by Mark on March 30, 2008
There is a brand new restaurant, Tango Contemporary Cafe, that opened at the ground floor of Hokua Condo next to P.F. Chang’s restaurant. The atmosphere is indeed contemporary with decorations placed nicely and the view to the ongoing Ward Village development across the restaurant.
Lunch menu was reasonable in the $8 – $13 range per entree.
Miniature sandwich (assorted with chicken, crab and ham combo).
Hamakua Mushroom Risotto with asparagus and shrimp. This was really delicious and highly recommended. There are parkings available at the condo with limited time validation. If you are ever at the Ward area during lunch time, this is a new restaurant worth trying. Next time, I am going to try their burger selection.
by Mark on March 29, 2008
And finally the news about Victoria’s Secret coming to Hawaii in fall of 2009.
The store will open at the Ala Moana Center and is expected to be 5 times bigger than their average retail store. This is a great news for all the ladies out there! Read the news article here.
by Mark on March 29, 2008
Felt like getting a nice hot cup of coffee and walking around Waikiki this morning. The winds have picked up a notch or two, not a good surfing sign… But it was a beautiful morning.
Waikiki Beach and Diamond Head.
Pops lookout from Sheraton Waikiki Hotel’s pool deck. Surf was really small with brisk easterly tradewinds.
Even Threes was uneventful, surf wise.
Cafe Latte from The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf.
Flowers at the Sheraton Waikiki Hotel.
DFS entrance with tourists. As you can see, most of them were wearing winter clothes even though it was about 85F degrees here.
by Mark on March 29, 2008
This is one of our favorite pastas. Emiko’s cooking recipe has been improving much lately and almost surpasses my style. This is a quick and easy to cook pasta. It’s delicious!
Stir fry the chopped bell peppers, onions, mushrooms and 1 pack of Arabiki sausage with olive oil. Add a little bit of salt and pepper and stir fry until the vegetables become tender. If you like spicy, you can add some paprika or chili pepper flakes or even Tabasco. In the meantime, prepare the pasta noodle.
When the noodle is ready, drain it and mix together with the stir fried vegetables and add a generous portion of tomato ketchup and sprinkle some chicken broth powder. Finally before turning off the heat, add a 1/5 cup of milk and mix till it evaporates. Viola! You can garnish with Parmesan cheese and parsley before serving. The key to this pasta is the mushrooms and bell pepper. They both add the kick to it.
by Mark on March 25, 2008
+ http://youtube.com/watch?v=CGXhsnjaxJU +
yuugure no machikado
nozoita kissaten
hohoemi mitsumeau
mioboe aru futari
ano ko ga kyuu ni nazeka
kirei ni natta no wa
anata to kon’na fuu ni
atteru kara nano ne
* suki datta no yo anata
mune no oku de zutto
mousugu watashi kitto
anata wo furi mukaseru
ki no nai soburi shite
nakama ni kuwawatta
teeburu wo hasande
anata wo atsuku mita
ano ko ga furareta to
uwasa ni kiita kedo
watashi wa jibun kara
iiyottari shinai
betsu no hito ga kureta
rabu retaa misetari
guuzen wo yosooi
kaeri michi de matsu wa
* repeat 2x
anata wo furi mukaseru
+ http://youtube.com/watch?v=CGXhsnjaxJU +
by Mark on March 23, 2008
Today was Miwa’s birthday. Miwa has been a long friend of Emiko since their Docomo campaign and continues to have lunches together. We both had a great time socializing with new friends and spending a fun birthday party. Coincidentally, I met an old friend, Eddie, who used to be close friend of my old roommate Bernard. It’s a small world here in Hawaii.
Me, Emiko, Miwa & Peter (Miwa’s husband).
We were the grillers for about 20 people.
Scallop, red onion and asparagus wrapped with bacon.
Peter’s kalbi was delicious! Happy Birthday Miwa!! Thanks for inviting us.
by Mark on March 21, 2008
There is a famous Korean restaurant that serves authentic naeng myun (cold black noodles). Yuchun Korean Restaurant has been in business for a while and if you are ever in the Keeaumoku Street vicinity this is a place to enjoy a nice refreshing cold noodles.
Naeng Myun (cold black noodles). It comes with icy cold stock and a refreshing flavor.
This is their kalbi dish. We ordered the 2 cold black noodles and a kalbi plate combo.
