Mixed Plate Friday

Meatballs | $21.00

Yup, we went back to ‘ILI‘ILI CASH & CARRY. This time, I wanted to try their meatballs and almost went with the hoagie meatball which is $18.00. Well I changed my mind and said, why not just cook up some pasta and buy the side of meatballs? It was a great idea. The meatballs are great and the sauce is good too! We were able to enjoy a couple meals out of this! Yum!

Plate Lunch (2 starch | 2 entrees) | $14.00

Chun Wah Kam will always be known for their ginger chicken fried rice and the hu-MAN-gous serving sizes. How can you beat all this for $14? No can! I like the ginger chicken fried rice and the hong kong chow mein as the starches. I went with the chicken with zucchini and mushroom and stir fried mixed vegetables. Enjoyed this plate very much!!!

Just a funny story I had to share. I had to go to Safelite to replace my windshield the other week and did a quick peek at their waiting room reading choices. What the heck! Why are all the magazines for women or for old folks?? What they trying for say! Hahaha, okay I’m a woman and I was there. I’m just glad the replacement went well! Have a great weekend everyone!

Mixed Plate Friday

Remember this from last week? Well I didn’t want to shell out almost $20 for the same hot pot set and watercress (Don Quijote had it for $6.99 a bunch versus the $3.99 I paid at Marukai – what???) so I went to Sam’s Club and bought a pack of baby spinach and their baby bella mushrooms. I prefer the baby bella mushrooms over the white mushrooms – I feel like there is a nuttier taste. I made it the same way and I think it tastes great too! So I guess I have other options now!

Pepsi Zero Lemon

Saw this at Nijiya and couldn’t resist. I love Pepsi Zero and also love when lemon is added to cola! It’s a win win – this is obviously an import from Japan. How was it? It was good. I barely got a taste of lemon though, so you’re better off just drinking Pepsi Zero.

Beef Chow Fun | $11.95

Fun Station has daily specials and Beef Chow Fun was on special for $11.95 (on Fridays) – very appealing compared to their usual $15.75 price. Just felt like a mixed noodle for lunch that day so I am glad I got it! Was very good! I drench it in sriracha but that’s besides the point. 🙂

Mixed Plate Friday

Chan bought this and was going to put away before saying to me, this is something you can’t eat. Is that a challenge? I asked why and he said, it’s actually spicy. GIVE ME A CHANCE! Yeah, I can’t handle spicy that well anymore. Do you see the corner? It says Korean Spicy. They trying to tell you, they not playing around folks.

Uhhh yeah it was spicy. My brother was like…it was just like shin ramen. LIES. It’s way spicier! I did eat a few bites and my face didn’t drip so let’s call it a win okay?

Strawberry Tanghulu | $4.99 (per skewer)

Yoajung was pretty smart to capitalize on this trend. I’m surprised they are the only place that sells this? At least that I know of. Do you know any other places that sell it? It’s a pain to make, I’ve made it before. But man, I saw it on social media again and just wanted to eat it. They have a long line but the line moves super fast. The tanghulu is already made in the fridge, when they run out, they run out. These are not made to order. I wanted the mandarin orange one but they were out.

How was it? Well, it tastes like strawberries coated with sugar, lol. It’s exactly what you would expect. Well since our strawberries are more sour than sweet, it’s a nice balance. The sugar isn’t too thick or hard so I don’t think you will break any teeth. Was nice to try, a bit pricey but it was a nice little treat!

Mixed Plate Friday

Gumbo Bowl | $16.00
chicken & sausage gumbo with rice

Unfortunately, this post does not start with a winner. I’ve always wanted to try Soul Fusion and now that they’re on the UH campus, I had my chance! How was it? I mean it wasn’t bad but it wasn’t great. Is gumbo supposed to be more soupy liquid than thick? Maybe I was expecting more of a stew, this had very little guts (if you know what I mean). Tasted fine but then my coworker and I both had to run to the bathroom very quickly after eating our dishes. Heh, sorry for the TMI, just letting you folks know. Not that the food went bad or anything – just might be a bit rich for those who are sensitive to that.

Shrimp Dumplings Soup (Hong Kong Wonton) | $11.95

Okay, this post might be full of complaints (in fact I think it is. I got this from Yung Yee Kee Dim Sum and while I am usually a big fan of their food, this is not it. It tasted fine! It’s just that this is what $12 gets you. It was like I think maybe 5 wontons? I didn’t pour my soup in yet. I think I can go Chinatown and at least get noodles with it for this price. That was a bummer. Tasted fine but was not worth it.

Dry Mein | $5.99

I saw this at 7eleven and wanted to try it. I love dry mein but it was a small portion. The taste was fine, I just don’t think it’s filling enough to be an entire meal. Also, you can see my awesome skills of overheating things in the microwave. Yum, melted plastic with my food.

Thanks for the patience everyone. We finally got the house tented. It was a horrendous week. We were originally supposed to tent on a Saturday but they called us the day before telling us it had to be rescheduled due to weather. I mean, we had a hotel booked and it is very hard to transport my father (who is very much immobile) around. It was an absolute nightmare.

