big island bee & la tour bakehouse

As I was trying to figure out what to bring back as omiyage, I came across these cute packages of honey.

There are 8 sticks in each package and are sold for about $3 (plus tax, prices vary at different stores) each.

8 = hachi (ha-chee) in Japanese which is also the same pronunciation for bee...I'm not sure they intended to make that connection but I thought it was cute...

another item I picked up for friends is the Furikake Puffs by La Tour Bakehouse, which are sold at all La Tour Cafes.

These are $3.50 (plus tax) and would recommend picking these up at the main location in Iwilei--they have the most inventory, though the parking lot is kind of a pain to get in and out of.

I hope the friends I give these to will enjoy them.

nuts soaked in honey

Nuts soaked in honey is trending here...

I'm not sure where this originated but remember seeing them in Paris at their markets.

Instead of buying the ones that I've seen at the markets here, I made my own.

Nuts Soaked in Honey : makes 1 bottle

Your favorite nuts (toasted, roasted or not), preferably unsalted
Your favorite honey

Fill a bottle with your favorite nuts and then drizzle the honey in to fill in the crevices.

Wait a couple of days before using.

NOTES: Super easy and delicious on plain yogurt.

Another way I've seen this used is on salad, which I hope to try soon.

I think this would also make nice gifts.

Have you ever seen/tried nuts soaked in honey? Please tell me how you used them.

things I'm liking (and disliking)

Let's start off with the disliking....Satoshi's nephew, he asked me to "help him" write his speech (in English) for class (he is in high school)....little did I know that "help" meant I would have to write the whole darn thing myself.

Late last Thursday night (the 20th), he faxed over the Japanese version, single spaced--lots of blackness with the kanji (chinese characters), I saw it in the fax machine and freaked, it was only 1 page, but total blackness...I showed the fax to Satoshi and he said "WT?"

He didn't even bother to call to see if I could read it or understood it (and why aren't we emailing me this so that I can just edit it and zoom it back over?)...oh, but writes on his fax that he needs it to be more than 600 words and back to him by Wednesday, the 26th. (ha!)

Since I cannot read many kanji, I ended up looking up each one that I didn't know in my kanji dictionary, which turned out to be almost all the kanji on his draft....dude! if you're gonna ask someone to "help you", at least have the decency to write your draft double spaced, so they can write their notes in between!

And if you really wanted to learn something from the assignment, maybe trying to write the draft in english yourself in the first place, to at least have TRIED, then have your aunty correct it (not have her write the whole thing)...sigh.

I asked Satoshi to read what I wrote to see if I caught all the nuances that his nephew had written. Satoshi said it was good. Of course, instead of faxing it off right after finishing it, I hopefully made him squirm and faxed it on the 25th, at the very last minute back to him (mean?? maybe??...not!)

UPDATE: I must've made him squirm because I got phone calls at two separate times during the day of the 25th from my MIL and BIL to check on my progress, oh, but not enough to warrant a phone call from the nephew. (and why are they calling me on the 25th, don't I have until the 26th?? as my family would say, "poor upbringing".)

Since it was a speech, I wonder if he had to read it in front of the class? THAT should be even more interesting since his topic was about nuclear arms...

Ugh, but enough of the disliking...let's move on to the liking...

Bollicine Pinot Chardonnay, a brut spumante from Italy, 11% alcohol, 200 ml, 470 yen (about US$4.70). Found this at Kaldi (Lalaport Koshien), when I was waiting for Satoshi, they have an extensive import wine/beer area, more about the beers I found there as we try them. I liked this, it was a little fruity but really dry, kinda reminded me of champagne.

Big Island Candies' mac nut crunchies...dark chocolate filled with mac nuts & crushed kettle chips...man, I dare you to stop at just a little piece.

Fauchon's Matcha Latte, this was a little sweet but not gritty like some matcha drinks I have tried.

Starbuck's Qandi Caramel, apparently this came out last year, but they re-did the packaging. I loved the slightly bitter caramel mixed with the coffee and a little sugar and milk.

Family Mart's mint chocolate drink...delicious! perfectly minty and chocolatey.

As for the planter garden, no bell peppers nor goya have been produced as of those photos I posted recently (insert pouty face), I think the evenings may be getting cooler, so it may be affecting them. Good news though, I threw some chili into a pot and it looks to be taking...we'll see what happens. (fingers crossed)

I had some eringi and kim chee in the refridge and made it into a frittatta...it came out pretty good. Chopped up the eringi and sauteed in some olive oil, then added two scrambled eggs and topped with kim chee. Then cooked on low for about 5 minutes, flipped it over and cooked for another 5....delicious!

Santero Asti Degli Angeli, a spumante from Italy...too sweet and fruity but had nice fizz/bubbles. 200 ml, 7.5% alcohol....480 yen (about US$4.80).

This shot from the peep hole in our door...loved the blue sky, fluffy clouds and "fish-eye" effect.

Been also enjoying lavender-honey ice cream. I used David Lebovitz's Philly recipe for vanilla ice cream (no egg) and fused it with his Lavender-Honey ice cream recipe...came out really good.

