The Girl Who Ate Everything

Labor Day Weekend Idea: Check Out the Asian Feastival Next Monday

2010-09-02T06:30:00Z

: Soup dumplings from Asian Feastival participant Nan Xiang Dumpling House.

YEAAAHHH I'm really falling behind on this "blogging" thing. I'd like to say my recap of June is almost done, but it's not even in the fetal stage. It's in the "I know I'm going to have a baby someday, so I'm going to pick out its crib and it's clothing and the colors of its room and its name even though I haven't started to make the baby yet" stage. ...Wait, is that what a crazy baby-hungry person would do? Ah dammit whatever.

So while I ponder my post's potential existence, let me plug the Asian Feastival coming up next Monday, September 6, at Sheraton LaGuardia East in Flushing from noon to 5 p.m. The name is somewhat self explanatory: It's a festival with lots of food—ASIAN FOOD. IN QUEENS. (Aka the best place for Asian food in the city.) So you'd probably enjoy it. To be more specific, more than 20 restaurants in Queens will be serving signature bites. To quote the press release:

"...yak momos (Tibetan dumplings filled with local yak meat from Vermont), miniature Indian dosas with sambhar, Qingdao cold noodles (made from sea grass imported straight from Qingdao), Malaysian beef rendang and laksa curry, Thai Miang Kiam (a traditional Thai snack made with betel leaf), Sri Lankan idiappums, and more."

(Random: I have the sudden urge to buy yakamomo.com.)

In addition to stuffing your face, you can also attend panels with chefs, authors, and other Asian food authorities. And if you're not as physically challenged as I am, the Feastival also features a 3.5 hour bike tour around Queens before the eating and paneling starts. (During that time you'll find me firmly attached to my bed, face smooshed into a pillow.)

I don't usually mention events, so what makes this different? I'm going, for one—with a media pass, admittedly—and my awesome friend Veronica and her mom Wendy have been working mad hard organizing this event for the past bunch-o-months. Even though this is the first Asian Feastival they're presenting, I'm sure it'll be great since they're pros at organizing food events.

Tickets are $55 online (get $5 off with the code AFQueens), $60 at the door. As some of my friends have pointed out, it's a bit steep, but I don't think it's much more than other food events featuring a ton of good restaurants giving out food, and this has educational panels to boot. I'm also hoping it won't be as clusterfucky as other food events where your best shot at getting any sort of edible morsel is to claw your way through a sweaty, plastic cutlery-wielding crowd.

If anyone else is coming to the event, let me know!

Cheeseburger at Veselka and a Steve Hartman Marathon

2010-08-25T06:29:13Z

: This is what I would look like if I were a blob creature.

Last Tuesday after visiting the new BK Whopper Bar near Times Square and sampling four Whoppers (...it's...it's just part of my job), I thought I was done eating for the day. Calorie-wise, I'm sure I was.

Not that I ever count calories—I hypothesize in a highly unscientific manner that the only reason my body hasn't converted those thousands of excess calories I ingest on a regular basis into pillowy folds of fat that could engulf a puppy is because I'm ignorant of exactly how many calories I eat. If the brain doesn't know it, the body doesn't show it. (...Yeah, I know this isn't true; I just wanted to rhyme.) All I know is that I ate a bite of Whopper here, and there, and a part of a sandwich, and maybe some spoonfuls of ice cream, and maybe some other stuff I don't really remember. Since I didn't think I was going out for dinner that night, I tucked into an extra slice of the newfangled giant Pizza Burger. Bad move, Robyn. Bad. Move.

It didn't take long for every burp to taste like Whopper, and by "Whopper" I mean sort of fake smoke-y meatstuff. It wasn't the most terrible burp-flavor ever or anything, but it wasn't as nice as, say, post-Hill Country barbecue burps replete with slow, gently smoked, deeply beefy and porky goodness.

When Greg had asked me earlier if I wanted to go out to eat, I declined because I was full of Whopper and thought it would be cruel to tax my stomach juices any further. But when the burps became too much, giving me the sensation that my brain/body was transforming into a limp meat patty, I texted Greg to say, "CHANGED MY MIND, LET'S GET BURGERS AT VESELKA PLZ." (That wasn't the exact message; I don't text in all caps. But in my mind that's what it sounded like.)

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BURGER!

So we did. And for $11.50 with thick, crispy fries, it hit the Whopper fumes-obliterating spot. (A plain cheese-less, fries-less burger is $8.) I know Veselka has its detractors in the burger world, and some of my friends aren't fans either, but it's easily my second favorite burger in the city (after Shake Shack, of course).

: Innards.

The patty is thick, but not too thick, juicy (if you order it medium rare, at least), and has adequate beefiness and smoky char. But all of that could be for naught if not for the perfectly sized bun that, while substantial enough to hold up to any onslaught of beef juice, is also soft and airy, and further elevated by a generous sprinkling of sesame seeds that adds crunch and toasted nuttiness. I friggin' love this bun. I want to hug it, and squeeze it, and digest it.

: Flames, you go engulf those patties like crazy.

I don't mean to overhype the burger or say it'll change your life. I happen to find the burger comforting in its well executed simplicity, and it's one of those dishes I think about eating again...as I'm eating it.

: Grains n beet mash!

Also, I doubt there are many places where you can pair a great grilled burger with a plate of hearty kasha (buckwheat) and sweet and mildly tart Ukranian beet and horseradish salad ($3.50 each). Since Greg and I weren't at our hungriest that night, we split the burger and supplemented it with some sides. I had never tried Veselka's kasha or beet and horseradish salad (also called tsvikly) before, but now I feel like they should be part of every meal at Veselka.

We were quite full and happy at the end of the meal, but still craved something sweet. Since Greg had loads of fruit in his apartment, we waddled around the corner (yup, I'm envious of his conveniently located apartment) and lumbered up five or six or whatever flights of stairs (I'm less envious about this part) before plopping on his couch to a bowl of plump strawberries and a YouTube-ready TV.

...Hehehehehe. [tents fingers]

So with over a hundred million videos at our fingertips (the best of which involve cats, in particular this one), what did we watch?

: "The Animal Odd Couple."

A segment from CBS Evening News called Assignment America featuring Tara and Bella, an elephant and dog who are best friends at The Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee. And just when the video is about to come to a close, after you've said "Awwwww, AWWW, awwww," a half-dozen times, reporter Steve Hartman says this:

"Take a good look, America. Take a good look, world. If they can do it, what's our excuse?"

This became our favorite line. And then Steve Hartman became our favorite person.

Upon Greg's suggestion to search for Steve Hartman videos on YouTube, we spent the next hour or so watching Assignment America clips, culling enough awesome quotes to potentially start a blog called "fuckyeahstevehartman" and thus add to the pool of inane blogs if we so desired (we didn't). We just couldn't stop the flow of quirky, uplifting stories, told in less than four minutes to ensure our brains never strayed to another topic, like, "Maybe we should stop watching YouTube."

There's the teenager who bought a grocery store to help his community, the 104-year-old worker, the prison that makes inmates wear pink, the man who survived a gabillion heart attacks and gave away thousands of harmonicas to kids along with free music lessons (this dude is awesome), the five-year-old golf prodigy who's missing an eye, and...you get the idea.

I emerged from Greg's apartment feeling like a total underachiever. But I'm okay with that.

Burger, buckwheat, and beets, followed by an Assignment America marathon. Tuesday nights don't get much better than that.

Address

Veselka
144 2nd Avenue, New York, NY 10003 (map)
212-228-9682; veselka.com‎

Random Stuff Elsewhere

Every now and then I randomly answer monthly questions at Monthly Morsel about food, such as the one that link goes to. Which is from last month. Because...I am...slow...as you may have noticed.

Also from last month is this nice Q&A I did with Menuism.

And if I've answered food-related questions anywhere else on the Internet, I don't remember where. METHINKS THAT IS ALL.

Head to Pies 'n' Thighs for the Thighs (and Biscuits and Sides), Not So Much the Pies

2010-08-17T05:51:43Z

: Fried chicken = yay!

If I hadn't moved out of South Williamsburg at the end of 2008, I would've only been a 10 minute walk from Pies 'n' Thighs, the beloved Southern food joint that opened in 2006, closed abruptly in January 2008 with plans to reopen later that year, and then, two years later, finally reopened on March 1, 2010, in a new, larger location.

As I had never been to the original location, I didn't feel the burning need to visit the new incarnation of Pies 'n' Thighs upon immediate application of clean, non-sleepwear clothing. (I just realized that this may only make sense to me because I'm wearing pajamas right now. I'm usually wearing clean, non-sleepwear clothing. ...Pinky swear.) But judging from the excitement and reviews of the food-loving [SOCIAL MEDIA ALERT] Twitterverse and blogosphere [/SOCIAL MEDIA ALERT], I should've been ready to run over all plodding grandmas and napping puppies that lay in my path (yes, this path is paved with old people and helpless heart meltingly-cute animals, for some reason) to get to New York City's latest outpost of fried-chicken-and-pie greatness. My high expectations were lowered when a close food-loving source described the food as just okay, and the service as a bit sloppy. But I still wanted to try it...eventually.

I finally made it over on May 27. With the help of Janet's malleable stomach, I tried their fried pickles, burger, fried chicken, mac and cheese, and biscuit. And it was all good.

The fried chicken box comes with three pieces of brined deep fried chicken*, a hefty biscuit, and one side. It's a great deal for $11, especially when you consider that it could be split between two people with normal appetites and leave room for dessert. If you eat more than that you'll likely enter the "food coma" stage. Which is what happened to Janet and me.

]]> * I googled around to see what the three parts are and I ended up with breast, thigh, drumstick, and wing. Considering the name of the place is Pies 'n' Thighs, I'd think there's a thigh in there. Alas, I don't know enough about chicken cuts to recognize what's what. If it weren't 2 a.m. I'd consider calling the restaurant.

The crunchy, light breading gave way to adequately moist, flavorful meat, which is how fried chicken should be all the time, but isn't. There wasn't anything special about the mac and cheese—it looked like what I imagine I would've eaten as a kid if I ate mac and cheese as a kid (my mom never made it, and I guess I never ordered it when we went out to eat), but it was comforting and full of creamy dairy goo-laden elbow macaroni. I was happy with it.

: Biscuit.

The warm biscuit was moist, soft, crispy, and flaky all at once, in all the right places. Perhaps not the best biscuit ever if you grew up eating biscuits in the South, but I had a biscuit-less childhood in New Jersey, so in my opinion this biscuit is great.

: Burger!

After reading Nick's rave review, I had to try the cheeseburger ($9, comes with fries). And Nick was right; it's a solid, classic-style burger. You can add bacon or egg, but I just added cheese for $1.

: Stack.

By default you get pickles chips (or in my case, one pickle chip; more would've been preferable), sliced red onion, tomato, and lettuce. Smush it in between the toasted halves of a plain mayo-smeared white burger bun and...

: Innards.

...Mm, rare meat. Yup, I prefer my meat on the bloody side, but as long as it's juicy I don't mind if it's cooked more. The veggie toppings provided a nice crunchy contrast to the seared 6-ounce grass fed patty. I found the burger's size and ratio of bread-toppings-meat just right for my tastes.

: Fried pickles! I mean frickles.

The fried pickles were great nubs of juicy tartness in a thin, crispy coating. I don't see it on the menu, so it may have been a special that night.

: Janet presents the remains.

We polished off just about everything aside from a fried pickle slice and a biscuit chunk. Unfortunately, eating to the brink of exploding a digestive organ meant there wasn't any room for pie. But that's okay; I would just get them next time.

: NEXT TIME!

And then "next time" came! In mid-July. Greg, Kathy, Shann, Karen, and I shared three orders of the fried chicken box and three slices of pie. I also got a cup of sweet tea because that's my preferred version of tea: more sweet, less tea.

The food tasted better during this second visit, and the experience was overall more pleasant because we were seated in one of the two spacious back rooms instead of my first visit where Janet and I were crammed in a table in the front. I was afraid I would accidentally elbow my neighbor's...elbow.

Another difference between this visit and my last was that we had a squeeze bottle of honey on our table. And I put it on everything....that would benefit from it. By that I mean the fried chicken and the biscuit. I thought the biscuit was good before, but smother it in honey and HOOOO MAMA, +1000 POINTS, you have entered the next level of biscuit-dom. The chicken fared better as well, although not just because of the honey.

: FRIED CHICKEN EVERYWHERE HOO YEAH!

The fried chicken tasted crispier and juicier than before. Or maybe I was really hungry. At that point, possibly with chicken juices running down my palms, I placed Pies 'n' Thighs in the "Maaan..This Is Pretty Awesome" category. The chunky dill-flecked potato salad was a great side, along with the repeat mac and cheese, and a refreshing watermelon salad mixed with chopped cucumber, mint, and jalapeno nublets (you know, smaller than nubs) for a spicy kick.

: Watermelon! It glows.

That looks far too red, but the salad looked something like that.

: Apple and cheddar, banana cream, and rhubarb.

