Archive | Food RSS feed for this section

Food Review: Yakitori Yoshi

15 Feb

Went to check out the new restaurant/izakaya Yakitori Yoshi for dinner. Yakitori means “skewered chicken”. You can get pretty much all the parts of a chicken on a stick here. The liver, heart, skin, thigh, wing etc. There are lots of other things on the menu as well.
I “dragged” my Yelp friend Ethan with me to dinner.. and “forced” him to order a variety of foods so I could take write this blog. Haha.

I keep forgetting to take a picture of the outside of places but here is the inside.

Just like a lot of izakaya’s you can buy a bottle of Ichiko or Sake to drink and they will hold it there for you.

I took a picture of their sake list because that is the most important. Alcohol. =) Kubota manju.. mmm…

I chose the Dassai sake.. one of my favorites.

So happy with the sake!

But we had to wait awhile for our food.

Also, we sat at the counter area so it was pretty torturous seeing all the food being cooked in front of us.. but none of it was ours.. yet.

But I forgive them since they’re new and when we did finally get our food it was all so delicious!

First came.. the enoki mushrooms wrapped in bacon. Whoever invented this dish is the smartest person in the world. I could’ve ate 1000 of these. It was so good with the spicy mustard.

Chicken meatball with garlic ponzu sauce!

Chicken Wings!! Love the salt, pepper, and lemon flavor.

Chicken Breast with Mentai Mayo. So good!

Fried cheese!! Nice and crispy.

And gooey on the inside!

Garlic shrimp!!

Garlic Steak! Ethan said it wasn’t as good as the chicken though..

But the Shoyu butter Onigiri were so good!! Look at the melting butter… *drool*

Grilled Onigiri (Riceball) with spicy miso sauce. It was a little dry but the sauce was good.

Butter Ramen! The broth is really light so it goes well with all the salty food.

So we got bacon wrapped mochi! Anything on a stick and wrapped with bacon is delicious I swear

=)

The food was so good. It was worth the waiting. Ethan even drew a picture of what we ate.

I gotta go back and try more dishes. And more Enoki mushroom wrapped in bacon!!

Yakitori Yoshi

1427 Makaloa St

Honolulu, HI 96814

(808) 941-6891

Share

Food Review: Jin Din Rou

8 Feb

After our fun Meals on Wheels adventure, I went with Rick and Mark to check out the new restaurant Jin Din Rou!

*So right here is where I would put a nice picture of the restaurant from the outside but I was so hungry that I forgot … I’ll add one later when I go back!*

It was pretty crowded for a Monday but the wait wasn’t too long. We waited about 15 minutes at the most.

They have really cool bamboo lighting!

The inside. I like the clean and white interior..

They even have t-shirts with directions on how to eat the dim sum properly..

Right now since it’s only the soft opening. So they are only open during lunch time. You can choose from 2 different lunch sets. A or B. We chose B because you get 4 pieces of dim sum, choice from either fried rice or noodles, and a meat entree (chicken, pork etc) for only $13.99!!

So happy with the menu! Why?

Because.. I found this magical sentence inside the menu. haha.

They have a sign on every table with directions on how to eat the dim sum properly. Maybe I have a dirty mind but It sounds kind of erotic to me.

They give you lots and lots of tea. Jasmine tea!!

And now the food.. Here is the dim sum. Right now they only have pork. But they said after their grand opening they will have more choices such as chicken, seafood, and vegetables! It’s so pretty.

Happily enjoying the dim sum.. *No picture of Mark again since he’s so camera shy.*

This was my favorite. Tan Tan Ramen. It was so good!!! A very strong sesame flavor with a nice creamy texture. I was going to take a picture of the broth and the noodles but I forgot. It tasted so good. I think it’s my new favorite ramen!!

Here is the salad that comes with the lunch set. It’s has shiso in it and a sesame dressing with a little spiciness.

Pork and eggplant. Yum. I don’t really like eggplant but this was good! Nice texture not mushy. And it had a good spicy flavor.

This is the Takana Fried rice which was also good. I love that all the portions are so big!!

Deep Fried Chicken. Oh this was really delicious!! A really good sweet sour flavor and chicken was crispy too. (19)

Fried Egg and Pork Ear. I didn’t eat the pork ear so I can’t say how the taste was. But I ate the fried egg and bamboo. Yummy.

*Okay I swear I took a picture of this.. But I can’t find it! I must have deleted it by accident. *

Shrimp fried rice!

My attempt to take a picture of our whole spread of food but it didn’t fit..!! So much food!!

I really enjoyed all the food. Everything that we ordered was delicious. The service was good too. I was so full but I kept eating and eating so that’s how I know when the food is really good.

Can’t wait until they are open for dinner and have more selections. I will go here often. Especially for the Tan Tan Ramen!!

