Izakayas, Shave Ice and Salmon Skin

Gazen Izakaya Tofu: Sweet sesame miso sauce (Saikyo), plain w/ sea salt and tea leaves, black sesame seed (Kurogoma)

Gazen Izakaya 2840 Kapiolani Blvd - tofu specialist, a dark club/bar atmosphere -- Tofu sampler and the Daikon Salad.  The other items on the menu are hit or miss.  The fried squid (or octopus?) and standard izakaya small dishes were decent.

Tokkuri Tei - salmon skin salad is great - crispy salmon skin, crunchy fish roe, greens in a nutty miso dressing, and creamy tofu. Squid pancake hearty and interesting sea flavor.  Mid range sushi also very good.


Salmon Skin Salad

Maguro Ya - sushi/sashimi.  The fish is good here. They specialize in salmon, but we have not been disappointed by anything we've ordered here.  I get the teishoku for variety.

KCC Farmer's Market - I like the stand with the kalua pork cooked in an Imu - you have to ask them b/c they don't always cook it Imu style.  The bbq'd abalone is fine, though not worth waiting in a long line.  The spicy ausage on a stick is also worthwhile.

Tanioka's - out of the way, but a good poke spot.  Tako, spicy marlin and Japan clam.

Ginza Bairin - a tonkatsu specialist with a booth in Shirokiya.  Be sure to ask him to cook one for you rather than grabbing a pre-made bento.  Simple dish with the fried pork and spicy curry.  I also like the rice specialist in Shirokiya which is near this booth.
 
Goma Tei - not destination worthy but an option in Ala Moana Center - tan tan ramen, the soup is a little salty but good if you like sesame flavor.
 
YuChun - mool naem myun specialist.  Not exceptional but it's nice to have cold noodles in the hot weather.

Ailana Shave Ice - much more natural flavored syrups, mild.  A good option near Ala Moana Mall.

Tenkaippen - Their Kotteri Ramen is pretty good, though Yotteko Ya paitan spicy is still my favorite.

Hawaii

KCC FARMER'S MARKET

SLIDESHOW


Hawaii Eats March 2010



KCC Farmer's Market - bbq abalone, delicious abalone bbq'd on the half shell. One stand had - excellent kalua pork, smokey and moist without being over cooked and stringy. The vendor said that it was done traditional emu style (by burying it), it was definitely better than a lot of the KP I've tried.


Kaka'ako Kitchen - the shoyu chicken is the best, the mahi is fine, but the chicken is delicious.


Side Street Inn - the fried pork chop is delicious though fatty and I'm not sure it's worth the price tag, the spicy chicken is boneless pieces of skin on chicken fried and topped with a salty spicy sweet sauce - these are really lack luster, far too much breading and not enough meat and the sauce is not very good.

Wailoa Bakery - best shave ice, finely shaved until it becomes the texture of ice cream. The Azuki bowl and the green tea flavor are my favorites.


Million - the pork neck soup is delicious, not too spicy and full of flavor, the pan chan are good and the service is very friendly. I also loved the homey comforting beef brisket and tendon soup. The broth is a white pork bone based broth with a straightforward clean flavor. Good when punched up with a bit of salt and dunked in rice.


Leonard's - the li hing sugar malasada was new to me, I think between the original, cinnamon and li hing, the cinnamon is the best.

Hank's Haute Dogs - they had a Monday special of Italian Beef. I got it spicy, it was fine, the meat could've been less cooked, but they definitely got the jus and bread right. I also liked the hibiscus lemonade a nice acid punch to cut the richness of the sandwich.

Tanioka's - got the spicy ahi, spicy marlin and giant clam pokes.  The poke here is excellent.  This time I noticed the simple clean flavors in the spicy marlin.  My companion loved the giant clam poke and I agree that it's one to get again.  The spicy ahi was good, though perhaps over marinated because I felt the spices overwhelmed the ahi, it was just a bit too strong.

Champion Malasadas - these were really good and in just one visit, I prefer them to Leonards.  The plain sugar malasada had an eggy almost custard like tender interior while the custard filled malasada was more standard, though I appreciated the fact that the custard was tasty and not too sweet.


Shrimp Trucks

Romy's - exactly as I remembered it. Super juicy and fresh prawns are the thing to get, I got the garlic preparation which is o.k. if you like toasted garlic flavor, though I thought the spicy shoyu dip that accompanied it was a good counterpoint.  Next time, get the steamed prawns with cocktail or shoyu on the side.

