mmm-yoso!!!

Plate Lunch Week: Chris' Ono Grinds Island Grill

Here's one that I heard about a while back, but just didn't have a chance to visit until recently.

The location can be a bit challenging; off of Mission Gorge Road, head east on Mission Gorge Place in sort of a business park area. Once you go down Mission Gorge Place a bit you can't miss the sign....unless it's not out. Then it just looks like one of hundreds of business strewn around the area.

The interior is interesting, though kind of cold, looking more like an Hawaiian themed bar serving food, than an actual restaurant. Here's where I noticed some interesting things. A decent beer selection, but nothing on tap.

The really nice gal told me to sit anywhere I wanted. Menus are simple take-out type pamphlets. Here's the next observation, I couldn't find anything fried on the menu, which might not be a bad thing, so I'm thinking this place doesn't have a fryer. Lot's of fusion-hip type of things like sliders, guava BBQ wings, "street" tacos, and nachos, along with tuna melts, BLTs, and smattering of plate lunch type items under "entrees".

I went straight for the artery and ordered the Loco Moco ($9.49), to add to my loco moco collection.

Though it doesn't look it, this was a good amount of food.

Let's start with the eggs, which were over-cooked....I do love my runny yolk. I fully understand how folks can be with runny yolks, but places who serve eggs that way will usually ask me how I want my eggs. Which is over easy, with a little char on the edges.

The burger looked real good, but noticing how it had been grilled, I could tell it was going to be pretty tough, which it was. The flavor was decent though.

 I thought the gravy was kind of odd. First, it was runny and thin, almost like a bisque. Second, a flavoring, like French onion soup mix over-powered the whole thing and there was a bit of a metallic-sour finish to it.

The one saving grace and a big one at that was the mac salad. It was very simple, but mac salad should be simple. It wasn't over-dressed, the macaroni was cooked to perfection, there was just enough other flavors to keep me interested, and most importantly, it was seasoned well and nicely chilled. This might be my favorite mac salad in San Diego.

So the mac salad and the really nice young lady was enough to get me to return. I looked over the menu when I got home. There was another interesting item on the menu; Huli Huli Chicken. Huli-huli means to "turn-turn". Ernest Morgado, head of Pacific Poultry is credited with creating the "king of fundraisers", at least when I was growing up. You can read more about it in Mr Morgado's obit here. Let me just say, I loved this stuff when I was growing up.....so I was interested in what Chris' Ono Grinds Huli Huli Chicken ($9.49) was like:

 Most Huli Huli Chicken recipes I've seen use a good amount of ketchup. Funny thing is; I don't recall it tasting strongly of it.

The sauce on this version was more like a barbecue, not as in "Hawaiian BBQ", but BBQ sauce. It was more of a sticky glaze than a nicely charred huli huli chicken grilled over Kiawe. That doesn't mean it wasn't good. This was pretty decent, perhaps a bit too fruity and sweet, but other than the piece of bone, in the supposedly boneless pile that nearly cracked my teeth, this was decent. The chicken was decently moist and fairly tender. Not bad.

The best thing was, the mac salad was the same as before.

I may not been chasing down this place like I did fund raisers back in the old days, but I think Chris's Ono Grinds has some potential and will probably return one of these days. Mainly because I used to make Guava BBQ Chicken (Hawaiian style BBQ) and he has chicken wings with Guava BBQ sauce.

Even though the feel of the place (and some of the menu) is rather "Mainland - local themed", don't want to use the "H" word, it looks like they are trying to make good food here. This is not another shibai Hawaiian BBQ money grab. That and the nice folks here are enough for another visit.

Chris' Ono Grinds Island Grill
4651 Mission Gorge Place
San Diego, CA 92120
Hours:
Mon - Sat 11am - 9pm

Plate Lunch Week: Ohana Cafe

I'd heard about this place a while ago, but took my sweet old time getting there. The little shop is located on Pearl, right past La Jolla Boulevard. I've never been a big fan of getting there and the parking situation, but I gotta say, on the days I visited this little corner it was pretty quiet.

Though the other side of the shop fronts the busier side, I like this area by the one parking stall.

The interior is quite larger than what this little storefront would make you think.

The breeze really goes through the dining area.....so it's probably great during the late spring/summer, but kind of chilly on the days I visited.

On my first visit, the yong lady manning the counter seemed like perhaps the owner's daughter? She was very nice, even though there were probably a thousand other things she could have been doing. I ordered the loco moco and much like much of Honolulu, Ohama Cafe offers brown rice and even coconut rice for an upcharge. You know me........unless the Missus is breathing down my neck, it white rice all the way. By the way, you won't forget that this is La Jolla, as this is what you get for $8.50.

