23Aug / 2024

Mixed Plate Friday

Costco Take-home Combo Pizza | $16.99

Would this be a flat bread pizza? Maybe? It’s a rectangular shape and I never saw it before so I got it to try! Sorry I forgot to take a picture of the pizza when I baked it. The brothers ate it up so it was good. I enjoyed it. I miss their combo pizza from the food court but this will have to do.

H Mart Freshwater Prawns (frozen) | $29.99

I love prawns. And I mean the super big prawns like you see above. It’s hard to find fresh. I used to drive out to Romy’s in the North Shore just to eat their prawns (which they were almost always sold out of). Now that they moved off their shrimp farm, no sense in driving out there. I was super excited that H Mart sells it in their freezer section! Too bad no more eggs on these prawns but shoot, I’ll take it. How do I describe these prawns? Sweet and luscious meat with the big head full of miso. So good. I think if you asked me what my final meal would be, it would include big prawns. $30 seems pricey but you get quite a bit so I think it’s very much worth the cost.

I made some butter with garlic and onions as a sauce and of course gotta have the lemon wedges on the side. This was a heavenly meal.

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21Aug / 2024

Lucky Box – Honolulu, HI

Mini Chicken Katsu | $9.50

Upon the urging from foodie friend, I had to return to Lucky Box to get the chicken katsu! Foodie friend is correct, the chicken katsu was super good and the sauce was good too. They give a lot and it tastes good! The mac salad is good too, thank god. Delicious!

Cold Ginger Chicken | $9.89

I guess my craving is still there because I ordered it again. All rice of course. I wanted to see what chicken pieces they would give me this time and it was thigh pieces again! Winner winner chicken dinner, literally. This time I ordered an extra sauce…

Side Ginger Sauce | $1.25

N, can you believe it!! They charge $1.25 for one more sauce! Sheesh! Did I use them both up? Yes. It went super well with the rice and chicken but dang…$1.25! Would still get it again lol.

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19Aug / 2024

Gyotaku – Niu Valley, HI

A fair warning, Chan already wondered outloud how this post will go down. It wasn’t a great experience but as you know, I will be honest! We came to Gyotaku on a Sunday afternoon for lunch, it was almost 1 and they obviously had a few big tables. We got seated in a booth, all the booths have high walls so you can’t really customers in the booths you know? Well, we weren’t greeted at all. For a long time. Long enough for us to consider a walk-out. Then a waitress came by as she was putting out food for another table and apologized and told us she would be right with us. Okay, that’s fine. Only, she wasn’t. After another long while, another person, I assume the supervisor came by and asked us how we were doing. Well…I don’t know how you want us to answer that when we had no waters and no one has helped us in like 20 minutes. So I was a bit short and said, we haven’t even been helped yet (because I’m not sure why she was asking us how we were doing when we had nothing at the table). She apologized and offered to take our orders.

Okay, I’ll have to explain more about this experience through the post.

Miso Soup and Salad

Their salad remains consistently good. Their wafu dressing is the best and just works so well with the salad. This is something that has remained the same and should never change!

Ahi Poke Don & Tenpura | $32.45

Sigh. When I used to frequent Gyotaku, my absolute favorite dish was their Assorted Poke Don (it used to be called the Mixed Poke Don) and I was massively depressed when they stopped carrying it after Covid. Well, imagine my surprise when I got to the restaurant and saw it back on the menu. I was sooo happy. Chan and I both ordered it. So what is it that you are looking at up there? Yeah, it’s plain ahi poke don. Both of us got just plain ahi poke so I flagged down the waitress and asked her if we got just plain ahi poke dons. She apologized and offered to take them back. Well, I certainly don’t want two big bowls of ahi poke dons get wasted. Maybe if I was the only one that ordered it and it was wrong, I might have said okay. I just told her, it’s fine, just charge us for the right item and ate it.

Karaage Chicken | $9.25

This one almost got me over edge. We ordered Karaage Chicken with Fries as an appetizer and this was what was dropped at our table. Yup, no fries. I was about to flag the waitress down again and just ask to be charged only for the chicken when someone else came by and dropped a big plate of fries…

Whew, that saved me from anger. The supervisor actually came by afterwards and apologized for the mix-up with the food and that they recently revised their menu so the kitchen might be a bit confused. She mentioned that she is only charging us for the karaage chicken and gave us a bigger serving of fries. She also gave us free drinks and even offered up dessert which we declined. Why oh why was I so full?? My Chinese soul is taking a beating for not taking up something free.

