Eternal sunshine of my spotless mind

Went w/Musson to eat at Boots & Kimo's for breakfast. Surprise, surprise, there was no line. We met there after dropping off the little one's at school. Must be a lull right at 8:00 a.m. Right after we sat down, a small crowd gathered outside and by the time we ordered our food, there were at least 10 people outside waiting to be seated.

This is the first time I've been to their new location. I must say that it was a huge improvement from their former spot. Free parking was the best part. The place was much brighter and more cheery (could have been the bright yellow paint). Still had all the football crap all over the place, but it looked brighter and shinier. Unfortunately, I couldn't see into the kitchen, so I didn't get to see bro. I ordered my usual seafood omelette w/fried rice. I think the price went up and I swear the portion shrunk (although, I think before when I ordered my food, bro knew it was my order and he overstuffed it). Musson had never eaten there, so she tried the french toast w/their famous mac nut sauce (I was tempted to get something slathered in it too). She was not disappointed. It was pricey, but ono, so I guess I can't complain. It was the first time I think I ever paid for food there (usually bro takes care of the bill) and possibly the first time I've been there without my sis (we usually go when she's visiting). When I paid my bill, there was a cute and cheerful girl at the register. I was kinda shocked. I expected the same woman to be at the register. Too bad, I kinda miss having that grumpy lady. She made me feel like family (hahaha).

Next week I think we're gonna try Cinnamon's... mmmmmm carrot cake pancakes rule!

My mood: feeling the need to exercise!

Posted by Cora at 10:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Finally got the chance to try out Formaggio Grill. Definitely need to take Sis here to eat next time they come for a visit. Food was excellent and the service was good. Musson, KK & I went for dinner tonite since Musson dropped her kids off at some My Gym parent night out thing. We had a leisurely, child-free dining experience. Too bad I have a cold and had a hard time tasing my meal. I would have loved to have a glass of Muscato. We shared a few appetizers: A wild mushroom medley (??) w/crostini and a wonderful spinach salad w/oranges, pear slices, cranberries, fennel, feta cheese, candied pecans, and some sort of vinaigrette. For the main course we had:

Oxtail Provencale: simmered in red wine and fine herbs and nestled in Papardelle Pasta
Lobster Mac & Cheese: bowtie pasta, pancetta and peas tossed in our lobster cream sauce
Lobster Club Panini: lobster, bacon, tomato, avocado & mayo w/fries

My meal was the lobster mac & cheese. They were very generous w/the lobster. Food was great. The most disappointing part of the meal was the dessert. It comes in these cute little cups and looks like a enough to handle. We got 3 different ones (Panacotta w/caramel, Lilikoi and strawberry creme brulee, and a chocolate rocky road fudge). My dessert was the creme brulee, but the consistency was off. It was more of a creme pudding -sort of runny and oozing, but still tasted pretty good.

Nonetheless, I really enjoyed my meal. We're going for gluttony this weekend. We're going to see a Diamond Head Theatre performance tomorrow nite and going out to eat at another fancy restaurant in town. Our deal is when we go the the shows, we get to eat at a fancy restaurant. One that doesn't serve hot dogs or pizza (pepperoni). Woohoo.

Hot link: Formaggio Grill

My mood: full and getting sleepy

Posted by Cora at 10:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Tried a new restaurant (well, new to us, I think it's been open for a year already) tonite called Tango Contemporary Cafe. It was SO good. We enjoyed everything we ate there. I definitely recommend it to anyone who wants a delicious meal. We tried the following:

Foie Gras
Portobello Mushroom & Crab Hash Napoleon w/Spinach
Bouillabaisse of Fresh Island Fish, Prawns and Mussels
Asian Style Five Spice Braised Beef
Hamakua Mushroom Risotto w/Duck confit
Crispy Duck Breast
Lobster and Goat Cheese Ravioli
Blueberry Bread Pudding with Vanilla Sauce
Strawberry Mango Crumble with Cinnamon Ice Cream
Chocolate Brownie with Vanilla Bean Ice Cream

Okay, it sounds like a lot of food, but there were 6 of us eating. I would recommend any and all of those dishes. It's a small restaurant, so make reservations or be prepared to eat at P.F.Chang's next door (also good food). WHEN I go back, I'm going to try the onion soup.

