mmm-yoso!!!

Paris - Those Familiar Places Café du Centre and Maison de Chengdu

Well, during our trip to London, the Cinque Terre and Genoa, and Milan, you knew I had to include my favorite city in Europe, right? Yes, we were staying in Paris, though only for four days this time around. Since we'd been on the go during our trip so far; we just wanted to mostly hang out in Paris. This was our seventh trip to the "City of Lights".

Our flight from Milan to Paris was just briefly delayed. And we had a decent lunch on the flight.

To make things easy for us, we stayed at the Citadines Les Halles. It was easy to get to from CDG via the RER Blue Line. From there, it was just a short walk to our favorite little street in Paris, Rue Montorgueil, which I've posted on many times. And of course, we had a seat at our favorite cafe, Café du Centre to just watch time pass us by.

It was pretty late in the day for a Cafe Allonge, so the Missus had a glass of wine and I had a Kir.

My goodness, it was great to be back in Paris!

Café du Centre
57 Rue Montorgueil
75002 Paris, France

When dinner time arrived, we decided to head on over to our favorite simple little Sichuan Restaurant, Maison de Chengdu. Which we first discovered when we stayed in Paris for two weeks and our apartment was just a block away. We strolled up Rue Montorgueil.....

Then taking a right on Rue Réaumur...yes, it was kind of the long way, but we enjoyed passing all those familiar places, including the apartment we stayed in during that two week visit. A right on Rue Volta and we had arrived.....

The restaurant was pretty quiet on this evening.

Though they had a ton of food delivery orders.

This time we took a seat on the ground floor and basically ordered the same items as on our last visit. And of course, we started with a Tsingtao.

The only item that was not as good as on our previous visit was the Stir Fried Mountain Yam as it was missing the red and green bell peppers and had hardly any woodear.

The Intestine Dry Pot was nicely cooked; the intestine actually had a bit of "crunch" to it, along with a decent amount of numbing tones from the Sichuan Peppercorn.

The Green Beans had a bit more pork this time around and was stir fried nicely.

The Missus got Her Chinese food fix in. All of this came out to about 42€.....let's say $50/US, which along with the minimal tipping in France, this was a bargain.

You can read about all about our previous visits in the links.

Maison De Chengdu (古味成都)
16 Rue Volta
75003 Paris, France

We took a nice long after dinner stroll, thru all those familiar streets, doing the Flâneur thing. In Paris, it's quite easy getting your "steps" in. You just don't realize how much you walk.

It was a joy to be back in Paris!

Milan - MU Dim Sum

We had enjoyed our time in Genoa and the Cinque Terre, but now it was time to head back to Milan. Our train from Genoa to Milan Central took about an hour-and-a-half. Since we had a flight the next morning, I booked a hotel fairly close to the train station.

As for dinner; well that was going to be interesting. I had taken into account the Missus's need for Asian food, but I missed the mark by one day. Still, I had made reservations for dinner at the Michelin listed Mu Dim Sum. After our rather disappointing meal at the 2 Michelin Star A Wong in London earlier during this trip, the Missus really wasn't too excited about this meal. Though I did point out that our previous foray into Chinese here in Milan at Hekfan was pretty good. Still, the Missus obviously didn't want to get Her hopes up.

As we walked to our dinner destination, I was quickly reminded that it was Halloween Eve. I never knew that Europe celebrated Halloween....but now I do.

It was a short four blocks to dinner. The restaurant is quite classy looking and rather dark.

We had a corner table. The service was quite relaxed, only one person spoke Mandarin which the Missus found interesting. 

The menu is quite large; so while we looked it over, I started with......well, this is Milan...an Aperol Spritz.

The Missus was fascinated by the tea selection and ordered some tea, which She loved.

They even had a fancy hourglass for timing the tea based on type.

We placed our order and soon enough the Asume Bouche arrived. A tasty version of Million Layer Potato and a crisp-crunchy Fried Chicken "Nugget".

And soon our food started arriving. Things started on a high note as the Sweetbreads with Shiitakes and Shellfish Foam was delici-yoso!!!!

The rich buttery sweetbreads balanced with earth-tender shiitakes dancing in a shellfish based emulsion that was sweet-savory-umami-oceany.