The day before our rescheduled day was also windy and I was scared they would cancel again but it wasn’t, yay. They gave me a window of 10AM – 1PM for the tenters to come so I figured maybe I just take half day off work. 1:30 rolled around and no one came, I called them asking for status. She tells me they are finishing a job in Kailua and will be here in 30 minutes. Kailua to Kalihi in 30 mins? I don’t think so. I estimated moreso 3PM. Guess WHAT. 3PM – still no one. I call at 3:30PM and they had to call and try to track the guys down and told me it would be another 20 minutes. I’m sure you know where this is going. They arrived at like 4:30PM. We decided to stick around to watch the tent go up, that takes another 2 hours. It’s hard work! These guys were all wearing like slippers and slip-ons…didn’t look too safe to me but I guess they get super grip or something.

This was just an awful week because it was the peak busy week for me at work and then having to deal with tenting, cleaning and packing stuff out – it was hell week. Just glad it’s all done. There’s gotta be an easier way to fumigate, this was insane. Anyway, hope you folks have a great weekend!

Mixed Plate Friday

Nongshim Vegan Curry Ramen Big Noodle Bowl (6 pk.) | $9.98 (Until February 25, 2024 ($11.98 regular price) @ Sam’s Club)

Saw this newly at Sam’s Club and it was on sale so I had to try it. How is it? Well…it’s not bad but nothing to write home about either. Edible but not great. As you can see, it’s not soupy – more saucy?

Speaking of curry noodles, I made these noodles the other week. It’s Red Curry Coconut Noodles, super good. I’ll post the recipe soon!!

Hand-peeled Bamboo Shoots

I’ve seen these on TikTok, sorry no video to post but it’s all propaganda (according to Chan) but they sure make this look delicious. It’s ready to eat so you just have to peel it. Yeah, hand peeled means your own hand peeling it (lol). It’s kind of like artichokes, you peel it off until you get to the “heart” of the bamboo shoot to eat the flesh. You can try to bite off the bottoms of the peels in case there is small bits of flesh on it. This one had nice flavor, like a nice szechuan/mala flavor. I got this from 1-2 Buy, love going to that store!!

Folk Kitchen – Osaka, Japan

Folk Kitchen is located within the Hilton Osaka. Thanks to Chan’s perks, we were able to eat breakfast free in the hotel and boy did I enjoy eating here. Haha one morning as we were waking up, he asked me if I was okay because I had been laying there and I just meekly answered…”Folk Kitchen?” That’s how much I was looking forward to eating there. You just had to be there haha.

Folk Kitchen offers a full breakfast buffet and you know Japanese restaurants are going to do right by buffets. No disappointments here! And for some odd reason, I loved the apple juice in Osaka. Specifically Osaka lol.

We came pretty early in the morning so we could avoid the crowds, mission accomplished!

Smaller portion of food this round. They had battered fried fish with tartar sauce (I loved it!), tater tots, fried rice, etc.! They also had a Japanese section to make Japanese style breakfast, and a congee section!

I absolutely toasted my own slice of bread and slathered it in butter and strawberry jam. YOU BETCHA.

Day 2! Much fuller plate. The brown noodles I think were yakisoba and were bland and junk! The pasta was good and I ate plenty saba! Chan must think I’m crazy but I really really enjoyed Folk Kitchen and it was definitely one of my top places we ate at!!!! Yum!

Seiryumon – Maihama, Japan

It is becoming a tradition for me to eat at the Ikspiari Mall either before or after my Tokyo Disney trips. Yes, they are probably rip-off tourist prices here but nothing gets more rip off than Disney – am I right? I just wanted some good ole Taiwanese food so we came to Seiryumon after we were pau with our DisneySea excursion.

If you order a meal set, it comes with egg drop soup and their salad. Those stringy things on top of the salad are like tofu I believe? Really good.

Braised Pork | ¥1,180

Sweet Chili Shrimp with Egg Stir Fry | ¥1,890 (set menu)

Mala Tofu | ¥1,890 (set menu)

Here is the rice but I forgot to take pictures of the vegetables we ordered (you can see them in the back)! I talked about it in my previous post but we also ordered Stir-fried Pea Sprouts but now I’m not sure if it was the same dish as last time. Honestly, they changed their menu a bit since I last visited and I got a little confused. The veggies were good nonetheless!

Krispy Kreme Donuts! There is a Krispy Kreme in the mall so we decided to order some donuts! Aren’t they so cute? The cashier was very sweet and happily encouraging as I went through all my coins to pay. I don’t wanna carry around choke coins! You know what was cool? By the end of the trip, I used up all my coins! Until I got to the dumb airport but that’s another story for another day lol.

Sandy’s Cafe – Chinatown, HI

Chan and I are on the hunt for good Chinese grindz, but specifically, good Chinese breakfast grindz. And ding ding ding, we have a winner! Sandy’s Cafe is located in the Chinese Cultural Plaza so we came in on a Sunday morning for a nice leisurely breakfast. They are also known for roasting their own meats and have been rated pretty high on lists, are they worth the hype?

Lemon Tea (Cold) | $5.00

Gotta start the meal off with a nice freshing Hong Kong style lemon iced tea. If the lemon slices don’t take up half the cup, what are you even doing? (j/k).

