Mariposa – Ala Moana, HI

Apr13

Hi folks, I apologize for the delayed and unannounced break from blogging. It’s been stressful for the past two months and I think I just finally futted out these past weekends. Was just too tired to do anything so I listened to my body and rested. Yesterday was a crazy day too because of bai san (IYKYK) but I’ll use today to rest a bit and refresh! You should have already heard by now, the sad news that Neiman Marcus at Ala Moana is closing down. I didn’t really have the riches to shop there but have dined at Mariposa a few times here and there. We made a reservation the day we heard of the closing and thankfully we did. There are no reservations to be made now!

When we walked in, Chan spotted a waiter he had before and was whispering to me that he hopes we don’t get seated in his section. Well, we did. I think you know where this story will go. I went into the meal with high hopes anyway. I wanted it to be a positive experience because they are shutting down and these folks are going to be losing their jobs. The dining experience was good for the most part, though the supporting staff were better than our waiter. I’ll share more at the end, since it happened at the end!

Mariposa Punch | $8.00
guava, orange, and pineapple juices

Haleakala | $9.00
creamy coconut and pineapple, layered with strawberry

Yum! Chan and I both went non-alcoholic for this dinner. A virgin lava flow is always gonna be winners and it was. Chan said his punch wasn’t very punch-y, just tasted like plain orange juice. *shrug*

Popover

Their famous popovers. They had the popovers ready to go and serve for every customer who came in. That was nice to have one last time. I’ve never been a big fan of popovers – Chan said it’s normal for the inside to be a bit wet and doughy. Popovers are definitely not my favorite part of dining here.

Truffle Fries | $18.00
parmesan cheese, rosemary aioli, chives

These fries are always winners. Thin strips fried perfectly crisp but not too crisp. Still get a bit of softness in the middle which I like. The rosemary aioli is okay, I like the ketchup. I feel like the ketchup is more of a cocktail sauce taste? Anyway, I like that.

Grilled Octopus | $25.00
pistachio gremolata, pickled onion, zaatar potato, castelvetrano olives, heirloom tomato romesco

I was super excited to try this dish. The last time we dined here, I saw another table get it and knew I had to get it the next time we came! How was it? Well the octopus itself was nice and soft and tender, the seasonings in the dish weren’t great. Not sure what a pistachio gremolata should taste like. I thought it was a pesto forward mix but it wasn’t. The seasoning was lacking something, something umami.

Tiger Prawn Puttanesca | $39.00
olives, capers, maui onions, spicy pomodoro sauce, penne pasta

I was hoping they would have their crab pasta on the menu, I’ve seen pictures on Yelp! Alas, no. Chan got this dish and it was pretty good! We enjoyed it.

Fresh Fish of the Evening | MP ($44?)
grilled mahi mahi with a butter cream caper sauce with green beans and white rice

I went for the catch of the day, the dish was good. The mahi was nicely cooked. They only give you one piece but I guess that’s good enough for your sole entree. Not sure it was worth this price but was tasty. The sauce was already sour on its own so I’m glad I didn’t squeeze the lemon on top.

Mariposa Affogato | $12.00
vanilla gelato, nm chocolate chip cookie, illy espresso shot

Okay, here’s where the anger comes in. Chan and I both decided to get the mariposa affogato to end the night right. Delicious affogato with a signature NM chocolate chip cookie. We order it and when the waiter brings it to our table, he drops them both down and says they are out of cookies. They’re sold out for the day and walks away. No apology, nothing. He was very rude about it and Chan says, let’s just wait for the bill and see what they do. Yeah, so not only did we not get half our dish for the dessert, there was no discount for missing half our desserts. I was irate. Any good waiter would find out there is no cookie and come back and inform the table so that we have the choice to change our mind or say that’s fine. I was very very mad. He also drops the bill without and then the credit card slips back to us without a single word, no thank you, nothing.

