ka makana ali'i, moena cafe & new friend

Checked out Ka Makana Ali'i, a new shopping mall in Kapolei with Aunty M and Aunty V.

HUGE. Everything is one level and sort of spread out.

I think their marketing target is resort...

There aren't too many stores or restaurants open yet, but we did get to check out Moena Cafe.

Moena Cafe's flagship shop is in Hawaii Kai, and they already have one in Japan and one in Taiwan.

So this place is already popular with the Japanese tourists.

I tried their fruity french toast...delicious but a little dry...coffee was a bit on the burnt side too.

Still it was nice catching up with the two aunties.

Back at Aunty V's, I got to make a new friend, Griffin.

He's feral, so not too people friendly.

I'm glad he didn't hiss, scratch or bite especially since I probably smell like my furry niece...

All in all, a great day, thanks Aunty M for lunch!

Ka Makana Ali'i
91-5431 Kapolei Parkway
Kapolei, Hawaii
Phone:808.628.4800
Hours: Mondays-Saturdays 10:00-21:00, Sundays 10:00-18:00

Moena Cafe (Ka Makana Ali'i Shopping Center) 2026: no longer at this location
91-5431 Kapolei Parkway, Suite #1001
Kapolei, Hawaii
Phone: 808.628.4737
Hours:
Mondays-Fridays 8:00-21:00
Saturdays 7:30-21:00
Sundays 7:30-20:00

krazy foodie thursday in osaka

Thursday, we met Ryan and his wife, S.

A couple of years back, he gave us a bottle of his mom's homemade ohelo jam.

Even though we were meeting for the first time, it turns out we have a LOT of connections (super small world), so it was easy to chat with them.

After doing some shopping, we had lunch at Okonomiyaki Yukari...Satoshi has been here a couple of times...even if we had to wait to get a table...the food came out quite quickly once we ordered.

We shared a mixed okonomiyaki, negiyaki (pictured above), some yakisoba & a sakura mochi ice cream (and beers).

Bellies full (at least mine was), we walked through Doguyasuji, the area in Osaka that sells all sorts of gadgets & kitchen items.

Around the corner, Satoshi & S had dessert...taiyaki.

And then while walking through Kuromon Market, Ryan and Satoshi had uni (sea urchin) and other goodies...

We went back to their hotel and had drinks at the bar...mojitos & sake

And since Ryan was about to order food from the bar, we decided to grab dinner...

Kushikatsu (and beer) at Hotaru...remember no double dipping.

We let the cook choose so they gave us 10 different types which the waitress rattled off...there was asparagus, shiitake, scallops, tako (octopus), kisu (sillago japonica), onion, minced chicken with cheese, quail eggs, and two more that I can't remember.

Before saying our goodbyes, Ryan gave us this huge Aomori apple that we saw at Kuromon Market.

(I measured and it is about 4 inches (10 centimeters) across and about 4 inches (10 centimeters) tall)

It is a different variety called "mutsu" and different from the ones we see in our area markets.

While very crisp, the fruit itself isn't sweet like Fuji apples...we had half for breakfast one day and the other half for another breakfast...so good!

They also gave us tons of omiyage...mostly things that I have on my Omiyage List.

And also jars of ohelo and ume jam that his mom made!

Lots of walking, lots and lots of talking and lots and lots of eating.

It was so nice to be able to meet them and hope they had a nice time.

We felt so bad because they wouldn't let us pay for anything!

Over the years, our teeny blog has brought us so many new friends and connections and we are so thankful.

"You guys, next time we go holo-holo (galavanting), we're paying...."

Thank you again for a great day, Ryan & S!

Okonomiyaki Yukari
2-11-12 Sennichimae
Chuo, Osaka
Phone: 06.6647.8001
Hours: 11:00-23:30

Doguyasuji
14-5 Namba-sennichimae
Chuo, Osaka

Kuromon Market
2-4-1 Nipponbashi
Chuo, Osaka
Hours: 9:00-18:00

Kushikatsu Hotaru
3-3-3 Namba
Chuo, Osaka
Phone: 06.6616.9800
Closed Mondays
Hours: Weekdays: Lunch: 11:30-15:00, Dinner: 17:30-23:00
Weekends: 11:30-23:00

"new" friends

I got to meet up with an Instagram friend, H & her husband yesterday.