Hot link: Tango

My mood: full of yummy food and a weekend well spent w/friends

Posted by Cora at 10:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Residual political angst in play...

I am from the exotic and foreign islands of Hawaii, so I tend to eat exotic and foreign foods. YUM for me, pooh on you Cokie!

Since Sis and family have been here, I've been indulging in all the fun and exotic local foods (much of which I take for granted since I live in this foreign place). For example, we've had pickled mango, li hing mui, spam musubi, Bale sandwiches, plate lunches, manapua, taegu, kim chee, melona bars, healthy rice (w/nametake, edamame and wakame chazuke), Portuguese sausages, Jack in the Box (there's none in FL-- what are they in a foreign country? No wait, I am...), McDonald's fruit punch, and one bite of natto (only to reconfirm that I absolutely cannot eat the slimy beans).

Despite all the gluttony on my part (it's a great excuse to eat all that stuff) we still have a lot to go. We still haven't eaten Zippy's chili or gone to Island Snow or Waiola Store. Who could come to Hawaii and not indulge in shave ice? Even a future President of the U.S. could be seen slurping down the sickenly sweet goodness from Hawaii (oops, I mean potential future president-- don't want to jinx him like I did those Yankees) on his recent vacation to the land of the unknown, foreign and exotic to all who are not born and raised here... or to those without any sense of geography.

Ooh, tangent-- my bad.

You would think that since I live here, I would eat foreign and exotic stuff all the time, but I don't. This morning, I made a batch of spam musubi, but I haven't made it since the last time she was here (or the time before that) and I don't ever buy it. The truth is that I really don't like Spam all that much (Oh-oh!). And the only reason I have pickled mango or any of those other things is because she's here. I eat normal people food like Pop Tarts, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, and apples. I also eat pizza -- yes we have real ovens here to cook food, they're amazing.

My mood: snarky

Oh, yes. I have the day off today! Why? It's a STATE holiday called STATEHOOD DAY or ADMISSION DAY -- admission to the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, not some other foreign country.

Posted by Cora at 07:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Pearls of summer sun
one bite can stop time and brings
me back to childhood...

My earliest memory of this "fruit of the gods" is that I was allergic to the sap. I'd have a reaction similar to eating crab. Two of my favorite foods in the world and I would break out in rash after eating them.

It was worth the pain.

This season I have been blessed by a plethora of the succulent spheres of sappy sweetness. Yum.

My mood: exhausted

Posted by Cora at 09:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Eating cottage cheese and pineapples made me want to make a listing of other comfort foods, so here it is:

- Peanut butter & guava jelly sandwich
- SOS (Sh*t on a shingle--don't ask me why it's called this it's hamburger, onion, and cream of mushroom soup) with rice
- Kraft American cheese and guava jelly sandwich (toasted, of course)
- Pork and beans
- Tuna sandwich (w/onions, relish, cheese and alfalfa sprouts)
- Miso soup (dad style w/onion, clams, seaweed) and rice
- Mochi fried w/ butter and covered with shoyu & sugar
- Ochazuke (with all those new years goodies dumped in)
- Kings sweet bread (the big round loaf)
- Spam musubi

My mood: not as sunburnt as I thought I would be, kinda tired still

Posted by Cora at 06:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Got this link from Aunty J.

Candy Bar Identification Quiz - AOL Food

She got 8 out of 20. I got 12 out of 20.

