She is alive!

Dec10

Bad blogger, bad bad blogger. Gomen! You folks must be tired of hearing this by now. This semester has been rough. I don’t know if you folks have ever taken a statistics course but it certainly has kicked my butt. Tonight was the submission of my final paper. Of course with a stats class, I get to take a final exam next week. Oh boy. Wish me luck, I need it. I’ve been cooking quite a bit but not as much journaling of my cooking. I still take a lot of pictures of food so I may just photo bomb you folks with random pictures of food. So glad the break is coming up soon! I hope you all are doing great.

I leave you with a picture I recently colored. Yes, adult coloring books are the latest rage and I am totally into it! Take care folks.

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Recipe: Harako-Meshi

Oct1

Two posts in a week?! Wow. I stayed after work today and did a few hours of studying, I’m pretty proud of myself. Next week is the last big event and then I’ll still be consistently busy but not as crazy busy. Fingers crossed. So I made this dish last week! Check out this picture…

Looks professional yeah? Salmon rice with ikura and shiso leaf. Yum…shiso leaf goes so well with salmon!

I don’t have an earthen-ware pot so I used my rice cooker. I seared the salmon in a pan really quick and then added it to the raw rice. The raw rice is filled to the right water line which I then added two tablespoons each of shoyu and mirin. I think I could have added at least 3 tablespoons of each.

Here is the rice all ready! I made a slight mistake on this recipe, I didn’t debone it completely so I didn’t share it with anyone. Leftovers store well! I used a rice paddle and flaked the salmon right into the rice.

Mmm the ikura makes such a difference. I went to Nijiya last week so I got the salmon, ikura and shiso leaf from there. This dish was ono! I got the recipe from here. If you don’t follow him on YouTube, you must! He is crazy great at cooking and if he makes like an udon dish, he will make the noodles from scratch. I admire him so much. I didn’t have time to make the shoyu marinated ikura but it tasted great anyhow. I also left the skin on my salmon while he removed the skin on his. I like the skin so I didn’t mind keeping it on!

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Recipe: Creamy Shrimp and Mushroom Pasta

Sep28

I made a new recipe today and made it my absolute goal to share it with you folks. I was very excited to try this recipe and realized only when I started cooking what it called for. 10 TABLESPOONS OF BUTTER. TEN. And umm…then I looked at the amount of pasta. 6 OUNCES. What? That’s insane. I don’t know about you folks but I prefer recipes that go by the box because I just rather use it all then save it for later and remember how many ounces are left. I’m lazy that way. So I made many adjustments, wrong adjustments but I can kind of share what I did. I definitely did not add more butter even though I used more pasta…is this how Italian restaurants cook??

How does this look? This was before I made a few adjustments because…bugga was RICH. Looks pretty right?

You can never have enough garlic. Never.

Crimini Mushrooms

Does it help that two of the ten tablespoons of butter is used to saute the mushrooms? I didn’t think so.

Don’t these shrimp look great? Sorry, I just feel so proud at how I cooked them. I got them from Don Quijote on sale.

Chiffonade of Basil (yes, I had to look up that word)

What makes this sauce creamy? Cream cheese. All cream cheese. Oh yeah, there’s the butter in this pan. Along with garlic and basil, smelled so ono.

It will be super lumpy until you throw in the pasta water, then it smoothes out real quick!

Here is everything mixed together….mmm….

So what did I do after I ate this and didn’t like it? I added chicken broth. A LOT of chicken broth to thin out the sauce. I also added more cracked black pepper and squeezed a lemon in there. Cream sauces are so tricky, especially for reheating. I packed a couple of containers for lunch this week and poured in more chicken broth to help it not be a clumpy mess when I reheat them.

I got the recipe here. I know I didn’t sell it too well in this post but if you want to make the recipe, please do! I think I messed it up by adding my own quantities. If any of you do want to know the quantities I used, let me know and I can share it. Have a great week folks!

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Beware: Ramblings

Sep24

There’s a feeling I can’t shake tonight and since it’s bothering me, I just wanted to share it out. I just feel so bothered. Sometimes I have lunch with a friend during my lunch hour and she comes to campus and parks in my parking stall as I drive us out to our destination of choice. When I come back, she leaves and I take my spot back. It’s not exactly against the law but certainly used for my convenience.