I believe we've known each other through different Social Media for years (I hope I am right).

Anyway, it was nice to put a face to the name and we had a nice time chatting over tartes and coffees.

She was kind to share with me some things from Singapore.

I can't wait to try them!

Thanks for a great afternoon, H!

Enjoy the rest of your trip.

bangkok chef

Finally got to meet Jalna of Photos by Jalna and her friend, Mich.

Jalna's as crazy in person as on her blog...so funny!

What was so cool was that it was so easy to talk with both of them.

We had originally planned to eat at Morning Glass, but they didn't have any tables open, so we ate at Bangkok Chef (next door) instead.

What was nice about this place is that they had lots of tables AND air-conditioning.

Jalna treated us to spring rolls, chicken larb, penang curry, rad nah, thai iced coffee and Mich treated us to a pannacotta mango thingy (no photo) (thank you!).

Everything was so good!

And everyone was way too generous...Mich gave me these beef jerky chips.

Jalna's cousin, V, gave me these other beef jerky chips, gummy bears and crispies.

And reader Ryan gave me a homemade ohelo jam that his mom made! So nice. Brought back memories of when we were small and had to pick ohelo berries on the side of the road by the volcano on the Big Island.

Jalna gave me two handsewn bags that she made too...so creative, yeah?!

All in all, it was a great meet up, lots of talking and lots of eating.

Thank you everyone!

new friend

I recently met up with a new friend, Fiona.

She recently moved here from Singapore with her husband, who is studying at a local university.

We met up for lunch and tried a Korean restaurant that she wanted to try, Chingu.

I ordered the kimbap (Korean sushi), while she had the Bulgogi Chapchae.

Our meals came with some bancha (side dishes): omlette, kinpira gobo & kim chee. It also came with seaweed soup.

The owner also gave us some salad to share. The salad had slices of asian pear in it which gave it a little sweetness to it. There was also a little kick from it too, I think there may have been some kim chee sauce in the dressing.

The kimbap was delicious and really pretty looking.

After a pretty leisurely lunch, we went to have coffee at Sant'Andrea Cafe. I ordered the cafe mocha, but this one came with more whipped cream than coffee...

Then it was time to go, Fiona was kind enough to share with me some bak kwa from Singapore.

It is like jerky, but sweet. After tasting it, it reminded me of lup cheong.

Thank you Fiona for such a fun day, I hope we can meet up again soon!

Chingu
Labi Senri 4F
Toyonaka, Osaka
Phone: 06.6872.5837
Lunch: 11:00-15:00, Dinner 17:00-22:00

Sant'Andrea Cafe
Senchu Pal
Toyonaka, Osaka
Phone: 06.6872.7775
M-F: 7:30-19:30, S: 8:00-19:30, SU: 9:30-19:30

new friends, new places

Met up with my Flickr friend, Rex, the other day. He works in town, so I asked him to meet me at R & D, which reader, Moodie Foodie, had told me about.

It was a great place to meet up, "talk story" (chat), and to have a nice cup of coffee (I had a cappuccino).

Thanks Rex! and Thanks Moodie Foodie!

Around the corner from R & D is The Whole Ox Deli.

I had heard great things about the place as well as seen delicious photos of their food on the blogosphere.

The special that day was the Philly Cheesesteak sandwich...$12 + tax. This was so good. The cheese was creamy like a white sauce, there was lots of mushrooms and onions and the beef was really tender too.

The bun on the other hand was soggy, so I didn't eat it.

I also ordered their plantation iced tea...$3 + tax. It was good, BUT there were these "fibers" in it that I wasn't too fond of clogging up my straw...

I took my lunch to eat at Magic Island...which was so nice to gaze out at the ocean.

On the way home, I picked up some doughnuts for Doughnut Day.

