A visit to Japan is not complete without a visit to Korea Town for some bomb black bean noodles. LOL, I think we had this for our first sit down meal. Hong Kong Hanten 0410 is a restaurant owned by Paik (Baek) Jong Won, he’s one of the judges for the Culinary Class Wars! Excited for the new season starting soon. Anyway, as I mentioned in my last post – this is probably my most favorite jjajangmyeon ever.
Tangsuyuk (Half Size) | ¥980
The half size is perfect to complement our noodle dishes. I think we got the full size last time and it was too much. Gotta have the sweet and sour sauce on the side for dipping – the pork is fried up perfectly crisp.
Gogi Jjamppong | ¥1180
Chan’s jjamppong, his favorite. He got the beef one and it was good. Look at how red the soup is. I tried some of the soup, tasted good!
Jaengban Jajang | ¥2100
KABOOM. Okay, this dish is to serve 2 people. I don’t care. I almost chickened out of ordering it but Chan told me just to go for it. I don’t know why this dish has to be made as 2 servings. Anyway, this is more of a stir-fried version with so much good veggies and seafood. Ahhh…just salivating as I think of this dish. It was super good yet again. Why don’t we have this here in Hawaii?? Gotta wait for my next trip to Japan or Korea to eat this again.
Do you peep what I peep on a walk through Shin-Okubo in Japan?
Funny yeah?? I don’t know who this belongs to but it was fun to see a bit of home in Japan like this.
Every time I saw this company’s signage, I had to take a picture and send it to my friends to tell them this was their communication style. I never even looked up what they do lol.
Yes, we splurged for Business Class. If you don’t care to see what Business Class has to offer, please move along. It is pricey but I think can be very worth it for long legs of travel. The ability to lie flat and sleep is priceless.
So yeah, I’m pretty sure I was eating “raw” spam here. I mean I ate it but…it was basically raw spam. I know it’s not really raw but you know what I mean! It wasn’t too bad lol.
The fish was seasoned and cooked well! I enjoyed this!
Miso Soup
Zensai (A Selection of Morsels) Japanese Omelet, Simmered Runner Bean in Syrup, Grilled Squid with Dried Fish Roe, Deep-fried Fishcake
I enjoyed this zensai very much so, not sure what runner bean is but now I’m curious. Very nice appetizer!
Kobachi (Tasty Tidbits) Steamed Chicken with Flavored Soy Sauce
Eh, it’s fine.
ANA Original ~Kaoru Fukuoka~ Tonkotsu Style Ramen a mild tonkotsu style soup paired with thin noodles that complement the soup perfectly. toppings like red pickled ginger and flavored oil are available. please enjoy with your preferred seasoning.
If they offer up a noodle, I gotta try it! Very happy I tried this. Too bad I didn’t get it when we came home too. The flight home felt so much shorter so I didn’t have enough room in my tummy for it.
Noodle Pull!
Yum!
Sandwich Set Warm Basil Cream Chicken Sandwich | Yogurt with Passion Fruit Jelly
The sandwich was just whatever but the yogurt, oh the yogurt was so good. Felt like the plain yogurt was a thicker texture and the passion fruit jelly was wonderful. I’m going to try to make my own at home.
ANOTHER TRIP MEANS ANOTHER LOUNGE VISIT. Was so excited to go to ANA Lounge. We had seen videos of this lounge and I got all excited that we would be able to board the plane straight from the lounge. Didn’t happen. The opportunity is there but I think it only works for the first flight of the day, no such luck for the second flight. It’s a very nice lounge and offers some good food! Check it out.
Udon!
They have the noodles at the bar ready to scoop into your bowl, you can choose either hot broth or cold broth. These are the only toppings, no protein. It was okay, nothing special.
Curry! (Hawaiian Style)
I guess I should have known that since it was Hawaiian it wouldn’t be good, it wasn’t that good. I prefer Japanese style curry! I wouldn’t get this again.