Still, we're all trying to exercise some portion control nowadays, right? As a loco moco, this wasn't bad, the egg was nice and runny, with some crisp edges, the gravy a little short on flavor, and a bit of "powderyness" to it, and was just barely ok. The rice was cooked well, but I really didn't take to the burger. It was crumbly and it tastes like they add something to the meat made it taste like onion soup mix.

Perhaps I should call this a "petite loco".......but I guess "small crazy" sounds kind of strange, as if loco moco didn't sound weird enough already. The woman who came out of the kitchen was very nice, telling me hello and dropping off some brownie samples.

So I thought that I should return. This time around I ordered the "mix and match" with Kalua Pork and Teri Chicken.

This time the rice was on the dry and hard side. It was by-the-book oven kalua pork, something I make a couple of times a year. The pork was on the dry side and could have had more flavor. The chicken was decent, not too dry, but on the bland side. The drizzle of over-reduced, again by-the-book teriyaki sauce could have been a spitting image of Kealani's.

The mac salad was plain, but nice made, he macaroni was done perfectly, and the seasoning and he amount of mayo was good as well.

I really like the folks here, they are really a nice group. But it takes a bit more than a shade better than L&L level food with petite portions and La Jolla pricing/parking to get me to return.  Though the breakfast menu (Sat/Sun) looks decent, so maybe.......

Ohana Cafe
456 Pearl St
San Diego, CA 92037
Hours:
Mon - Fri   11am - 8pm
Sat - Sun   9am - 8pm

 

Plate Lunch Week: Revisits to Island Style Cafe and Kealani's

Here's a couple of revists for plate lunch wee;

Island Style Cafe:

Man, has it been almost five years since Island Style Cafe opened? Time usre has flown by. In preparation for plate lunch week, I thought I'd do a couple of revists. Though I really enjoy the Kaloko Moco here, the plate lunches have just been ok.

For this post, I decided to put my biased choices to the side and actually try another plate lunch here. After all, it is plate lunch week. Good thing it's not loco moco week....I might not survive that one!

Island Style Cafe had renovated since my last visit; nice booths giving the place a warmer feel.

I ordered the Korean Mix ($10.95), a combo with the Kalbi and Korean Chicken. I quickly noticed that the portion sizes seemed to have gotten a bit larger than I recalled.

 Having not ordered a plate lunch here in ages, I'd forgotten about the mac salad. They put tuna in this; not my favorite version, but at least it was nicely chilled.

The kalbi is sliced very thin, which made it quite crisp, and perhaps a bit too charred. Still the flavor wasn't bad and the crisp char makes you forgot about how tough this can be.

The flavor for the Korean Chicken, which is pretty close to Dak-Galbi, is nice.

The chicken was cooked perfectly, personally, I'd prefer something with a bit more of an interesting texture to it. There's a component of many version of Dak Galbi that creates a bit of a mushy texture, which was also the case here. Still, this was not bad.

Personally, I think the food is getting better, as is the decor. Still, this won't make me forget about ordering the Kaloko Moco next time..........which, according to my arteries is quickly approaching.

According to the signs, the menus have been revamped a bit, so if you haven't checked them out in a while, you may want to see if there's anything you'd find interesting.

Island Style Cafe
5950 Santo Road
San Diego, CA 92124

Kealani's:

Talk about a long time between visits. With Kealani's it's been almost seven years! So I made it a point to truck on up (when was the last time you heard that?) to Encinitas to check out Kealani's.

It seems that the place hasn't changed much in the last seven years.

Since the place seemed stuck in time, I decided to order two of the items I did last time. They call the mix plate Mt Ka'ala here. For you trivia fans; if I recall Mount Ka'ala is the highest spot on Oahu, part of the Waianae Range. I guess just saying "mix plate" is too boring. So my two protein combo ($8.50) consisted of the teri chicken and sweet sour spareribs.

 Even though it doesn't quite look like it, there's more than enough food here. There's another scoop of rice and a good portion of pork under the two pieces of chicken.

I recall thinking the sweet and sour spareribs, even though it looks like pork butt, and is more sweet-salty, than sour to be not bad. The flavor is heading more toward rafute than sweet-sour spareribs, which isn't a bad thing. Unfortunately, this was super dry....I mean really dry.

I know they serve up what we call "dipped chicken" here. The trick is to not make it seem like precooked chicken that is reheated and dipped in sauce.