Parking at my work is a nightmare. Our parking lot is always full and always has cars sitting on the side waiting to pick kids up. Anyway, I return today and there were two cars in the lot stopped on the side. Both cars are parked past the stall. My friend gets in her car as I am sitting before this stall with my blinker on. When she drives off, I back into the stall. So as I’m backing into the stall, I see the driver lady’s arms go up in anger in the car that is 4 stalls away from me. But honestly, they were past this stall and just sitting there so how was I to know? As I’m finishing my parking, her male passenger gets out of the car and starts yelling at me. I hate confrontation and I certainly don’t appreciate a male yelling at a female over a parking stall. He yells something about them waiting for such a long time in the lot. I don’t get out of the car but I decided to be cool about it and say that I’m going to move my car. He doesn’t hear me obviously cause my windows are up and he yells WHAT at me like with such anger and disdain…I didn’t care to aggravate the situation so I move my car and start looking for another stall. We all pay money for permits to park in our zone and there were stalls available outside of this specific lot but I guess they refused to park farther. I found a stall right outside of this lot and walked back to work, they had already parked and left their vehicle. Thank god, I didn’t want to run into them.

Anyway, I’m glad I did what I did. I don’t think I was even wrong in the beginning, isn’t it the rule that if you’re past the parking stall that frees up, it’s no longer your spot? I guess I feel unsettled because I didn’t appreciate the confrontation and the fact is, we now continue to share the same parking lot. I feel uneasy and really hope nothing comes of it. If any type of revenge is exacted on my car from today events, I think I’ll really reach a breaking point. It’s been such a hard few months and I’m just mentally and physically exhausted. Sorry for an all text and all venting post, I can’t even sleep thinking about this right now. My coworker unsettled me more after I got back telling me to watch out for them. Ahhhh! I tell myself that it should be okay since I did give them the spot, I just hope nothing further comes from this.

Okay, I lied. Not an all text post because I’m posting this picture again because I really love this picture and wish I could just fall into this snow and have a nice slumber (especially with this humid weather). Thanks Connie for the picture.

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Red Stand – Keeaumoku, HI

Sep13

I have my first paper due on Tuesday and I haven’t worked on it. I started it but I am nowhere near where I would like to be on a Sunday night. This paper is a bit more loose and introspective which I assume is why I haven’t had the motivation to finish, my procrastination was in full gear this weekend. Wait, I’ll back up on that. I did head out to the library yesterday (on a Saturday!) to start researching for hopefully my research for my master’s. It didn’t go well. I did borrow two books but dread the smell of moldy books, sorry if I’m in the minority on that one.

I also worked on my chapter notes for Tuesday’s class and somehow didn’t fall asleep until past 3 am last night. And! I got up at a very reasonable hour to do my laundry. The weather was crazy this weekend, pouring cats and dogs one minute and then sunny the next. We live in Hawaii for sure. Anyhow, fast forward to tomorrow night where I’m rushing to finish my paper. Ah, the life of a procrastinator.

Anyhoo, I’d like to share a special picnic meal I got recently from Red Stand. Red Stand is a cute little Korean shop that opened up in the Samsung Plaza lot on Keeaumoku. Small and super cute place. They open at 7am to serve up cute musubis and breakfast sets. I thought for the quality of the food, the prices were okay. The staff there were very nice. They also serve up food in the restaurant but it is a very small place and they share parking with 4 other crazy popular restaurants. Good luck on that one. It was so cute to see a little cart stationed at every table with the portable gas grill ready to go. They basically serve up Korean street food at your table, I’m looking forward to coming back here again for dine in. For this post, I’ll be sharing the Red Box Deluxe for $9.00.

Their very very high quality bento takeaway box. Very. I don’t know how long they can sustain serving their sets in these great boxes. I still can’t bring myself to throw it away.

They seem to enjoy eggs and seem to include it in almost all their sets. Isn’t this such a cute little set? Perfect for an outing. I like that they wrapped up the soup so well – leak proof! You can choose miso, kimchee or corn soup. I went for miso soup.

I wasn’t looking forward to the eggs initially but was pleasantly surprised by them. They weren’t as overcooked as they look here and were perfectly salted. The salad was good, it was a basic mix but they threw in some bacon bits and sliced nuts. The dressing was your basic vinaigrette.

The tuna kimchee triangle musubi. Fresh made by them – nice furikake rice. Very good.