Make sure to ask the waitress for their chili paste as shown on the photo. It’s not as hot but adds a nice balance to the refreshing naeng myun. Enjoy!
by Mark on March 19, 2008
This is quite embarrassing to see one of Guam’s promises for a brand new high school with Olympic standard swimming pool to be built in the southern tip of Guam back in the early 90′s – Guam Southern High School.
This is a recent photo from the Guam PDN website. Is this what they envisioned back then? OMG, I have never seen something so sick and ugly like this. Can you see the sunken carabao wagon inside the pool? I wouldn’t be surprised to see human corpses in there too… Apparently the Guam Public School System is under way to clean up the mess and restore the swimming pool prior to opening the school. It’s a never ending dilemma that still exists today. How saddening is this? Read the news article here.
by Stephen on March 17, 2008
Hey everyone in Hawaii! =)
Well, winter is almost over in most parts of Japan and the days are starting to get warmer and longer. It is really strange because only 2 weeks ago parts of Gunma were still covered in snow. Cherry blossoms have started blooming in many parts of Japan, and everone is starting to put away their winter wear, and bringing out their summer gear.
Today I said goodbye to a group from Hawaii who did a homestay in my town, Ikaho. It was a lot of fun seeing Hawaii people again. The way they talk, dress, and the most funny thing of all, do things in Hawaiian time, was the most refreshing. 11 Students from Waiakea Junior High School in Hilo visited my city over the past weekend, and they were accompanied by 7 escorts. Unfortunately I did not have time to spend much time with the kids, but I did spend 3 full days with the escorts playing the role of the coconut tour guide here in Gunma. We did everything from visiting with the mayor of my city to going to famous places in my city. Japanese people do things at a different pace then we do in Hawaii. So our Japanese guide was a little frustrated over the “hawaiian time” that the Hawaii group did things at, but she eventually realized that while she was with us she was part of the group and not just working and enjoyed the casual way that people do things back home.
It was sad to see the Hawaii people leave because they had such a good time here in Ikaho, and were such a wonderful group of people to hang out with. Spending time with them eased my homesickness a little but also made me long for our island home at the same time. I wish them a happy trip for the rest of the time they spend here in Japan and a safe flight home when they return to the Big Island. And to the rest of you I will be home to visit as soon as I can. Mark, I will see you this month??? Next??
Take it easy everyone,
Stephen
After our early afternoon fresh produce shopping at Chinatown, we went to eat lunch at Sweet Home Cafe which is a shabu shabu restaurant located along South King Street near Kozo Sushi. It’s a fairly clean and well decorated cafe/restaurant run by Susan her family from Taiwan. The place is well air conditioned so you don’t have to worry about sweating so much while trying their awesome shabu shabu.
We ordered the tomato beef shabu shabu stock. They have different variety of stocks ranging in the $6.00 range and all you can eat rice included. Right behind me, there is a refrigerator with various sliced seafood and vegetables which you can choose. It kind of resembled the Genki Sushi platters where colored plates are priced accordingly. We got the enoki mushrooms, shrimps, sliced beef, and Chinese cabbage mix. I wanted to add more but it was the missus day so I followed her order.
This is the tomato beef shabu shabu stock. It already includes the base so all you need is to add your favorite seafood, meat, and vegetables.
For 2 people, it’s well worth the price as everything was about $20 and was delicious.
After finishing the beef, seafood, and the vegetables, Susan (owner) came over to our table and cracked a piece of egg and mixed it together with the left over stock and added rice. She was so kind to give us a this service and she asked us if we wanted more rice and more rice. I mean we probably had 3 big bowls of rice even though one was enough I think. If you are looking for a clean and a family style type restaurant, this is a great place to hang out and enjoy hot and delicious shabu shabu. It’s also a kid safe diner as all the table use the induction heat pad which doesn’t use flames. You can literally touch the heat pad and don’t feel a thing except if you touch the stainless steel pot. Cool technology I thought… Later I asked Susan what’s the popular and favorite dish and she mentioned her spicy soup stock and the herbal soup stock are the top selling ones. The herbal soup stock is really popular amongst Japanese she giggled. Her favorite is the tomato beef version which we thought was excellent. Dinner time is busy so reservation is a must. Nice restaurant to enjoy a hot and healthy shabu shabu.