As Kathy said, the pies—apple and cheddar, banana cream, and rhubarb—were, unfortunately, just passable. Not bad, not great. Although $4.50 per slice isn't unreasonable, the pie didn't taste worth it after having gorged on all that fried chicken.

I've heard complaints about service falling into the "indifferent hipster" camp, but (luckily, perhaps?) the service I encountered was unobjectionable. Not effusively friendly (not that many places are), but the food came out in a timely manner and I didn't feel like I was forgotten. Admittedly, I have low standards: "They didn't stab me; it was great!"

I left Pies 'n' Thighs feeling happy and fattened for about $15. That's a good takeaway message.

Address

Pies 'n' Thighs
166 S 4th St, Brooklyn, New York 11211 (map)
347-529-6090; piesnthighs.com

5 Memorable Eats in May: Motorino, Termini Bros, Shake Shack, Pylos, and a Smoke-A-Thon

2010-08-09T03:57:53Z

A bunch of stuff happened since I went to Honolulu. Because that was three months ago. Yeah. To summarize things, I present you with five-ish of the most memorable places I digested stuff in May.

Motorino

: Motorino.

Serious Eats won a James Beard award back in May. I don't think I mentioned it here, but if you read Serious Eats (and you should!), you already heard the news. YAY WOOT rock.

So we had to throw a party. And a Serious Eats-style party means reserving Motorino in Brooklyn for a night of pizza partying and packing in as many Serious Eats contributors and friends as we could.

: Chicken wings.

The fire-roasted chicken wings were awesome, and I say that as someone who isn't that into chicken wings. Thin, crisp skin + juicy meat = success! Unfortunately, I don't know if they're serving them now since I don't see it on the menu and this meal happened almost three months ago. :(

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PIZZA!

The main draw is the pizza, of course. My favorite pie of the night was a tomato sauce-less version covered in lots of cheese. ~~Not sure if it was the quattro formaggi on their menu, but even if it wasn't, there's no way that four-cheese pizza could be bad.~~ It's a stracciatella pizza topped with garlic, olive oil, sea salt, and basil, no tomato. No wonder it tasted like awesome. Thanks for the heads up, Amy!

: More pizzas!

Later in May I ate brunch at the East Village Motorino for the first time, accompanied by Alex, my brother, and my brother's two friends. Going to Motorino for dinner can result in an hour-plus wait and a grumbly belly, but at noon on a Sunday most of the world apparently prefers sleep over pizza, resulting in a gloriously half-empty restaurant. ...Glorious for us and not having to wait, I mean.

The pizzas were excellent as always—poofy, chewy crust with skillfully plopped toppings x 4. Alex ordered a brussels sprouts and pancetta pizza sans the pancetta since he's vegetarian, while the rest of us shared three pizzas: prosciutto (this may have been a special that day), three eggs-n-pancetta (made for the brunch crowd), and soppressata piccante (spicy sausage).

Termini Bros

: Termini Bros has some fantastic neon signage going on.

At the end of May I went to Philadelphia with Ed to do some research for our Serious Eats book coming out next year (hopefully). Unfortunately, the trip wasn't as successful as we wanted it to be—Capogiro and Paesano's were the best out of seven places we tried that day—but 89-year-old Italian bakery Termini Bros stood out for its charming "hasn't changed much in the past 89 years" ambiance.

: PASTRIES EVERYWHERE...because we're in a bakery.

The pastries were beautiful to look at, but the few things we tried weren't as delicious as we hoped they'd be. My favorite was their cheesecake.

: In-bakery musicians.

The bakery is worth checking out if you're in the area though, even if you're not that into Italian pastries. You might get a live music performance from these dudes sitting by the entrance.

: CRABS.

And for no reason besides that I liked it, here's a sign I came across that day in Philly. If you want my attention, just make a huge sign that says "CRABS" in bold red lettering.

Shake Shack

: Shackburger, come to meee.

The next day I met up with Angeline at Shake Shack on the Upper West Side for her first Shake Shack experience (she was visiting from Toronto). I usually go with a single Shack Burger ($4.75), aka a burger with all the fixings: American cheese, lettuce, tomato, and Thousand Island-ish Shake Sauce. Everything is just right: the meat is adequately salty and fatty (I've heard complaints that Shake Shack's burgers are too salty/fatty; like, yeah, that's why they're delicious), the toppings are fresh and complement the beef, the sauce isn't excessive, and the squishy potato bun is nicely toasted. It's a burger that makes me look at my partially eaten food and think, "WHY IS THIS THING I'M EATING SO AWESOME?" (or perhaps, "WAH IF THIF THIN [chew chew] AM EATIN [chew chew] SO AWFOME?") That doesn't happen much.

: SHROOM BURGER YEAH.

A week later I went to Shake Shack again, this time in Madison Square Park, to meet up with my friend Sandy and her husband Chris visiting from Vancouver (ALL THE CANADIANS ARE COMIN'!!). This time I went with a Shroom Burger ($6.75), which in theory is a breaded and deep fried portobello mushroom "patty" filled with muenster and cheddar cheese, but in reality is a giant slab of cheese wrapped in a barely perceptible layer of portobello mushroom, breaded and deep fried to a molten goo. If they got rid of the mushroom and just make a deep fried cheese slab burger it probably wouldn't taste that different, unless the mushroom provides crucial structural integrity. If you're into crispy-and-explosively-goopy cheese in a bun, you'll love this.

Pylos

: POTS, ATTACK!

Whenever Alex visits I try to find good vegetarian food neither of us have eaten before. Greek restaurant Pylos was an easy choice after I read Maggie's review of their vegetarian options.

: Horiatiki.

Alex, Amy, and I shared four veg-friendly dishes. My favorite was the simple horiatiki ($10), a large bowl of halved tomatoes, sliced onions and cucumbers, capers, kalamata olives, and a few slabs of feta cheese dressed in extra-virgin olive oil and red wine vinegar. I ought to just make this sort of thing myself. And eat more salad.

: CHEESE!!

My second favorite was the haloumi sote me stafylia kai tsipouro ($12), thick slices of sautéed haloumi cheese topped with a grappa reduction, halved green grapes, and toasted pine nuts. Gooey cheese is great, but so is chewy (like pressed tofu), crispy cheese. Salty cheese and sweet grapes is a great combination. Someone should put that in a sandwich. ...Yes.

: Complimentary pita and dip, and OTHER FOOD.

We also tried the spanakorizo ($6), a spinach rice pilaf with feta, lemon, and black pepper, and the anginares moussaka ($11), artichoke heart moussaka layered with caramelized onions, herbs, and three Greek cheeses, and topped with béchamel sauce. I don't remember these dishes as well as the first two, but we polished off everything so...methinks they were good.

The food was a bit more expensive than what I usually eat for dinner, but it was also more refined. In the end I was pleasantly satisfied without the blimp-like feeling I have 90% of the time.

Memorial Day Smoke-A-Thon

: Food party!!!

For the third year in a row Michelle of Thursday Night Smackdown invited me to her annual Memorial Day Smoke-A-Thon, which meant for the third year in a row I spent my final Monday in May lounging in her charming Jersey City backyard, stuffing my face with ribs and pulled pork while stewing in my own sweat (seriously, the last three Memorial Days have been hot as balls...and by that I mean "the sun is ungodly bright and burny and pissed off" hot). And since Michelle has a lax guest policy, I brought eight friends. Everyone wants a piece of the action! For good reason:

: MEAT ON BONES!

RIBS!

: MEAT NOT ON BONES!

PULLED PORK!

: FUNGI!

SMOKED PORTOBELLOS!

: TUBERS!

POTATO SALAD with THREE KINDS OF POTATOES!

: STUFF TO GO WITH THE OTHER STUFF!

SLAW and ORZO SALAD and CANTALOUPE SALAD and BEANS!

: FLAN!

FLAN!

: PUDDIN!

Craptons of BOURBON-GINGERSNAP BANANA PUDDING!

: ...BROWN!

BROWNIES!

: PEOPLE!

HUMANS!

: Kids!

HUMAN NUGGETS!

'Twas a fantastic day. Thank you, Michelle!

Addresses

Motorino
349 E 12th Street, New York, NY 10003 (map)
212-777-2644
319 Graham Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11211 (map)
718-599-8899
motorinopizza.com

Termini Bros
1523 South 8th Street, Philadelphia, PA 19147 (map)
215-334-1816; termini.com

Shake Shack
366 Columbus Avenue, New York, NY 10024 (map)
646-747-8770
11 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10010 (map)
212-889-6600
shakeshack.com
Three new Shake Shacks opened this summer, on the Upper East Side, near Times Square, and in Miami. Check their site for more info.

Pylos
128 East 7th Street, New York, NY 10009 (map)
212-473-0220
pylosrestaurant.com

Michelle's Apartment
Nuh uh.

Honolulu, Day 7: KCC Farmers' Market, Chinatown, and Hawaiian Plate Lunch

2010-07-31T05:41:54Z

OH MY GOD, IT'S MY LAST HONOLULU POST! [Cue flock of doves flying through a stream of sunshine.] As awesome as my trip was, I'm glad these posts have finally come to a close since they should've been done...a month ago. At least. Just to remind you, I visited Honolulu with Kathy from May 9-16. AND TOMORROW IS AUGUST, PEOPLE. Last week was busy since I spent a three-day weekend in Virginia, but now I'm back and have little excuse for my lax posting. Here I goooo.

: Farmers' market time!

Kathy and I got an early start to our last day in Honolulu (sniffle) at the KCC Farmers' Market, which takes place at Kapi'Olani Community College on Saturday mornings from just 7:30 a.m. to 11 a.m. It was pretty packed when we got there around 9, although it's probably packed the whole time its open. And for good reason: Besides fresh local produce, there's tons of great prepared food.

: Pacifikool.

First, some drinks from Pacifikool, a drink company that specializes in ginger syrups—Hawaiian, Thai, and agave-sweetened. I tried the Gingercooler ($3) made with Hawaiian ginger syrup, lemon, sweet basil, and carbonated water. A simple and refreshing combination made better with whatever magic goes into Hawaiian ginger. Maybe it's just the vacation talking, but it seemed to taste better than regular ginger.

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PIZZA!

While I got the drinks, Kathy stood in line for North Shore Farms' neopolitan grilled pizza topped with pesto (made with macadamia nuts—hey, this is Hawaii), fresh slices of Big Wave tomatoes, creamy gobs of mozzarella, and basil slivers. It's my favorite pizza toppings combination, but I rarely eat it—methinks I could count the number of times on one hand—since it's not exactly a staple of pizzerias. (Why don't I just make it at home? Perhaps there's a pizza party in my future.) The crust was medium thick and had an appealing slight chewiness with a crispy bottom. If you don't try this when you visit the market, you fail. Kathy and I showed some restraint by just sharing one slice, but you know we could've eaten much more if we weren't trying to save stomach space.

: Strawberry mochi, for meee?

Kathy brought me to the fresh strawberry mochi stand, only to find out that the a woman in front of us had just bought the last box. :( To express my grief, I flung my body to the ground while shaking my fists and wailing, "AAAAAAWWWW SHIIiiiiiITT" and this all took place in my mind.

: KALE!

Then I saw the BIG BAG OF KALE and all was forgotten. It lived up to the sign: It was a honkin' huge bag of kale.

: FRIED.

And then it was time for a snack from the Two Hot Tomatoes stand.

: Menu.

Aside from their namesake fried green tomatoes they also offer fried zucchini and sweet island onion rings.

: YOU CAN ALMOST TASTE ITTTT.

So I got "all of the above" ($7). The onion rings were my favorite, but they were all good because they were all coated in the same light, crunchy, craggly batter. The creamy wasabi lemon and basil lime dipping sauces made them even better.

: Abalone!

I regret not trying the barbecued abalone. Two pieces for $6? Why did I skip this? I love abalone, but I've only eaten worthwhile amounts of it in Chile, where it's inexpensive and plentiful.

: ShaveDice.

For dessert, I tried a small bowl of Pink Cadillac (lemongrass) shaved ice ($3.50) from Blue Lotus's ShaveDice. If it were served in New York City it'd be worth recommending, but in Honolulu I'd say it was just okay. The ice, while quite fine, wasn't as fine as the other shave ices I've had, and there were some patches of non-syruped ice. The lemongrass flavor was refreshing, though.

: Taro mochi.

For second dessert, I tried taro mochi (5 pieces/$3), fried taro-flavored mochi balls combining chewy and crispy (one of my favorite texture combos) in every bite.

: More...food...is...coming...

We left the farmers' market to get a typical Hawaiian plate lunch from the nearby Fort Ruger Market. No, I wasn't diving into another meal—I was saving it for later! PINKY SWEAR. I hadn't had a real Hawaiian plate lunch yet during the trip—not even on the Plate Lunch Tour—so this was my last chance.

The market may not look welcoming from the outside, but there's magic inside! Magic!

: Deli menu.

They don't make delis like this in New York City. Kalua pig! Pork laulau! Beef stew! Three kinds of poke! Ahi jerky! Haupia! A gabillion other things I want to eat!

