Nope, I didn’t run off over the weekend and plop down cash on a USDM Toyota ist, but something I had for dinner on Thursday took me down on Friday morning. High fever, cramps, nausea, general sense of nearly total malaise – yep, good old gastroenteritis. I figure it was something at dinner, because if it was my laulau lunch plate from Yama’s Fish Market, I would have gone off around dinner time on Thursday. Since Root, Fabio, and I shared the same food for dinner at Chiang Mai Thai restaurant, it must have been the tapioca, since we all had different desserts. Continue reading ‘xD’
Archive for the 'Food' Category
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Two Thursdays ago, Root, Fabio, JT and I went to India Café in Kilohana Square for dinner. There was a lot of post-meal e-mail chatter about what we experienced the following day, but I’ll try and distill all of that down in this review. It was our first time there with the exception of JT, who had been there on several occasions. Fabio had eaten at the campus franchise a few times, but the offerings and presentation are different. There was a full menu with appetizers, main courses and desserts. There is no alcohol served, but you are allowed to bring your own. As soon as we were seated and received our menus, we were brought some papadums (fried spiced lentil wafers). JT said he usually just gets the vegetarian meal, which is a combination set with four curries and sides. There was also a set with a meat dishes, vegetarian dishes and sides. We decided to get the “dinner set for four†which was an all-inclusive meal including four entrée choices. Continue reading ‘India Café’
So this monday everyone pulls out crotchety old man excuses to not do a St. Louis freeride downhill, even though the weather is great. So what do we do instead, we go eat! In fact when the event’s eating, the group becomes even bigger, with six of us converging on McCully Bicycle. The plan is to head to Hide-chan down the street for dinner. CKucky and myself have been there a few times already, and Scat is a well known regular. So much so that he gets showered with bonus freebies from Hide himself. We decide to walk, which is just as well since it’s ridiculously close by, and parking is small.
Hide-chan is located on the corner of S. King and Isenberg, right across from the Moilili Star market, with an unassuming appearance. Tug hard on the door, the spring is strong. Inside is small and bright, seating for around 30 people. A genuine familly run shop, Hide cooks, wife works the front, along with one other guy and occasionally the daughter. 
They’re from Okinawa so the menu is Japanese with a number of Okinawa dishes, most obviously the goya (bittermelon). You’re started with a simple salad of iceberg and some carrot slivers with a shoyu dressing that I find quite yummy. Then you can proceed onto the main course. Many Japanese standards on the menu, along with specials posted up on the walls. You know when people ask, what’s good, and you answer everything? Well, so far everything I’ve tried really has been good that it’s hard to pick. So far I’ve had the eggplant stuffed with pork and katsu styled, the menchi (hamburger) katsu, goya champuru, 
and this time around the special of kisu tempura. The food quality and preparation has been great every time. The tempura is wonderfully light and crisp. Really, if you were served the same thing in dim light, with candles, fancy booths, piped in koto bg music, in laquer boxes, you wouldn’t know the difference. Instead you’ll get a skillfully prepared honest family style Japanese meal at a great price.
Really gets the maximum gleeful monkeys from me. Perhaps the only slight negative would be it’s small, so I wouldn’t be in a rush. As far as I can tell, it’s Hide doing the cooking, and that’s it. Ask Scat, he always pokes his head into the kitchen to say hi. There’s also a sign on wall saying No Alcohol, haven’t asked to mean none at all or it’s BYOB. Would be nice to enjoy a good beer with meal, but it’s no problem going without, the great food more than makes up for that. They close fairly early, 8:30 Mon – Thursday, later on Fri-Sat, and closed on Sunday I believe. Definitely recommended.
Today I tried the regular version of the Burger King Steakhouse Burger for lunch. Like the “Stacked” version I tried last week, it’s the patty from the Angus burger. This one had 2-slices of American cheese, A-1 Steak sauce, crispy fried onions, lettuce bits and tomato. It was assembled on the same cornmeal-dusted “premium bakery-style bun”.  The crispy fried onions were under-represented on the specimen I was given. The large size value meal is around $7.50 USD, and comes in at 1390 kcal (burger = 950, large o-rings = 440, large unsweetened iced tea = 0) – that’s 20 kcal less than the “Stacked” version. This one was much better than the “Stacked” one. Gone were the impressions of saltiness and dryness. The food value was good for the price.
