14Apr / 2023

Mixed Plate Friday

For those who know, know! Gateway Cafe is located in the Gateway Student Housing for UH students but their cafeteria is open to the public! For $12.25 at lunch – you can get a pretty good buffet! They put up daily menus every week so you can take a look and see if you are interested. Here’s a sampling of a recent lunch I had. The pasta is hit or miss but on this day, it was a hit! The pink vodka sauce is chef’s kiss. I can’t forget to eat my hot dog. They also advertise their in-house baked bread but I am pretty irked that the last few times I’ve gone…no bread!!! I would pay just to eat that bread. Give me the bread!

Jajangmyeon | $12.95

Is it time for me to compare the different black bean noodle restaurants in Hawaii? This dish is from Dowon Chinese Restaurant, it was alright. To me the sauce was a bit watered down and kind of sweet. A bit odd. I guess I gotta try On Dong again to compare. Also, I don’t know if they give it for dine in but when you order take out, they don’t give you the raw onions and black bean paste as a side. Boo.

Pan Fried Dumplings | $5.00

This is a funny story. I am usually the runner for food pick-ups in Chinatown. This time, my coworker helped do the run and boy did she get a sweat. I ordered pan fried dumplings from Heaven Chinese Noodle and BBQ Cafe. This place is a super hole in the wall Chinese place at the Chinese Cultural Plaza. And when you find it, it’s hit or miss if you are able to communicate with the staff. I gave an easy enough order, pan fried dumplings for $5.00. They go and ask my coworker how many dumplings. Like what??? How many pieces. So she’s texting me asking and I’m like…whatever comes in that order? I was so confused. I think they eventually said it’s 5 pieces, okay that works great. She got super flustered because they weren’t that friendly too lol.

Anyway, the dumplings were really good and they ended up giving I think 7 dumplings so thank you. I really enjoy their food, very home cooking kine and their prices are good! If you’re curious where they are, they are right next to Royal Kitchen.

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07Apr / 2023

Mixed Plate Friday

Bobo Chicken with Red Chili and Mixed Vegetable Skewers | $24.99

Just wanted to share a new dish I tried at Chengdu Taste, not new for their menu just new for me. It was pretty good. It’s a pure spectacle to see each piece of meat or vegetable on a skewer. It comes with plenty of that “soup” but unless you like burn a hole in your tummy, I wouldn’t eat it over rice. I tried, I couldn’t hack it. Good dish though! Got a good mixture of vegetables, chicken and quail eggs.

Poke Nachos | $17.95

Aloha Cones started offering up Poke Nachos so I treated my brothers to lunch there. Gotta support local but also look at the price. LOL, I’m a broken record about price. What I will say is…they give a good portion and I am pretty sure they fry the chips fresh when you order it. They really enjoyed the dish and I guess this is the running price for poke now so I guess I would recommend!

Guava & Cream Pie ($2.19 for 1 | $3.19 for 2)

Hawaii McDonald’s has a limited time Guava & Cream Pie and it was all over social media so of course I had to try. The day I wanted to try it, all the locations close to me were sold out. I think they make a batch for the day and when they’re out, they’re out. So I went to a location and sent my brother in to buy it. I’ve had bad luck with online ordering sometimes and I didn’t want to order it online and then get there and get told no more. Well instructions were misunderstood and he picked up 4 pies instead of the 2 I wanted. Ha! Anyway, so how was it? Pretty good. Like a guava cheesecake! And I may be in the minority on this but I actually like baked pies, more so than fried pies.

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20Mar / 2023

Daiki Suisan Kaiten Zushi – Osaka, Japan

This is the second time I’ve been to Daiki Suisan Kaiten Zushi, it’s not a fancy restaurant by any means but they serve up good sushi at good prices and the service is super efficient. It’s like a dream genki sushi if you will, only tastes better and is cheaper. What do I miss in Japan though? Spicy Tuna!

Can you tell I was PMSing and craving weird foods?

