Zippy’s – Mililani, HI

Aug6

Chan and I met up with some friends at Zippy’s Mililani and it was super nice. Mililani is such a nice neighborhood and the restaurant side was clean and very chill. We were allowed to dine in and stay back to chat without much bother. This is going to be a super short post!

Chili & Cheese Fries | $6.75
golden brown fries topped with our famous chili and shredded cheddar cheese

Appetizer that Chan and I shared. Look, you can never lose with chili, cheese and fries. The cheese came out like this but no worries, it melted as we ate it! Was really good.

Saturday Special Mushroom Chicken

Okay so I didn’t look at the menu closely but in my mind, I expected either chicken katsu or chicken cutlet sliced up and served smothered in mushroom gravy. Heh, this wasn’t it. It was just a hearty chicken and mushroom stew. It tasted fine but I was just a bit disappointed because it wasn’t what I expected. I know better for future!

Zip Min

This is so odd. I am trying to find this item on their website or menus and it’s not available. You can’t order this for take-out? How odd. Anyway, this was Chan’s dish! He said it’s pricey and not really worth it, not as good as he remembers.

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Recipe: Chinese Cucumber Salad

Aug4

My original name for this recipe is Chinese Bean Curd, Cucumber and Mushroom Salad. Too much of a tongue twister so let’s just call it cucumber salad. I found this recipe on TikTok and I wanted to make it because wood ear mushrooms are Chan’s favorite but it also looked like such a refreshing salad. I had to type up the recipe and best guessed the quantities from the video and guess what? It came out GREAT. It is so delicious! Do I think the peanuts are needed next time? I don’t think so.

Dried Bean Curd Sticks

I found this at Don Quijote, I’m sure you can find this in Chinatown in any store. You have to soak these in water to rehydrate them. There are many different ways according to different websites but I decided to just soak it in cold water in the fridge overnight and that worked great! I rotated the sticks once just to make sure they got equal exposure to the water.

The wood ear mushrooms rehydrated much faster, I soaked them in room temperature water and it took about 30 minutes to get soft. The recipe calls for you to blanch both of them for about 1-2 minutes.

Garlic, Red Bell Pepper, Crushed Peanuts, Roasted Sesame Seeds and Green Onions ready for the hot hot oil…

Hot oil added! Immediately mix the ingredients so the hot oil can distribute to them evenly!

Cucumbers after my quick sugar pickle!

Fresh cilantro washed, drained and ready to go! Cilantro is a must!

Here’s the sauce with all the ingredients dumped in…so good…!

Chinese Bean Curd, Cucumber and Mushroom Salad

Ingredients

  • 3 Japanese cucumbers, washed and cut into 1 inch sticks
    • 3 T Sugar for quick pickling
  • 2 small packets Wood Ear Mushrooms, rehydrated, rinse and drained (from Don Q – takes about 30 minutes in room temp water to rehydrate)
  • 1 package Bean Curd Sticks, cut into 1 inch sticks (soaked in cold water in the fridge overnight)
  • 1 Red Bell Pepper, diced
  • 1 bunch cilantro
  • 1 handful of shelled roasted peanuts

Sauce Ingredients

  • 3 Green Onions, sliced
  • 5 cloves of garlic, minced
  • 2 T Toasted Sesame Seeds
  • 3 T Crushed Peanuts
  • 3-4 T heated neutral oil
  • 6 T light soy sauce
  • 6 T black vinegar
  • 2 T oyster sauce
  • 2 t salt
  • 2 t chicken bouillon
  • 1 T sugar, to taste

Toss cut cucumber sticks in a bowl with 3-4 T sugar and let sit for 10 minutes. Drain the water. Set aside. Heat a pot full of water, blanch the wood ear mushrooms and bean curd sticks in boiling water for 1-2 minutes. Immediately drain, rinse in cold water and drain. 

Add red bell pepper, green onions, garlic, sesame seeds, and crushed peanuts into a heat safe bowl. Heat up neutral oil in a pan/wok until smoking, turn off the stove and pour hot oil over the ingredients in the bowl. Immediately stir it to distribute the hot oil to all the ingredients.

Add soy sauce, black vinegar, oyster sauce, salt, chicken bouillon and sugar to the bowl and mix well. Taste and add sugar to your taste.

In a big bowl, add cucumber sticks, bean curd sticks, wood ear mushrooms, roasted peanuts, cilantro and sauce, toss. Can be eaten right away but tastes great after marinating for a few hours!

