Food and more food in Hawaii

Aloha! Good to be back from Hawaii! Not that it isn't a nice place... But home always makes you feel better, right? Obviously from the title, we ATE A WHOLE LOT in Hawaii. My hubby and I particularly went to Oahu, HI for our honeymoon for 6 days. I tell ya... Our stomachs digest a lot of food during that 6 days! Hawaii has GREAT food and I can say it's more expensive than our regular eating out price here... But hey! It's vacation!

I took some food photos while we were there and I hope I can make you droll and want to visit Hawaii and want to gain 10 pounds!

Here we go...

This is OXtail Ramen in Waikiki @ Ramen Nakamura. I thought it was okay because the soup base was a little bit to salty... Have to wait in line for 30-40 min.

@Curry House in Ala Moana Food Court. You can choose a VARIETY of things to go with the curry, such as takoyaki, katsu, squid, etc...! Mine is gyoza and chicken karage curry. Big portion!

Kapiolani Community College Saturday's Farmers Market. A lot of fresh and local food. Great walk for saturday morning! We tried this ginger pineapple drink... Not bad!

Famous shrimp truck in the North Shore... It's a simple garlic and butter shrimp with rice. I think it has nice flavors but we think it's a bit over priced and over rated. But hey, it's vacation!

@ North Shore again! We passed by this small road and saw a LONGGGG line for this shave ice. Okay, we've got to try Matsumoto Shaved Ice! It's good for a cup of shaved ice and tons of sugar syrups poured into the ice.... Plus the condensed milk!

You've gotta visit Dole Pineapple Plantation in Oahu right? Except you do have to PAY to taste the pineapple! Although I have to say the pineapple in Hawaii is SUPER sweet!!! We tried the famous Pineapple float( pineapple juice and pineapple whip- it's like ice cream) inside the pineapple souvenir thingy!

It's the famous restaurant that everybody goes because Anthony Bourdain went there! Yes, it's ONO Hawaiian Restaurant! Sadly, we thought the food was just ok! The flavor didn't have the PUNCH that we super highly expected!

Yes, it's the famous food in Hawaii! SPAM! This was our breakfast in a small "local cafe" close by our hotel and we enjoyed this breakfast very much! It's spam with 2 sunny side up eggs and rice. What a powerful meal to start the day!

This is the REAL DEAL! I mean.... This is probably one of the best food we ate there. I know it's just charsiu ramen and chicken teriyaki with rice and egg. But this is excellent food at it's best! It's in the Ala Moana Shopping Center and the restaurant called GOMA TEI. Most of the stuff on ther menu are ramen. So I decided to try thier charsiu ramen. Man.... It's probably the best ramen I've EVER had! The soup was flavorful... The meat is just falling apart with a bonus of pork fat! It's just soooo good! And my hubby ordered chicken teriyaki! It's superb too! He said the rice is sooo fragrant and the chicken is just seasoned perfectly. And the egg, of course, makes this meal complete. You HAVE to come to this restaurant whenever u're in Hawaii!

Well this is a MUST try food in Hawaii too... PUKA DOG! The hotdog was put inside of a crispy "hole" bun and with condiments like garlic sauce, pineapple relish, guava mustard, it makes puka dog just perfect! YUM!

L&L!Yes! We don't have this in Atlanta so I'm so craving for this Hawaiian fastfood chain restaurant! This is the first thing that we ate after we arrived in Hawaii and we were just starvinggggg! I ate LOCO MOCO! It's gonna sound wierd but it's good! Its rice, hamburger patty, fried egg, gravy, and macaroni salad on the side! Perfection! Someone is going to say gross over this! hahaha! And my hubby ate the MEAT combo, which has grilled barbecued chicken, short ribs, and thinly sliced beef. With macaroni salad on the side of course..

We enjoyed the food so much and I feel I ate so much meat in Hawaii that I crave for salad! All in all, it was a great honeymoon and a very relaxing vacation... Hope we'll go some other place next year (or next month... hehehe) and we'll be pigging out again!

In a mean while, I'll write more delicious recipes from my kitchin!

Have a great week everybody....

Soulful Southern Fried Chickn

Yummmm! What could be more soulful than Southern Fried Chickn? Homemade Southern Fried Chickin I bet! I had almost expired buttermilk and I didn't want to waste it... So, I thought about fried chicken. Simple to marinade, easy to fry, satisying to eat!

It's been few months since I use Cornish Hens instead of Hormone Added- Huge chicken... And I don't want to go back using the humongous whole chicken because I just don't think it's natural.

So for this recipe, I use 2 Cornish Hens.

