Tag Archive | Chinese Food

Mixed Plate Friday

Mar31

Just a super cute gift I got from my coworker for Girl’s Day! Isn’t this so cute and thoughtful??

Bi Bim Kook Soo | $14.49

I got this from Yummy Korean BBQ – the Moanalua Shopping Center location. To me it was pretty good! Everything was seasoned perfect so I enjoyed this a lot! One of the better take-out bibimkooksoo dishes I’ve had in a while!

Air-fried Roast Pork

Did you know you could make chinese style roast pork in an air fryer? I didn’t. Okay, well I’ve never made chinese roast pork ever in my life but take a look at this! Look at the skin and how crispy it is! I don’t have a recipe lol but it was delicious!

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Yung Yee Kee Dim Sum – Ala Moana, HI

Feb27

If you can’t make it out to Chinatown, I found you a good alternative in the Ala Moana area. Forget going to Jade Seafood, check out Yung Yee Kee! We came right at opening time on a Sunday and there was absolutely no wait. We ate yummy dim sum to full satisfaction and was off on our merry way. I thought the flavors were good and comparable to Chinatown so do it!!!

Chicken Feet with Black Bean | $6.50

I know, I know. Not many of you like chicken feet, I get it. I grew up eating this which is why I am able to eat it. Juicy and flavorful, I would recommend this dish if you like chicken feet!

Pork Hash with Shrimp (Siu Mai) | $6.50

Yum, a classic and always a favorite of mine. Nothing memorable but nothing bad which is good. I would get it again because I just like siu mai.

Seafood Bundle | $7.50

One of my favorite dim sum dishes, it usually includes a piece of fish, shrimp, scallop and a whole shiitake mushroom wrapped in tofu skin (yuba).

Signature Steamed Beef Tripe | $7.50

Another dish not everyone can eat. This was nicely seasoned but had a strong white pepper taste. Good but no wow factor.

Shrimp & Chives Dumplings | $7.50

I like to get this in dim sum restaurants but I like when they pan fry it and steam too. This one is more dry on the outside, tasted good but I guess I like it more like potsticker style.

Mochi Puffs w/Pork | $6.50

Deep Fried Shrimp Dumplings | $6.00

Taro Puffs | $6.50

Good! Nice amount of filling! Tastes great.

Stir-Fried Sticky Rice | $8.50

Meh. I can make this way better. I will make this way better. 🙂

Look Funn w/Beef | $7.50

Basic, simple, good.

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Mixed Plate Friday

Feb24

Crab Curry | $24.95
French Bread | $3.00

Bac Nam has great crab curry. That is clear. The restaurant is very popular. That is clear. The crab curry is freaking $25 and comes with no rice or bread…so we had to pay $3.00 for one french bread. No ma’am. But was it good? Oh yes. The nicely toasted crunchy bread with the crab curry was delightful. We had leftover curry so I went to Bale the next day and paid $4.00 for 3 FRENCH BREADS which we toasted up to eat with the leftovers. So good. Next time just sneak in your own french bread like you from France (lol).

Fried Saimin Bento | $11.39
fried saimin, 2 pieces garlic chicken, egg omelet, 3 pieces portuguese sausage & rice with furikake

Mitsu-Ken Okazu and Catering reminds me of childhood days. Remember their old location? How popular they were even with zero parking? Well their current location get choke parking so no worry but for me, they are located completely out of the way. Also, they pack a lot of MSG into their food. Tastes ono but if you’re not good with MSG, avoid!

Roast Duck & Chicken Rice Plate | $13.50

Remember Mini Garden Express in Ranch 99? They re-opened by the Airport and they have online ordering for pick-up! Here is the website for the online ordering site. They are still located Salt Lake side so I can go grab food when I go out to Target. This is one of my favorite dishes, love it! It’s actually served over a simple fried rice, I love roast duck and chinese style shoyu chicken so it’s a winner. Give them a try if you’re in the area! I highly recommend ordering ahead, we had to wait quite a while.

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Din Tai Fung – Ginza, Japan

Dec21

Another country, another Din Tai Fung. I can’t help myself and my friend had never tried them before so we just had to right? I think I am slowly getting over my Din Tai Fung obsession, it wasn’t a great experience.

Spicy Pickled Cucumbers | ¥550

Good, not great? Not as pickled as I would have liked.

Pork Chop with Fried Rice | ¥1600

My favorite dish of the meal. I really liked their fried rice, had a good taste of MSG. Hahaha MSG gets a bad rep, I like when I can taste it in fried rice.

