Lunch Time Grinds

Shave ice on O'ahu

2012-01-12T16:27:00.000-10:00

Nothing can beat a shave ice after day at the beach. Or a hike. Or a run. Or when a friend is visiting from the mainland. Or any hot afternoon. Or...the list goes on.

That said, here are my favorite places on Oahu for shave ice.

I grew up going to Waiola Shave Ice (the original location, on Waiola Street). So that will always be my #1. Here's there new location in Kapahulu.

Waiola is renowned for the fine texture of shave ice - it just melts in your mouth. You don't have to chew on any ice granules. I like the lilikoi - lihingmui flavor combo, with lilikoi syrup (the seeds in the pic below) on top. YUM. I want one just thinking about it.

My 2nd favorite is a newer entrant to the market - Taiwanese style shave ice. It's the stuff you get after eating hot pot at Sweet Home Cafe, or in the picture here at City Cafe. City Cafe is a cute, tiny little place on Makaloa across from Ala Moana Shopping Center. You get to pick your flavor and your toppings: I got brown sugar syrup with mochi balls, coffee jelly and flan.

#3: Shimazu Shave Ice
This one has actually been around forever, but I'd never been until recently. They are popular for their trendy shave ice syrups, like red velvet and mojito, which I believe are all made in-house.

This is a small serving. It's massive! I think this was red velvet (super creamy tasting, like magic) and mango.

Inside the store; Mr Shimazu himself

#4) Old school: Your Kitchen in Kaimuki
Your Kitchen is a tiny little hole in the wall on 10th avenue known for their boiled pork plate lunch. But they also make a mean shave ice.

#5) New school: Snow Factory
I'm curious where this trend came from. Korea? Japan? Anyhoo, it's a block of flavored ice (can be dairy based) that is shaved into paper thin sheets, piled into a bowl, and topped with yummy treats.

Interior: feels like I'm in Korea listening to Korean pop music

Green tea ice topped with condensed milk, mochi balls and azuki beans. Drier in your mouth than regular shave ice, but still really tasty.

1) Waiola Shave Ice

2135 Waiola St
Honolulu, HI 96826

(808) 949-2269
2) City Cafe

1518-F Makaloa St
Honolulu, HI 96814

(808) 398-7598

3) Shimazu Store

330 N School St
Honolulu, HI 96817

(808) 371-8899
4) Your Kitchen
1423 10th Ave
Honolulu, HI 96816
(808) 203-7685

5) Snow Factory

McCully Shopping Center
1960 Kapiolani Blvd, Ste 115
Honolulu, HI 96826

(808) 946-7669

Good Eats sub shop in Kakaako

2012-01-10T13:28:00.000-10:00

Good Eats
I feel bad for the people running Good Eats sandwich shop on South Street. Apparently theyhad a lock on the lunch crowd in the Kakaako neighborhood...they were the onlyones offering sandwiches amidst a sea of heavy plate lunch places. BUT THEN,Subway came and opened up shop a good two blocks closer to all the officebuildings in the area, and now no one is willing to make the trek down to GoodEats.

I’d never heard ofthem until I saw the Groupon deal they ran, and probably wouldn’t have evenpurchased it if I wasn’t looking at a job in the area, but lucky for me, I did.I’m not a huge sandwich person, so I don’t get swayed by the group to eat atSubway at lunch time, but if I am in the mood for an amazing sandwich, Idefinitely head over to Good Eats.

You can design yourown, or pick from the amazing list of choices they’ve already come up with. I’ddefinitely go with one of those. I’ve probably tried half of them by now, andthey are all amazing. Turkey avo clubs, roast beef with pesto, and on and on.You get to pick from a wide variety of breads (looks like a Costco selection) -I like the squaw myself.

Sandwiches are about$7. Window has signs advertising soups and mac & cheese, but haven’t triedeither of those yet...

Good Eats Subs &Stuff
South Street inKakaako
Yelp

Andy's Kahuku Shrimp (actually Korean restaurant) and Snow Factory and Snow Factory

2012-01-07T20:19:00.000-10:00

I missed the Groupon (-esque) deal for Andy's Kahuku shrimp, but wanted to try it anyway. I'd walked past one day (on Rycroft right off Keeaumoku across from Wal-Mart) when I was looking for Poppy's Coffee Shop (supposed to be amazing cupcakes there).

Despite the Kahuku Shrimp Truck name, it's actually a Korean restaurant with one of those thick menus that has every Korean dish on it.

But despite the Korean-ness of the place, the ban chan were disappointingly lacking. No flavor, not fresh, and not creative.

The spicy garlic sauce on the shrimp was delish, but the shrimp were nothing to write home about. I should've trusted the lukewarm Yelp reviewers (gets 4 stars, but if you read the comments, no one really loves it). $10.50 a plate.

Afterwards, we were craving something sweet so we drove over to McCully to try Snow Factory. It's a super unique take on shave ice...definitely worth a visit! We debated whether or not it will be around in a year; I think once is enough, but I can see how it could develop a following.

Super cute interior; very K-pop.

Free dry topping!

A good place for families to come together. That's the menu on the wall behind them.

Mmmm: green tea (dairy based) with condensed milk, mochi balls and azuki beans on top. It looks like a pile of Chinese peanut candy-like string. It's quite dry in your mouth, but creamy at the same time. Tons of yummy sounding flavors, including coffee, lilikoi, lihingmui...the list goes on. You can pick their flavor combos ($4.50 for a small; $6.00 for a large) or make your own.

Andy's Kahuku Shrimp

745 Keeaumoku St
Ste 105
Honolulu, HI 96814

(808) 944-4040

Yelp

Snow Factory

McCully Shopping Center
1960 Kapiolani Blvd, Ste 115
Honolulu, HI 96826

(808) 946-7669

Yelp

Prima

2012-01-07T15:16:00.000-10:00

I'd been anxious to try Prima after reading this review in Biting Commentary. It's the newest project from Alejandro Briceño (Nobu) and Lindsey Ozawa (Melt). Found in Kailua right in between Foodland and Baskin & Robbins, it's a casual Italian spot specializing in wood fired pizzas and pasta dishes.

Cute menu: small plates (about a dozen), pasta (3) and pizza (6 choices). Pizzas run about $15.

The pizza oven

Ambience

Gotta love a place that serves Sierra Nevada as the American beer selection (other options from Italy, Czech Republich, a Maui Brewing, and a few others)

First starter: fennel panna cotta (read Martha Cheng's review here). Loved the coffee salt

Sauteed greens

Spicy meatball stuffed with cheese

Brussel sprouts

Papperdelle with Big Island lamb ragu

Pizza

The desserts are much fancier and more creative than you would expect for a casual place like this. I unfortunately can't find the menu online so dont' remember exactly what went into each of these, but this was the "spiced apple" with a crispy toast, cinnamon (?) gelato, a foam of something, and a crumble topping.

This was called "froyo" and had to do with white chocolate, black sesame, yogurt and a bunch of other flavors I can't quite remember but all went really well together.

Prima, 108 Hekili St; 888-8933; primahawaii.com

Happy hour at Epic in Chinatown

2012-01-06T20:33:00.000-10:00

Happy hour at Epic

I’d read really good things about the happy hour at Epic ($4 mojitos orglasses or wine or beer, pupu menu is mostly $7 or under) from 4:30 – 6 pm. Wewandered over one day after work and found it next to empty. We got a tableright by the window, and there were a few people sitting at the bar. 1 or 2other tables came in while we were there.

Started with a mojito, but it was too sweet and notalcoholic enough, so switched over to beer. Also tried the kalua pig springrolls, the short rib sliders, and the korean tacos...none of them were fantastic enough toentice me back. Which is too bad, because it’s quite a nice atmosphere (newerand nicer than Indigo) but the food and drinks aren’t anything to write homeabout.

Entrance on Nuuanu and Pauahi

Kalua pig spring rolls

Short rib sliders

Bulgogi tacos

1131 Nuuanu Ave
Honolulu, HI 96805

(808) 587-7877

www.restaurantepichawaii.com

Comfort food: 3 noodle soups

2012-01-04T13:31:00.000-10:00

Panya niu rou mian / Goma Tei ramen / Asahi Grill
Noodle soup is mycomfort food. I think it must stem from special Saturday lunches when I wasgrowing up...my dad would make Sapporo Ichiban saimin instead of tunasandwiches for all of us. It was a treat, since my mom thought saimin had toomuch fat (the fried noodles). He would throw in fishcake, green onions,whatever sort of leftover meat or green veggies were in the fridge.

Now my version that Imake at home when I’m craving some comfort adds in spam, egg (dropped in raw,like egg drop soup), and chopped up baby bok choy. Plus lots and lots of sambaloelek (hot sauce with the green cap). Yum.

We are spoiled forchoice when we go out to each in Hawaii for good noodle soups: Japanese ramen,Vietnamese pho, local Oxtail Soup, and the list goes on. My usual go to is pho- I like the lightness of the rice noodles and the cleanness of the broth. ButI can also often be convinced to go for a heavier bun rieu at Golden River orthe Bun Bo Hue at Bac Nam.

Some recent newnoodles soups that I’ve tried are:

A) Taiwanese beefnoodle soup at Panya (niu rou mian)
There aren’t a lot oflunch choices near my office in Kakaako, but luckily there is a Panya. Iusually get the chopped chef salad and a bubble tea, but the niu rou mian thereis exceptional. Big hunks of beef with tendon attached, and a spicy rich broth.

B) Dan dan ramen atGoma Tei
If you read thereviews on yelp, the Tan Tan ramen is the thing to try here. I haven’t triedthe shoyu ramen, but I’m sure it’s great as well. I got the chicken version -which is served with plenty of slices of poached chicken breast on top of themassive mound of noodles and the thick, spicy broth.

Added bonus: you can add on a side of curry rice.

C) Oxtail soup atAsahi Grill
Asahi Grill is afunny little spot. It looked like an L&L type plate lunch spot from theoutside, but when you’re seated inside and look at the menus, you realize thatit’s Kapiolani Coffee Shop (or something like that) re-incarnated and you feellike you’re at a mom & pop Japanese restaurant from the 50s.