Next up was one of my favorite crustaceans, Mantis Shrimp.

You know how I love Mantis Shrimp, right? The Soy-Sake sauce was light, not overly sweet, and didn't interfere with the wonderful sweet and tender shrimp. My favorite item of the meal.

The Mushroom and Truffle Crystal Dumplings were delicious as well.

The filling was so earthy-savory, with the black truffle flavor coming thru clearly. The wrapper was a bit thick, but had a decent "pull" to them.

The wrapper on the Spicy Duck Ragout was quite good, nice stretch, not brittle.

Didn't care much for the overall flavor as the salt and seasonings overshadowed the duck. It was quite salty.

We got one each of the Regular and the Black Char Siu Bao.

    The filling was fairly tender, not overly sweet, very classic seasoning. The regular bao was a bit too wet and doughy. The "Black Bao", obviously made with activated charcoal had an almost gritty-crunchy texture, though the flavor was less sweet, but not substantially different from the "regular" one.

The next three dishes came out all at once.

The Missus was told by the one person who spoke Mandarin that the Char Siu was made from pork neck. We did like the toothsome texture and the strong porkiness.

The pork was nicely seasoned with five spice, white pepper, and salt. Instead of being highly glazed it was sauced which dampened the savory-sweetness a bit; but this was pretty good. The Missus enjoyed the fermented cabbage.

The Tripe was a bit harder than I like, but the flavor of ginger came thru quite nicely.

This was nice and savory and frankly better than many versions I've had here in the states.

 The Peking Duck was "almost there". The fat had been nicely rendered, but the skin was still a bit rubbery. The flesh was very tender, the flavors spot on, good gamey-earthy notes, five spice, a hint of sweetness. The dan bing weren't up to the task and tore easily. Still, the duck was not bad at all.

We took the dessert with us to go and the Missus had them to finish up Her evening in our room.

We had enjoyed this meal. Who'd have thought, not one, but two decent Chinese dinners in Milan? The service here was a bit spotty, but the Missus enjoyed the tea, we liked most of the dishes, and would gladly dine here again. And of course....the sweetbreads and mantis shrimp!

MU Dimsum
Via Aminto Caretto 3
Milano, Italy

The next morning, we headed out early, up Via Napo Torriani to Milano Centrale. Passing quite a few interesting things along the way. Like the church pictured below.

That's the Santuario di San Camillo de Lellis, a Catholic Church.

And while there was nothing that would quite match the sculpture L.O.V.E. which I made a point to see earlier during our stay, there is the sculpture below right in front of the Central Station.

It is a work by Michelangelo Pistoletto named The Big Apple of Milan.

While we had flown into Milan landing at Milan Linate Airport, we would be flying out of Milan Malpensa Airport. We caught the first available train from the station to MXP which took about 50 minutes or so.

We were flying out on Air France....you can figure where we were headed right? Anyway, since we had first class tickets, we had use of the lounge which was surprisingly empty.

Which meant I could get some lunch before our flight.

Our next stop was my favorite city in Europe, so I was quite happy!

Thanks for stopping by!

London - Checking out Fortnum and Mason

Man, time is flying by isn't it? We've been doing so much traveling since Covid subsided. I think with getting older comes more a sense of urgency. The desire to get those "bucket list" items is higher. What do you think? Anyway, hopefully better late than never.

We had flown thru Heathrow so many times. Mostly as a layover to Paris. This time, we decided to stick around and explore London a bit. After consultation with the Missus, I booked our stay in the Piccadilly area. Yes, it's tourist central, but heck, we are tourists after all, right? We stayed at the Dilly a historic hotel.

As we usually did we flew on British Airways, Business Class. And as I mentioned in a previous post, it seems that the food has returned to pre-Covid levels.

That celeriac gratin was pretty good.

I did make the mistake of ordering the "Full Breakfast", which lived up to its name....I was quite full after this.

The Heathrow Express made getting from the airport to Piccadilly a snap and our hotel was centrally located. We had slept well on this flight and the Missus arrived just rarin' to go. I had made dinner reservations at a place I'd wanting to visit since I bought their cookbook in 2016. But first, the Missus wanted to explore a bit. Thre is of course, so much to see here!

So we headed on out from the hotel.

