Tag Archive | Japan

Hong Kong Hanten 0410 – Shin Okubo, Japan

A visit to Japan is not complete without a visit to Korea Town for some bomb black bean noodles. LOL, I think we had this for our first sit down meal. Hong Kong Hanten 0410 is a restaurant owned by Paik (Baek) Jong Won, he’s one of the judges for the Culinary Class Wars! Excited for the new season starting soon. Anyway, as I mentioned in my last post – this is probably my most favorite jjajangmyeon ever.

Tangsuyuk (Half Size) | ¥980

The half size is perfect to complement our noodle dishes. I think we got the full size last time and it was too much. Gotta have the sweet and sour sauce on the side for dipping – the pork is fried up perfectly crisp.

Gogi Jjamppong | ¥1180

Chan’s jjamppong, his favorite. He got the beef one and it was good. Look at how red the soup is. I tried some of the soup, tasted good!

Jaengban Jajang | ¥2100

KABOOM. Okay, this dish is to serve 2 people. I don’t care. I almost chickened out of ordering it but Chan told me just to go for it. I don’t know why this dish has to be made as 2 servings. Anyway, this is more of a stir-fried version with so much good veggies and seafood. Ahhh…just salivating as I think of this dish. It was super good yet again. Why don’t we have this here in Hawaii?? Gotta wait for my next trip to Japan or Korea to eat this again.

Spam Musubi Rating:

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Mixed Plate Friday (Japan)

Dec5

Do you peep what I peep on a walk through Shin-Okubo in Japan?

Funny yeah?? I don’t know who this belongs to but it was fun to see a bit of home in Japan like this.

Every time I saw this company’s signage, I had to take a picture and send it to my friends to tell them this was their communication style. I never even looked up what they do lol.

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HNL -> NRT – ANA Flight

Dec3

Yes, we splurged for Business Class. If you don’t care to see what Business Class has to offer, please move along. It is pricey but I think can be very worth it for long legs of travel. The ability to lie flat and sleep is priceless.

Amuse
Purple Yam Nicoise Salad
Spam & Caramelized Maui Onion Crostini

Purple Yam Nicoise Salad

Sounds better than it tastes, which is bland

Spam & Caramelized Maui Onion Crostini

So yeah, I’m pretty sure I was eating “raw” spam here. I mean I ate it but…it was basically raw spam. I know it’s not really raw but you know what I mean! It wasn’t too bad lol.

Japanese Cuisine – Washoku

Shusai (Main Dish)
Simmered Sea Bream in Soy-based Sauce | Steamed Rice

The fish was seasoned and cooked well! I enjoyed this!

Miso Soup

Zensai (A Selection of Morsels)
Japanese Omelet, Simmered Runner Bean in Syrup, Grilled Squid with Dried Fish Roe, Deep-fried Fishcake

I enjoyed this zensai very much so, not sure what runner bean is but now I’m curious. Very nice appetizer!

Kobachi (Tasty Tidbits)
Steamed Chicken with Flavored Soy Sauce

Eh, it’s fine.

ANA Original ~Kaoru Fukuoka~ Tonkotsu Style Ramen
a mild tonkotsu style soup paired with thin noodles that complement the soup perfectly. toppings like red pickled ginger and flavored oil are available. please enjoy with your preferred seasoning.

If they offer up a noodle, I gotta try it! Very happy I tried this. Too bad I didn’t get it when we came home too. The flight home felt so much shorter so I didn’t have enough room in my tummy for it.

Noodle Pull!

Yum!

Sandwich Set
Warm Basil Cream Chicken Sandwich | Yogurt with Passion Fruit Jelly

The sandwich was just whatever but the yogurt, oh the yogurt was so good. Felt like the plain yogurt was a thicker texture and the passion fruit jelly was wonderful. I’m going to try to make my own at home.

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ANA Lounge – Honolulu, HI

Dec1

ANOTHER TRIP MEANS ANOTHER LOUNGE VISIT. Was so excited to go to ANA Lounge. We had seen videos of this lounge and I got all excited that we would be able to board the plane straight from the lounge. Didn’t happen. The opportunity is there but I think it only works for the first flight of the day, no such luck for the second flight. It’s a very nice lounge and offers some good food! Check it out.

Udon!

They have the noodles at the bar ready to scoop into your bowl, you can choose either hot broth or cold broth. These are the only toppings, no protein. It was okay, nothing special.

Curry! (Hawaiian Style)

I guess I should have known that since it was Hawaiian it wouldn’t be good, it wasn’t that good. I prefer Japanese style curry! I wouldn’t get this again.

Acai Bowl, Fresh Fruit, Ham and Egg Sando

The acai bowls are all rock solid frozen, forreal. It barely defrosted as I was eating my food so I couldn’t even enjoy it because I didn’t want to lose a tooth. The sandwich is very good! How come sandwiches always taste better when I don’t make it? Serious question.

Apple Juice

I don’t know what it is about travel, but I only drink apple juice when I am traveling. I enjoy it on the plane and during the trip too. Do I drink apple juice when I’m home? No. Don’t ask me why.

The orange honu ready for us to board!

