Ever since the MX market embraced stadium showmanship as the new god, I haven’t been able to find a decent set of armored trail riding MX gloves. I like the extra protection the finger and knuckle pads provide, especially in this current era where bar ends are either short or nonexistent. When my old box-fingered Answer MX gloves got mangled by a chainsaw, I got a couple of pairs of Answer-made Gary Fisher gloves. Made with the same pre-bent ventilated box-finger construction, those held up for many years. The padding has long since compressed flat, and the molded armor plates have faded to a pastel version of the once bright red and yellow. I looked long and hard, and all I could find were non-armored bicycle-like lycra backed gloves. WTF?! I guess nobody rides trails anymore. Continue reading ‘Mechanix Wear M-Pact Gloves’
Archive for the 'Review' Category
Page 53 of 60
Korean-Style Fried Chicken
If you’ve experienced Korean-style fried chicken, Mochiko chicken, Garlic chicken, or any of the various and sundry spin-offs of the theme, then the version they make at Cooke Street Diner will probably surprise you. The serving is predominantly meat, and the amount on skin and fat is minimal. There is enough skin represented so you get a nice crispy crunch once in a while, but it isn’t all skin like at some other places. The chicken was cooked just about right, so it was still moist and soft on the inside. A couple of the smaller pieces were on the dry side though – that counted for a half-point deduction on the rating. The sauce is moderately thick and actually has a bit of a spicy burn that comes through the sweetness. As in the past, I ordered it with brown rice and a tossed salad with a creamy dressing. $6.23 USD including tax.
Recommended
Three grinning monkeys out of four.
Just recently opened up is this place Discount Electronics up at the top of Wailae, in the row of shops between Bank of Hawaii and Toys and Joys, where that shoe place used to be. Their strategy is to find and resell closeouts, overstocks, etc. on electronics items. Seems a lot of their initial stock is from the recently closed CompUSA. I just picked up a Seagate 500G SATA drive, reasonable price. Competetive to NewEgg if you factor in shipping. I should have checked them out for the 80G that I needed for work, that one was cheaper than what I ordered online for. One wall has a decent selection of large flatscreens, Sharp, Sony, Philips. In same area small selection of some home theater components, JVC combo DVD & VHS that supposed to play Divxs too, a Sony DVD. They had some laptops, bags, some unlocked cell phones, various LCD monitors, keyboard & mouse combos. The selection may not be big, but from what I saw prices are reasonable. That is the nature of the business, guy I talked too said they plan to keep stock coming in weekly, hopefully they can as I think that is a key to a business like that, to keep stock fresh. Staff was pretty pleasant and helpfull. I understand much of the staff is from CompUsa also, but with the small setting there’s a much better atmosphere. I’ll be checking them out again in the future.
Okay, I’m sold. Jeff and Chris have been using those Clif Shot Blok gelatinous carb chunks for a while now. I remained on the fence and stuck with gels for a quick boost and bars for sustained energy. The blocks were just an intermediate substance in a somewhat inconvenient package. Clif recently introduced a high-salt “Margarita†flavor intended to aid in replacing lost electrolytes – ideal for the hot, humid riding conditions we have to deal with here. For around $2 USD, you get a heat-sealed plastic bag containing 6 blocks. The serving suggestion is half the package, yielding 90 calories and 210mg of sodium per serving. The sealed edges of the package are serrated-cut, so it is pretty easy to tear into. The plastic also rips fairly straight, so it is possible to tear along one edge without too much difficulty, leaving enough material to fold over after half the contents are eaten. The flavor is good. It sort-of reminds me of the flavor of a margarita, but really, if I’m sitting sweating out on the trail in the middle of nowhere popping one of these warm blocks in my mouth, I’m not fooled one bit. Continue reading ‘Convert’
Monday, June 9, found me on a Hawaiian jet for Kahului, Maui with my boss. A later flight, less crowds at the airport, everything went uneventfully. Pick up our equipment and jam it all into a Chevy Impala, which much smaller than the land boat you used to think of, still has a pretty big trunk. Drive out to Lahaina is also uneventful. Weather is postcard blue skies. I end up dozing having the luxury of being a passenger. We’re installing system at new Genki Sushi in Lahaina, in new mall accross the street from the cannery mall. The install goes pretty smoothly, although no benefit of air conditioning this time around makes for sweltering hot house.