This seemed to be a rather "high-rent" district. It was fun to see a K Minamoto here....we always stop by the Ala Moana store when "back home".

There was one place in particular we wanted to check out. When at Heathrow, we always stop by Fortnum & Mason, just to have a look around. In fact, we once bought one of their pre-packed "hampers" for a pretty penny to snack on while waiting for our flight. 

The Piccadilly location was located a block away from our hotel.

F&M touts itself as an "upmarket" department store....well, no kidding!

One of things that surprised us was how popular Halloween seemed in London.

And even though it was early October, the store was all decked out for Christmas!

We enjoyed checking out the various floors and the decor.

So fancy! 

Much like those Japanese Department stores, the lower level features a "food hall"; though it's obviously not your run-of-the-mill food floor.

We spent a good amount of time here and would end up getting some lunch to-go a couple of days later.

It was a nice place to see all those things that you can't afford!

Fortnum & Mason
181 Piccadilly
London, United Kingdom

We took a walk a bit further afield, even checking out a rather upscale shopping arcade on the way back to the hotel.

Back in our room, there was a knock on the door. One of the hotel's staff dropped off some "welcome gifts" for us!

This was a nice touch!

We were really enjoying things!

Thanks for stopping by!

Honolulu - Revisits to 8 Fat Fat 8 and Agave & Vine

In case you noticed; it's been kinda quiet here the last couple of days...... We're back "home" on Oahu enroute to another destination. We're spending a few days on each leg of the trip. Usually, Cathy will take over the posting duties, but she is quite busy this time around. So, I'll try to do posts when I am able to.

We flew out on HAL again. It's a fairly long flight so we enjoy the lie flat first class seats; though the planes are looking a bit worn with chips and stains, and such.

And we do wish that HAL had a lounge at SAN, but perhaps things will change with the recent merger with Alaska.

We do like the crew on HAL, very nice and friendly. And while having a 930am flight means it's just to early to "partake" in certain liquid refreshments......though we were amazed to see others just going for it! I mean, like four mai tais going for it....and that's only what I colunted before taking my nap!

And on this flight, we enjoyed the Mushroom Frittata, which also featured tender broccoli.

And the Honey Dew Melon was so sweet and refreshing.

And since "FOY" Peter really enjoyed the photo of the "Aloha Shirt" salt and pepper packet on our last HAL post, here's what it looked like this time! This one is for you Peter!

I managed about an hour nap while the Missus got in a good 2-3 hours.

We always love the views when arriving.....

This time around we again decided to spend a couple of nights in town.....again at the Ala Moana Hotel. When I asked the Missus what She wanted for Her first meal....I had the next night's dinner planned....She said 8 Fat! So, my apologies, I realize I just recently did a post on 8 Fat Fat 8 and hope you don't mind another? I know it's pretty late on a Saturday night, so I'll keep it short.

Of course, I got my usual.

This time, in anticipation of what we were ordering; the Missus went with a Tsingtao.

As for the food; well it's been really hot and humid so we decided to skip the Crispy Gau Gee this time around. And replace it with something more refreshing. I know I've mentioned how much I enjoy Cold Ginger Chicken, which is quite similar to Kwai Fei Ji. While the Missus doesn't like those type of cold chicken dishes; She does love the sauce. There was Cold Ginger Tofu on the menu, so we decided to try that.

First off, the tofu was nice and "beany". The pungent-aromatic-"spicy" ginger was really refreshing and savory. This was quite enjoyable....the Missus has now directed me to make this when we get back home.

The other two dishes, the Ong Choi and the Fat Fat Chicken were every bit as good as on our previous visit.

It's really fun to note that after all of these years; the Missus is really enjoying the "local flavors".....it's not just about poke anymore. 

As an awesome bonus, we chatted a bit with one of the Servers and mentioned that I had been a customer from the opening of 8 Fat back in the mid-80's. It just so happened that Mary was working. She is the daughter of the original owner of 8 Fat, Sai. She took over when he passed on in 2003 and has run it ever since....now longer than even Sai did! I had spoken to her a couple of time way back when, but of course that was so long ago. We had a wonderful time chatting about her dad; the "old regulars", many iof whom have passed on or are just too old for "Pau Hana" time. She also now has a 14v year old son. These days, she usually works until 5 or 6, then has to head home, but on this evening she happened to be inhouse. She told us that a Japanese series was coming by to do a short piece on 8 Fat! That sounded so awesome.