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Off to Japan…

Nov7

As you read this, I should be on my way to Japan. Another chance to make beautiful memories with Chan in one of our favorite places to travel. Our fear this trip is if the local Japanese people will hate us since we are foreigners and some foreigners are not doing us any favors with their bad behavior in Japan!

As always, feel free to follow me on instagram. I will be posting stories daily of our adventures! So excited for this trip, I am super burnt out from work and just life in general so I need this breather. Short blog vacay, see you folks soon!

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Tenfusa – Toyosu, Japan

Jun3

Ah yes, my super belated Japan posts continue. Well, there’s actually not much more to share so it will probably be in bits and pieces. This is one of our last outings of the Japan trip before coming home. Tenfusa is located in the Toyosu Market, Chan’s friend Daisuke was nice enough to pick us up early in the morning to bring us to this restaurant. Thank God he did, all the menus are in Japanese. There was a line for the Daiwa Sushi next door but this restaurant seemed to be filled with locals (maybe fishermen).

Appetizer Menu (Well I consider it the appetizer menu!)

Maguro | ¥900

Scallop Sashimi | ¥850

Shirasu | ¥400

Whale Meat (Raw) | ¥700

This is my first time trying whale. This may be the last time I am trying whale. Look at the color! It looks like raw beef. It tastes kind of like raw beef too. I didn’t enjoy the taste. Glad I tried so I can say I tried it but I am good in the future.

Tempura Teishoku

Tendon

Chan and I had the Tendon. Gosh, I was so like…full from this trip already. And we got choke appetizers. By the time the main entrees came, I was already stuffed. But the tempura was super good. Perfectly cooked seafood. The pieces of fish were so tender and fried light and crispy. I was very happy to have tried Tenfusa!

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Mixed Plate Friday

Apr26

Okay, today is more of a mixed bowl Friday cause I am just going to feature one thing. Remember the cute miso soup I shared with you the other week! Chan’s friend visited from Japan and gifted me a Hello Kitty collaboration! I WAS SO EXCITED BECAUSE LOOK….!

lol, I had to smash a hole in Hello Kitty’s face.

Look at all those “guts” that were in the cute Hello Kitty head! And oh my gosh! The heart and bow-shaped fish cake? COME ON. The package comes with 2 packs, I can’t wait to have the second one!!!

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Mixed Plate Friday

Feb23

One of the many gifts Kat gave us! I finally cracked open the Japanese Sriracha, I didn’t even know they had one! And you know we had that shortage for a while so it as hard to even get a hold of a bottle. And then people were saying it doesn’t taste the same anymore? I think they started using different chili peppers, boy oh boy. I was able to get a new bottle and I guess I agree that it tastes a little different but not awful. Sorry, got off-track. So how was the Japanese one? I liked it! Good balance of garlic and heat with a nice sweetness to it. I enjoy it a lot!! Thank you again Kat!

This was a gift from Chan’s friend and I had no idea what it was. I honestly thought it was like a biscuit or senbei. That was until we asked a coworker and was told it was miso soup!! I had to try it immediately and oh my goodness, it was delicious and look!

It is stuffed with all these great veggies and cute fishcake…what a great miso soup! I definitely have to look for this next time I am in Japan!!

Tanto Tonkotsu Black Ramen | $18.00 (includes 5 pieces of Tanto Gyoza)

Don’t have enough for a full post but Tanto Gyoza and Ramen Bar is located in Puck’s Alley in Manoa. They specialize in gyoza (yes, the gyoza is good) and the ramen is good too! But I think I need to try another broth, this one might be too rich for me so I get tummy ache. I think I get tummy ache from plenty foods…hmm…anyway, worth a try!

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Chuka Soba Aoba – Ikebukuro, Japan

Feb7

Located in the Sunshine Mall, Chuka Soba Aoba is just a small little chinese noodles soup that we tried. I actually think this was the first real bowl of ramen we had during the whole trip. It was a nice fill up – nothing too fancy or frou frou. The line was constant and they had a good system of seating. Singles were seated at the bar between the partitions and parties of 2 or more got seated at a table.

Super busy place and actually mostly locals which is a good sign right?

Chan got the tsukemen

I got the regular ramen. I gotta admit, it was the egg in the picture of the mall directory that got me. I just love Japan eggs so much and look at how bright deep orange these yolks are. What I was served looked exactly like the directory photo. Delicious! By the way, this is all they have. Ramen or tsukemen, nothing else. No gyoza, no side dishes, just noodles.

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Nihonbashi Sui – Machida, Japan

Feb5

Chan found his favorite kaiten sushi restaurant during this trip. On this day, we went to Grandberry Park to visit the Snoopy Museum and stuck around to get lunch. We timed it (by accident) perfectly, we were able to line up for the lunch openings. Plenty restaurants had long lines already so we decided to try Nishonbashi Sui – we were like 2nd in line so that was great! I can’t find too much online about this place, does anyone know if this restaurant has any other locations in Japan? The only cool thing I found was that it’s owned by Kyotaru! What a throwback, I used to work for Kyotaru. So that means I’m technically part of this family right?

We ate choke. I don’t have any prices or descriptions, just enjoy the pictures (there are a lot of them).