thankful

We had a nice surprise this week.

My relative, Chiyo-san in Okinawa sent us some mangoes.

I called to thank her and we chatted for a bit.

It has been many years since we visited with her but I still send her nengajo (New Years greeting cards)

She mentioned that since she was sending a box to her grandchildren in Tokyo, she wanted to send us a box too, so nice!

Apparently this variety is called Irwin. 

This mango seems similar to the types we have in Hawaii and is not stringy like the one I had bought a couple years back....love the color!

I hadn't realized this but it was the very first time for Satoshi to eat the flesh off the mango seed by the kitchen sink.

He also wanted me to show him how I cut the mango because he had never seen how it was done before.

I couldn't actually peel the mango like we do in Hawaii, but it was still nice to share some Hawaiian culture with Satoshi.

Thankful for the kindness of family.

Thank you Chiyo-san.

thank you

My Aunty Vi shared more delicious mangoes from her stash.

And she also gave me a key chain with this printed on it...if the quote looks familiar it is from Winnie the Pooh.

Thank you!

foodie tuesday

Yesterday for lunch, I met up with Deb of Kahakai Kitchen. Since I was craving Mexican food, I asked her to meet me at Zaratez (which is also called Tacos Zarate).

When I was on Twitter, I used to follow the owner, when he had a food truck, but never got around to trying his food then.

Fast forward, he opened a shop on King Street about a year or so ago.

This shop has two counters to sit at and eat, but most customers buy "to-go".

Deb and I shared the #8 Güero burrito (your choice of meat (I chose chicken), guacamole, onion, beans, rice, cilantro) and their two tacos (Deb chose pork) this comes with beans and rice.

We also had Mexican sodas (I had lime while Deb had pineapple).

The salsas, red or green, are hot, hot, hot! Red is chipotle & árbol and Green is serrano & jalapeno...we decided they need a "mild" for wimps like us...*cough*

I really liked the freshly fried chips too.

The food was good, nicely seasoned.

After lunch, since Deb has some time, she took me to Lucy's Lab Creamery.

Their flavors are different from "the usual" ice cream shops...I tried Buttery Popcorn and Fruit Loop Vodka.

The buttery popcorn was just like eating popcorn, as Deb said, "without getting kernels stuck in your teeth". The addition of arare or kakimochi as we call it in Hawaii, made it more of a local favorite combo.

The Fruit Loop Vodka, I'm glad wasn't boozy. I liked the fruit loop topping too.

The Ward area has changed drastically over the past year or so. Many new high-rises as well as new shopping areas.

I'm glad Deb showed me around and took the time out to meet up. It was fun catching up with her and she also gave me a ton of snacks (the new Lays flavors, Trader Joe's speculoos chocolate, Trader Joe's freeze-dried strawberries & Lindt bar) and some things to read (books and a magazine).

Dinner was with friend, D.

We met at Big City Diner and both had sandwiches.

I had their Paniolo Burger...a burger topped with cheese, bacon, their guava BBQ sauce and lots of fried onion rings...so good!

D had their Patty Melt.

It was great catching up with D as well and he was nice to share some mangoes that he had.

Major foodie day, but also lots of talking and lots of laughter...thanks Deb and D!

Tacos Zarate (UPDATE: 8/2016, moved to Kahala)
1273 S. King Street
Honolulu, Hawaii
Phone: 808.348.0715
Closed Sundays
Hours: 11:00-16:00 (Mondays & Saturdays), 11:00-20:00 (Tuesdays-Fridays)

Lucy's Lab Creamery (MOVED to South Shore Market (Ward Centre))
435 Kamakee Street
Honolulu, Hawaii
Hours: Mondays-Thursdays 11:30-21:30, Fridays 11:30-22:30, Saturdays 10:30-22:30, Sundays 10:30-21:30

Big City Diner
Pearlridge
Aiea, Hawaii
Phone: 808.487.8188
Hours: 7:00-22:00 (Mondays-Thursdays & Sundays), 7:00-24:00 (Fridays & Saturdays)

m-m-mango

Have been seeing mango in the markets. Some are imported from Mexico and are reasonably priced.

On the other hand, the krazy priced ones are "local"...from Miyazaki (Kyushu) or Okinawa.

The highest priced one I've seen was 8000 yen...for one!

At the fruit and veggie stand that I often shop at, they had one for 500 yen!

I thought this was a bargain, so I bought one for us to try.

It weighed 300 grams or so (a little over half a pound).

The mango comes with "instructions" on how to cut and eat it.

The flyer in the container and sticker on the mango is also the mango's "proof" that it was grown in Okinawa.

The flyer also refers to the mango as a "tamago" which means "egg" which I thought was kind of strange.

This mango was really ripe.

I tried cutting a piece like the way they said to on their instructions, but found it to be a p.i.t.a. and ended up peeling the mango instead, way easier!

This mango seemed really sinewy (stringy) to me.

I can't tell you what variety it was, but I think the ones I've eaten in Hawaii were a bit firmer with less "strings".

Anyway, this was deliciously sweet and I'm glad we got to try this.

What fruits have you been enjoying this summer?

m-m-mango

My Aunty (the one that made the tarte), was kind enough to share with us some of the mango that she received from a friend of hers.

I'm not sure as to what type of mango it was but it was good.

Thanks Aunty!

sunday dinners

We had Sunday dinner at my Aunty's the other night.

In addition to all the delicious food, we ended with this beautiful mango tarte.

Apparently this year's mangoes are kinda scarce due to bad weather...boo!

Hope your week is going well.

recently enjoyed

Recently we've enjoyed many mangoes. (And just received a whole bunch more!)

So delicious!

The previous two were double the size of this one...Thank you!

mango chutney

Remember the other day I talked about green mango?

Well, another food item we put them in is mango chutney.

Since I had 4 mangoes left, I cut them up and tried making mango chutney for the first time.

The hardest part was peeling the mango and slicing them.

After that, I just followed my mom's recipe.

(When I asked if I could blog about the recipe, she said, "oh, I don't know about that...")

So...I added the spices and other ingredients, then cooked everything down for about an hour.

The results were pretty good, as I got approval "from the luna (Hawaiian for supervisor)".

I ended up with 13 ounces (the Bonne Maman jar) + a little less than 1/4 cup (about half of the furikake jar).

Mom and I tried the one in the furikake jar with some steak. It was a little more jelled than the one my mom makes, but it tasted good.

I couldn't believe how easy the whole process was. I'm taking home the bigger jar and can't wait to share this with Satoshi.

Thanks Mom!

hawaii eats

In Hawaii, a lot of us eat green mango as a snack.

Some eat it with shoyu, others with vinegar, some both.

We got some green mango recently and I needed something for our salad....so I chopped it up and drizzled on some ginger sesame dressing.

Wasn't too popular with my Mom, but I liked it.

mango season

Summertime is usually mango season in Hawaii, but this year, the crops are kinda late.

Too much rain and not enough sun are the cause...so instead of receiving mangoes from neighbors and friends, we had to buy...eep!

US$4.40 for this mama of a Haden mango...it was sweet and delicious!

After we purchased this one, a friend gave us some from their tree and we also got some Pirie mango from my Aunty.

Even though we had to buy that first mango, I'm happy we've been able to receive more...Hope I get to eat a little more mango before I go back to Japan.

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