After the Monday night ride, Ckucke, Kevyn, and I went by The Fat Greek at the bottom of St. Louis Drive for a bite to eat. Parking at this little strip mall is iffy at best, but oddly, a pair of tandem stalls were open, so Ckucke and I pulled in. Kevyn was dropping off his bike at home so came down a little later and also miraculously found parking! I ordered the gyros for $8.40 USD including tax. They have little pager things so when you meal is prepared, they hit the magic button and your unit goes off – a little better than yelling, since they have a small air-conditioned “inside” and a large “outside” patio. The prep time was longer than I would expect for the menu and venue. The food quality was very good. My entrée came with a moderately sized salad that included a cherry tomato, a Calamata olive, two cucumber slices, and crumbled feta cheese on a mix of romaine and baby greens (A-). The gyros pita (A) was well-filled with meat and was seasoned with that white yogurt-based sauce, and came with a tasty, spicy sauce on the side (sorry – I don’t recall the sauce names now, and I’m not going to look it up). As a means of comparison, it was a couple bucks more than something equivalent at Opa! In Vancouver, but the quality was a little better, and there was a little more meat filling. Continue reading ‘Edible Briefs – The Fat Greek’
Archive for the 'Food' Category
Page 38 of 49
I was a little apprehensive revisiting this place so soon after the mummifying experience last time, but this is where the office was picking up food, so the die was cast. I took a chance on the “Veal”, and was pleasantly surprised with two giant breaded ground veal patties, reminiscent of the ones that were available at the cafeterias in the UH system in the days before SoDexHo. The rice was good (B), the macaroni salad was a little runny (C) but tasted fine (especially after dumping some El Yucateco Habanero hot sauce on it!), and the entree and gravy was good (B-). The veal patties appear to be some pre-made third-party product that they deep fry. Mine (and actually everyone else’s food like chicken katsu) was a little on the dark/overcooked side as appearances go, but the flavor was fine – it just looked burnt. Maybe this is an oil issue. I usually opt for brown rice and tossed salad on plate lunches, but I am not sure if these are offered at Queen Bee. The veal was placed over some chopped cabbage, mostly to catch any remaining frying oil, but that was like vegetables… Continue reading ‘Edible Briefs – Queen Bee Lounge Revisited’
Mmm… Mata natsukashii aji desu! This time it’s the pure “Throwback” version of Mountain Dew, complete with retro can graphics. Like the Pepsi Throwback, this one uses real sugar instead of HFCS, so the flavor is deeper and richer. The citrus flavor is in the forefront once more! Again, to be clear, it isn’t sweeter with real sugar: The flavor is simply better. Ckucke called me from Sam’s Club to ask me about it, and got me a case while he was at it. It’ll be pretty hard to go back to the regular HFCS stuff after this twelve-pack is gone!
Price varies – in this case around $4 USD for the 12-pack
Highly recommended!
Four out of four grinning monkeys
Our Saturday night culinary (mis)adventure this week kicked off with this:
Pork rinds for the new age, microwave speed for hot crispy pork skin goodness right at your table! Just like microwave popcorn it comes with brown bag containing the trippy little pork rind nodules. Zap (decided not to say “nuke” in deference to current events in DPRK) in microwave for between 1:30 to 2:00. I was told to be very vigilant in watching bag and stopping it as soon as it stopped expanding. The rinds go from crispy yummyness to carbon lumps and annoying entire office building in a matter of seconds.
Verdict from all the boys? Two thumbs up all around! Sorry, no pics of the finished product, we ate it all that fast! Oh wait, found it. 
And if you look at the nutritional info, it doesn’t look all that bad. Just doing our part to support the pork industry from the misinformed masses panic over swine flu. Thursday Dave did pork adobo lunch, and then his pork trio dinner at Los Chaps, I had chili verde pork, and I just made Japanese style nibuta.
Anyway, 4 out of 4 swine snacking monkeys.