So all in all, not a great service experience but in the end, the supervisor did her best on service recovery and it was fine. I appreciated the effort. I am still missing the assorted poke don so I think I’ll have to pay them a visit again, sooner rather than later.

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16Aug / 2024

Mixed Plate Friday

Sushi Robot Breakfast Bento | $4.77

When Sushi Robot first closed down, I was sad! They were a great place to swing by to grab food after my early morning Don Q run for work. Well, they reopened in the mini food court on the side and I was elated! They are open early and serve up super cheap foods.

Richie’s Drive Inn Mini Mushroom Chicken | $10.14

Oh man, to watch Richie’s go down like this is sad. I know they changed ownership recently but I still wanted to give them a chance. My laziness loves that they have a drive thru option even though it’s a hot mess system lol. I decided to give their mushroom chicken a try this day. It’s basically their chicken katsu smothered with mushroom gravy. Was salty and not good. And their mac salad? OH THE BIGGEST HEARTBREAK. They used to have one of the best mac salads around, now they add big chunks of potato and olives? It’s so odd. Did not taste good. Their chili dog plate still seems to be good so I will probably just get my bro that from here on out since that’s his favorite.

Somen Cone Sushi

What is the official name for this dish? I made this for a get-together last week. Was a hit! Family loved it, office loved and the friends loved it! I’ve seen variation of this dish but I made it a little different. It has taegu, ocean salad, imitation crab, cucumbers, tropics dressing, etc. And you can’t forget the fresh sprig of cilatnro on top. What a pain to make, it’s easy to cook up but stuffing over 40 of these? It took like over an hour, my back hurt. Anyways, delicious!

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14Aug / 2024

Hangang – Ala Moana, HI

When Hangang first opened, they were touted as a high end Korean BBQ place. The reviews were all over the place, a lot of people complained of the price and service so I laid low. I had the pleasure of trying Hangang for dinner one night with friends and it was delicious! Then I saw Kat and V’s lunch visit and that made me want to return! My coworker loves kalbi and naengmyun so this was the perfect reason to go.

Complimentary Banchan

I only talk about my love of banchan all the dang time and it doesn’t end here. Hangang is giving Frog House a run for their money on the banchan. I loved every dish!!

Cold Noodle Combo with Kalbi | $ 26.95
1 arrowroot cold noodle with short ribs BBQ

LOOK AT THIS. I am salivating look at it. My friend and I actually ordered this combo and a noodle ala carte ($15.95) because we are dainty ladies who shared the kalbi. LOL…nah nah not dainty but it was like the perfect amount of food. And sounds pricey but given the price of kalbi alone nowadays, I think this was a great deal!

They offered to cut it and we accepted. Good thing I got my noodle shot beforehand! Never seen tomato slices in naengmyun before but what was interesting was that the tomato slices are pickled. Very interesting (in a good way). No gray ring of death on the egg yolk. They serve up hot mustard and vinegar on the side which I have never used. Great meal! Would definitely return to try their other lunch specials!

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12Aug / 2024

Liliha Bakery – Honolulu, HI

Today’s post is brought to you by the OG Liliha Bakery. For some odd reason, I don’t feel right about going to any other location. Love the old school feel of the original location, a bit sad they aren’t 24 hours anymore but it allows them to be open 7 days a week which is a win. I brought the youngest to Liliha Bakery for a quick breakfast for his first day of high school. What a whirlwind, all three bros are almost adults. It’s a bit sad for me but I’ll make do. Anyway, he said okay to breakfast as we were driving there and when we got there, he said he has a stomachache and didn’t want to eat. No worries, I didn’t blow my top. I packed it up and said you better eat it later or die (lol).

French Toast | $10.95
homemade sweet bread

The untouched french toast. He did end up eating it later so he is still alive, no worries. I don’t know how he liked it but since he ate it all, I assume it was fine.

Famous Butter Roll

Mm…buttered butter roll nicely toasted and served up with their neon jelly. It wasn’t doing it for me that morning, I guess the bread was a bit…drier than I liked. Would have liked more jelly too, look at that small amount.

Two Eggs with Corned Beef Hash | $12.95
choice of ham, bacon, pork sausage, portuguese sausage, hamburger patty, spam, vienna sausage or corned beef hash

I haven’t dined here in a while so I was a bit surprised by the tossed green salad on my breakfast plate. LOL, it was good, they serve it up with a good ranch dressing. Great corned beef hash, love the homemade patty. Great breakfast!