LOL yup, I eat like a child. I just had a hankering for hamburg steak and Japanese does it best! Or does Hamburg do it best? Hmmm…

Sorry, I don’t have a lot of details on the pricing! I can’t access their menu and it was all done through either ordering on their ipads or grabbing right off the revolving belt which was great, that belt was fully stocked at all times. If I am ever back in Osaka, I would most definitely return. Oh yeah, it’s definitely a tourist trap but I just need to brew my own green tea, mind my business and chomp down!

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15Mar / 2023

Universal Japan – Day 2

Most popular and biggest attraction by far. I didn’t know that you had to reserve a ticket to even walk in so we got stopped as we tried. No one speaks good English so I had to play around with their mobile app until I figured out how to reserve tickets. It’s free to walk through, they just have timed visit slots. I think I tried to reserve it at like 10 AM and couldn’t get a window until 3 PM. Highly suggest you check in right when you arrive to reserve your time slot! You cannot do it ahead of time, they make sure you are on property to reserve.

It’s pretty surreal when you walk in, you really feel like you are in the video game! I didn’t even know they had a ride, not that I ride rides. I just enjoyed walking through!

Red Shell Calzone with Cheese & Ketchup Spaghetti Filling | ¥850

This tasted like it sounds. Not good. I don’t think they even serve it anymore lol. I was so full from eating earlier in the day, how do people eat so much at theme parks???

Mixed Berry Christmas Highball | ¥650
Non-Alcoholic Christmas Fruit Cocktail | ¥550

Special drinks for the holidays! I had the non-alcoholic drink. It was gooood!

I forget what this drink was called but I thought it looked cool, it was also not mine lol. I think it was enjoyed!!!

Pretty Christmas tree/show to end the night!

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10Mar / 2023

Mixed Plate Friday

You folks ever make a soup that called for pasta? I’m sure you have. I don’t like my pasta to get too gummy so I actually cook up the pasta al dente separately…then when I finish the soup, I put it into my container to cool it down. I then dump my pasta on top (in this case, a chickpea pasta) and store it like this. As I scoop out servings to eat, I mix it with the pasta to heat up. It works perfectly and the pasta maintains it’s texture!

Just a quick pic of a lazy Sunday breakfast. Toasted everything bagels, cream cheese, smoked salmon, capers and homemade jalapenos and red onions. Delicious!

Tots Flight | $16.95
From top, left to right: spicy cheese & bacon tots, bbq chicken tots, and parmesan truffle tots.

Spicy Cheese & Bacon Tots: crispy tots, Paul’s signature Wahl Sauce, pickled red onion, bacon, spicy cheese sauce, Parmesan cheese
BBQ Chicken Tots: crispy tots drizzled with BBQ sauce, topped with BBQ chicken & roasted corn, jalapeno & red onion salsa
Parmesan Truffle Tots: crispy tots tossed with Parmesan cheese, truffle oil and chopped parsley, served with Chef Paul’s truffle aioli

Have you folks Wahlburgers at Ala Moana yet? We’ve gotten take out twice from here and I hate to admit it but they make some pretty dang good burgers and fries. Here is a small preview of their tots flight. I love tater tots. LOL, I think the spicy cheese and truffle ones were good, I would pass on the BBQ chicken ones!

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08Mar / 2023

Tangö Contemporary Café – Honolulu, HI

Another post about Tangö Contemporary Café, what can I say? I’m a fan! We don’t come here nearly as much as we used to but I think we come at least twice a year? Food and service is consistently good and it gives me a good excuse to check out Nordstrom Rack and TJ Maxx while I’m here. Small changes were made here and there, unfortunately, not for the better. I will explain more.

Torani Italian Soda (Passion Fruit) | $5.00

I don’t really drink much alcohol (let Suntory be an example of why I don’t drink much) so I gave this a try. I’m not usually a fan of cream based drinks so I asked for the cream on the side which they happily complied with. I added the cream in and actually enjoyed it quite a bit! Creamy but also refreshing because of the passion fruit. Yum!

Salmon Board | $21.00
gravlax, smoked salmon, smoked salmon rilette, labneh, rye bread

OMG, I hate to do a comparison but I had this in 2019 and it costs $13.00 back then. Crazy! The board is still good as before although I could not tell you the difference between all the different salmons on the board. We just ate em.