Look, I get that they are closing and I feel bad about them losing their jobs. It was really nice to see all the other staff members being in such high spirits and being so nice. They were doing service exactly as it should be done. Our waiter (his name is John) was awful, I can see why Chan was unhappy with him before. I tolerated him during the meal, he was not genuinely nice but he was professional and that’s all I need. The meal ending was awful and I think if they were not closing, I would have made somewhat of a fuss. To me, it’s the principle. No sense giving a spam musubi rating since they are closing, I will definitely run in another direction if I see John serving in any other restaurants.

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Mixed Plate Friday

Mar27

Dole Whip Mix

Another use for the slush machine! I love dole whip so Chan decided to buy this mix to make it for me. Isn’t he the sweetest?

Look at that! Doesn’t it look good? It is very…tart lol. It’s good though! I just can’t handle a whole lot in one sitting so I’m slow to eat it. It was very good!

Meet Fresh | Custom Icy Grass Jelly Dessert
grass jelly, taro balls, sesame rice balls

I think this dessert was about $14.00 so it’s kind of pricey. And the only thing I super like in it is the sesame rice balls so I wonder if I should just order the sesame rice balls next time lol. Nah, the whole dessert was good! Just a lot – I think it’s share-able. Mmm…sesame rice balls…

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Golden Pork Tonkotsu Ramen Bar – Honolulu, HI

Mar25

I don’t think this is an exaggeration but I used to come to Golden Pork Tonkotsu Ramen Bar quite a bit over a decade ago. I really enjoyed their tsukemen back then so I would come during my lunch break, after a while, I noticed the tsukemen broth changed a bit and with that, my attention to this shop waned a bit (also my laziness) so I stopped coming. Then covid happened and for sure I haven’t been back since before then. I do remember all that time ago, there was the sweetest waiter who worked during during the weekday lunch shift. Imagine my surprise when I came here last week that he was our waiter again! I didn’t clock it at first, I didn’t want to assume it was him right away but he definitely looked familiar. Then as the meal was ending and we were leaving, he talked to us and mentioned remembering us! What was even crazier, he remembered my name! I was shook and very touched. I am happy to report that he is still as sweet as he was years ago and is a wonderful server. If you ever get to visit Golden Pork and are lucky to be waited on by Leigh, please say hi for me and please be nice to him (lol). So how did the visit go this time? Let’s take a look!

House Made Gyoza | $7.50
ground pork, cabbage, chinese chives, garlic, ginger, green onion

Hands down, one of my favorite gyoza (if not the favorite currently) at a ramen shop. Great filling and can definitely tell this is house made. I loved it and could probably body a whole order myself but I guess I’ll share if I have a dining companion.

Fried Chicken | $8.95
chicken, mayonnaise, lettuce

American way to say chicken karaage. Nice juicy morsels of chicken deep fried – pretty sure it’s served with kewpie. I don’t know what to tell you, fried chicken is hardly ever bad. It wasn’t overcooked or dry and that’s a win to me! It was very good.

Black Garlic Tsukemen | $16.95
char siu, green onion, wood ear mushroom, sesame, nori, fried garlic, original black garlic oil, chili paste

Yes! We both went for the tsukemen because this is what we always used to get!

One of the reasons we had waned interest years ago was because we thought the broth recipe had changed. We were used to a much thicker broth which stuck to the noodles so nicely with every bite. The fact that both of us noticed that has got to be something. So how was the broth this time? It was good! Still not as thick as I always remembered it but now I’m wondering if it was just us thinking that. I still enjoyed it quite a bit and Leigh’s friendly service makes me want to return no matter what (even though the parking lot is crazy small). We were able to score one of the last stalls on this visit so it was well worth it in the rainy weather.

Noodle Pull!

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Sushi Fukurou Waikiki – Waikiki, HI

Mar23

We have the same table mats lol

Sushi Fukurou is a sushi restaurant that Chan wanted to try for a while so when his birthday came about, we decided to celebrate there! This restaurant is quite a maze to find, it’s actually located within the Búho Cocina Y Cantina Restaurant which is located within the Waikiki Shopping Plaza (not to be confused with the Waikiki Business Plaza which is right across the street, make sure you park at the right place!). Anyway, you check in with the hostess at Búho Cocina Y Cantina and take a seat on the side. When Fukurou is ready for you, they will come out to lead you into the restaurant.