Jin Din Rou

1491 King St

Honolulu, HI 96814

(808) 947-1133

Share

Smoked Salmon Pizza and BBQ Chicken Pizza

2 Feb

I felt like eating some pizza today but I couldn’t decide between hot or cold pizza so I made both!

I used this recipe for the smoked salmon pizza. It came out really well! The dill and lemon with the cucumbers and onions made it really refreshing and nice. The only changes I would make to the recipe is mix some cream cheese with the sour cream to make the sauce thicker and to put less lemon unless you really like a sour and tangy taste.

I also made BBQ chicken pizza! I didn’t use a recipe for this. Just mixed BBQ sauce into tomato sauce and tomato paste with brown sugar, oregano and pepper. For the toppings I used left over BBQ chicken from the night before, red onions, garlic, and cilantro! Make sure to put the cilantro on top after you take it out from the oven and after you let the pizza cool for a little while.

*A really important tip for making the pizza crust taste really good is to put cornmeal under the pizza dough before you bake it. It gives it a really nice texture and taste like Pizza Hut. Try it and let me know how you like it!

Share

Chocolate Soufflé From Roy’s

30 Jan

My favorite dessert. Ever.

A review of the chocolate souffle from Roy’s that I posted on Yelp. More like a love letter.

“Dear Mr. Roy,

Thank you for creating the most delicious and decadent dessert in the history of mankind…. the Chocolate Souffle!!!!!

You don’t know the happiness that it brings into my life. I dream happy dreams of chocolate souffles dancing in my head whenever I have a craving for it.

Thank you Thank you Thank you Thank you!!!

Love,

Lindsey

Okay now for the review…

I feel like I can give a very accurate review of the chocolate souffle because I have eaten it about 35 times in my life and about 5000 times in my dreams.

The chocolate souffle is so magical!! 30 minutes in the oven and out comes this beautiful masterpiece. It’s so nice and warm straight out the oven and when you slice through it all the warm chocolate comes oozing out. Pure joy. Pure bliss. I can’t even put into words the happiness I feel when the souffle is first put down onto the table in front of me. My eyes light up like a bon fire. My stomach too. So happy. So happy. So happy!!

The perfect amount of chocolate with the perfect amount of delicious vanilla ice cream with the perfect amount of raspberry glaze. Also there’s a small piece of cake hidden underneath the ice cream. Buried delicious treasure!!

I love chocolate souffle so much I will go all the way out to Hawaii Kai from town just to eat it. Just last night I went with my cool Yelpy friend Ethan T. and we got there 20 minutes before closing. I had called earlier while we were on the way and requested for them to start making it since it takes 30 minutes to make.

When we got there all the waiters were staring at us through the windows so I thought that they were closed. Then I saw one waiter approaching the door while we were walking up to it. I thought he was going to tell us that they were closed but he opened the door for us!! Hallelujah!!! The gateway to chocolate heaven!! I have arrived!!!

5 minutes later our souffle arrived to our table since I called earlier! I enjoyed every single bite. Every bite was pure happiness!! The waiter even brought me a spoon while I was in the midst of my happiness blitz because he thought it would make it easier for me to enjoy. It was a nice gesture but I felt like he was watching me and my private moment with my love Mr. Souffle.

I love Roy‘s!! Especially I love Hawaii Kai Roy’s because they have really awesome service. Everyone there is so nice and so friendly.

I would give Roy’s 10 stars if I could.

I would give them 20 stars for their great customer service.

And I would give them 1,000,000,000 stars for their chocolate souffle.

P.S Order a chocolate martini with the chocolate souffle. You will be in heaven! ”

Roy’s
6600 Kalanianaole Hwy
Honolulu, HI 96825
(808) 396-7697

Share

Omakase at Doraku

25 Jan

Tonight I went to dinner at Doraku for some delicious sushi and Japanese food. I was really happy because I got to try some of Hide Yoshimoto’s (Executive chef at Doraku) special omakase items that aren’t on the menu.

Clam Miso Soup. This was from the menu but we ordered it since Yen and I were freezing cold in there.

Here is the first dish that Hide made for us. This one you can order from the menu. It’s Japanese style snapper (opakapaka) shiso carpaccio. It has cherry tomatoes, kaiwa, and cucumber. It was very light and refreshing!

Special: I think this was the prettiest dish of the night. It looks like a flower! Seared scallops with shiso, lemons, and ume paste with a yuzu pepper sauce. I loved the citrus flavor.

Another Special: Green Dragon Roll! This was really good!! Inside had shrimp tempura, ogo, and some other things but I don’t remember it all. On the top was ikura and avacado mixed with Japanese mayonnaise.


Special item: This one didn’t have a name. So I’m going to call it “Beautiful Japanese Rainbow”. Sadly, this picture didn’t come out very nice so you can’t see all the different colors. But it was so pretty! It’s maguro with scallops, cucumber, ogo, uni, tobiko, ikura, shiso, and ponzu sauce. Everything delicious all in one bite!