I went for the Oxtailsoup, but was not that impressed. The broth was lacking to me that day - likeit hadn’t been cooked long enough. My friend had the eggplant curry which wasalso a little strange to me - seemingly sweet?

Comes with rice; you can upgrade to fried rice.

OK, all of this talk makes me miss the amaze-balls (been dying to use that word) noodle soups from China. Every province had it's own completely different but totally delicious specialty. This is the fully loaded noodle soup from Guizhou (southern China) that you can find all over Shanghai for about a buck. Rice noodles in a pork (beef?) broth with a tea egg, tofu, some sort of meat, lots of tendon, and green onions.

Gratuitous Shanghai shot:

Panya
Couple of locationsaround, including Ala Moana Shopping Center and Queen St
Yelp

Goma Tei
Ward Center
Yelp

Asahi Grill
Ward Avenue

Yelp

Tour of the Island: best bakeries & what to get at each one

2012-01-03T15:23:00.000-10:00

one of my friends, m, spoils us every year with her annual dessert party. it's a great way to catch up with all the friends who are only home in hawaii for the holiday...and, to gorge ourselves on sugary sweets.

this year she decided to pick up her favorite sweet treat from each of hawaii's top bakeries, so everyone could get to try them in one place. man, i recommend that everyone has the chance to do this one day!

#1) Pecan bars from Cakeworks (the old Mary Catherine's, known for wedding cakes)

#2) Cocoa puffs from Liliha Bakery

#3) Cupcakes from Cake Couture: there are a lot of opinions and a lot of new cupcakes in town (Hokulani, Let them eat cupcakes, Poppy coffee shop...), but Marissa and I both swear by Cake Couture. She recommended the Key Lime Coconut flavor (Tuesdays) so that is next on my to-try list.

#4) Pumpkin Crunch Cake from The Alley at Aiea Bowl. Legendary.

#5) Lemon Bars from Kaka'ako Kitchen

#6) Not available anywhere else: homemade bacon flan. Wowsers.

There was also a fruit tart from St Germaine (?) but I missed taking a photo of that one.

Favorite #3 of the year: Tanioka's

2012-01-02T13:31:00.000-10:00

Ican’t believe I never knew about Tanioka’s prior to 2011. Embarassing to admit,since it’s an institution out in Waipahu. It’s an institution, but yet they’vemodernized so well. When you go on a weekend, you know it’s going to becrowded. But they’ve perfected crowd management to a science. There’s a guy atthe door, who only lets so many people in at a time. Once you’re in (airconditioning, thank goodness) the line snakes around: first past the cookies& crack seed, then you start getting to the good stuff. There’s 2 fridgecases with sushi, prepacked goodies, cupcakes, boiled peanuts, etc. After youget past the fridge cases, you get to the main event: the poke deli case.Unbelievable how many kinds of poke they have there (plus I always see menuitems – I guess you can also order plate lunch stuff too? But I always am toodistracted by the poke).

Once you’ve given your poke order, you move onto thefinal she-bang: the musubi and fish cake / other stuff window. And here’s theawesome kicker: your poke order very neatly follows you, and you can just stackup whatever musubi / bento / andagi you want to add, and it all follows youneatly to the cash register. Like magic.

Oneday I was in with a friend who was taking pictures of the store – they thoughtwe were tourists? And we got some free fried poke with wasabi aioli. So good.

My standard order is trying some poke, plus a shiso musubi, plus amochiko chicken musubi. And then I’m in a food coma for the rest of theafternoon. BUT that might change, since the last time I was there I got thisawesome pack of 4 inari sushi, topped with spicy ahi poke. That was lifechanging. Those buggahs were so good. My new dream in life is to have a Tanioka’spoke cake for my birthday some day (when I get enough friends to help me eatit): a big foil catering tray filled with rice, topped with your choice ofpoke, and with your birthday message written in mayo on top!

And what better place to eat lunch than on the beach in Nanakuli?

Tanioka's

94-903 Farrington Hwy
Waipahu, HI 96797

(808) 671-3779

www.taniokas.com/

Yelp

Happy 2012!

2012-01-01T15:38:00.003-10:00

It wouldn't be New Year's Day without ozoni at the Wilsons.

According to Wikipedia:

Zōni, often with the honorific "o-" as o-zōni, is a Japanese soup containing mochi rice cakes. The dish is strongly associated with the Japanese New Year and its tradition of osechi ceremonial foods.

It is said that zōni finds its roots in samurai society cuisine. It is thought to be a meal that was cooked during field battles, boiled together with mochi, vegetables and dried foods, among other ingredients. It is also generally believed that this original meal, at first exclusive to samurai, eventually became a staple food of the common people. Zōni was first served as part of a full-course dinner (honzen ryōri), and thus is thought to have been a considerably important meal to samurai.

As for ways of cooking the soup, different regions in Japan sport many variations, but in most cases it is either a clear soup (sumashi-jiru) flavoured with dashi (stock usually made from flakes of dried bonito) and soy sauce, generally preferred in eastern parts of the country, or a miso soup generally preferred in the western parts.

Bowls of ozoni soup waiting to be dressed up with toppings

Toppings include fishcake, shitake mushrooms, and greens

Also traditional sashimi platter

Nishime

Long life beans (one for each year of your life) and gobo

Kanten, dried permsimmon, and my favorite: cream cheese stuffed lychees

Sticky rice with azuki beans

Wishing everyone a happy and healthy 2012!

Find #2 of 2011: Home Bar

2012-01-01T10:10:00.000-10:00

Home Bar

OMG. Find #2 of the year (along with Tanioka’s and MonarchSeafood). And this one is actually in town. Home Bar is in a kinda random spot(think old sketchy hostess bar on Kapiolani near Don Quixote on Kaheka) but atleast there is some parking (free lot on Kapiolani side, valet on the backside,plus you could find lot / street parking over by Don Quixote and walk over).

I think of Home Bar as a Side Street Inn (the old one) butin a more party / drinking / sports bar atmosphere. Depending on what day yougo (i.e., if there is an MMA fight going on) it can be more sports bar, vs. onother days it’s more office co-workers going for happy hour after work.

No beers on tap (if I recall correctly) and no fancy drinks,but a basic drink list of beers, spirits (don’t recall seeing wine, but theymust have…). I always get a Blue Moon, because otherwise it’s a choice ofHeineken / Bud / Bud Light / Coors Light etc.

But the real reason to go (other than people watching, whichis very fun here) is the pupus. My go-to’s are the Tater Tot Nachos and the NegitoroPoke (poke with a green cilantro sauce). NOM both are to die for. Also triedthe garlic chicken (so-so, really fatty pieces of chicken), fried rice(excellent), kim chee fried rice (good but really wet), parmesan truffle fries(with fried pepperoni!!), the ribeye steak (fatty), and the hamburger steakplate. Everything is delicious, easy to share, affordable, and the wait staffare all super friendly. I went every weekend in a row for a month, introducingdifferent groups of friends to the place, because I couldn’t get enough of thefood there :)

1683 Kalakaua Ave., by Kapiolani

Inside decor: sports bar

Kim chee poke (but I prefer the negi toro)

Fried rice

Hamburger steak

Biggest salad ever!

TATER TOT NACHOS. Tater tots, jalapenos, olives, sour cream, salsa and that nasty nacho cheese. But so delicious together.

Pepperoni (fried and crispy) truffle oil fries

Yelp

Leonard's Bakery: Whaaaat, not the malasadas?

2011-12-26T18:04:00.004-10:00

Yummy visit to Leonard's last week when a friend was in town on vacation. We were wondering where to go for dessert after taking her to Ono Hawaiian Food, so I sneakily suggested either Bubbie's or Leonard's, since I'd been hoping to try either (a) the holiday flavor mochi ice cream at Bubbies -- cranberry & pumpking, or (b) the banana cream pie at Leonards. Random, right? Who goes to Leonard's for the pastries? I can't remember where I read about it, but I knew I had to try it.

Malasada menu: Just 90 cents! For Original, cinnamon sugar, or li hing mui (sour plum powder). And just $1.25 for a custard filled malasada (original, chocolate, haupia, or flavor of the month).

Love the schedule of malasada filling: mac nut, pineapple, mango, guava and lilikoi.

Mmmmm, the squares of banana cream pie. They don't look that good behind the glass pastry case, but man they were worth it.

Inside the bakery

Some cute holiday cupcakes: poinsettia and snowflake

All wrapped up to go

Ooh, I want some of that Portuguese sweet bread next time I am there.

933 Kapahulu Ave
Honolulu, HI 96816

(808) 737-5591

www.leonardshawaii.com

Yelp

Favorite of the year: Monarch Seafood

2011-12-26T08:31:00.000-10:00

MonarchSeafood

Somehow Monarch had flown beneath myradar all of these years. I know that the best grinds are in Kalihi (Ethel’s,Gulick Deli, etc) and I have Kahai Kitchen on my list to try, but never heardabout Monarch until my friend Ali brought me a menu and told me I would loveit.

She created a monster in me...nowI’m obsessed with their crab stuffed ahi and the banana cream pie. And Ihaven’t even tried their poke yet. Between Tanioka’s and here, these are my twofavorite finds since moving home a year ago.

No seating, take outonly, but totally worth the drive to Kalihi even if you eat it in the parkinglot in your car. And don’t forget the banana cream pie!

Crab stuffed ahi with wasabi sauce -- to die for

Hawaiian plate - along with some of the best poke on the island. You usually get one cup of poke and one of lomi salmon, but we went late and they were all out of lomi salmon.

Monarch Seafood

515 Kalihi St
Honolulu, HI 96819

(808) 841-7877

Yelp

Soul food

2011-11-06T15:01:00.002-10:00

I cannot get enough of Sean Priester's cooking. It's like crack for me. And I know that there isn't really much good for me in it (hello, it's southern cooking at it's best) but that doesn't keep me away.

BBQ sandwich

Fried chicken plate...love the cornbread, veggie chili and collard greens

Pecan pie with whipped cream

Every month when I end up at Eat the Street (love to support them, plus it's right by my office in Kaka'ako) I get drawn magnetically to the Soul truck. Even when I want to try all the awesome new trucks.