Break for late lunch, boss asks what I feel like eating. I don’t really know what’s around, he mentions Mexican. Mexican is good, we end up at Maui Tacos, which is debatably “Mexican”. I wonder if this is the original Maui Tacos, seeing that we are in Maui. Anyway, on a side board I notice they have tacos el pastor so decide to try theirs. I get two as a combo plate. Ends up being a pretty decent pile of food. Flavor is decent, perhaps not as flavorful as might want, but its not bad. The pork is little cubes nicely browned, not drowning in oil or shredded like kalua. The beans and rice are unspectacular and I don’t eat all of it. I don’t touch the greasy looking chips, they look as greasy as the ones I’ve had at the oahu location. The condiment bar is a nice feature of Maui Tacos, soda refills are free. The counter service guy was pretty pleasant and efficient. So as long as you’re going for So-cal Mex, this was a decent value, I’d give it right in the middle of 2.5 smiling monkeys, with no bulging forehead veins on the angerometer. Continue reading ‘Maui Das Y’
So this past sunday after attending and shooting the 29th annual Pan Pacific Festival Parade, Taro and I decided to leverage our choice street parking (ie: free) and check out the newly constructed Beachwalk Venue for food.
Don’t look at me: I didn’t do it! That’s how they spell it at Cooke Street Diner. It’s the regulation rice, hamburger patty, cooked egg and gravy, but you can opt in for brown rice instead of white, and get tossed greens on the side instead of macaroni salad. It’s as healthy as a Loco Moco can possibly be. The salad greens and dressing were good as usual, and the rice was rice. The hamburger meat was a little on the dry, overcooked side, but was still flavorful. There was a good chunk of mystery gristle or vein that got wedged between two of my teeth that took a while for me to wiggle/scrape/pry out (no floss at work). The egg is cooked how you like it, in my case “over easy”. The egg was nicely cooked – still white on both sides, still runny inside: It was not all brown and crispy/burnt around the edges from being fried in too much oil at too high a temperature (ala Zippy’s). The gravy was familiar from some of their other dishes like the meatloaf. I give it a B- overall. Slightly better ground beef in the hamburger patty and maybe more careful preparation of the patty (not overcooked) would have raised the score, but it was well within spec for the $5.50 USD including tax. Continue reading ‘Loco Moko’
Had lunch again at Cooke Street Diner. This time it was Pork Adobo. If you don’t happen to know what adobo is, it is a Filipino-style dish consisting of meat (usually chicken or pork) that is deboned and cubed, then browned in a skillet then stewed in vinegar and soy sauce. It is generally spiced with black pepper and bay leaves (laurel). Like the meat loaf I had several weeks back, the adobo was very good. The brown rice was fine. This time there was a creamy vinaigrette dressing on the salad greens. My co-workers had picked up my plate while I was out of the office, so by the time I returned, the greens had wilted a bit and browned from being trapped in the hot, vinegary atmosphere of the closed plate lunch tray. Since I wasn’t there this time, I don’t know how the customer service aspect went on this occasion. Same $6.23 USD including tax as the meat loaf.
Recommended
Three and a half out of four grinning monkeys
I feel insulted – insulted that I am sitting here writing this instead of doing any of a bunch of things that I really should be doing right now. The shock I had at dinner compels me to share the experience, so here it is. Am I being altruistic or just plain angry? You decide.
I had dinner at the Windward Mall franchise of I Love Country Café. In ages past, I remember going to other franchises of this local chain for wholesome and healthy, albeit expensive (think current Zippy’s prices over 8-years ago), fare. Root will surely remember going there with Vern after evening bike rides from when the first one opened on Pi’ikoi. Breakfast was always at the Kahala one after the Honolulu Marathon Escort duty until that part of the mall disappeared to make way for some mainland store. Of all the places in the Windward Mall food court, this looked like a good place, so I stepped up to the plate. With good past experiences and name recognition – what could possibly go wrong? Read on… Continue reading ‘Vile Fluid’
Having spent the evening fruitlessly shooting at the 2008 Honolulu Toro Nagashi, Root and I decide to fight the traffic and re-visit Chibo at the Royal Hawaiian Shopping Centre.
After standing/sitting/kneeling around at Ala Moana Beach Park for the better part of the afternoon / evening, we’re pretty parched. Excellent! Chibo has Yebisu Beer.
Continue reading ‘Okonomiyaki Chibo’