Yay!  Posting my eats in Hawaii...

Straight home from the airport... mom is the best!  She had our favorites there waiting for us... mitsuken garlic chicken (SOOO GOOD), soy beans & poke!!!

Dad shared with us his ume wine, or ume something... vodka?  I forget.  It's made by soaking the ume in the juice for something crazy like 6 months or something, maybe a year?  I was so tired I forget all the details...

First stop on Friday was to Genki.  My favorite place ever.  Here's their spicy tuna, my favorite spicy tuna from any place I've ever had... and the one in the background was a new one, spicy tuna in inari.  It was just ok, the inari is so sweet and then the spicy ahi, kinda interesting combo...

mmmm ahi poke another of my favorites

tuna salad...sounds weird but it's really good... sean's favorite one.

Chinese Dinner @ Asia Manoa with tutu.  She had her whole menu to order already written down...
duck with buns
green beans
honey walnut shrimp
beef look fun
and we got to sneak in a pork chops!

Finally got to visit cupcake couture.  Last xmas we went twice and both times they were closed!  Mom got red velvet and I got a coffee flavored one.   Yum!

Dad's famous fried rice!!!

I love love love love love the char siu look fun from chinatown... Mom went early one morning and picked some up for me.  Yay!  I ate all three rolls by myself...whoops

Mom and Dad have been raving about Pho Bistro and we finally got the chance to check it out.  Man they were right!  Totally not exaggerating one bit.  It was delicious.  And they let you bring in your own alcohol, no charge!  We had a nice bottle of wine & some beers...
First we started off with this unbelievable salad, then I had oxtail soup with pho on the side... it was FANTASTIC!!!

We tried a new shave ice place this time- Shimazu Store.  It was really good!  Soft!  They had a lot of unique flavors...it was HUGE too.  Go figure half mine fell off the top before I even got to the car but I took it back and they replaced the whole thing...really nice.

Seafood counter at Foodland is the best!  We loooove the poke there.  There's all kinds of stuff now too.  To top it all of, they are now at Aina Haina shopping center, so close!!

Gyukaku would not have been my choice on my few days home, but it's dad's favorite and it was father's day! :)

Have to hit up rainbows when you go home... but actually there isn't anything there that I'm super crazy about.  Everything is good, but nothing blows me away.  My favorite thing is actually the ice cream float!  Sean loves the teri burgers there though, so we stopped to get him one for the plane ride.

I want to update my Hawaii eats, but I am so far behind on all my other updates... here is a quick one from the last month or so!

my salad concoction

ramen with corn...not that i'm that surprised since i love corn, but it was really good!

making spam musubi's...totally hit the spot!

tried out a new sushi place...
 
I think the best thing was the stuffed jalapeno's...but man oh man one of them was SUPER spicy!!!

sukiyaki from nijiya is yummy!

New one I've never tried: bibimbap- really good too

I love Back Home At Lahaina's fried chicken and the ramen cabbage salad is good too :)

worked at the UCLA snack bar all weekend and ate like a fatty...

side note: luke wilson was at the games!

curry from nijiya is just OK...

Since this is a food blog, this definitely deserves it's own special post:

http://www.honolulumagazine.com/Honolulu-Magazine/June-2010/Dining-The-Boys-are-Back-in-Town/

SOOOOO proud :)

First of all, I was half way through my post when it somehow got deleted :(  I really hate that!  


Last week I made furikake teryiyake salmon and rice for dinner.  We had steamed spinach on the side.  It's been a while since I've made this but it's good and easy to do!

Last week Edward brought in our usual bay cities but also made a great mac & cheese with veggies.  It was the best one he's made by far in my books!

At work we're also lucky enough to celebrate our birthdays with cake!  When I first started here at Radius 60, everyone had their own celebration because there were only 9 of us!  But now that there are 40+ we usually do them by month.  Lately we've kinda been combining them so this one was for April & May (oh, and March because apparently we forgot).  I stopped at my usual spot- Ralphs!  The Ralphs bakery over here is really great-- they feature cakes, pies and cupcakes from Sweet Lady Janes (located on Melrose) and have a huge selection.  I got the strawberry shortcake (which happens to be the best one I've ever had) & a carvel ice cream cake (my boss Keith's favorite).  I of course had a slice of each...it was the perfect ending to my Thursday...although it did make it seem a bit like Friday!

Friday was Samantha's birthday and to celebrate she wanted to have dinner at Primitivo with the girls.  After hearing all about it from Sean's parents I was excited to finally get to try it out.  


I also decorated the table with some "princess" themed confetti, balloons, a collage and of course matching presents... we wanted to make sure she felt special and that it was something different than just your normal birthday dinner.  Hope she liked it all!


My favorite dish was the paella, least favorite was the chicken... but all in all everything was super good!

We started off with some really good bread and this olive spread... and Liz suggested the sangria there because she said it was really good....and it was!!!

Arguala Salad with Shaved Manchego Cheese, Apples, Dates, Candied Walnuts & Hazelnut Vinaigrette

Tortila Espana- Spanish Potato and Onion Omelet with Salsa Brava

Seared Ahi Tuna Steak with Roasted Baby Fall Root Vegetables and Foie Gras- Chive Emulsion

Seared Diver Scallops with Warm Chanterelle Mushroom & Frisee Salad (my pick!)

Half Roasted Chicken with Garlic Scented Shoestring Fries (my least favorite)

Braised Chipotle BBQ Short Ribs with Apple Smoked Bacon-Cheddar Cheese Potatoes with Caramelized Onions

Potato Gnocci, Pancetta, Asiago, Aged White Cheddar, Parmesan and Brioche-Bacon-Garlic Crust

Steak Frites- Prime Grade Culotte, Peppercorn Sauce with Garlic Scented Shoestring Potatoes

Paella with Saffron Rice, Chicken, Tiger Shrimp, Mussels, Chorizo and Peas

So a month or so ago, Becky introduced us to the best red velvet ever from Dough Boys.  Since Tara now lives in West Hollywood, she offered to go get it which was so nice!!!  It was the perfect ending to the night... the only bad thing was that 1. they charged us $3 per person for bringing in our own dessert which I thought was UBER LAME and 2. they cut me the smallest little sliver of cake it was more like a tease than anything else!  But alas, it was a great meal for a great girl! Have to go back again!

Well on Saturday, Sean worked a half day then passed out when he got home.  He woke up for the Laker game, but then I fell asleep at half time and only woke up for the last few minutes.  By the time we were ready to get dinner it was already 10 pm.  I had been craving the red velvet alllll day since my sliver was so small the night before, so I looked it up and it was open til 11 pm.  Whoohoo!  Sean was nice enough to take me down there so I could pick up not one, but two cupcakes!  And yes they are large sized cupcakes so it took me the entire weekend + Monday to finish them.

Now it was like 10:30 and we had no idea where to go eat... so we called up my brother Scott and asked him where we could go downtown (K-town or something) that would be open.  He directed us to BCD Tofu House which ended up being a better version of Tofu Ya On Sawtelle!

The only things that weren't better were the sides... the fish had bones and some of them like got stuck in my throat- yuck... and the pickles were weird and the kimchee not as good.  The potato salad though, was SUPER good... and our soup (it was so hot I burnt my tongue though... I really hate when I do that!) and entree's were really really good as well.  Sean got the kalbi short ribs and I got the pork bulgogi.

They also do this thing with your rice... they scoop it out for you then they leave a little in another hot pot and pour some kind of hot water mixture in there.  It reminded me of the chinese "Juk" soup...not sure how you spell it but my mom and tutu would always make me have that when I was sick as a kid...