Note: Doubled sauce recipe when I made it compared to the video, doubling of sauce is reflected in this recipe write-up

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Mixed Plate Friday

Aug1

Happy August! Oh my, is it already August? This is crazy. I feel like summer just started and here we are again. I love summer traffic so much, I need to appreciate the next few weeks until all the schools start up again! Sniff…

Sing Cheong Yuan Bakery | Assorted Dim Sum Items

Baked Char Siu Manapua | Winnah’s (big competition to U-Choice In)
Custard Tart | Just okay (not the flaky pastry crust I like)
Char Siu Su | I didn’t even get to try this. Ugh, too much food for the past few weeks so I let it go bad. My chinese self is kicking herself!
Custard Bun | Okay, this was GOOD. It’s the pineapple bun with custard inside, so so good. Even better than the dim sum restaurants!

Fresh Peach Burrata Salad

In line with the season, I saw this fresh peach salad on TikTok. It’s fresh peaches, burrata cheese, prosciutto over arugula greens. It’s topped with a balsamic vinaigrette dressing. If anyone asks, I can post the recipe. Super easy but the ingredients can get pricey. Chan loves arugula so he liked this salad!

Wea da noodles?

Inside joke with V. I made this really refreshing soba salad the other week to eat with Chan. It includes yuzu kosho dressing mixed with perilla oil and is topped with fresh cilantro. So good and refreshing, get noodles in there some place. Simple recipe, maybe I’ll post it one day. 🙂

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Adela’s Country Eatery – Kaneohe, HI

Jul30

Chan and I were in Kaneohe and decided to grab some lunch from Adela’s Country Eatery – I’ve heard about this place for many years but never got to try it. They make their noodles fresh and have different varieties like ulu/breadfruit, kalamungi/moringa, kalo/taro, ube/okinawan sweet potato, etc.! It was a super hot day and I really didn’t know what to expect. I put our order in with the incredibly sweet woman at the front, she then asked me for my phone number so she could call me when the order was ready. Hmm…I usually stick around for take-out orders but their space is very small. It was so hot that we returned to the car to sit in the AC. I decided to look them up and then read that since every dish is cooked fresh to order, it takes 40-50 minutes. Aiya! No wonder there were so many phone orders, we know better for future! All in all, I think our order took about 40 minutes.

Ube (Noodles) Special | $27.98
with lechon (pork belly) & local stirfry style

Chan loves lechon so this dish was definitely winners. The pork belly is deep fried and served up with a thickened vinegar sauce. The noodles are also nicely seasoned but this is definitely a very rich dish.

Garlic Ulu (Noodles) Portabello | $25.98
with portabello mushroom

We got the two pastas to share but this is the one I wanted mostly. The noodles just taste like regular noodles, I don’t know what I was expecting but man the noodles were so buttery and garlicky. They were seasoned so well (a lot like the garlic noodles at Paradise Poke)! The mushrooms were surprisingly bland – definitely need to get noodles in the same bite as the mushrooms to get the full garlic butter taste.

Would I try this place again? I think so, Chan enjoyed it too! I would probably try another pasta dish. My friend told me that their braised short ribs on the moringa noodles are good. I guess this just means I have to return! This time I just know to order it through the phone an hour ahead of time. Pricey but gotta support local small business. Also, their parking lot is a crap show. You have been warned lol.

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Morton’s The Steakhouse – Honolulu, HI

Jul28

The first time I went to Morton’s Steakhouse was YEARS ago…and it was a bad experience. I think we had a special coupon deal for some kind of set meal and the service was just not it. It soured the restaurant for me for years to come. Well, this past week, Chan’s friend from Japan came to visit so we decided to meet up with her here. They are still around so they gotta be good right? Let’s see if they come right on the service this time. They have an elevator that takes you straight up to their restaurant. It’s really odd because while they are on the second floor, there are absolutely no windows. Figure there must be somewhat of a nice view of Ala Moana beach but I guess they didn’t want it.

Orchard Season | $10.00
apple, pineapple, cranberry, lemon, fever-tree ginger ale

You know how I roll, alcohol free! This was delicious, tastes as crisp as it sounds. This name evokes an autumnal feeling – I really liked it!

The State St. | $20.00
woodford reserve bourbon, carpano antica formula vermouth & cherry bitters filtered through jack daniel’s barrel char…wagyu “bacon” candy

Chan’s fancy drink. The description alone is worth the $20 lol. He let me take a sip and boy was it smooth going down. It’s a good drink!