Fumi's - they didn't actually have a shack the last time I was in the area. They have a lot of different preparations and they recommended the garlic prep.  The spicy shrimp looked firey red, a little too red, while there was also a butter garlic spicy which added garlic to the mix.  I went for that and was pleasantly surprised by the slightly tart garlic and red pepper sauce.  The shrimps were very fresh and I would come back.

Giovanni's - I remembered really loving the scampi sauce here.  This time, it was just o.k. I think what sets it apart is the cooked garlic.  The garlic is cooked so that it is soft and has that roasted garlic flavor, there also appears to be plenty of olive oil in the sauce.  I found it a bit rich so I squeezed plenty of lemon onto it and added the hot sauce.  The hot sauce is probably the best thing at Giovanni's, probably a combination of butter and red chili.  The shrimp themselves were the least impressive of the three places, but with such a powerful sauce you didn't taste much of the shrimp anyway.

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YOTTEKO-YA****

There's something that always makes food taste better, like my mom cooking her special dish for me when I haven't been home in a long while, a celebratory meal with an old friend, eating anything outside on a nice day, or finding some special food when far from home. This may explain why I like the ramen at Yotteko-Ya so much. I was in Hawaii, so the sun was shining, it was warm and everyone was relaxed and smiling. By no means am I an expert or even well versed in the way of ramen, but Yotteko-Ya's is better than any I've ever tasted.

YY is the Honolulu shop of a Japanese chain serving Kyoto ramen. I've had several of their soups and thus far my favorite is the Paitan Ramen ordered spicy with Japanese style noodles. The paitan soup is pork based with a deep, yet complex pork flavor with a hint of sea flavor. Almost as if the broth is salted with dried seaweed or mixed with their seafood broth. The menu claims that it has been cooked for ten hours with ten different vegetables and ten spices. Like tonkotsu soup, it's white and creamy in appearance. Though, the flavor does not taste creamy in the traditional dairy sense -- it is thick, smooth and soft. Spicy adds some hot pepper flavor, a nice kick to balance the creaminess and works well with the slightly salty soup. At this branch, the noodles can be served local style or Japanese style. Local (to Hawaii) is a softer noodle, while Japanese style is firmer and chewier. One of my few food dislikes is soft mushy noodles, so Japanese style is the way to go for me. The noodles are firm and taste fresh -- perhaps 'rocketed from Kyoto' as the sign says? I've sung the praises of the cha-siu before, it's still thick, tender, full of caramelized soy flavor and has a nice bit of fat to round it out.



The Kakuni Ramen is a clearer broth that is equally strong and porky and better than most of the ramen I can get around SF. Both J and I would order kakuni style again, but agreed that we preferred the thicker creamy consistency and the slight miso taste of the Paitan.



Whenever getting the set menu, remember to get the cha-han and fried chicken.

Tastes of Hawaii

Hank's Haute Dogs ***

Sausages are great, but hot dogs have never had a strong hold on me. Yes, I like the charred ones at Gray's and the topped ones at Red Hot Lovers, still, I rarely crave a hot dog. Luckily, Hank's Haute Dogs serves both Chicago dogs and an interesting array of sausages. Over the course of several weeks, we had the pleasure of sampling: the Chicago dog, Chorizo, Lobster, Duck and Foie Gras, Chicken and No Dog.

When a Honolulu establishment goes so far as to bring in Vienna Beef Hot Dogs, you know they are serious. I started with a Chicago dog with sport hot peppers, celery salt and mustard on the traditional poppy seed bun. Nice snap from the natural casing, and points for the Chicago toppings.

As for the haute dogs, my favorite was the Duck and Foie Gras rich dense duck meat with a strong foie gras flavor paired perfectly with a sweet and slightly sour chutney of fruits and nuts. One of the best sausages I've ever had. My least favorite was the lobster. Perhaps my expectations were very high because I love lobster, but this was a very buttery lobster sausage with relish and mango topping. There was plenty of lobster meat, but not enough overall flavor to justify such a decadent use of lobster meat. (I would've much preferred it used to make a good lobster role.)

J's favorite was the Chorizo, a smoked sausage grilled and topped with brown mustard, cooked onion and cilantro. The sausage was smokey with nice char marks, the onion was cooked and had a mild vinegar flavor. I often have huevos con chorizo for breakfast and this chorizo had less grease and salt than those found at my taquerias, perfect for a sausage in a bun.

We were both surprised by the Chicken sausage. When J ordered it, I suspected it would be dry and bland. In fact, it was juicy, flavorful and well paired with a mango relish. Both of us would order this again especially when with the Lilikoi and Lime drink.