Dropped by Kikuya in Kaneohe for dinner tonight. Hidden away in a light industrial area on Kahukipa Street, the parking here is limited day and night. We lucked out and got the space right in front. I got the #2 dinner special – sashimi, tempura, and salmon shioyaki. All meals come with miso-shiru and namazuke. Rice comes family-style serve yourself with chawan and an ohitsu, arriving along with a pot of genmai-cha and teacups . The miso and namazuke were both fine (C), and the sashimi was cut from good quality fish (B+). The salmon was large in plan area, but thin. It was seasoned fine, and of good quality origin (B). I’m still not exactly certain how it was cooked, since the surface looked more fried than grilled. The tempura was crispy and not oily at all (B). There were two long beans, a carrot and Japanese eggplant slice, and two shrimp. The shrimp were on the small size. The dipping sauce was a little on the sweet side for my tastes. There was a little scoop of potato salad (C-) and some salad greens with thousand island dressing (C+) to garnish the plate. Not bad. Probably the best Japanese food on the Windward side. Continue reading ‘Edible Briefs – Kikuya’
WTF!? Tsukenjo’s was closed today. Did they take an extra day off to make Memorial Day weekend 4 days? Just across the street makai was Queen Bee Lounge. A bar at night, they serve plate lunches at midday. I got the Loco Moco for $6 USD. There was a pile of food in the heavy lunch. A full layer of rice lined the plate, and was topped with two hamburger patties, two nicely fried eggs, and lots of brown gravy. The traditional scoop of macaroni salad rounded out the plate. I was positive on the initial bite. The meat was actually spiced! The gravy had a good peppercorn note. Halfway through, my tongue started to hurt from the saltiness. I think this would be perfect for Fabio, but it was too salty for me and my low-sodium-diet-habituated-physiology. My coworker had the same experience with her breaded fried pork chops – tasty, but salty. I wish I could rate them better, since the ingredient quality was good and the preparation (other than the salt) was good. Continue reading ‘Edible Briefs – Queen Bee Lounge’
This Pils from Hokkaido Beer Pirkawakka brewery in Chitose, South of Sapporo, has the distinct bitter flavor common to the variety. The aroma is richly malty. There is a mild flowery aroma from the hopping, but no sweet taste. If you enjoy a good bitter Pils, then you will like this one. It is the most bitter Japanese jibiiru I have tasted to date. The color is a medium amber. The initial flavor is clean and malty, and the finish crisp. The malt and bitter both fade evenly in the aftertaste. The carbonation is moderate. Although richly flavored, this is an easily drinkable, refreshing Pils. This is the best Pils from Japan that I have tried! It is not unlike a Lowenbrau or Wernesgruner with more flavor. If you like your Pils a little less bitter, try the Otaru Beer Pilsner jibiiru. Continue reading ‘Beer Is Good – Hokkaido Beer Pirkawakka Pilsner Jibiiru’
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’
I had the meatloaf from Tsukenjo’s today. I was disappointed. The quantity was large, but the general quality was marginal. There weren’t a lot of fillers in the meat itself, but there also wasn’t a whole lot of flavor other than salt and beef tallow. Even the abundant brown gravy didn’t save it. The entrée gets a C. The “tossed salad” was chopped cabbage with one fleck of watercress and French dressing. Whee. The salad gets a D. The rice was bony and dried up along the edges of the scoops. Rice gets a C-. Give this one a pass and try something else like the roast pork.
Of all the meatloaf plates I’ve had in the Kakaako area, by and far the best is Cooke Street Diner’s “Mama’s Meatloaf”. This is seriously a maboroshi dish – it is not a regular menu item, and if they feel like making it, they often sell out by noon. The ingredient quality and care of preparation on this meatloaf is outstanding. Second best is the one from the lunch wagon on Ilaniwai between Cooke and Kamani. This one is sometimes a little dry, but the flavor is very good.