Acai Bowl, Fresh Fruit, Ham and Egg Sando
The acai bowls are all rock solid frozen, forreal. It barely defrosted as I was eating my food so I couldn’t even enjoy it because I didn’t want to lose a tooth. The sandwich is very good! How come sandwiches always taste better when I don’t make it? Serious question.
Apple Juice
I don’t know what it is about travel, but I only drink apple juice when I am traveling. I enjoy it on the plane and during the trip too. Do I drink apple juice when I’m home? No. Don’t ask me why.
As you read this, I should be on my way to Japan. Another chance to make beautiful memories with Chan in one of our favorite places to travel. Our fear this trip is if the local Japanese people will hate us since we are foreigners and some foreigners are not doing us any favors with their bad behavior in Japan!
As always, feel free to follow me on instagram. I will be posting stories daily of our adventures! So excited for this trip, I am super burnt out from work and just life in general so I need this breather. Short blog vacay, see you folks soon!
I had a rare chance this day to have a lunch with two of my brothers. I used to go out with all three of them all the time – nowadays, 2 would be a rare outing. Most of the time, I’m with only one of them. It’s a good and bad thing. I surely miss the old days and being around them, my wallet doesn’t miss those days (lol). But another good thing is, it means they are growing and becoming more independent. I think all three brothers are growing up well.
Anyway, I decided to give them a taste of good Japanese food by taking them to i-naba. It’s a double edged sword, I give them a taste of good food and they either don’t appreciate it fully or maybe acquire a taste for it. Ha! Anyway, I really enjoyed it even though my wallet didn’t. It’s okay, another memory to add to their banks.
Tempura Soba | $30.00 2 shrimps, 1 white fish, veggie tempura, and zaru soba
Bara Chirashi Bowl & Soba | $34.00 chopped some kinds of sashimi served over sushi rice. also comes with regular size zaru or kake soba (we chose zaru).
Hana Soba | $36.00 cold broth soba, topped with tororo (grated yam), uni, ikura (salmon roe), green onion, dried seaweed and tamagoyaki. also comes with tempura (shrimp, squid and veggies)
I don’t know if you remember my previous post but the last time I came, I really wanted to try this Hana Soba. They said they were out of uni and could give more ikura which I said no to. I finally got to try it this time!
Miso Soup and Takuan
Mixed Rice
Bleh, not great.
Tempura
Their tempura is always so good. Lightly battered and fried crispy. So so so good.
The star of the show. Did it live up to expectations? Well…I think I’ll go with less is more for soba from here on out. Sure it tasted good but once everything was mixed up together – I couldn’t really taste the different between the tororo and the uni. It just all melded into a cold soba dish with no distinct flavor. The tamagoyaki felt super out of place, it was certainly a choice to add that in. While I was glad to have tried this dish, I would just stick to the plain zaru soba tempura set next time. Less is more as I said.
I saw this old school recipe online the other day and decided to make it as meal prep for my weekly breakfast. How was it? Good! The only thing is, I make such a huge batch that I get tired of it pretty easily. That’s the thing about meal prepping, I save a lot of money and time but get so tired of the food by day 3 or so. Wish I had the mentality of eating to live rather than living to eat. Hard life (lol). Anyway, I’ll share the recipe below. I think I found this from the Electric Kitchen website. The only thing I changed was to add rehydrated bean thread noodles at the bottom of my container before pouring over the stir-fry to make it a heartier dish and because I’m carb crazy.
Pork Tofu and Watercress Stir Fry
Ingredients:
1 teaspoon oil
1 pound lean pork, thinly sliced
1/2 cup shoyu
1/4 cup water
3 tablespoons sugar
1 medium onion, sliced
1 medium carrot, sliced
1 (1-inch piece) ginger, crushed
1 (20-ounce) block firm tofu, cubed
1 bunch green onions, chopped into 1-inch lengths
1 bunch watercress, chopped into 2-inch lengths
Directions:
In a large pot, heat oil and brown pork.