Another high note for Hank's is the onion rings served coated in a light panko -- crunchy and well seasoned, though the portion is a bit small. The french fries are nothing special and probably worth skipping to save room for an extra dog. For next time, we'll definitely try to make it in for the Kobe Dog and the truffled mac n cheese.

Shrimp Trucks of Oahu

Near the town of Kahuku on the North Shore of Oahu, there are quite a few shrimp farms. Some of them allow you to fish for your own shrimp from their ponds, but most are closed to the public. An attraction for surfers and tourists alike are the shrimp trucks around the North Shore and even in Honolulu that serve several variations of shrimp dishes usually with two scoops of rice some greens or cabbage and that wonderful feeling of goodness you get from eating fresh seafood outside on picnic tables after a day at the beach. Every truck has its own recipes but all serve some version of shrimp with a garlic sauce. Several months ago, I sampled the two best known: Giovanni's and Romy's. This time I made it a point to try different trucks.

There are two primary components of shrimp truck dishes, one is the quality and taste of the shrimp themselves and the other is the sauce or preparation of the shrimp. In terms of the quality of shrimp my order of preference: Romy's, Macky's, Hono's, Blue Water Shrimp, Giovanni's. For sauce and preparation my preference is: Giovanni's, Blue Water Shrimp, Hono's, Romy's, Macky's.

Romy's Kahuku Prawns & Shrimp
As I mentioned in my previous roundup of Romy's versus Giovanni's the quality of the shrimp here is very high, perhaps it is because they get their shrimp and prawns from their own farm. The shrimp are larger than shrimp at other farms and the prawns are huge perhaps twice the size of the shrimp. Unfortunately, four out of the six times I've ever been here they have not had prawns. The shrimp tastes very fresh has a nice snap when you bite in and is served shell completely on with part of the head on, no butterflying or deveining. Serving the shrimp this way shows off it's freshness and lack of processing. As far as the sauces, the shrimp can be ordered steamed with a side sauce of shoyu, spicy shoyu, butter and some others. Most people seem to go for the garlic shrimp, which is the shrimp stir fried with copious amounts of chopped garlic. This straightforward preparation is good for showing off the shrimp because it doesn't add an independent sauce flavor as found at other trucks. Photo from last time:



The other popular preparation is the spicy and sweet sauce which is more sweet than spicy. I did not like this at all, strong and sugary red sauce. Like a Chinese sweet and sour sauce with a bit of chili added -- not my taste at all.



Giovanni's Original Shrimp
My opinion of Giovanni's has changed since the first few times I ate here. After having tried the shrimp at other trucks, I found the quality of the shrimp at Giovanni's lower than the rest. The shrimp tastes fine is nicely deveined, but is small and I didn't find a huge taste difference between this shrimp and the frozen shrimp I bought at the supermarket. The strength of Giovanni's is the scampi preparation: a butter garlic sauce with garlic cooked until it is tender in a blend of olive oil, butter, lemon, and spices. I would guess that the shrimp is marinated in the sauce and there seems to be some other ingredient that adds some body to the sauce (or it could just be the softened garlic). It's good enough to eat on top of rice without the shrimp. When served with the shrimp it is good but overpowers the shrimp taste. Even so, I liked mixing in some of the hot sauce which you can get on the side and liked the spicy hot scampi. I wouldn't order the hot sauce preparation, it's not as good as the scampi, but the mix of the two is quite tasty. There's no denying that the scampi here is delicious, but it could as easily be served on pasta or rice as on shrimp, so shrimp is not the star. In fact they serve a garlic hot dog, which is a hot dog that has been cooked in the scampi sauce. Photo from last time:



Macky's Original Shrimp
I tried the Haleiwa outpost of Macky's Original Shrimp truck which was near the end of town. They had several picnic tables with a shade above them. I was surprised by the flavor of their garlic butter shrimp. The shrimp were larger than Giovanni's but smaller than Romy's, served cleaned and deveined. They had a very fresh taste and even a natural sweetness to the meat. This sweetness showed through the light garlic butter sauce. I would've liked a bit of acid to the sauce, but liked the fact that it didn't overpower the dish. Overall, Macky's garlic butter shrimp was a good balance between fresh shrimp and a light sauce to compliment the shrimp.



Hono's ShrimpThis truck is located in the corral of food trucks in Haleiwa. The quality of the shrimp here was good, slightly larger than those at Macky's, though not deveined. The garlic sauce was similar to that of Romy's, a simple saute of chopped garlic with a bit of butter, but lighter on the garlic. Another good compliment to the shrimp. Eating this side by side with Giovanni's shrimp scampi, it was clear that Giovanni's sauce is excellent over rice but overpowering on the shrimp.



