India pale ales are heavily hopped ales originally formulated to survive the long sea voyage from England to India during the colonial days before the advent of refrigeration. The higher level of hopping along with a higher alcohol level helped prevent spoilage. This IPA from Onuma Brewery in Southwest Hokkaido has the typical sweet, fruity flavor common to the variety. The color is similar to other ales. The initial flavor is sweet and flowery with a fruity finish. There is no significant bitter, and the malt flavor is buried by the hops. The carbonation is low. I personally dislike IPA’s, but from memory, this one is not much different than others of this variety that I’ve tried. This one packs a good buzz, having about 150% the alcohol content of most other beers! Continue reading ‘Beer Is Good – Onuma Brewery India Pale Ale Jibiiru’
Koelsch beers are old-style beers that use top-fermenting yeasts like ales, but the yeasts are active at warmer temperatures. This variety is the regional specialty of Cologne, hence the name. Koelsch beers are very similar to altbiers in technology, manufacture, and flavor. This koelsch from Onuma Brewery in Southwest Hokkaido has a clear, light malt flavor and a moderate bitter note, typical of the variety. The bitter note is lower than the Hakodate Beer koelsch – the only other example of this variety that I’ve tried. Although the hopping has provided the bitter, it doesn’t impart any sweetness of flowery notes. The blond color and clean flavor is not unlike a light, dry lager. The initial flavor is dry and crisp, with the bitter in the middle, and a light maltiness in the finish. The carbonation is moderate. This is a very drinkable beer. Continue reading ‘Beer Is Good – Onuma Brewery Koelsch Jibiiru’
The picture speaks for itself. It appears to be a water main replacement project along Farrington Highway in Nanakuli. It’s not supposed to be doing that, is it? There is another backhoe there on the other side of the plume of water.
Tuesday really didn’t start out as a bad day – it was a normal, non-descript, plain day: Nothing really good happened, but neither did anything really terrible happen. After finishing up at “real†work, I headed over to McBike. The traffic was average too. When I got in and went down to the Pit, I saw Kevyn’s Santa Cruz there. He had joined us on Sunday for an afternoon Maunawili ride, and the master cylinder on the front Hayes brake got blown-up on a crash on the Drop-in of Death. I put the bike in the workstand and took the front brake channel off and started taking it apart. I figured it would be just a case of straightening out the mangled e-clip that holds the works together, reassemble, and re-bleed the system. Of course, nothing goes as planned… Continue reading ‘E-clip Gnomes: Hayes Mag Lever Rebuild’
Scat picked us up at Ckucke’s after the Monday Night Freeride, and we stopped by at Hide-chan restaurant in Mo’ili’ili. The word “rafute†caught the corner of my eye as I was glancing over at the menu written on sheets of paper affixed to the wall. Mmm… I hadn’t had Okinawa-style simmered pork belly in a while, so my mind was made up. Both Ckucke and I ordered the miso rafute-don. Root and Scat got the katsuo tataki teishoku. The miso rafute don for those unfamiliar with this is a donburi (large bowl of rice served with an entrée topping) topped with large, thick pork belly chunks that have been simmered in a sauce primarily flavored with shoyu and miso. A pinch of kizami beni shouga (thinly slivered pickled ginger) garnished the top. The pork was tender and appropriately fatty. I could cut the pork with chopsticks! The flavor was outstanding. Shiawase! Sides of miso soup and tsukemono (pickles, in this case radish) were included as part of the meal. If fatty pork bugs you, best steer clear of this one (the more for us who love it!). It’s not inherently unhealthy – just don’t overdo it. It is not uncommon for people to live past 100 in Okinawa, just remember that the people who live that long generally don’t have an “American†caloric intake (especially in the serving size of meat), have a diet high in vegetables, and engage in rigorous physical work daily.
I haven’t had such good rafute since having some “home-cooked†many years ago.