Here's the simple ingredients:

• 2 whole Cornish Hens (Cut 8 part/ chicken)
• 1/2 gallon buttermilk
• 3-4 tbsp salt
• 3 tbsp pepper
• 3 tbsp paprika
• 2 tbsp garlic powder
• 3 cups all purpose flour, seasoned with S+P

The steps:

1. Combine buttermilk, salt, pepper, paprika, and garlic powder for marinade.

2. Put the chicken into the buttermilk pool and refrigerate for 2 days! Yes, 2 days!

3. Preheat deepfyrer 325F

4. After 2 days, coat the chicken with flour mixture. Not to thick...

5. Fry for 20-25 min.

The skin is super crunchy outside (It's like KFC fried chicken skin!) and the meat inside is SUPER moist and juicy! (Not kidding!)

Even the breast is soooo moist. And the meat is really flavorful. All that marinade soaks into the chickn! You've got to try this whenever u're just craving for a GOOD fried chicken!

My husband and I ate almost all of them! Oh btw, we are going to HAWAII for our real honeymoon this Tuesday! I'm SUPER EXCITED! Aloha, here we come!

I'm gonna post the pictures of all the food that I ate there! I'm sorry if you drool from here....

Mahalo everybody!

Satisfying Thai Basil Fried Rice

Favorite favorite favorite fried rice! Check any of your favorite ingredients below:

• Rice (check!)
• Thai basil (check!)
• Shrimp (check!)
• Chinese pork sausage (check!)
• Shrimp balls (Check!)
• Pork fat (CHECK!)

I think all Indonesian people LOVE fried rice... And it's super easy to make! Because Thailand is our neighbor, we kinda use the same spices and ingredients for cooking. And because I have a little pot of Thai Basil plant at home, I decided to use them up today. I love growing herbs at home!

Okay, here's about me and cooking food and writing recipes... If I take the recipes from a website, that's no problemo at all. But if I come up with the recipe myself, I kinda eyeball eveything and I don't really have perfect measurement for the ingredients. So u're gonna see "one bunch of this, one pinch of that, etc etc." I always go by the taste if it needs more seasoning or not. But I'll try to write the recipe as accurate as possible...

Basically you can put any meat or vegetable in this fried rice.. It depends what you have on ur fridge and what u like really. I made a vegetarian stlye one time for my friends.

There's no really Mise En Place for this recipe. Just have big pan to fit all the ingredients!

Serving size: 4 hungry people

Here's the ingredients:

• 6 Cups of cooked rice , cook your rice with a little bit less water so it's not mushy when u cook the fried rice.
• 1 Cup peel and deveined shrimp
• 1 Cup thinly sliced chinese sausage
• 1 Cup shrimp balls, cut in half
• 1 Cup of thinly sliced cabbage
• 3 cloves of garlic, minced
• 1 shallot, minced
• 2 tbsp Kokita bumbu Nasi goreng sedap
• 2 tbsp Crispy Prawn Chili (I got this from my sister in Malaysia but u can definitely buy this at Asian grocery store in Malay or Thai section)
• 1 Cup of Thai Basil (U can also buy this at Asian grocery store or u can buy the plant at Home Depot and have a little herb garden at ur house)
• 2 large eggs
• The secret ingredients: 1 tbsp Pork Fat (Believe me, this makes a difference! Don't be scared of this...)
• Pepper
• Fish Sauce (about 3 tbsp)
• Sweet soy sauce (about 3 tbsp)

Here's how u make it:

1. Put a little bit veg. oil on the pan and put the chinese sausage and just let them get crispy a bit on the outside.

2. Add your pork fat, garlic, shallot, Bumbu Kokita, and Crispy prawn chili until it smells yummy and delicious.

3. Crack the eggs in the middle of the pan and let it cook and just scramble it a little bit.

4. Add the shrimp and shrimp balls and sautee it until the shrimps cooked (not too long!)

5. Add all the rice.

6. Add pepper, fish sauce, and sweet soy sauce. Just stir it all together until combined.

7. Add the cabbage and basil and stir it until they wilt.

8. Adjust the seasoning.

Really full from dinner... This is definitely a filling meal. But there's always room for dessert, right? I think I'm just gonna eat whatever dessert I have in the fridge. I think... there's blueberry peach tart from Emily =) Or coconut pecan tart from Emily too =)

Enjoy your dinner time everybody!

The B-A-N-A-N-A Bread

Got overripe bananas at home and about to throw them away coz they are already black and not too appetizing? PERFECT! They are the right ingredient for Banana Bread!

It's breakfast time and I promised my hubby that I'd make him banana bread. He doesn't want chocolate chip nor nuts in it. Just plain ol' banana bread... And as he always says, if you are weak or sick, the only thing that can cure you is banana!

From this post on, I'm gonna tell you about MISE EN PLACE of every recipe... Yea yea I know it sounds too French culinary term but basically it means "everything in place." It's just the tools and ingredients you will need to make the recipe. Because it's a waste if you already have all the ingredients for this banana bread but you don't have a whisk attachement for the mixer, for example. So I will give you some sort of like a check list of the tools you need. Of course for the ingredients, you can check on the ingredient lists.