We talked about what kept me coming to 8 Fat, the vibe, the folks, and of course the food and she left us with something her dad always told her:

"You can get Bud Light everywhere....but you cannot get good Chinese food everywhere!"

8 Fat Fat 8 Bar & Grille
1327 S Beretania St
Honolulu, HI 96814

After dinner we walked back to the hotel....but like the last time, we decided to stop by Lanai in Ala Moana Center for a nightcap. It was Thursday, so I got $2 off the cocktail I had there the last time; the smoky - citrusy Bad Decisions ($12 - $10 on Thursdays).

We had a fun time talking to the woman who runs the place. She loves Tequila, so we chatted about our visit there!

Agave & Vine (In the Lanai - Ala Moana Center)
1450 Ala Moana Blvd.
Honolulu, HI 96814

Yes, I know it's kind of a rerun...but it just goes to show how much we enjoyed things previously.

And we'd just like to let you know; because of our travels, things might be kinda sporadic here over the next few weeks! I'll try my best to get some posts done!

So, as always, thanks so much for dropping by!

Honolulu - Off the Hook Poke Market (Manoa) and Heading Home

On the way back from doing Manoa Falls, there was a poke shop I had heard about and wanted to check out. Right on East Manoa Road, across the street from the parking for Manoa Marketplace resides Off the Hook Poke Market. 

It's in the same building as a place I used to go to once in a while Andy's Sandwiches. The place looked fairly bustling when we arrived, but the line moved quickly. And like many local poke shops, you walk to the counter and order. 

Anyway we got two half pound containers of poke. We were actually going to just go to Kaimuki Park and grind; but ended up eating at Oahu Grill instead. Good thing we had a cooler with us.

We ended up having it with our last dinner (along with jiaozi of course) before leaving the islands.

We thought that the Cold Ginger Ahi was the better of the two.

The ahi was good quality and tender. The sauce, in the spirit of local kine ginger-scallion sauce; you know, to make cold ginger chicken, was pretty strong and kind of dominated the dish. 

We also got the Hawaiian Style Ahi. Basically Ahi Limu Poke.

This one was very salty; couldn't make out the inamona, and the fish, while decent, wasn't as good as what was used in the cold ginger ahi.

Well, maybe we should have just gone back to Ono Seafood or the new location of Fresh Catch in Kaimuki (where they've moved). But what the heck, still better then what we get here in SD and it's good to try, right?

Off the Hook Poke Market
2908 East Manoa Rd.
Honolulu, HI 96822

We were flying HAL First Class again. The Premier Lounge at Daniel K. Inouye Airport is nothing to write home about. There are some standard drinks and the snacks are the stuffs you get in-flight; pretzels, peanuts....you get it.

Still, we enjoyed that the seats for HAL first are lie-flat; that's the main things for us.

Dinner was an ok beef brisket.

Strangely, my favorite thing was the Rainbow Cake; which reminded me of small kid time!

So, there you go. Another trip home in the books. Thanks so much for stopping by!

Taipei - Fuzhou Ancestral Pepper Cake and Returning on EVA Airlines

After an early dinner at Kao Chi we took a round about way back to our hotel room. While walking up Chongqing South Road the Missus noticed a food stall. She had remembered how much I enjoyed the Hujiao Bing ( Pepper Bun) at the Wenhua Road Night Market and pointed out the stand to me. It is named Fuzhou Ancestral Pepper Cake. 

The pepper buns were actually made on the spot. And then cooked in a tandoor style oven.

Even though we had just finished dinner, I just had to have one!

I couldn't wait to tuck into the pepper bun. Heck, this isn't Japan, it isn't taboo to walk and eat, so I just went for it.

 The bun is thin with a slight pleasing crispness to it. The filling was scalding porky heaven, with nice hints of black pepper, mild sweetness, and savory tones. This was delici-yoso!!!

I jokingly told the Missus that I'd return to Taiwan just for the Pepper Bun and Pork Chops! Actually, I'm not really joking!