Steamed Shrimp and Pork Shiaomai (4 pc) | ¥800

Ehhh, if I compare it to the siumai from home. Thumbs down.

Pork XiaoLongBao (4 pc) | ¥660

My friend says he was disappointed because they weren’t as big or soupy as he expected. I don’t blame him for the disappointment. It was just alright. I think the better deal they had going was their lunch specials. For a pretty good price, you could get a noodle dish and side XLB. We weren’t that hungry since we had breakfast that morning so we only ordered this much. I would come back to order their meal set!

Here’s the restaurant being fancy just to be fancy. I should have put my jacket on the same chair as my purse, because they used two big cloth napkins to cover my purse and my jacket. I guess they are trying to protect it from any potential spills? I don’t know. A little extra in my mind, lol.

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Mixed Plate Friday

Dec2

Yo Mama’s Sampler Pack | $13.00
Chocolate, Pumpkin and Ube Mochi

We finally had a craft fair this year! Yay! And Yo Mama’s was a first time vendor I was super excited for. I was able to grab a sampler pack before they sold out. This was very good! Surprisingly I liked the ube one the most, to me it just tastes like butter mochi and I love butter mochi. I thought all three were good!

Mini Musubi Bento | $8.00

I went at 6AM to Mai Musubi and scored! They had some bentos ready so I was able to grab this up! I think it was a pretty good deal! I really enjoyed their tofu croquette, can tell it was homemade. It was nice and savory with umami. Yum!

Boba Milk Tea | $5.75

Original Egg Waffle | $7.50
Add Boba Topping | 50¢

Meet Fresh is a new dessert joint in Ala Moana, it’s on the street level located by Spectrum. We had a long day at the mall and had to wait for something at T-Mobile so we came down here to help with the wait time. I got the egg waffle and added boba topping because I’ve had this weird craving for egg waffles lately. I don’t know why. It was very good! Kind of pricey though.

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Mixed Plate Friday

Nov18

Did you folks have a nice Halloween? Okay, it’s been like 2 weeks already but I didn’t get to post this. First time making those mummy hot dogs for the office. I didn’t have yellow mustard so ketchup eyes it is. Make em zombie mummies (sure why not). I didn’t know the recipe calls for a half slice of american cheese too. I thought it was odd. I don’t think you need the cheese. I also made a pan of fudgy brownies that morning, called them graveyard soil or something. Morbid. But it was a nice day because we had a bunch of little kiddos come by the office, they are always so cute. I really missed that during the pandemic.

Char Siu Look Funn | $3 per roll

Used to get a few look funn places in Chinatown but it seems like Chi Kong Look Funn Factory is the last man standing? They only make this so you know it’s gotta be good and yes, it is good. I think this picture shows two rolls. I cut it up myself and make my own dipping sauce. My dipping sauce includes sesame oil, hot sauce, sweet soy sauce and regular soy sauce. I’m extra in all aspect of my life.

Healthy Vegetable Bento | $13.98
combination of our daily homemade sozai with mixed grain rice

I love Kokoro Tei and don’t eat there nearly as much as I want to. Well, I guess it’s a good thing. I bring home lunch to work daily so it’s good I not out there spending too much money. I really enjoy their sozai so I don’t care what comes in it. Just load it up! This one had the following:

From top, clockwise:
Hijiki: Seaweed salad with carrots
Shiraae: Mashed tofu with spring vegetables
Nasu: Simmered eggplant with grated ginger
Kinpira Renkon: Braised lotus root with carrots and sesame
Okura: Sesame seasoned okra
Kabocha: Simmered winter squash

I loved all of it, even the nasu. And if you know me, you know I don’t like eggplant but they make it so good. Give it a try!

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Honolulu Hotpot Hale – Ala Moana, HI

Nov16

Ever since Little Sheep closed down (and closed down a part of my heart and stomach with them), I’ve been lacking some good hot pot. You couldn’t beat Little Sheep, they had great broths, good meats and it was ALL YOU CAN EAT. Well I had the delight of being treated for dinner at Honolulu Hotpot Hale and oh boy, it is not all you can eat and it is not cheap. So thank you to my cousin for treating me (lol) though I think she wanted to eat it as much if not more than me. I forgot to take full pictures because when I start eating, I just forget. I realized I didn’t even take pictures of their broth but, eh…that’s just soup. No worries. By the way, they are located in the Pacific Guardian Tower on Kapiolani. Parking is on your own.

