a faint heart, avert your eyes now. Diarrhea. This dang corn dog was not cooked enough. As I ate it, I thought it had melted cheese in the middle with the hot dog. Oh. That was raw batter. I suffered! Then I had to look up diarrhea medicine in Korean to show to a pharmacy. And yes, it’s just like the Korean dramas! You walk into the pharmacy store and get whatever medicine you need! I thought that was pretty cool. 🙂 The pharmacist who helped me was very nice.
Scene of the crime
Doesn’t that look good? 🙁 Why did you have to hurt me so corn dog?
Happy Saturday everyone! Isn’t it great? It’s been a busy week so I totally passed out at like 8:30 last night. No joke. Anyway, major cleaning going on today. I guess it’s good to get spring cleaning done early. Anyway, I just wanted to share a quick update. We had a big event the other week and had a LOT of rice leftover. I decided to make two types of fried rice for the office. Why two types? It’s because one of them had harm ha in it. For those who don’t know, harm ha is fermented shrimp paste and it is PUNGENT. I thank my coworkers for bearing with me and the smell of the harm ha. Although to be honest, it became the more popular choice! Mmm…just thinking about harm ha now…
There’s the spread of ingredients
Popping the garlic, ready for the harm ha
It gets a bit crazy when you’re making fried rice so I didn’t get anymore prep shots in. Here is my homestyle Chinese fried rice. It includes harm ha and choy sum. Absolutely delish! Not sure how many people would be interested in this recipe. Once again, if you are – let me know and I’d be more than happy to share!
I didn’t even get an after shot of the kimchee fried rice! And I got super lazy with this recipe, I didn’t even chop up the kimchee. I used the Chongga Kimchi I bought from Costco. It was all right but not good enough for my kimchee fried rice…gotta get Queen’s Supermarket Kimchee for the best kimchee fried rice!
Every semester, UH Manoa holds a Taste of Manoa festival. It’s great because they offer up $1 plates and the plates are very generous! They held one about two weeks ago in conjunction with the opening of the new recreation center. It was super crowded but I loved seeing the new recreation center, it took a while but I think everything looks great now!
The dishes they had were pretty good, but I ended up doubling up on a few because I didn’t like the soup or dessert. I’ll share two highlights! I forgot to take a picture of the chili cheese dog – that was good too! Full size!
Mahi Puttanesca Bruschetta with Island Greens and Citrus Vinaigrette
Pretty good and the fish was cooked perfectly!
Deep Fried Garlic Pork Ribs with Asian Slaw
Look at that! Only $1! Seriously, a great deal. And surprisingly, I enjoyed the cole slaw again. Am I starting to like cole slaw in general? Uh oh…
I was going to update with a quick food post today but I just had to share my day. I’ve been having not so great days lately, and it’s nothing specific going on – I just feel like I’m in a slump. Anyhow, I drove home today from work and as I approached the driveway to my house (it’s a shared driveway between different houses) – there were two Pacific Islander kids blocking the driveway. It was a sister and brother I assume, both must have been under the age of 10. They were blocking the lane but as I turned in, they moved off to the side. I look to the back and see the boy calling me the B word. This young kid. I stopped my car and got out. I usually do this anyway. I stop my car and get out to get our mail. The two kids were standing there. I’m looking at both in the eyes and you can tell the boy has a guilty but naughty ridden look on his face.
What did I end up doing? Well. I nicely said hi to both of them to which they both said hi as well. I asked how they were going and the sister and brother both say they are okay, the sister friendlier. I grab my mail, close the mailbox and wish them both a good night and she tells me, you too. I drive off and as I’m parking, I see they are both watching me. Not sure what to make of that but fine. What does one do in that scenerio anyway? I could have reacted poorly because I know for a fact the boy called me the b word, but what would that accomplish? Nothing. Might as well kill a person with kindness and hope they will pay it forward in the future. What happened certainly ruined my night but I feel good in how I handled it and in the end, I don’t feel anger – just a bit of sadness. You never know what people are going through in their lives to make them lash out the way they do.
I hope everyone has a fabulous Friday and weekend! Here’s a picture I took when I took a hike up the Makapuu Trail.
I must confess. I work with a master-baker. He works so hard to make wonderful desserts – all from SCRATCH. No cake mix, no funny stuff. I give him a lot of credit, it’s not easy baking from scratch but he does and he does it great. Here’s a recent cupcake he shared with me.
So how was it? Good as always. Do you see the specks of black in the cake? That’s fresh vanilla. Fresh vanilla people! My only feedback to him was that the cake was a bit dense and dry. Not sure if it was the recipe or how long ago it was made (only like 2 days old!) but other than that – so awesome. I really wish I were rich so I could open up a bakery for this guy to fill everyone’s dessert deficiency.
Hey folks. I’ve spent the past two days decompressing from the conference I attended on Thursday and Friday. It’s been good. I’ve been able to rest and spend some time with family. Sorry for the lack of updates. I will try to work on some posts tomorrow night…or should I say tonight since it’s 2 am. 🙂 Just wanted to let you folks know that I am indeed alive and well. I hope you folks are all the same.