I've been an original customer at Soul, ever since the Groupon debut, and I became complete obsessed with the cornbread.

Today I found some competition for Soul...another stick to your ribs, clog your arteries, want to take a kanak attack kind of meal that is so good even though you know all that about it, you can't stop eating good soul food.

Kiss My Grits is a tiny little hole in the wall at Puck's Alley (University Ave) that just opened this fall. They specialize in bbq - North Caroline Style or Southern (Georgia?) style, and also have fried chicken, catfish, shrimp & grits, and more.

Owner Kirstin Jackson moved to Hawaii 17 years ago and was initially working as a very successful publicist but finally gave up her steady job to follow her dream of opening a southern restaurant a few months ago. You can tell that she's thought about all of the small details that go into running a restaurant while she's been hatching her dream, as evidenced by the cute table setting below.

We started with the fried green tomatoes, a recommendation from a friend who was dining there.

Then moved onto our mains: the Dixie Chicken sandwich (which I read about on Yelp and had to try) and the BBQ plate with North Carolina sauce. (vs. a sweeter southern BBQ sauce). The Dixie Chicken is a must-try: a homemade freshly baked biscuit, ham, fried chicken, egg and pimento sauce. To die for.

Then the bbq beef plate: complete with cole slaw, a deviled egg and hush puppies (friend cornmeal dough), served with honey butter! The hush puppy was my highlight.

To end, we had to get the bread pudding, which truly was the best (and most sinful) bread pudding I've ever had. Read this review at Yelp which convinced me. Next time I'm gonna try the banana pudding though, another southern favorite of mine.

Now I'm going to go take a nap...

Kiss My Grits

1035 University Ave

Honolulu, HI 96826

348-0626

Yelp

Revisiting Bangkok Chef (Nu'uanu)

2011-10-05T19:23:00.000-10:00

I've tried the super cheap (i.e., the sketch place on the corner of Alakea and King St with the big $5 sign in the window) and the fancier Thai in Honolulu (Phuket Thai, Keo's) but I always come back to Bangkok Chef. While it's not oh-my-god I'm eating in Thailand authentic, it's good, satisfying, always the same, and very affordable.

Here's some pics from the last time I was there (Nu'uanu location)

Tom yum - nice & sour

Pad see ew

Green chicken curry with sticky rice

thai tea and pandan flavored tapioca

strawberry pannacotta

Bangkok Chef
Multiple locations including Manoa, Nimitz and Nu'uanu
Yelp

Auntie Pasto's on Pensacola

2011-10-05T07:17:00.000-10:00

Hadn't been to Auntie Pasto's since high school (ummm, fifteen years ago), but was craving some American-style Italian food. As in, more Italian than the Spaghetti Factory or Buca, but not as fancy / authentic as Assagio's. I still remembered the warm, soft goodness of the bread basket at Auntie Pasto's back in the day (which used to be somewhere other than Pi'ikoi, if I remember correctly? But I can't remember exactly where...)

Mmm, the bread basket (with pesto now!)

Bread basket

Mixed greens with walnuts, strawberries and cheese - this was a fantastic salad.

Fancier salad than I'd expect

Eggplant parm

And finally onto the mains: spaghetti with eggplant parm, and a spaghetti with meatballs (my go-to dish, back in the day). The most pleasant surprise of the evening...each was about $8.95! I don't remember exactly, but was shocked at how affordable the place still is. And delicious to boot.

And the classic spaghetti w/ meatballs

Auntie Pasto's
Pi'ikoi near South Beretania
Yelp

Reviewing Non Stop's Korean eats

2011-10-03T09:20:00.000-10:00

Ah Lang - Angry Korean Lady / Seoul Garden Yakiniku / Chodang

My brother wasobsessed with Non Stop Honolulu’s write-up on “where the Koreans eat Koreanfood on Oahu.” Obsessed to the point of creating a spreadsheet to chart whichrestaurant got the most votes, and what to order at each. If I had a copy I’dput it up here (especially because Non Stop’s slide shows can be a big pain to flipthrough, since they don’t have links to any specific pages within the slideshow, or any mechanism to select a slide. But that’s beside the point).

Here’s the story: http://www.nonstophonolulu.com/stories/where-real-koreans-eat-korean-food/

We’d already been toa bunch (Orine, Sorabol, etc). I just realized I’ve never put up Orine on myblog, which I need to get about doing, since that’s one of my favorite Koreanfinds in Honolulu.

Anyway, we pickedthree new ones to try: The Angry Korean Lady, Seoul Garden Yakiniku andChodang. Found two winnahs out of the three, which is pretty good in my book.The only one I wouldn’t head back to is Chodang. It’s good for what it is -super cheap sit down Korean food ($4.99 and $5.99 specials including ban chan?That’s pretty amazing) right outside of Ala Moana shopping center. But the foodwasn’t anything amazing.

I’d torn betweenpicking a favorite of Ah Lang (the angry Korean lady) and Seoul Garden. SeoulGarden was probably better overall, and a real restaurant as opposed to a tiny(4 table?) spot in a strip mall in Kakaako, but I am still thinking about themeat jun at Ah Lang as some of the best I’ve ever had.

The proprietress atAh Lang is know as the “Angry Korean Lady” for a reason. She has very specificopinions about how she runs her restaurant, and she’s made little signs withall of them and hung them up on each wall, just in case you forget.

But aside from her rules,there’s her food.

The ban chan (a stepup from a Korean plate lunch)

cold noodles

kal bi

soon du bu

And this is the meat jun (although I had to borrow the pic from Yelp, since as soon as ours came out, I started eating and forgot to take a pic!)

Seoul Garden is oneof those places I’ve driven past on Kapiolani a million times but never reallynoticed before. But when it got such raves on Non Stop, we had to make a tripover there. It seems (to me, at least) to be pretty full-on authentic, withKorean speaking servers, and primarily Koreans eating in the restaurant.

The menu isextensive, so it was hard to pick between favorite stand-bys (kim chee pancake,soon du bu) and new stuff we wanted to try.

For 3 of us, we endedup going with:

pork & kim cheestir fry

“tofu dregs” - likeokara

fishjun

yook kae jang - beefsoup - this was my winnah of the day. Nice & spicy.

Expensive for lunch($20 each) but definitely worth another visit!

Lastly, there's Chodang:

Chodang ban chan

Cho dang meat jun

Kal bi tang

Soon du bu

Not food per se, but right next to Bac Nam! New recycled furniture store

2011-10-02T15:29:00.000-10:00

Saw this on Paula Rath's blog this morning: a new recycled furniture store over on King Street. Mark Ariyoshi takes used furniture (estate sales, hotels), refurbishes it, and sells it. Store looks super cute! Once I have a house to furnish, I'm definitely going to check it out.

**And I borrowed this picture from the story, just because I like how Bac Nam pops up in the background :)

Da Spot's new digs on King St.

2011-10-02T08:54:00.001-10:00

Da Spot
YUM. I’m a fan of DaSpot from back in the daywhen I would go to their TINY little hole in the wall for the amazing Egyptianchicken, curries, and smoothies. I’d also go track them down on UH campus or atfarmers markets.

When I heard theywere opening a fancy new spot by UH, I had to go check it out. It’s amazing howfar they’ve come, and I’m so happy for Ahmad and Ako with their success. Thenew place (open for lunch and dinner) has a hot bar (pick 1 or 2 for a plate),PLUS a fridge of yummy looking mezze (hummus, baba ganoush, grape leaves,olives, cheese etc) that you can order by the pound (would be an awesome tapasparty) AND an even larger menu of smoothies.

My friend and I split a two choice plate ($10, not cheap) and a piece ofbaklava. I am blanking on which curries exactly we had - there were so many tochoose from! But both of our selections were fantastic. I’ll definitely be backhere frequently.

Looking in

Curries

Grape leaves & veggie curry

Mezze

$10 2 choice plate w/ brown basmati rice & taboulleh salad

Da Spot
King St by University
Honolulu Magazine
Yelp

This is it: Best bagel on the Island!

2011-03-31T13:06:00.001-10:00

I miss my east coast bagels. I still remember when my dad brought home a bakers dozen of H&H bagels and I finished them off in a few days. Heaven on Earth. Chewy but soft. I tend to avoid bagels when I'm at home (although I do like Lox of Bagels on Sand Island), but I wanted to pick up bagels for my office the other day. So I decided to stop off at This is It in Kaka'ako...for the best bagels on the island. Here's the baskets of fresh bagels. You can see all the donuts in the back! They also have a separate case with pastries and scones. I got a dozen mini bagels and some cream cheese for my office. And also picked up a sandwich for lunch. Wasn't sure how I was spending $7 or 8 on a bagel sandwich, but it was SO worth it. The bagel was delish and the perfect base for my ham & cheese sandwich.

And also a scone for the road...yum...

443 Cooke St Honolulu, HI 96813

(808) 597-1017

Yelp

Cheesy goodness: Melt and Bella Mia Pizzeria

2011-03-29T16:52:00.001-10:00

Mmmmm, there is always room in my stomach for lots of gooey, melted cheese. Checked out the relatively new Bella Mia pizza & pasta place on Beretania with some friends. It's a super cute red and white house with lots of patio seating.This is why I wanted to go: PIZZA FRIES! I can't believe every other Italian restaurant hasn't capitalized on this. French fries smothered in marinara sauce, pepperoni and mozzarella cheese.

We also had a calzone (yum).

And a meatball sub...even more yum.

Everyone's been buzzing about Melt, the gourmet grilled cheese food truck. They are hard to pin down, since they are in a different spot almost every day, but so worth following their twitter feed to find them.

My melt sandwich peeking out of its bag:

Rye bread, bacon and cheese, perfectly grilled:

More rye bread, cheese (can't remember what type) and swiss chard (although why pretend to make a grilled cheese sandwich healthy?). Sandwiches are about $6:

Bella Mia Pizzeria

2222 S Beretania St Honolulu, HI 96826

(808) 941-4400

Yelp

New vs old-school Korean: Duck Butt & Ja Gal Chi

2011-03-28T17:06:00.000-10:00

Ja Gal Chi made Yelp's list of Korean restaurants you need to try on Oahu. It's a small little place off of Keaumoku St that is known for its soon doo bu (tofu stew). Front of the menu: Inside of menu: sometimes it's tough to understand what exactly the dishes are!