Very small restaurant, just sushi bar seats. Very low key environment and also…sorry to say, a bit stuffy and hot in there. I have good news and bad news lol. Good news is, this is a super small restaurant that is only staffed by the two sushi chefs and they are both very nice and very customer service oriented. Bad news, I got very sick during this meal. I’m not going to blame this restaurant because I was the only one who got ill mid-meal – I felt awful about it. I had to come back from the restroom and ask them if they could pack up the rest of my omakase set. Oh my goodness, they were soooo nice about it and kept checking in on me the rest of the night. Stellar customer service, forreal. And they took such care in packing up my leftovers too! I felt so awful but they didn’t make me feel like I was a nuisance at all. For now, I don’t plan on returning too soon (you know how it is when you associate sickness with a place/food). But shoot, I would return again!

Kabocha Nitsuke with Hokkaido Hotate Scallops

Yummy starter! Lovely simmered pumpkin with luscious chunks of sweet scallop. Delicious.

Maguro with Quail Egg Yolk
with rice, topped with bubu arare

Chan thinks this might have been the culprit in me getting sick, it’s all theories at this point. It tasted great so I don’t know what to say. He may be right so I don’t know if I would risk it next time…

Shime Saba

One of my favorite sushi, saba! This was lightly seared and tasted great. Yum!

Red Sea Bream Snapper

I believe this was topped with a bit of salted kelp. I liked the contrast of the saltiness with the nice tender fish.

Ika
somen style to soften the texture

I don’t know if you can tell but they basically sliced up the ika into strips to make it softer to chew. It was good! They serve it topped with local grown fingerlimes.

Uni Toast
served on shokupan, wasabi guacamole and hokkaido uni

Is this not a work of art? This was Chan’s favorite dish of the night. I don’t remember much because of my state of mind lol. It was good I am sure.

Chawan Mushi
waialua eggs, kani, homemade thickened dashi layer

Okay, this is the part of the meal where I started to go downhill. I usually love chawan mushi and this tasted great but it was a huge struggle for me to even get it down. Sigh…I had to run to the restroom after this dish but Chan enjoyed the rest of the meal. No worries, I got pics.

Salmon
sweet miso glaze topped with fried garlic chip

This is a picture of the take out they packed for me! Doesn’t it still look great? Tasted great the day after too. Yum!

Chutoro
nagasaki chutoro topped with caviar

How can this be junk? It’s not!

Wagyu Course
wagyu “taco” with daikon shell, wagyu A5

Temaki Roll
otoro and takuan

Thankful for Chan’s hand modeling. They packed mine up really nicely and actually sliced it up for me. It was so good. I love these rolls and it seems to be a theme that these get served up at the end of meals!

Churros
chibi churros, hojicha brown sugar syrup, kulolo with anko

They packed this up really nicely for me, I didn’t get to try it there but it was good at home too. Okay except for…I didn’t realize the black sprinkles on top of the ice cream was basically salt and that was my first bite and I didn’t enjoy that. It was really really salty lol. Other than that salt topping, it was good!

Happy Birthday my chagee! We had three birthdays in just this one night. They made this for each birthday honoree! Isn’t that sweet?! And yes, another scoop of ice cream! Too bad I wasn’t feeling well or I would have helped Chan eat his ice cream. Shoot!

All in all, a wonderful experience. Only complaint was how hot the room did feel after a while. I’d love to return to give them another try one day in the future. It is currently $100 per person for the 12 course omakase.

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Mixed Plate Friday

Mar20

Shucks, I forgot to mark down the price. I think it was about $4.99 for this? It’s in the refrigerated section and comes with clear vermicelli (they call it pancit) noodles. I enjoyed it! Wasn’t super filling as a meal but had good flavor, nice spice level and plenty innards!