I didn't put as much lavender as his recipe called for (for fear of using all of what I had!), so the lavender flavor was faint but still delicious. I also used the honey I recently bought in Hawaii....I guess you could call it a Hawaiian lavender-honey ice cream (since both the lavender and honey were from Hawaii).

Boulangerie Monsieur H's anpan...when I first saw it in the box from my host-sister, it looked like a grey-ish english muffin, but when I cut it in half...joy! lots of tsubuan (chunky sweet bean paste) and nuts (macadamia, cashews), the outer bread was hard like baguette, but smelled like it may have been sourdough...toasted it was great without anything else on it.

Sorry this was such a long post...kinda cleaning out photos for the end of the month.

What are you liking/disliking?

foodie 4th of july weekend

Friday we went to Costco, since they close on the 4th of July, the place was packed with people picking up food/drinks for the long weekend.

While my mom stood in line at the checkout, I ran over to Fat Boy's to pick up our lunch...only to be greeted by a huge line there too.

I had read about Fat Boy's on Lori's blog last year and wanted to check them out. My mom was a bit leery because of their name (wouldn't you be too?).

But we were glad we checked them out. Their food was tasty and the portions very generous. I picked up their garlic chicken bento (US$5.25) 6 pieces of their garlic chicken, rice and furikake.

Their chicken tasted more like mochiko chicken, didn't have much garlic flavor, was crispy but not hard as rock as some deep fried chicken are.

Mom chose the BBQ Mix (US$8.95), this came with a salad, 2 scoops rice, a good sized piece of grilled teri chicken, lots of teri beef and a strip of teri short ribs. I gave my mom some of my chicken and she gave me some of her chicken and short ribs. The teri beef we saved for our lunch on Saturday.

Dad chose the mini beef curry (US$6.50). This came with salad, 1 scoop of rice and the curry. He liked the flavor of the curry but was disappointed at how little beef there was, how huge chunks of celery there was (probably one whole stalk chopped chunky!) and one piece of carrot.

I think Fat Boy's popular items are the grilled items and the garlic chicken. While we probably wouldn't get the garlic chicken again or the curry, we would definitely get the BBQ Mix.

Saturday, we got up early to check out the KCC Farmer's market...it was nice to see the market packed with locals and tourists.

I picked up a small bottle of Wililaiki (Christmas berry) honey from Big Island Bees, US$6. My friend introduced me to them awhile back and I was glad to see them at the market.

All around the island you can see these shower trees in bloom, my Aunty M said that they are late this year, they remind me of cherry blossoms.

Saturday evening we gathered at my Aunty M's in McCully. She has a pretty good view of the fireworks (well, there are a few buildings in the way), but it beats fighting the crowds and sitting in traffic.

We picked up some grilled KFC (did you know they only serve drumsticks and thighs for their chicken pieces and use the breast for something else? my mom said that when we were kids a bucket of KFC meant getting a whole chicken.)

Anyway, my mom also made baked beans w/portuguese sausage, 3-bean salad, potato salad and grandma bought some sushi. We all agreed that grandma's homemade sushi tasted better than the bought.

Dessert was apple pie and some manju.

Grandma got this ripe mango from a friend and gave it to me. It was my first time peeling a mango and gnawing on the seed (gosh, have I lead a sheltered foodie life or what??) The mango was perfectly ripe, juicy and delicious. I shared it with my parents during lunch.

Sunday dinner was at our house, my mom made my favorite shrimp with pineapple. And we also had leftover salads from the night before.

Dessert was an apple pie from Costco, these pies are huge! but the crust was a disappointment, it seemed raw in some areas. We agreed that the pie the night before was better.

The weekend ended with this beautiful sunset.

It was a great foodie weekend, hope you have a great week!

Fat Boy's
94-1201 Ka Uka Blvd.
Laniakea Plaza
Waipahu, Hawaii
Phone: 808.680.7520

p.i.t.a. (a.k.a. honey glazed walnut shrimp)

Most times whenever I try a recipe, I try the ones that look easiest to me. The ones that don't need me to fuss over them and can usually get me in and out of the kitchen within 30 minutes to an hour.

But this recipe has been tempting me ever since I saw the photo of it. I've had this at Chinese restaurants, crispy shrimp coated with a mayonnaise sauce topped with crunchy glazed walnuts...mmm.

Looking at the recipe, it didn't "seem" so bad, but going through the steps...oh boy!

I started with blanching the walnuts then boiling them in sugar water then coating them with honey...then frying them...

Can I say, I have a phobia of frying things at home because of all those oil splatters on the wall, on me...then having to discard the used oil...

I put as little oil as possible in my pan (and I don't have a wok)...so the nuts took a little longer than if I fried them in a wok.

Then came the shrimp, deveined and cleaned that was the easy part...I forgot to coat them with flour after dipping them in beaten egg whites...so guess who needs to soak her pan?? and maybe need to buy a new one since it is supposed to be non-stick??