White Rice | $2.99 / scoop

What you see is what you get. I will say, it’s a pretty big bowl of rice. If you have a rice lover, this will not be enough for them.

Handmade Noodles | $5.99

The noodles were alright, to me, nothing special. They do advise that only cook the noodles when the broth is boiling high. If not, the soup will get all “tick” and such. Good advice.

V1 | $12.99
enoki mushroom, king oyster mushroom, black fungu, brown shimeji

I love mushrooms so it was good. Small kine pricey yeah? But I guess everything is pricey nowadays.

V3 | $12.99
dried beancurd strips, dried tofu ties, fried tofu

I was super looking forward to this one because I love tofu. The dried tofu ties aren’t great. The texture is interesting, not soft but not hard? I don’t know how to explain it. The fried tofu doesn’t get soft and soak up the broth as much as I would have liked with tofu puffs.

S1 | $19.99
kauai shrimp, fish fillet, abalone, squid

It was good. $20 good? I don’t know. You don’t really get to choose what comes in these sets so while I could do without the abalone, I had to get it to get my shrimp and fish. The abalone was good though! It was funny that this dish came out last, I had to ask because it seemed like it was forgotten. He was very nice and said they were still preparing it. I mean, it comes to us raw but okay, I digress.

New Zealand Farmed Lamb (pictured) | $21.99 (half yard)
Prime Beef Short Rib | $25.99 (half yard)

Sorry, I forgot to take a picture of the short rib meat. If you go up and look at the noodles picture, you can see both half yards of meat on the table. I’m not a big critic of meat, especially when it’s sliced this thin and thrown into the broth and then dipped in sauce. I actually preferred the lamb meat myself. I usually enjoy the slight gaminess of meat, but their lamb was not at all gamey!

Each person orders their own broth and you get your own gas burner. Each soup is $7.99 and comes with the choice of one dipping sauce.

Soups: Hale Spicy Soup, Authentic Tomato Soup, Hale Medium Spicy Soup, Chinese Sauekrat Soup, Original Beef Soup

Dipping Sauces: Sweet Sesame, Lime Vinegar, Mild Sesame Sauce or Honolulu Skewer House Seasonings (powder)

For the sauce, I don’t know if there is a charge if you want to try different sauces. I was able to get a refill of my chosen sauce free of charge so I guess you could ask? All in all, it was a good hot pot and was delicious. Do I think it was worth the price? Yes and no. I still long for Little Sheep to make a triumphant return but also know that if I tried to make my own hot pot at home, it would probably cost way more. I’ll let you folks judge for yourselves.

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Recipe: Braised Tofu

Nov7

Yes, another tiktok recipe. But I am loving these recipe videos that invoke cooking from my roots. I’ve always loved braised tofu dishes in Chinese restaurants. To be honest, my family didn’t cook much of it at home. Not sure why, it’s a pretty healthy dish. It can be vegan if you use vegan oyster sauce and veggie stock cubes. Well, I made the dish as authentic as can be which includes deep frying soft tofu cubes. Oh boy. I can see why my family didn’t make this ever. But was it worth the effort? I believe so.

During and after frying. Yeah, some tofu got more tanned than others. You got a problem with that? lol

Rehyrated Shiitake Mushrooms

Original recipe I followed only had bamboo shoots, I couldn’t resist throwing in young corn!

Braised Tofu Recipe

Ingredients
2 boxes of soft tofu
2 cans sliced bamboo shoots (I used Family Brand, 8 oz. cans)
2 cans young carrots (I used Family brand, 8 oz. cans)
30 dried shiitake mushrooms, rehydrated in 6-8 C warm water for at least one hour (reserve soaking liquid)
4 C shiitake soaking liquid, avoid scooping up any settlement from soaking
4 stalks green onions, thinly sliced
6 cloves garlic, minced
2 T doubanjjang
Neutral oil for frying

Sauce:
2 T oyster sauce
1 T soy sauce
2 chicken bouillon cubes
2 tsp dark soy sauce
1 t sugar
2 pinches of salt
4 T cornstarch slurry (4 T of water to 2 T of cornstarch)

