Happy Days Seafood Restaurant – Waialae, HI

Hey folks! Just wanted to share a recent lunch I had at Happy Days Seafood Restaurant. Definitely the go-to restaurant in the Kaimuki area. Their food is pretty on-par with the food served up in Chinatown so I do enjoy going there as much as I hate to admit it. I like them a lot better now than before. Here’s the pics!

140326-01Siu Mai – one of my favorite dim sum items. I always have to order this in every dim sum restaurant. Even though siu mai is such a common dish, every restaurant makes it so differently! Hawaii has the best ones for sure.

140326-02Hoi Sin Jak – some of these dim sum dishes, I don’t even know the English name because I order it in Chinese. I’ll transcribe the names of them like this one, hoi sin jak – literal translation is seafood bundle/packet. Check out the inside…

140326-03There’s shiitake mushroom, shrimp, a chunk of white fish…and depending on the restaurant, there might be a small scallop or some imitation crab throw in. It’s all wrapped up in tofu skin and steamed. So delicious…I definitely recommend this.

140326-04Pai Kwut (Black Bean Spareribs) – always winners. Always tender and flavorful – if I wasn’t eating dim sum, I would love to just eat this over a nice steaming bowl of rice.

140326-05Kuhl Choy Bang (Garlic Chive Pan Fried Dumpling) – another one of my favorites! It is filled with garlic chives and morsels of shrimp. They have two versions of this dish, one is a steamed dumpling version and this is a pan fried version. I prefer the pan fried version. Delish!

140326-06Hoy Sin Chow Mein – Seafood Chow Mein, this dish reminds me of my childhood and the Chinese parties I had to attend. My favorite noodle dish, the crispy noodles with the awesome seafood gravy…and so much seafood and veggies on top. It’s my absolute favorite, I’ve been on a cake noodle kick lately.

140326-07Ended the lunchtime feast with dessert from the Pillbox Pharmacy. Unexpected place to grab ice cream but they’ve got some of the best! I unknowingly took a pic with the Hawaii cone in full view. Pretty awesome yeah? 🙂

More Dim Sum

I must be really trying to prove I’m Chinese.  I went to eat Dim Sum again!  So I just wanted to share a quick pic of the spread we got..

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The usual fare for dim sum.  Do you see the fingers peeking out from the right?  Yup, that’s chicken feet.  Do you eat chicken feet?  I know a lot of people who steer clear of it.  For me, I’ve been fed chicken feet since I was a kid so I only learned what it was after the fact.  So…I do like it.  I have to admit if I wasn’t force fed this as a child I would probably never touch the stuff today.  It is really delicious and the way they prepare it for dim sum is so savory!  You’ve gotta try it at least once!

Chinatown – Chicago, IL

Anytime I’m traveling, I like to check out the Chinatown if possible.  San Francisco has a huge Chinatown but I must have fluked out because the dim sum I tried was nothing special.  In fact, the dim sum I tried at SF and New York were nothing to write home about – they just made me miss the dim sum at home!  The dim sum I have tried in Chicago has been the best I’ve had in the mainland.  I actually dined at this same restaurant (Ming Hin) during my last trip and wanted to try a new restaurant so we headed to Chinese restaurant that specialized in main dishes/noodles.  Well we got seated right away but was ignored after that.  We watched as they seated more and more people and no one even came to see us with a menu.  I looked around and caught the eye of the girl behind the counter.  She caught my glance and proceeded to do nothing.  So…we left and went to Ming Hin.  Ming Hin is a huge Chinese restaurant and they’ve got everything down to a science!  The wait staff know Mandarin/Cantonese/English and their ordering system is so easy!  The menu is all pictures and you just put the number of orders you want with each picture.  We need this in Hawaii!  Also…the wait staff is incredibly friendly, something Hawaii is also lacking…hehe.

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This is kind of like deja vu.  I had a pork hash post not too long ago…it’s my favorite dim sum dish.  This version was pretty good.

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Dim Sum More

Not much to update on this post.  I did want to share a small pet peeve of mine and it involves driving.  There are times when you reach a stop light and there are two lanes, one that goes straight or turns left and the right lane turns right.  Well the general rule is, if the car in front of you is wanting to turn left – you can usually go around that car into the right lane to go straight ahead.  Actually now that I think about it, I don’t know if that’s exactly a rule but people do it.  Now, if the car in front of you is for sure turning with his/her signal on – I say go ahead and go right around him/her.  Today, I was the second car at the stop light and we both were going straight.  I see the truck behind me pull up into the right lane and just sits there.  That ticks me off.  I must warn you though, I do get road rage.  Anyhow, I didn’t do much of anything.  The car in front of me and myself, we went straight right when the light turned green.  And no, I did not let that truck cut in front of me.  Why should I?  Pretty sure he was pissed about it but I didn’t care.  Honestly, we all have places to go so just follow the rules buddy.

Okay, I will end this post with two pictures of my dim sum favorites.  I also love baked custard buns but I don’t have a picture to share of it right now.

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Delicious Siu Mai.  I don’t know how pork hash has become so different when it is served in a Chinese restaurant versus any place else.  My favorite comes from a legit Chinese restaurant.

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Custard Tarts.  Another specialty that is very different from the American counterpart.  I much prefer the Chinese version as well.