19Aug / 2022

Hello there

I would hate to sit here and tell you I’m back to normal posting. I want to be but that might be a bit hard to promise. I did want to post an update and slowly slip back into somewhat of a normal posting schedule.

First off, thank you for all the warm wishes. We have been living with the new normal and there have been some really rough moments in my life these past few months. I don’t want to go into too much detail here but am posting because I am in a better place now.

I hooked up my phone to my computer for the first time this morning and my god, I have too many pictures to sort through. A lot of my dine out pictures are old and I hardly go out now. I have still been cooking so I’ll post both anyway.

One thing I have really enjoyed for a few months now have been a few clubs I joined through the City and County Parks and Recreation – they are all free and completely online through Zoom. They have been run by a great facilititator and the people in the groups have been small in numbers but awesome awesome folks. If you ever have an interest in joining a book club or movie club, I do hope you’ll join us when the new enrollment period starts! Then you’ll be able to “meet” me as well! I’ll post the enrollment information when it opens up! If you have any questions about the clubs, please don’t hesitate in asking me!

A bit blurry photo but look at the beautiful flowers I received for my birthday! I wanted to share this blurry picture because I wanted to show off my Baymax and Mochi dolls in the back lol.

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17Dec / 2021

Mixed Plate Friday

Oahu Noodle Factory | Wide Egg Noodles

Wanted to make a noodle dish at home and wanted fresh noodles so we went to Oahu Noodle Factory in Kalihi. It’s a great deal and while parking is non-existant (unless you know, let me know) – there is an spot to illegally stop your car in front of their shop and run in and out for. Well I did it…but I would always bring a buddy so I can drive around in a circle if needed. I was in luck today! This bag was about 2 lbs, they were charging $2.50 a pound when I was here.

I saw this online a few months ago and was super curious about it. Someone said Costco would start carrying it but it never came to our Costco so I got it when I saw it at Target. Kind of pricey but curiousity killed the cat. It’s pretty good, definitely can taste the coconut oil but just a hint of it. It tastes pretty okay! I’ve only had it on top of toast.

This Mazemen was on sale at Don Quijote for $3.99 so I gave it a shot. It comes with sauce packets, you cook and drain your noodles and mix it with the sauce packets! You have to add your own toppings. It was pretty good! I would get it again should the craving occur.

Acai Bowl | $12.25

One Saturday morning, I decided to head out to Hawaii Kai after my walk to go to Costco and Ross. Well I was a bit too early for Costco so we decided to head to a little cafe for a smoothie and acai bowl. Goes to show you how much I know, Island Brew Coffeehouse in Hawaii Kai is a totally swinging brunch place during the weekends and it was PACKED. It was raining this day so I just wanted for grab and GET OUT. They are also very pricey. Kind of pricey for this huh? I guess I should get used to it…inflation isn’t leaving anytime soon. Was it good? Sure. It’s an acai bowl. Anyway, I would probably avoid this place next time due to popularity and price.

Can I also just add, Ross Hawaii Kai and Costco Hawaii is the most chill and laid back. And HK Ross has all the cool stuff. Okay, have a good weekend folks!

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10Dec / 2021

Mixed Plate Friday

Happy Aloha Friday! We are creeping closer and closer to Christmas. You ready or what? I am writing this post early but I’ll just say yes to move this along. I plan to do some baking this season as well so let’s see how that goes. This is probably going to be my final Florida post on food – then we can get back to the regular schedule. Can you guess where my first meal in Florida was?

It’s a laugh I even walked around the store beforehand. Get me to thee meatballs!!!

Swedish Meatball Plate | $5.99
Traditional 8 pc. Swedish Meatball Meal served with Mashed Potatoes and Lingonberry Jam

This dish is my comfort food. After my bout of food poisoning while in the air to Florida, I just couldn’t wait to nourish my soul with some Swedish meatballs. Did they hit the spot? Absolutely.

Smoked Salmon Salad

I never saw this dish before and I can’t find the price, it’s just a simple salad with smoked salmon. The dressing is very strong in dill flavor.

Apple Cake | $1.99
tart with layers of almond paste, apples and crumble

Oh yes, my apple crumble adventures continues. It happens here in Hawaii and of course twice in Florida. It was pretty good! Served cold. I was kind of good, I mainly ate the topping and left most of the crust. I guess that makes it a diet dish? Ha. Ha. Ha.