This didn't. The flavor was decent, not too sweet or salty, but like the pork, it was quite dry and tough. That teriyaki sauce on the side had been reduced too far and had a bit of bitterness to it.

Personally, I'd still take Kealani's over most of the L&L's.....probably over all of the L&Ls on the mainland.

Kealani's
137 W D St
Encinitas, CA 92024

Plate Lunch Week: Homestyle Hawaiian opens in Chula Vista

I thought I'd get back to my roots this week and do just "local kine grindz". One of the main reasons for starting the blog back in 2005 was to list all the places you could get local "stuffs" and food. Of course, soon enough L&L tried to take over the world, often with a very low quality product, and the intent seemed more of a money grab then anything else. Gladly, time has weeded out many of these places. I recall Eddie Flores Jr, the founder of L&L once stated in a interview that:

“In five to 10 years, we won’t call it plate lunch but Hawaiian barbecue,” he says. “Only old-timers will remember the plate lunch.”

Not so fast charlie......

Sadly, the last time I did a plate lunch week was almost 6 years ago! And all of those places have closed! Of course, Mo's has moved and become Homestyle Hawaiian. Still, six years since my last plate lunch week? I think much of it is due to, well, age. I just can't put it away like I used to, nor do I really want to eat that much food anyway.

The real impetus for this week occurred when I did drop by Homestyle Hawaiian and saw this sign on the register:

I recall slinking away with my Chicken Katsu plate in hand thinking, "my coconut wireless sure don't work like it used to!"

I even did some catering with Mo and he didn't say anything to me? What's up with that?

Anyway, I jotted down the address and I finally had some time to get down there this past weekend.

 I guess this used to be a hot dog joint? When I arrived the place was already busy. Mo was happy to see me and told me it's been crazy busy since opening. He's training an all new staff....though he's got some pros with him. His two daughter's were there to help out. I remember when they were in diapers! I've been doing this blogging thing for too long now. Anyway, Mo mentioned that they've been selling out of everything daily and he's trying to get a handle on things....

The place was chaotic, but I got my order in and things settled down soon enough. Mo's little one had no problem with taking my order, a combination Korean Chicken and a Chicken Katsu with Gravy (aka chicken cutlet in local terms).

I saw Mo make my plate so I knew it was going to be what I was used to getting at the other location.

As I closed my plate, taking a good half of it home for dinner, Mo asked me what I thought. I told him from what I understand of the demographic in this location, "if you can keep up, you'll do great!" Hopefully he'll be able to do that.

Homestyle Hawaiian
1558 E H St
Chula Vista, CA 91913
Hours:
Monday      11am - 330pm
Tues - Fri   11am - 7pm
Saturday   11am - 330pm

A handy hint. Mo is a slow starter and takes a bit of time to warm up. I'd recommend getting there at about 1130, especially since he's training all new staff.

Big Island: Kawamoto Okazuya, Kuhio Grille, and Volcanoes National Park

It seemed like the coqui frogs had a curfew of around 3am as I drifted in and out of sleep until then. Still, I got up at around 530 and we packed up and checked out of the Dolphin Bay Hotel. We had enjoyed our previous day in Hilo and we weren't quite done yet.

There's still a sleepiness to Hilo Town and many places are closed on Sundays. Still, I couldn't help but stop by Kawamoto Store, which holds typical Okazuya hours, opening at 6am and closing around noon....and they were open on Sunday to boot! Places like Kawamoto's holds a special place in my heart.....I basically grew up eating the most common and traditional Okazuya fare.

You basically say how many "bento" you like and then choose your items. All the classics were present and accounted for, shoyu chicken, maki sushi, "cone sushi" (what we call inari sushi back home), stuff like that. We put together a small bento to snack on later.......

There's something about places like this that are timeless......

Kawamoto Store
784 Kilauea Ave
Hilo, HI 96720
Hours:
Tues-Sat 600am - 1230pm
Sun   600am - 1200pm

We then headed off to our breakfast destination; Kuhio Grille.

Located to the side of Prince Kuhio Plaza, this place has been around since the 90's and is probably most well known for the 1pound laulau, which I don't remember being that great, but that was a while ago. Since it was about 615 in the morning, no laulau for us, we were here for breakfast.

Not much going on this early in the morning, just us and a couple of tables of older folks......who else gets up so early on a Sunday, right?

Still recalling how much She enjoyed "my" Japanese Breakfast at Teshima's, the Missus ordered KG Combo #3 ($10.99), with brown rice, ugh.....

This was just passable, the egg was nice and runny, but the fish was rather dry, and the miso soup was on the weak side.