A dozen of Kamehameha Bakery's poi glazed...actually the choices everyone in my family gave me to pick up were sold out.

The lady then quietly said, "I have a dozen of the poi glazed if you want though, someone ordered then cancelled it".

So, poi glazed it was...delish!

I'll be back.

R & D Kakaako (UPDATE: 2018 closed)
691 Auahi Street
Honolulu, Hawaii
Hours: Tuesday-Friday 7:00-19:00, Saturday 12:00-17:00

Whole Ox Deli *closed as of 9/21/2013
327 Keawe Street
Honolulu, Hawaii
Phone: 808.699.6328
Hours: Lunch: 9:30-15:00 (Monday-Saturday), Dinner: 17:30-21:30 (Tuesday-Saturday BYOB)

new friend

I got to meet up with a friend the other day, Rona. She's commented many times on our blog and has given us great foodie tips like here, here, here, and here, but it was our first time actually meeting face to face.

I chatted along with her and her friend, Jam, for almost 2 hours and the time really flew!

She gave me these chocolates. I tried the one in the package, it is like a crunch with coffee-flavor. She mentioned that the bar is by a new maker in Canada.

Can't wait to try it.

Even though her schedule was tight, it was nice to be able to meet up, Thanks Rona!

It's Friday here, hope you have a great weekend!

UPDATE: the round chocolates are called "Coffee Crisps" and the Zazubean "Hottie" bar is spicy...Thanks again Rona!

sisterhood of world bloggers award

I made a new friend recently.

Her name is Nami and she is the author of Just One Cookbook, her blog has delicious recipes and yummy photos too.

We actually "met" through Foodbuzz.

She is actually from Japan and now lives in the States.

She recently presented me with the Sisterhood of World Bloggers Award.

Part of the award is that you have to share 7 random things about yourself. I've done something similar like this before, so I'm going to "re-share" these answers (if you don't mind...)

1. I like to wash my dishes in a particular order (cups, dishes, utensils) and stack them to dry so they look neat and organized.

2. I used to save my favorite food to eat last, but have since changed my ways and now eat it first, so I won't be totally full at the end of the meal not to eat it.

3. If I want something, like a cookbook, gadget or book, on the market, I usually cannot sleep and will hunt all over for it until I get it. (OCD? maybe.)

4. Most people think I'm "type A" (in Japan they consider this blood type to have characteristics of be quite controlling and anal) blood type, but I think I'm actually "type B" (in Japan they consider this blood type to be quite relaxed and easy going). (I actually don't know my blood type, do you know yours?)

5. I can usually wake up without an alarm clock at the same time every day. (changing of the seasons usually jams me up)

6. Only when I used to drive my father's Buick did the odometer go backwards.

7. I love tuna with kim chee sandwiches.

I usually don't pass on these awards, but I think we all need some "virtual hugs" these days, here are some great blogging women:

Deb of Kahakai Kitchen
Jalna of Photos by Jalna
Rowena of Rubber Slippers in Italy
Kathy of A Passion for Food (her site is now called "Kathy YL Chan")
Manju of Three Tastes
Barbara of Winos and Foodies
Su-Lin of Tamarind and Thyme
Paz of Cooking Adventures of Chef Paz

Just because I didn't list you, you can participate too, just write 7 random things about yourself and pass the award onto 15 people and link your post to this one.

To end this post, I want to share with you a recipe that I tried from Nami's site...horenso goma-ae (spinach with sesame sauce).

I didn't follow her preparation method, just the measurements for her sauce because I usually don't boil spinach, instead I wilt them in a non-stick pan.

So, I pre-cut my spinach, washed it well then wilted it in the pan. The water helps "steam" and wilt it.

Then to stop the cooking I blanched them in cold water and squeezed the water out with my hands.

I then coated the spinach with the sesame sauce.

This was delicious. I'm pretty sure you can use the sauce for other veggies as well.

Thanks Nami for a great recipe and for the award.