Complimentary Bread

We got served the salmon board and I was wondering if they would bring out the bread. I love their bread so much. Or do I just love pesto so much? Does it matter? It’s soooo good. If they didn’t bring the bread out automatically, I would have asked for sure. And yes, I have asked for seconds before. Living that best life.

Washugyu Steak | $40.00
grilled washugyu flap steak, caramelized onion umami butter, herb roasted potatoes

Wow I need to stop looking at my old blog posts. They used to have a grilled new york steak with kauai shrimp which was my friend’s go to dish. We were disappointed when we noticed it was gone from the menu and this was the closest dish. It was just a meh dish, nothing special. Oh and the steak and shrimp plate before was $29!!! Inflation times are wild…

Beef Stroganoff | $30.00
mustard sour cream demi-glace, house-made fettuccine

I felt like a homey cozy dish and this is what i got. Definitely hit the spot for that but I couldn’t help but think that I could make this for way less. Sorry sorry…this post is getting clouded by prices! It was good. But there are other dishes on the menu that offer more “bang” for your buck.

Kona Coffee Ice Cream Cake | $8.00
kona coffee, vanilla and italian chocolate ice cream, chiffon cake

Okay okay, I hate to compare one last time. But their portion for this dish got WAY smaller and now costs $1.00 more. Here’s a picture of the old version. Kind of a bummer yeah?

Chocolate Brownie | $8.00
served with vanilla bean ice cream

This was my dessert. I felt like something warmed up so this hit the spot. Was good! One of the few times I will eat vanilla ice cream (when it’s served with chocolate on the side).

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06Mar / 2023

Monarch Seafoods – Kalihi, HI

After Jalna did her mega post on Monarch Seafoods, you know I had to go right? ABSOLUTELY HAD TO. And even with the clusterbutt of a mess Dillingham is in now…? I still went. I initially forgot where they were so I had to circle the block like 2 times through the crazy road work. Finally spotted them and double parked in their side garage. We were running in and out anyway!

Garlic Roast Pork with Gravy | $13.95

Out of all the dishes she shared, the roast pork with gravy was the one that made my mouth water the most. Oh my. So ono. Had a few dry slices in there but it’s okay, get the gravy to make em wet (LOL) but mostly tender slices. Their salad dressing is amazing. So good. I just relooked at their menu and see that they sell a 24 oz. bottle for $12.50 – I may have to partake in that next time I go!

Garlic Butter Sauteed Tiger Shrimp with Zucchini + Mushrooms over Linguine | $14.95

Was this good? Sure. Would I get it again? Probably not. It’s a pretty simple dish that you can make on your own I think. It’s served with a cream sauce, give it a try if you are into this kine pasta!

Nori Wrapped Crabmeat Stuffed Ahi | $14.50

Here is the dish they are known for! Is it good? Ehhh…I think it’s okay. I don’t think it’s anything to write home (or blog about) – it’s a bit dry to me. Not a lot of flavor so to me, it was just alright. My brother kept dipping it into the salad dressing haha. I don’t know why I was expecting a bigger taste explosion so I was a bit let down. But I would still return to

Menu as of February 2023 (Click to Enlarge)

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17Feb / 2023

Mixed Plate Friday

Ichiran Ramen Home Kit (5 servings) | ¥2000

You’ve seen this kit sold at Don Quijote. Too rich for my blood, they charge around $30 yeah? I bought a pack home for family members to try and eat. I don’t think I would buy it for myself – I rather have an excuse to go Japan to eat it fresh there!

I made my own soy marinated eggs, the char siu is from Marukai. They have a high quality pack of sliced char siu in their meat section. Was worth it! Family enjoyed the ramen.

Jenny style Cobb Salad

Just made any kine cobb salad at home. Chopped up some romaine, fried up some bacon, baked up some chicken patties, red onions, cucumbers and hand-shredded cheese (again). Served it up with some ranch, I had some leftover ranch from Wingstop (omg the best ranch) and it was divine! Kids love this salad because hello, bacon and chicken patty!

Instant Yakisoba with Soy Marinated Eggs

Bad cheat meal. I did this at least twice in Japan, I love that instant yakisoba cup noodle…and who can resist these eggs from the combini? I took full advantage! You know, I could probably eat the majority of my meals at the combini and be fine with that. I’m not picky. I miss this meal.