I ordered Hawaiian Plate A, which came with kalua pig, pork laulau, pipikaula, lomi salmon, and haupia, and asked for poi instead of rice since I had never tried poi before. I also got a side of ahi poke, which was fan-fuggin-tastic...but more on that later. As Kathy and I had plans to eat second lunch with her family, I saved the plate lunch for later.

: Musubis.

I didn't try any of these musubis by the cash register, although I sort of wanted one. A chunk of butter mochi, on the other hand, also conveniently located by the cash register for all my impulsive needs, did find its way into my purchase. The name is rather self-explanatory: It's mochi made with...butter. And other things. Check out this recipe at Ono Kine Grindz. It's like regular mochi, but eggier, milkier, and fattier. And to make things even better, outside of the dense, slightly chewy, smooth mochi is a light, crispy crust. IT'S. SOVERYGOOD. I ought to make a pan for my birthday.

Chinatown-ing

: We are officially in Chinatown.

After going back to Kathy's house we joined up with her parents and sister to roam around Chinatown. Kathy told me Chinatown isn't very safe at night, but during the day it's fine.

: 99 Coffee Shop.

We popped into Vietnamese restaurant 99 Coffee Shop for noodly goodness. It looked like it hadn't changed much in decades. I'm down with that.

: Spring rolls.

But before noodles, crispy spring rolls (chả giò) with noodles, herbs, and lettuce leaves. One of the tastiest members of the "fried things" family ever.

: Bun mang vit.

I ordered the "only available on weekends" bun mang vit, rice vermicelli in a light broth with bamboo shoot slices, and steamed duck and a raw shredded cabbage and onion salad on the side.

: Mm, cabbagey.

The noodle soup didn't leave much of an impression—the cabbage salad ended up being my favorite part, after being doused in the accompanying fish sauce-y...sauce. (My knowledge of Vietnamese food is pretty crappy, and I'm fully aware that my descriptions will never improve unless I actually start taking notes. HAHA NOTES whatever. My veins fail to pulsate with the blood of journalistic ambition.) I've never had shredded cabbage as part of a Vietnamese meal before, but now I want it at every meal.

: Mm, shrimp paste.

I also liked the lil' pot of fermented shrimp paste. It's potent, pungent stuff; add a little dab to your food for a bit of funk.

: More noodle soups.

And here's the other stuff that was on the table. Mountainous assortment of of raw veggies and herbs, tomato broth-based bun rieu, shrimp paste log-filled bun suong, and shrimp cracker-topped hu tieu mi hai vi. You can read much better descriptions of these dishes at Kathy's blog. I do love the veg-and-herb pile component, which allows me to ungracefully shove wads of mint and basil into my mouth. That's my preferred method of eating herbs, ye know: wad shoving.

And now, random scenes in Chinatown.

: Chun's Meat Market.

Devil Pig! Probably delicious.

: Papaya salad.

Freshly made papaya salad! Probably also delicious.

: Produce.

Fruits and vegetables! Neither of which I ate enough of during the trip. Oops.

: Passageway...

Through Maunakea Market Place we ended up...

: More shops n things.

...Here!...

: Thang!

Okay, this is what we came for: Thang Coffee and Bubble Tea. Kathy says they make the best fruit smoothies in the city and their avocado smoothie is her favorite drink on the island.

: Avocado smoothie.

We split an avocado smoothie with tapioca pearls ($3.50)—it'd be hard to finish a full cup on your own. The smoothie was super thick, just a touch sweet, had a light avocado flavor, and lived up to the smoothie name with its baby-butt-smooth texture. A great refreshment on a hot day. Or, you know, any day. I found the tapioca excessive for being in an already thick-as-concrete beverage, although I say that as someone who doesn't particularly enjoy boba tea. (I did when I was younger, but at some point I got tired of chewing gobs of tapioca that would randomly block the flow of the liquid I so craved. Like, dammit, I'm thirsty, balls, get out of the way, ok.)

Back To That Plate Lunch

: YAY, IT'S TIME!

Shortly before Kathy and I had to go to the airport, I finally tucked into that Hawaiian plate lunch I had been saving all day. Clockwise from top left: lomi-lomi salmon, haupia, pork laulau, poi, and kalua pig. Methinks it was also supposed to come with pipikaula, but maybe the guy at the market left it out since I asked for poi instead of rice. OR MAYBE IT JUST WASN'T MEANT TO BE. Which is fine since I only had enough stomach space to take a few nibbles of everything.

: Lomi-lomi salmon.

Lomi-lomi salmon is like a diced tomato salsa with salmon bits mixed in. Can't say I've ever had that combination before. This version tasted mostly like tomato since it didn't have much salmon in it. It was a refreshing accompaniment to...

: PORK CHUNKS!

POOORK! LOTS OF PORK. (Okay, two kinds of pork.) Salty pork. The pork wasn't succulent, but I was happy enough with it.

: Poi.

I thought I'd like poi since it's a staple food made of mashed taro and water, and hey, I like taro-flavored things (mostly in the form of ice cream and chips)—but no. No. Now I know what unflavored mucoidal taro tastes like: sort of sour and bitter, like something past its prime, and nothing that instills a desire to eat more than a forkful of it. I seem to be hypersensitive to bitter foods though, so you might think differently.

: POKE!!

All was forgotten when I ate the ahi poke. Oh sweet jebus. Chunks of raw poke mixed with chopped raw onion, green onion, seaweed, sesame oil, and salt. Rarely have I ever eaten raw fish with such abandon. I don't think I could ever enjoy delicate pieces of sashimi as much as chopped tuna infused with salt and sesame oil. The poke was mighty refreshing until my mouth was overcome with raw onion taint, which made everything in my mouth taste oniony for a few hours. But it was totally worth it.

: Happy Heart Mochi, we meet again.

I tried the other flavors of Happy Heart Mochi I didn't mention in my previous post: haupia, peanut butter red bean, and strawberry red bean. The chocolate haupia mochi I ate first was my favorite, but these were all great.

Goodbye, House

: Fridge.

Kathy's fridge was custom made to seamlessly fit in with the rest of the kitchen. Ain't it sweet? I think there's more freezer space on the side.

: Living room.

Here's one last look inside the house, designed by Kathy's dad. It's damn lovely, even while still under construction (mostly the outside); I hope to visit again when everything's finished.

: Forest.

And one last look outside the house. Lush forest galore. Wiggly branches tree, come to meee.

And...IT'S OVER! THE TRIP IS OVER! BACK TO REALITY! NOOOO!!! :(

...I hope you enjoyed reading about my trip, even as I fumblingly grasped for descriptions of stuff I could barely remember. Many thanks to Kathy and her family for taking such good care of me and giving me the best introduction to Honolulu a food lover could ask for. And megathanks to Kathy for driving us everywhere (I'm pretty sure she doesn't enjoy driving) and putting up with me being totally lazy and lolling around in the passenger seat.

Next, I'll try to quickly recap the best things I ate over the past two and a half months of not writing about New York City.

Honolulu, Day 6: Happy Hearts Mochi, Champion Malasadas, Waikiki Beach, Curry House, and Bubbies Ice Cream
Honolulu Day 5, Part 2: Dinner at Town, Dessert at Nobu
Honolulu Day 5, Part 1: Sconee's, Zippy's, and W & M Bar-B-Q Burger
Honolulu, Day 4: Korean, Cakeworks, Diamond Head, and Grandma's Chicken Curry
Honolulu, Day 3: Five-Location Plate Lunch Tour, Plus Desserts
Honolulu, Day 2, Part 2: Shave Ice at Waiola, Icee at Uncle Clay's, Food Coma at Kats Sushi
Honolulu, Day 2, Part 1: Malasadas from Leonard's, Japanese Snacks from Shirokiya, and Hokkaido Bread from Panya
Honolulu, Night 1: Dinner at Grandma's House

Addresses

KCC Farmers' Market
Parking Lot C, Kapiolani Community College
4303 Diamond Head Road, Honolulu, HI 96816 (map)

Fort Ruger Market
3585 Alohea Avenue, Honolulu, HI 96816 (map)
808-737-4531

99 Coffee Shop
174 North King Street, Honolulu, HI 96817 (map)
808-537-4276

Thang Coffee and Bubble Tea
1120 Maunakea Street, Honolulu, HI 96817 (map)
808-524-3409

Honolulu, Day 6: Happy Hearts Mochi, Champion Malasadas, Waikiki Beach, Curry House, and Bubbies Ice Cream

2010-07-18T08:40:58Z

I visited Honolulu with Kathy from May 9-16. Yeah, that was two months ago. I've been a bit sidetracked since getting back from Portland. I ONLY HAVE TWO MORE POSTS LEFT; I CAN DO THIS. You'll stick with me, won't you, dear reader? Won't. You? Okay, thanks.

: Mochi breakfast.

I didn't plan on eating mochi for breakfast, but thanks to Reid, I did. At the previous night's dinner he presented each of his guests a variety pack from Happy Hearts Mochi, a custom order-only mochi business in Honolulu.

Is it worth ordering from Happy Hearts when there are so many places in the city that sell mochi? According to Reid and Kathy, yes. And even though I didn't get to try much other mochi during my trip, I'd concur: This mochi was damn delicious and some of the best I've ever had. The glutinous rice skin tasted especially fresh—its soft and smooth texture melded perfectly into the thick block of haupia and chocolate filling. It was like eating the perfect macaron, or the perfect cupcake—when the components of cake/cookie/glutinous rice is paired with just the right amount of frosting/filling, which in turn are flavored to have just the right amount of sweetness and...whatever flavor they're supposed to have. I've had a lot of bad macarons and cupcakes in my life though—I think mochi is more forgiving.

]]>

Champion Malasadas.

For second breakfast, Kathy brought us to Champion Malasadas, who, aside from malasadas, also offers a variety of mini chiffon cakes and cheap breakfast platters that come with a fresh malasada, if you so desire. And you probably desire it or else you wouldn't be there.

: Plain malasada.

We shared a granulated sugar-dusted plain ($0.60) and a confectioners sugar-dusted custard-filled ($1). I don't remember much about the custard one—it wasn't as good as the plain since it didn't come fresh from the fryer. As for the sugar-dusted plain one, it burned with the heat of an angry sun. An angry sun that bestows deliciousness upon its doughy children. Unlike the malasadas from Leonard's, which were on the light and cakey side, these had a crispier crust and a chewier, denser, not-cake-like center. I couldn't say one is better than the other—I liked both and would happily eat both kinds of malasadas in mass quantities.

: Kathy + Buddy.

We spent some time at Kathy's grandma's house to say hello and, oh, perhaaaps use the Internet. And also to see Buddy, her ailing pomeranian.

: Balding. :(

His walk is a bit gimpy and he has hairless patches here and there. Kathy says they grow back, but then fall out again. :(

Of course, he's still totally adorable.

: WAIKIKI HERE I COME.

And then Kathy dropped me off at Waikiki Beach. Because you can't visit Honolulu without going to the beach. Kathy's not a big fan of the surf and sun, so I walked around by myself for a few hours. It was a good opportunity to relinquish Kathy from the duties of playing host, which during this trip equated to "Driving A Lot (and subsequently memorizing the most popular songs on Top 40 radio) And Eating Too Much Food."

: Beach! I'm standing on you!

I didn't swim (although I dipped my feet in the water plenty of times). Yeah, yeah, whatever, I fail. Can't really go swimming when you're alone and no one can look after your stuff. I'm not a huge fan of swimming so I can't say my dreams were crushed. I do like looking at pristine blue water though. IT LOOKS MAGICAL ...Or maybe it always looks like that. I don't go to the beach very much.

I walked along the beach until...it ended. Sort of. Then I walked through a hotel. Which was boring. And then I went back on the beach. And around the general beach area.

: Lonely brolly.

I passed a lot of beach chairs.

: Trees!

And curvy palm trees.

: Grill.

And grills. (I didn't see any in use.)

: JELLYFISH, NOO.

And at least one sign warning swimmers about jellyfish. Translated into Japanese for the gabillion Japanese tourists.

: YOU ARE NOW IN JAPAN.

Also for the Japanese tourists, a Japan Post-themed mailbox spotted at the Hilton.

: Spam musubi and things!

I quite liked the offerings in the heated display case at the ABC Mart (local chain of convenience stores): various Spam musubis, and one lonely plastic-wrapped cheeseburger.

: "Great."

And there was this puzzling sign. $300 is a great rate? No, it's a "great" rate!

: The Moana Surfrider.

I didn't go inside the Moana Surfrider, the oldest hotel in Waikiki, but it looks pretty sweet from the outside.

: Hank's ~~Hot~~ Haute Dogs.

You may have noticed that I didn't eat lunch. There was little temptation in the ways of food while walking along the beach, but when I came across Hank's Haute Dogs in the International Marketplace, my stomach was all like, "EATAHOTDOGNOW."

