Showing posts with label honolulu. Show all posts
Showing posts with label honolulu. Show all posts

Thursday, March 21, 2013

25-Layer Pork at Kimukatsu (Honolulu, HI)

With the number of Japanese tourists swarming Hawaii every year, it's no surprise that Honolulu would have great Japanese food. From ramen to handmade soba, you can find pretty much everything here. One of the places I had my eye on was Kimukatsu, famous for their pork katsu made by stacking 25 layers of pork slices, then deep frying it. This way, the katsu is supposed to retain more of the juices than a thick piece of pork cutlet.

Now, Hawaii is also not cheap. An order of pork Katsu set (with rice, cabbage, miso soup, pickles) would be $19 normally but they do have a special menu during lunch. The regular tonkatsu order is not on this menu but you can get a katsudon set ("The Original Kimukatsu Bowl") for $16 or the Kimukatsu Curry for $13.
Katsudon

Tuesday, May 17, 2011

Alan Wong's Restaurant (Honolulu, HI)

As summer nears, I thought I should finish up my Hawaii posts, including one of my visit to Alan Wong's Restaurant in Honolulu. This particular restaurant of his is on the third floor of a nondescript office building in Honolulu and was rather hard to find. Make sure you're looking out for the street number!

Despite being hard to find, Alan Wong is quite famous, so the restaurant was full as expected. Some of the items here may seem passé coming from California, like the tuna tartar with wontons, but some are still rather unique to Alan Wong and the available/local fish is also quite different.

My favorite item was the “Mini Loco Moco”
Mochi Crusted Unagi Meat Loaf, Sunny Side Quail Egg, Wasabi Kabayaki Sauce

Alan Wong's Mini Loco Moco
It is certainly distinct from a standard loco moco, with the sweet flavors of the unagi and the kabayaki (sweet soy-based sauce). I loved the chewy and lightly crispy mochi crust and the quail egg which has deeper flavors than a chicken egg.

Monday, September 13, 2010

Pigs on a Hike: Diamond Head (Honolulu, Hawaii)

Because I have to burn some of those calories somehow ...

One of the popular trails in Honolulu is the Diamond Head (Le'ahi) State Monument. Diamond Head is a crater believed to have formed about 300,000 years ago a trail to the summit was built in 1908 as part of the U.S. Army Coastal Artillery defense system.

The trail is almost all stairs and it's a pretty steep climb. Luckily, it's only a 0.8 mile hike one way, climbing 560 feet with 279 steps (the rest is an uphill slope).

The reward is a pretty magnificent view of the coast and the amazingly turquoise ocean.
I wanted to visit that lighthouse ...

You can almost get a 360-degree view of the island from the observation station at the summit (a small part of that is the crater, construction, and parking).

If that 1.6 mile hike almost did you in, you'd be glad to know that there's usually a truck at the end of the trail selling hot dogs, smoothies, shaved ice, etc.
Most of the smoothies are made using syrup but their pineapple one is made from real fruits (this being Hawaii and all). Pictured below is the mango smoothie, which while may not be one of the best smoothies you'll have in your life, it'll taste damn good after a hike.



Diamond Head Road at 18th Ave.
Waikiki Honolulu, Oahu, HI

Sunday, September 12, 2010

Hotel Review: Dolphin Lanai Room at the Kahala Resort (Oahu, Hawaii)

The Kahala Resort is supposedly the first resort in O'ahu (so says my hotel tour guide), opened in 1964 as the Kahala Hilton and cost $12 million to build.

The resort has its own private beach which, according to my tour guide, was the shore that the King Kamehameha landed when he first came to O'ahu (Wikipedia says he landed his troops at Waikiki and Waialae which neighbors the resort).

We stayed at one of the Dolphin Lanai rooms on my latest trip to Hawaii. It faces the "dolphin lagoon" and you pay a premium for the chance to be woken up by dolphins' calls and splashes.

The room itself is standard-sized, though the bathroom had two vanities.
But it isn't just a view of the dolphin lagoon. These rooms are on the ground floor and are literally right next to the dolphin lagoon. If it wasn't for the bushes separating my patio with the lagoon, I could just reach out and touch them as they swim by.
Sit long enough and you'll see one or four of them jump. I wasn't fast enough to take photos of those instances, alas.
A lot of celebrities stay here and I heard George Clooney was there when I was there. While I didn't see him, I did spot Daniel Dae Kim from LOST. Someone had to point him out to me, but I think it really was him. They're supposed to be filming Hawaii Five-O.
What do you guys think?

Thursday, July 22, 2010

Honolulu: Searching for Poke In the Back of a Liquor Store

They were confused when I pulled into the parking lot of Tamura's Fine Wine & Liquor. I told them we were getting poke - I didn't tell them where we were going. Who would've guessed that a liquor store sells poke? But they sure do, enter and turn right to the back and you'll find a deli case filled with about a dozen poke selection.
I wouldn't have known that Tamura's liquor store sells poke - and very good ones at that - either if it wasn't for OishiiEats' blog post. While Food, She Thought preferred Ono Seafood's poke, those two places seemed to be the favorites. My navigation skill was too poor to find Ono Seafood, so I could only try Tamura's this time around.

It was hard to choose among so many varieties, or even to figure out how much I would need to get full, but they do let you sample pretty much everything. I ended up getting the Ahi with Tamura sauce which was a slightly sweet, teriyaki-like sauce.
This seems to be a pretty classic preparation and the ahi was very fresh. Compared to the other two that I got, though, this doesn't stand out.

We also got the Tako Limu (seaweed) which I enjoyed quite a bit.
The octopus was cooked perfectly and had a great texture. It was seasoned just right - no overwhelming saltiness that covered up the freshness of the octopus itself. The best part, however, was the texture combination of the chewy but tender tako and the "slimy-crunch" of the seaweed.

My vote for best poke of the day goes out to the Ahi Sea Asparagus.
The saltiness of the sea asparagus carried a very special flavor that complements the fresh ahi very well. Think lightly salted fresh ahi with extra textural support. Combined with the macadamia bits they make an amazing poke.

Since I haven't tried Ono Seafood's poke, I can't say if this is "the best" in Honolulu or not, but you can't go wrong with Tamura. Grab two or three tubs of poke and you'd be more than satisfied.

Tamura's Fine Wine & Liquors
3496 Waialae Avenue, Honolulu
(808) 735-7100
Tamura's Fine Wine & Liquors on Urbanspoon

Honolulu, Hawaii

Restaurants
Alan Wong's Restaurant
Kimukatsu
Ono Hawaiian Foods
Tamura's Fine Wine & Liquor

Hikes
Diamond Head

Hotels
Kahala Resort

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