Fuzhou Ancestral Pepper Cake
No. 13, Section 1, Chongqing South Rd.
Zhongzheng District, Taipei City, Taiwan

Well, this was it. Our flight out of Taoyuan International Airport was leaving for LA at 10am in the morning. Luckily, our accommodation was right next to the Z2 Exit for Taipei Main Station. Even though the station is still confusing for us, we found the ticket office, and got on to the Taoyuan Airport MRT Express which takes 35 minutes to get to the airport.

And since we were flying Business Class we were able to access the lounge. 

Which was quite busy....but it was a nice stop for breakfast.

And the flight back to LA was quite interesting.

It was a nice end to our trip. And it had us thinking about the next time we'll be back here!

Thanks for stopping by!

Taiwan - Taroko Gorge Part 2, Buluowan Suspension Bridge, Swallow Grotto, Eternal Spring Shrine, and the TR Bento

After our lunch and briefly walking along the Buluowan Upper Terrace we were guided to the Liwu River. There stood a impressive suspension bridge crossing over the gorge.

This is the Buluowan Suspension Bridge. A suspension bridge was first built on this site in 1914 during the Truku War. This is the fourth iteration of the bridge which was originally named the Shanyue Suspension Bridge and was opened to the public in August of 2020. It had a stunning view of the gorge and river below.

At the end of the bridge is a short trail to a wonderful viewing spot named Brawan Lookout. You really get a wonderful perspective of the bridge from here.

From here we headed back to the Upper Terrace and the car, taking time to stop at the Visitors Center and check out the Atayal Cultural Center displays.

And then we hit the road again, making a couple of stops along the way.

Until we came to a toll booth. Our driver pulled to the side and instructed the Missus to walk the trail overlooking the gorge and he would meet us at the end. This was the Yanzikou Trail overlooking the Swallow Grotto.

We ambled along thru tunnels cut out of rock with a view of the gorge and river below from ledges. We read that this was how the road used to be like for the entire gorge!

There were many places where you could look out over the river and marvel at the geological beauty.

The formations, river, and plant life made for an interesting walk.

And there was indeed some entertaining formations along the way. Can you make this one out?

While actually named the "Elder Stone" (太魯閣族長老石- 長老側臉) - this is what the sign said:

Our driver met us at the end of the short half kilometer trail and then we headed on back. There was one more stop on the way and it might be the most picturesque of them all. Stopping in the parking lot and walking to the lookout point, your eyes are immediately drawn to this.

This is Eternal Spring Shrine (Changchun Shrine).

The shrine was built in 1958 to commemorate those who died during the construction of the Central Cross-Island Highway. The shrine is built above a spring which empties into the Liwu River below.

There's a short trail to the temple which we decided to take.

As you make your way up the stairs you'll encounter a cave with statues of Guanyin, the Goddess of Compassion, Mercy, and Kindness.

It was great to stop here, because boy do we need more compassion, mercy, and kindness these days!

I think the water rushing out from under the shrine really adds photogenic drama to things.

We were then driven back to our hotel. Our driver was outstanding and so very pleasant, something we'd find is the norm in Taiwan.

The Missus made sure to hit up the hotels afternoon snack buffet.

We then took a short nap, before heading downstairs for a nice evening walk.

And then, yep the evening "snack" (aka dinner at the huge buffet).

Before hitting the hay.....

The next morning, our train back to Taipei was scheduled for 1253 and was right on time. We'd had a great time visiting the Taroko Gorge and highly recommend it. 

We were taking the TR Taroko Express back to Taipei. We had stored our bags at the Sky 19 Hotel in Taipei so didn't have much to lug around.

I had noticed that on some routes/times folks are able to order a Train Bento for on board consumption. And on this route it was available. So, like the Missus said, on this trip ""you didn't meet a pork chop you didn't like." Well, guess what?

Of course I ordered some! And the prices were the same as if I'd bought them at a cart at the station; just about $2.50. Delivered to our seats.

The pork chop had hints of five spice, soy, garlic, ginger.....and was surprisingly, decently tenderized. I'm convinced that most pork outside the US tastes better! There's pickled veggies, and nicely flavored soy sauce eggs, great five spice tones, with a hint of sweetness....a Spam like mystery meat that increased my sodium level ten fold....this was just a fun meal.

Was it haute cuisine? For $2.50???? C'mon, this is food for every man/woman.....pork chop lover. For some history, here's a great post.