These aren't just any hot dogs; they're haute dogs. OH, PUNNY. Hank's was started by Henry Adaniya, a restaurateur who switched from opening award-winning fine dining restaurants in the Chicago area to serving Chicago-style dogs in Honolulu, among loads of other classic and creative hot dogs.

: Let's keep the Japanese theme going.

I tried the Hot'O Doggu ($4.25) the Japanese-themed hot dog topped with zigzags of miso-ginger mayo and hoisin ginger mustard, slivers of takuan (pickled daikon), and a light sprinkling of furikake, named after how you would say "hot dog" in Japanese (ホットドッグ; okay, more like "hottodoggu"). Overall, I thought it was...alright. More interesting than a regular hot dog and it made a good snack, but after looking at the photo on the menu, I wanted more stuff on top. And mayo. I love mayo on hot dogs.

: CURRY HOUSE, THE BEST HOUSE.

After I got my fill of cavorting around Waikiki, Kathy and I met up with Kathy's friend Noelle to eat at Curry House. This excited me greatly because I love Japanese curry about as much as I love sleeping. And watching cats do funny things on YouTube. I've been eating Japanese curry ever since I was a kid, and while I once feared that eating too much would give me palate fatigue, MY LOVE FOR THE THICK BROWN GOOP RAGES ON. (For an intro to the brown goop of deliciousness, read this post by Aya Tanaka on Serious Eats. She describes it better than I could!)

: Whoa.

The menu is huge. I don't mean in length—I mean its physical dimensions notably exceed those of your average menu. How could anyone not be excited after reading the copy on the cover?

YOU CAN SELECT!
RICE VOLUME
SPICINESS
INGREDIENTS

: Menu.

DEAR MENU: I WILL SO SELECT THOSE THREE THINGS YOU MENTIONED.

: Pork katsu and kimchi.

We played it safe by splitting two plates between the three of us. Unless you're on the verge of eating a baby, this is the way the go. The standard plates are quite large, and they fill the plates to the brim.

First off: pork katsu and kimchi. It was the first time I tried kimchi in curry, and...I think...probably the last. It didn't really go together in my mind, at least not when the kimchi is coated in curry sauce. I think I'd be fine eating kimchi on the side. I do like pickles with Japanese curry (each table came with a container of crunchy pickle bits, what kind of pickle I'm not sure), but not so much when they're large flaccid cabbage chunks.

: Holy fug.

Second was chicken katsu with corn and cheese. You think Japanese curry looks bad in its unadorned form? Wait till you see it mixed it with gooey cheese strands and corn nubs. But you don't have to wait, because it's right up there.

I've never had cheese or that much corn in Japanese curry before, but it's quite good. I liked the corn more than the cheese—the cheese would take me some getting used to. The chicken katsu was better than the pork. ...Or vice versa. I know one was more moist and meaty than the other. It's been two months since I ate this; memory is poopin' out. :(

If there were a Curry House in New York City I'd eat there way too often. CURRY HOUSE, PLEASE COME HERE.

: WINGS UP.

Before I move on to the dessert portion of the night, look at this awesome Japanese egg carton, seen at the neighboring Japanese grocery store, Nijiya. That hen is giving you the green light to eat her unborn babies. Hen of Approval + a rainbow backdrop = you know those eggs are going to blow your mind.

: BLAZIN'.

Another pre-dessert photo: BLAZIN' STEAKS. I like the name. Makes me think of steaks encircled in flames, flames that propel the steaks at high speeds to nowhere in particular, accompanied by some rock guitar riff and sunglasses-wearing (the flames are really bright, ye know) dude screeching, "BLAAAZIN' STEAAAAKS!!" while waving the sign of the horns with both fists. You see it too? Yeah.

SOOOO back to dessert. Remember how I visited Bubbies on my second day in Honolulu (which in blogging days was over a month ago), but was too full to eat anything? We made up for that by getting this:

: EAT THE BALLS. Of ice cream.

EAT MY BALLS ($17.50), the suggestively named bowl of 16 fetal dip-sized ice cream scoops, which covers every flavor on their current menu. One and a half pounds of ice cream, all for us.

: Uh huh...uh.

: Menu.

I'm not sure which was the best flavor. They all kinda...melded. It was fun to each because we didn't know what we were eating half the time. Or they melted together to create new flavors like banana-coconut-green tea.

: Ice cream soup.

After 20 minutes of becoming increasingly tired of ice cream (I mean, the first five minutes were awesome, but you'd get tired of eating any gross amount of ice cream no matter how good it is), we gave up. Not that we were trying to finish the bowl. I think we did a pretty good job considering that we were already sort of full. (There's also room to cram in ice cream. It's just liquid! Frozen, churned liquid.)

: Spam! Do stuff with it!

And to cap off the day, here are some Spam cookbooks spotted at Longs Drugs (where we went after Bubbies so I could buy lots of snacks and gift-y things).

Only one more Honolulu post awaits! THE END, IT IS NEAR.

Addresses

Champion Malasadas
1926 South Beretania Street, Honolulu, HI 96826 (map)
808-947-8778; championmalasadas.com

Hank's Haute Dogs
2330 Kalakaua Avenue, Honolulu, HI 96815 (map)
808-924-9933; hankshautedogs.com‎
Another location at 324 Coral Street (map)

Curry House
1009 University Avenue, Honolulu, HI 96826 (map)
808-947-2206; ichibanya.co.jp
And...a whole bunch of other locations.

Bubbies
1010 University Avenue, Honolulu, HI 96826 (map)

808-949-8984

Anyone Have Food Recs in Amman, Jordan?

2010-07-11T05:24:04Z

Nope, I'm not taking a trip there (someday, maybe), but my friend Alex is! (Remember Alex? Vegetarian partner-in-fooding in Paris, and Philly, and NYC, and official Giant Manatee tamer.) He's in Jordan right now and will be in Amman at the end of the month to visit early Islamic archaeological sites. In the off chance that any of you well traveled, food-loving people can help suggest food recommendations in Amman, please leave a comment or drop me a line at roboppy@gmail.com. Thank you!

Honolulu Day 5, Part 2: Dinner at Town, Dessert at Nobu

2010-07-06T05:08:00Z

I visited Honolulu with Kathy from May 9-16. Yup, that was...a long time ago. I've just got two more Hawaii posts to go before getting back to New York City—I SWEAR IT WILL HAPPEN, unless I die in the next two weeks. Refresh your memory with Day 5, Part 1.

: Special menu featuring a bagillion calories = yay!

When Kathy and I told Reid of Honolulu-based blog Ono Kine Grindz that we were visiting Honolulu and wanted to break some bread with him—we've been reading each others blogs for years—we didn't expect him to organize a family-style 11-course dinner by executive chef Ed Kenney at Town followed by a six-course dessert by pastry chef Rachel Murai at Nobu in Waikiki.

But we should've, because Reid is a serious eater of the sort that I doubt I will ever be. These chefs put together special menus for Reid and his band of happy food blogger friends, which included Alan of ma'ona in addition to Kathy and me. It was Reid's first time meeting all of us, and with the help of Ed and Rachel he left his mark by making us all feel mega pregnant and happily food coma-ed by the end of the night.

It's been over one and a half months since I ate these meals—it's safe to say the flavors no longer ring clear in my mind. But I can tell you that everything tasted awesome, a sentiment that will hopefully become clear from the following bagillion pieces of food porn.

: Starter.

We started with small plates of almonds, cantaloupe slices, and pancetta.

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Cocktail!

There was also some bubbly. I gave my flute to Kathy since I'm nowhere near being able to appreciate alcohol.

: BREAD!

Also to start was sliced focaccia and baguette accompanied by a dish of olive oil topped with a pat of butter and red and green olives. Mm, two fats of different origins.

: Tuna.

We got more small bites in the form of risotto cakes topped with ahi tartare and balsamic vinegar.

: SALAD!

And a salad made with organic lettuces from MA'O, pancetta, Manchego shavings, halved cherry tomatoes, and walnuts.

: Stuffed pepper.

And piquillo peppers stuffed with fresh flaked ahi, potato, and olive.

: Mm, egg.

Our last starter was a sunny-side up blue lotus duck egg on top of polenta and ali'i oyster mushroom with roasted tomato.

And now...for the main dishes.

: Mm, pillowy potato nubs.

Gnocchi with hamanalo baby corn, grape tomatoes, and sage brown butter. SAGE. BROWN BUTTER. I WANT IT ON EVERYTHING.

: STARE INTO THE FISH.

Seared ahi, Milton's potatoes, and long beans in scallion vinaigrette. That is so many things I like in one bowl. If I put my mind to it, I could probably make something like this at home. GET TO IT, MIND.

: STARE INTO THE BEEF.

Kulana striploin, roquefort butter, french fries, and arugula (Ed shares the steak recipe at West Hawaii Today). I'm pretty sure we were in "stomach explosion" territory by this point, but we couldn't resist juice-oozing steak and crispy golden fries, ye know.

: This was once a rabbit. Now it is..deliciousness.

Nor this very special spread of rabbit cooked a gazillion ways. Or six ways. But six is a lot compared to most rabbit dishes, which I'd assume only feature one method of preparation. Here we had little meat cakes, something rolled up, something grilled, and more things that I've unfortunately forgotten, but maybe you can figure out from looking at the photo. Ed really got the most out of that rabbit in its final state of (dismembered) existence. As for where the rabbit came from, I think the story is that there's a local woman who breeds show rabbits, but if the rabbit doesn't cut it on the showroom floor, it miiiight meet its fate as a gourmet meal. Doodeedoo. (RABBIT LOVERS, BEWARE, but those interested in butchery, proceed: Alan pointed out these photos taken by chef Mark Noguchi of chef de cuisine Dave Caldiero breaking down the rabbit.)

: Beans!

You can't have all this meat without side dishes! For contorni we got a honkin' huge bowl of braised gigante beans.

: Lettuce!

Along with grilled lettuce and shaved Parmigiano.

: Dessert.

Methinks Ed wanted to feed us more desserts, but since we had a dessert meal in our future and Ed had more than adequately stuffed us with savory goodness, he ended our meal on a light, refreshing note with grapefruit Campari sorbet.

Many thanks to Ed for feeding us an outstanding meal of champions that will go down in my eating history as "THAT CRAZY, SEEMINGLY NEVERENDING DINNER WHERE I ATE A RABBIT SIX WAYS," and to Reid for treating us to Ed's culinary prowess. (I've read reviews saying that Town is pricey for dinner, but is reasonable for lunch.)

And next up...six-course dessert tasting menu at Nobu by Rachel Murai! I'm ashamed to say that my nose was so stuffed by this point (my allergies really acted up in Honolulu, argh) that I had trouble tasting most of the dishes. :( Judging from everyone else's reactions, they were as delicious as they were beautiful. I tried my best to taste them by repeatedly blowing my nose before/after taking a bite. Which worked. Sort of. I'm sure my nose blowing was quite unsightly, but there were thankfully few people in the restaurant to witness my mucus unblockage by the time we started eating around 10:30 p.m.

: First.

Sous vide watermelon and umeshu, topped with lime granite. I can't see the granite in the photo, but you can see it in Kathy's post. Maybe it melted by the time I took the photo. D'oh.

: Second.

Azuki panna cotta, matcha sorbet, tapioca pearls, and a kuri (chestnut) tuile. I was really into the tuile. Need more chestnut-flavored stuff in my life, perhaps.

: Third.

Creme de mascarpone, honey caviar, almond extra virgin olive oil crumble, passion fruit coulis, and shiso syrup. I also want more crumbles in my life.

: Fourth.

Pistachio ice cream, coconut foam, and caramelized goma (sesame seeds). I got a few whiffs of the black sesame. Those were some good whiffs.

: Fifth.

Gianduja cremosa, peanut praline powder, frozen raspberry bits, and cacao nibs. More crunchy + creamy goodness—I like this formula very much. The peanut praline powder was probably my favorite part. I keep gravitating towards the nutty things.

: Sixth.

Espresso snow, sweet milk, cardamom ice cream, and financier crisps. Ah yes, there had to be a shave ice dessert! Although I'm not a fan of espresso, I'm totally down with it when mixed with milk and ice cream.

It seems crazy to have added all those desserts to our already-full bellies, but...it worked out just fine. Because desserts goes in a separate stomach that may not physically exist, but psychologically, it totally does—if the desserts are tasty enough, which in this case, they were. It'll be a long time before I get to feast on such elegantly composed desserts again.

On an unrelated note, a baseball capped George Clooney and friends were sitting a few tables down from us the whole night. I don't think I would've noticed if Alan hadn't pointed it out—I can count the number of celebs I've seen in New York City in my 5+ years of living here on one hand—but once he did, it was hard to ignore. (I have one random George Clooney-related memory that I'll mention now since I doubt I'll ever have any reason to again: During one recess period in fourth grade [1994], one of my friends said something like, "I love ER—George Clooney is so hot." I probably nodded and smiled, but thought, "I'm nine-years-old; I don't really watch ER and I don't think anyone is hot.")

I can't thank Reid enough for organizing our gluttonous night and for all the chefs involved for making it happen. Reid and Alan are great eating buddies for their wealth of food knowledge...and bottomless stomachs. I'm still working on the former, but I seem to be doing fine on the latter.