The house rice is sticky purple rice...exciting!

Here is the famous soon doo bu - this was by far the best dish we had. On the right is the kim chee pancake - I wouldn't order this again. Way too doughy and heavy.

Meat jun: this was ok but not amazing

Whoops, here are the ban chan that came with our meal. Nice but not stellar

To get a different perspective on Korean food in the Ala Moana / Kaka'ako area, we also went to Cafe Duck Butt, a karaoke bar in Kaka'ako. They have happy hour every day until 7 or 8 pm!

Inside view of the bar; lots of booths + a few private karaoke rooms

No ban chan (the bar setting) so we started right in with the kim chee pancake.

Shrimp tempura

Poke (rec by the waitress)

Spicy mochi with hard boiled egg

Cafe Duck Butt

901 Kawaiahao St Honolulu, HI 96814

(808) 593-1880

Yelp

Liliha Bakery pancakes & pancake batter

2011-03-27T17:14:00.000-10:00

Everyone knows Liliha Bakery for their cocoa puffs. But I'm trying to spread the word that they should also be known for the_best_pancakes_on_earth. And not just pancakes at their in-house restaurant (because it takes forever to get a seat) but for their take home pancake batter! They sell it in the refridgerated case across from the main bakery case. You get a take-out container that looks like this: Only $5.25 and it makes more pancakes than my family of 4 can eat. The pancakes puff up miraculously. I'm actually horrible at making pancakes on my own (they always look terrible and burn) but these come out perfectly every time. Perfect for having all of your friends over for a Sunday Brunch!

515 North Kuakini Street Honolulu, HI 96817

(808) 531-1651

lilihabakeryhawaii.com

Yelp

Favorite sweet treats on Oahu

2011-03-26T17:13:00.000-10:00

When I'm craving sweets (as I have been recently) there are a couple of places I always turn to:

+ Cake couture
Mmmmm, I can't get enough of their cupcakes ($2.50 each). Perfectly moist cake, just the right amount of frosting (in a ridiculously decadent way) to make all of your worries go away.

+ Ted's

Ted's Bakery is out on the North Shore, which is super far away, but oh so worth it just for this carrot cake. They are definitely more famous for their chocolate haupia pie (available at most grocery stores on Oahu too) but I am a fan of their carrot cake. The cake is super smooth and textureless (my hypothesis is that they use carrot puree, instead of shredded carrots) with a delicious cream cheese frosting. (I borrowed this pic from Flickr...the cake is actually round; $4/slice or $18 for an entire cake).

+ Kamehameha Bakery

Kam bakery is in Kalihi and is famous for their taro doughnuts. Check out the purple color below!

Top left: taro doughnut

Top right: regular glazed doughnut

Bottom: butter roll

Also famous for their banana bread:

+ Otto

My family is loyal to my aunty's homemade lilikoi cheesecake, which has to be one of my favorite foods. I thought it was the pinnacle of cheesecake until I tried Otto. Otto is a tiny hole in the wall in Chinatown that opened maybe a year ago? I don't know how he does it, but this is the smoothest, creamiest cheesecake I've ever had. The crust is the perfect balance of sweet and buttery. He sells by the slice ($5) or by the entire cake. He has more flavors that I could ever have imagined for cheesecake; below is the lemon.

+ Thang's

When I'm walking around Chinatown and want something sweet (and that I can pretend to myself is somewhat healthy), I stop a Thang's for a durian or soursop smoothie with pearls. Heaven on earth.

Food truck festival tonight!

2011-01-27T17:12:00.003-10:00

Hey everybody~~looking for somewhere to eat tonight? StreetGrindz is putting on a food truck festival on Kapiolani...bring together all of your favorite food trucks to one central parking lot :)

Can't believe they didn't think of this earlier...

6-9 pm
1637 Kapiolani Blvd

Old vs. New: Side Street Inn vs. Kaimuki Grill

2011-01-19T17:02:00.000-10:00

I was fascinated by Melissa Chang's post on Nonstop Honolulu about top places to take visitors (I would link to it here, but their website is really difficult to search, and I haven't been able to find it). She lists Kaimuki Grill as one place she always takes people, for when she "knows that Side Street Inn will be impossible to get a table."

In opportune timing, Kaimuki Grill was also featured on Groupon, so I snapped up a coupon. I've actually been twice now; the first time with a friend who was visiting from the mainland. I wanted to take her somewhere local, but she'd already been to Side Street on a previous trip. So I thought, "Perfect! I'll take her to Kaimuki Grill." The second time I went with some old friends who'd never been there but wanted to try it. Both times we loved it (although let me warn you...there's nothing light on the menu. Go hungry and ready to eat something that will kill your diet).

And since I am a die-hard Side Street Inn fan, I wanted to compare them side by side.

Side Street's menu is a beast. It takes forever just to read through it. Being a huge fan of Side Street fried rice (my "must-order" whenever I go there), here's the Side Street fried rice.

We also had the side street kal bi - a little tough and hard to get off the bone (not the best date food! haha)

The Kaimuki Grill menu, on the other hand, is much more manageable. Both sides of a simple table tent. Beers are listed separately on the back of the napkin holder. It's tiny in comparison to side street (maybe 8 tables?) but very homey and comfortable.

I thought these lotus furikake chips were unique to Kaimuki Grill, but I also saw them at Shokudo (or was it at Side Street? I'm completely getting them all mixed up). The furikake flavor didn't come across as strongly as I'd hoped.

Garlic - soy salmon...I was expecting this to be grilled, but in true "bar menu" style it was fried.

Kaimuki Grill fried rice - I had to compare to Side Street. This was great, but I'd have to say that Side Street is still my favorite - the rice is a little stickier is the only way I can think of to make the comparison...

Mac n cheese wedges - Kraft mac & cheese formed into cute little triangles and deep fried. If it wasn't Kraft, these might be the most amazing food.

In sum, I'm still a die-hard Side Street fanatic, but Kaimuki Grill is a great option if you're in Kaimuki or looking for smaller (and cheaper) portions than what Side Street offers.

Kaimuki Grill

1108 12th Ave (in the parking lot near Harding)

732-2292 (they take reservations)

Side Street Inn

1225 Hopaka St (by Ala Moana)

591-0253 (don't also take reservations)

Side Street in the Strip

614 Kapahulu Ave

739.3939

What I'm wishing for in Hawaii's dining scene in 2011

2011-01-18T17:16:00.000-10:00

+ Authentic thai or Laotian, a la Pok Pok in Portland, Oregon

+ South Indian street food (I'll take a restaurant or a food truck)
Dosa, pav bhaji, samosa sandwiches

+ An awesome wine bar that's not in a shopping mall

+ Homestyle Shanghainese or Taiwanese food

Anyone have other things they'd like to see / can tell me where these already exist in Hawaii??

What about you? What are we missing here in Hawaii?

Venturing down to Waikiki: Sansei

2011-01-18T16:59:00.000-10:00

When I think of sushi in Hawaii, I think of Sansei. However I realized that I am dating myself...because I also think of Sansei in Restaurant Row turning into a dance club at 10 pm on Friday and Saturday evenings....yikes!

I was meeting a friend from the mainland who is staying in Waikiki for dinner. I'd originally planned to take her to Side Street on the Strip on Kapahulu, but neglected to realize that it was Tostito Bowl BCS championship day, and the bar was COMPLETELY packed. Boo :(

So we walked back towards Waikiki (since we'd already paid for parking in the lot next to Side Street) and went to Sansei, since I was curious how they are doing these days.

It's on the 3rd floor of the Waikiki Beach Marriott (on the Diamond Head end of Waikiki), right next to DK Steakhouse (which are both owned by DK restaurants). The interior looks surprisingly just like Restaurant Row.

The Sansei Special Roll: spicy crab, cilantro and veggies dusted with furikake. Meh.
Kapalua "Butterfry" roll with Ponzu dipping sauce - meh. Where's the rice? Why is it deep fried?

Miso butterfish...delicious, but it's also pretty hard to mess this one up.

Tempura sweet onion rings - nice touch with the tempura batter

Poke - really liked the addition of salad greens here

Overall, I'm glad I went; it definitely satisfied a craving for Sansei-style sushi. But I think next time I'm craving Japanese, I will splurge on Sasabune or Gaku, or hit up a more reasonably priced sushi joint...does anyone have recs for one with fun rolls like Sansei?

Top meals of 2010

2011-01-05T15:33:00.001-10:00

Top meals in Hawaii (I was only here for a few months, so there weren't that many opportunities)

+ Ono to go
This is a new lunch truck, located on Kapiolani Boulevard, run by 3 guys who love the bbq. I loved the combo poke / kalua pig & cabbage bowl with brown rice, but the bbq is ono as well.

+ Ed Kenney (of Town) catering at Punahou...opa with pan-fried pa'i'ai. Despite the fact that he was catering for probably about ~150 people, this was one of the highlights of my year!

**Top meals outside of Hawaii**

+ Azul / Shanghai

Tapas bar in Shanghai, greatest sangria in the city

+ Haiku / Shanghai

I always have my birthday here, and it was one of my last meals in Shanghai. Run by Chinese American, Alan Wong, who imported "california style" fancy sushi rolls to China.

+ Boulcott Street Bistro / Wellington (New Zealand)

I still remember the tenderness of the lamb shank

+ Tamarind Restaurant / Luang Prabang (Laos)

It's a fancy version of local Laotian dishes, but still cheap (I recall less than $10 a meal). The 4 roast veggie dips with the toasty seaweed was amazing.

+ Hunter valley (wine country outside of Sydney)

We ate at the Tuscany bed & breakfast. The Hunter is a wine region outside of Sydney famed for their Semillons (white wine). If you go, definitely visit Tyrell's, Ashley Wilkinson, and de Bortoli wineries.

