Right next to one of our work clients is a takoyaki shop. It’s located on corner of Kuhio and Nohonani St, Waikiki Marketplace. Finally got a chance to try it. Small shop set up with a bunch of tables and folding chairs to hang out in while munching on your tasty snack. You’ll commonly see takoyaki translated as octopus balls, although I think octopus dumplings is a more appetizing western description. Spheres of glutunous batter with chunk(s) of tako cooked on a special shaped grill. No, it’s NOT deep fried! It’ll have a lightly browned outside, inside soft and mouth burning lava hot. Best eaten while said lava hot, they definitely lose much appeal if allowed to cool and deflate. All takoyaki places I’ve been feature the grill in open view so you can watch the cook deftly spin the takoyaki into spheres, and Takoyaki Samurai is no exception. I believe it’s part of the experience, it wouldn’t quite be takoyaki if you don’t get to watch them being made. Continue reading ‘Takoyaki Samurai’
Archive for the 'Review' Category
Page 49 of 60
Wow, Chain Reaction Cycles is pretty fast considering we’re all the way in the middle of the Pacific and they’re all the way on the other side of the world in Scotland… I sent the mismatched set of shifters back on 14 November 2008, they received them on the 20th, and shipped out a replacement set. Those arrived on 01 December! I didn’t have time to put them on before heading to Japan, but I threw them on Tuesday at McBike along with the new cassette and 9-speed chain. Shifters are quite nice. They seem to stick out more than the XTR’s, but that’s just an impression. I did have to remove the Optical Gear Displays so I could mount the shifters outboard of the brake levers. In that position, the shift paddles line up correctly with my fingers with my hands in the normal position on the grips. More on the shifters in a future review…
For a while back, the Prius had been giving us sporadic error lights. Usually would go away and run fairly normally after a few restarts. Finally it stopped and was towed to Toyota. After being taken back twice, Toyota finally replaced the main battery pack. A sizeable cost if not under warranty. Since then it seems to have been running ok. Until last weekend when my mom picked me up from airport. I got in to drive it home, when cranking it gave the array of check engine and warning lamp. I tried power of and on cycles three times. Still had warning, and drove it home ok on surface streets. Next day it seemed normal. But my parents were worried of more problems cropping up, so there was talk of replacing it. I suggested they look at the 3 door Yaris. Continue reading ‘Bye Bye Hybrid’
Mmm… it’s good. Very good. I’ve never had good luck with the “plate lunch”-style entrees at KK, but their sandwiches are good. This one and the pastrami are my favorites. The Reuben is their own spin on the classic recipe with their own proprietary dressing. Choose seasoned fries or a Nalo greens salad. It’s a little pricy at around $9 USD, but it’s worth it. If you aren’t from Hawai’i or don’t know who Russell Siu is, just do a websearch and you’ll get some background on this restaurant and his upscale 3660 on the Rise. Continue reading ‘Kaka’ako Kitchen Reuben Sandwich’
Taking someone from the office to the airport before lunchtime means, “Byron’s Little Red Hen fried chicken,†to us. For around seven bucks, you get three pieces of crispy fried chicken, a roll, fries, and a little tub of cole slaw… oh yeah, and a packet of honey. The chicken is great! It is crispy on the surface, and moist on the inside. On par or better than Zippy’s fried chicken. The roll is average, and the slaw is a little on the wet side. The take-out box is generally taped shut id you order more than one, so open it as quickly as possible so your fries don’t get soggy. I haven’t ever used the honey on either the chicken or the roll. The chicken gets a definite A! If you have a fax machine, give them a call and they will send you a menu. There are 10% discount coupons on the bottom of the menu, so you can save a little that way. Continue reading ‘Byron’s Drive-In Little Red Hen Fried Chicken’
Pilsner, Pilsen, or Pils beers are one of the original lager-style beers, and get their name from the city of Pilsen in what is now the Czech Republic. These lagers were originally created in response to the advent of Bavarian-style lagering technology and the associated bottom-fermenting yeasts, as existing brewing techniques yielded inconsistent and often unsatisfactory results. This Pilsner from Otaru Bakushu Brewery in Western Hokkaido has the bright flowery hop flavor common to some examples of this variety. The aromatic is sweet, but not sickeningly so as in some Belgian or Dutch Pilsens. There is however very little initial or finishing bitter. The malt flavor is very faint, and is barely detectable below the hopping. The color is the typical clear amber. The initial flavor is clear and flowery, and the finish earthy. There is very little aftertaste. The carbonation is moderate. This is an easily drinkable Pilsen. One could say it has no character, but I instead find it is without the bad traits that make certain Pilsens objectionable. Continue reading ‘Beer Is Good – Otaru Bakushu Organic Beer Pilsner-Type Jibiiru’