Addresses

Town
3435 Waialae Avenue, Honolulu, HI 96816
808-735-5900; townkaimuki.com

Nobu Waikiki
2233 Helumoa Road, Honolulu, HI 96815
808-237-6999; noburestaurants.com‎

Back from Portland, Totally Stuffed, Totally Missing It

2010-07-06T04:07:45Z

: Go towards the light!

During our first night in Portland, Erin and I roamed the nearly deserted streets around our hotel near midnight in search of something delicious. Because even though we were hungry enough to eat just about anything that was non-toxic—our stomachs were on New York time, after all, and we hadn't eaten dinner—we didn't want to waste any calories during our short trip.

But just when we were afraid we'd have to settle for potato chips from a convenience store—lo!, a twinkle of lights appeared on a block of mostly closed food carts on SW 3rd Ave between SW Stark and SW Washington, and the meaty and spicy smells of Vietnamese and Thai food from Pho Le pulled us in. It just made me...so happy. I felt like sun beams were bursting out of my head. I can get a freshly made banh mi for $3.50 at midnight on a Wednesday night? PORTLAND, I LOVE YOU.

Then I found out how many more great late night food carts existed. And I loved Portland even more. New York City has an amazing variety of great food, but as far as carts go we've got nothing on Portland, and we probably never will.

Thank you so much for your recommendations on my last post (and for all you Portlanders, for reading my blog from afar)! I won't be writing about the food we ate on this blog, but Erin and I will have posts coming up on Serious Eats, and some stuff we ate will be reserved for the Serious Eats book. For now, I'll share the list of places we hit during our three-day stay:

Pho Le and Asia Express (last night munchies on Wednesday)
Tin Shed
Tonalli's Donuts and Cream
Tasty N' Sons
Pix Patisserie
Big Egg
Garden State
Le Pigeon (just for the burger)
Potato Champion
Whiffies
Bloop (oatmeal cart; awesome name, right?)
Tabor
Brunch Box
Nong's Khao Man Gai
Bunk Sandwiches
Olympic Provisions
Pok Pok
Portland Farmers' Market: Sol Pops, Pine State Biscuits, Tastebud
Voodoo Doughnuts (had to wait 40 friggin' minutes; granted, I was one of the gazillion other tourists waiting in line)
Kenny & Zukes

I'm sorry we couldn't visit all the eateries you recommended (or even all the places on our original itinerary)—we could've eaten more if we tried—but I think we did a pretty good job for our short visit. Thursday was the craziest eating day, Friday was a bit less gluttonous, and we were much more relaxed on Saturday. When I got back home at 8 a.m. on July 4, I took a mega-nap and ate a small meal for dinner (I did nothing to celebrate independence, unless staying home all day counts). I think I'm still recovering.

We couldn't have eaten so much without tons of help from Maggie and her husband Matt, and Erin's friend Brian. Many thanks to my friends Rebecca and Ezra for joining us as well! I met a few TGWAE readers—hi Kristina and Daise—which was totally sweet. (For future notice, if you ever recognize me eating food and taking photos, don't be afraid to say hi! It makes me fuggin' happy to meet you guys.) I'm looking forward to visiting Portland again, after I feel less blimp-like.

Going to Portland This Week, June 30 - July 3

2010-06-29T15:00:00Z

View PDX Serious Eats in a larger map

I probably should've mentioned this earlier, but I'm visiting Portland (Oregon) with Erin Zimmer this weekend for a Serious Eats-related trip from Wednesday night until Saturday night. The point of the trip: research the best food Portland has to offer for our upcoming Serious Eats book. And we will accomplish this by EATING AS MUCH GOOD FOOD AS WE CAN just shy of puking.

As our time is limited, we already have an impossibly long list of places to tackle (which I will share with those who are interested), so we're set on the food recommendation front. Maggie and her husband Matt are going to help us eat on Thursday and Friday, and my friend Rebecca is coming down from Seattle to eat with us on Saturday, but we could probably use more stomachs here and there. I'm not under the impression I have any readers in Portland (aside from the friend I already contacted; HI, EZRA!), but if I do...SPEAK NOW...and maybe we can get fatter together.

UPDATE: Thanks for raising your virtual hands, Portland eaters! I just popped in the handy dandy map Erin made. Look at all those blue markers...mmmyes....oh lord.

Some people have recommended pizza to us, but methinks we're not eating pizza because Adam has that covered. :) We chose places based on what we're covering in our book, which is breakfast, sandwich, dessert, and food cart-heavy

Honolulu Day 5, Part 1: Sconee's, Zippy's, and W & M Bar-B-Q Burger

2010-06-27T07:52:19Z

I visited Honolulu with Kathy from May 9-16, which means I've been back in New York City for over a month. And these Hawaii posts aren't even done yet. Oh dear. I'll get back on the New York track in a month, maybe.

On the third day, I ate about 50 percent more than I should've. On the fourth day, I tried to compensate for the third day by eating less. And on the fifth day, I compensated for the fourth day by eating about 200 percent more than I should've.

: This janky image is brought to you by Paint, which is turn in brought to you by me being at my mom's place in NJ and using her Photoshop-less laptop. For better Paint-y drawings and hilariousness, visit Hyperbole and a Half.

This math, it just doesn't work. But it's amazing how malleable the human stomach is when pummeled with a five-meal day.

: Sconees.

Kathy and I started our day at Sconees, purveyor of scones and other baked sweets. Upon Kathy's recommendation, we skipped the scones and went for...

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Guava bar.

A guava bar, shortbread-y crust topped with a thick layer of guava paste, topped with more crust, sprinkled with confectioners sugar.

: BUN!

A haupia bun, mildly sweet soft bread stuffed with a block of smooth coconut-flavored gelatin.

: Lemon goo.

And a teeny weeny lemon cheese pocket, which I thought would have cheese in it, but instead only contained sticky lemon goo. I suppose the cheesy substance is in the crust, although I couldn't really taste it over the lemon. Update (6/29): Lemon cheese is another name for LEMON CURD! Oh duh. (There's also cheese made with lemon, though.) Thanks for the heads up, Clarrie!

My favorite of the three was the haupia bun, I liked its sweetness level—that level being "not very sweet"—along with its combination of slightly chewy, dense, soft carbs with smooth, creamy pudding-y filling.

: Zippy's.

And then about an hour later I ate at Zippy's with fellow food blogger Marvo of The Impulsive Buy, my number one stop for reviews of food products I will probably never eat, but I read anyway because he and his contributors bring da laffs.

A Hawaiian could describes Zippy's much better than I could, but from what I learned during my trip and by searching on Google is that it's Hawaii's "restaurant of choice," more specifically a takeout/fast casual chain that serves Hawaiian and American dishes 24 hours a day. While I don't frequent chain restaurants, any place that provides the opportunity to eat Korean fried chicken, grilled cheese sandwiches, and chicken katsu curry saimin at 4 a.m. is okay with me. They're most famous for their chili though, to the point that you can buy it online and ship it anywhere in the country for a pretty penny.

Although Zippy's has over 25 locations, I met Marvo at the Kahala location, which he and Kathy said was the best one.

: There be soup!

I started with a small cup of Portuguese bean soup, a local favorite in Hawaii. I had never heard of it before—hell, I've rarely had any Portuguese food. The thick tomato-flavored stew just about knocked me out after three spoonfuls. No surprise that it's hearty as hell considering it's full of beans, sausage chunks, macaroni, carrots, and probably other stuff I can't remember. I liked it, but I don't think I was hungry enough to fully appreciate it. It would be best on a blistering cold day, the likes of which do not exist in Hawaii.

: Mmm, noodles.

For the other half of my meal, I got a bowl of saimin, a Hawaiian noodle soup dish made of thin, wavy egg noodles in a light dashi broth topped with kamaboko, green onions, roast pork, sliced omelet, and something green that I can't identify. This is what I get for not taking notes. It strikes me as having more Japanese influence than anything else, but What's Cooking America notes that Japanese people consider saimin to be Chinese, and Chinese people consider saimin to be Japanese. Let's just say it's of Asian descent.

: Chili!

Of course, I couldn't go to Zippy's without trying their chili. Marvo shared his shredded cheese and diced onion-topped bowl with me. I never developed much of an appreciation for chili growing up, but maybe that's because in my experience it wasn't ever served with a big scoop of white rice in the middle. White rice = my favorite accompaniment to, like, anything with salt in it. Marvo mixed the rice with the chili—not something I would've thought of doing on my own, but it makes sense for ensuring equal distribution of rice throughout the chili and facilitating the "rice + chili → mouth" process. I honestly don't remember much about what the chili tasted like—besides that the bean soup knocked me out, sampling three pastries for breakfast played a part in that as well—but I heard the "secret" ingredient is mayonnaise, and I approve of mayo-enhanced anything.

After the meal was over we scoped out the adjoining Napoleon's Bakery, found at all Zippy's locations, but I was too full to try anything—even Apple Napples, their famous butter-laden apple turnovers. If I were Marvo I would've be disappointed to see the title of "the girl who ate everything" be so far from fulfilled. SORRY, MARVO! (But better to see me not eat a crapton than witness me in food coma mode, which involves a lot of low moaning, blank staring, stomach cradling, and regret.)

Thanks to Marvo for treating me to lunch! Next one is on me—you just have to come to New York City to get it.

: W & M

For my third meal of the day, Kathy dropped me off at W & M Bar-B-Q Burger while she shopped at the neighboring hardware store. As my job entails blogging about burgers, I try to eat at least one burger during any trip I take. W & M became the "one burger" after I read Ono Kine Grindz's review—an over 50-year-old drive-up burger joint with limited opening hours = WANT.

I already reviewed the burger at A Hamburger Today, but I'll give a little summary for y'all.

First, let's talk about those opening hours: 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. from Wednesday to Friday, 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday, closed on Monday and Tuesday. I heard it's a madhouse most of the time (when it's ...open), but at 3:45 p.m. on a Thursday people's stomachs seemed to be sleeping and the parking lot was almost empty.

: Royal burger.

I tried a Royal burger ($3.60), one 2.7-ounce teriyaki-flavored beef patty topped with cheese, lettuce, tomato, raw onion, and your choice of mayo, ketchup, relish, or mustard (I went with mayo) on an untoasted white bun.

: Mm, innards.

With such a small patty, there was more topping than meat. Which was perfectly fine—the combination of fresh, crispy vegetables and layer of moist enough teriyaki-ed beef with squishy bread made for a pleasant, non-messy burger snack I still crave. I doubt I would've enjoyed it as much without all the toppings.

: Fries!

After talking to Chris, one of the employees, about the history of W & M and how they make their burgers, he insisted I try their well regarded McDonald's-esque french fries. Fresh from the fryer, the twice-fried fries were a great combination of hot, crispy (very crispy, like mostly crust), and salty—and after they had been sitting for a while, they were still a great combination of just crispy and salty.

Kathy and I hung out at her place for a bit before heading out to Meals #4 and #5, which we were weren't prepared for at all. Because if we had known what lied ahead, we would've fasted all morning. SOON, YOU SHALL SEE.

Addresses

Sconees
1117 12th Avenue, Honolulu, HI 96816 (map)
808-734-4024

Zippy's
4134 Waialae Avenue, Honolulu, HI 96816 (map)
808-733-3730; zippys.com

W & M Bar-B-Q Burger
3104 Waialae Avenue, Honolulu, HI 96816 (map)
808-734-3350

Honolulu, Day 4: Korean, Cakeworks, Diamond Head, and Grandma's Chicken Curry

2010-06-18T05:53:56Z

I visited Honolulu with Kathy from May 9-16. Yup, that was about a month ago. Only three more days to recap!...which will probably take another month.

: It's time for YUMMY.

To follow up the previous day's plate lunch gorge-a-thon, Kathy and I took it slow. Really slow.

After an Internet session at Barnes & Noble (thank you for your non-password protected wifi, B&N) at the Ala Moana Center, we went to the crowded food court to eat lunch at Yummy Korean B-B-Q.

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BANCHAN.

Neither of us was hungry for anything specific, but Korean food at least didn't seem too unhealthy. Look, vegetables! Non-meat substances! Mostly not fried!

: Hi, meat pile.

And then...we shared a huge combination platter, possible called the Yummy Special, of kalbi, barbecue chicken, and barbecue beef accompanied by two scoops of white rice and five vegetables. And by "vegetables" I mean "not meat," because jap chae and kimchi-pancake-thing aren't really vegetables, and the potato salad was about 30% mayo (delicious, thick mayo), and it looks like there's some fried zucchini in there. Oops.

We couldn't finish it. I don't remember how much was left when we decided continuing to put food in our bellies was a bad idea, but I think even we were surprised by how little appetite we had. The food was fine for a food court, certainly better than what I'd find back in New Jersey, and the dish was less than $10.

: HAM.

We stopped by Saint-Germain again (first visited on Day 2, Part 1, REMEMBER?) where I was amused by the "HAM" sticker on the half sandwich. Because it's not often I find stickers that so boldly proclaim the presence of pork.