Instructions

  1. Drain tofu, wrap in paper towel and press out excess water (place a plate on top and weigh it down to get out more water)
  2. Cube tofu and heat up at least 1-1.5 cups of oil in a frying pan (depends how big your pan is, the oil level should be about half the height of the tofu
  3. Heat up oil and add tofu cubes and fry, flip to brown both ends. Remove from oil when the tofu is golden brown
  4. Heat up pan with about 2 T oil, add garlic and doubanjjang to saute for about 30 seconds
  5. Add bamboo shoots, saute for 10-15 seconds
  6. Add young corn, saute for 10-15 seconds
  7. Add shiitake mushrooms, tofu, and the sauce, mix well
  8. Add 4 C shiitake soaking liquid and cover to simmer for about 10 minutes on medium-high heat
  9. Add cornstarch slurry and heat up until sauce is thick
  10. Option, blanch bok choy and line bottom of your serving dish with bok choy before adding braised tofu on top

Notes:

  • Yes, this a lot. You can definitely half this recipe – I always cook for a crowd
  • I like spice so this is the amount of doubanjjang I add – if you can’t handle the spice, cut the amount I add by half
  • Next time, I would add one more block of tofu (I think could even take two more blocks of tofu)

Blanced bok choy ready to be smothered!

This is gonna be like my meals for the week but I couldn’t resist taking a few bites. It was delicious!!!!

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Mixed Plate Friday

Oct28

If you follow Jalna’s blog, you might remember this post about the cured pork strips they got. I remember eating this as a kid, it wasn’t an everyday dish. It’s pricey and also a bit of an indulgence since it’s got a lot of pork fat. It was such a coincidence that I had also bought a pack from Chinatown and it was sitting in my fridge waiting to be made.

I never made it before but remember the elements of it from my memory. I knew I wanted to make it with green beans but only with these flat ones. I don’t know why I had to be so specific with it. I didn’t have a real recipe to go off of, maybe what I had was more of a family dish. I blanched the beans fast kine and then stir fried the pork and beans together. I didn’t want to add too much seasoning because the pork is super flavorful (aka salty) so I added a dash of soy, oyster sauce and sugar. Oh I also started the stirfry with minced garlic. Look. It was damn delicious. I was trying to hold the dish on to last a few days. I ate it in one day. It was just that good. But it could be an acquired taste.

Another family dish I have been making on my own. Ong Choy! Crucial ingredient? Harm Haw. Gotta have that. I just fried up garlic and red chili pepper, add the shrimp paste and then add the stems first….cook for like 2 minutes and then add the leaves and cook down. I must have added some water to this too. I’m sure folks usually do a cornstarch slurry to make the gravy thick. I was lazy. Another vegetable dish I love.

Smoked Chicken Pasta | $18.50
with onions, roasted tomatoes, garlic and fresh herbs, in a white wine and chicken stock, tossed over linguini

I got this dish the other week at Murphy’s, it was one of their specials. Eh. Was alright, I mean, I keep comparing the food to the price because how can I not? The chicken breast was good, super moist and there was a smoky taste so I enjoyed it. Wish there was a bit more pasta. I don’t get why restaurants like grinch out on the cheaper stuff. I think customers are easily fooled if they see more pasta haha. And I am adjusting to a new contact power and it’s hard to see up close now…if not, I would have noticed it said chicken stock. Yeah, it’s sitting in a chicken stock. I wasn’t expecting that. Yeah, I wouldn’t get this again.

Apple Crisp a la mode | $8.00

It’s okay, their apple crisp always comes to save the day. It saved the day. I loved it. Warmed apple crisp ala mode. You can’t go wrong. Have a great weekend everyone!

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Mixed Plate Friday

Oct14

Birria Banh Mi | $13.00 (maybe?)
vietnamese inspired sandwich with birria meat, mayo, cucumber, pickled carrots, and daikon (radish), and a sprig of cilantro. served on a toasted baguette and a side of consomme

I wanted to try Cocina De Roja when they opened during the pandemic. A birria banh mi? Sign me up. How was it? Okay, nothing great. I rather just get a regular bahn mi. Also when I go look at their online order site now, it’s not even an option to order so maybe this was pointless?

Beef Stroganoff on House-made Fettuccine | $29.00
mustard sour cream demi-glace

Just sharing a picture of this beef stroganoff from Tango Contemporary Cafe in case any of you were curious how it looked. It wasn’t my dish but it was enjoyed!

Seafood Chow Mein | $12.95

Assorted Dim Sum

I don’t usually crave chicken feet but this time, I did and ordered it. This is the only way I will eat chicken feet, it has to be prepared in this manner. I will not digest any other way. I don’t know why, please don’t ask. I can never pass up dim sum and yes, I like to order seafood chow mein as an accompaniment. It reminds me of childhood so I enjoy it. By the way, this is from Ginger & Garlic. I guess the final question is, do you chicken feet?

Have a great weekend folks.

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