Weekend Eats

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The Cat’s

 

The Mouse’s

 

Misc.

Next, Zia’s Caffe in Kaneohe.

Soup

 

Bruschetta

 

Pasta

Enjoy. Eat well.

The Mouse

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Surf ‘N’ Turf

Sometimes plans go awry. Kokoro-Tei, the little made-to-order bento place near work. Recently, saw this sign.

Omelet Rice

Used to be available only about twice a month, and only as a special lunch, higher cost, more items in the bento. The post-it indicated available Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays. Yay, schedule is improving. This being Thursday … omelet rice with gravy sauce. Mmmmm.

But, it was not to be. Person taking the order says n/a, only available twice a month as a special. But, but the wall?

She quickly gets a piece of paper and covers it up.😦

Forced to change directions. Now, when it comes to food, it’s not easy for The Mouse to change direction at the drop of a hat. Plus, I have a short window between jobs for lunch. Went with today’s special.

Today’s Special

A little pricier than the omelet rice, but, I haven’t had unagi for a while. For unagi, the price was not bad.

Gyu-Don/Unagi-Don Bento

Gyu-don, thin slices of beef simmered with onions, scrambled eggs, unagi-don, grilled fresh water eel, salad, kabocha, rolled omelet, mac salad, rice. Not bad at all. Almost made up for the non-existent omurice. Sigh.

Oh well, have to follow Scarlett O’Hara’s advice. Hee hee.

Enjoy. Eat well.

The Mouse

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Weird Weekend, Part II

Sunday just as “weird”, in a good way.

Started like most Sundays for us. Farmers market, groceries, mushroom chicken plate for The Cat.

Problem with buying take out from the grocery store is that so far, the menu is the same. Baked mahi mahi, pastele stew, and mushroom chicken.

The Mouse has tried them all, while The Cat doesn’t mind the mushroom chicken each Sunday, The Mouse needed a little variety.

On the way back, picked up a combo plate from L&R Drive In.

Beef and Stingbeans
Chicken Katsu
Combo Plate

There’s a space in the upper left corner, The Cat took the rice.🙂

Portion was large enough for me to take a sandwich with the leftover chicken katsu yesterday.

The Mouse’s Katsu Sandwich

After a long afternoon “event”, tried a Japanese restaurant on the way home.

Sign

The Cat ordered miso butterfish.

The Cat’s Dinner

 

Close-Up

The Mouse ordered spicy tuna and natto.🙂

The Mouse’s Tray

 

Close-Up

Fairly reasonable prices. We can come back.🙂

Except not for natto, The Cat’s nose too sensitive. Humph.

So the weird part of the weekend?

I forgot to take a picture.

Stay tuned tomorrow.

Enjoy. Eat well.

The Mouse

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Start of the Weekend

Not all tempura are created equal.

To back track, a couple of weeks ago, waiting for The Cat, decided to dinner outside. Could’ve gone tempura, but decided on udon instead. Didn’t want to do a sit down dinner at the tempura restaurant, the udon place is more cafeteria style.

Udon

Ordered the “plain” udon and curry rice combo with a few sides.

Udon, Curry Rice, and Sides

The tempura bits, grated ginger, and green onions are on a table to add your own.

Mushroom Tempura, Inari Sushi, Sweet Potato Tempura, and Burdock Root Tempura.

Should’ve known better (but I was hungry), the tempura was sitting on a counter under warming lamps, not the best conditions. Sigh. At least the udon and curry rice were decent, it is a udon shop after all. Lesson learned. Udon shop for udon. Tempura shop for tempura. Oh well.

Jump forward to this past Friday. Late lunch. Determined to put the last tempura experience behind. The proper tempura restaurant.

Yay!

Tried to order “light”, we had dinner plans.

Vegetable Tempura Donburi

Sweet potato, asparagus, heart of palm, lotus root, eggplant, kabocha (pumpkin), Hawaiian kale. Meal came with miso soup, pickles, and small side vegetables. Posted pictures of these before, won’t bore you with the details.

So, the last time I was here, didn’t have quite enough rice to sufficiently last through the meal. My eyes were bigger than my stomach. New item on the menu, mini kakiage chazuke.

Mini Kakiage Chazuke: scallop, kabocha, and bell pepper fritter (tempura) on rice with broth

 

Condiments: wasabi, some kinda pickles, and green onions

 

Pot of Broth

 

Everyone in the pool

Needless to say, there was enough rice this go round. The Mouse was a little full, but satiated.🙂

Dinner was here.

Sign

Been wanting to try this place for years (literally). But since we rarely get out to Waikiki, it has always been on the back burner.

As late as we went, still crowded.

Got the last table in the back.

The condiments.

Cute ya?

Pot of tonkatsu sauce, pickled ume plums, shichi-mi tōgarashi (Japanese pepper blend), and hot mustard.

Started of with Japanese style rolled omelet.

Appetizer

The Cat ordered the seafood mix katsu set (sorry, no pictures, The Mouse had a user error malfunction). The Mouse ordered the pork mixed set (Tenderloin, Loin, Minced Kurobuta).

But first, a small suribachi bowl of sesame seeds came with its surikogi.

Sesame Seeds

The Cat experienced this before, The Mouse did not.

After a few minutes of grinding, the sesame seed became pasty (think chunky peanut butter), tonkatsu sauce is added.

Sesame “Butter” with Tonkatsu Sauce

 

The Mouse’s Mixed Plate

Nom!

The highlight of The Cat’s experience

 

Rice!

Imported from Japan.

The Cat liked the rice so much …

Rice Paddle

She cleaned the rice paddle.

In retrospect, I shouldn’t have done the tempura and tonkatsu in one day … but The Mouse was happy anyway.

Daytime View

Enjoy. Eat well.

The Mouse

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Oops We (I) Did It Again!

Over the long weekend, visited Tempura Ichidai again, this time with The Cat. Select merchants at the mall were offering discounts over the holiday, Tempura Ichidai was one.

25 percent off of their shrimp tempura donburi set. Yay!

Cooking Station (Photo by The Cat)

 

Frying Our Food!

 

Side Vegetables and Pickles

 

Miso Soup

 

Shrimp Tempura Donburi Set

Shrimp,eggplant, kabocha (pumpkin), Hawaiian kale.

Norma Desmond Shot

The Cat was impressed. Fresh ingredients, well cooked, and tasty. It’s not so easy to impress The Cat (think Morris or Alanis). Hee hee.

Although tempted to order the yuzu sorbet again, server persuaded us to try the Shiratama Anmitsu.

Dessert

Cubed kanten jelly, shiratama mochi, mandarin orange and azuki bean, topped with vanilla gelato. Nom!

A successful meal for The Cat and The Mouse. Even down to the chopsticks. The Cat was so impressed with the quality of the disposable chopsticks, she took them home.

Chopsticks and Barley Tea

Even The Cat doesn’t mind returning.🙂

Enjoy. Eat well.

The Mouse

 

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