Monthly Archive for May, 2009

We got a promotional coupon book from Z Pizza at work last week. Today, we checked out their online menu (which was disturbingly bereft of prices) and gave them a call. The prices were in line with similar restaurants, and they had delivery, so we put together an order and waited for it to arrive. The food arrived quickly, but soon after, the delivery girl returned – the prep crew had forgotten one of our sandwiches, so she brought it by, along with a couple freebee pizza slices. Nice! The free stuff aside, it was nice seeing a place that was actually responsible! I got a meatball sub, $7.50 USD plus tax. It was toasted on foil, cut in half, then the halves separately wrapped. Opening up one half, I gave it a taste. The bread was crusty and firm. The filling was a bit cold, but that’s probably my fault for waiting too long. The meatballs were large and plentiful. There was a nice spicy marinara sauce, and thick pieces of melted mozzarella. In general, the flavor was good, but muted on the “meat” side. There was adequate meat, but insufficient flavor from it. Oh… and as the cheese cooled, it became firmly stuck to the thin foil, causing a minor pain in the you-know-what to remove it (hint: thicker foil or reusable silicone toasting sheet). Continue reading ‘Z Pizza Meatball Sub’

Took my mom to dinner at Haleiwa Joe’s at Haiku Gardens for an early Mother’s Day dinner.   I started with a Gordon Biersch Marzen draught – it arrived lukewarm.  Mom had the $29 Filet which was properly cooked according to her request – on the rare side of medium rare.  That looked like an A.   I got the $20 salmon with a $3 starter house salad.  The salad was 60% iceberg and 40% romaine with three tomato wedges, two thin slices of English cuke, a sprinkle of dessicated carot gratings, and 8mm-wide strips of nori laver.  The salad was obviously premade, covered with plastic wrap, and stockpiled in the fridge.  The miso-sesame vinaigrette was indistinct and flavorless, not unlike the mystery dressing at the Whistler Village Brewhouse Restaurant that made the salad wet, but didn’t make it taste good.  Salad gets a D – skip this one.  Salmon was served with seasoned mashed potatoes and cooked julienned carrot and zucchini.  The salmon filet was covered with a macadamia nut pesto and fried potato strings.  The flavor was good, but the salmon was overcooked and dry.  I found a half-dozen pin bones, and the blood line wasn’t cleaned from the filet, leaving a bad tasting region adjacent to it.  I’ve had good luck with the salmon before, but this time it gets a C+.  Dessert was the “Paradise Pie” which was a giant wedge of Oreo-crusted coffee ice cream pie sprinkled with toasted almond slivers and drizzled with Belgian chocolate sauce.  It was good, but the base ice cream quality was pedestrian.  It still gets an A though.  Desserts are all “share” size. Continue reading ‘Edible Briefs – Haleiwa Joe’s, Kaneohe’

Pepsi Throwback

Mmm… tasty! There once was a Golden Age when soft drinks were sweetened with “real” sugar – either from cane or beets. Through the intervening years, sugar prices rose, so cheaper high-fructose corn syrup slowly began to be cut in to keep the prices down and profits up. Nowadays, HFCS is the primary sweetener and sugar is uncommon in the USDM. For a limited time, Pepsi will produce and sell a retro version of their product. Once you taste it, you will remember what Pepsi used to taste like back in “small kid time”. The change was so gradual, you probably didn’t realize it had happened! The difference is almost like the flavor gap between diet and regular… okay, maybe not that bad, but it is detectable. The sweet is not stronger, but it is brighter. The other flavorings are not as muddled, and the aromatics are more pronounced. Continue reading ‘Natsukashii Aji’