by Mark on February 28, 2008
If you are a fan of scones, there is a great place in Chinatown / Downtown Honolulu where they serve a variety of freshly baked scones. I wasn’t a big fan of scones as the ones from Starbucks were always dried and wondered who would enjoy eating this dried up pastry. I mean, talk about chocking and making a mess at your cubicle. Don’t let your boss find you eating this stuff because you practically have to wipe your face and make sure the crumbs don’t fall on your chair or you end up with white spots all over your pants. Tiki Cafe, located near the Long’s Drug store in Chinatown, serves a variety of scones that are freshly baked and ready by 6:30am, a great concept as you have students and Downtown employees getting here early to beat the Honolulu traffic.
Tiki Cafe serves a variety of scones – Apricot, Blueberry, Blueberry Cream Cheese, Cinnamon Apple, Chocolate Chip, Coconut Butter, Cranberry & Raisin, Guava Jam, Peach Slice, Peanut Butter, Pineapple, Oatmeal Raisin (my favorite), Pumpkin Walnut (another favorite), and Strawberry Jam. I highly recommend to get the scones early in the morning as they are all baked during that time. These scones will change your old thinking and appreciate what scones are all about. Enjoy.
Tiki Cafe
82 South Hotel Street
Honolulu, Hawaii 96813
Tel: 537-5899
by Mark on February 25, 2008
According to this article, Local Motion in Waikiki will be moving out from 1958 Kalakaua Avenue building next month and a bank will be moving in. Bummers…
by Mark on February 24, 2008
Tonight, Emiko cooked a Korean dish called Kimuchi Chige or also known as kimchee soup. Basically, it’s a spicy Korean soup with lots of kimchee and a kick of everything that will awaken your appetite. It could be rated as a smell no one can resist or be tempted not to try. Unlike the real Korean style where they add lots of kimchee and pork, this was more of a slimmed down version with more vegetables.
First, she stir fried the ground pork, chives, bean sprouts with garlic and ginger. Added some salt and pepper too.
Next, she added the stir fried vegetables to this stone pot and added kimchee, egg, chicken stock, and sesame oil.
It was pretty good with so much flavor of everything and not too spicy. I highly recommend this if you ever have so much kimchee left in your refrigerator. Actually, aged kimchee always taste better with soup. And also, if you are ever in deep kimchee, this is a perfect remedy for your soul!
by Mark on February 24, 2008
We decided to spend the afternoon at Monsarrat Avenue. This is the road between Waikiki and the famous Diamond Head crater. We stopped at the South Shore Grill (formerly Teddy’s Burger) for lunch and also at Diamond Head Grill and Market for their blueberry cream-cheese scone.
A nice collection of portraits aligned the interior of South Shore Grill.
We ordered the Grilled Salmon (garlic & butter) plate and a plate of french fries (not shown). It almost tasted like the typical garlic shrimp scampi. Included brown rice, tuna macaroni, and a coleslaw.
South Shore Grill – Menu 1 of 2.
South Shore Grill – Menu 2 of 2.
Blueberry cream-cheese scone from Diamond Head Grill and Market. If you are a big fan of scones, their scone is one of the best in town! Get it in the morning as they are freshly baked and ready by 7:30am. I found another place in Chinatown where they serve excellent variety of scones. I will feature this next time.
by Mark on February 18, 2008
From this month, I have made a suggestion to have a monthly get together as opposed to just Thanksgiving and Christmas. We live in such a beautiful and warm place that we should take advantage of the environment it offers. With much sunshines and many places to bbq, we all should be more aware of it. So yesterday, we had our bbq party at the Kapiolani Beach Park. Luckily, the weather turned out to be nice by late morning. Earlier it was raining.
Securing the spot is always a challenge as you need to be there early. Jerry and I decided to meet at 9:30am to find a spot and setup his tent. I applaud Jerry because he’s always on time as long as the beer is ready. As you can see, he didn’t have a cup to pour his Miller Lite so he wrapped a piece of newspaper and was waking up everyone in the morning and telling them to get out of bed. In Hawaii, it’s illegal to have open liquor in public places. As long as it’s in a cup and you are not too obvious pouring the liquor, it’s ok. I arrived around 9:45am and we setup his tent.
The best charcoal we always use is the Kingsford brand. The bbq always taste better and never goes wrong. And always get the Weber grill. They are built to last forever. Don’t ever get the cheap $10 grill.
Ben bbq’ing his yakitori sticks. Hokuto, Kody, and Wakaya playing with the skateboard. Hokuto got in trouble from John as he was running around and going to other people’s party (just like Jerry… j/k). Hokuto is getting bigger as always and loves to play now. Hates sitting down.
My kalbi grilling. If you ever tried grilling this, the smell is just unbelievable. The shoyu and garlic combination is a universal attraction. Every time we have a bbq, people we don’t know would walk close by and see what we are grilling. And let me tell you – even though you have a heavy smoke, they still fight and come to you. Some of them are actually like magnets. They don’t really care about the smoke and prefer to fly through them.
Ben’s yakitori with negi. This was something new and was prepared so nicely and in proportion. I have never seen a yakitori so perfect in shape. The secret is don’t have any spaces between each of the meats and the bigger pieces have to be at the top of the stick. The bottom has to be the smallest as the heat is usually weaker on the fringe of the grill. That really makes sense.