Eats: oysters (amazing!), cheeses, and mediterranean-inspired dips

Holiday dinner @ Town (picture heavy)

2010-12-23T08:28:00.012-10:00

The family took our annual visit to Town last night. I'd picked Wednesday, because I was hoping to try "wine down Wednesdays" at Town...which I had read about on Twitter and seemed to be a $25/3 course with wine tasting dinner, to help pick their "diner favorites" on the wine list. Unfortunately when we arrived, the lovely hostess (the stunning hula dancer Beverly Noa, Ed Kenney's mother) told us that we had to pre-book for the special, so we went with the regular menu.

Focaccia and baguette to start, with amazing EVOO:
Homemade mozzarella with prosciutto, roasted eggplants and saba (a balsamic reduction):

Mussels with perfectly toasted bread:

Twice fried french fries...nice & crispy

Town's take on the Zuni Chicken & Bread salad: perfectly roasted chicken, tatsoi greens, croutons and roasted fruit (grapes??):"

Hand cut pasta with sugo sauce (pork gravy)

Pan roasted opa on roasted vegetables:

Salted chocolate pretzel tarte (baked by Chris!): this won rave reviews

Brown butter almond financier...so rich...

And a final palate cleanser -- grapefruit campari sorbet

An outstanding meal!

Town

3435 Waialae Ave. (corner of 9th)

735.5900

After surf breakfast in Kapahulu

2010-12-21T20:10:00.001-10:00

I was starving after a near dawn surf the other day, so I stopped at Diamond Head market on my way home. I was hoping for a piece of cornbread, but it wasn't out yet, so I got a banana cream cheese scone ($3.50). It reminded me of Sconee's banana bread :)
Then as I was driving up Kapahulu towards the freeway, I spotted Bento-Ya Iyasume (in the little mall near Tutti Frutti frozen yogurt). I thought it was Iyasume musubi, which I had read a great review of on Tasty Island, but had never made it over there since it's such a pain to get to anywhere in Waikiki, with the lack of free parking.

I wasn't 100% sure if they were the same owner, but according to Yelp, this one on Kapahulu is the main kitchen, and they send musubi & bentos over to the Koa St location.

Mini bento ($3.50?): choice of one musubi (choose from ume, bonito, salmon or konbu), two pieces of fried chicken, and two little sausages.

A side of nishime ($1.92). They also had other okazu choices, including gobo, eggplant, mac salad, which all looked delish.

A very filling breakfast :)

Diamond Head Market & Grill

3158 Monsarrat Ave.

732.0077

Bento-Ya Iyasume

611 Kapahulu Ave

735.3530

Iyasume Musubi

2410 Koa Ave.

921.0168

A Tale of Three Thais: Opal Thai, Siam Garden & Bangkok Chef

2010-12-18T10:25:00.004-10:00

After traveling around Thailand this summer (Bangkok, Chiang Mai, Udon Thani) and eating an amazing variety of street food, I'm always looking for good Thai food in Honolulu. Plus it has the option to be [a little] healthier than other takeout, since it is packed with veggies, especially if you avoid the coconut based curries.

1) Opal Thai I'd read great reviews of this one online, plus heard from a friend that they have the best pad thai in Hawaii. I'd definitely recommend the pad thai here ($8 with tofu)! Also tried the green curry with chicken ($8.25) and the roasted chili shrimp ($9). I'd asked for "spicy" but neither was particularly hot. Sticky rice is an extra $1.75

It's kind of difficult to get to, since they're on the North Shore, but definitely worth a stop if you are out there. Be sure to leave lots of time though; we went on the early side, not even much of a line, and it still took 25 minutes to get our order. 2) Bangkok Chef A stand-by for takeout in our house...Bangkok Chef is cheap and satisfying. It wasn't as authentic as I'd remembered it being, but still a decent meal. Chicken larb:

Shrimp & mango salad (heavy on the vermicelli noodles)

Chicken stir fry with basil and bamboo

3) Siam Garden

This was my first time at Siam Garden. It was packed on a week day night, and all of the staff looked like they just arrived in Hawaii from Thailand. It was good, but wasn't something I'd necessarily go back to again.

Clockwise from top: pad thai, sticky rice, green papaya salad, and roasted chili chicken stir fry

Opal Thai
66-460 Kamehameha Hwy
381-8091

Bangkok Chef
2955 E Manoa Rd
988-0212

Siam Garden Cafe
1130 N Nimitz
523-9338

Really ono: Ono to go food truck

2010-12-18T08:10:00.008-10:00

Ono To Go
I'm not really a big eater at lunch time. Yes, of course I have to eat something, but usually not too much (either because I've been snacking all morning, or because I want to run / workout in the afternoon and don't want too much in my stomach). You can ask my co-worker, who complains that I always make him feel bad for eating so much more than I do.

Well, I've found a spot that is sooo good that even I was polishing off my plate. In my lunch truck search (previous trip to Gogi Taco), I went to check out Ono To Go, a new-ish truck that just opened this fall. I'd been following their twitter and then read this fantastic story on them in Nonstop Honolulu so knew I had to go check it out.

What I loved:

+ They stay in the same location all week
+ The guys working there are so nice and checked up on all their customers to make sure they enjoyed their meal
+ The rice (choice of white or brown, so moist & perfectly cooked)
+ Everything on the menu (especially the poke / kalua pig bowl)

Truck from the outside:

The grill: Poke combo bowl with kalua pig & cabbage ($7)

Bbq combo plate: chicken & steak

Brunch @ Alan Wong's Pineapple Room

2010-12-17T07:00:00.000-10:00

My aunty treated me to brunch at Alan Wong's Pineapple Room (inside Macy's at Ala Moana) over Restaurant Week. She'd had several other fabulous restaurant week experiences, so we were hoping to find out what Alan Wong was featuring.

Unfortunately when we arrived, we asked for the RW menu, and were told that they only serve it at dinner. Hmph.

Luckily the extensive brunch and lunch menu looked delicious, so we made our selections from there.

My aunty had the Alan Wong burger, which is basically what she orders everytime she's here. It's probably her favorite burger on the island.

I had the seared ahi salad, with furikake tofu (hidden under the ahi) on a bed of baby greens. The dressing (sweet ginger soy) was delish!

I ended the meal with a small size of the halo halo cup: tapioca, red bean, ice, fruit drizzled with coconut milk.

It would've been a great meal, except for the fact that the service was really off that day. We kept being ignored, forgotten about, and then at times apologized to profusely because they knew their service was really bad that day. Not sure if the manager / head server forgot to come into work that day or what, but it was really distracting. Our server promised us a free dessert to make up for the slow speed and our forgotten drink orders, but in the end, the dessert was still on the menu. It was fine, and I paid for it since I would've ordered it anyway, but the staff shouldn't be making promises and then forgetting about them.

The Pineapple Room by Alan Wong

Ala Moana Shopping Center

Macy's, 3rd floor

945-6573

Yelp

Ethel's Grill in Kalihi

2010-12-16T07:15:00.001-10:00

One (of the many) good thing about having a new job, is getting new recommendations about where to eat! We had a very disappointing office holiday lunch at Sam Choy's Breakfast, Lunch & Crab (the menu choices sounded delicious, but no one actually enjoyed their meal), so we took ourselves for a guaranteed good meal at Ethel's Grill in Kalihi. I'd heard amazing things about the mochiko chicken and sashimi there, so knew I had to try it.

Ethel's is sit-down (in my mind, it was more of a bento / okazuya type place), and sitting down next to us was none other than Honolulu Magazine's renowned restaurant reviewer. A sign of a good place!

First page of the menu

I didn't even notice the specials up above the kitchen until after we had ordered, but I know I need to expand to those on the next trip. The cabbage rolls were especially popular today; I noticed several tables eating them.Additional menu items:
We started with the tataki sashimi, which is only $5. I loved the sesame - soy dressing, and the boiled fern greens on the side. Topped with thinly sliced fried garlic. Amazing.

I had the mochiko chicken - it was big pieces compared to an okazuya - so light and crispy on the outside, moist on the inside. I poured the dipping sauce all over the chicken. It comes as an entire meal (with rice, miso soup, salad and fruit punch / iced tea) for just $7!

My friend had the garlic chicken....yum. (That's a piece of it on the center of my mochiko chicken plate)

The service was fantastic and so friendly; they gave us some free andagi because they felt the wait was too long, even though we didn't even notice it!

232 Kalihi St.

Honolulu, HI 96819

847-6467

More pho in Chinatown: Golden River

2010-12-15T18:45:00.004-10:00

I was on River St for lunch the other day and wanted to get some pho. After finally going to Pho To Chau (the really popular pho restaurant on river street, that always has a line down the block), I wanted to try something different. We went in to Golden River (right on the corner of River and N King) which is always busy, but usually doesn't have the line going out the door.

I actually prefer Golden River because even though the prices are slightly higher than To Chau, the menu offers more variety.

Bun Bo Hue is my 2nd favorite thing to try in a Vietnamese restaurant (after pho, of course). It's Vietnamese "spicy beef soup" with a strong lemongrass and chile pepper flavor. It came with pork knuckle, tofu, and pork sausage.
Bun rieu cua: rice vermicelli soup with crab. This one looks spicy, but it's actually just a tomato based broth that makes it red, not peppers. I saw someone eating this the first time we were there, and went back a 2nd time just to order it. Amazing. The crab is cooked into the egg and is so delish.
3 color jelly drink:
Plate of veggies & herbs for the soup
Golden River Restaurant
198 N King St
Honolulu, HI 96817
531-1185
Yelp (yeah, most people go here if the line is too long for To Chau...but at least it is bringing more business to GR!)

Taiwanese hot pot in Hawaii: Sweet Home Cafe

2010-12-15T18:09:00.007-10:00

Sweet Home Cafe

During the weekend of the crazy rainstorm at the beginning of December, when it was cold and gray outside, I was craving some Chinese hot pot (similar to Japanese shabu-shabu). Basically you pick your broth, they bring it out to you and pour it into the hot plate on your table. Then you pick your choice of raw meat and then go up to the fridge cases to pick out plates of raw veggies, fish cake, tofu and noodles. After the soup comes to a boil, you can just start dumping in meat, noodles, veggies etc, and pull them out as they get cooked.

