Tag Archive | Local Food

T&L Market – Kalihi, HI

Oct20

I risked my life driving in a very unfamiliar part of Kalihi for this post. Yes, I was influenced yet again by Yelp and social media. Heard about T&L Market and their Saturday Huli Huli chicken special. Small mom and pop shop that huli’s whole chickens every Saturday. People seems to be big fans of the chicken and the dipping sauce so I had to try it!

Laotian Huli Huli Chicken | $25.00 (whole chicken)

Yes, you read that price right. Pricey but I really wanted to give this place a try especially since it is a local mom and pop. So how was it? Well…there’s nothing special about this chicken. There’s supposed to be a lemongrass seasoning to it, didn’t taste that. The breast meat was a bit dry and tough and the dipping sauce was like a chili vinegar dipping sauce. Nothing special honestly. I could buy my Costco rotisserie chicken and make my favorite crying tiger sauce. I’ll try to post the recipe to that sauce one day.

They do serve it with a little brick of sticky rice so if you like that, you’re in for a treat. In the end, I am glad to have tried it but didn’t think it was worth $25 and probably wouldn’t buy it again.

Chicken Bento | $10.00 (around)

I wasn’t sure what the chicken came with so I got this bento to try too. Since the chicken did come with rice, I let my brother eat this. He ate it up – I think this was a good price for the portion you get. The fried chicken was a nice big thigh piece. He said the fried chicken tasted like Genki Sushi’s chicken karaage which sounds like winners to me. The spam slice was “tick” too. Good deal. They have basically NO parking so I can’t find myself returning anytime soon. Nice to have tried.

Spam Musubi Rating:

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Mixed Plate Friday

Oct10

Fat Pig Fried Rice | $10.95
bacon, kalua pig, portuguese sausage, scrambled egg

Had a quick breakfast at Yogurstory and you can’t go wrong with the fat pig fried rice. I must be getting old because oh man was this dish salty. I really prefer blander foods now other than spicy (ha!). It was very good but I always forget how the dish comes and find myself asking where the portuguese sausage is. It’s just chopped up as part of the fried rice! Duh! Anyway, good dish but like I said…salty and probably get MSG.

Garlic Shrimp Spaghetti | $14.25
including 2 pc garlic bread

Mini Cold Ginger Chicken (all rice) | $9.89

Back at Lucky Box Restaurant again – can’t go wrong with their food. Tried a new dish this time, the garlic shrimp spaghetti. How was it? Good. It’s just garlic shrimp scampi on spaghetti noodles and well, the noodles are a bit bloated because I think they pre-cook it and just throw it into hot water again to warm them up for orders, so yeah…not at all al dente. That’s okay with me though, I like noodles in all shapes, sizes and textures. The garlic shrimp tasted good. And the cold ginger chicken? Well nothing new there, still good as always. I think I like their cold ginger sauce the most of all that I’ve tried. I am pretty sure they add garlic to it too which makes it lip smacking good. Love it!

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Mixed Plate Friday

Oct3

Alii Fish Market Weekend Special | Crispy Mochi Mahi Mahi w/Smoked Tsuyu Cold Soba & Spicy Ahi “Lava” Poke | $21.00
cold soba, smoked tsuyu, mari’s garden green salad w/yuzu vinaigrette, “spicy lava sauce,” sumida farms watercress namul

Alii was having this as a special the other weekend and my brother generously treated me to lunch. We placed the order and headed in after doing an errand, they quoted a 30 minute cook time. It took an hour. The parking lot is also horrendous especially during the weekend. If you are pre-ordering easy stuff like musubis/onigiris and just poke – I’m sure your order will be ready quick. If you order a special, I would set aside extra time before heading in to grab it. I don’t think I want to return on a weekend anytime soon.

Oh! And the food! It was good, not great. The mochi mahi mahi was already soggy when I ate it. The tsuyu wasn’t super smoky, nothing I noticed extra. It’s a good plate though, glad I tried it.

Chili Cheese Fries

Mini Cold Ginger Chicken (all rice)

Mini Chicken Katsu Curry

Mini Loco Moco

Everyone keeps raving about the L&L Hawaiian Barbecue at the Manoa Marketplace (when did they stop calling themselves L&L Drive Inn??) so I decided to give it a try. I’ve tried it a few times because thankfully UH has restarted their shuttle service to the Astronomy lot which is behind the marketplace. I can do some farmers market shopping and grab my lunch here. It’s funny because we have L&L Drive Inn on-campus which offers in-app ordering which I like, this location does not allow for app ordering. The one on campus does not serve the full menu so it’s nice to have one near by that does. The yelp reviews are right, the woman up front is very friendly. All the dishes I got were good! I can’t taste the difference between the two locations but I’ll continue coming here anyway.

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Aloha Kitchen – Las Vegas, Nevada

Jun12

Oh boy did this trip prove how Asian I am. I needed rice the morning after we landed. I wasn’t even 24 hours out of Hawaii yet. We did a water run at Target and I looked up a place to grab breakfast and found Aloha Kitchen. No regrets!!!

Longanisa and Spam Breakfast Platter | $16.29

Chan’s breakfast, two scoop rice and scrambled eggs. Kind of pricey for the plate but they actually give choke!

Portuguese Sausage & Longanisa Platter | $16.29

My platter! I wanted my pocho sausage. The sausage was just alright. I like to get my eggs over medium. Great portions! We had enough leftover for another day of breakfast. Thankfully our room had a little kitchenette!

Side Order Tater Tots | $5.29

LOL, what you want me to say. It’s like mini hash browns okay!

Kind of a double post, anytime I go mainland, I have to go Bambu! Since it closed down in Hawaii, I haven’t been able to get my number 10 dessert fix.

Almost forgot to take a picture, it is too hot outside to do anything so I took one in the car. Was it good? Uh, yeah! Should have got another one of these during the trip. Along with playing more games of craps!!!!

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