Just sharing yet another shipping experience with you. I ordered an eyeliner brush and this is how they shipped it. I tell you, when it can go in a bubble envelope, they don’t do it. When it definitely should not be thrown around in a bubble mailer, they’ll do it. Have a great weekend!

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Recipe: Corned Beef Silog

Mar18

Oh yes, another TikTok recipe. You know it!! I saw it and just couldn’t get it off my mind. I knew I was going to Sam’s Club for a run so I could buy a few cans of the Palm Corned Beef. This is basically homemade corned beef hash and it takes so much time and effort. I just asked Chan if he felt like it was worth all the hassle, he said it liked it! He said we should try to make our own corned beef next time to really make it homemade. I told him he can make the meat and I can do the rest. My favorite is the garlic rice because of course it is.

Diced Potatoes frying up…

Yeah so it takes quite a while to get browned since I just do some shallow frying. Also…it goes back into the corned beef after and loses the crispiness anyway so is it worth it? Idk man. I’m sure it does add a nice crunch to the dish when you have it fresh!

Garlic Rice

I didn’t burn it this time! I fried up the minced garlic in butter and oil on a medium-low heat. You gotta be patient with this, because it’s going to look so white for the longest time but it will brown eventually. Mm…and so well with some nice jasmine rice. Delicious!

Here’s the corned beef with the potatoes, garlic and onions stir-fried together! Mmm…

Recipe Credit: derekkchen (instagram)

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Palace Saimin – Honolulu, HI

Mar16

Can you believe that as a Kalihi girl, I have never tried Palace Saimin until last week? I was having a bad post nasal drip day and decided I wanted to get some nice warm noodles to soothe my throat for dinner. An early dinner and since it was early, I figured I could beat the dinner rush…I got a parking stall, it was fate. The inside of the shop is old school, I like that it is no frills. They have like 10 fans blowing inside so it’s loud and blows all the napkins around, not a huge fan of that but I’ll take cool air anytime lol. I ordered with the waitress and began the wait. It was taking quite a while, not that I have anything to compare it to. She came out twice to apologize for the wait. I’ve had way longer waits in restaurants but I guess they must usually be speedy? She mentioned something about having to wait for the water to boil on the second apology. When she finally came out with the food, one of the bowls was wrong (lol). I was actually fine, she gave us a wonton min versus a regular saimin – she said she wouldn’t charge for that. I figured she meant for the wonton but when I got the check, that whole bowl was not charged. That’s super nice but not necessary! They are a small mom and pop shop – but I just ended up giving way more tip and went about my day.

This is one of the last remaining OG saimin shops around and I really want to give it a good review…

Table Settings

This is the visit that my brother learned what hot mustard is and licked up both his plateful and mine. He was a maniac.

BBQ Stick | $4.00 each

I’m not a fan of BBQ sticks normally since it’s usually pretty tough meat to gnaw on. Gotta try the BBQ stick at a saimin joint, especially at Palace since they keep to just the essentials in their menu! How was it? Well, it has a nice char to it but as I mentioned – it was dry, tough and hard to chew. I don’t find it satisfying myself. I would pay premium if folks served up thicker more tender pieces of BBQ meat. Well $4.00 for one stick is kind of premium already. Not worth it.

Won Ton Min (Small) | $9.25

Combination | $10.50

I asked what combination was since there was no description on their menu. It’s basically everything they offer in one bowl. Saimin noodles, udon noodles and won ton! I thought to myself, why not try everything in one go to know if it’s good. I’m sorry to report that the noodles were too gummy for my taste. I was disappointed. The won ton had manini filling but I’ve come to expect that anyway. My main thing was…the noodles were junk! Made me a bit sad as a noodle lover.

Noodle pull!!

In the end, I am glad I finally got to try them but the hype was not there for me. I don’t plan to come back again. Did I come on an off day? Please let me know if I did. If I do ever return, I would probably go straight for the saimin noodles only.