Crispy Gau Gee (4 pcs) | $7.00

Fried nice and crisp and packed full of stuffing. Homemade and delicious!

Beef Brisket & Tendon Funn in Soup | $19.00

Chan loves this type of dish so he’s been trying it all over. He likes the one from Lam’s Kitchen a lot but he liked Sandy’s version too! I had a slurp of their soup, very flavorful! Tasted more homey to me, which I like!

Ginger Chicken Sauce Chicken & Roast Duck on Rice | $19.00
Opted for Thigh meat | $2.00 upcharge

So yeah, you read that right. To get the dark meat, you gotta pay TWO DOLLARS. There was a bit of confusion and she came back to confirm if I wanted thigh for both meats. I ain’t going to pay $4! Sorry, but generally duck is good in all parts…especially the breast! I only wanted chicken thigh meat. Yeah they gave me chicken thigh meat with a couple pieces of breast too. I actually originally wanted the char siu and roast duck on rice plate to try their roast meats but they said their char siu wasn’t ready. I think she said it would be ready at 9 or 10. Okay this is a lot of complaining but I actually enjoyed the dish a lot. Even if the waitress got a bit snippy at me when I got confused by her thigh questioning – they are all actually quite nice and the restaurant is nice and clean and bright! We will definitely return but according the sign on their door, they are taking an extended break until about mid-November? Definitely recommend! Though, I still think Asian Mix’s roast duck is betta.

HK Cafe – Chinatown, HI

If you know me, you know I love myself some good ole Cantonese food! Oh, I think it’s time to introduce my BF by name so I don’t have to say my BF all the time. So this post will be introducing Chan! Not a picture (heck I don’t even have a picture on here) but yes, when I reference Chan – please know that he is the special someone in my life. 🙂

Anyway! Been wanting to try HK Cafe for a while now. They even opened a new location in Waikiki, must be good ah! We made the trek out to Chinatown on a Sunday morning and had ourselves a wonderful meal. Check it out!

Left: Lemon Tea | $5.50, Right: Lemon Honey | $5.50

Yum yum. We actually ordered combos that included hot drinks. We wanted the cold drink so there is just an upcharge of $1.50 per drink. The lemon tea was great! Chan enjoyed the lemon honey too, I tried it and it was very honey tasting…haha

Chinese Donut | $3.99

I traditionally like eating these fried chinese donuts with my congee. Can I just say? I have never had it fried so perfectly before. Usually these donuts are a bit doughy but these were so light and crispy. Chan likes to dip it into his broth to eat…but was delicious to eat as is too!

House Special Fried Chicken Wings (8 pcs) | $12.99

I had a deep yearning for chicken wings this weekend. I really wanted some good chicken wings and these did not disappoint. Nicely seasoned and cooked, it looks like plain chinese shoyu chicken wings but the seasoning was much more than that. I definitely tasted hints of curry. Would get it again!

Noodle Soup Combo | $14.75
Sliced Ham & Egg & Egg Noodle

Chan’s noodle soup combo, he enjoyed it. The ham – hmm, I usually see it served sliced up and not necessarily fried up like this. I think they usually throw the ham meat on top and have it warmed up through the broth. That’s how I would like it.

Noodle Soup Combo | $14.75
Spam & Egg & Instant Noodle (+$1.00)

Here’s mine. Of course I had to upgrade to instant noodle. I don’t know why instant noodle costs $1.00 more?? Eh, I think I can do with egg noodles next time. I wasn’t feel like ham so spam it was! Delicious!

Toast with Butter (comes with the combos)

All in all, it was a wonderful experience. We went right at opening so there was no crowd to contend with. It was a nice and peaceful Sunday morning (well other than the homeless screaming in the streets). They also had some Hong Kong TV playing in the background and that was very nostalgic for me. I would definitely return!

Cha Kee – Richmond, BC

One of the places I wanted to try the most was Cha Kee in Richmond. They actually opened not too long ago and the social media videos just made them look so scrumptious…and the price point? On point! Super good deal for the breakfast set. We came right before they opened at 9AM and get one line already but I was like 2nd in line (score!). The line grew and grew after that, all Chinese people so I was in the right place lol.

Iced Lemon Tea | $4.00 (CAD)

Hong Kong style iced tea, plenty lemon slices! Nice and sweet and refreshing, yum!

Pineapple Bun with a Slice of Butter | $4.00 (CAD)

They are not playing around with butter. Do you see how “tick” this slice of butter is? It was crazy. Too bad I was full from breakfast because this bun was so nice and warm and toasty against the creamy butter.

Hong Kong Style Satay Beef with Instant Noodle | $11.50 + $1.00 (for the instant noodle) (CAD)
comes with Fried egg and toast

This is the deal I am talking about. Look at how much food you get! It was great!! Delicious. You can get it with macaroni or rice noodle too but I paid the $1 extra for the instant noodles. Oh yum. And they had the szechuan pickles on the side you could add to your soup. The couple before me ordered takeout and their food seemed to take a while, my food came out quick! But gotta show up early! I would definitely return!