: That doughnut lives up to its name.

I got a long doughnut for the hell of it. I think any normal person would be drawn to a sugar-dusted log of deep fried dough featuring a line of cream down its middle. First, note the packaging for my single doughnut: neatly wrapped in parchment paper, placed in a rectangular plastic bag, then sealed with a twist tie. And put in another plastic shopping bag. Well. If I were giving it as a gift to someone, I'd be all set.

I didn't eat it right away; tummy was still full of marinated barbecued meats. But I ate it at some point, perhaps after its optimal "eat me" stage. It was just alright. I'd prefer a higher cream-to-pastry ratio.

: CAKE!

Kathy brought us to Cakeworks, a bakery that specializes in elaborate customized cakes, since she had previously worked with head pastry chef, Abigail Langlas. She said hi to Abigail before we dug into a fat slice of passion mandarin chiffon cake, a pleasantly light three-layer cake bound by mandarin orange-studded whipped cream, with a layer of passion fruit cream on top. I couldn't believe this huge slice was less than $3. It's earned its spot on my "EAT AGAIN" list.

If you're wondering what else happened during this afternoon of not eating much, we spent a bit of time calling camera shops and visiting Canon's office to see if I could get my sickly camera fixed on the island. Answer: nope; it would have to be mailed to the mainland. Kathy brought me to to Lighhaus Camera when I found out they had just one body-only 7D left in stock. And $1600 later, I got a new baby. ...I mean, the camera is my baby. Not a human baby. (I wouldn't have bought a 7D if not for the dead camera situation—it was out of my price range and I don't need the video function—but I'm sort of glad I was forced to get it. It'll be worth it in the long run, and surprisingly, I'm not broke. Yet.)

: RAINBOW!

AndwhatsthisRAINBOW SIGHTING! I'd probably get bored of them if I lived in Hawaii, but as I'm not from magical rainbow land (I saw more rainbows during my week in Honolulu than I do in a whole year in New York City), I got excited every time I saw one.

: Follow the arrow!

While I'm only mildly less sedentary than a sloth, I'll gladly take the chance to do a simple hike when traveling somewhere with bounteous nature and beautiful views and the like. Kathy is less into the "hiking" thing, but she gets a pass because she grew up in Honolulu. "Whatever; seen it." She dropped me off at Diamond Head Park so I could walk the fairly easy trail that goes up the landmark volcanic crater's edge (in the meantime, she went to the mall with her sister).

First fail: I got there at 4:40 p.m. and it closes at 6 p.m. The guide at the park's entrance told me I may not have enough time to finish the hike and warned me that if I didn't get down in time I could get locked in. I don't know if that's actually ever happened to anyone, but it scared me anyway. (Upside: She didn't make me pay the $1 walk-in fee, thinking I wouldn't make it to the top. I SAVED A DOLLAR!) So, first step for anyone who wants to do this: If you want to be safe, get there at 4 p.m. Unless you plan on running it, in which case you don't need two hours. The suggested time for the 1.3-kilometer hike is 1.5 to 2 hours. It's not that long—if you're in good shape you could do it in less than an hour. I think it would've taken me about 1.5 hours, but since I wanted to meet Kathy at 5:45, I didn't bother rushing it.

: Doodeedoo.

I took my sweeeeeeet tiiiiiime. Doodeedoo. As you can see, the trail, which zigzags up the crater, is clearly carved out and there's a handy rail to keep you from tumbling into trees and rocks as other jagged things the human body has yet to evolve to safely collide with.

: There's also that.

Not much you can do if rocks tumble onto you, though. So, you know, avoid them. I'm pleased to report that my hike excluded lethal rock storms.

: Bumps.

It's a little bumpy. Wear appropriate shoes.

: STAIRS. DAMN YOU.

I'm down with stepping up rocks and stuff, but steep, towering staircases, less so (refer to previous wheeze-inducing stairwell-climbing adventures in Bologna and Florence). This staircase was just the first of four; I stopped after this one due to time. ...And I'm sort of lazy. But if I had more time I would've gone for the gold.

: View.

The view from the platform after the first stairwell ain't bad, though. I soaked in the view for a while before going back down. While I sat there, a bunch of people went past me. Oops. Well. I was content getting this view and not feeling like my leg muscles had turned to noodles, which probably would've happened if I had attempted to go to the top.

: Doodeedoo.

Going back down...

: Trail behind me.

Looking back at what I failed to achieve....

: The top.

Methinks the left-most mound is the observation station.

: Map.

When I had gotten to the top of the first staircase, I thought I made it pretty far into the trail. After I saw this map, I realized...I had quite a ways to go. Ohh. Fail.

: Bottles. Put em. In here.

I thought this recycling bin-thinger at the start of the trail was funny. Note the shave ice cups.

: Bye.

ONE LAST LOOK AT THE HUMAN-FREE ZONE.

: It's huge. You'll see later.

For dinner, Kathy, her sister Tiffany, and I went to their grandma's house for homemade chicken curry (accompanied by toasted baguettes), featuring big chunks of potato, carrot, and onion, lots of lemongrass, other stuff that I can't remember, and all sorts of chicken bits.

: Om nom.

ALL SORTS. I'm afraid I don't like chicken feet. I've tried it a few times to make sure. But the non-feed bits were great. Because they tasted like chicken and not "generic protein mass."

: GROUP PHOTO!

Here's me with Kathy's grandma and grandpa to give you some sense of scale. First, the pot is motherfrugginhuge, and second, Kathy's grandma is a skinny lady (but has no lack of energy).

: RAWR.

That's my crazyface, #16. I've got lots of em.

It was a nice to have a light eating day. Especially since I'd shove about three day's-worth of calories in the next day. You'll read about it soon, hopefully.

Addresses

Ala Moana Center
145 Ala Moana Boulevard, Honolulu, HI 96813 (map)
808-955-0356; alamoanacenter.com

Cakeworks
2820 South King Street, Honolulu, HI 96826 (map)
808-946-4333; cakeworkshi.com

Diamond Head Park
Diamond Head Road, Honolulu, HI 96816 (map)
808-587-0285

Honolulu, Day 3: Five-Location Plate Lunch Tour, Plus Desserts

2010-06-14T05:58:56Z

I visited Honolulu with Kathy from May 9-16. Yup, that was about a month ago. Thank god for digital photography or else I wouldn't remember enough to write about anything. ENJOY.

I got my malasada breakfast. I conquered a mountain of shave ice. The only major Hawaiian foodstuff left for me to gorge on? Plate lunch.

When I first heard of plate lunch—basically consisting of an Asian-influenced entrée, scoop of white rice, and scoop of macaroni salad—I thought, "That is what I want to eat every day." Okay, maybe not the mac salad as much (not that I'm against it; it's just not something I ever crave), but the Asian entrée? Yup. And the rice? Yes. A thousand times yes. Rice is my favorite starch. You know that moment when you open the lid of a rice cooker full of just-cooked rice and it releases a fresh poof of rice steam? I love that part—I take a giant whiff. And then relish my nutrient-barren rice.

The key to our plate lunch success was Stephanie Miwa. Stephanie is our friend Shannon's mom. Shannon wasn't actually in Hawaii—she's one of Kathy's roommates back in New York City and longtime friends from Honolulu—but Stephanie is so sweet that she didn't mind hanging out with us in her daughter's absence and being our tour guide for a few hours while driving us around the city.

Let the gorging begin.

: Monarch Seafoods.

Our first stop, Monarch Seafoods, ended up being my favorite of the day. I wanted to try everything on the menu—ahi sashimi salad, spicy firecracker chicken, garlic butter sauteed tiger prawns, pan fried butterfish, and garlic roast pork, just to name a few options—but considering we had hours of eating ahead of us and limited space in our digestive systems, we started with a mixed plate of deep fried poke and mochiko chicken served with scoops of white rice and macaroni salad. Only $8.45 for this heaping pile of food.

]]> Poke is raw fish salad, usually made of Ahi tuna. Monarch Seafoods' deep fried poke consisted of huge Ahi tuna chunks, breaded and deep fried. Not much like a fish salad—just lightly crispy, meaty goodness. Mochiko chicken is made of garlic and soy sauce-flavored chicken strips coated in a glutinous rice flour-based batter and deep fried. The crust around the moist chicken nubbins wasn't all that crispy, but appealingly light and puffy with a hint of chewiness.

And with that, deep fried poke and mochiko chicken were added to my "FAVORITE FOODS" list.

: Banana cream pie.

We also tried a slice of homemade banana cream pie ($2.50), their only dessert. And they make that one dessert count: tender crust filled with creamy banana pudding topped with banana slices and a layer of whipped cream. WHAT'S NOT TO LOVE? (I've met people who don't like bananas. I guess...I guess I can accept that.)

: Pongo's.

Next up was Pongo's Kitchen. Their menu also got the salivary glands flowing, although perhaps not as much as Monarch's. Options included grilled ahi, grilled salmon, grilled shrimp, grilled tofu, fried chicken, sesame chicken, roasted chicken, and penne pasta in tomato pesto with different meat toppings. I quite liked their steps to ordering:

: FIVE STEP PROGRAM.

Step number five: CHOOSE A SEASONED BUTTER. Any step that involves choosing a butter is a good step.

We didn't get seasoned butter on our mini grilled short ribs plate lunch with brown rice (brown!—we wanted to mix things up) and macaroni salad ($5.75), but I think there's some creamy garlic sauce on top. While certainly not a bad combination, there was no way the short ribs could beat fried fish and mochiko chicken. And I think I was distracted while eating this because I still had fried fish and mochiko chicken on the brain. Oops. If I could go back, I'd want to try the guava chicken. Drizzled in spicy butter.

: Ethel's Grill.

The next stop, Ethel's Grill, wasn't a take out lunch place like Monarch or Pongo's, but more like a greasy spoon diner—one whose menu includes sashimi, saimin, chicken katsu, garlic pork chops, teriyaki burgers, and other dishes that I'll never find all under the same roof in New York City. I weep. I like that their "Morning Special" dish is miso soup simmered with vegetables, tofu, and egg, served with rice. That kind of breakfast would make me so much happier than bacon, eggs, and pancakes—a combination that may be satisfying for the first few bites, but by the end turn me into this cat:

...With less fur.

: Teri burger.

To preserve stomach space, we went the snacky route with a teriyaki burger (only $1.50—whoa). The teriyaki sauce-slathered patty was hot (temperature-wise; there was no spiciness) as hell, and methinks the burger being wrapped in a plastic baggie accelerated the lettuce wilting process and increased the area of sauce slick-age over the bottom half of the soft white bun. I mostly remember the patty being quite mushy and hot (it just didn't want to let go of its heat). Enjoyable, but surely not an optimal teri burger experience.

Looking back, I don't know why I didn't try their tataki sashimi: lightly seared tuna on a bed of bean sprouts, drizzled in sesame oil and garlic-shoyu sauce. SWEET JESUS IWANTTHATNOW.

: Mitsu-Ken.

Next up: Mitsu-Ken, a take-out window which, after reading Ono Kine Grindz's review, I learned is called an okazu-ya based on the local dishes they serve. (I'm going to stop there—a Hawaiian could describe it way better than I could.) Their menu includes a breakfast pack with rice, omelet, and Portuguese sausage for just $2.75. And for $6 you can get a bento with garlic chicken, teri beef, hot dog, omelet, and rice with furikake. Such meal possibilities, as simple as they may sound, make happy rainbow fireworks explode in the part of my mind that controls hunger. And since I don't know how to express the feeling I get when I read these sorts of menus (that is, the menus I had been reading all day) in real words, I'll go the the onomatopoeic route: "Aarrhrhh ahrhr mraraargh maaan arrrehgge [fidget] mraarahh wuuh grurgle blarghr waaaant."

We got an order of their famous garlic chicken, fame that became clear about halfway through my first bite: Mouth, meet this incredibly crispy crust infused with sweet garlic sauce. Instant love. The chicken wasn't especially moist, but it didn't really matter seeing as the crust was the main draw.

: Mitsuba.

Stephanie took us to Mitsuba across the street to try their sweet potato crumble, but they had sold out by then. Sad face. Never underestimate the popularity of sweet potato crumble.

: Akyth.

Akyth isn't a place you'd stop by for a bento box—but 50 bento boxes, yes. They've been in the catering business since the 1970s, making all the kinds of Hawaiian-Japanese dishes I wish I had grown up with: sushi, bento, musubi, etc. Stephanie suggested going there because she was familiar with co-owner Kiyomi Morishige, and because they make the mochiko chicken bento Kathy ate while attending Punahou School. For a great profile of Akyth, check out this feature in The Honolulu Adviser.

: Mochiko chicken bento.

