20Aug / 2014

Happy Birthday to Me!

Yay! Sorry, another post about me and my birthday…lol. But I just wanted to finish up the series! Did I share that one of my brothers shares the exact same day for our birthday. That was nice! Also it’s a bit of pressure that I have to treat him well too…I want to be the one to be spoiled! Haha…j/k. Anyway, I had a pretty good birthday. I spent the morning building a Lego set I bought for my brother…those sets can get complicated! One wrong placement and you’re screwed. Check it out.

Kaboom! Nice ah? It took a while because I had to rebuilt it from scratch. These dang toys even break apart pretty easily so I got even madder. Ha!

Anyway, got together with some family and had dinner at one of my favorite restaurants, Izakaya Torae Torae. I’ve been there a few times and posted about them before, I’ll link them at the end of the post. For now, let’s take a look at this visit! It was delicious, as always. We dropped our chopsticks about 3 times – so shame ah.

Hamachi Carpaccio – $13.95
Served on a bed of slivered onions with a truffle oil infused sauce. Delicious!

King Salmon ($3.95 per piece) and Sweet Shrimp Nigiri ($5.50 per piece)

Yes, I’m going to show another picture of the salmon nigiri. Delicious! Of course with the shrimp nigiri, you can get the shrimp head deep fried. Yay!

Tan Shio (Grilled Beef Tongue) – $8.95
This is alright, not great though. I wouldn’t order it again from here – you can get it better elsewhere.

Chirashi Don

Hamburger Cheese Steak – $14.95
This is good but in the end, you are paying $14.95 for a hamburger patty with cheese. I don’t think it’s worth it.

Jidori Chicken Karaage – $6.95
I didn’t get to try this but my family seemed to enjoy it!

King Salmon Sashimi – $13.95
Pricey, I know! It was a total splurge but I was very appreciative! Very delicious. It’s a better deal to get the sashimi over the nigiri.

Dashimaki Tamago – $9.00
I took a leap and asked for this! It’s off the menu and I don’t think they make it every time. Luckily we went pretty early so the restaurant wasn’t too busy yet…so they agreed to make it! You wait a bit longer but I was excited! It’s a nicely cooked tamago which is filled with chunks of unagi and cheese. The cheese threw me off a bit. This dish was good but having it once was enough for me. I like a simpler tamago – sans cheese.

Izakaya Torae Torae Post 1
Izakaya Torae Torae Post 2

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19Aug / 2014

Birthday Eve – 2014

My birthday was this past weekend and it was wonderful. I was lucky that it fell in the weekend and got to spend some great time with friends and family and of course grind on some great food. Today, I’m going to share some pictures from my birthday eve day. Please enjoy!

Road to Makapu’u

We made it to the top! What a gorgeous view.

After our hike at the Makapu’u Lighthouse Trail, I had dinner with my friend Kristian. He was generous enough to treat me to a dinner at Le Bistro. I’ve had a few experiences there before and it was all very nice. He made a reservation a week beforehand so we were all set. How did it go? Well…it started off incredibly rocky. We got seated right away, given menus and water cups filled. We spent a few minutes reviewing the menu and were ready to order pretty quick. Then came the waiting. I watched as waiters ran back and forth to several tables around the restaurant while we were being ignored. I knew what time we had arrived and guess what? They left us waiting for 30 damn minutes before a waiter came and greeted us. And what’s worse…he didn’t mention or apologize for the wait at all. I was livid. I mean he really showed up right at the moment I considered walking out with no regrets.

Well, right after we got greeted – service was much better. It took a while for me to uncross my arms and get the bitch look off my face…it must have loosened up 3/4 into his sharing of the daily specials. So anyway, we put our orders in and the food came out reasonably quick afterwards. Here are the pictures.

Mojito for me. It wasn’t great, I wouldn’t recommend it.

Bread with butter. The bread was mini baguettes sliced thin. The bread was okay, it wasn’t crispy and it was at room temperature.

Fricasse Of Shellfish – made up of mussels and clams. Delicious! The sauce was buttery goodness – we got a refill of bread that we quickly used to soak it up. The mussels tasted great, Genki Sushi got nothing on them…lol.

Quartet of Beef

Filet Mignon and Garlic Mashed Potatoes from the Quartet of Beef
Delicious! I got my meat dishes medium rare.

Burger with Foie Gras
Totally un-PC dish but delicious nonetheless.

Ribeye from the Quartet of Beef
Delicious! It comes with a cube of cooked daikon (a bit random) and a fingerling potato (mine was completely burnt)

Short Ribs from the Quartet of Beef
This dish was alright – nothing special. The beef was cooked for a long while but not enough where it was soft and tender…a bit tough.

Surf and Turf Special

Halibut with Lobster – drool….

Miyazaki Tenderloin from Japan
The waiter said it melts in your mouth – and it does! Also melts the money in your wallet…lol. It was so good though!

Spumoni Ice Cream Cake

Complimentary Creme Brulee for the birthday girl (me!)
To get this dessert, you better have no shame cause they gonna sing to you in front of the entire restaurant. I’m Chinese so no worries, free dessert! It was good! The strawberries were sour! My face is scrunching up just thinking about it.

So the service and food after the rocky start did make the meal enjoyable to a point. The lighting got super dark afterwards so I apologize for the bad quality pictures. I have had their lamb in the past and those are my absolute favorite. I wanted to try something new this time and whlie it was pretty good, I would go back to the lamb next time!

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28Jun / 2013