TTEOK KALBI RICE BURGER – you can choose from bulgogi or tteok kalbi. If you are given those choices, ALWAYS CHOOSE TTEOK KALBI.

I apologize for the caps. I just wanted my point to be clear. This is definitely best warm so if you have it later, try to nuke it a bit if you can. The patty is so delicious and juicy. It’s exactly what it sounds, rice serves as your “bread” and they add a mayonnaise type sauce, burger patty and lettuce. The lettuce isn’t really needed but it’s okay. If you have a chance, check them out! It’s a very cute store and the food is pretty good.

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So it begins…

Aug30

Remember how I said I would procrastinate by blogging to not study? Yes, it started. I’m not even halfway into the first chapter and I already decided to do a post on here. Yay. I want to say I’ve been too busy over the summer to post but the truth is I’ve been very tired and not as inspired as I have been in the past. Just trying to get to a good space again to post. It has been so DANG hot that I barely want to step foot into a kitchen. I bought some okra on Friday and I’m looking forward to making something with it. I enjoy the slimy-ness, I guess that’s why I enjoy natto. Here’s a few random pictures for you to enjoy!

I made kimchee gyoza the other week

I love when they start steaming because then you see the red kimchee through the translucent skin…

I’m not posting up a recipe yet…it’s really just a mixture of ground pork and chopped up kimchee. The kimchee has such great flavor that I don’t need to add any additional seasoning. My only complaint about this is that it’s dry. I think I’m going to try to add some long rice to the filling – that will add some moisture! I will let you folks know how it goes.

I had a bibimbap day once because that’s my favorite Korean dish. The twist? I used a fake ground beef to make the beef topping. It was good! Here are the side veggies I made. Ugh it took so much effort…haha. The green strips are zucchini, the others are shiitake mushroom, carrots, bean sprouts and the green mound is spinach. Isn’t it crazy to see how much spinach cooks down? It’s crazy! I love veggies like this, I should make it again.

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Potpourri

Aug22

How did potpourri come about? And why did the t become silent? Just a random thought for the day. This weekend is going to be full of rest mixed with cleaning mixed with horror. Horror? The fall semester starts on Monday for UH. Yes. Enjoy the terrible traffic again. Punahou does make it terrible but UH makes it worse. This semester as a warning is going to be insane already. I have three big events I’m helping to plan that will all take place before October 6th. I wouldn’t be surprised if I disappeared off the face of the earth during this time. I am also planning to take two classes. I don’t know if I’ll be able to handle it. I’ll have to go to class this week and see how the assignment schedules are. Then again, my need to procrastinate on all my assignments may lead me to blog more often. Who knows? The only reason why I wouldn’t want to drop any of my courses is because I bought my textbooks already and boy were they expensive this semester!

No complaints of course. Still happy to take courses for free. Yay. I hope everyone is doing well. I’ve been pretty busy lately because I’ve had to work on my kitchen. It’s coming together! Almost surreal. Hope to have pictures to share on it soon. 🙂 Here are some random pictures to share…

Lamb Shanks from Costco. Doesn’t it look good on this package? I love lamb….

So like, this is how it looks after baking in the oven. Okay it doesn’t look anywhere close to the package but the taste is great! Tasted good. Don’t waste those bones, get some good marrow in there to suck out. A bit pricey but tasty.

Have you ever had pig’s feet? I’m sure I have in the Chinese style. This is pig’s feet, Korean style. It kinda looks like how it tastes. Very gelatinous and umm that’s about it. Not a big fan. I can say I tried it though!

Bossam! I created this plate, doesn’t it look pretty? I bought one of those ready to eat packs from Palama Supermarket and added kimchee to serve up. Was delicious. Nowhere near Jong Ga but we can’t go there anymore so I have to learn how to make this myself!

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Amina Pizzeria – Waikiki, HI

Aug8

Amina Pizzeria is a hole in the wall Italian Eatery between Don Quijote and Waikiki on Kalakaua. If you’ve been to Pho Bistro 2, they share the same parking lot with Amina. I’ve seen nothing but great ratings for this place so I had to bring the boys to try them out. Kids love pasta and pizza, how could you go wrong? When we got there, there was no parking but I decided to take a spin around the neighborhood. Luckily for me, a spot opened up right when I came back! It was fate. The restaurant is super small, it’s definitely suited for take-out more so than dining in. They have 3 tables that seat 4 and one table that seats 2.

