Finally...Gogi taco truck

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)

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)

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

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

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

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

Best cupcakes?

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

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