There was an AYCE hot pot place right next to our hotel so while our meals were usually spoken for, we did make it out to this restaurant once. And well, once was enough. It’s not even worth sharing the name of this restaurant – they are incredibly busy so reservations are highly recommended. They have a gimmick, one of those cute robots that take you to your table. Cute and creepy? Anyway, the service was severely lacking and we didn’t even get the drinks we ordered until we had to remind them and they made them wrong but it wasn’t worth the effort to flag someone else down. The buffet was okay, had some people (ahem Asians) just grabbing all the good stuff to take to their tables. Come on guys, leave some for the rest of us and just grab more later. Ah what can you do. I miss Little Sheep so much. 🙁

So like, I think we ended up at Chipotle like every night. Hahahaha long days of walking led to getting late dinners at Chipotle. Boy did the locations differ in staff and ingredients available. The first bowl pic was basically all I could get because they ran out of everything. The second bowl was much better. Must be the Asian in me, I just wanted one big bowl of rice. Love their toppings and the fresh ingredients. Also love their chips with queso dip. Augh, wish we had a Chipotle here in Hawaii too.

You know what else I did? I bought Shake Shack burgers and Chick-Fil-A sandwiches the night before my return flight home. Threw them in the fridge over night and then straight into my luggage. Yup, I risked another bout of food poisoning. I wanted the boys to experience these burgers/sandwiches because they never have. Happy to report that none of us got sick and I was informed that Popeye’s Chicken sandwich is better than Chick-Fil-A. Have a great weekend folks.

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20Oct / 2021

Bon Voyage!

Hey folks…still super busy at work but luckily slowing down. Slowing down enough for me to finally take a trip! My first trip since pre-covid. I’m excited to travel again and hope to share some great stuff when I come back! I won’t be able to post while I’m on my trip but please feel free to follow me on my instagram, I will probably post stories!

http://www.instagram.com/maybeitsjenny

See you folks later!

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15Oct / 2021

Mixed Plate Friday

Spicy Poke Inari | $5.99
Spam Musubi | $1.75

New Japanese Bento Shop called U Kitchen and oh no, I just saw the Yelp ratings so far and it doesn’t look great (though the picture the one star review shared says they got served raw chicken and the chicken doesn’t look raw to me). This shop is located in Dillingham – same strip mall as Hana Tea and Yohei Sushi Restaurant. It looks like it took over the Korean restaurant spot that V used to frequent?? Anyhow, I was actually here to pick up some subway sandwiches and U Kitchen was open so I popped in for my own dinner!

I got a spam musubi and their spicy ahi inari sushi. The spicy inari was pretty good, interesting they also have imitation crab salad in it. At first I was wondering if they were just trying to add stuffing to use less ahi but it was just a little bit and I thought it had enough ahi. The spam musubi? Oh boy. The rice was so dang mushy. What’s up you guys? What’s up Hawaii restaurants? I don’t think there is ever an excuse to make such mushy rice!! I couldn’t believe it.

I’m interested in trying them again because they sell delicious sounding Japanese plate lunches and they make all kind Japanese bentos but they close at 4pm? I was there past 5 on a Friday and maybe they were just trying to sell out what food they had? I think they should minimally try to stay open past the dinner crowd!

Sorry folks, a home cooked dish. A big heaping bowl of jook (congee) for the Mid-Autumn Festival. How do you folks like your jook? I like mine cooked with nice marinated pork bones, sliced up century eggs, choke green onion and cilantro and then even more choke white pepper. Hits the spot for me.

I had dinner in Waikiki and took advantage of the location to finally try Henry’s Place. You folks ever heard of this place? They make all kinds of sorbets and ice creams and store them all in styrofoam cups and all individually labeled. I decided to try the POG flavor and bugga was good. I had it fresh so it was still so soft, it reminded me a lot of the Asato Family Shop. There is definitely no parking for Henry’s so if you willing to walk down to Beachwalk while in Waikiki, give it a try! Guess what else I got from Henry…

LOL, they label all their sandwiches too. Now has anyone ever tested to see if sharpies seep through plastic wrap? I wonder if I ingested any sharpie ink. I saw some interesting pictures of their sandwiches and I had to try it for myself. Why are they interesting you ask?

Okay, I know what this looks like and I promise you that’s not mold! LOL. I opened up the sandwich to show you folks before I heated it up. Interesting yeah? It’s mixed with this green herby mixture but it’s definitely not pesto and it’s definitely not like ginger scallion sauce. Very peculiar. I can usually tell what things are but I couldn’t tell what this mixture was made of. Was good though. If you know what the green stuff is, let me know!

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08Oct / 2021

Mixed Plate Friday

How’z it! I was excited to see that 711 was going to sell Chinese restaurant kine dim sum in their stores! They partnered with Yung Yee Kee. Not sure if this is limited time or for a long time, also…it’s not like it’s identified as the collaboration packs. You gotta just look at the packaging and make the assumption like I did.