Not wanting to fall back into a food coma; I went with the Loco Bowl ($6.99):

 This was not bad, the egg was done right, though I could have done with a bit more crisp edges. The rice was decent, perhaps slightly on the dry side. The gravy was average, mainly salty. About that burger....well, it had that nice, old school char, seems like this griddle has some seasoning to it. The flavor was decent, the texture was very old school.......something I appreciated. The Missus had a taste and agreed.

Kuhio Grille
111 E Puainako St
Hilo, HI 96720
Hours:
Sat-Thurs 600am - 10pm
Fri   600am - 11pm

After breakfast we headed over to Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park. We've been here many times and we love coming here. We actually had a late honeymoon at Volcano House all those years ago.  There's basically one place we head to, which I'll get into later. A portion of Crater Rim Drive was closed because of fumes, so the Missus was a bit disappointed.

But the steam vents were going strong.

 Halema'uma'u Crater, which is located in the larger Kilauea Crater wasn't nearly this active the last time we visited. No wonder there were all the sulfur dioxide gas warnings!

We saw several offerings to Pele as we walked around the crater..

It was quite a sight.....

There are many things to see here, the Thurston Lava Tube, great hiking trails (when they are open). The Iliahi (Sandalwood) Trail is one we've enjoyed several times. Or you can just drive down Chain of Craters Road and marvel at all the old lava flows. Each one is different.

With all due respect ot the wonders of Volcanoes National Park, the Missus and I have one tradition whenever we visit. And even the passing rain showers didn't stop us. We always drive to the end of Chain of Craters Road, park, it used to be that you'd park just a couple of yards from the flow, but now you walk about a half mile or so. I always take a photo of the Missus at the point where the lava is covering the road.

When we look back at the older photos, we've noticed that the flow has moved and even though things might seem the same when the picture is taken; looking at the photos all lined up reveals that nature never stays still. For us, this is a nice timeline of sorts....the Missus on the lava flow, moving, maybe at an imperceptible speed, but nevertheless, still slowly moving.

Mission accomplished, we headed back up the road and the back way to Kona. After a short "bento break" of course.

In the past, it always seemed that the Missus enjoyed Kona more. But like that lava slowly creeping forward, it seems that Hilo had won Her over after all these years. We'll spend more time in Hilo next time.

COMC Calorie Bomb Edition: Carmen's Mexican Food, Harry D'z BBQ, a Caliente Burger, and one repeat

I know that my timing tends to suck......I have a tendency to do these posts right after the New Year. It's really not on purpose...really. What happens is that I try to close out the previous year and always seem to have some of these "one-off" type photos, so I basically have stuff for a "COMC" (Clearing Out the Memory Card) type of post. So anyway, here's some "stuffs" from the last quarter, of last year.

Carmen's Mexican Food:

A couple of folks have mentioned Carmen's to me and I tell them that I had eaten at Carmen's back when they were located in Linda Vista, across from what is now K Sandwich. I really wasn't impressed with the food, which seemed more Am-Mex, then Mexican. Eventually that whole area was razed and Carmen's was gone. I did feel a twinge of sadness, because even if I didn't care for the place, a lot of folks did. Then a couple of years ago, Babylon Cafe closed down, and Carmen's reopened in that location.

I was still not really motivated to eat there, but more than one person mentioned how good their Carne Asada Fries were. After my post on Yesenia's, I actually received two recommendations for Carmen's. So after a short CAF recovery period, I decided to drop by for lunch.

The crew here was friendly and all the customers seemed to be regulars, talking about kids, vacations to Disney, Disney cruises, relatives, not seeing "so and so" for a while....you know, that kind of stuff. I actually kind of felt like an outsider, but this gave me an understanding of how the place has cultivated a customer base over the years.

Everything was cooked to order so it took a couple of minutes before my Carne Asada Fries were ready.

This really wasn't my cup of tea. First, thought I love my dinner fries, I'm not fond of them in my CAF. Since there's always some guac-crema-salsa action going on, I prefer a higher ration of crispness. Second the guacamole was kind of pasty with no flavor. Third, the carne asada was a lot more tender then it appeared, but was rather tasteless. I'm sure they make their own salsa here, but for some reason it reminded me of Pace Picante. Nothing against Pace, but several decades ago I had a coworker whose second favorite hobby was....how shall I say it...partaking of the "cash crop". We'd go over for beers and would instantly know when he was enjoying himself....he'd be having this concoction of melted Philadelphia Cream Cheese mixed with Pace Picante and chips. Ick......

