Wishing Julie were here instead of Boston so I'd have someone to go with.

Good Eats

I was cleaning up the files on my blackberry tonight and I realized that there are pictures I never got around to uploading from various food escapades.  So here you go, eat your heart out.

Romy's Kahuku Prawns & Shrimp

This is a must-do when you're joyriding in the country.  I'm personally not a huge shrimp fan but my mama and siblings swear by it, enough to wait sometimes up to 40 minutes.  I may not like the shrimp but I'm all about the rice and garlic topping. 

The aftermath of eating at Romy's, but this time the prawns.  It must have been good because they wiped it out before I could snap a picture.

 

Matsumoto's Shave Ice

Shave Ice makes me so happy I live in Hawaii.  I live for shave ice.  I can eat it all day, everyday and honestly never get sick of it.  The only shave ice you need to take the time out to go get is the shave ice from Matsumoto's.  The perfect summer day, or any day for that matter, is chilling at Haleiwa Beach, eating lunch at Cholo's and then heading down the street to grab my personal favorite combination, large guava and lilikoi (passionfruit) with a snowcap (condensed milk).  If you're feeling a little more adventurous, add in some ice cream. 

Guys, trust me on this one.

 

Honolulu Greek Festival

Part of me wants to be a brat and never speak of this festival because it's so amazing and gets more and more crowded each year.  But because my need to share and just re-live the annual Greek Festival until it rolls around again outweighs my want to be selfish, here you go.  It is hands down, one of my favorite events to go to.  The food is amazing, the music is so so good (check out Fotia and Sotos Kappas), and the atmosphere just relaxes you and makes you feel, well...Greek.  I'm counting down the year till I can grab a glass of Greek wine or Ouzo to wash down the delicious food with but until then, I'm satisfied stuffing my face.  Some of the highlights from this year though I have to be honest, I was too busy enjoying myself that I forgot to document. 

Gyro

Bento of mixed baklava and Greek pastries, Greek beer, souvlaki and pita

 

Half devoured plate of moussaka, rice pilaf, and spanakopita

 Not really food but I love watching people from across the little pond, gathering under this tree to eat and enjoy themselves.

See what else I'm up to here

*All photographs taken on my BlackBerry Bold

 

Itadakimasu

Tonight I went out to dinner with my mama at Gazen and I could not have been any happier.  Gazen is Izakaya-style, smaller, appetizer-like portions.  It was some of the best Japanese food I've had in a while.

Ganzen makes all their own tofu so as a self-declared tofu fanatic, I had to try it.  We had the tofu sampler which included the "Zaru" tofu, "Sukui" tofu, and the Kurogoma tofu.  The zaru was the plain tofu, my favorite, that you can eat alone or with sea salt, black pepper, and shoyu.  The sukui tofu reminded me a lot of chawanmushi, creamy with a slight hint of miso.  I found out that the sauce is actually made out of soymilk.  The kurogoma tofu was the most interesting because it didn't look or taste like tofu.  It had a sweet taste from the black sesame seeds (kurogoma).

 

Homemade Sukui tofu

 

Homemade Kurogoma tofu

 

Homemade Zaru tofu

We then ordered deep fried tako (octopus) with lemon, sea salt, and black pepper, along with clams steamed in a sake broth.  We also had pepper crusted pork in a white garlic sauce, though in a moment of consuming hunger I forgot to photograph.  Next we had the "Agedashi" style, deep fried tofu mochi.  It came in this bonnito broth, sprinkled with nori strips.  This was so delicious, now one of my favorite ways to eat tofu.

 

Deep-fried tako

 

Steamed clams in sake broth

 

"Agedashi" style tofu mochi

Finally for dessert I had the Sweet Potato Mochi with ice cream served with a Earl Grey Sauce.  This dessert was legit.  The mochi was so sweet and chewy, a nice contrast to the cold and creamy ice cream.  I was curious about the earl grey sauce, since it is tea based but holy crap, it complimented both the sweet potato and the ice cream so well.  This is a must have the next time I go there to eat. 

 

Sweet Potato Mochi with Ice Cream and an Earl Grey Sauce 

See what else I'm up to here

*All photographs taken on my BlackBerry bold