Friday Eats

The Mouse kinda temporarily fruit and vegetabled out. Needed more meat. Not saying not going back to more fruit and veggies, just Friday. 🙂

Laulau and Kalua Pork

Double order of laulau. Nom! No worries, one laulau and half of the kalua pork are for another day, maybe today. 🙂

Also at the grocery store.

Sausage

One sausage also added to Friday’s meat meal. Rest for later.

Ok, The Mouse is satisfied. One to the next meal. Hee hee.

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Friday Eats

Friday. Breakfast for The Mouse. The Cat’s “leftover” oatmeal (The Mouse cooked too much).

Oatmeal

Since The Mouse is not a big fan of oatmeal, he had to appeal it up with a dollop of honey.

Organic Hawaiian Honey with Cinnamon

The honey made the oatmeal more bread pudding-like. Hee hee.

Dinner, almost becoming a Friday tradition.

Lau Lau (or is it Laulau) Plate

From the supermarket down the street. The Mouse took the rice lau lau and lomi salmon, The Cat got the chicken long rice, Okinawan sweet potato, and haupia (under the lomi salmon).

It’s still the eve before New Year’s eve here in SPAM Land, I think we are one of the last time zones. Happy New Year’s Eve to everyone else.

Enjoy. Eat well.

The Mouse

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On A Mission

The first two times I visited here, it was by myself. Think advance reconnaissance. 😀

The other day, we (The Cat and I) met up with our cousins P&B. It was their first time (The cat included). I was on a mission to convert them to fans. P, I’m not too worried about, but B has not been fully assimilated yet (she has yet to patronize a lunch wagon). Sigh.

Anyway, the specials for Friday included Hawaiian plate and steamed fish. On this day, it was sole.

Steamed Sole, Chinese-Style

The Cat approved.

Hawaiian Plate

A large bowl of poi, laulau, kalua pig and cabbage, lomi salmon, and raw onions (they’re under the poi). The Mouse approved (this was my first time eating a plate lunch from here).

Teri Pork with Brown Rice

P’s order. I think he approved.

Won Ton Mein

B’s order. She wanted to make sure I got a picture of the fishcake (kamaboko). She doesn’t eat it (told you she hasn’t been fully assimilated yet). 😉

Of course, I had to get this:

Green River

B got one too, so there’s still hope for her yet. 🙂

Enjoy.

The Mouse

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Pipikaula Short Ribs

Yesterday’s lunch was here, one of the temples of Hawaiian food.

Sign

I’ve been trying to get in a couple of times (both lunch and dinner) with no luck. Yesterday, I found parking on the street and decided to go for it. I first had to check if I had enough cash in the pocket (cash only).

Besides being locally famous, the restaurant (or is it founding owner?) won a James Beard award and has also been featured on the Man v. Food TV program.

Mark

I ordered “Menu B“, combo because it had the two choices I really wanted to try at Helena’s

Kalua Pig

And

Pipikaula Short Ribs

Part of the process of making the PipikaulaShort Ribs is to hang the meat.

Ohh Ahh

The combination plate also comes with poi or rice and a cube of haupia, I opted for the large poi.

Poi

Haupia and Raw Onions

The raw onions gives the meal the vegetable component. 😉

I added on an order of Laulau because I wanted to sample more (who knows when I could be back).

Laulau

Oh yeah, had to order fruit punch. Nothing else goes with Hawaiian food than fruit punch (non-alcoholic anyway). I think fruit punch and Hawaiian food are linked by DNA or something (hee hee).

Fruit Punch

The Laulau was very moist with lots of luau leaves. For my taste, it needed just a pinch of Hawaiian salt (in the little dish in the background).

The Kalua Pig was nothing I’ve tasted before, moist, well seasoned, rich, and earthy. I guess that’s the result of making it in an imu instead of an oven.

The Pipikaula Short Ribs (hang on, I’m getting a little verklempt), OMG! The angels started rocking out (the socks didn’t just come off, they disappeared entirely). These ribs are like the holy grail of meat. Forget about the filet mignon, New York steak, and prime rib, for my money, it’s Helena’s Pipikaula Short Ribs. Crusty and salty with an intense beefy taste. Imagine a whole bowl of ribs, a good book, Kindle, or Nook, or movie; pure bliss. How good were they?

This Good

Apparently the staff at the restaurant pegged me as a local. There were several tables around me where the server would explain what each dish was and how to eat it (the raw onions for instance). For me, the server gave me a smile, served the food, and left me alone. I guess it was the large poi. 🙂

Looking forward to coming back soon.

Enjoy.

The Mouse

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Eating ‘Round The Neighborhood

I’ve past by the Megumi Restaurant many many times (we live nearby) always curious about what kind restaurant this is. I finally looked it up on Yelp and found out it was partly restaurant and partly an okazu-ya.

Megumi Restaurant

I was jonesing for some okazu-ya food for awhile. The problem is they open really early in the morning and close early afternoon. This morning presented a window of opportunity to check this place out. There is a short counter of okazu-ya selections (but enough to fill the urge).

The Mouse's Choices

Clockwise from top left: squash with chicken, hot dog wrapped in an egg omelette , vegetable nishime, cone sushi, and roast pork. The problem when I’m in the mood for something for a while, I get carried away (Hello, my name is The Mouse and I’m a foodie). Everything was very good. This was the first time I’ve had a hot dog wrapped in an egg omelette. Yum.

In the same complex, a new shave ice place opened up (not shaved ice, not ice shave, but shave ice).

Tropical Grindz Shave ice

In the window, one of the daily specials was ham hock stew. This sounded interesting. When we first moved to the windward side, there was a whole in the wall (I’ve forgotten the name) that used corned beef to make their beef stew and curry stew (about this time our cousin B is probably saying ewww!).

The beef stew and curry stew from this place was awesome! There were large chunks of potatoes, carrots, onions, and turnips in the stews. The seasoning was just spicy enough to wake up my tongue but not so spicy to create alarm. Alas, the place closed a few months after we settled in (I think the owners retied). I’ve not had that experience with curries or stews since.

I was excited that the ham hock stew would be a similar experience.

Ham Hock Stew Bowl

Hmmm, let’s just say the concept of the dish has potential. I think the ham hock was simmered in the same tomato sauce used to make chili (there were a few chili beans in my bowl). There were no vegetables. 😦 The sauce was pretty good with the smokiness of the ham hock imparted in the flavor.

I saved most of the ham hock in our freezer. I may try making my own ham hock stew sometime (I’ll let you know).

I got The Cat the lau lau and kalua pork plate.

The Cat's Plate

She said the lau lau was okay (not bad, not outstanding, okay). I saved the kalua pork to cook it with cabbage later. The macaroni salad was elbow macaroni and mayonnaise (hmm).

I got overexcited about the okazu-ya and kind of overspent the budget (once in a while). The ham hock stew bowl and lau lau and kalua pork plate were reasonably priced. The adventure continues.

Enjoy.

The Mouse

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