I can’t say you are coming here to get authentic Italian food. The restaurant is run by two very nice Vietnamese ladies, the food was good! It’s definitely more of a comfort food kind of place so I would definitely recommend it for that factor. I made a big mistake, I didn’t tip during this trip. I wasn’t sure how to do it at a place like. It’s a take-out place but she brought out our food and gave us water, it wasn’t exactly waiter service but it kind of was. Gosh, I feel so bad. It got really busy as we finished, I didn’t have any small bills and she had a long line so I just left. But do you folks know what the tip guidelines are for people who dine in at a take out place? Please do let me know. So far someone told me it’s 10%.

Chicken Alfredo with Spaghetti

Not bad, not great. The chicken is chicken breast but tasted like the pre-sliced/pre-cooked ones you get at Costco or something. It was edible but nothing I wouldn’t get it again.

Lasagna with Meatballs – my brother loved it! Gobbled it up.

Personal 9″ Pepperoni Pizza – a hit with the kids again! Gotta try them again!

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Fresh Ahi Off the Boat – Keeaumoku, HI

Aug6

Fresh Ahi Off the Boat is a brand new restaurant on the Keeaumoku strip. If you remember it, they replaced a shave ice shop called Cooland. I parked in the Keeaumoku main parking lot for all the shops. It’s a Japanese restaurant but it’s owned by a Korean family which is totally cool. I overheard the owner talking to customers and discussing how important the quality of fish he serves is. That was comforting to hear. This is more of a take-out joint but they do have some seating for you to eat there if you want to. I like that they have so many different rices to choose from! White, Brown, Sushi Rice and Black Rice. I love black rice so I definitely got that. Black rice is really just white/sticky rice mixed with mixed grain rice which turns all the rice purple. I love it.

Ahi Tsunami Bowl – $9.75

Hurricane Bowl – $10.25

This was my bowl, it was DELICIOUS. The bowls come with a miso soup which was nice. The soup had a nice mild flavor. The hurricane bowl comes with both salmon and ahi and a whole bunch of veggies on top of the rice of your choice. The veggies really add a refreshing crunch to the bowl. It’s like a raw fish bibimbap and as you can see there is a red pepper sauce (kochujjang) drizzled on top. I like their kochujjang sauce, it’s not too concentrated or spicy and has a bit of sweetness to it. I would definitely get this again.

B1 Bento (Spicy Ahi, 2pc., Spicy Salmon, 2pc., Ahi Nigiri, 2pc., Salmon Nigiri, 2pc.) – $11.50

Our eyes were bigger than our stomach so we had to try the sushi too. Their spicy sauce is okay, not great. I’m used to a bit more sesame oil so I felt like the spicy sauce here was a bit bland. It lacks something for sure. The nigiri was great, don’t the pieces of fish look great? They’re a bit pricey but I think you’re paying for the quality and their rent…lol. Give them a try!

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Japan 2015 Day 8 – Food!

Aug4

Remember Fushimi Inari Shrine? There are so many gift shops and food stands – it’s an attraction within itself! I cheated a bit, my coworker came here a few days before me and sent me pictures of this special taiyaki she got. I had to get it myself!

There was a young guy working this food stand and he was all alone! He had a pretty genius way of collecting the money for it and each taiyaki he made looked great! This one is mine! It’s filled with custard, topped with cream and drizzled with chocolate. You can choose your fruit topping, I went to strawberry. It was delicious! We also bought a whole bunch of furoshiki from a gift shop here.

Nishiki Market! A must visit if you come to Kyoto. It’s a great foodie spot.

The inside of Nishiki market, it’s full of tourists and locals. There’s something about the ceiling lights that I like…I remember them from my last trip so it was comforting to see them again.

Plenty of shops were selling these mini octopus, didn’t realize there were so many sizes of this little thing. They were charging for small, medium and large. I think I went for the medium, it’s cooked in a sweet shoyu sauce and the head is stuffed with a quail egg! Morbid but delicious.

The best thing I had last time that I had to get again this time. Dashimaki Tamago. It’s not like the ones in Hawaii, the ones in Hawaii are super sweet. This one tastes more like dashi stock and it is absolutely wonderful. They are so good at making this, the seasoning and how perfectly cooked the egg is…I wish I could buy a whole block of this to enjoy. I should have.

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maybeitsjenny

Hawaii based food blog with foodie travels!