The spicy shrimp was sweet and spicy without being sugary. Again, not to my taste, but better than that at Romy's. Fans of this flavor might like it.



Blue Water Shrimp
I went to the Honolulu outpost of this truck located on Kuhio in the empty half of a lot under construction. Sharing a covered picnic area with another food truck is the brightly painted Blue Water Shrimp, serving the typical shrimp dishes as well as clams, king crab and seared ahi. This truck has a larger seafood menu than most and coupons can be found in the Japanese Kau Kau shopping flyer. We sampled the very garlic shrimp (spicy), shrimp scampi, clams, and seared ahi. I was not impressed by most of these items.

The saving grace is the very garlic shrimp, which I ordered spicy. The shrimp was good quality, eight to ten shrimp on a plate, some of them deveined. It was, however, the sauce that was the most prominent flavor in the dish. It was a thick, buttery sauce balanced with lemon and mixed with some chili pepper. It was so tasty that one of us mixed in the rice and saved his shrimp to eat later. I agree the very garlic sauce is powerful, more buttery than Giovanni's, but less salty. The combination of the spice and butter made me return twice for more.



Last notes, I would not order the scampi or clams again, they had similar thick sauces of butter and parmesan. The sauce was bland and completely coated the shrimp and clams. It reminded me of soup served at a cafeteria. I actually wanted to rinse off the seafood to eat it without the sauce. The Furikake Ahi is just o.k., a huge portion enough for two. Would order that again if not in the mood for shrimp. Beware of the parking, I suspect that the apparently unattended parking lot actually has an attendant lying in wait.

SIDE STREET INN***

Side Street Inn - Seared Ahi with Miso Sauce, Clams, Fried Pork Chop


Update May 2008:

The Spicy Chicken Strips are a must order for hot wing lovers. Big crispy juicy pieces of deep fried chicken coated in a spicy buffalo sauce that is spicy and with a sour tang to open up the palette. We enjoyed the crisp juicy chicken so much that we went back a few days later just to have it again.

Tanioka's Poke***

Tanioka's

KYOTO RAMEN***'

Kyoto Ramen/Yotekko Ya

SUSHI KING**'

Sushi King

KAKA'AKO KITCHEN***

Five Spice Chicken and Mahi Mahi Plate Lunch

Don Quixote Supermarket***

Don Quixote - Sashimi: Ahi, Hamachi and Salmon

NICO'S AT PIER 38**'

Nico's at Pier 38 - Tuna Salad, Furikake Crusted Tuna.

ROMY'S SHRIMP SHACK*** vs. GIOVANNI'S SHRIMP TRUCK **

Taste test between the two major shrimp places on the North Shore. First, Romy's. The shack is located on the shrimp farm, so it doesn't get any fresher. The shrimp come in two sizes, shrimp which are about two inches when uncurled or prawns which are thicker and about three inches. The prawns are the thing to order. The simple steamed giant prawns which the server likened to mini lobsters, sell out quickly. We arrived at around 3:30 p.m. and the person in front of us ordered the last serving. Bad luck. The prawns cooked with the sauces are smaller, though still big in comparison to the prawns you see on mainland. Butter and Garlic is just that, the garlic was fried to a crisp and the prawns had that fresh snap when you bite into them. Excellent texture with a strong buttery flavor. The Spicy and Sweet is more sweet than spicy and has a slight stickiness to them. Also good, but somewhat masks the fresh prawns.


Next, I headed down the road to Giovanni's Shrimp Truck which is known for it's Shrimp Scampi. First thing I notice is that there is only one size of shrimp about an inch and half uncurled. They don't have that fresh crisp bite of the prawns at Romy's. The preparation, however, is delicious. Scampi: butter, garlic, white wine and perhaps shallots. The garlic is soft and melts into a buttery paste. It dominates the sauce, though the white wine flavor still comes through.


I would eat at both Romy's or Giovanni's again. If forced to choose, I'd go to Romy's. The prawns are unusually large and fresh when compared to what is offered on the mainland. It's no surprise that the most popular dish is the very simple, steamed giant prawns. At Giovanni's the sauce is the star, it is more flavorful than the preparations at Romy's and compliments the shrimp very well. If I lived in the area and had access to large fresh prawns everyday, I'd probably frequent both places often.

Update: Shrimp Trucks of Oahu