4 out of 4 grinning monkeys
3.5Â out of 4 cardiac arrests
Recommended (you just might live a couple minutes longer if you choose this over the Stacked one)
So anyone thats a fan of Anthony Bourdain’s No Reservations must be familiar with the Vietnam episode where the guide takes him to a remote village and says about the dish of the day, “I think in your language you call it Squeezo.” Theres been a lot of chatter about Squeezo/Squeezel, but it got forgotten until I recently had a conversation with someone about Kopi Luwak, the expensive coffee that comes from Southeast Asia, famous because its pre-digested by Civets (that is, its eaten as a berry, then crapped out and collected as a bean). After looking over that Wikipedia article about Kopi Luwak, Dave wondered aloud if the Civet was the elusive Squeezo, as the Civet is a common food item in that region. Reminding him that the stew had pokey quills of doom, it launched The Search fo Squeezo…
Nope no Free Tidbits this past saturday. Fabio’s “cultural exchange” items of pepper seeds from Bhutan had come to fruition and we had a few of these pods of mystery this Saturday at Wayland’s. From Fabio’s tales, it seems those Bhutanese eat hot peppers like a salad. I was actually surprised at how large these were. Generally speaking, smaller peppers tend to be hotter. So maybe these aren’t that hot? In appearance they seem pretty similar to jalapeno. 
So the thought is we’ll cook something tonight utilizing the peppers, a thai curry and the chana masala from the magic powder pack we bought in BC. Gotta QC the goods, make sure it’s not too sweet, not to rancid, you know? So one of the peppers is cut open and slivered. We each take a tiny piece and taste test them. Hoo baby! These guys are hot! 
Not habanero hot, but they’ve got more than a decent punch to them! It’s gonna be a good one tonight! Continue reading ‘ANger of Bhutan’
Just had a Burger King Stacked Steakhouse Burger for lunch. It’s the Angus burger meat plus bacon, 2-slices of American cheese, A-1 Steak sauce, crispy fried onions, and a “baked potato topping” which was essentially mashed potatoes with chives smeared on the underside of the top bun.  All this is served on a “premium bakery-style bun”, which was just a cornmeal-dusted bun instead of a sesame-seed bun. The non-“stacked” version doesn’t have the potato and bacon, but instead has lettuce and tomato. When I walked in and saw it on the menu, I thought, “that looks really unhealthy – I’ll get it!” The large size value meal is around $8 USD, and comes in at 1410 kcal (burger = 970, large o-rings = 440, large unsweetened iced tea = 0). Not bad, but the meat was on the dry side, and the burger overall was salty. I could do without the bland, pasty potato stuff, so maybe I can get the regular Steakhouse burger and add bacon next time. The “Stacked” version, being without lettuce and tomato, was definitely on the dry side overall.
3.5 out of 4 grinning monkeys
4 out of 4 cardiac arrests
Recommended (if you don’t plan on living forever)Â
After being reminded of the place that took over the old Rainbows Express location in Kakaako, We went by to Hank’s Haute Dogs for lunch. The interior is well-done-up, in neo-fusion-diner style, not unlike places like Kakaako Kitchen. Both the dining area and kitchen were bright and clean.
The cashier quickly and courteously took my order and sent it back to the kitchen, where Hank himself was prepping orders.The place was crowded with mostly white-collar-types. About ten-minutes and half-a dozen orders later, I got my Brat and onion rings. Continue reading ‘Hank’s Haute Dogs’
Find these. Eat these. Really. Maybe Wholesale Unlimited, Marukai, or Don Quixote. They’re green, but not “wasabi” flavored – they are sort-of like iso-peanuts but with a pistachio inside. Yes, Velcro, they’re shelled first. A buyer at an account gave some to me this morning.
Okay, to start, this isn’t an FTP thread…
Got back in to Sapporo last evening -Â just barely.Â
Friday was clear in Sapporo, but cold. We caught the highway bus to Niseko Annupuri Resort (2180 yen PP) via Otaru (not the Nakayama-touge route). The weather in Niseko was overcast with the portent of snowfall. After checking in to the Northern Resort Annupuri and attempting to find somewhere for lunch, we walked down to the ski center for lunch at the cafeteria. I had a Hamburger with pilaf for 1100 yen. The meat slab was good and big (A-), but the “pilaf” (C-) was just rice with a hint of butter and frozen mixed vegetables mixed in (peas, carrots, corn). Back at the hotel, we were picked up by Minami-san of Niseko Adventure Center for a snowshoe tour. He drove us over to the gondola in a Toyota Hiace and out came the poles and Atlas snowshoes. The poles were mystery ski poles, so were of a fixed length which I thought were too long, even if the session was to be all downhill. We caught the gondola up to the top station, where it was snowing nicely. Continue reading ‘White Hell’