Highly recommended
Four out of four grinning monkeys
Around $15 USD including tax and tip
Not a bad showing by the SNM boys!
http://www.okinawanfestival.com/Photo%20Contest/OFPC%202008/2008photocontestwinners.htm
I think this is the second time I ever got money for photos. Good for some beer money, or 1% toward the Canon 5DmkII.
Hit the ground running. Landed at 07:19 and I was back at work at 08:20. The one hour of sleep on the plane should be catching up to me right about now…
This past thursday’s dinner out with the boys was just Derek and me. Our initial phone conversations were indecisive on where we wanted to eat. After tossing some ideas around, it came down to thai or that “inexpensive izakaya place you went to before Derek.” Not having been there myself, I suggested I pick up D from UH and we could decide from there, with the izakaya as first choice. We found decent parking on street, just a short walk. Walking is good for you! Go to Japan, it’s the way to go there. People here are so lazy! Like how all the fitness buff canoe paddlers parked their cars along the road in the beach park when there was a virtually empty parking lot that the road leads to. Anyway, it’s early so we walk to newly opened Ninja Market (Nijiya Market) to check it out, we’ll blog about it sometime. Continue reading ‘Happy Bird – Kohnotori’
Got back from Hakodate yesterday. It’s quite a distance from Sapporo, so a fair amount of determination is required if you really want to go there. I don’t personally see myself going out that way again for a long time. On our first day there, we went to Goryoukaku (5-sided fort) and had some good ramen out that way. Hakodate = shio-aji ramen, at least that’s what the tourism authority wants you to believe. Okay, if you were wondering, that distinction is not exactly only “salt flavor”. Keep in mind that even shoyu-aji and miso-aji ramen soup base is initially chicken and or pork based soup with those flavoring adjuncts added. Shio-aji essentially has just the soup base flavoring. In the evening, we went up the ropeway to Hakodateyama. It was a little late and dark, so I didn’t get to go down the road a bit to the old WWII military gun emplacements and magazine tunnels that I wanted to see. I did get a fair amount of otaku-related photography of the ropeway station and the churches and structures at the bottom, though. On the way back to the Hotel, we had dinner at the Hakodate Beer brewhall, along with sampler sets of their current beers, a weiss, an alt, an ale, and some bitter blond German-style brew whose name escapes me at the moment. Continue reading ‘No Temporal Beings’
Earlier this week, Derek mentioned this newish place on King Street, Mana Bu’s. They do musubi/onigiri. And that’s it. Actually they do offer some salads and desert items, but the main deal is musubi. Not the mashed together refridgerated bricks of white rice, but carefully crafted triangles of good rice and grains combined with various ingredients. I popped in to check it out and try a sampling. Here’s a tip, go early. I got there at 12:30, and already most of the varieties were sold out. It seems their signature is the 10 grain musubi. Manabu-san’s got it figured out just right to somehow keep all those grains sticking together into a cohesive musubi. It’s quite interesting with the texture and slight nuttyness that the grain medley lends to the musubi, not to mention boosting the healthy factor. They also almost analretentively list the origins of almost all the ingredients. And he manages to price it at $1.50! I’m sure if some yup cali shop were to sell this, they’d upcharge it and sell it with boutique factor. I bought a 10 grain hijiki and 10 grain baked spicy poke. Both tasty. Flavors are more on the subtle side, reflecting a more Japanese palate rather than a heavy local leaning. The hijiki is on the sweet side, would go great with something salty, maybe some fried chicken/karage. Which brings me to one thing, there are no okazu here, so you’ll be doing either a lightish meal, or you’ll need to go elsewhere to find stuff to fill out your picnic. Maybe go down the street a bit to Gulick Deli.
3 out of 5 fairly healthy monkeys (I like to use a 5 monkey scale, yes I know, spank the naughty monkeys for not being consistent)
Mana Bu’s is located on King Street, just Diamond Head of the King-Punahou intersection in the little strip of shops with Baskin Robbins. Take out only, no seating for eating in shop.