Add shoyu, water, sugar, onions, carrots and ginger.
Bring to a boil and simmer for 5-10 minutes.
Add tofu, green onions and watercress and simmer gently until watercress is wilted.
Pileus Cloud (If this photo is yours, please let me know so I can credit you)
Not much of a mixed plate today, just a bit of storytelling. About a year ago, I went to a conference and was speaking with a fellow attendee who is originally from China. Part of our introduction assignment was to discuss the origin of our names. I have never asked or been told about the origins of my Chinese name. My English name, yes. My parents did not know English and asked either the doctor or a friend to name me and were given the name Jenny.
Anyway, the Chinese colleague I was seated next to was so warm and genuine that I felt inclined to ask her about my name. I’ve had a complicated relationship with Chinese people, a lot of my family members are directly from China and I have been treated quite poorly in my upbringing which has brought a hesitancy to talk to or be nice to other Chinese people in fear of getting hurt like I have in the past. Anyway, I wrote my Chinese name out for her in Chinese and she diligently started up looking the characters to find the meaning.
Soon, she told me it meant little cloud which was amazing to me because I just never assumed my name had any meaning (much like Jenny). Then something told me to look up my mom’s name and asked her to look it up as well. I forget the exact meaning of my mom’s name but it is associated with clouds as well which really touched me, that I was called little cloud after my mom.
Now about a year later, I got asked about the origins of my name again but decided to do the googling on my own. I looked up the name myself and pulled up pileus cloud. Do you see that image on the top of this post? Apparently the iridescent pileus cloud occurred in China, isn’t it just such a majestic sight? I feel so creatively charged when I think about this image and my name’s connection. I think about how much thought and consideration was taken in coming up with my name. The meaning is so deep. I do hope I have a chance of seeing an iridescent pileus cloud in person one day. Something about my name now brings me such a heartwarming feeling. If you don’t know the origins of your name, I do hope you go out and find it. You could be very pleasantly surprised like I was.
Another visit to Murphy’s and whew thank god they are not closing down! There was rumors circulating around that they were but the owner came out and refuted that real quick! I was able to join Chan and his workers for a quick lunch. It was wonderful and we had John as our server and he is just the sweetest server ever. I’ve been to Murphy’s before and have been served by him before and he is consistently the most caring and attentive staff member. It makes a big difference.
Fried Spicy Chicken Wings | $18.00 (full order) served with ranch dressing
One of their specialties – super good. Tastes like homemade ranch dressing too. I forgot to get a picture of the basket of fries we ordered but their fries are super good too. Fried up perfectly.
Irish Dip | $22.50 thin sliced sirloin on baguette with horseradish mayonnaise, served with guinness au jus
Open Face Turkey Sandwich | $21.50 in-house roasted turkey on white or wheat bread, topped with gravy, served with mixed vegetables, mashed potatoes, and fresh cranberry sauce
I have never tried this but I would love to one day! One look at this dish and you’re like…where’s da sandwich? The bread is hidden underneath all that turkey! One of their most famous dishes.
Gaelic Steak | $29.50 new york steak topped with a green peppercorn sauce, served with mashed potatoes and mixed vegetables
Chan’s dish! The steak is cooked well and it’s a very nice gravy. The veggies are good and of course the mashed potato is fluffy and buttery, yum!
Fish N’ Chips | $19.50 cod fish and fries served with malt vinegar
When there is fish and chips on the menu, I’m there. Actually this might be sacrilegious but if I could have, I would have subbed the fries for white rice. I’m too Asian. Super good fish and the fries of course I said before is super good!
Another bougie and expensive restaurant review brought to you by Jenny who benefitted from a very generous friend of Chan’s. I will not even post the cost of the meal here but you can easily look up Mugen‘s website and get a sense of it. Very thankful for this dining experience and spending time with friends.