It is Friday here, hope your weekend is a nice one.

hawaii foodie thursday

Thursday, I met up with my blog friend, Deb of Kahakai Kitchen. We've emailed and commented on each other's blogs but never met up face to face.

I had also received an email to meet up from another blog friend, Alan of Ma'ona and asked if he wanted to join us. Luckily, he didn't have any last minute meetings and took some time out of his busy schedule to join us.

It was the first time for all of us to meet each other.

We met up at Blue Hawaii Lifestyle Cafe at Ala Moana Shopping Center to try their acai bowl (US$7.50 +tax). It was my first time trying this and I really liked it---a tart acai "sorbet" topped with granola, fruit and some honey...delicious.

We chatted about blogging and other topics then Alan had to return to work. It was really nice putting a face to his blog and I think we all had a nice time.

After our acai bowls, Deb and I headed upstairs to the Pacific Place Tea Garden. The owner of this shop is actually a friend of my friend, Audrey. She had told me about this place awhile back but I had never had the chance to check them out.

Deb had been here before and highly recommended the tea floats, but since we had just eaten the acai bowl, we settled on iced teas and macaron instead.

Deb had their tangerine ginger tea (US$2.95) with a chocolate macaron (US$1.75) and I tried their passion for hawaii tea (US$2.95) with a matcha macaron (US$1.75).

The macaron was good but could have used more green tea flavor, it actually reminded me more of a pistachio flavor. I loved the tea, there was a lot of passion fruit flavor.

Besides taking time out of her busy schedule to spend time with me, Deb was also kind to give me some of her favorites...chocolates from Sweet Paradise Chocolatier, a chocolate shop in Kailua.

I tried them and each one was perfectly flavored and the chocolate surrounding them perfectly matched too. They were all so good that I couldn't pick a favorite....(I actually ate half of each one and saved the other half for my mom...if you were wondering.)

Along with the chocolates, she also included her favorite tea from Teavana. The tea is a rooibos tea flavored with blueberries and other herbs, can't wait to try it...

And as though she weren't generous enough, she also included two magazines.."delicious." and "edible hawaiian islands".

"delicious." is also a favorite of mine, Satoshi had brought a copy back for me from one of his business trips to Australia in the past and I try to buy a copy whenever I'm in Hawaii.

The "edible" magazine was something new to me. This magazine promotes local food and apparently there are many other cities that have publications so check out their website to see if your city has one.

I had a great time meeting Alan and Deb. (Thanks for a great day you two! and thanks for all those great foodie items Deb!)

Pacific Place Tea Garden (UPDATE: 2014, this shop is no longer here)
Top Floor
Ala Moana Shopping Center, concourse near Neiman Marcus
Honolulu, Hawaii
Phone: 808.944.2004

Sweet Paradise Chocolatier
20-A Kainehe Street
Kailua, Hawaii
Phone: 808.230.8228

my new friend

I'm not sure how we got to be e-mail friends. (sorry!)

We e-mail each other quite often and she often gives me links to interesting pages that she finds.

One day she mentioned that she wanted to find some Hello Kitty musubi molds and the die-cut punches for nori (seaweed) for the Hello Kitty and friends faces.

I went out to the closest Sanrio store and found the molds, but couldn't find the die-cut punches. What I did come across were some sheets of nori that were pre-cut with the faces. I picked that up instead.

I sent them to her and she loved them.

My new friend Shar is very crafty.

As thanks for the molds, she sent me some of her creations. A cute tee and tote bag, along with a baking pan and poke mix.

She has a link if you are interested purchasing a durable tote bag. She handpaints each creation. Shar says to get your orders in soon because she'll be overwhelmed by Christmas and she has many craft fairs to attend during the Fall.

Thank you Shar! I hope to meet you the next time I'm home.

UPDATE: the link mentioned above did not work as of 2011, so I disconnected it.

new friend, new recipe, new flower

Yesterday I met a new friend. She contacted me through Flickr. Since she's travelling through Japan, she emailed me and we met for lunch and lots of sweets. (sorry no photos of the food) She gave me a mini bottle of her favorite liquer, which I hope to make ice cream or bon bons with!...thanks for a great time, Maui Luna!