One of the highlights at SHC are the dipping sauces. It was always my favorite part of hot pot in China, but SHC has taken it to a new level. I was used to maybe 8-10 different bowls of sauce ingredients (vinegar, hot sauce, sha cha, soy sauce, green onions etc) but SHC had 20 different items to choose from, including ginger sauce (like what you get on cold ginger chicken at a Chinese restaurant), garlic butter sauce (fusion!), and a white miso that our server recommended. You can choose to mix up a bunch in one bowl together (like I did) or enjoy them individually.

A final highlight of SHC: the complimentary shave ice (Taiwanese style) at the end. Taiwanese shave ice includes a large pile of shaved ice, topped with brown sugar syrup and condensed milk, and then with tapioca pearls, chocolate pudding, almond tofu, tapioca and these long orange chewy worms. YUM. Sugar overload!

Our meal for 3 (including leftovers) came out to about $35.

A couple of things to know: no reservations (write your name down on the clipboard outside when you arrive), BYOB, you must finish eating in 90 minutes.

Our broth "spicy"
Plates of oyster mushrooms, soft tofu, tofu knots, and gailan. Sliced beef in the front
My dipping sauce on the left, Taiwanese fish cake on the right (with corn inside)
Grand finale: bowl of shave ice
2334 S King St
947-3707 (no reservations)

Aiea/Pearl City fieldtrip: Bravo & Ice Garden

2010-12-02T13:09:00.000-10:00

Took a little trip for work last week out to Pearl City, so we wanted to go somewhere new for lunch. One of my co-workers is from Pearl City, so was giving us a list of options to try for lunch. After her description of the garlic bread at Bravo, I knew that would be my vote of where to eat!

Here are the famous garlic bread rolls: dripping with butter and garlic
I had the lunch special: small garden salad and small portion of any pasta (I chose the rigatoni with meatballs); it was about $7

For dessert, we went over to Ice Garden (which is by Aiea Bowl). It's run by two sweet little old ladies who look like they have been making shave ice forever. If you are a fan of super smooth (no icy bits) shave ice, you need to try this!

The menu: 30 types of bowls!

Making the shave ice

The most popular order in our group: custard on top of shave ice, drizzled with condensed milk

My order (it was amazing!): red beans, green beans, mochi balls, taro, and oatmeal, drizzled with condensed milk. Around $4.

Addresses

Bravo

Pearl Ridge Center

98-115 Kaonohi St

487-5544 (no reservations)

Yelp

Ice Garden

99-080 Kauhale St

Aiea Shopping Center

488-5154

Yelp

Another ono pancake & waffle day

2010-11-28T20:34:00.001-10:00

It's funny: after 3 days of eating turkey plus all of the surrounding carbs (stuffing, butter rolls, sweet potatoes, cookies, pies, etc.), now I can't stop craving more carbs. Seriously, I've been eating cookies & rolls for days.

Now today (day #4), I was still craving carbs, so somehow ended up eating both pancakes (in the form of Liliha bakery pancake batter) and a waffle (in the form of a KC waffle dog). Talk about old school!

Liliha bakery: I've never been such a Liliha bakery die hard addict (because I don't eat chocolate, so I never got addicted to their coco puffs), but after today I've been converted.

I've discussed in the past how I love to search for fluffy waffles. Well, I also love fluffy pancakes. And Liliha bakery is voted the best for fluffy pancakes in town (by Honolulu magazine, where I stole this pic from). Although I never knew this until today.

My friend scored boxes of new kitchen gadgets at the Macy's black friday sale, and was unpacking her new plug-in griddle (more environmentally friendly than turning on the stove, apparently) when our other friend suggested we make pancakes using Liliha bakery pancake batter. What? They sell pancake batter?

Apparently we aren't the only ones who like to play with their electric griddle, because that (pic above stolen from Yelp, it actually looks a little different now) is pancake batter from Liliha bakery! The pancakes cooked up perfectly, and actually looked just like the ones in the pic above. Amazing.

Then, we were at the Christmas Craft Fair at Blaisdell, wandering around the food gift section, when we saw the KC Hot Dog stand! KC Drive Inn closed in 2005, but Dayton Asato (part of the original family), still makes the famous dog for events & parties. You can find out where he is going to be here.

OK, no more eating for awhile now!

Finally...Gogi taco truck

2010-11-24T15:23:00.002-10:00

Been dying to try this since I read that Korean tacos have hit the island. Took me awhile though, to figure out where they were, when they were open, and find a convenient time to go check them out. Verdict: satisfied my curiosity but probably won't become a regular here. Get the kim chee fries if you go!

Gogi taco truck from the ordering side:
Top: spicy pork taco ($2)
Bottom: BBQ chicken taco ($2)

Left: tofu taco ($2)

Right: Short rib ($2)

Creamy kim chee fries with parmesan (?), pickled garlic & green onion sprinkled on top. This was definitely the highlight of the meal ($4).

Gogi truck from the parking lot:

Gogi truck from the street: this is what you are looking for when you are driving down Kapiolani (close to Shokudo)! (today they were at 1637 Kapiolani, but always subject to change, gotta check their twitter)

Wine tasting @ Amuse Wine Bar (inspiration design center)

2010-11-17T14:45:00.003-10:00

Amuse wine bar is situated in the Honolulu Design Center on Kapiolani Boulevard. It's a bit strange walking through the furniture store past the $2,000 coffee tables on your way to a bar, but hey, they found a great space.

The highlight of Amuse is the wine tasting machines. You put a dollar amount on a stored value card (kinda like Dave & Busters), stick your card into any of the 4 wine tasting machines, and taste away! Each wine shows a price above, the cost of a 1 oz. taste. They ranged from $1 to almost $20 a taste (I think that was the Opus One). It was a little hard to tell what some of the wines are, since you can only see the front of the label, and there isn't any other signage (except for the Robert Parker 95+ pt wines) to identify what you are drinking, what type of grape it is, or where it is from.

Hopefully you like red wines, because only about 10 of the ~70 or 80 wines available are white.

Highlights of the tasting machines last night were:

Warwick Pinotage (South Africa). Not sure how much this is selling for at Amuse, but I priced it online for around $17 a bottle. Pinotage is a red grape specific to South Africa; it's a medium bodied red, pretty fruity on the palate

A Brunello (Italy--I have to check what the name was). According to the book on wines I read, Brunello is both a region in Italy and a grape varietal, somewhat related to sangiovese and nebbiolo. This was a splurge ($6 a taste) so I don't think I could afford a bottle, but it was impressive. Silky smooth with a bite from the tannins but not acidic at all. This was in the special Robert Parker 95-99 pt section, it scored 95 pts from him.

A tip: we went on a Saturday, so had to pay full value for our wine tasting machine card. BUT if you go btw 5 - 8 pm on Mondays and Wednesdays, you can get $50 value for just $30!

Amuse wine bar
Honolulu Design Ctr
1250 Kapiolani Blvd, 2f
Yelp

Dinner @ Shokudo (Ala Moana)

2010-11-16T19:35:00.007-10:00

For some reason, I thought Shokudo was going to be a very traditional Japanese restaurant, so I was surprised when I walked in to see all locals eating there, and a creative / fusion Japanese menu.

I wasn't blown away by any of the food (except the honey toast!) but I thought maybe it was just me, and I should get some second opinions. I checked out the Yelp reviews, and even though it has 3 1/2 stars, no one really raves about it or swears by this place. There's an interesting quote from one Yelper, saying "Shokudo was one of those cool places where all the cool kids went to eat. Now, and I'm sure thanks to Yelp, it's just some place that sells you toast that isn't toasted." hee hee

We ordered a bunch of appetizers to share, since we were saving room for dessert.

Cucumber ume salad with bonito - this was tasty
Homemade tofu - very different from Chinese homemade tofu. Curious how they make it. Much creamier, although I got a slightly powdery and roasted flavor as well. Comes with a soy sauce, green onions, chopped up nori, and kosher salt (the big crystals) to sprinkle on
Spicy scallop roll - this was not very good. It was falling apart, not much rice, and had this weird white nori - type wrapping
Yukari french fries - couldn't really taste the yukari sprinkled on, not very hot
...and then dessert...the famous honey toast. 2 giant slices of white Japanese toast, hollowed out. The innards are cut into cubes, fried in butter, drizzled in honey, then stuffed back into the crusts, and topped with two scoops of ice cream :)
Shokudo
1585 Kapiolani Blvd
941-3701
Yelp

Some lunches: Da Kitchen, Fort Street Cafe, and Shirokiya

2010-11-13T14:59:00.009-10:00

A melange of lunches I've had recently:

1) Da Kitchen
Ok, so this place isn't that new in Honolulu (it's originally from Maui) but new to me. I'd been hearing about it all over, but hadn't made it over to Isenberg to check it out. It's right next to Maple Garden, and they have a decent size parking lot in the back.

We had the fried musubi (omg, why didn't anyone else think of this before? I can't believe it's not on every menu in Hawaii - it epitomizes island food - spam, rice, and deep fried goodness). $4.50
And the special of the day: shoyu ginger opakapaka plate lunch (I was expecting it to be grilled, but it came fried). $15.50

2) Fort Street Cafe
After reading on Nonstop Honolulu about their extensive search for the best garlic chicken on the island, I had to go try their #1 pick, Fort St. Cafe. I had assumed it would be in small, mochiko chicken type of pieces, so I was surprised to see these big pieces of chicken. They had each been pounded flat, fried, and then a clear, sweet-garlicky sauce was poured on top.

3) Shirokiya
Shirokiya makes me wish I worked near Ala Moana shopping center. I would eat here every day. Heck, if I ever open my own company, I will put our office near Ala Moana just so I can eat here every day.

Bento (which I picked because of the flavored musubi: one had salmon flakes and the other had this sweet - salty konbu type of thing, but I'm not exactly sure what it is. It also came with a piece of fried chicken, nishime, and pickles.Shirokiya spam musubi (with egg and furikake)

Sconees

2010-10-28T08:20:00.005-10:00

Mmm....snacks after yoga yesterday. Banana bread with the little brown banana specks:

...and a blueberry mini scone...yesterday was pastry heaven :)

Sconees
1117 12th Ave
734-4024
Yelp

KCC farmer's market 10/22

2010-10-23T09:11:00.000-10:00

Kapiolani Community College
4303 Diamond Head Rd
Saturdays, 730 am - 11 am

Best cupcakes?