Half Moon & Har Gow (Shrimp Dumpling) Pack | $5.59

Kind of pricey yeah? Well dim sum can be kind of pricey and I gotta say, this was pretty good. I found it in the cold case so I had to heat it up in the microwave when I got home. Heated up nicely and the skin was nice and soft, I enjoyed both very much!

Sticky Rice in Lotus Leaf | $3.99

Okay the last picture looks bad but that’s not a bug, I promise. It’s just a chunk of the filling on top of the rice. I don’t know if you can tell but the portion of the rice is kind of small. I liked it though, tasted great and I liked that it didn’t stick to the leaf at all.

Furikake Chicken | $11.52 (tax included)

I was out in Kaneohe and finally got to try KJ’s Local Grindz furikake chicken! They are known for it, was a bit disappointed they don’t make it as a musubi anymore. Remember when 711 used to sell the chicken musubis, now it’s hard to find chicken musubi. I loved them. Anyway, this was delicious! I can see why they are known for the furikake chicken. The spaghetti mac salad is cool too, though for me…a bit bland. If you’re ever out there, give them a try!

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03Sep / 2021

Mixed Plate Friday

This post is forreal mixed plate, not even all food.

Fruit Chichi Dango | $3.99
strawberry, mochi flour, sugar, milk, red bean, custard

Been seeing this all over social media and just had to get it. This is from Kansai Yamato located in Moanalua 99 (former Ranch 99). I figured I should go to the source to get it.

Struggled to get a side view for you. First of all, you should keep this refrigerated. I didn’t realize it was custard on top at first so I kept it out for a bit and boy oh boy did it get melty and messy. Good news is that I did throw the second one in the fridge…ate it the next day and the mochi was still melt the mouth soft. This was a delicious treat! I would definitely get it again!

Clockwise from top left: Baked Char Siu Manapua, Taro Cake, Shrimp Dumpling (Har Gow), Siu Mai, Half Moon

Sing Cheong Yuan Bakery has been around forevers and they always have a long line in Chinatown. Now that we’re heading towards Moon Festival time (September), might be either best to avoid this place or place a phone order in because they are going to be super busy with moon cake orders. If you can believe it, I haven’t tried their dim sum before. I don’t know what it is, I guess if I’m going to be in Chinatown, I’m just going to eat at a Chinese restaurant you know?

So how does it compare? If you’re local to Hawaii and I say local style pork hash, I bet you know what I’m talking about right? The kind you can get from the manapua man….very different from the kind you get from a dim sum restaurant. Now while Sing Cheong’s siu mai looks more “local” style, I actually want to give it more credit and say it’s a balance between the manapua man siu mai and dim sum siu mai.

Baked Char Siu Manapua – Very good, I think Royal Kitchen is a near competitor but I will give this one to Sing Cheong.
Taro Cake – Hmm, no thank you. I’m used to homestyle taro cake which is very thin. I don’t know why taro cakes are so huge in these shops…to me it’s like eating a big lump of dough.
Har Gow – These are winners. They really do stuff it full of shrimp, nice skin too.
Siu Mai – Better than local style, still not as good as dim sum siu mai.
Half Moon – Good but not memorable. Nothing special.

A silly project I had a month ago. Shucks, wish I remembered to take a side picture of this. It’s actually Pikachu on the side. Such a cute vending machine, the bottom draw opens but the machine doesn’t actually do anything. It’s just super cute and it was super annoying to build…hahaha. This was over 2000 pieces and they were like super small pieces. I was obsessed to finish and am super happy with it. I have it proudly displayed at work. Apparently there is like a whole bunch of Asian building block sets that oh so gently copies Lego sets…for less money of course. Have a great weekend folks!

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27Aug / 2021

Mixed Plate Friday

Hey folks! A shorter post this Friday…just wanted to share small kine stuff.

Izumi Oden Konbuiri (Don Quijote Kaheka) | $6.49

For the folks who want to see the nutritional facts!

Here is the oden placed in a bowl and heat…get one egg too!

I don’t know if it was on my blog before but I once bought one of those Korean Ginseng Chickens from Don Q’s frozen section. It was not a good decision and I got a bad stomachache afterwards. Well you would think I would have learned my lesson but I didn’t, I really wanted to try this. This is not sold frozen, it’s sold in the refrigerated section (yikes?). I can trust the fish cake and such but I thought the egg would be iffy. Well the egg was just fine! No stomachache and the whole dish tasted great. And look closely, no more even gray ring around the yolk. How do they do it?? No complaints here.

