Author Archive for taro

Page 19 of 88

Does that Go with Chicken Gunya?

Published on June 14, 2016 in Food and Review by taro. Closed

P1060536Making an appearance at Marukai when I first noticed was a sign for these eggs. “Waimana TKG”. You know that sounds like a disease like chikungunya sounds like a yummy ethnic food. These are locally grown using Japanese feed method to give it the strong orange color. And in this day and age they’re being pretty gutsy to market these as appropriate for Tamago Kake Gogan. Hot rice topped with raw egg, add desired condiments, mix em up, grind! It’s been decades since I’ve done that! They label it with two dates, a best by that designates ok for raw usage, and a use date that is in line with conventional egg dating.

They seem to be a small operation so supply does run out. But they seem to have gotten production up as I’ve seen it also at Don Quixote now. It costs about a dollar more for a dozen than the usual, but I think it’s worth it for the additional freshness that you can see. And that color!

Curse of the Cap

Published on June 14, 2016 in car and rant by taro. Closed

Damn. I really should have caught this sooner. I thought everything was good by the end of Sunday. I had the last remaining wires connected in the FX and it started running ok. Prior to that it was running really off and I attributed it to those last wires, even though I could have sworn they were just for instrumentation and wouldn’t effect the engine. Anyway, it seemed to be running alright for the 30 minutes I left it idling to run the radiator flush. Meanwhile I put the dash back together and I was getting a pretty positive feeling about things. Turns out that was premature.

Continue reading ‘Curse of the Cap’

Mystery Mount

Published on June 10, 2016 in car by taro. Closed

P1060541xNext big step with the rally FX is to get the wiring in. I fixed and retaped where I had pulled a wire out for starter and put the harness in rough position. A major section was encased in a ridged plastic housing that runs below the intake you can see in the picture here. The housing has two holes which must mount it somewhere. Of course none of this was used in the previous install. I think I spent the better part of an hour crawling around the engine bay trying to find where it goes. There were a couple of bolts holes that almost but not quite match. The heck? Continue reading ‘Mystery Mount’

Pimp My Ride

Published on June 7, 2016 in car and Gear by taro. Closed

P1060522With the engine physically in place I now needed to go about hooking everything up. Unfortunately all the mods that were done to the FX that this came out of were hack jobs. The short shift cut shift shaft held together with hose clamps, the Momo steering wheel spaced with lamp tubing. The wiring harness was pretty hacked that I’d already fixed a while back. What I’m addressing this time is the fuel supplu line. What had been done was they crammed in the stock 16V line in and bent it. You can’t really see it in this mess of lines, but it was not very clean and it bothered me that it did not seem all that safely routed being in contact with all kinds of parts. Continue reading ‘Pimp My Ride’

Where has All the Gluten Gone?

Published on May 22, 2016 in Food and Review by taro. Closed

Decided to try out Pieology in Aina Haina today. Waiting in line to order, read the fine print on the wall posters describing the choices. The footnote for the gluten free crust, they do not recommend the gluten free crust for those who have celiac disease, for those who have a real reason for it. So really, it’s a marketing ploy.

Oh, and how was the pizza? The concept does encourage overloading, but I went with a house sauce pizza w/mozzarella & bit of parmesan, pepperoni, olives, basil, roasted red pepper and it still came out a soggy floppy crust. Just the amount of cheese they use guarantees it. Honestly, the crust makes half the pizza. Toppings if using quality sources isn’t going to vary much between places. Once you get past the novelty of the Subway style ordering, is it worth $11 for a 11″ pizza? I dunno. If I’m going to load myself with the amount of sodium I detect, I’d rather it be a good pizza. If I want a floppy pizza, I’d rather get Boston’s dirtbag closing time specials. The crust may be floppy, but it does still have some character and flavor.

Sorry guys, I’ll give you more than one, but not two out of four floppy salty monkeys.

Beer Is Good – Sam Adams Nitro White Ale

Published on May 9, 2016 in Food and Review by taro. Closed

P1060516Part of Sam Adams nitro project, a white ale with nitrogen widget in can that provides the thick creamy head. Pours cloudy dark yellow with huge head. Unlike CO2, nitrogen does not dissolve into solution so doesn’t make conventional carbonation. It does create a head with superfine bubbles. It also doesn’t give the carbonation bite, thus there still is some conventional carbonation. Citrus and spice aroma. Smooth even hop bitter. Fairly thick mouthfeel.

If you’re a fan of spicy wises beer, this is well worth checking out. Solid 3 out 4 nitro monkeys.

Beer Is Good – Sierra Nevada 2016 Summerfest

Published on May 1, 2016 in Food and Review by taro. Closed

DSC_6293Current seasonal, pours clear bright yellow, medium head that dissipates. Citrus aroma, crisp hops with a bit of the bitter that comes on in the middle but does not linger. Followed by subtle grain. Light mouthfeel with fairly strong carbonation lives up to the labeling of a crisp lager.

This is an easy drinker and doesn’t seem too high ABV. Solid 3 out 4 summer monkeys.

More to Life than Beer?

Published on May 1, 2016 in car by taro. Closed

contrary to what you might gather from the blog, I have been doing things other than drink beer, those are just easy to post. The past weeks I’ve been working on the rallycross FX. We’ve been approved for 4 additional events at Kualoa this year so that gave me incentive.

  First off, I discovered at last event that one of my Maxsport German retread rally tires developed a crack down to the steel belt. To be fair, as you can see, I’ve used them close to the end of their life anyway. We rallycrossers tend to run tires until they are seriously used up. Those who are fortunate to have access to pro rally teams will buy their cast of race tires as they have plenty of tread for us! So this time I ordered a new set of tires from Demontweaks in UK. They arrived at my door in less than a week, the wonders of the Net! Continue reading ‘More to Life than Beer?’

Beer Is Good – Ballast Point Longfin Lager

Published on March 29, 2016 in Food and Review by taro. Closed

Does this mean if it’s NOT an IPA I’ll buy it? Almost. This pours a clear yellow with medium head that dissipates. Touch of mango in the aroma, but not too citrusy. The hops are there, but being in a can, no danger of light struck skunk. Bitterness of the hops carries through the middle, hint of grain, then a pretty clean finish. Light mouthfeel.

Perhaps a bit hops forward, but a pleasant beer. This makes it to 3 longfinned monkeys.

Beer Is Good – Ginga Kogen Beer

Published on March 27, 2016 in Food and Review by taro. 1 Comment

Saw this once before but was too scared to buy it. Why? It looks dangerously like a beer I had in Sapporo which ranked as such a suck beer that I could not finish it. There have been very few beers like that. So how is this one? Pours cloudy yellow with small head. Bit of citrus and hop aroma, touch of funk. A sweet and syrupy feel mitigated by carbonation. Small bitter lingers in the finish.

Can’t say I really like this beer, but it doesn’t totally suck. I could do without the skunk, then it would be a decent heffe. I’ll give it a 2 out 4 ginga monkeys.