Hiromi Uehara - The Tom and Jerry Show

Was searching NPR.org and came across a story on Hiromi . . . this piece is phenomenal!

Umami on the Prowl: Aloha Island Grill

Umami (Devourer of Worlds and the Occasional Cheese Fry) decided to check out a new place today:  Aloha Island Grill.  He had passed it before, and even got a take out menu, but had never tried it.  No more!

The menu is rather limited, burgers and bbq chicken, as sandwiches (w fries) or plate lunches.  Umami chose the Spicy BBQ Chicken plate.  Two boneless thighs, marinated and grilled and topped with a last basting of a slightly spicy Korean bbq sauce.  Very nicely done, not dried out, despite some char (which Umami likes!).  Place actually has a grill and it would be awesome if the grilled to order, but these chickens were in a warmer.  Still very good though.  Served with two scoops of brown rice and some tossed greens.  If only there were some kim chee . . . !  But for $6, that's a nice deal for a downtown plate lunch.  Umami will be back (w his own bottle of kim chee!)!

Soul Patrol!

Some adventures start from little columns in alternative weekly news sources . . . in this case an article in Honolulu Weekly spotlighting Chef Sean Priester.  This article ran in late-February, and made me really want to try food like the "Southern Sampler" which was described as including "buttermilk cilantro coleslaw, Kahuku sweet corn bread, vegetarian black-eyed pea chili and pulled pork."  (Click here for article)  I immediately e-mailed my friend, Trish (who worked near where I thought the lunchwagon was), asking "Do you know where this is???"  As it turned out, she could see it from her window! 

So off we went to check it out.  We decided to get the Southern Sampler and the Carolina BBQ Adobo Sandwich and split them all, like a mini-buffet.  The Southern Sampler turned out to be a lot of food . . . the chili was very tasty, and richer than typical vegetarian fare.  The Kahuku sweet corn bread was sweet, the collards sufficiently salty and fatty, and the slaw a cool counterpoint to it all.  Note, however, that there was no pulled pork, so the article was wrong.  Oh, well, it was also only $7 instead of $8.

The Carolina BBQ Adobo Sandwich was killer.  I assume the idea here is that both Carolina BBQ and Adobo use vinegar . . . but whatever the reason, it's just a mean pulled pork sandwich.  Dressed with the coleslaw, it's a fine lunch.  If it weren't even my food nazi doctor's orders, I'd eat this a lot more . . .

More pics in the food gallery . . . here!

New Pics in the Food Gallery

New Pics in the Food Gallery . . . Sushi Sasabune and JJ Dolan's.

JJ Dolan's - basic pepperoni pizza.  Now my favorite pizza . . . thin crust (with corn meal on the bottom!), tasty sauce, generous cheese and topping.

Happy Administrative Professionals Day

Because, let's be honest, you want your administrative professionals to be happy . . . ! 

We had a modest dim sum breakfast for Administrative Professionals' Day. Dim sum is from Char Hung Sut. Manapua (super-size char siu bao), ma tai soo, siu mai, half moons. Funny thing is, we were originally going to order more manapua . . . and we actually could have used more siu mai! Dessert was a Two Flavor Cake (under all of that frosting, have the cake is vanilla and the other half is chocolate)!

Cute Food!

Cute, right?  These are by Laurie and Char, who really should expect their idea to be totally stolen now by imitators (I'm going for the chocolate = black sheep!)!

Random Pizza Pice

Came across this pic while working on the FB page . . . now have a Major Pizza Craving!:

Food Gallery!

Messing around with a new page for the blog . . . "Food Gallery!"  The link to the page is right under the header.  Basically, I'm trying to move the pics from my FB page over here, and putting them in some semblance of order.  For now, I'll try sorting by "restaurant," but maybe later will see if other sorts makes sense.  (Like John Cusack in High Fidelity, where he sorts his records by Artist, then by Genre, then by Release Date, you get the idea.)  Maybe something like "Brown and White Food" and "Everything Else!"  Oh, this pic is of the Kurobuta Tonkatsu and Sashimi Combination from Kabuki.  Also came with miso soup, but I must have eaten it before I snapped this pic.

Hangover Remedy

Umami had to pick up a friend at the airport yesterday.  She was hungry, so he suggested breakfast.  At first, Zippy's, because it would be fast (she had a looong flight).  But then thought, "what the heck, Boots and Kimo's."  She'd never been, so off they went.

Of course, the wait is 45 minutes, but they toughed it out and eventually got to order.  Here's a pic of the Okolehao Omelette:

That's three and a half eggs, roasted jalapenos, melted swiss, and salsa.  With hashbrowns.  The menu says it's a great hangover cure and Umami inclined to believe it.  The tragedy of the adventure, though, is that she doesn't like pancakes . . . so no mac nut pancakes!  So sad!

Proud to be Pastafarian!

Ra-men!
(btw, that's Goma Tei's Char Siu Tan Tan Ramen on the left)

"It is freezing yo"

In my friend Ms. D's daughter K's words:  "It is freezing yo!!"

Dinner, therefore, was corn chowder with a liberal dosing of Tabasco.  Between a hot soup and hot sauce, got the cold under control!  ("YO!!")   But pictures of soup are not really that exciting, so I won't bother here, now.

Instead, here's a pic of lunch today.

It's the fried pork w tomato and onion mini plate from Nicky Lunchwagon.  (Not "Nicky's" . . . "Nicky").  It's basically a version of lechon.  I wish it were a little hotter (temperature-wise), but as far as meeting cravings for fat and salt, it's a winner. "Mini" in this case means only one scoop of rice, and a proportionately smaller amount of salt and fat.  My doc would still have a fit!

Brown and White Food

I read somewhere (okay, it was the NY Times) about people who take pictures of food and post them on-line.  About how it makes them conscious of their diet and their food choices and I thought, "Diet??  Food choices??"  PUH-leeze!!  Bring on the Brown and White Food!!

Like this phenomenal plate lunch from my friend Kim at New Liberty Grill.  I was dropping off some cookies for her at Christmas, when she asked if I had lunch.  I said I hadn't, so she made me take some of the restaurant leftovers since it would otherwise just go to waste.  And So.  This plate is . . .  two hamburger steaks (on the right, duh).  Five chicken cutlets (to the left, to the left . . . ).  Two absurdly huge scoops of rice.  Mac salad.  Gravy over.  Omg, drooling a little thinking about it!

I split with a friend of mine and still ended up saving half for later.   So the plate probably feeds four normal sized people.  Maybe Kim should make it some kind of "Man vs. Food" challenge . . . eat the plate in, what, fifteen minutes and win dessert!  (hehehe!)

First Post!! Sekiya's - Hash Tempura (Seriously)

My mother wanted to have a family dinner at Sekiyas's Restaurant & Deli so she could have an "Orange Freeze," which is like a  creamsicle slush (but isn't).  But the menu item that caught my eye was the "Hash Tempura" appetizer.  Consider:  it's a little ball of corned beef hash, coated in tempura batter and deep fried to greasy goodness (loosely speaking).  The batter is on the sweeter, yellower side and, surprisingly, overpowered the hash the first time around.  But on the second try (had to eat two, but two's all you need), the salt of the hash comes through. If this sort of thing appeals to you (and you know who you are . . . ), you won't be disappointed.