aloha, honolulu. pt 1

aloha, keikis! what have you been up to since i've been away? i have been really off, off-island...on and off, anyway. have any of you been on holiday lately? let me know!

the first big trip of the year was this spring, and the first stop was honolulu. i love honolulu, but i never really stop there anymore, except for the layover to los angeles. this time, i did stop. for a day. (i know. but i'm working up to it, by the end of the decade, i may even spend a week.)

but i arrived at my hotel, the modern, at night. 

and yes, the hotel lives up to its name. it has all the quirks one would expect from a modern boutique hotel: low lighting in public areas, chillout-y music on the p.a., sexy scuffy wood floors and comfy soft furnishings in hideaway places. but there are little touches of that still remind you that yes, you are on an island, like the broken surfboards behind the front desk, or um, yeah, that ocean view. or ukuleles and saris in every room.

which is admittedly twee but sort of love it all the same. i didn't really have time to explore, though, as i was having a late-ish dinner with reid from ono kine grindz. we kept it simple, and went to the waikiki branch of the fried pork cutlet empire of tonkatsu ginza bairin. i don't really have a predilection towards tonkatsu, but i have to say, this place may spoil all other tonkatsu you may consume. i don't know why it's so good, aside from the fact that they use kurubota pork, or its american equivalent. the cutlets are crispy, not greasy, juicy, and tender all at once. i snarfed down my katsudon like, well, a pig, and i probably would've eaten reid's perfect-in-its-simplicity tonkatsu sandwich too, if i wasn't so full. and sleepy. 

 

and so i went back to the modern, and promptly passed out. i didn't realize until sunrise that the window was open in my hotel room, and there was a beautiful ocean breeze wafting through the room. i blearily made my way to the window, pushed aside the shutters and pulled away the curtain to this view:

i know, riiight? really lovely. i think this view would energize most people into getting together some towels and swimsuits together to go for a swim, but come on, keikis, i live on a beach, and if i'm not going there on guam, i'm probably not going here. but it did wake me up enough to cuddle up on chaise lounge and read the morning paper on my ipad. 

and eventually i made my way outta there, but i really could've stayed in the room all day....

to be continued, soon!

the modern honolulu

1775 ala moana boulevard  

honolulu 96815

808. 954.7427.

tonkatsu ginza bairin

255 beachwalk
honolulu 96815
808. 926.8082.

boiled salad.

hello, yes, admittedly this post is up because instagram is down, let blogspot benefit from north virginia's woes.

you guys, do you know KirkK? he is the founder of one of the few blogs i read regularly, mmm-yoso, which chronicles the culinary adventures of Kirk and his lovely wife and dogs, along with Ed from Yuma and Cathy. it's based in the san diego area, but you'll never know when nor where he and the blog might head out. recently, i read a great series of posts about their holiday in Crete; one post in particular stood out because of the very simple but intriguing dish that Kirk cooked for dinner one night: boiled new potatoes and zucchini, dressed with olive oil and sea salt.   

really, you are saying. and i mean like this:   o, rly?  o_O

yeah, i know. but i'm the kind of person who will gnaw on a cold boiled potato dipped in salt for dinner,  or lately, half a head of iceberg lettuce dipped in lemon and soy sauce. i think it's partially a bodily rebellion against all the other food i eat, which is relatively complicated compared to a boiled root vegetable. the key, i think, to Kirk's dish's success is that he got his produce straight from the farm (via a farmers' market), and had most likely been picked less than 24 hours from the time he cooked and ate it. there is v. little chance of that happening here. my boiled potato and zucchini was okay. 

 

luckily, internetz and a basically-stocked larder led to a lidia bastianich recipe for a salad of said ingredients, plus hard-boiled eggs and a vinaigrette. not far off from the original intrigue, but somewhat more satisfying with my run-of-the-mill produce. it is the simplest thing, just a matter of boiling and chopping. it is a boiled salad of beauty: light yet substantial, lots of flavour without a lot of ingredients, ideal for hot summer days or really lazy nights.

the recipe is here.

hugh acheson's "a new turn in the south".

nenes, i know. three posts in a row! what is this? 2005??

do you know hugh acheson? he of the unibrow on top chef who looks like the love child of henry rollins and bill berry from REM?  he's sorta my favourite chef at the moment, and his book, "a new turn in the south" is fast becoming a staple in mah kitchen. southern food is a cuisine i don't think about often, but acheson's book shows how healthy and vibrant and exciting it can be. yes, exciting. i don't like to think that my dinner is more interesting than me, but well. this food is.