The rather substantial pool of oil at the bottom of the plate could either be an added treat or not...depending on your point of view.

Still, like I've said many times...there's a big difference between "favorite" and "best" and I understand that. There are many reasons why folks hold a place close to their hearts and the food may not be the main reason(hey, I'm just as guilty). Based on the rapport between the two guys working on this day and the regulars, I'm thinking this is one of those places.

Carmen's Mexican Food
4937 Diane Ave
San Diego, CA 92117

Harry D'z BBQ:

During one of the early days of the Morena's Farmer's Market.....having not been back in a while, I'm wondering if it still running? I passed a couple of weeks ago and na-da?? Anyway, it was getting close to evening and I hadn't had lunch and this little stand looked interesting.

Actually, there should be some kind of law against sticking pork in front of a starving man's face.....

So I decided on the pulled pork sandwich, which was a reasonable $6.50.

The pork was quite moist, but I had a hard time believing it was really smoked based on the mild flavor. The sauce was too sticky sweet and what seemed molasses heavy for me......

The Caliente Burger at Tommy's:

I'm not sure what it is about San Diego's Tommy's, but it just doesn't seem to be the same as the Tommy's back in LA...even the one in our old neighborhood. But there I was, standing in line at Sprouts and the two customers in front of me were going on and on about this "new" burger at Tommy's that was "oh so good, but so spicy". Now what kind of bonehead would actually go visit Tommy's after overhearing two women talking about something "oh so good"??? Hello, I'm bonehead, nice to meet you......

The young lady at the counter was really friendly and told me that they top the chili burger with pickled cascabel chilies and chipotle cheddar. She was very nice and even gave me a little tray with some extra chilies in them. Funny, these reminded me of the bottled Del Monte Chilies I used to eat when I was a kid.

The burger was actually better then I had during my last visit, maybe five or so years ago now. The chilies weren't really that hot. I've kind of noticed that the chili at this location is heading into two divergent directions....as it becomes more and more like refried bean glue in texture, the flavor becomes more watered down. Right now it just seems like heartburn fuel.....though I've only had heartburn once in my life(a funny story) and it wasn't from Tommy's

Serves me right to eavesdropping on folks in the grocery line......

Original Tommy's
7415 Clairemont Mesa Blvd.
San Diego, CA 92111

So there you go....man, that's more then enough calories and saturated fat...sheesh.

I think I'll go and quietly have my plate lunch in the corner now.

 

Honolulu: Whole Foods Kahala, Ono Seafood, Tamura's Kaimuki, Take's Fish Market, Mini-Garden, and dinner

I won't go into great detail about planning or trip; you can read a bit more in my previous post. 

During my last trip, I noticed a lot of construction was taking place on a huge lot on Keaunui Drive. My in-laws live about a ten minute walk away. On this trip we saw that one of the "mega-Safeways" had opened on the property. I thought this was great, with more choices, and maybe with a better fish department than the nearby Foodland. Unfortunately, like Foodland, this place serves up carbon monoxide treated ahi....bummer. I guess we'll stick with Tanioka's. We were pretty much pooped and didn't do much the first evening.

But we headed out early the next morning. In all honesty, I'm not the biggest fan of Whole Foods. I did however, relish the opportunity to check out the Kahala location. I wanted the Missus to have a chance to grab some local produce. I was pleasantly surprised to see a really impressive looking food bar area......

This used to be the location of Star Market in Kahala Mall, which sadly closed in 2007.

It didn't seem like we'd have any time to visit a farmer's market on Oahu, so this seemed a decent option. Of course, driving from Ewa Beach on a week day morning wasn't exactly the most wonderful thing in the world....

This was of course, Whole Foods, and the pricing reflected that. I'm not a big fan of the prepared and hot foods, many of which I find on the bland side. But the choice of all the local vegetables was very nice. The Missus and I had sort of a breakfast with stuff like Sumida Farms watercress and Ho Farms Tomatoes.

The Missus just loved the watercress and we bought some stuff for dinner.

Whole Foods Market
Kahala Mall Shopping Center
4211 Waialae Ave, Ste 2000
Honolulu, HI 96816

Our next stop was set to be Tamura's Kaimuki, but their poke department doesn't open until 1030, so we decided to get something to eat. Well, we already did breakfast, so I guess we need to call this brunch?

We headed down to Ono Seafood and decided to share a poke bowl. We went with a "combo" poke bowl; for 50 cents more ($7.50), you get two different poke. The one item that I enjoy eating brown rice with is poke....the Missus loves the "brown rice revolution".