This dish was delicious!! It’s king salmon with Ogo (Hawaiian Seaweed) tempura, oyster mushrooms, and asparagus with a spicy ponzu reduction sauce. Love the spiciness of the sauce and the fried ogo was nice and crispy.

I guess because we are pigs but we decided to randomly order these items from the menu:
Garlic shrimp with a spicy sauce and fried onion rings. Yum yum yum.

Tuna tataki. I really like the garlic chips!

Then this was the last dish of the night. This one also didn’t have a name so I will call it "Super fancy awesome fireball Spicy Seafood Dynamite" or SFAFSSD for short. It was so cool because when Hide brought it out it was lit up on fire! This was my favorite of the night. It was really good! I could just order this and eat it all by myself.


So we were way beyond stuffed and full but decided we needed to order dessert to have a complete meal. So we got the brownie tempura!! It was so amazing!! I could eat this every day of my life. I thought it was going to be heavy and rich but it was actually light and the brownie in the inside was so soft.

Thank you so much Hide for making us so many special items! They were all very delicious. My stomach is very happy and full right now.

Group picture with Yen, Jon, and Hide.

Doraku
Royal Hawaiian Center
2233 Kalakaua Ave
Bldg B, 3rd Fl
Honolulu, HI 96815

Share

Chicken and Mushroom Risotto

22 Jan

One of my favorite things (I have around 500 favorite things)  to eat is risotto so I decided to make it myself.  Surprisingly it came out really good considering that I rarely cook. But I think having this blog will improve my cooking skills as well as photography and writing skills!

I followed this recipe here. However, I used Japanese white rice because I couldn’t find the arborio rice when I went shopping for the ingredients . But it still came out well.  I also added garlic and truffle oil which made it taste a lot stronger and richer. You gotta try it with truffle oil!

It was very simple to make just a lot of mixing of the chicken broth into the rice to get it to cook to the right texture.

I used these giant mushroom!

The results!

Let me know if you try it out and tell me what you think!

P.S  Please bare with the subpar picture quality until I get my new camera (Going to get the Olympus Pen E-Pl2!! Exciting!!) At the moment I only have my sad point & shoot and my even sadder iPhone 3g with the 2MP camera.

Share

Sake Shop Farewell Avy Party

22 Jan

Last week Sunday my friends and I had a farewell party for Avy who moved to Japan this week.

We decided to have a small party at The Sake shop. The owners of The Sake Shop, Malcom and Nadine are so awesome and let us use the store after it was closed.

Thanks to Colin we had a lot of delicious food such as sushi, shrimp tempura, noodles, and chicken yakitori (chicken skewers)!

Of course, we had lots of Sake to drink!

My favorites of the night were the Sparkling Sake (Harushika Tokimeki) and the Sake in the cool looking can (Narutotai Ginjo Namagenshu) I love namagenshu because they usually have a nice clear, fresh, and crisp taste.

The highlight of the night though was when Malcom brought out this Sake with snakes it them!! Called Habushu is Japanese. We all had a shot and it was quite strong and pungent to put it in a nice way. Actually it was pretty disgusting. I felt like I could taste the snakes!! I did not finish it.


(Picture credit: @genepark)

Instead we decided to pour a huge shot for our friend Gerald who was the last to get the party. I wish we took a video of his reaction when he drank the whole shot. We didn’t tell him what it was until after he drank it. Haha it was so great.

It was a very fun night and I hope we can have future parties there!

Also to my friend and twin sister Avy: I will miss you a lot but I have so excited for you and your new life in Japan. I can’t wait to visit you!! =)

Share

Brunch at Alan Wong’s Pineapple Room

21 Jan

A Couple of weeks ago I went with my friends for brunch at Alan Wong’s Pineapple Room located in Macy’s at Ala Moana Shopping Center. I really like this place. The service is good and so is the food.

I ordered the broccoli and cheese quiche with Nalo greens & Hamakua springs vine-ripened tomatoes and soy balsamic vinaigrette salad, and chilled Hamakua Springs tomato soup with avocado and chilled shrimp. The soup was very flavorful and on the salty side but it balanced very well with the broccoli quiche. It was a nice, light, and refreshing meal. Good to order if you’re trying to be healthy or don’t want to eat something too heavy.

My friends both ordered signature entree’s:

The Loco Moco (Kuahiwi Natural Beef Hamburger Patty on Fried Rice with two Peterson Farm Eggs any style and Veal Jus)

Kailua Pig BLT on an Onion Bun with Half a Caesar Salad

We also had dessert..!
Lilikoi Cheesecake with lilikoi and guava sauces!! This was really good!! Just the right amount of sweetness.

Alan Wong’s Pineapple Room
http://www.alanwongs.com/pineapple-room-welcome
Ala Moana Shopping Center
Macy’s, 3rd Fl
Honolulu, HI 96814
(808) 945-6573

Share
Next Entries →