One of my favorite cakes is the Berry Chantilly Cake from Whole Foods. The first time I tried it, I was in love. Fresh berries are on top of the cake and also throughout the inner layers of the cake. The frosting? Oh let me tell you about the frosting, it’s a wonderful almond mascarpone frosting. So light and delicious with a wonderful hint of almond (think almond float kine almond taste). I loved it…and since I don’t like plain whipped cream – the almond frosting really made it for me. Well, hate to be the messenger of bad news…things have changed! I got this cake about a week ago and the almond taste is like FAINT now. My friend shared that she got late last year and could hardly taste the almond too so I don’t think my experience was a fluke. So disappointing. 🙁 But I guess the silver lining is that I won’t be buying an entire cake to eat anymore…hahaha ugh! And yes, we wrote on the cake ourselves…and no, our handwriting is not that much better non-frosting style.

Jalna and Dd, I can’t express enough how much we love this Chipotle Tri Tip Roast recipe. This is now the most highly requested recipe I make. It’s so easy, so flavorful and just so satisfying. I’ve adjusted the recipe to feed an army…it’s just winners. Thank you again for sharing such a great recipe!!!

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13Aug / 2021

Little Sheep Hot Pot at Home

One of my favorite restaurants is Little Sheep Hot Pot but this was pre-pandemic because they unfortunately did not survive. Sigh, where am I supposed to go for AYCE hot pot now? I loved their sauce bar and flavorful soups…and man could you get a bang for your buck with their buffet. Before they completely closed down, they became Happy Lamb Hot Pot so their Yelp page contains reviews from both their time as little sheep and happy lamb (lol).

Anyway, I was craving their soup base and while you can find it at H-Mart…it is way cheaper on Amazon if you want to purchase multiple. Okay it depends, gotta keep your eye on the prices because it fluctuates a lot. I paid $16 bucks for a 5-pack and have seen it even lower priced than that…it’s pricey right now. But here’s the link to the spicy base and the plain base. The soup bases are great, just gotta add water, boil it up and it’s ready for all your hot pot ingredients. Check it out.

Got a bunch of veggies ready to go and of course the mushrooms! Love the crunchy texture of enoki mushrooms…

The spicy soup base boiling up…

H-Mart get plenty of the pre-sliced meat for sale (and get all kind cuts too, this one is kind of lean but they have ones that are fattier too). A bit pricey…

I have never prepared tripe at home before and I never want to again. It smells so stink when you boil it. Luckily the ones they sell at the store are pretty “clean” but…ugh! The pot boiled over too and it was just a stinky mess. I mean it’s fine after you finish boiling it up as prep but it wasn’t worth the effort for me!

Okay, I gotta be honest. This whole hot pot craving was brought on from a YouTube video I watched. Yes, I watch mukbang videos sometimes but only Korean ones. I don’t know why. Anyway, she made a mala hot pot with lamb chops and it just looked so good. I couldn’t find lamb chops but found lamb loins which served it’s purpose! Satiated that craving real nice…

Added some wide cellophane noodles too…and we ate it with rice. I mean, we were real piggies that night. So good though…

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30Jul / 2021

Mixed Plate Friday

The next two pictures are going to look like an advertisement but I promise they are not. I know I am not getting any money for this post (or any of my other posts). I saw this on TikTok and was super curious since I am trying to remain on a caloric deficit. A whole pouch for 6 or 7 calories? Worth a try right!

I found it on Amazon and if anyone wants the link, let me know. I’ve tried peach, grape and apple so far. I actually really enjoy it, it’s a nice cold treat that helps satiate your sweet tooth. I like that the sweetness doesn’t taste too much like that weird artificial sweetener taste. Kind of pricey though, I think a little over $2 for each pouch. I went to Seafood City the other week and they had some in stock for a bit cheaper price but only had two flavors and I feel like they were just trying to sell out their stock.

Was trying to put together a little snack pack for a friend but couldn’t give it to her so I ended up eating it myself. I know, what a shame right? Well, this is a post just to tell you about Honolulu Crack Seed. Cute little sisters-owned crack seed store. Well, I tried their wet li hing mui lemon peel sour patch kids and there is no going back now. Best tasting wet li hing lemon peels I’ve had ever. They also sell prune mui (anyone who has a good recipe for this, please do share, it’s my favorite). Check them out if you are near Kaheka!

I also spotted these chips at Seafood City. Anyone who is in the know about Indomie knows what is up with these chips. I had to give them a try. Do they taste like the indomie noodles? Ehh…yes and no. Yes in the sense that it tastes like straight up MSG, lol. No in that they don’t taste like the noodles exactly but are still tasty and easy to eat.

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