my absolute favourite recipe in the book is something i cooked tonight: frogmore stew. it was the first recipe i'd tried, and i just cannot get enough of it; a low country staple, it is basically a seafood boil where shellfish is the main ingredient, fortified by sausage, potatoes and corn, in a not-too-spicy, citrusy, unctuous broth. when assembling it, i think, oh, okay, this looks good, but once it gets to where it needs to be? oh maaaan.  it tastes magic: fresh tomato juice is the foundation, with andouille sausage adding a dimension to the prawns and  that only pork products can, chopped arugula and fresh thyme along with traditional old bay seasoning adds a freshness to what could be a musty mix. and it's so pretty.

another favourite is a simple update on an old school southern staple: pimento cheese. you know the stuff--cheese paste with pimentos. NOM.  i am not a big fan of sharp cheeses, roasted red peppers nor plain grilled cheese sandwiches, but one made with pimento cheese (which is basically cheddar cheese and roasted red peppers)  is just enough to take the flat plasticky dimension out. 

of course, if you are mixing things up a bit, you might as well add some thinly sliced ham and locally grown arugula. might as well.

i like chef acheson's book because although it is undeniably a southern food cookbook, the recipes seem lighter than what i associate with the cuisine, yet there is still a deep traditional vein running throughout (he even has a recipe for cane vinegar cooked chicken which sounds almost filipino). the recipes are sometimes ingredient intensive, but with items that are common enough to find or substitute, even on guam. the techniques used, however, are as simple as pie. which reminds me, there's a delicious-sounding peach pie recipe in the book that i will have to get to this summer.....

you can find the frogmore stew recipe here  and pimento cheese recipe here. oh, and the cane vinegar chicken here.

a big bowl of udon.

rarely, if ever, does the word "venerable" describe a guam restaurant; frankly, there aren't that many dining establishments that have been around for years--let alone decades--and most of them that have survived have definitely had their share of erratic service and quality. one restaurant that probably does deserve the word is joinus japanese restaurant, in the tumon sands plaza. joinus has been around since...the seventies? definitely the eighties? and although there was a brief closure/renovation with new management relatively recently, it has managed to stay in most people's good books. although its focus has always been its teppanyaki tables, they do have many other offerings.

admittedly, i haven't been in joinus for almost a year--i'm not a big fan of their teppanyaki grill area (although the teppanyaki itself is quite tasty); i have always preferred their quieter, better ventilated, usually available dining section. i have, however, found myself back at joinus twice in as many weeks for an anniversary special that is just available until the end of the month: udon suki. (hence, the blog post! twice! in a row! zomg!) it is $25 per person, with a minimum order for 2 people, which is basically a $50 pot noodle. however, it's soooo much more than that. you get a copper basin of dashi (along with a big teapot filled with extra soup stock) on a portable propane stove on your table, along with a platter of chewy udon noodles, and another platter of assorted vegetables and seafood. the ratio of seafood to vegetables is ridic, it's something like 3 types of seafood for every vegetable offered, and generously so: tonight's pick included a very fertile lobster, dozen oysters, a gigantic fish head, tiger prawns, king crab legs, crab claws, scallops, fish cake, fish balls, napa cabbage, tofu, carrots, and mushrooms. oh my. you let the dashi simmer on the a table, and cook your ingredients in the giant vat. it's v. double, double toil and trouble, fire burn, and caldron bubble. i am generally against paying to have to cook my own food, but there's something quite entertaining about all this cookery and craft.

this was the set-up for two, and my cousin and i had no real problems tackling this; admittedly, we didn't eat that many noodles and there was still a generous takeaway portion. it was obvious, though, at the table next to us, that slender filipino family of eight found the serving for two more than sufficient. yes, joinus folk are not soup nazis--your group can order the minimum amount, and as long as you order a couple of appetizers or a salad, they are cool with the group share.

you have until 30 june 2012 (this saturday!) to check it out.  

joinus
tumon sands plaza, san vitores road
671.646.4807.

cool and simple.

sometimes it isn't necessary to find a balance of flavours nor nuances nor complements. sometimes all you need is to beat the heat and get some caffeine in you. for this i recommend a scoop of coffee ice cream in a glass, topped with shaved ice, drowned in iced coffee (with or without milk) and then crowned with a heaping pile of coffee jelly. you know you want it.

browned butter popcorn

happy new year! how was yours? you guys, you have to try this sometime: brown some butter in a saucepan until nutty, add a handful of chopped (lemon) thyme, parsley and a squeeze of lemon, then drizzle it in some freshly popped popcorn. zomg, peeps, so good. so ono. probably not particularly healthy but it was time you broke that resolution this year anyway, right?

you can get the recipe right here. see you soon.