Complimentary Bread

Usually, I like to scarf down bread but I kept my composure this time. I ate only one slice and saved my appetite for the dinner. The bread was nice and warm and soft with very soft butter on the side. Yum!

Jumbo Shrimp Cocktail | $26.00
house-made cocktail sauce, horseradish

Where do I find these bombucha size shrimp myself? So meaty and firm (heh) – it was delicious! Perfect cocktail sauce too, really enjoyed this! But I also enjoy the ones from Costco/Sam’s Club lol.

Chef’s Selection of Fresh Oysters | $25.00
half dozen on the 1/2 shell, house-made cocktail sauce, mignonette

I love a good fresh raw oyster – it tastes clean but also like the ocean. This was good! I enjoyed it!

Sour Cream Mashed Potatoes | $15.00
Make it loaded | $4.00

There’s a lot going on with these mashed potatoes, it’s liked a loaded baked potato casserole. It tastes exactly like it sounds and the “bacon” they use are like huge chunks of thick cut bacon!

Creamed Spinach | $15.00

Basic standard cream spinach – classic, nothing to write home about.

Thick Cut Onion Rings | $15.00

Chan has been craving onion rings and here we go! This definitely fulfilled that craving. Good breading on the onion rings and fried just right.

Parmesan & Truffle Matchstick Fries | $14.00

These fries were so good! I’m thinking I should add matchstick to my favorite cuts of fries list.

36 oz. Tomahawk Ribeye | $145.00

Expensive! But no worries, this steak was shared by three people very happily. They almost ate it all! Yum!

Filet Mignon (6 oz) & Lobster Tail | $71.00
center-cut filet & cold-water tail

This was my entree, figured that since all the steaks were around this price anyway – why not get a good piece of meat and a lobster tail! I shared my lobster with Chan. So for these cuts of steak, I asked for it to be cooked rare. Did they pass the test? No. The steak was basically medium but I just kept it, I hate to send food back – especially steak. It was technically edible but boy was the meat tough to cut and chew. Ruth’s Chris definitely beats them in the quality of the meat and cooking temperature. The lobster was good!

Morton’s Legendary Hot Chocolate Cake | $17.00

So how did they fare with service this time? Incredible. Our waiter was perfect, always checking in on us, making appropriate jokes and serving up some good customer service! He knew that we were meeting up with friends from Japan so he decided to surprise us with this dessert for free! He even gave each of us a scoop of vanilla ice cream with this cake. We weren’t going to order dessert since we were all stuffed but who can resist a free dessert? And I must tell you, this is the best lava cake I have ever had in a restaurant. Super ooey gooey inside but the cake is nice and hot and crispy but soft. Hard to explain, you just gotta try it yourself!

Would I come back? I was disappointed by my steak but maybe I would try a rib-eye next time? Otherwise, it was a good night!

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Mixed Plate Friday

Jul25

Thịt Nướng | Vietnamese Grilled Pork Skewers

It’s summer time so you know it’s time to do some BBQ’s! I wanted to try something a little different so I made vietnamese grilled pork skewers! Never tried making skewers like this before…and using fresh lemongrass before but it was a hit! Perfect food to go with some alcohol too. I had to buy a big pork shoulder chunk and slice it thin manually, that was the worst part of this dish. Other than that, it was good!

Salted Turnip

I found this at Don Quijote the other day and got super excited, really happy to see them branching out and getting more obscure Chinese ingredients. I don’t think I have ever bought this before but I think I was taught how to make a pork hash patty long time ago with it from my mom. Here’s to me cooking to my roots!

Look! This is the first time I ever guessed Wordle on the first try! This was my go-to first word everyday. Now that it’s been used, I am so lost without my first word guess! Gotta keep up with my streak!

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I-NABA – Honolulu, HI

Jul23

Every time I come to I-naba, it makes me ask why I don’t come more often. I love soba noodles and tempura which they do SO SO well. We came on a hot summer day for lunch and made sure to get here early because I know this is a popular restaurant. Good thing we did because we were second in line and the line grew and grew behind us. When we checked in, she asked if we had a reservation and we said no and she almost looked miffed about that. I don’t know what that was all about but she seated us in the regular seating area anyway. Weird.

It’s basically a retirement crowd here but they certainly acted like they were in a rush to go back to work. Many of them were barking out their orders as the wait staff were putting out cups of water and the edamame. It was a little irritating because I wish they would take orders in the order of people who were seated and not just anyone who would yell their order at them. Nonetheless, we got our order in and the food came out in a timely manner. I was a bit thrown off because my original dish was not available – sigh. So I had to do a quick change since I didn’t want to lose our ordering spot and totally omitted the tempura. Blah! Oh well, I guess that means I gotta come back sooner rather than later.