I love Taiwan!

Thanks for stopping by!

Los Angeles - Far Bar, the Star Alliance Lounge (LAX), and Royale Laurel Class on EVA Air

After dinner at Sushi Enya we took a stroll around Japanese Village Plaza.

And wandered in and out of some of the shops in the area.

We also passed by the now closed Sushi Komasa with brown paper taped over the windows. We felt a tinge of sadness as Komasa had always been a favorite of ours. In fact, my second post, way back in May of 2005 was on Sushi Komasa.

Little Tokyo seems to be thriving as the place was pretty busy, even on a Tuesday night.

Passing places like Kouraku, the first place I recall seeing plastic Japanese food brought a smile to our faces.

And seeing places like Fugetsu-do always bring back nice memories.

It was a bit too early to head back to our room and hit the hay, so we decided to grab a cocktail. There's a place called Far Bar that occupies the iconic location of Far East Chop Suey which has it's own long history in Little Tokyo.

Man, it's been ages since I'd been in this building! I recall the mezzanine as a place where the Missus and I saw parties taking place the two times we ate here a zillion years ago.

The folks working here are very nice and laid back. The Missus had the Jade Empire and I had the La Luna y el Sol, which featured La Luna Mezcal and Aperol. 

Not overly stiff, quite easy to drink.

We also decided to have something small to snack on and went with the Maneki Tots because, well you know we weren't going to have any rolls and it's never a bad time to have some tater tots.

 

This was actually not bad. The tots were fried nicely, the bacon crisp, the braised pork a bit too sweet, the wasabi mayo added a nice zip, but the spicy mayo was a bit of overkill. Kind of a lot going on here, but what was I to expect with stuff like various sushi rolls, pozole ramen, salmon pasta, shiitake miso burgers, among others on the menu?

We liked the folks working and had a nice, relaxing end to our day.

Far Bar
347 1st St.
Los Angeles, CA 90012

We headed back to our room to catch some shut eye. Just like the last time we stayed at the Miyako Hotel our room overlooked 1st street. And just like that time, we could see the unending line outside Daikokuya.

Our flight the next day was scheduled to leave at just past noon, the flight was going to be almost 14 hours, so we decided to fly in EVA's Royal Class, which meant we had lounge access. Which ended up being a blessing since our flight ended up being delayed.

The Star Alliance Lounge was quite empty and peaceful when we arrived.

It would fill up rather quickly soon after, but by then we were ensconced on the porch area.

Which had a view of Terminal B.

 It was basically standard breakfast fare when we arrived, so we just had some coffee, tea, and water.

What was fun was watching the robot "bus boy" do its rounds!

While walking back from the restroom a gentleman had a chat with me. Turns out it was the lounge manager, a really nice guy. I mentioned his "bus boy" and he cracked up and said, "you should hear it sing Happy Birthday in one of about a hundred different languages!"

He also mentioned that I should give the "noodle bar a try, it starts at 1030". And since the lounge staff had just announced our flight was delayed, that's what I did.

Folks rushed the bar when it opened. I got a bowl with the vegetarian pho broth.

Very salty, but I enjoyed the veggies.

Soon enough, it was time to board. The service on EVA is wonderful. The Missus loved the Jason Wu designed pajamas which can be kept and also the Ferragamo amenity kit.

I loved the lie flat seats with a decent amount of space; but wasn't quite sold on the Hello Kitty themed pillows....

Like I mentioned earlier, EVA's service is well regarded and at least based on this trip well deserved. Our meals were also among the best we've had on a flight.

I usually avoid seafood on flights, but that octopus in the salad was so tender.

And the breakfast porridge was also quite good.

Most importantly, being able to get some rest on our flight really makes a difference as we can be awake and alert when we land and can adjust to things quickly.

Our flight departed late, but the pilots made up time in the sir and we arrived at Taoyuan Airport just an half hour late. We then found the MRT to Taipei Main Station and our time in Taiwan had started!

Thanks for stopping by!

Oahu - Fresh Catch (Pearl City)

We were finally visiting "home", the four years away seemed like forty. And it wasn't without some apprehension on my part. I wondered if Covid had changed the Hawaii that I knew. How were things going to be, what had changed, had I changed? 