I’m really getting mixed feelings about my iPhone. It’s a nifty device and has proven to be pretty useful in additional to the entertainment options. The 3G network seems to have improved some since my first post, but it still shows problems. So what’s my complaint now? I guess with the complexity and the loadability of software, it’s not as stable as an appliance. I had one instance a couple weeks ago of losing phone service entirely. Thought it was network problem, but doing the reset on phone fixed it. Now today I’ve lost phone service, and it seems wifi. Put a call in to tech support. Ran through the reset I already did, then a reset through the phone setting. Finally am doing a larger scale reset that is still running on my phone and will erase everything. Hopefully that will get the phone back running, we’ll see. So maybe it’s not such a great idea to have one device try to do so many ‘smart’ things if you rely on your phone as a phone. To their credit, there was no wait to get a binder reading tech on the line, but is this a case of product getting a high satisfaction rating because even though the product gives problems, the customer support is good?
Ugh, so that reset seems to have zapped the phone and the only thing you can do with it is call 911. I have to restore it from my iTunes, which is on my machine at home. So I’m without a phone today. Needless to say, I’m quite annoyed. The monkeys are getting angry that they have no cake and the forehead veins are begining to swell.
Ooops, I’ve just been informed that AT&T in Hawaii just went down, so it seems it’s not a fault of the iPhone. I wish tech support was aware of that before we erased my phone. I suppose I should have checked AT&T. Veins have subsided, but the monkeys still want their cake!
I picked this up in the automotive section at Wal Mart for a buck – really, $1.00 USD! It is rare to find a common houseware like this that isn’t made in the PRC, and no less for a dollar! Of course you can use this for it’s intended purpose of getting automotive radiator coolant into the tank or reservoir, but I got this to use with sports drink powders. Most kitchen funnels have really small openings, generally around 8 to 10mm. Dense powders like Endurox R4 or Cytomax have difficulty getting through openings that small without tapping or shaking the funnel. I was looking for a jar funnel, but those are difficult to find, and the ones I have seen have openings that don’t fit in the neck of a standard sport bottle or liter-sized Nalgene. The 25mm+ opening on this funnel lets powders through unobstructed! Once you use it for coolant, don’t use it for anything else! Get two if you need one for coolant and another for sports drinks.
Highly recommended
Four out of four techno monkeys
$1 USD plus tax!
I saw these on closeout from Chainlove.com last week. I did a quick check on the Endura site to see what they were all about, then emailed Chris. He said that he had a set of Endura shorts from last season, and they were really good, so I decided to give them a shot and ordered a pair. Chris recommended that I go up a size, so I ordered a “Largeâ€. My waist is about 88cm (34â€), and these fit perfectly. The outer short is made from Teflon water-repellant treated Cordura nylon. They should be very durable, but time will tell – I only have one ride on them. The crotch gusset area and some small side inserts are a stretch nylon material. The stretch crotch is nice because it keeps that area in body contact and prevents snagging on the saddle nose or tail. There are some reflective details sewn on front and back. The inseam is 30cm (12â€) and is appropriately long. Continue reading ‘Endura Burner Baggy Short’
Jarrel at McBike is planning on bringing in these and the more skate-styled BMX/DJ helmet this season, but Ckucke and I couldn’t wait to get our hands on them. Jeff had an unused size L/XL “lying aroundâ€, so I bought it off of him. That size was too big for Ckucke, so he got a S/M off of Backcountry.com. Like most current high-end MTB helmets, this is an in-mold EPS helmet with a removable visor and a rear retention system that keeps the helmet from rocking forward and backward on the head. My other current helmet is the Giro Xen, so I will compare it to that. Continue reading ‘Fox Flux MTB Helmet’