So in this recipe, the Mise En Place are:

• Food processor (Ask your spouse for birthday gift!)
• Mixer with whisk attachment, preferably Pink kichen aid mixer... hahaha (Ask your spouse for Christmas gift!)
• Greased 9x5x2 in. pan (I prefer to use 8x8 in. pan just because it's not too thick)
• Sifter

The ingredients are:

• 10 tbsp. butter (1 1/4 stick of butter), room temperature
• 1 cup mashed ripe bananas (2 large or 3 med bananas)
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• 2 large eggs
• 1 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 2 cups cake flour
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 3/4 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• chocolate chips or nuts, optional

So the ingredients are pantry-friendly stuff that you have at home, right?

And ohhhh, it's smelling so good now! My banana bread is in the oven...

Here's how you make it:

1. Preheat oven 350F

2. Puree the bananas, sour cream, eggs, and vanilla in the food processor.

3. Sift flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt into mixing bowl. Mix on low speed for 10 secs. to make sure it's combined well.

4. Add the butter and start with low speed until it's combined with the flour. If you go to med speed like I just did, the flour will be ALL OVER you and your kitchen! Yes, it was! hahaha.. So when it's combined, turn it up to med low speed for 30 secs.

5. Add the banana mixture in 3 batches. Be sure to SCRAPE the side and the bottom of the bowl.

6. If you add choco chips or nuts, fold them in with spatula.

7. Pour the batter in the loaf and bake it for 45 min. (if using 8x8 in. pans) or 1 hr. 10 min. (if using 9x5x2 pan.

Enjoy the warm, smell good, soft, satisfying banana bread and be sure to make it for a weekend breakfast for somebody you care or love. They won't mind to give you a massage after. =)

Perfect Saturday Homemade Dinner ~ Braised Short ribs and classic mashed potatoes

Falling off the bone short ribs meat, rich red wine sauce, fluffy creamy mashed potatoes, and chocolate cupcakes. What can beat that for a perfect Saturday nite dinner with my lovely hubby? It was melting in your mouth meal that satisfy all your senses... I tell ya... The key to your man's heart is thru the belly!

I got this recipe from foodtv.com, in particularly from Chef Anne Burrell. This is the second time I made the short ribs and this recipe proves to have perfect result everytime. It takes a WHILE to get the outcome but it's not that difficult really... The LONG part is only the oven part, which you don't really have to do anything while it's in there.

Here's the ingredients that you'll need:

• 6 bone-in short ribs (about 5 lbs)
• 1 large onion, cut into 1/2 in. pieces
• 2 ribs celery, cut into 1/2 in. pieces
• 2 carrots, peeled, cut into 1/2 in. pieces
• 3 cloves garlic
• 1 1/2 cups tomato paste
• 2-3 cups hearty red wine (I use Bordeaux, it's kinda sipcy but it's perfect for this... Trader Joe's has French Bordeaux wine for only 6 bucks!)
• Water
• 1 bunch fresh thyme, tied with kitchen string
• 2 bay leaves
• S+P (I always use kosher salt)

The steps:

1. Season short ribs with salt (A LOT).

2. Coat a pot large enough to fit all meat and vegetables. Get the pan hot and sear EVERY side of the ribs. Do not overcrowd the pan.

3. While the meat is searing, put the garlic, carrot, celery, onion into food processor and puree until they become coarse paste.

Preheat oven 375F

4. When the ribs browned, set them aside and drain the fat from the pan. Coat the same pan with new oil and add pureed vegetables. Season the vegetables with salt (A LOT) and brown them about 5-7 min.

5. Add the tomato paste and brown for 4-5 min at med heat, otherwise it's gonna burn.

6. Add the redwine and let it reduce by half.

7. Add the ribs back in the pot, add thyme and bay leaves, and add the water until it just covers the meat.

8. Put it in the oven for 3 hours. Check periodically during cooking process and turn the ribs oven halfway through cooking time. The last 30 min. take the lid off to let the liquid reduce and becomes a yummy sauce.

The outcome should be falling out of the bone short ribs and I bet the perfect match of this ribs is mashed potatoes! It's very simple recipe..

What you'll need:

• 2 large russet potatoes
• 3/4 cups of heavy cream
• 1/2 stick of butter
• parmesan cheese, optional
• S+P to taste

The steps:

1. 30 min. before the ribs done. Peel and cut the potatoes and boil them until tender.

2. Meanwhile, put the butter and heavy cream in a pot and heat it just until boils.

3. When the potatoes are done, drain them, and put it back on the same pot. Mashed them away and pour the heavy cream mixture as you're mashing. Spinkle parmesan cheese and season S+P to taste.

In fine-dining restaurants, this braised short-ribs will cost you some money! But it's not that hard to make them actually... And it will taste a lot better, I promise! If your spouse's birthday is coming, this is the perfect birthday treat for him/her! U'll get compliment all day long!