The fish here has been sparkling fresh on all our visits. The poke is not over-sauced and the texture of the fish is not compromised. The Missus really enjoyed the wasabi version of the ahi poke, while I liked the less heavily flavored "Hawaiian" style, with inamona adding a bit of nuttiness, and limu for some crunch. All the juice from the poke flavored the rice nicely, though the Missus has a bit of an issue with putting cold raw fish on top of hot rice...... I on the other hand have no such qualms......

Ono Seafood
747 Kapahulu Ave.Apt 4
Honolulu, HI 96816

We then headed back up the hill to Tamura's.

For some smoked tako, smoked fish, and some other stuff for dinner.

Tamura's Fine Wines & Liquors
3496 Waialae Ave.
Honolulu, HI 96816

We decided to make one more eating stop..... We've done breakfast and brunch, so I guess this one is officially lunch? Anyway we headed to Mapunapuna and the former location of 99 Ranch Market. I'd always thought this was a weird location for a market and 99 Ranch Market didn't last that long. It's now a sort of food court with some shops....great for the working folks in the area. Though it still looks kind of seedy.....

I'd heard about a little place that makes a nice take-out chirashi with decent quality fish, called Take's Fish Market.

The place is run by a very nice older Japanese couple. They seem very mild mannered, even shy. I ordered the Kaisen Chirashi and was told it was going to be about 10 minutes. So while the Missus walked around I waited a while and actually saw them cut my fish fresh.

I then went for a walk and got the Missus to order something for me from another stand (see below). When I got back, my bowl was ready.

The shari (sushi rice) was prepared decently, not too sour or wet. The fish was very fresh, the hamachi impeccable. By no means is this an earth-shattering chirashi......but looking at the quality and price ($9.95), this is pretty darn good. I really can't, by any means, call this fast food. If I worked around here, I'd be having this just about every week.

Take's Fish Market
1151 Mapunapuna St
Honolulu, HI 96819

While waiting for my chirashi, the Missus and I took a walk. It was just after 11 and this place was packed.

The place was doing major business! Looking at the food the other folks were eating, I could tell....this ain't Panda Express. So I got the missus to order me something while I went back to see if my chirashi was ready.

What the missus ordered for me was the Roast Duck Pan Fried Noodles ($7.95). The Missus handed the styrofoam container over to me and I was surprised at its heft. Opening up I noticed that man, this place really packed it in.

The Missus loved the gooey sauce on the vegetables....mostly napa cabbage. There was a good amount of crisp noodles, one of my favorite thing. I found the sauce more like a fairly bland gravy which needed some flavor. The duck was super meaty and wasn't too salty, though it was on the mild side with regards to anything resembling five-spice or bean paste flavor.

Still, this is a load of food........we had half of it left for dinner.

Mini Garden Express
1151 Mapunapuna St
Honolulu, HI 96819 

Speaking of dinner........it seemed like the Missus could not get enough watercress. We bought some Sumida Farms watercress and Ho Farms tomatoes and made a salad....and drizzled on a bit of soy and sesame oil for flavor.

Along with the stuff from Tamura's.

The smoked tako seemed a bit too sweet for our tastes.

The smoked marlin, which the Missus loved so much that I had to bring some home with me during my last trip, has somehow fallen out of favor with Her.

Turns out that the Missus prefers the stuff I now make at home. Of course it's made with Her taste preferences in mind.

The pipikaula was decent....not too tough, not overly salty.

I could eat a whole container of pickled garlic.....really.

While the Missus could do the same with tako wasabi......

While writing this I realized that we really packed it in.......though if you look through, we shared our food and never ate too much. We really enjoyed this type of "grazing"........

We crashed fairly early, we'd bee headed to the Big Island the next day.

Thanks for reading!

Honolulu: Sugoi

On my last day, I decided to pick up something to have while waiting for my flight to the airport. so on the way to pick-up smoked fish at Tamura's and smoked Tako at Ono Seafood, I stopped off in Kalihi. Sugoi's comes highly recommended, so I decided to hit them up. They were very easy to find, I saw them when I dropped by Young's Fish Market.

Since it was pretty early the place was empty when I arrived. There was however, a huge assembly line behind the counter with stuff being piled into trays. I'd gotten specific instructions to get the Combination Bento with Garlic and Spicy Chicken ($11.75)...so being the good little soldier that's exactly what I got. Man, it felt pretty heavy, but I thought by the time I hit the airport I'd be pretty hungry.