2010-10-22T15:42:00.000-10:00

I've never lived in New York, but I used to go and visit friends there every year, when the cupcake craze was just taking off. We'd visit Magnolia, Buttercup, Dean & Deluca, and others I can't even remember. So that's how I got hooked on cupcakes.

While I was living in Shanghai, one girl brought the cupcake craze to the city but only via delivery, so it wasn't as though I could go pick up a cupcake whenever I was craving one (although she did later start distributing through Gloria Jean's coffee).

Now that I'm back home, I've been craving cupcakes. I guess it's mostly just because they are available! I tried to bake some (usually, I'm a pretty decent baker) but for some reason, they were all disastrous and like solid little lumps, instead of nice light, moist, risen delightful cakes.

So I went cupcake exploring and tried out 3 of Honolulu's cupcake shops. Here are my favorites:

#1) Cake Couture (Aina Haina)
This is my ultimate cupcake. The cake is moist and has the perfect crumb. The frosting is sweet, buttery and loaded on. The store is perfectly designed - very clean, modern look.

#2) Cake Creations (Manoa)
This is a relatively new shop, I believe. She started out doing wedding cakes and expanded to have a storefront bakeshop. The cupcakes were beautiful - best presentation - but the cake tasted a little like a cake mix and was not as moist as Cake Couture. Only 3 flavors available in the shop when I was there.

#3) Hokulani (downtown / restaurant row)
Most variety of flavors but lacking in presentation and taste. They were cute, but more of in a home-made looking way. The cake was a little dry.

Tell me, are there any cupcakes out there that I am missing?

New finds in town

2010-10-21T21:09:00.001-10:00

Hi everyone! Since I've been home, I've been trying to visit some places
that are newly opened (ok, I've been living away from the island for over two years, so my definition of "new" is not necessarily that new).

I've been reading the following in order to get ideas that go on my "list of restaurants to try"

- Yelp Honolulu- Nonstop Honolulu
- Chowhound
- And of course all the great Hawaii food blogs

#1) Cafe Kaila

When I was growing up, my parents had this old school waffle maker that made the flattest, crispiest waffles ever. I couldn't stand them. That experience made me avoid waffles for most of the rest of my 31 years.

The old waffle iron:

Until I discovered soft, fluffy Belgian waffles, like this:

Yum.

So when I read on yelp about the best breakfasts in town, I had to try Cafe Kaila.

We got there around 1030 or 11 am on a Sunday and faced this line:

Yikes. We thought we could go browse at Fujioka's wine at market city, but they weren't even open yet! So we stood in line (the staff kept everyone in line happy with free waffle samples).

Once we were finally seated, we were starving and ordered what felt like half of the menu:

- a waffle (of course!)
- pancakes
- the breakfast quesadilla
- the fritatta

The waffle unfortunately did not live up to my soft fluffy expectations, but everyone else at the table loved it. Everything else was fantastic though - the pancakes were soft and fluffy and slightly spiced, the breakfast quesadilla was stuffed with bacon and incredibly addicting, and the fritatta was very satisfying.

The frittata

Breakfast quesadilla

The belgian waffle

#2) Soul
Pulled pork sandwiches.

Shrimp n grits

Mac n cheese

Cornbread with honey butter

Hush puppies

I spent a summer living in Atlanta once, and while the city itself never grew on me, I fell in love with southern cooking. I would drive all over town searching out new soul food or bbq joints to try out.

I'd been missing my southern bbq or "meat + 3" (a heart attack on a plate) but luckily Soul on Waialae solves that problem.

I ordered the vegetarian sampler: veggie chili, collard greens, buttermilk coleslaw and cornbread. Each was better than the previous. Can't wait to go back and try some other things on the menu. My only gripe is that they are quite expensive - I went at lunch, no lunch specials or mini plates available. I think they could attract a larger lunch crowd if they offered "minis" of the specials (which range up to $18 I think, but don't remember exactly).

Kaila Cafe
2919 Kapiolani Blvd (Market city)
732-3330 (not that they take reservations)
Yelp

Soul Cafe
3040 Waialae Ave (by city mill and the fat greek)
735-7685
Yelp

Coffee break downtown

2010-10-20T16:44:00.000-10:00

When one of my friends moved home to Hawaii, the first thing she did was search all of the cafes and coffee shops downtown, so she could explore them and find her favorite place to sit and read or work online (unlike when I come home, I look up all the wine shops, so I can figure out where to buy some yummy alcohol :) ).

Today she took me to visit one of her favorites: Downtown Coffee Honolulu. We had excellently made cappucinos - a double shot in even the small size...a big caffeine rush!

Conveniently, Hokulani Bake Shop has a kiosk right outside Downtown Coffee (well, maybe not so convenient for my waistline, but oh well...). Now, I am a true Cake Couture devotee, and I have trouble wasting cupcake calories on inferior cupcakes. But Hokulani was right there, and I'd never tried their cupcakes, so I thought why not give them a shot.

Hokulani wins on offering more flavors (I could barely decide between strawberry guava, coconut, and all sorts of other yummy tropilicious flavors) and having cute Halloween cookies, but I didn't think the frosting or the cupcakes could compete with Cake Couture. CC's cupcakes are moister and have a better texture, and they put a lot more frosting on the cupcake (you have to really, really like frosting!).

Here are the Hokulani strawberry guava cupcakes:

And the cute halloween cookies:

Downtown Coffee
900 Fort Street Mall
599-5353
Yelp

Hokulani Bake Shop
532-2253
Yelp

I heart Chinatown pho

2010-10-19T16:36:00.004-10:00

I ate a lot of pho in Saigon earlier this year, and more recently in Melbourne, Australia where there is a large contingent of recently immigrated Vietnamese, so they have some pretty amazing pho there too. But I always love coming home and going down to Chinatown for pho.

Today -- first time ever -- I made it to River Street to each lunch. Usually the line is too long, or I am too impatient and I just eat it somewhere closer to downtown, like Pho Mai Lan or Vietnam Cafe. But today, since we weren't eating until 2 pm, it meant that there was no line at Pho To Chau (1007 River St). Yay!

Here is my happiness ($6 for a "regular" which I guess is there smallest size)

They bring out a cute little dish of chili sauce, and then there is sri racha, plum sauce, and fish sauce on the table. Very generous with the veggies and herbs too!

Pho To Chau
1007 River St
533-4549
Yelp

Visit to Champion Malasadas

2010-10-08T10:19:00.005-10:00

I have a pregnant friend. She just got over the morning sickness (thank goodness!) and is kind of hungry again, but hasn't had any of those crazy pregnant-lady-i-have-a-good-story-about-her-cravings stories. Until today.

Today, right after we had finished a plate lunch from Gina's, she suddenly announced, "I want malasadas. Now."

Seeing as how it was 4 pm, I didn't think either Leonards or Champion would be open. But I did a little googling, found their numbers, and gave both a call. Suddenly we had our choice of malasada shops! We ended up going to Champion (even though I still haven't tried the lilikoi malasada at Leonards) because it was closer, and I told my friend that it's superior to Leonards (but just my opinion here). Plus they have sponge cake :)

* Champion from the outside *

* The menu - I bet it hasn't changed in years! *

* Sponge cakes - chocolate, orange, lemon and guava *

1926 South Beretania St.
Honolulu, HI 96826
(808) 947-8778

Last post of Xmas 2009 trip: Fresh Catch

2010-01-06T03:12:00.003-10:00

Fresh Catch
3109 Waialae Ave
Honolulu, HI 96816
(808) 735-7653
Yelp

After seeing the salmon poke bowl featured in the Advertisers “top meals in a bowl under $7” I had to try Fresh Catch. Housed in a former pizza hut (can’t you tell by the roof, even though it’s been painted blue?), Fresh Catch reminds me of Tamashiro fish market or Poke Stop. Amazingly crowded on a weekday at lunch, all the tables were full. There’s a fridge case of all sorts of pokes (~12 varieties) plus a menu (rotating daily) of hot plate lunch choices.

The salmon poke bowl with brown rice

The spicy smoked tako poke bowl

Pho My Lan – my new favorite pho

2010-01-04T21:11:00.000-10:00

Pho My Lan

Yelp

1160 Maunakea StHonolulu, HI 96817
(808) 528-3663

Upon the recommendation of a Vietnamese tailor in Chinatown, a friend and I checked out Pho My Lan for lunch one day. The tailor praised Pho My Lan for the homemade rice noodles and clear broth (although according to her, they don’t give as much meat as other places).

My bowl of pho – nice clear broth. A little sweet by itself but perfect doused with hot sauce

My favorite part – 3 different types of hot sauce!

A funny sign of the time: Saigon Cafe now offering self-serve frozen yogurt!

2010-01-04T15:44:00.003-10:00

Chef Mavro
1969 South King Street
Honolulu, HI 96826
(808) 944-4714
Restaurant website

There are a few restaurants in Hawaii that come to mind when you want to celebrate a special occasion: Roy’s, Hoku’s, Alan Wong’s, and Chef Mavro. Hoku’s is our family’s usual spot for fancy dinners, but for this celebration, we wanted to try something new. I couldn’t get a table before 8:30 pm (on a Tuesday!) at Alan Wong’s, so we ended up at Mavro. They were very accommodating, easily being able to move our reservation back 20 minutes when I called to let them know we were running late.

Of course, people have different standards of fine dining in Hawaii. We overheard an entertaining conversation at the table next to us:

“For fine dining in Hawaii, we have Costco. But then for super fine dining, there’s 7 restaurants that can be considered fine dining.”

I’m still curious which his seven restaurants are.

Mavro only offers a set menu; you can choose the 4 course ($78) or 6 course option. The menu lists the suggested 4 or 6-course option, but they are flexible and let you pick items from the 6-course, even if you are only ordering the 4-course meal. So it’s very “design your own meal.” Between the 4 of us at dinner, we tried practically every dish available.

