Hawaii Visit Pt. 1

I am going to do a two-parter for this trip. I was planning to do it all when I got home, but Emma is doing homework so I said I would blog next to her for moral support and to create a study environment with the clack clack of my typing. I am a very supportive sister.

Melon Soda

Mom gave me this when I got off the plane. Fun, huh? Melon soda always reminds me of karaoke in our Yokota days.

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Poke & Tempura

This pic is a leftovers plate of what we ate my first night. Poke and tempura. Grandma made the tempura and showed me how. Some of it is kabocha. Grandma made some kabocha on the pan, you know how she does with like shoyu and tsuyu or whatever and then turned the skin part into tempura. The other ones are she put a mix of veg and some shrimps in a big bowl: green beans, bell pepper, onion...idk what else. And then just grabbed a little ohashi-full and dipped it in the batter. Batter is flour, water, cornstarch, you can put salt but don't have to esp if you are doing tempura sauce with it. That's what Grandma told me. Consistency is pretty runny. Then, fry in oil.

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Jook

My favorite food!

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Pizza

This was some leftovers Mom and Dad had in their fridge from....somewhere....Gronk and Brady. I had the little slice on the bottom of the pic. Tasted good.

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Malasadas

The Leesa and Ellie's brought! Still warm! Li hing, cinnamon, regular.

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Bubble Waffle

From double three. Plain waffle, strawberry ice cream, fruity pebbles, sprinkles, condensed milk for toppings. Delish but I was jealous of some other ppl we saw who got strawberries and whipped cream. I didn't see that on the menu, though. Oh well.

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Jolene's

BBQ pork sandwich. Deeeelish. Excellent bread.

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Liliha Bakery

Karaage and waffle. The whipped cream was coconut. Good butter, too. Yum!

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Manapua

Another one of my favorite foods! Me and Mom got to the place after they were way closed, like they'd been closed for an hour, but the lady working saw us and said come to the back, so we still got some! And she gave us a freebie, too! Lucky us!

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Halo halo

From Magnolia. Mine was my least favorite of the flavors. I don't remember what it was called but had ube ice cream. Grandma's was mango and Mom got....I don't remember but it was yum. Mine was still good, but theirs were better.

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Fruits and Eggs

The bowl of fruits is what Mom's eating every day these days. Fruits, a plop of yogurt, chia, brown sugar, mix it all up. Eggs with ham. Mom is a real genius when it comes to breakfast.

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Angelo Pietro's

We got a bunch of stuff and shared it

Mushroom pizza. I love mushroom pizza. Super thin crust. Very cheesy goopy.

Bacon gorgonzola something I think? I don't like gorgonzola but this was good to me other than tasting like gorgonzola.

Seafood Pietro style. Delish. Good noodles they got here.

Meat sauce & eggplant gratin. The crowd's favorite. The eggplant part was so good! And the meat sauce. But I was especially dazzled by the eggplant.

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Gelato

Okinawa sweet potato & matcha oreo. Man, the matcha one was so matcha-y and delicious!! The other one was good too but I just wasn't expecting to be so wowed by the matcha I guess.

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Shige's

Emma made a huge deal about how Mom and Dad always go to Shige's and get saimin and a hamburger and act like it's normal and then over the course of the meal, it was revealed...they don't really do that that often. But we got a cheeseburger and split it anyway. I got small saimin with extra veg. Delish. Really good cheeseburger too. Smashed style, my fav.

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Steak and Veg

Hey idk where my pic of the other steak meal went! But anyway we had steak one night and Dad realized afterwards that we had an extra steak he forgot to cook. So he cooked it up and we split it and ate with salad Emma and James made, leftover kabocha, asparagus, and leftover grilled veg from when we had the original steak. I think our parents are among the best steak chefs in the country, if not the world. How lucky for us.

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Zippy's

Dad and I went after we floated around/snorkeled. I got chili & chicken mixed plate, mini version. Pretty big mini! I subbed corn for mac salad, very smart of me. Also I had this with fruit punch. Excellent after-beach lunch. I love Zippys. This one was weird because it felt like the Colonnades, not like a regular Zippys. Adding to that was the fact that it was like Thursday morning or something so it was all old people inside. Oh well, any time is Zippys time when you're on vacation.

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Band Practice Plate

Dad had band practice so Mom and me and Aunty Annie and Dad's friend Lasar watched Merrie Monarch festival and ate Hawaiian food. Mom made beef luau, Aunty made mac salad and kalua pork, I think Lasar provided the poi and lomi salmon and sweet potato. She also made chicken long rice. Her version has tomatoes in it. We had caramel brownies and chocolate haupia pie from Ted's for dessert.

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Saba Bento

From Don Quijote. Got after Grandma's dentist appointment. I love saba. It's the best fish I think.

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Soft Gau Gee Mein

Me and Dad made. That was one of his personal goals for my visit. We loosely used this recipe but didn't do crispy noodles:

https://cookinghawaiianstyle.com/gau-gee-mein-cake-noodle/

We put broccoli, bamboo, carrot, red onion, celery, ginger, garlic, little mushrooms, and chicken that Dad grilled. Pretty good.