Wagyu Beef Thief

I went to J Shop yesterday to pick up some wagyu for Wendell for his birthday, and this photo was on  display there. Looks like the thief walked off with a whole slab of wagyu!

Liliha Bakery at Macy's

We had Summer Roll Making Day at my old working place yesterday. I went to pick up some coco puffs as my contribution.  So convenient that they're at Ala Moana Macy's 3rd floor now!



















Here's me and buddy Les with our summer rolls. They were so yummy!!

Cleta's Quinoa and Mango Salad

Pal Cleta gave me this refreshing quinoa salad yesterday. I love the different textures and the surprising hint of curry. 

The recipe can be found here at the Hawaiian Electric site. 

Thank Cleta!!!

Ingredients:

• 1 clove fresh garlic, pressed
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 tablespoons low-fat yogurt
• 2 teaspoons curry powder
• 1 1/2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
• 5 tablespoons light olive oil
• 2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh Chinese parsley
• 3 cups cooked quinoa, drained and cooled
• 2 large half-ripe mangoes, peeled, diced into 1/2-inch squares
• 1 jalapeno chile, seeded and diced
• 1/3 cup thinly sliced chives
• 1/3 cup roasted salted almonds, chopped
• Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

Curry vinaigrette:
In a small bowl, mix garlic and salt until smooth. Add yogurt and curry, then stir in lemon juice and oil; whisk until the mixture is thick and creamy. Let stand 15 minutes; add Chinese parsley. Adjust salt to taste. Refrigerate until ready to use.

In a large bowl, toss the quinoa, mangoes, chile, chives, and curry vinaigrette. Top with almonds. Makes 4 servings.

Time Flies

I can totally relate to these.  Thanks again for sending, Ross!

Some Old Pikchas

Just when I thought I didn't have anything to post today, Wendell's friend emails me nostalgic Hawaii photos.

Thanks Ross!

Mitsubishi Uni KH-20 Pencil Sharpener

I think I've finally found a pencil sharpener that I like. It's a hand-crank sharpener made by Mitsubishi. I bought it on Amazon for $20.47. 



It has a pull-out thing that holds your pencil in place.


Look how nice! But be careful because it doesn't have an auto-stop feature, and you could end up with a short stump if you're over-exuberant in your sharpening. Trust me. I know.


One drawback (which I actually don't think is a drawback) is that although it comes with a puka to use a clamp with, it doesn't come with a clamp. I think that it did at one time, but the reviews I read said that it was pretty useless because the sharpener would eventually work its way loose. But I really don't mind it being portable.


Another thing I should tell you . . . don't buy this Swingline sharpener. Fisher has it on sale this month, and I liked the slim design so I got it. It's an electric sharpener, but it turned out that you have to really push the pencil down hard to get a good point. Also, after sharpening a few pencils the motor would get hot. I finally decided to return it when I found that it was still warm to the touch even though I hadn't used it for a few days.

Luckily, I still had the receipt, and it had been only a week, so it was no problem to return.

Centipede

This almost-dead centipede was in our driveway the other day.  😳

Goma Tei's Won Ton Ramen

Izsmom! You got your wish!  Goma Tei now makes a Won Ton Ramen. 

Me and Mich met up with Kat from Adventures in Japan at Goma Tei last week.

I ordered the Won Ton Shoyu Ramen. I think it was $11.95. I liked it!  Thanks for the treat Kat!!

Wiki Burger

Remember Wiki Burger in Market City? Wendell said that the burgers were actually 24 cents each or 5/$1.00. He said that he liked the mustard/mayo/relish sauce. 

I remember it for the cigarette machine that we could sneak and buy cigarettes from.

Thanks for sharing the photo, Fay!

Wendell's Fried Oysters

Wendell and I watched Rika of NHK's Dining with the Chef fry up some marinated oysters, and Wendell decided to give it a try. I don't normally eat oysters, but they looked so good, I said that I would be down to try one.

Wendell could only find bottled oysters, and unfortunately they were a bit too "gutsy" for me.

But if you want to give it a try, below is the recipe. You can also watch the "Video on Demand" here. 




150 g shucked oysters 

1 tbsp grated ginger
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp oyster sauce
potato starch
vegetable oil, for deep frying

Grate the ginger, then mix in the soy sauce and oyster sauce.

Briefly dip the oysters in the seasoning mixture, then dredge in potato starch.

Preheat oil to 170°C, and deep-fry the oysters for about 1 min, 30 sec.

Blue Eggs

Twice now we've had these mysterious blue eggs appear on our front lawn. 

Shoyu Egg

My pal Mich gave me this prepared "smoky" stock to use to flavor boiled eggs. I've seen it at Don Q, but I think she got it from Marukai. Update: Mich said she got it from Don Q.

There are two pouches for two uses in the bag.


The instructions say (I think) to soak 3 boiled eggs in a bag for 10 minutes. I left mine in for about 1/2 hour.


Except for my overcooking the eggs, it came out ono.  It had a very smoky flavor. I liked it! 

Zipper Repair

As I mentioned in my previous post, I bought a bag at the swap meet that had a broken zipper. 

The left side track was not connected to the pull.


I decided that the easiest method to use in trying to fix the zipper was to remove a tooth.


With the empty space in the track I was able to feed the track into the pull fairly easily.


But I was still left with a puka in the zipper that might cause problems.


So I stuck a safety pin across the zipper above the puka on the inside of the bag.


Hopefully, it'll block me from pulling the zipper too far down and getting stuck.


Yippee!!

Kipling Bag

I got this Kipling bag a few weeks ago at the swap meet.  I paid $2 for it.



There are zippers on the side to expand the bag if needed.


It looks in good shape except for one thing. The main zipper that opens and closes the bag is broken.  One side is not attached to the pull.


I've watched a few YouTube videos, and it looks like I have several options.

One involves cutting a small slit across the loose track so that I can maneuver the track back into the pull. Another option involves prying open the pull itself so that the track can slide back in and then pinching the pull tight again. A third option is to yank some of the teeth off so that there is an open space to maneuver the pull onto the track. 

Not sure what I'm gonna do yet. I'll let you know what happens.