Tempura Soba | $30.00
2 shrimps, 1 white fish, veggie tempura and zaru (pictured) or kake soba

Bara Chirashi Bowl & Soba | $34.00
chopped some kinds (lol) of sashimi served over sushi rice. also comes with regular size zaru (pictured) or kake soba.

Some kinds of sashimi is a bit vague but I was very pleased with the quality of the some fish in my chirashi bowl. It was delicious! Love the pop of the ikura. My original order was for the hana soba which would have come with tempura. Dangit! I guess I could have ordered tempura on the side but this was way more than enough food!

Yummy and so easy to eat at home. But doesn’t everything always taste better when it’s cooked for you? What a great meal! I can’t wait to return!

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Hokkaido Ramen Santouka – Honolulu, HI

Jul21

This might sound like an exaggeration but I don’t think I’ve been to Hokkaido Ramen Santouka for over a decade. I know for sure I haven’t been there since the pandemic and we’re already 5 years from that. Santouka never went down in quality but when I used to go, they were super super busy. I guess at a certain point, I didn’t feel like it was worth the wait and also tend to visit restaurants I can make online reservations at. Well, I’ve been hankering for some good ramen lately and decided to go on a weekday lunch break and take my chances. There were people dining in the restaurant but we got seated right away!

Toroniku Shio Ramen | $16.80

Toroniku Karamiso Ramen (Small) | $16.30

B Lunch Set (3 pc Gyoza & Salmon Ikura Rice Bowl) | $6.99

I loved that they have a lunch set! And I also love that you can size down or up your ramen bowl – so I downsized my ramen to get the set (yes, I bodied it all). It was SOOO good. The ramen was perfect cooked and seasoned. The gyoza tasted house-made and was grilled perfectly crispy and the rice? Oh the rice, high quality white rice with perfectly seasoned fresh salmon and ikura. It was just a perfect set. I mean, I am sitting here thinking about my next trip already. Gotta drag Chan here lol. So good!

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Mixed Plate Friday

Jul18

Le’s Banh Mi | Saigon Special | $11.50
Add Roast Pork | $2.00

I know you folks must think I am a paid sponsor for Le’s but I promise I am not. It’s just the best banh mi you will ever have on island okay. They make the bread fresh themselves and it’s not too thick and just the right amount of soft and crunchy. You’re not going to cut up your mouth eating this.

Will you look at that? The innards are glorious, GLORIOUS.

Kevin’s Kitchen Char Siu (1 lb.) | $16.95

Kevin’s Kitchen 1/2 Roast Duck | $20.00

I’ve talked about Kevin’s Kitchen in a previous post but came back here to grab some dishes to complete our home father’s day meal. Just wanted to show you how much char siu comes in one pound – a pretty good amount! And half roast duck, that’s a lot of duck too! Well worth it to me. And yummy!

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Café Kaila – Kaimuki, HI

Jul16

Would Café Kaila be considered more Kaimuki or Kapahulu? Sometimes, it’s hard to city-fy these restaurants! Café Kaila is located in Market City Shopping Center and has been a super popular breakfast and brunch place for many years. Can you believe I have never tried them before? Why? Well, everytime I walk by, there’s a long line of people waiting outside! But I had a leisure lunch with a friend this day and decided to swing by at 11AM on a weekday to see how it was. There were a few people outside but I signed in and got seated within 5 minutes. We were only a two-top so that may have helped us!

Breakfast Quesadilla | $16.00
A choice of spinach or flour tortilla grilled with jack and cheddar cheese, scrambled eggs and your choice of breakfast meat or mixed veggies, served with our famous homemade salsa.

This was my friend’s dish, shoot, I forgot to ask if she enjoyed it. I think she liked it!

Meat Loaf Loco Moco | $20.00
Two slices of our homemade meatloaf with two eggs any style, covered in our mushroom onion gravy, served on a bed of rice with a green onion garnish and your choice of toast.

Meat in the form of a loaf? Okay I’m in. Never had a meat loaf loco moco but it sounded so good. Got my white toast which is pre-buttered and enjoyed my entree. It was very good. The meatloaf is very soft and smothered in gravy. You can’t go with this dish.

All in all, I was super glad to have tried it. Am I dying to go back soon? Probably not. I’m not usually a brunch person but it was super nice to try! While they are always busy, they turn around the tables very quick so don’t let the line deter you!

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