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13Feb / 2023

Bikkuri Donkey – Osaka, Japan

My stay in Osaka wasn’t long. I ate here twice for a short trip. Why? Well, Bikkuri Donkey was convenient to get to, easy to order at and the food was just good ‘ole comfort food. Sometimes, that’s all I need you know? They are known for their hamburger steaks which I enjoyed!

Hamburger Steak Topped with Egg and Curry Sauce (300g) | ¥1,330
served with rice & salad

My dish, so nice and comforting. It comes with a spicy curry, didn’t taste spicy to me. I liked this dish so much that I ordered it twice in a row. And yup, if I went back to Osaka – I would come back to this restaurant again!

Hamburger Steak Topped with Egg (300g) | ¥1,330
served with rice & salad

French Fries | ¥440

Thick cut fries are good, what can I say??

Spaghetti with Meat Sauce | ¥765

They have this dish in the snack section of their menu, lol? My friend ordered this dish, I can’t comment much on it. I think it was just basic.

コロコロステーキ | ¥1,400

Can you tell the steak not good already? Looks overcooked to me. I wouldn’t order this myself, my friend ate it but I don’t think he liked it much.

Chicken Karaage with Fries | ¥600

I know, fries again. Leave us alone!

Bacon and Whole Potato Mini Salad | ¥250

I got this as a side because it looked good and sounded good. We had too much food. I couldn’t eat this and it wasn’t that good. Because the potatoes are whole…there isn’t enough seasoning. I wouldn’t recommend.

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03Feb / 2023

Mixed Plate Friday

Mai Musubi Set A Bento | $12.00
salmon musubi/konbu musubi

I am really digging Mai Musubi being in Manoa now. Makes it so easy to grab and go food in the morning! I’ve noticed they get some bentos out earlier in the morning now! I think I got this bento at like 6:30 AM? Yay! Score! Love their musubis, not a huge fan of the chicken karaage, was kind of hard and of course cold (no can help the cold). All in all, great value for the quality.

Chicken & Mushrooms | $16.00
boneless fried chicken, cremini mushroom sauce, white rice, potato mac salad

LOL chicken and mushrooms. Okay, I just call this mushroom chicken because I love mushroom chicken. I was waiting forevers for Hamada General Store to have this as a special and be able to actually get down there to get it!! We called right when they opened to place our order. Good thing, they sold out FAST. It was a good dish! They fry the chicken very well. This has actually made me want to make it myself. Although I don’t need fried chicken, maybe I can do an oven baked chicken. Yum Yum Yum.

Kimchee Fried Rice | $14.99

Okay, let’s see who is an old fut like me. Do you folks remember when Taiyo Ramen used to be on the other side of Ala Moana? Before the current Target building (or former Nordstrom), it was a small building that contained Taiyo Ramen. I remember this so clearly! Man, they have been around forever and I used to always go and eat their kimchee fried rice. They are still alive and kicking in their current location. They will close when they close down that plot of land. I’m assuming it’s another development. As if we need more developments in Ala Moana. I am still sad when I think of all the great places on Keeaumoku that closed. Blah!

Anyway, I decided to grab my last kimchee fried rice before they close. No set date yet so if you have a craving, go go go! I say last because I did not feel good after eating this. Maybe I overdid it? I don’t know, but I felt quesy after and didn’t even eat dinner that night cause of it. I will say, in the past when I’ve gotten their food…felt super heavy with MSG seasoning. I think had the strongest reaction to MSG with this restaurant. Anyway, I think it’s just me so no use me as the guide. Also, if you want extra kimchee, just ask!

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maybeitsjenny

Tag Archives: American Food

Mixed Plate Friday

Mixed Plate Friday

Daiki Suisan Kaiten Zushi – Osaka, Japan

Universal Japan – Day 2

Mixed Plate Friday

Tangö Contemporary Café – Honolulu, HI

Monarch Seafoods – Kalihi, HI

Mixed Plate Friday

Bikkuri Donkey – Osaka, Japan

Mixed Plate Friday