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Mixed Plate Friday

Mar13

Sort of a mixed plate if my plate was full of Filipino food. If you are active on social media, you may have seen how popular Ilocos Empanadas are. There is a well known place in Hawaii that sells it but it’s out of a house and you have to call in your order on Wednesday night to pick up during the weekend. Apparently it’s hard to even get through the phones on Wednesday so I am good. Well I went to the Marketplace in City Square the other day for produce and just so happened to see it at one of the vendor stalls! Total twist of luck. I don’t recall a big sign for the vendor but it could possibly be Pinoy One. If I’m wrong, please let me know and I can edit this.

So what is Ilocos Empanada? I pulled this from Google…Ilocos empanada is a famous Filipino deep-fried street food from the Ilocos region, featuring a thin, crispy, bright orange rice flour shell. It is typically stuffed with savory savory Vigan longganisa (garlic pork sausage), shredded green papaya, mung beans, and a whole egg.

Took quite a few bites for me to get down to the egg! I knew it was the empanada in their case because they put each empanada in its own paper bag and of course it’s all greasy lol. They serve it with a vinegar dipping sauce. So was it worth the hype? Ehhh…I think this was $6.50 and it was just alright. Not super flavorful by itself or even with the sauce. Maybe I gotta try it from the super popular place…glad to have tried but was just alright.

I can’t resist pancit so I got an order of it from the same stall. Bummer of the year, a flavorless pancit. How can? You look at it and it looks full-bodied and seasoned! It wasn’t. I was this close to just drowning it in hot sauce or something but didn’t. It’s all too bad!

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Ribs & Broth – Moilili, HI

Mar11

Chan was feeling under the weather so I decided to pick up some pho for dinner. Ribs & Broth recently opened up in Moilili (where the old Sushi King and Post Office is). I called my order in and headed straight for their restaurant after work. I thought of a workaround for driving. This will only be understood by folks who know Manoa – instead of going down University and turning left onto King and making a hard left turn into this restaurant’s parking lot, I decided to go down East West Road and head down the main road that either goes straight down King Street (Humane Society side) or to the freeway off-ramp. Yeah, that was not a great idea. It was crazy backed up for the freeway so I got stuck anyway. I think I’ll try the other way next time.

Calamari (Fried Squid) | $13.95
crispy fried squid served with spicy mayo sauce

This was surprisingly good. Why? Not a single piece was soggy – throughout the whole meal. How is that possible? What kine sorcery batter this? It was very good. Would get it again!

Combination Pho | $17.95
brisket, tripe, steak, tendon, meatball

Chan and I both got the same dish. Sorry it’s not all nicely arranged. I just dumped it in my bowl and had to reheat the soup on the stove before serving. The pho is very good. Do you notice the noodles? I like that it’s a thicker cut noodle, it’s still the same flat noodles as usual but it’s like a fettucine width. I really liked the noodles. The only complaint is that they don’t give a lot of culantro and they do not give any chili oil. I would still order from here again! Yum!

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Recipe: Shrimp in Savory Sauce Over Rice

Mar9

One of Chan’s favorite dishes is Hokkien Fried Rice. It’s a fried rice dish with a thick savory gravy on top – loaded with whatever you want in the gravy. I found a YouTube channel and her recipes look pretty good and legit so I decided to try to make this recipe as a first try. It’s just over white rice but to me that’s totally fine. Having the savory gravy over fried rice feels a bit wasted to me because the fried rice will then just have none of it’s own flavor left. Save yourself the effort and calories and just eat it over white rice.

I followed her recipe exactly but just doubled it. We really enjoyed it! Chan’s only note was to maybe add just a bit more white pepper next time. Also, I had access to MSG so in it went. Just a sprinkling. I’ll link her YouTube recipe video below!

Sauté the shrimp!

Add the whites of the green onion and garlic to sauté with the shrimp

LOL, it’s hard to start taking pictures when I’m at the gravy stage of the cooking. It’s just chicken broth and cornstarch mixed together and then you throw in the beaten egg while you’re stirring. Mine came out much thicker looking and browner than hers but that’s probably because I got the shrimp super browned on my end.

Recipe Credit: Cook! Stacey Cook: Shrimp in Savory Sauce Over Rice

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