Overall, it turned out to be a beautiful day at the beach and as always Jerry wrestling with Joji and beating the crap out of him. And kids too. Poor Joji. Taku’s younger brother and his wife visiting from Tokyo enjoyed the bbq too. Sorry… I should have taken more photos and will do it for next month’s bbq. Stephen will be back for his spring break next month so we have this set already. In the meantime, go enjoy the outdoors!
by Mark on February 16, 2008
This is probably the best recipe of mine, and it goes back to my high school years in Guam. My mother used to prepare kalbi when we had family occasions and friend’s get together at the Tumon beach. Her recipe and ingredients are all in her taste, and it was always a challenge to get the perfect recipe. She would tell me to add this and that but how much was never easily passed on to me. I have tried many different recipes, but this one so far is the best Korean kalbi recipe which I would like to share. My friends agree so please try it and spread the recipe. I guarantee you my kalbi recipe will win your party crowd and enjoy what I like. The kalbi recipe calls for 2 packs of kalbi or about 6 – 8 lbs.
Make sure you get the “thin cut” as this greatly affects the outcome. The thinner, the better. Kalbi is fatty so look for a lean but marveled version like the one above. It’s very important to cut off excess fat and massage the meat over the running water. By this, I mean press with your index finger and thumb like you are making it thin. Just don’t rip it and don’t worry because this will allow the meat to absorb the ingredients below more efficiently. If you don’t do this, the kalbi will be hard and chewy.
Grind the “50″ cloves of garlic. Yeah, that’s a lot of garlic but don’t worry. It’s worth it! Do not chop garlic, you need to grind it to almost like a paste and then in a bowl, add:
- 1 cup of Kikkoman shoyu (I highly recommend Kikkoman brand)
- 1 cup of brown sugar
- 1/2 cup of sake
- 1/4 cup of water
- 1/4 cup of sesame oil
- 1/4 cup of honey
- Dash of black pepper
Mix them together and you will notice the liquid to be like a syrup. Taste it. It should be sweet and garlic explosion in your mouth. That is the key. If it’s salty, you did it wrong. Always remember – sweet and garlic flavor. Then dip the rinsed kalbi over the sauce and then put in the plastic container. Let it marinade for at least 24 hours.
This kalbi is ready for tomorrow’s bbq party. Oishi zou!!!!!
by Mark on February 10, 2008
If you get tired and bored of eating a typical curry with potatoes and carrots, you can try my Chicken Curry with a Twist recipe. The idea and inspiration come from Emiko when she cooked her special curry weeks ago, and I noticed that having a citrus flavor does add a kick to a blend curry. So I decided to try my own this evening.
The most important part of curry cooking is browning the sliced onions (one onion) slowly in medium heat. My citrus idea was to stir fry the yellow, orange, and red bell peppers. I only used half of each. Just stir fry with a small amount of olive oil and sprinkle salt, black pepper, and garlic powder. At the end, I added 1 tomato and turned off the heat.
Next, I cooked the buffalo wing style chicken and added curry powder. Any curry powder is fine. You want to brown the chicken but not over done it. I had some left over arabiki sausage so I added that too but not really needed. Mix well and cook for a while.
Next, I added the cooked bell peppers and the browned onion and added water. Let it boil and take out the aku and the extra oil from the chicken. The buffalo wing style chicken will yield lots of oil so take out most of it (but not all) or you will be eating an oily and unhealthy curry. After taking out all the aku’s and the oil, I added HALF of the Kokumaro Curry sauce mix and let it simmer. Make sure to cover the pot and slowly cook for about 40-45 minutes. The oil from the chicken will appear again so take out as much as you want. Before turning off the heat, I added spinach and mixed for the last time. If the curry flavor is weak, try adding more of the curry powder but not too much. And finally, you have this:
Mark’s Chicken Curry with a Twist recipe. Eat up!!!
by Mark on February 9, 2008
Finally… the sunshine and blue skies returned to Oahu. The weeks of unsettled weather moved off to the east of the Hawaiian islands, and tradewinds are blowing moderately across the island. It was nice to see the beautiful blue and lots of sunshine today.
Tonight is the Pro Bowl All-Star Block Party. Stage crew and vendors were getting ready this late afternoon in Waikiki.
Man blowing a shell horn for the start of the hula dance. The hula girl performed as the lady sang and played the guitar. The three of them came from no where, and the tourists were delighted to see the Hawaiian style performance. It was kind of them to do this and share the Hawaiian tradition.
by Ari on February 8, 2008
As Stephen wrote here on Sunday, snow accumulated in Osaka today for the first time this season. I was careful driving my car and felt sorry for the pedestrians outside. If we have snow like this everyday, we must be depressed. But on the second thought, I realized that this might be fun once in a while. We should go outside and have fun.
When I was a child, we had more snow in Osaka, but recently snowfall is a very rare incident. This is because of the global warming or what..?
Ari
RentaCondo.jp
by Mark on February 7, 2008
This news is worth to get blogged. My Korean cousin, Aaron Choi, is in the sports headlines in today’s Guam Pacific Daily News. Aaron and I grew up together in Guam and both of us started with tennis but eventually Aaron moved on to take the golf dream. He has been a real hard worker both mentally and physically to obtain the status he is in today. One of the maintenance crew from the golf course commented that Aaron always practiced rain or shine and that one day his dream will be fulfilled. Congratulations Aaron for your 1st PGA tour!! Remember your roots always and keep your dreams alive! Will be watching you in ESPN. Read the news article here.