Needless to say, it was a p.i.t.a. (pain in the A) of a recipe but tasted similar to what I've eaten in the restaurants. It didn't have that crispy outside that it should have, but it was still delicious.

Will I make it again? Meh, not unless President Obama is coming for dinner. (Though if I find an easier way to make this, maybe omitting the frying somehow, I "may" make this again.) Otherwise, I tried it, it was delicious, let's put it on the "done" pile...

p.s. If you really want to try this one, email me and I'll email you back the recipe.

trying fresh figs

After 2 years of blogging and seeing lots of posts on people enjoying fresh figs. I finally got enough courage to buy some.

Last Sunday, I found a basket of them for 350 yen at Carrefour. In some places, the price can range from 350 yen to 550 yen (or higher), so I felt that 350 was a good buy, plus there were about 8 figs in the basket.

We had 2 of the figs for dessert on Sunday night. I rinsed and sliced them in half then popped them under the grill for about 5 minutes. Then drizzled some Big Island honey on them. We didn't know if we could eat the skins, so we sucked out the insides which were delicious.

With the remaining 6, I decided to look around for an easy recipe. The book by Christine Ferber, master of jams and jellies in France popped into my head. I looked through for recipes using figs and found one using only 4 ingredients--figs, sugar, vanilla bean and lemon.

(I've seen her jams in Shinjuku's Istean but never bought any because they are pricey, but I have tried chocolate she made for Salon du Chocolat, under the name Maison Ferber, which was delicious.)

I didn't have lemon on hand but did have some shiquasa, so I used the juice of 2 of them.

The recipe does take some planning ahead. After rinsing and slicing the figs, the ingredients need to macerate for an hour.

After the hour, I brought the mixture to a simmer then chilled it overnight.

The next day, I prepared my jars by washing and sterilizing them. I put them into a 180 C(350 F) oven for 5 minutes (actually the book says 108 C (225 F) but I read it wrong...sigh), and left them in the oven until I was ready to fill them.

I took the mixture and brought it to a boil, skimming off the foam that formed. I cooked it for about 10 minutes--the foam will stop forming when the jam reaches the jelling point.

I carefully removed the vanilla bean and cut it to put some into each jar. I filled the jars up to the top then covered them. Then while the jars were still hot, I turned them upside down and let them cool in that position (the book said to do this, I think it creates a vaccuum).

This was my first time making jam (well, I made strawberry jam before but I didn't put it into jars, so that didn't really count as making jam to me.)

I must say, even though it took some work, it was worth it. This jam was delicious on plain yogurt, maybe a bit too sweet for ice cream. It was great with a smidge of cream cheese on toast.

I think it will also be nice with pork. The vanilla adds a nice warmth to the flavor and I like the deep reddish color.

If you haven't tried fresh figs, you better hurry, from what I've read on the net, the season for figs is rather short.

p.s. it is Keiro no hi (Grandparent's Day or be kind to elders day) = holiday, so we were visiting Satoshi's mom...hope you have a great week.

mini honey toast

Have you ever had honey toast? I have been seeing it here --Kathy and Reid both had it at the same restaurant in Hawaii, but I've also seen it around Japan too. I googled and found out that a karaoke place that has rooms around Tokyo has this on their menu. You can check out what they have on their menu here. (Some are huge-mongous!)

From what I've seen, for the "plain" version, they use one loaf of bread (yep, a whole loaf), honey and vanilla ice cream. In Japan, a loaf of bread is quite small by U.S. standards, it only yields 4-6 slices depending on how thick or thin you slice it. I was quite surprised by this when I first moved here because in Hawaii we buy loaves of bread with about 20 or more slices in a bag. I was also surprised to hear that in Tokyo they only have 4 slices per package but in Osaka we can buy packages with 4, 5 or 6 slices.

So getting back to the honey toast...having never tried this before, I wanted to try one. Unfortunately, I don't like to karaoke, and probably wouldn't be able to (and shouldn't) eat a whole one by myself, so I figured I should try to make a mini version. I couldn't find a small plain loaf but instead found a mini raisin loaf. This loaf was 6 inches long by 3 inches tall. I split it in half then cut out the innards of the loaf, leaving a little bread to serve as the bottom of the "bowl". (The other half of the bread will be tomorrow's toast for breakfast.)

I then toasted the bread and the innards for about 4 minutes.

Then I melted a pat of butter with 1 tablespoon of honey. When the toast was ready, I put back the innards into the bread "bowl" then drizzled some honey mixture. Then I took 60ml (1/2 of the container) of Haagen Dazs vanilla ice cream, put that on top of the toast and drizzled the rest of the honey mixture on top. I also made myself a cappuccino.

NOTES: Since I used raisin bread this reminded me of bread pudding or french toast. Is it supposed to taste like that...Kathy? Reid? anyone who has tried this? The toasted bread was crisp on the outside and fluffy on the inside, drizzled with honey and the melting vanilla ice cream it satisfied my sweet tooth. I had thought it would be a sickening kind of sweet but it was actually just right.

I can't wait to make this again when Satoshi can try it.