The new recipe is something I tried for dinner.

Spring potato kinpira -- serves 2 from "Soshoku no susume-Spring recipes" by Hideo Makuuchi

400g new crop potatoes (about 1 pound?)
a pinch of dry chili
1 tablespoon sesame oil
1/4 cup sake (rice wine)
2 tablespoon mirin (sweet rice wine)
2 tablespoon shoyu (soy sauce)

Wash the potatoes and keep the skins on (dig out any of the eyes--if any)
Cut the potato to about 4 or 5 mm.
Heat a pan and put in the oil
Toss the potato with chili around in oil until transparent
Add the sake, mirin and shoyu and simmer on medium until all liquid disappears.

This other recipe is adapted from a recipe I've used from Jamie Oliver. Cut an onion (preferable new crop as these are tender and sweet) into quarters but don't cut it all the way through.

Put a teaspoon of oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Put into a 400F (200C) oven for about 30 minutes.

Lastly, I wanted to show you my new flowers. They are called "forget-me-not". They were really inexpensive, less than 100 yen each. I thought the little flowers were so cute.

macarons, macarons & mini PH

Ever since Autumn, I've been seeing more and more macarons about, so I'd like to share with you what I've been sampling...

Starbucks caramel and raspberry macarons. 

The caramel one is sickly sweet. 

Definitely eat it with black coffee. 

The raspberry one has raspberry gelatin inside, it is not too sweet.

Bon Nouvelle's macarons have been featured in many foodie magazines here. 

I love the huge display they have in the middle of their shop. 

Apparently, they change it every month!

All edible except for the gold leaf ones.


I bought a box of 14 so I could share with Satoshi.

These were really small, and just right for a mid-afternoon snack. 

The flavors we had were cafe noix (coffee and sesame), chocolat passion (chocolate with passion fruit), pistache (pistachio), vanille (vanilla), mangue (mango with cinnamon), fraise (strawberry), the vert (green tea).

Secession's macaron flavors are seasonal, they have different flavors throughout the year. 

Their macs are bigger than Bon Nouvelle's, as big as PH's (Pierre Herme), but not as good as PH.

There was tarragon, chocolate, orange, pineapple, sesame & cherry. Satoshi and I agreed that the orange one was super bitter! My favorite was the sesame.

My search for macarons weren't all successes though, there was one shop, to be left unnamed, that had advertised macarons. 

So, I travelled quite a ways to buy some, only to find out that for the rest of the year, they have decided not to make any! I knew I should have called to see if they had them on hand.

Yesterday I met a fellow blogger, Tamakikat and we went to check out the IXC.caffe which is run by Cassina, an Italian brand interior shop in Osaka. 

They were supposedly serving PH macarons...meh, we were bummed that we weren't allowed to choose from the flavors they had (they gave us pistachio and caramel sel) and they weren't really worth the price they were charging and if I remember correctly, the PH macarons I had in Tokyo were WAY bigger! 

Still we had a nice time chatting and walking around Osaka.

While I'm on the subject of PH, Carol e-mailed me to tell me about the mini PH collection. 

I found a site in Japan that was selling it and ordered my own.

Boy, they are REALLY mini. I've put my 6-inch scissors next to them so you can see how tiny they are! 

Usually when you buy figurines like these in the store, the boxes are not labelled, so to collect the complete set, you usually need to buy more than the actual amount in the set.

And when you have to do this, you usually end up with two or more of the same figurine. 

Luckily, the company that was selling these, sold me the complete set (whew!), but I'm afraid to take them out of the plastic--I may lose a piece....

Bon Nouvelle
3-2-15 Kida
Nada, Kobe
Phone: 078.857.7342
Open:10:00-21:00, call ahead to be sure they are open

Secession
1486 Mikage aza Shironomae
Mikage, Kobe
Phone: 078.854.2678
Closed: Wednesdays
Open: 10:00-19:30

UPDATE: the IXC.caffe is now closed in Osaka (2011)