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09Aug / 2024

Mixed Plate Friday

Fort Street Cafe Pad Thai with Garlic Chicken | $12.45

We did a lunch order in Downtown recently, this wasn’t my dish but man oh man I got to eat a piece of the garlic chicken. They still do it so well. I think the pad thai is a bit sweeter than most, maybe I would just go for the garlic chicken.

Wowsers. I was at Windward Mall and decided to try a beef corndog. This was pricey, I think it came out to about 12 bucks for the hot dog and drink combined but boy oh boy was it good. A freshly fried corndog, I haven’t had that in eons. It was so good. Worth it!

Fukuya Nori Chicken and Cone Sushi

No prices on this because I got to eat it for free! I haven’t had Fukuya in a long time, nori chicken is good as always and the cone sushi is bumboocha! Nori chicken is so good, always worth it to buy outside because prepping and frying this on your own is a major pain.

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07Aug / 2024

Lucky Box Restaurant – Kalihi, HI

Lucky Box Restaurant opened a few months ago in the Waiakamilo Shopping Center. It’s like a local BBQ joint run by Chinese (aren’t they all?). I had a serious hankering for cold ginger chicken this day and Liliha Drive Inn didn’t have it (FOILED) so I went to Lucky Box! Short post ahead.

Pork Chop with Gravy (mini) | $9.99

Ho brah, super salty. If you need one salt lick, get this dish. And the pork chop itself was kind of dry. I wouldn’t get this again.

Cold Ginger Chicken (mini) | $9.89

I didn’t get a picture of the ginger sauce for this. It comes in one of those small dressing containers, looks small but works fine for the dish. If they had given me more, I would have just slathered everything in it. I really enjoyed this dish, it hit the spot and I super appreciated all the dark meat pieces! Yum!

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05Aug / 2024

Frog House – Honolulu, HI

I’ve written about Frog House so many times already. It’s always going to be winnas food. You can search for frog house in my old posts but it’s always the same. Oh by the way, I am blogging ahead of time because guess what? I struck gold. I got covid. Oh yes. I don’t know how or who I got it from, I woke up on Sunday with post nasal drip symptoms which is something I get here and there. I felt a bit better Monday morning and got ready to go to work, got to work and on a whim decided to take the covid test. Kapow, positive. Came straight home and decided to test again on another test brand, kapow, positive. So yeah, I’m going a bit stir crazy at home. I am very thankful it has been mild thus far, I haven’t had a fever at all. Dry cough and runny nose. I heard it’s going around again so I hope you folks all stay safe. Let’s hope I get some good antibodies out of this round.

Kimchi Pancake

Complimentary Banchan

The best.

Soft Tofu Stew

Can you just feel the steam and bubbles from this picture? Yum, what a great stew.

Stirfried Octopus with Pork Belly

Chan introduced this dish to me and it has been my favorite ever since. I even got my friend hooked on it. Oh man, if you give me some rice and this dish, I would ch-row down. So good!

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02Aug / 2024

Mixed Plate Friday

Knife Cut Noodles

I’ve talked about this a lot already. Knife cut noodles, and this is how I like to eat it. The easy, delicious and lazy way. I cook up the noodles and drain it. I heat up a little bit of oil and add chopped green onions to “pop” it. A real quick fry and then add the noodles back into the pan and add oyster sauce and sriracha, I sometimes add a bit of sweet soy sauce too and that’s it. Toss and serve. It’s like a quick and easy version of indomie (well the flavors of it).

Underwood Ranch Sriracha

Speaking of sriracha, Longs had Underwood Ranch sriracha on sale so I had to try it. You know all the drama with Underwood Ranch right? They used to supply peppers to Huy Fong Foods sriracha but they had a dispute so they no longer supply the peppers for Huy Fong and started making their own to sell. I tried it so you don’t have to. It’s not as good as the original, it’s very vinegary. Too vinegary. No thanks.

Chun Wah Kam Plate | $14.00
one or two choice starch & two choice entrees

Chun Wah Kam still offers up a whopper of a deal for a huge portion. My starches are the ginger chicken fried rice and the Hong Kong Chow Mein (vegetarian). I got the chicken mushroom zucchini stirfry and orange chicken. I would have gotten their veggie stirfry but they didn’t have it today. I am a fan of chicken mushroom zucchini but not of this one. It was a bit salty and the chicken was dry and hard, they either use chicken breast or cooked the heck out of the thigh meat. Sorry to say, Panda’s does that dish better. Their orange chicken is good though and I love their starches!

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