I was rather shocked when I stopped by Shirokiya after work and saw that the sweet potato filling had made a return visit after overstaying it’s welcome a couple of weeks ago. Did they find some leftover potato filling? How was it that potato was still around and last week’s strawberry cream cheese flavor ran out before its two weeks were up? Luckily, hidden between the signs on the counter was a new rotating flavor – anko cream cheese. After having last week’s strawberry cream cheese, I was in, and I was not disappointed. The sweetness of the anko was nicely balanced by the creamy sourness of the cheese. This definitely falls into the classification of otona no aji. I’m glad I got two! Continue reading ‘Akimune-an Anko Cream Cheese Taiyaki’
Archive for the 'Review' Category
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The spring season shows are now well on their way. Here’s our thoughts on some of them.
Uchuu Kyoudai (Space Brothers)
As kids, two brothers make a pact to become astronauts. As adults, one actually is an astronaut, while the older has found himself fired from his automobile engineer job. It becomes a chance for him to revist those aspirations and he finds himself going through the JAXA selection process. Streaming on CrunchyRoll. Continue reading ‘Anime Briefs – Spring 2012’
I half expected going into this one to immediately have to shout, “Uuhhh~! What the hell is this krapp!†I was thankfully surprised. The flavors were subtle and the strawberry flavor did not taste artificial. The cream cheese filling was only slightly sweetened. Biting into the taiyaki, it appeared to be somewhat deflated and borderline hollow and underfilled, but I guess that’s the consequence of a softer filling – a firmer filling like anko would resist being squeezed down and the batter would instead be displaced out of the finite mold space. Although a little volumetrically challenged, the taste was very good. I’ll get another next week if I go by the mall. Continue reading ‘Akimune-an Strawberry Cream Cheese Taiyaki’
The rotating seasonal flavor last week was purple (Satsuma-imo) sweet potato flavor. In fact it had been the “two weeks only†special flavor for over three weeks now, much to my disappointment. I didn’t really rush posting this because it was so underwhelming. I’d easily go for the standard anko over the sweet potato any day. It was better than the chocolate crème though! Continue reading ‘Akimune-an Sweet Potato Taiyaki’
I needed a mortar and pestle to grind up spices for masala chai, and I just so happened to see one in the knife display case at McBike, so I picked one up. The price was right at $29.98 USD plus sales tax, which is pretty much what it goes for online (MSRP is $50). The mortar body is made from a white glazed ceramic and measures about 10cm in diameter and about 6cm high. The glaze is absent from the foot of the bowl as is normal with ceramic ware. It would be nice if there was a ring of silicone there to keep it stable on a countertop, but the size and shape make it perfect to hold in the hand while using. The inside of the mortar is ridged like a traditional Japanese suribachi, but the ridges are glazed over to provide a slightly less aggressive surface. The nihongo labeling on the box identifies this as a “mini-suribachiâ€, but the overall shape is more hemispherical rather than the conical shape of typical suribachi. Continue reading ‘Kai Select 100 Mortar and Pestle’
Dammit! The dude at Akimune-an has to get his ears checked. I don’t know how I can say, “two Oreo and two anko taiyaki, please,†and it gets misconstrued as, “two custard crème and two anko taiyaki, please.† It sounds nothing alike – not even close.  And it wasn’t like he didn’t hear me because it was too noisy or I wasn’t speaking loud enough or clear enough since he didn’t ask, “what?†or even throw a quizzical eyebrow. Krapp! It would be the filling that I object to the most on intuitive levels and had absolutely no intention whatsoever of trying that I end up with. Since the special flavors rotate on a bi-weekly basis and I saw Oreo advertised last week, with my luck if I go back on Thursday, the flavor will have changed.  If I say that I wasn’t really all that excited about Oreo flavor, someone will call sour grapes. Truthfully, I wasn’t dying to get some, otherwise I’d have ordered them last week.  It’s being denied them and getting the shitty flavor instead that bothers me more than not actually getting to taste Oreo.  Now I’m sad.
I heard about the Jack in the Box bacon milkshake in the newspaper yesterday, so it became my mission to try it out. They were running a special on their new BLT cheeseburger, so I got one of those as a meal deal and upgraded to the shake. I guess if I was really out for bacon in everything, I could have swapped out the fries for the bacon cheddar potato wedges. Continue reading ‘Bacon Makes Me Sad?’
After hiking Hawaii Loa Ridge, Root and I stopped by Koa Pancake House in Kaimuki for some post-hike nutrition. For some reason, I wanted pancakes, so I didn’t get any of the meat-and-eggs dishes and went straight for the blueberry pancakes. The full stack was five large pancakes. In retrospect, I probably could have just done the short stack of three. The pancakes were cooked properly and it looked like they used fresh blueberries as opposed to some frozen or canned slurry. They came served with real whipped butter (not heinous margarine) and were sweet enough with the berries that I really didn’t have to use much mystery syrup. I managed to eat all but maybe a little less than half of the last pancake. We got there right at the end of their operating day, so they were cleaning up while we were eating (they close at 14:00). Continue reading ‘Edible Briefs – Koa Pancake House Blueberry Pancakes’
I was at Ward Center to pick up something, so I stopped in at Honolulu Chocolate Company and got a large hand-rolled chocolate indulgence for a snack.  I didn’t have a cooler in the car, and it was a hot afternoon, so I was worried it wouldn’t survive. It made it through with a couple of bumps, even with me making a side-trip to Ala Moana.  I hid it in the center console under my refrigerator-cold water bottle, but the car interior had already cooled off.  Mmm… chocolate! First thing I did when I got down to The Pit was eat the truffle (after taking this picture of course)! Continue reading ‘Honolulu Chocolate Company Hand-Rolled Chocolate Indulgence’
I got a frantic email from Jeff the other week while he was away on the mainland for a conference. Apparently, he had been browsing the 1911 forums and came across this neat titanium bushing wrench and thought it was cool. I took one look and jumped in with the group order.  Titanium?  Great!  Any little ti trinket is captivating, coming from a MTB background.  Bottle opener?  Sold! Titanium and bottle opener?  Can’t go wrong there!  M1911 bushing wrench? Bonus! The irony of a bottle opener and pistol-specific tool may be lost on non-firearm owners (and you can put it on your keyring?!)… hey, you don’t have to use them at the same time!  A ¼†hex hole for insert bits?  You already had me at “bottle opener†– how can you make this any better! Continue reading ‘NME Knife and Tool BWB-01T’