It was drizzling as we left San Diego.

The remnants of the "atmospheric river" that pounded San Diego for over a week. On the other hand, back home, rain is seen as a blessing.....

We flew Hawaiian Airlines and while the food wasn't stellar, unlike most domestic first class, HAL seats will lay flat, so you can actually take a nap if you want to.

But I shouldn't have worried...once we landed, it felt like "home". And like the Missus says, "once you get here you walk different and talk different". Some things never change.

Of course as soon as we landed poke was on our minds. Unfortunately, due to our schedule, we weren't able to visit two of our favorites as Tanioka's was closed the day we arrived and Ono Seafood was closed on the day we went into "town".

Still, we wanted our poke fix, so I did some searching and found that Fresh Catch had opened a location in Pearl City at the end of 2020. So, we decided to head on over to grab some poke for an afternoon "snack" of sorts.

The young man working was really friendly. While looking at the offerings, the Missus pointed at the Oio Lomi, the scraped bonefish that's really an acquired taste. She wanted to try it....well, the Missus had really enjoyed aged poi, so I thought "why not" and got a quarter pound of it.

Unfortunately, She found it much too gooey and "fishy" for Her taste.

I, on the other hand had eaten my share of this growing up and thought this was a decent version. I enjoyed he tongue coating texture...yes, it does "taste like fish". It was a bit on the salty side as was everything else we got from here.

The "Hawaiian Blend", basically Ahi Limu was really salty and the fish was on the more "chewy" side.

Too much salt, too much shoyu. Some really tough pieces with too much "tsuji" - connective tissue.

The Ahi Wasabi was a bit better.

Though again, we thought the quality of the fish wasn't quite up to what we enjoy. Still a bit overly salty which muddled the heat from wasabi, a bit too overly sauced as well.

Kind of a bummer overall as we'd enjoyed our visits to the Kaimuki location on previous visits.

Fresh Catch
98-371 Kamehameha Hwy.
Pearl City, HI 96782

Of course, we had jiaozi for dinner. We had really missed my MIL's handmade jiaozi! Over the years it's become comfort food for me. I basically ate this whole plate. In fact, when my MIL asked us what we wanted for breakfast, lunch, or dinner, it was jiaozi! We can't get anything close to this in San Diego.

And then we had baozi for breakfast!

With some potstickers!

Before we headed off to the Big Island.

It was so good to be "home"!

Thanks for stopping by!

We're Back! Dinner on BA and our First Meal Back from Sizzling Pot King

Whoa...well, after spending a month in France I'm having a bit of a time of it getting adjusted to San Diego time again. And that journey home; we stayed at CDG overnight with a 7am flight to LHR, which helps as we don't have to get up early. But then there's the 5 1/2 layover at Heathrow and then the 11 hour flight home. Which is why we fly business class. Though we didn't account for the fussy baby in the seat behind us, these things happen....so even with the lie flat seats...well, I got maybe an hours sleep?

On the positive side; I'd say that the meals on BA have returned to pre-Covid quality. And it's always been much better flying back to San Diego, than flying from SD to LHR. This was pretty good.

One of the things with leaving for a month is...well, the fridge and pantry were cleaned out before we left. We arrived home at around 6pm; it was already dark. In need of something convenient with a little zip, I did a takeout order from Sizzling Pot King. Funny thing; it was in the high 20's when we left Paris, so weather here in the 40's didn't bother me much, it was basically short sleeve weather, so I got some looks when I waltzed into Sizzling Pot King; seeing all those folks bundled up looking at me like I'm some nut wearing a t-shirt. Even the young man who knows my order looked at me strangely.

Anyway, we had the usual for dinner.

It was nice and decently spicy; with a mild "numbing" from the Sichuan Peppercorns...but I'm not sure if it was all the Sichuan we had in Paris; but this seemed to be missing something. Oh well, at the least it did the job.

Sizzling Pot King
8058 Clairemont Mesa Blvd.
San Diego, CA 92111

And I quickly reverted back to my wimpy "San Diego weather" self......though for some strange reason, I feel somewhat out of sorts with regards to manners, pacing, and such.

I'm working on getting my act together and will have posts done.

Meanwhile.....even after a month....this is still on my mind!

Thanks for stopping by!