I'm not sure they'd sell you one mochiko chicken bento if you stopped by, but after we chatted with the the super sweet owners Owen and Kiyomi Morishige, they gave us a box to try. It came with a nori-wrapped patty of rice, a couple of pieces of mochiko chicken, a slice of spam, a mini fork, and somewhere tucked beneath the meat, an andagi (Okinawan doughnut ball). Much more appealing than the Aramark lunches I got in my high school cafeteria. (At some point I think I stopped buying lunch in the cafeteria, instead bringing a snack with me and opting to eat my real lunch at home after school around 3 p.m.)

: More!

Kiyomi wouldn't let us leave without a few mode goodies: a maki roll and container of sweet pickled cucumber slices. I was too full to try the sushi, but I ate some of the cucumber and it instantly made me think of the kind of Chinese pickled cucumber I loved as a kid. Mostly sweet, not that tart.

Akyth doesn't do any advertising; they get their business through word-of-mouth. Which seems to have served them well for the past few decades. If you're throwing a party, make sure to get food from Akyth!

: Liliha Bakery.

After finishing the savory part of our food tour and deeming our stomachs still shy of exploding, we moved on to the next stage: desserts. We stopped by Liliha Bakery, purveyor of "sensational" pound cakes and other pastries, most notably coco puffs.

: Mm, chocolate cream puff!

Coco puffs are one of Kathy's favorite desserts, so I'll just let her describe them: "Cool chocolate pudding, choux pastry and the world's most wonderful chantilly: yolky, creamy and sweet with just the right hand of salt." In a rare exercise of restraint, Kathy and I split one of these pudding-filled nubs. Although I'm not a big fan of choux pastry, I am a big fan of pudding and creamy goo. The pastry is an edible receptacle for both. Mmm.

: Shimazu.

For dessert #2, we went to Shimazu Store, primarily a shave ice joint, but they also sell popcorn snacks. They have over 60 shave ice flavors, and judging from the categories of "NEW FLAVORS" and "NEWER FLAVORS," it's hard to keep up.

: The Extras.

They also sell cute t-shirts featuring your favorite shave ice extras: ice cream, azuki beans, mochi, and condensed milk.

: Large shave ice.

We didn't get any extras in our large shave ice flavored with ginger ale, milk tea, and li hing pickle mango ($3.75). Because when you have a nearly football-sized mound of flavored ice, that's...that's enough. Especially when you're already full.

The ice wasn't as finely shaved as Waiola's, but that's actually why I liked it more. Shimazu's had more texture to it—still super-fine with no crunchy bits, but not so fine it instantly melted upon contact with human skin. One isn't necessarily better than the other—it just depends what your preference is. I guess I like a bit of chew. Out of the three flavors we got, the li hing pickle mango was my favorite. I heard their red velvet creme is especially popular, though.

: Fish, NOT FOR EATING.

And we were finally full. For realz. Stephanie drove us to the East West Center so we could check out their lovely little garden and koi-filled pond in the back before driving to Iolani to pick up Kathy's sister Tiffany from school, and bringing the three of us back to Kathy's house.

In summary, Stephanie did a crapload for us, way more than we were expecting, and introduced us to some memorably great eats we wouldn't think of visiting on our own. While may people may be as well informed about food as she is, I doubt many are as sweet and mega-adorable. I'm quite sure I will never be that cool as a mom. I will just not be a mom ever. (Side note: My mom is awesome too! And I don't think I'll be as awesome as her either.)

: Kay's Crackseed. Nice name.

We spent the late afternoon at Manoa Marketplace, where we used the wifi at The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf (not optimal since it's code activated and you have a one-hour limit, which will inevitably run out just as you're about to send an important email) and shopped for dinner ingredients at Safeway. I took a photo of Kay's Crackseed just because...I liked the name Kay's Crackseed.

: Dinner.

Kathy's plan was to make use of her family's new and ridiculously beautiful kitchen by cooking steaks for everyone and giving her mom a break, but as we attempted to prep the steaks and sautéed spinach, her mom—in true mom-like form—took over and basically cooked the meal herself. I couldn't even wash spinach correctly—fail. Ah well, can't blame her mom for wanting to make sure everything came out good, which it did.

: Ah. Foliage.

To finish off, here's a view looking up from Kathy's driveway at twilight. Nice, eh? Yeaaah. Too bad Kathy is seemingly allergic to Hawaii—she had eye crust, snot-laden allergies all week (and during most of her childhood), as did I, but not as bad as hers. Which is saying something since I'm known for being perpetually allergy-ridden.

Addresses

Monarch Seafoods
515 Kalihi Street, Honolulu, HI 96819 (map)
808-841-7877

Pongo's Kitchen
414 Mokauea Street, Honolulu, HI 96819 (map)
808- 845-6008

Ethel's Grill
232 Kalihi Street, Honolulu, HI 96819 (map)
808-847-6467

Mistu-Ken
1223 North School Street, Honolulu, HI 96817 (map)
808-848-5573

Akyth
979 Robello Lane, Honolulu, HI 96817 (map)
808-845-8118

Liliha Bakery
515 North Kuakini Street, Honolulu, HI 96817 (map)
808-531-1651; lilihabakeryhawaii.com

Shimazu Store
330 N School St, Honolulu, HI 96817 (map)

Manoa Marketplace
2851 E Manoa Rd, Honolulu, Hawaii 96822 (map)

Honolulu, Day 2, Part 2: Shave Ice at Waiola, Icee at Uncle Clay's, Food Coma at Kats Sushi

2010-06-06T05:24:14Z

I visited Honolulu with Kathy from May 9-16. Yup, almost a month ago. You'll be reading about this trip for the next few months at the rate that I'm going. HOPE YOU'RE OKAY WITH THAT. If you missed it, read Part 1.

: Waiola.

Aside from malasadas, the local food I most wanted to eat in Hawaii was shave ice. Yup. ...Frozen water. But frozen water so finely shaved that it looks like snow and fully soaks up whatever syrup it's doused in. We don't get that in New York City—among the few shaved ice desserts available here, most seem to consist of slovenly crushed ice, unappealingly chunky and crunchy, instead of gossamer-like shavings. This just wouldn't fly in Hawaii. Because crushed ice blows.

: SHAVE ICE, COME TO MAMA.

Kathy brought me to Waiola, her favorite shave ice spot, where we shared a bowl of lilikoi (passion fruit) and li hing mui-flavored ice on top of custard (the flan-like sort) and mochi nubbins ($5). The first bite was a shock: It was smooth as Italian ice or sorbet, but fluffier and juicier, aka, unlike any other shaved ices I've ever had. Also unlike any other shaves ice I've had is that every bit of ice was saturated in syrup—no unsightly pockets of naked ice. As the bottom of of the bowl fills with melted syrup-soaked ice, you can slurp it up with the skinny straw (or you can just leave it and not ingest more sugar than necessary, but hey, the straw is there for a reason).

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Mm, good spoonful.

While the ice alone was great, I liked it more with the custard and mochi for extra creaminess and chew. VARIEGATED TEXTURES, GIVE THEM TO ME.

: The fun don't stop!

Waiola offers more than just piles of finely shaved ice—they also sell crack seed! And if you're me, you didn't know what crack seed was until you went to Hawaii. Judging from Kathy's reaction to my state of crack seed ignorance, I may as well have told her I didn't know what a potato was. She, along with probably every other Hawaiian, grew up eating crack seed.

So...what is it? (Not drugs, although in a related matter, crystal meth seems to be the main problem drug in Honolulu. In case anyone was wondering. ...Probably not. I WAS CURIOUS SO I LOOKED IT UP.) It's a category of Hawaiian snacks encompassing dried fruits, Japanese cookies, rice crackers, li hing mui-flavored everything, dried seafood, and...more stuff like that, if the categorization of those snacks means anything to you (I describe them a bit more on Serious Eats). They did to me—because they're Asian! Hey, I'm Asian (sort of)! Neat. But unlike on the Mainland (I got used to that term for "the rest of the US" by the end of my trip) where my best chance at finding these types of snacks would be at an Asian food store, these snacks are available all over the place in Honolulu, from drug stores to dedicated crack seed shops...or select shave ice joints.

A Cupcake and Icee at Aina Haina Shopping Center

: I EXPERIENCED IT!!! Image from icee.com.

Perhaps just a smidge less scandalous than me not knowing what crack seed was me not ever having ingested an Icee before. I wasn't even sure what an Icee was until I saw the red and blue logo, at which point my brain had some sort of wooshy "ta da!" moment and said, "Ohhh, I've seen that logo about a gazillion times, yet I never realized it was advertising a semi-frozen carbonated beverage." I regarded it, foolishly perhaps, as nothing special, just like everything else at strip mall convenience stores. (By the way, my attitude towards convenience stores is completely different in Asia, because in Asia they are full of ASIAN FOOD, and that is way better than the average convenience store in the US.) The anthropomorphic polar bear and artificial colors just didn't reel me in.

: Doe Fang.

To rectify my non-Icee existence, we popped by Aina Haina Shopping Center to get a special Icee from Uncle Clay's (original name Doe Fang). But first, we ate a cupcake. Because. That's what we do.

: CUPCAKES!

Gourmet cupcake shop Cake Couture doesn't have a Hawaiian feel to it (more like a minimalist feel), but that seems to be the point. The flavors were standard, nothing Hawaiian like, say, lilikoi, coconut, or mango. Although red velvet was the most popular—it got twice as much shelf space as any other cupcake—we went with a chocolate frosted chocolate cupcake ($2.50). Moist, fluffy cake? Check. Smooth, thick, creamy frosting? Check. Tooth decaying sweetness? Thankfully not present. Overall, a solid cupcake, although it'd be better with less frosting.

: Uncle Clay's.

Unlike Cake Couture, Uncle Clay's, named after owner Clayton Chang, is all about Hawaiian-ness. One side of the store is lined with crack seed and candies, while the other side features a sitting area, photos of famous customers, Uncle Clay t-shirts, random knick knacks, and a poster of Uncle Clay's "Pure Aloha" oath:

: Pure Aloha.

I hadn't noticed the sign until I was on my way out of the store. Otherwise I would've been more prepared for the friendly sunshine punchy spirit of Uncle Clay.

: Uncle Clay doing his thaaang.

Actually, that's a lie. Nothing really prepares you for meeting Uncle Clay. Although Uncle Clay is known for his Magic Icees—Icee with added mix-ins like creamy sauce, lychee, chocolate sauce, li hing powder, mochi crunch, red bean paste, coconut, and more—the most memorable part of visiting the shop is experiencing Uncle Clay's gentle graciousness. The Yelp reviews aptly describe the experience of meeting Uncle Clay as "Aloha overload," "real aloha spirit," and "most Aloha-ish person I know." What does Uncle Clay do to garner such responses?

He treats every customer like family (ohana). He shakes your hand, asks you your name, where you're from, and acts genuinely interested the whole time. After he gets to know you, he introduces you to his other customers/guests, and vice versa. This is not the place to visit if you're in a hurry; plan on sticking around for a while and be prepared to shake a lot of hands.

Besides showing you that, damn, people can be really nice, Uncle Clay also shows you that dreams can come true! ...If your dream is to own your favorite childhood store. (I think that's a pretty cool dream.) It was Uncle Clay's dream to own Doe Fang ever since he started visiting it as a kid in the 1950s—he became the owner in 1996. It looks like the perfect fit; he obviously takes great pride in his business and has cultivated a lasting relationship with the community.

: With a lychee on top.

Oh yeah, we got an Icee—a Lychee-licious ($3.80 for a small) to be exact, made of your choice of Icee (we went with strawberry-flavored) mixed with lychee juice, a few squirts of "secret" creamy sauce, and a couple of lychees. The (not so) small cup was more than enough for Kathy and me, but I saw some other customers order frighteningly large, towering cups.

: Innards.

The lychee flavor wasn't particularly strong. I think it just melded with the strawberry-esque flavor for an overall sweet, fruity, fizzy mouthful of slush. Refreshing slush.

: How to combat sugar overload.

And then we went across the street to Kathy's favorite McDonald's (yup, she's an expert on fast food in Honolulu) to combat the sugar overload with salt-specked fries. ...It was a palate cleanser.

And Then My Camera Died

: I ate another sweet thing. Oops.

After the fries, we went to Kathy's grandma's house to say hello, and in my case use the Internet (Kathy's house wasn't hooked up yet; I HAD TO GET MY FIX, OK). Her grandma had these candy coated, deep fried glutinous rice balls on hand, so I ate half of one. The thick golden candy shell was intense, adding crunchiness and stickiness to a layer of chewiness and stickiness harboring a center of mashed and sweetened mung beans.

: Hello, sun.

During the car ride between Kathy's grandma's house and our dinner destination, I was having a grand ol' time taking photos from the car until my trusty-up-to-that-point Canon 20D went into "I am crazy and probably broken" mode. I didn't drop it or knock it; one moment it was fine, while a second later the screen went black and the shutter went on a nonstop rampage of continuously opening and closing, preventing me from being able to do anything else with the camera. After turning it on and off and removing and replacing the battery repeatedly, along with fruitlessly slapping it as though I were spanking an unruly child ("BAD CAMERA, BAD, MOMMY DOES NOT APPROVE"), I gave up and Kathy was nice enough to lend me her camera.

