baked manapua

Yesterday the temperature dropped to 14C (57F) and it has been raining.

There is a typhoon approaching (Chan Hom or #14) and should pass by over the weekend. 

Apparently, cooler ocean temps would help to break up the typhoon, but with global warming, the typhoon does not dissipate and also moves slower because of the warm ocean temps.

So..the typhoons these days do lots of damage because it takes such a long time to pass...

Anyway, since I stayed indoors, I decided to try making baked manapua.

I used part of the char siu that I made last month. 

And I used the recipe for the dough that I made beignets and pizza with during this pandemic.

I love this dough recipe because it comes together pretty easily.

I should have used a little more char siu and some green onion though, so that these manapua would be filled to the gills.

They are snack sized but I like the flavor and texture.

The next thing I want to try making with this dough is cinnamon rolls...

Hopefully I can try this before the weather gets too cool.

Have a safe weekend everyone.

551 (namba)

We got to try the main store for 551 on our way back from Nara.

The restaurant area is located on the 2nd and 3rd floors of the building.

It was after the lunch crowd and there was still a line for seats.

I was actually surprised that the line moved quite quickly.

I ordered their mabo eggplant yakisoba.

A combination of deep fried noodles and sauteed noodles, topped with their spicy mabo sauce, eggplant and veggies.

It was a change of pace to see cucumber and watermelon radish in there...

I tried their char siu man (bun), something only sold at this shop.

I had envisioned it to be similar to the steamed manapua (char siu bao) we have in Hawaii, but it wasn't the canton style char siu and there was lots of shiitake in there.

Still, it was better than the nikuman (meat buns) sold at the convenience stores.

Even though it was blazing hot, Satoshi almost always never fails to order soup noodles of some sort whenever we eat at places like this.

This was their seafood ramen.

And another item he almost never fails to order is gyoza or "gee-why-oh" as he likes to call it...

I'm glad we got to try the main shop's food.

They have more items on their menu than at most other of their restaurant type shops.

I guess whenever I want to get my Cantonese char siu fix, I need to check out Ou-lou or Heichinrou.

551
3-6-3 Namba
Chuo, Osaka
Phone: 06.6641.0551
Hours: 11:00-22:00 open everyday

brug bakery & honolulu kitchen

Since I was near Ala Moana Shopping Center the other day, I stopped in to pick up some of Brug Bakery's baked items. Apparently this bakery is popular in Sapporo, Hokkaido.

I tried the sukiyaki pan, thinly sliced beef that is seasoned in shoyu, sugar and mirin. I was surprised that they didn't skimp on the amount of beef in there. Their melon pan was delicious too with the crisp cookie topping.

They are a bit pricey but I think have good quality and very similar to the types that we see in Japan.

And when I was in Waipahu the yesterday, I picked up some savory mini manapua from Honolulu Kitchen.

I think the people working behind the counter need to be a little more forgiving to first time customers, maybe taking out more time to explain the "drill".

Other than that, their deep fried char siu and spicy pork mini manapua were delicious.

Eaten soon after they were fried, the outside is lighter than when I tried them a day later.

I'll be back to both.

Brug Bakery
Shirokiya, Ala Moana Center
Honolulu, Hawaii
Phone: 808.973.9190
Hours: Mondays-Saturdays 8:00-21:00, Sundays 8:00-19:00

foodie thursday

Yesterday, I got a chance to meet up with Sheri and her family, they are here on vacation.

We met up at Pearlridge. It had been ages since I've eaten at Phase 2, which is now called "Downtown".

Aloha Salads rather recently opened up a new location there.

I tried their curried quinoa salad...mixed greens, quinoa, mango, carrots, edamame, bean sprouts, avocado, cranberries, almonds, curried pineapple vinaigrette.

Minus the "frozen" mango, I loved this salad.

We also had bubble tea from Boba Cha.

After lunch we walked around and even rode the monorail. It is still running and now a $1 to ride one-way.

Sheri was kind to give me these deep fried manapua (buns) from Honolulu Kitchen in Waipahu. (red dot = strawberry, green dot = custard and red circle = lilikoi (passion fruit))

All the fillings were cream type.

I had them this morning after toasting them. The outside has a nice crisp crust and the insides stay soft (kind of like a malasada but without the sugar on the outside and a little more dense).

My favorite was the custard and I wouldn't mind trying their savory types. (thank you!)

Her mom also gave me this zucchini bread (thank you!)

It was a great day filled with lots of talking, walking and eating.

Thanks for a great day Sheri, it was nice to meet your mom and visit with you and your family!

I hope we can hang out again soon.

Aloha Salads
Pearlridge Center Downtown
98-1008 Moanalua Road
Aiea, Hawaii
Phone: 808.484.7811

Boba Cha
Pearlridge Downtown
98-1005 Moanalua Rd
Aiea, Hawaii
Phone: 808.484.1015

Honolulu Kitchen
94-861 Farrington Highway
Waipahu, Hawaii
Phone:808.671.5241
Hours: 7:00-20:00

libby manapua

On our way home from an errand the other day, Mom and I popped into Libby Manapua Shop.

This place has been around for ages and yet it was my first time trying their food, sad yeah?!

We ordered 4 pork manapua (char siu bao), 4 pork hash and a veggie roll to try.

Take-out these days means styrofoam containers, but "way back when" all our take-out orders in Hawaii came in these types of "pie boxes" made of thin cardboard?! I'm happy to see Libby hasn't changed their style.

Their manapua "breading" is so soft and chewy and the inside is filled to a nice "bread-filling" ratio.

The pork hash was also good too, it was filled with so much meat that the outsides were falling off!

The veggie roll was too hard and chewy...meh!

We'll just stick to the manapua and pork hash...we'll be back!

Libby Manapua Shop (UPDATE: 2019 out of business)
410 Kalihi Street
Honolulu, Hawaii
Phone: 808.841.2253
Open Tuesdays-Sundays 6:00-14:00

manapua

It's been awhile since I've baked bread, but the weather has been quite summery during the daytime, and I had some time on my hands yesterday, so I finally got around to trying my hand at manapua or char siu bao.

Manapua is a food I had growing up and I really like the baked version.

I used the same bread recipe that I use for anpan.

For the filling, I used some char siu, lup cheong (which I took out of the freezer) and green onion.

While you are waiting for the dough to proof, render the fat out of both the lup cheong and char siu separately, drain on a paper towel.

Chop the lup cheong and char siu separately into a dice and let cool.

Mix each with thinly sliced green onion and put into your dough before the 2nd proofing (at step 10 on the anpan recipe).

I baked these for about 18 minutes.

NOTES: The yeast was past the expiry date and I think I should have kneaded it longer. The dough was a little too wet to handle even if I added flour when I worked with it.

Next time, I would add a little more filling too.

Flavor-wise it was good and still had a nice crumb. I would make this again (with newer yeast this time).