Well good intentions and all, but by the time I filled up gas at what used to be Mel's Sunrise Chevron near Waialae...I knew by the smell permeating the car that this wasn't going to work out....man, talk about "Kusai".....holy smokes.....for sure I'd be stopped by TSA for carrying something TSTP - to smelly to pass. Plus, all the mainlanders would be giving me "stink eye" for having something so strong smelling at the gate, while the locals would be giving me the "stink eye" of envy. So I parked right across the street from a place very familiar to me.....

And removed it from the package....holy smokes this was huge....the photo does not in any way reflect how much stuff this was.....

(The following sentence is dedicated to TFD, who sent me a text asking "what does Broke the Mouth mean"...actually it's "broke da' mouth") And after I wen' hemo da' covah......whoa...major haunas.....but in a good way.

On the top is the garlic chicken, below that is the spicy garlic chicken.

The entire bottom of the tray was covered with rice....

And the hot dog and egg just seemed like overkill.

I preferred the regular garlic chicken to the spicy version....which I thought wasn't very spicy and much too sweet for my taste. Also the glaze made it more soggy, while the regular garlic chicken was still a bit crunchy. Nice flavor.....decent garlic.....had to keep putting Listerine Strips in my mouth to try and ward off that vampire killing fragrance. Good stuff, though I'll get something more manageable next time....like maybe the keiki size??? LOL!

 So how does this ocmpare to Mitsu-ken? Man, it's been sooo long. I'll put that comparison off until next time...but that'll be a lot of fun for me.

Sugoi
1286 Kalani St
Honolulu, HI 96817
Neighborhood: Kalihi

Hours:
Mon-Thu 8am - 3pm
Fri-Sat 8am - 5pm
Sun  8am - 3pm

Interesting thing about City Square Shopping Center, I remember when this was the location of GEM Kapalama.....man am I getting old.

Anyway, that's it for the Hawaii posts for now......you guys know where this is, right?

Thanks for reading!

Oahu Plate Lunches: Grace's Inn and Diamond Head Market and Grill

You can't go to Hawaii without getting a plate lunch, or two..... Here's a round-up of some plate lunches over the course of my last two visits.

Grace's Inn:

Man, Grace's goes back a looong way for me. We used to eat at the lunch wagon near University....my good friend's first job in High School was working at the original location in Moiliili. He used to have to make the katsu sauce! Eventually, Grace's spread everywhere and like many chains of this type...sustainability just wasn't there I guess. The last time I ate at a Grace's was perhaps about 16 years ago....it was a chicken katsu, sweet sour pork mix at the now defunct (I didn't know that until the day I left for my flight home) Kapahulu location across Kaimuki High School. I'd wondered how my tastes and perhaps Grace's had changed over the years.....I knew that perhaps this would be messing with some good memories, but I just had to find out.

Man, times have changed....so the mixed plate in now three items, you're asked for two "salads"..... and since no sweet-sour pork and the pressure was on, I got some roast pork and mochiko chicken to go with my katsu.

Man, that "Asian" coleslaw tasted like it was dressed with pure rice vinegar and I was never a fan of the almost mainland like sour mac salad anyway. In retrospect, I should have just gotten the chicken katsu...memories would have remained untarnished. The mochiko chicken was way bland and greasy, even by plate lunch standards. The roast pork was dry, lukewarm, the gravy gluey, and also flavorless...where was that bottle of tabasco again? The katsu still delivered though.....

Crisp and moist, it was as I remembered, as was the tsukemono like "kimchi". The katsu sauce tasted different to me..... I recall it having a stronger ketchup base. Nice to see the chow fun still resides below the proteins.

So lets see, if we tally things up, this was batting about .400, nice if you're playing baseball, not so great if you're trying to rekindle some memories. Of course the thoguht came to me, I'd never eaten at this location. Could that have been a factor?

Grace's Inn
98-820 Moanalua Rd
Aiea, HI 96701

Diamond Head Market and Grill:

I'm not sure where I first heard about this place....I think it's either Kat or Kathy, so why not mentioned them both, right? I hadn't been round this part of Monsarrat in ages.....when this place was still Burgerland!

Man, this area is crazy now, with the trolley stopping right in front of the place, tons of Japanese tourists in the market.......still, arriving about 11 am, I managed to snag a space.

I was feeling pretty hungry, so I got the special for the day, a Kalbi - Korean Chicken mixed plate. And yes, this place does offer brown rice. My plate looked lovely, not over-carbed, and with greens....the new wave of plate lunches.