A complimentary amuse-bouche: a creamy soup with pickled grapes

Maitake mushrooms with watercress and an unidentified veggie (the white shavings that look like a parmesan cheese-green papaya according to the menu) in a lemongrass dressing

Their version of a miso cod

Provencale catch of the day – with capers and olives – note the thyme foam on the top

Deconstructed lobster paella

Wagyu shortribs (left), fried chickpea mash (middle) and wagyu steak (right)

Palate cleanser – honeydew in a champagne jelly

Dessert – lilikoi butter filled malasadas with coconut pineapple ice cream

Having just had a similar special occasion meal at Daniel Boulud’s Maison Boulud in Beijing’s spectacular Legation Quarter, I can say this meal was even superior in terms of food, but the setting (doesn’t look like Mavro has renovated since the restaurant opened over 10 years ago) and service couldn’t quite compare to Boulud’s staff. Was interesting to note that there were only male wait staff working that night – very curious if that is a standard practice or just happened the night we were there.

Dinner @ Mediterraneo

2010-01-03T15:40:00.000-10:00

Mediterraneo
1279 S King St
Honolulu, HI 96814
(808) 593-1466
http://www.yelp.com/biz/mediterraneo-italian-restaurant-honolulu

Usually when I go out to eat a casual dinner with friends in town, we end up at Bac Nam, a friendly little neighborhood Vietnamese joint. Back when People wine store was still in operation, it was the perfect combination – taste some wines, pick up a bottle for dinner, and walk across the street to Bac Nam for bun hue (spicy beef soup) and wrap-your-own summer rolls.

Luckily though I have friends who like to try new restaurants, so I was forced to expand beyond Bac Nam. They introduced me to Bac Nam’s neighbor, a yummy little Italian restaurant, Mediterraneo which is literally steps from Bac Nam.No one was super hungry so we skipped appetizers and went straight for the main courses. They offer a full range of pastas and main courses. Our table tried the roasted lamb, black squid ravioli, lobster pasta, and I had the most amazing seafood cioppino (unfortunately didn't get a good photo; I was trying to avoid using flash in the restaurant, but it obviously didn’t work out).

A trip back to Nobu

2010-01-02T21:16:00.001-10:00

2233 Helumoa Rd
Waikiki Parc Hotel
Honolulu, HI 96815
(808) 237-6999
Yelp

We got a great Christmas gift from one of my aunties – a gift certificate to Nobu! Both my brother and I had been there before, but this was my parents first trip. On a weekday night between Christmas and New Years, the place was packed (but it seems we’ve had a good tourist season this holiday, Waikiki has been packed every time I’ve been down there this year). The restaurant was a bit of a madhouse – servers bumping into each other, very noise, diners squatting on the super low bar tables at the bar (outside the main dining room) eating dinner.
We started with my favorite dish – yellowtail with jalapeno in a ponzu sauce

Sushi – salmon avocado roll and spicy scallop – yum

“Tacos” – lobster, shrimp, tuna and salmon on tortilla chips--> this was beautiful & delish!

Shitake salad – also a winner

The most famous dish – miso black cod

Tasmanian trout with crispy spinach – this is the only dish that I wouldn’t order again – too greasy and fishy tasting

Mochi ice cream @ Bubbies

2010-01-02T21:07:00.004-10:00

Bubbies
1010 University Ave
Honolulu, HI 96826
(808) 949-8984

Yelp

No trip home is complete without a trip to Bubbies. It always amazes me that while they haven’t expanded (look at Yogurtland or Tutti Fruitti trying to open as many shops as they can) they have continued to maintain a base of loyal patrons and are always packed.

6 mochi ice cream (cost just barely more than a regular cup of Red Mango fro yo with one topping, yet feeds 2!) – lilikoi (the best), guava (weak flavor), lychee, azuki, and Satsuma (cherry blossom)

Lunch @ Downtown

2010-01-02T15:35:00.000-10:00

Downtown

Hawaii State Art Museum
250 S Hotel St

Honolulu, HI 96813
(808) 536-5900

Yelp

Lunch with my high school girlfriends – we decided to go to Downtown at the Hawaii State Art Museum. Love all the local farms they are supporting – reading through the menu we had to ask is that a new kind of vegetable or the name of the farm (e.g. Sumida Watercress) since the menu descriptions include the farm location of locally sourced produce and meats.

Special of the day – Kahuku prawns, a white fish, and taro cakes

The salad plate – Hamakua mushrooms, orzo with feta and kalamata olives, and long beans with grape tomatoes and mozzarella

Dong Yang - Korean in Wahiawa

2009-12-31T21:44:00.006-10:00

Dong Yang
546 Olive Ave
Wahiawa, HI 96786
(808) 621-5031
Yelp

J insisted we drive out to Wahiawa for some authentic Korean food. Quite unassuming from the outside, Dong Yang is a great option for Korean if you’re out in Wahiawa, although I don’t know if I would drive out there again just to eat there.
The Dong Yang special plate: meat jun, fish jun, fried mandoo, kal bi, and bbq chicken

Yook kae jang – spicy beef soup with egg, beansprouts, spinach, etc – ono over rice

2009-10-17T13:05:00.000-10:00

Aiea Bowl
Aiea Shopping Ctr Fl
Aiea, HI 96701
(808) 488-6854

I’ve been hearing all about the food and desserts at Aiea Bowl. I went on a Friday night after dinner so unfortunately was too stuffed to try any of the real food (everyone was ordering the fried chicken, need to try that and the oxtail soup next time I am there) but there is always room in my belly for more dessert :)

We started with a slice of carrot cake ($6 or 7 for a ginormous slice) – it was a sharp contrast to Ted’s Bakery. While Ted’s is smooth and almost textureless (in a good way, it blends well with the frosting), Aiea Bowl’s has distinct texture with the shreds of carrot and large walnut chunks. It was a 3 layer cake with a very thin schmear of frosting between layers.
Then we tried the lemon crunch cake – light lemon cake with a lemon curd layer, and creamy whipped cream frosting sprinkled with graham cracker crumbs. This was good but not as good as the carrot cake (and possibly not even as good as the Costco lemon cooler cake, which I am currently obsessed with).

Milano freezer - Manoa Marketplace

2009-10-16T13:02:00.000-10:00

Milano Freezer opened up at Manoa Marketplace relatively recently. I like their frozen yogurt because it reminds me of Red Mango – something about not having self-serve frozen yogurt (like Yogurtland or Menchies) seems to keep it higher quality and more smooth/creamy.

It’s $3.25 for a small and toppings are normally $0.75 each. Luckily they were having an early bird special – a small + 3 toppings for $3.95. There are actually 4 or 6 flavors of frozen yogurt everyday, but I stuck with the original. They also have a full freezer of gelato, with fun fruity flavors like lilikoi, and also chocolate peanut butter. You can get a punch card, and get one free frozen yogurt after purchasing 10. apparently they advertise their daily specials on Facebook and Twitter, so sign up to find out about the deals!

The lobster burrito

2009-10-15T12:57:00.000-10:00

Caliente del Sol
888 Kapahulu Ave Ste.160
Honolulu, HI 96816
(808) 739-2777
calientedelsol.com

This is my brother’s current food obsession: the lobster burrito from Caliente del Sol on Kapahulu (in the Safeway complex). My first question to him was “how much does this lobster burrito cost?” but it’s actually the same price as the chicken or beef, since it’s not actually lobster meat, but rather mahimahi with a lobster sauce (whatever that means).

I thought it was a little bland – rice, beans, mahimahi and lobster sauce – but whatever floats your boat. I also asked if there was a salsa bar, but apparently the food safety folks have shut it down, and now require Mexican restaurants to provide individually sealed portions of salsa, so they have those in a little fridge instead of the salsa bar.

Ted's Bakery...the best pies & cakes

2009-10-14T12:46:00.009-10:00

Ted’s Bakery
59-024 Kamehameha Hwy
Haleiwa, HI 96712
(808) 638-8207

Yelp

This was definitely the highlight of my trip home this month. Anyone in Hawaii when asked about “Ted’s pies” will automatically respond “ohhhh, chocolate haupia pie” (or in my case, since I don’t do chocolate, “ohhh, macadamia nut cream pie”). But not everyone knows that Ted’s Bakery on the north shore also does plate lunches, fried rice, loco moco, and more pies, cakes and pastries than you can count.
We went for lunch on a weekday; it was full but luckily not too packed. We were unfortunately too late for spam musubi (“All sold out. You have to come for breakfast”) but got a garlic shrimp plate for lunch instead. It comes with 2 scoops rice, 1 scoop mac salad, 6 or 8 shrimps (peeled, swimming in butter and sprinkled with some nice parmesan) and a portion of sweet chili sauce for dipping. Yummy buttery goodness.

Then we moved onto the “breakfast” course, with one of their famous donuts (it’s a regular glazed donut but for some reason in a log-shape). Tasted like a cross between a donut and a malasada.
Finally, onto dessert. We couldn’t decide, so ended up with a slice of pie, cheesecake and carrot cake. They were all to die for, but the carrot cake was definitely the winnah. I would drive back out to the North Shore anytime for a slice of that heavenly cake.

MMM carrot cake

A selection of pies

Ted's from the outside...love the waves

Pineapple cheesecake...a layer of carrot cake, pineapple puree, cheesecake, and more pineapple

taiwanese bubble tea: coffee or tea?

2009-10-06T15:02:00.005-10:00

coffee or tea?

1960 Kapiolani Boulevard
McCully Shopping Center
Honolulu, HI 96826

(808) 942-4357
yelp

i visited coffee or tea today after reading a long list of very passionate reviews (both positive and negative) on yelp, including some saying that this was the best bubble tea in hawaii.

it's a cute little place in mcccully shopping center on the first floor, next to fantastic sams. they said the milk tea (with either tapioca, tea jello or one other chewy thing that i can't remember, $3.50) and the jasmine milk tea ($3.75) are their best sellers. i got a sample of the bubble milk tea and it was definitely good! the bubbles were perfectly chewy and not too hard.

i ordered a lilikoi green tea ($3.75) with tea jelly ($0.75). the drink is made of lilikoi syrup and green tea, no milk.

see the jelly at the bottom?? it's like jello, very bland though. just nice and chewy :) starbucks in china does a coffee jelly in the frappuccino during the summer, and that very clearly tastes like it's made from coffee, but this one was much more neutral.
you can also order the jelly or pudding by itself: