Tonkatsu Ginza Bairin

Tonkatsu Ginza Bairin is located in Waikiki and is just one of the many stops you should take if you are thinking of visiting Hawaii. Can you guess what they serve? Well, their name states what they specialize in, katsu!!! Shrimp katsu, pork katsu, oh yummy! My mouth is watering just thinking about their food.

Their katsu is different from most places in that their katsu doesn't taste oily. You know when something is well fried when the fried item doesn't taste fried. I know, weird logic, right? Anyways, their katsu doesn't taste fried, and the batter is super crunchy. I heard it's because they deep fry it twice :O yum, right?!

Bread and Kaki no tane! ^ ^

Woah! :D  Isn't this bread so cool? It's one of the sweet breads from Bakery Manoa. The first time we came we tried the English bread (sorry, no picture). It was pretty good, but this bread was waayyy better. Plus, who doesn't love eating round bread? It reminds me of smuckers sandwiches. But, it so does not taste like their bread, at all (which is good!).

The bread was slightly sweet and super fluffy and soft. I loved eating it plain or with a little lilikoi jam, or both. Oh, and the ridges make the perfect guidelines for slicing. Hehe, since I'm pretty bad at cutting bread ...

Oh, and I forgot to show you guys these cute little boxes. Inside is Kaki no tane (Japanese rice snack that's similar to osenbei). Typically kaki no tane is just spicy/shoyu flavored, but these ones are all different (and very strange) flavors. Cheese or curry flavor, anyone? Haha! Some were surprisingly good (wasabi, maple sugar) other were, well uh, interesting (cheese....).

La Palme D'or

La Palme D'or is a French / Japanese bakery located on the ground floor of Ala Moana. They make beautiful desserts and drinks, and definitely worth a stop if you're in the area!

 Pear tart: Yum. I loved the crunchy crust!

Strawberry roll cake: I was hoping their strawberry roll cake would be as delicious as their vanilla roll cake. The cake was fluffy, but didn't really have that strong strawberry flavor I was looking for. The vanilla version is still my favorite...

Mont blanc: I've always seen these at Japanese bakeries, but every time I try one I'm always a little disappointed. I mean it's not bad, but it just looks so much cooler than it actually tastes! Anyways, I thought there was a wee bit too much chestnut mouse/cream. The whipped cream covered blueberry cake in the middle was an interesting surprise, but still way too much cream for the amount of cake.

Apple pie turnover: I love apple turnovers. Flaky buttery crust and spiced apples...Yum. Anyways, in addition to the apple filling I think they added some kind of almond paste (?). It was good, but not great. I think I'll stick with the vanilla roll cake.

On a side note, their drinks are pretty darn fancy. Darn, I should've taken some pictures....

Sushi Yasuda

As you guys may know, I absolutely love ikura. If I were stranded on a deserted island with only one food I would choose ikura. I used Yelp to find the highest rated Japanese sushi restaurant, and my decision came down to two choices: Sushi Yasuda and Ushiwakamaru. In the end, I decided to try both places, but will only be posting about Sushi Yasuda. I didn't take any pictures at Ushiwakamaru, and I was not pleased with the service or food.

Sushi Yasuda was Amazing with a capitol A. I typically don't sit at the sushi counter, but I'm glad I did and will surely try to again. Rather than a single sushi chef, there were an entire row! Our sushi chef was not only knowledgeable about the fish, its preparation, and its origin, but he made some sushi that was out of this world. We ordered: seaweed salad, clams, fish liver, several salmon sushis, ikura (salmon roe), tamago (egg), ebi (shrimp), kani (crab), cucumber ume roll, and other various sushis. 

Line of sushi chefs

Seaweed Salad

The seaweed salad was refreshing. I didn't even know there were so many different types of seaweed! I enjoyed the red seaweeds the most, as they had an interesting crunch unlike the others. The seaweeds tasted okay by themselves, but the sauce really pulled the dish together. It was a miso based sauce that perfectly complimented the taste of the seaweed. The clams were very well prepared and came in a delicious soup. I'm not much of a fan of liver, so my mom enjoyed that dish by herself. However, I don't think she enjoyed it as much as she thought she would when she initially ordered it. Now onto the sushi...

Liver

Clams

There are two types of ikura, the sweet and the salty. This place seems to have the salty version. I love either version, as long as it is not too sweet or salty, not fishy, not dry, not gummy, not broken, and not unappetizing. Yes, it's a long list of requirements, but that's why there are only a few places I order my ikura from again and again. This place will now be one of them. The ikura was perfect. It passed my ikura test and tasted as good as the ikura I eat from Gaku and Japan! 

IKURA

Tamago

Tamago

Made to order Ebi

Abalone?

They carry several different types of salmon and while I typically do not eat salmon, I was pleased I did. It melted in my mouth and tasted sooooo good. The kani sushi was interesting, as they had shredded the kani instead of leaving it whole. Unlike typical sushi spots, Yasuda cooks each ebi or shimp when you order. It's made-to-order-shrimp! This change made a huge difference in the taste of the shrimp. It didn't taste bland and tough. Rather, it was tender and flavorful. Oh, and on each piece of sushi they either sprinkled a small amount of salt or a light touch of sauce. This small touch made each piece extraordinary. The only dish my mom disliked was their ume cucumber roll. Actually, it wasn't that bad. My mom just thought the ume would taste better (but I thought it tasted average, not great, but okay). Also, the combination did not compliment each other. Shiso and ume would probably have been better. Overall, this place was amazing and am adding to my list of the greatest sushi places.

Salmon

Salmon

Tuna? Salmon?

Kani...it looks like a snowball, doesn't it?

ume cucumber roll

Coming up......Minamoto Kitchoan, La Maison Du Chocolat, Bouchon Bakery, Financier Patisserie

Cute Totoro Themed Bento ^_^

Isn't it cute!? It's a Totoro themed bento! This was actually a project for my Japanese class (we were learning about Japanese food). The assignment was to first choose a theme, then design and make an authentic Japanese bento. My friend and I teamed up to create this cute Totoro bento.

We spent two hours cutting and shaping food, and then trashing our funny looking shapes. It was horrible :( We probably wasted a huge amount of food. For example, do you see that flower? Well it's made out of tamago (egg), which we bought due to convenience, and a scored hot dog. I bet we threw away/ate over half the package of tamago before getting the petals to spread apart without breaking. Such a waste!! I don't know how those Japanese mom's make their kid's bento so cute!? Well I guess if you did this everyday you'd become pretty fast, but still....

See those meatballs with eyes? They're supposed to be susuwatari, you know little fuzzy black spirits that floated around the attic in the movie? And the eggs with sesame seeds for eyes are supposed to be chibi totoros (mini totoro).

So, what do you think? Is it as good as the Japanese bentos?

For tips on making bentos similar to this own or other cute bentos, click here

Kinako Ice Cream Balls for Boy's Day...Er, Children's Day?

Happy boy's day everyone! Er, or should I say children's day? I'm not sure what to call today anymore. I feel like since girls have they own day (March 3rd), guys should too. When it was boy's day, do you remember doing something nice for the guys? Or if you're a guy do you remember the girls doing something nice for you? Throughout grade school, every Boy's day the girls put up all of the boy's chair on their desk at the end of the day, and on Girl's day, the guys put up our chairs.  Do you celebrate Boy's Day?

No? Yes? Well anyways, how about some kinako powder covered ice cream balls? Yes, it's exactly what the name says it is. A small scoop of vanilla ice cream rolled in kinako powder (aka soybean flour or the-best-powder-in-the-world-that-taste-like-peanut-butter!). I don't often work with ice cream (photographing, I mean. Definitely not eating...) because it melts so quickly. While I was making these balls, for example, after the first few I was having trouble scooping the ice cream in to round balls. It just began to melt! I think I should have frozen a long slab of ice cream, cut it in to cubes, and then rolled them in kinako. They could've been the ice cream version of melty blends(ganache-like-chocolate in cube form rolled in cocoa powder)! Once I scooped them in to small balls, I rolled them in kinako powder, and refroze them in mini muffin tin cups!

These could be for Boy's day, right? They have kinako powder! And kinako powder is Japanese.... Plus, it tastes oishii (yummy)!^_^!

Japanese Sponge Cake Mix...Made In The Microwave :)

I bet you've probably heard of microwave cakes, but have you heard of a microwave vanilla sponge cake? Well now you have! I was recently at Nijiya, a Japanese supermarket, when I spotted this little container. Isn't it the cutest thing? What really caught my eye was the characters saying moko moko (In red in the top left hand corner) which means fluffy and soft. I actually learned this word from my host sister. While I was shopping with my host sister in Japan, I came across the softest, fluffiest sweater, and she immediately said "moko moko!".

 Not only did it say "fluffy", but also very easy to make(totemo kantan). Plus, I could say I practiced my Japanese by reading the directions, which of course, were only in Japanese, but at least there were pictures just in case I messed up. Surprisingly, even if I did not read Japanese, I think I would have been able to make the cake just fine. All I needed to do was whisk and egg, add the cake mix, mix, then microwave for 1 1/2 minutes. Easy peasy! But of course, sometimes the simplest things need tons of pictures, right? So...here are some step by step pictures on making the easiest microwave sponge cake mix cake ever:

Ingredients: Vanilla cake mix and egg

 Step 1: Whisk egg

 Step 2: Add in cake mix

 Step 3: Whisk until combined

 Step 4: Microwave for 1 1/2 minute

 Enjoy!

 Yummy! ... and fluffy!