The grade of LA Kalbi, the cross cut short ribs was excellent by plate lunch standards, very tender and moist. There was a mild fruity component, but this was very mild in flavor, even when talking in terms of "local-style" kalbi which tends toward the sweet side. The chicken on the other hand was delicious, mild heat, light sweetness, not too salty....a nice savory aspect from what I believe is kochujung...really good.

I loved what I saw on the breakfast menu....so I think I'll bring the Missus next time for breakfast.

Diamond Head Market & Grill
3158 Monsarrat Ave
Honolulu, HI 96815

Recently Consumed: Visits to Sultan, Golden City, Homestyle Hawaiian, Balboa Market, Noble Chef, Pho King, Okan, and Bristol Farm

Here's a collection of one-off dishes and other miscellaneous stuff from the last couple of weeks.

Sometimes a dish will arrive that looks just plain delicious. This was true of the Biber Dolmasi (stuffed pepper) the Missus recently had at Sultan.

I just thought it looked so pretty. I'm no great shakes as a photographer; I just point and shoot and after all our meals at Sultan; heck we're there about every other week. I've pretty much keep my camera stowed.....but this one just called for a photo.

It put my Karisik Izagara (mixed grill) to shame......

Oh and here's a Patlican Kebab for good measure as well......

Sultan Kebab & Baklava
131 Jamacha Road
El Cajon, CA 92019

Cathy and Dennis have already done posts on Balboa International Market. I'll usually drop by for some dates, walnuts, herbs, ayran, and citrus for the Missus. One day last week I was pretty hungry so I ordered the lamb shank on fava rice (sabzi polo). Love the price....$8.99 and it's a load of food.

Lamb shank was decent, but the rice was bland and dry....still, the price is right.

Balboa International Market
5907 Balboa Ave
San Diego, CA 92111

I don't know why, but on one of my visits to Golden City I only took one shot of the Kwai Fei Chicken. After snapping the photo, I realized that I've probably taken too many photos of it already anyway. But just for the heck of it......

Golden City Restaurant
5375 Kearny Villa Rd.
San Diego, CA 92123

Not too many plate lunches anymore.......on occasion there's an exception. Here's the Korean Chicken from Homestyle Hawaiian.

It had been a couple of months. Mo told me that they were going to renovate and clean up the place a bit.....but it was still a no-go on this visit. Hopefully soon.....

Homestyle Hawaiian Island Style Food
7524 Mesa College Drive
San Diego, CA 92111

A couple of other dishes for good measure.....

Shrimp with XO Sauce Chow Fun from Noble Chef......I was lazy and in a noodley mood.

The Noble Chef
6159 Balboa Avenue
San Diego, CA 92111

I just realize there's an inordinate amount of styrofoam in this post......I guess I've been pretty tired recently......

Here's the Hu Tieu Mi Kho, which I've posted on a zillion times, from Pho King.

Pho King Restaurant
4658 El Cajon Blvd
San Diego, CA 92115

Here are the only two photos from a recent meal at Okan, the stewed shishito peppers with ground beef.

And buta kakuni......

Which was on the dry and bland side....I'll need to try this again......hope this isn't the norm.

Wa Dining Okan
3860 Convoy St
San Diego, CA 92111

Cathy's already done a post on Bristol Farms, but recently I was shopping there, really hungry, and lazy to come home and make something. I decided to try out the Tri-Tip Sandwich ($7.99), without the BBQ sauce. The meat is hand cut and it comes with mashed potatoes and gravy which might have just send me into cardiac arrest after eating all that meat. I subbed it out with a pasta salad.

Considering that a lettuce loaded sub with 2 ounces of meat goes for $6.50 - $6.99, this is a pretty good value. The meat ain't great shakes, it is on the chewy side...they do ask you (or at least asked me) if I wanted to trim the fat off.....guess what my response to that was. The sandwich was topped with muhrooms and caramelized onions. Bread seemed heat and eat, but it was toasted. Not bad....

Also, is it just me, or does it seem like Bristol Farms have lowered their prices a bit? Maybe I've been shopping at Whole Paycheck too much recently..... You know, I don't think I'm a cheapo tightwad, who is always looking to get on the better side of the dollar, and like many do believe in the reality of scale. For example a $7.95 dish which is well made from Sab E Lee will not equal to the same dish which costs $19.95 at Lotus of Siam. Of course LOS will be....better be, better, it's 2 1/2 times the price. Still, I do like feeling that I get my money's worth.

Bristol Farms
8510 Genessee Ave
San Diego, CA 92122

My goodness, I just realized something as I was setting up the categories for this post......this is quite a variety of cuisines...maybe I need to stop grumbling about San Diego's limited choice.....