Online research told me that the problem wasn't all that uncommon and could be fixed by sending my camera to Canon Headquarters, along with few hundred dollars. Hmm...this solution would not suffice. So a few days later I went to a local camera store and made a mega-upgrade to a Canon 7D. Hooray, expensive camera purchase by way of desperation!!! I could write more about how this new camera makes me feel like an even more inept photographer than before, but I'll leave those thoughts for another day. Or the disgruntled recesses of my mind, more like.

Kats Sushi, or "All-You-Can-Eat Sushi, Probably Not the Best Idea"

: Sushi! Restaurant!

If you've been reading my blog for a long time, you may have noticed the lack of sushi. I don't dislike sushi—I just don't like it enough to drop, say, $40 a meal on it. (Not to say that every sushi meal costs that much, but it can get pricey in New York City if you want good stuff that can fill you up. I generally just go for something that will make me equally as happy but cost less.) But in Hawaii, land of plentiful fish and sushi joints, I was totally into Kathy's idea of gorging on sushi.

We met up with Kathy's friend Noelle at Kats Sushi for their $20-ish (maybe $23, I don't remember) all-you-can-eat special. I've had too many sushi meals that left me thinking, "Dammit, I'm still hungry." But after eating at Kats Sushi my food coma-ed mind pathetically wheezed, "Ohhh my gaawd I never want to eat sushi again, or any other food, maybe, uhhh, uhhh food babies in my belly." We ordered far too much, not on purpose, and tried our hardest not to leave behind more than a few stray grains of rice that would disqualify us from the all-you-can-eat deal.

: Fish collar.

They started us with a complimentary fish collar. Yay fish! We were still in happy spirits. Because defeat was still a distant possibility.

: Hand rolls, part 1.

And then we tried two kinds of hand rolls. Spicy salmon and tuna, maybe. The rice was plain, not seasoned sushi rice, which would've tasted better.

: Hand rolls, part 2.

And then we tried three kinds of rolls: ikura (salmon eggs), spicy unagi (eel), and (maybe) spicy hamachi.

: Oh. Shit.

And then we ordered an assortment of nigiri—salmon, tuna, tamago, and red clam (hokigai?)—which is where we fucked up. We ordered three of each, forgetting that there are two per order. So we ended up with six of each. Which is 24 pieces. Which, on top of having eaten five hand rolls each, is a stomach-exploding amount.

Each of us slowly consumed our share. I reached the finish line first, allowing me to flop back and observe the dejected faces and moans of defeat coming from Kathy and Noelle, with mild relish. "Haha I am done first but I also feel like I'm gonna 'splode, so I still fail." Maybe it was just because we were so full, but we all felt like the rice in the nigiri (which was seasoned) was especially dense. Not that it's surprising that the restaurant would want you to eat lots of rice. The vinegary seasoning combined with the concentrated rice bites knocked us out just after a few pieces.

I'm sure the meal would've been fine if we hadn't overstuffed ourselves, although if their nigiri are always that rice-dense, I wouldn't want to go back for more. The fish tasted fine to us, but our minds were clouded by rice overload.

: ICE CREAM.

Despite that, we went to ice cream shop Bubbies for dessert. I was too full to eat anything beyond a taste of one flavor. :( Apparently the second stomach usually reserved for dessert was squashed into uselessness by my regular sushi-filled stomach.

: Display mochi ice cream.

Bubbies is known for mochi ice cream, which I've seen at Whole Foods in New York and New Jersey. What we don't get at Whole Foods are the inappropriately named ice cream treats, like...

: Mmm...maybe.

"Functioning Prostate"? You can also get "Maybe The Bag Broke" and "Come Here Little Girl." There's also "Knock Me Up on the Blower." I'm not sure what that means.

: Flavors.

The ice cream flavors have normal names. I tried Oreo made of Oreo cookies smoothly blended into ice cream. I'm not a big fan of Oreos, but I do like it in ice cream form. Good stuff.

: Rocky Road.

Kathy got a tiny scoop (called a "fetal scoop") of Rocky Road. While she ate, I laid back in my chair while hugging my distended belly...and possibly letting out a low moan. Which is a disturbingly normal occurrence for me.

: Honolulu at night.

And to finish this post off with a more appealing image than me doing an imitation of a beached whale, here's Honolulu at night.

There are five more days of my vacation to get through! WAHOOO!!! We're not even close to being done.

Addresses

Waiola
3113 Mokihana Street, Honolulu HI 96816 (map)
808-735-8886

Original location: 2135 Waiola Street at Paani Street, Honolulu, HI 96805 (map)
808-949-2269

Cake Couture
820 West Hind Drive, Honolulu, HI 96821 (map)
808-373-9750; cakecouture.com

Uncle Clay's (Doe Fang)
820 West Hind Drive, Honolulu, HI 96821
808-373-3402; uncleclays.com

Kats Sushi
715 South King Street, Honolulu, HI 96813 (map)
808-526-1268

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

Honolulu, Day 2, Part 1: Malasadas from Leonard's, Japanese Snacks from Shirokiya, and Hokkaido Bread from Panya

2010-05-25T23:54:08Z

I visited Honolulu with Kathy from May 9-16. Goal: Eat a ton. Goal status: ATTAINED! Now I just have to blog about it all. ...This may take a while.

: I want one of these in my driveway too.

It was time. Malasada time.

What are malasadas? Short answer: Portuguese yeast doughnuts. Longer answer: Portuguese yeast doughnuts that make Kathy squeal with joy when she talks about them. If she were a cartoon character, the act of describing malasadas would cause her eyes to grow all saucer-sized and shimmery and her head would be surrounded by daggers of excitement. Like this:

...in fat bunny creature-form.

: Leonard's Bakery.

She's repeatedly told me that the ones from the Punahou Carnival are the best, but since we didn't have a time machine to go back to February when the carnival took place, she brought me to Leonard's Bakery for my first taste of malasada-derived happiness.

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Bakery.

: Menu.

Leonards has been popping out fresh malasadas for over 50 years. They have a wide selection of pastries to choose from, but malasadas are the main draw, and my eyes went straight for the malasada menu. Unfilled malasadas dusted with white sugar, cinnamon, or li hing sugar are just 70 cents each. For just 30 cents more you can them filled with custard, dobash (chocolate), haupia (coconut), or the Flavor of the Month, which for May was mango.

: Plain malasada.

After a short wait, we received hot golden blobs of sugar-dusted dough. The plain malasada had a pillowy, slightly chewy texture, and was only a touch sweet. Hell yes, it was good stuff. It's a doughnut at its peak—just pulled from the fryer. I'm sure even a doughnut from Dunkin Donuts would taste good if it were so fresh. I wouldn't want to eat a malasada any other way.

: Mango.

I liked the mango cream-filled malasada more than the plain because, if you hadn't noticed, it's full of mango-flavored cream. Mango-flavored cream. While filled doughnuts aren't usually my favorite due to imbalance between the filling and the pastry, this doughnut was just right: There wasn't too much nor too little cream, and the mildly flavored, not too sweet cream melded well with its bready covering.

But the most important thing was that it was hot and hadn't been sitting on a shelf for hours before I ate it. If I want that experience in New York City, I'd have to go to a restaurant that fries them to order or make sure to visit a doughnut shop whenever "fresh doughnut liberation" takes place. And if that involves waking up at some ungodly hour, I ain't doing it. (I've never had a fresh Krispy Kreme doughnut before, but I'm going to assume that fresh malasadas are better.)

Shirokiya

: MORE PASTRIES.

After our malasada breakfast, Kathy drove us to the Ala Moana Center to eat at Shirokiya, a Japanese department store with an awesome food court on the second floor. First, she showed me Saint-Germain on the first floor, a bakery she worked at during high school mostly so she could eat lots of pastries for free. That's a hell of a lot better than when I worked at Stop & Shop during high school with no freebies in sight. I wanted a cream-filled doughnut. And a red bean bun. And a slice of strawberry shortcake. And everything else.

: Or maybe I want all of this...

But then I got to the second floor and the seconds-old memories of Saint Germain went poof, to be replaced by rows of tonkatsu, and sushi, and musubi, and things with rice, and bentos, and noodles, and poke, and taiyaki, and fried chicken, and more. Each stand had its own specialty (I was particularly happy to see a stand for unagi; grilled Japanese eel has been one of my favorite dishes since childhood, and I will continue to love it posthumously, because unlike my corporal body, my love JUST WON'T DIE) and I wanted to eat at every single one.

But I couldn't eat at every single one. Because I am just a weak human, and that weakness entails limited stomach space, and sensitive emotions, and other things.

: Mm, butterflake.

So Kathy and I only shared a few things, starting with a butterflake from Saint Germain. It lived up to its name quite well, that is, it was made of a gazillion paper-thin layers separated by butter. Or fused together by butter. The top exposed part had some crustiness, while the rest was soft and a bit chewy. It's good for fulfilling those cravings for something carby, buttery, and a little more sweet than savory, but not a dessert.

: Obanyaki.

We also shared two custard-filled obanyaki, sort of like a puck-shaped pancake with custard in the middle (red bean is the other common filling). I'm under the impression that the fish-shaped taiyaki is more popular, but I prefer the round/ovoid shape of obanyaki. We unfortunately got ones that had been pre-made and wrapped in plastic, but they were still appealingly soft and spongy, just lacking the outer crust you get with fresh ones.

I never understood why fresh obanyaki/taiyaki aren't more popular in New York City. They seem easy enough to make; you just need the right mold. Damn it, I'll just buy a lil' mold for myself. I could fill them with butter and maple syrup. Oh man. Oh. Man.

: Spam musubi.

For the savory part of the meal, we shared some fancier-than-average Spam musubi featuring sliced Spam (lightly seasoned from the looks of it) on a seaweed and sesame seed-coated patty of rice, topped with a smaller slice of tamagoyaki, wrapped in a band of nori. It's a nice variation on the basic Spam musubi Kathy taught me how to make; instead of just rice and Spam, you get egg, rice, and Spam. That's more balanced. Right? Maybe.

: LOOK AT THE PRETTY COLORS.

Before leaving Shirokiya, I bought some pretty candies. Because I like rainbows just as much as the next five-year-old. Not the one above; I went for an assorted fruit pack where each piece featured an intricate fruit design, sort of like Papabubble but not ridiculously expensive.

: Hug.

Actually, the last thing I did before leaving the store was hug this giant hamster. I don't need real love; I just need obese plush toys. Like the next five-year-old.

Panya

: ANOTHER BAKERY, WOOHOO.

A short walk away from Shirokiya is Panya. Japanese bakeries galore = happy Robyn.

: Hokkaido bread.

Kathy told me to try their most famous offering, Hokkaido bread, "A Delicious and Memorable Experience" according to the packaging. I'm sold. I didn't go for the beach ball-sized "Big Top" version though, just the single-serving bun. The slightly sweet, light and fluffy milk bread is enhanced by a sweeter, mostly soft crust that envelopes the top of the bun. Like the butterflake, it's another pleasant, sort of neutral carb-based snack (although more on the dessert side than the butterflake).

I'm planning to write one or two more parts to Day 1. It was a long day. Yeup..

Addresses

Leonard's Bakery
933 Kapahulu Avenue, Honolulu HI 96816 (map)
808-737-5591; leonardshawaii.com

Shirokiya
Ala Moana Center, 1450 Ala Moana Boulevard, Honolulu, HI 96814 (map)
808-973-9111; shirokiya.com

Panya
Also in the Ala Moana Center
808-946-6388; panyabakery.com

The Girl Who Ate Everything

Labor Day Weekend Idea: Check Out the Asian Feastival Next Monday

Cheeseburger at Veselka and a Steve Hartman Marathon

Address

Random Stuff Elsewhere

Head to Pies 'n' Thighs for the Thighs (and Biscuits and Sides), Not So Much the Pies

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5 Memorable Eats in May: Motorino, Termini Bros, Shake Shack, Pylos, and a Smoke-A-Thon

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Termini Bros

Shake Shack

Pylos

Memorial Day Smoke-A-Thon

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Honolulu, Day 7: KCC Farmers' Market, Chinatown, and Hawaiian Plate Lunch

Chinatown-ing

Back To That Plate Lunch

Goodbye, House

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Honolulu Day 5, Part 2: Dinner at Town, Dessert at Nobu

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Honolulu, Day 4: Korean, Cakeworks, Diamond Head, and Grandma's Chicken Curry

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Honolulu, Day 3: Five-Location Plate Lunch Tour, Plus Desserts

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Honolulu, Day 2, Part 2: Shave Ice at Waiola, Icee at Uncle Clay's, Food Coma at Kats Sushi

A Cupcake and Icee at Aina Haina Shopping Center

And Then My Camera Died

Kats Sushi, or "All-You-Can-Eat Sushi, Probably Not the Best Idea"

Addresses

Honolulu, Day 2, Part 1: Malasadas from Leonard's, Japanese Snacks from Shirokiya, and Hokkaido Bread from Panya

Shirokiya

Panya

Addresses