My favorite counter candies are dark chocolate Dove bars, Snickers and Peanut Butter Cups. During Halloween (or any other candy-giving holiday) I can't help but snitch those or the 100,000 bars (or any bar with caramel) and Mounds (or with nuts is better). Nowdays I only buy "fancy" chocolates and counter candy doesn't interest me anymore, however, C-Man is getting older and he's starting to ask for it as we wait in line at the checkout. I now know why they're strategically placed there. For little kids whose parents are tired of hearing them whine and give in just to keep them quiet (not me) and for those impulsive buyers (me, but not as far as candy is concerned). C-Man has higher standards for chocolate. When he's offered MnM's he asks for chocolate chips instead. So he prefers semi-sweet to milk.

My mood: strangely craving chocolate, hmmm...

Posted by Cora at 07:48 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Had a fabulous, healthy lunch and I realized all the ingredients were purchased at Costco -- hummus, falafel, and green leaf lettuce stuffed in a tortilla with some hot Hawaiian Islands passion fruit black tea.

My mood: hungry (it was tastylicious, but I was starving by 3:00)

Posted by Cora at 10:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Just a mile from my home, is a portal to Casablanca. The outside of the restaurant is plain and unassuming, but once you step inside it’s like being sucked into the bottle from the television show “I love Genie.” The atmosphere within is just amazing. Had I not been surrounded by obnoxious “local” haoles, I would have guessed I needed a passport to be there (okay, not really, but I really enjoyed it).

The menu was a little confusing for me. Fortunately, I have a boyfriend (what? did you say boyfriend?--- yes I did…) who can read and pointed out the lovely page with the glossary for those not familiar. We settled for some lamb shish kabobs (I’m not the professional critic, so I have no idea what it was called) and the couscous with chicken and vegetables. We also ordered the fresh mint tea. Our meal started off with a ceremonial hand rinsing, followed by a magic carpet ride of flavors. The first was some sort of lentil soup. Next, an antipasto type dish with hummus, tabbouleh, baba ghanoush, tomatoes, olives, and carrots. They served it with bread and your meal is eaten with your fingers. The third dish that came out was puzzling for both of us. it looked like an upside-down pot pie with powdered sugar and cinnamon sprinked on top. I thought they had forgotten to serve the main entrée and just skipped to dessert. We were pleasantly surprised to find it was an amazing blend of sweet and savory. Filled with what appeared to be chicken, eggs and some sort of nuts (I thought pecans). We found out it was almonds. It tasted like a chicken baklava. Yum. I looked it up on the internet, being the inquisitive OCD librarian that I am, and it is called Bastilla (see definition below).

Once that tasty treat was devoured, our main entrees came. We were almost too full to eat it, but had to try it because everything else preceding was so good. I am not a huge lamb fan, but I was willing to try it. It was really good, hell, everything was really good. We couldn’t even finish half of our dinner. We stopped. Then, came dessert. Before the finale, there was another sort of ceremony. We were blessed by a pleasant fruit-scented water on our hands and head. Then it was followed by more tea (which was also very good) and a small honey-coated funnel cake. The dessert was the least impressive of the entire meal, but it was light and tasty.

The staff of the restaurant were also very pleasant. The service was excellent. We felt really sorry for one of the girls. She was treated badly by the rude, snobby party on the next table. MO was very kind to her and let her know that he thought she was doing a great job and to not pay attention to what they were saying. She was grateful for the comments and we were treated very well throughout the evening.

If I were a food critic, I would give it the highest ratings. It was one of the best eating experiences of my life. I was sad to see our journey ended.

My mood: great

From Wikipedia:
Pastilla, Bsteeya, Bastilla, B’stilla or Bstilla (pronounced Pastiya) is a North African dish made usually of pigeon. Cooks in the U.S, however, usually use ground or shredded chicken as a substitute. It is a pie which combines sweet and salty flavours; a delicious combination of crisp layers of phyllo dough, savory chicken slow-cooked in broth and spices and shredded, and a crunchy layer of toasted and ground almonds, cinnamon, and sugar.

Posted by Cora at 06:49 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)