Quick funny story about this night. We didn’t know the parking situation with this restaurant so Chan decided to park at the International Marketplace and walk over. Before we headed to the restaurant, we decided to walk through Target in case we could find something to buy to cover part of the parking validation. This Target location is crazy busy with tourists and the 1st floor is packed full. As we are making our way through, we suddenly hear a loud “excuse me!” behind us coming from an older asian man. Not sure if he was a tourist – either he was local or from the mainland. Anyway, obviously Chan and I stop and he then walks around us. As he is passing us, he loudly screams, GEEZ! Well guess what? I am old now and am no longer patient so I immediately yell back at him, GEEZ WHAT. He doesn’t stop and doesn’t look up, just continues walking away. And get this guys, we weren’t even walking in a tight aisle or anything – it was a huge walkway in Target so he had every chance to get around us without this commotion. He better watch out cause Target’s cameras almost caught this chinese chica “ch-row” hands. Okay onto dinner. 🙂
Pretty centerpiece
Chic Cutlery!
Pinky Promise | $15.00 lychee & guave puree, lemon-lime soda
Mocktail of the night for me. Oh this was so good…so so good.
Amuse Bouche
Nice starter bite for everyone to start off with. I can’t quite remember exactly what it was, like a fish ceviche/poke served atop a brick of crispy rice. It was pretty good!
Bread and Butter
How cute is this bread! It is so teeny tiny but in the best way since there is so much food coming. And look at the butter! It’s a herb butter and strawberry butter in puzzle pieces! Isn’t that so cute. I would take this bread over the Mariposa popovers anytime lol.
Kona Kampachi Starter kupu place nasturtium, green apple ponzu, trout roe
My starter, it was good but nothing special. I got a different starter from Chan so we could taste different ones. I would get his over mine any day!
Scallops chinese black bean & smoked kurobuta ham veloute, trout roe, celery root
Chan’s scallops. Oh these scallops were so meaty and tender and seasoned wonderfully – I loved this dish!
We got this to share for the table. I love beef tartare so I have no complaints here, it was delicious!
Maui Beets pickled mustard seeds, spiced pepitas, sweetland tomme tuille, ko cho jang vinaigrette
Another shared starter, isn’t that tuille so pretty? The beets tasted good, nice huge chunks and sweet. It was good but I prefer a beet salad with goat cheese myself.
Nigiri
The menu was comprised of tasting menu sets, you could get a tasting set with nigiri if you wanted to. I didn’t get that option but here is the sushi it comes with!
Maine Lobster truffle nori risotto, hon shimeji mushroom, parmesan foam
How can you go wrong with lobster? Also, the two choices you had was lobster or shima aji. I think the choice is a no brainer – gotta get the lobster! It was delicious. So so good. One of my favorite dishes of the night.
Not my main dish but I don’t think it was worth the extra price tag. I got to try a piece and when I cut it, it was a bit stringy to cut but the texture was just fine when you chewed it.
Marrunga Marble Lamb brown butter ulu puree, pineapple chimichurri, coconut aji amarillo sauce
I’m going to be honest, I was so stuffed by the time this dish came I couldn’t enjoy fully it. The lamb was good but gamey for those who want to know. Good dish but I was too full to enjoy it.
Koloa Rum Toffee Cake date cake, hawaiian honey yogurt gelato, honey meringue, koloa rum toffee sauce
Isn’t this so pretty? So pretty but not my dessert. If I wasn’t stuffed, I would have tried a taste because it sounds like sticky toffee cake which I love. Well, Chan reported that it wasn’t that good and was nothing like sticky toffee cake so we are good.
Passion Fruit Custard lilikoi gelee, chantilly cream, sable, seasonal fruit
Yet another dessert ruined by me being too full. This was my dessert, I would have enjoyed it if I wasn’t so stuffed. Got a few bites in and it was nice and tart. Seasonal fruit? Sure. There was canned lychee in there so not really fresh seasonal fruit you know?
