Cup-O-Miso-Soup

I got this for 99 cents at Marukai.  It was on the bargain shelf and was probably marked down because it was already past the expiration date. 



Here are the freeze-dried ingredients. 


Miso/dashi paste.




The tofu had a weird texture, but the taste of the soup was good. 

Wo Won Ton Mein from Duk Kee

This Wo Won Ton Mein ($8.25) from Duk Kee in Kaimuki was very good. I liked the al dente noodles, and the broth was flavored just right.

Still trying to get used to the new camera.  

1/60, f2.8, 125 ISO, Auto Mode


1/80, f3.2, 125 ISO, Auto Mode


1/320, f5.6, 125 ISO, Auto Mode

Spreading the Aloha

BFF Leslie taught me about spreading the Aloha while traveling abroad. This container from Costco contains 90 packs of goodness that me and my sister will be passing out to people we meet while in Japan. 

Awesome idea, yah!

Disposable Clothes

I'm kinda shame to show you the old, boro-boro clothes that I'm gonna be wearing on my upcoming trip, but I wanna share with you the trick that I use so that I can end up with enough suitcase space to bring home plenty omiyage. Please keep in mind that I will be wearing a brand-new jacket over the bust-up clothes, so hopefully I won't look too bad.

Our trip will be 12 days long.

Here are my tops. I will wear the top on the right coming home. The rest will each get tossed after about 2 days' use. Don't worry . . . they are years and years old, and normally shoulda been thrown away long ago. 


Same with the pants. The black pants on the right will get worn home. The rest of the pants will get tossed after 3 (or more) days' use each.


The black socks are actually Wendell's ankle-length socks that he doesn't use anymore. The white ones are my old ones. I have enough socks so that I can put on a fresh pair each morning. None of these are coming home.


These will be my pajamas (thanks Mich). Both will be left behind.


The airlines we're using allows two suitcases, so I am also packing a second bag within my suitcase to use (to fill!) coming home.  !!!!!

The Wonder of Google Map

Weeks, even months, before actually going on a trip, I take a look at the areas we plan to visit on Google Map. My virtual adventure lasts way longer than the actual one, and it helps me to know ahead of time what I can look forward to.

I like it that if we do have time to go exploring aside from what the tour has planned for us, we won't be wasting time walking around aimlessly. I pretty much have a game plan no matter what city we'll be in.

For example, you see the map below? The circled "x" is where our hotel is in Nikko. If I want to visit the Kinugawa Onsen Foot Bath and the surrounding shops, I know that we need to take a left from the hotel, and at the intersection that's shown in the photo above the map, we take a right and then go a couple of blocks south. Very, very helpful. And very, very cool. 



I have a binder with notes and printed out maps that I pack.  It's tabbed by city. Even though a lot of times we don't have the time to do anything extra, when we do . . . I am so ready! 

Good Rice Cooker?

The question was posed: Is there a difference in taste in rice made in a plain one-button rice cooker vs. a fuzzy logic rice cooker vs. an induction rice cooker?  Can you let me know if you have a preference or opinion?

I totally cut and pasted the below from a website called Sacred Rice here. 

What Is a Fuzzy or Neuro Fuzzy Logic Rice Cooker?

Fuzzy logic is a form of non-linear logic. It deals with approximation and inference rather than precision. Fuzzy logic is measured by a range of variables. Fuzzy logic has a wide range of applications in the areas of control systems and artificial intelligence.

Neuro-fuzzy refers to artificial neural networks and fuzzy logic. Neuro-fuzzy logic resembles the human-like reasoning with the ability to derive “IF-Then” rules.

When fuzzy logic or neuro fuzzy logic is applied in a rice cooker, the rice cooker can “think” on its own via a micro-computerized chip. It is able to discern different types of rice or grains to yield optimally cooked rice. Then it determines the cooking time and temperature according to the thermal sensor’s calculation.

What Is a Induction Heating Rice Cooker?

Induction heating is a non-contact heating process using radio frequency electricity through an electrical conductive material. Induction heating is the most advanced heating technology. It has numerous applications such as industrial and household appliances.

In the context of a rice cooker, an induction heating “zone” is built underneath an inner pot. The inner pot is like a heat conductor. An alternating electric current flows in the external vessel where the inner pot is housed to produce resistive heating. The surrounding heating cooks the rice or food in the inner pot. The inner pot has to be of high ferrous metal content at the base. Examples of such are cast iron, black metal or iron pans.

Wendell's Honey Garlic Salmon

Blown Away.  That's what I am with the "Superior Auto" mode of the RX100 III. Basically it works like this: the camera recognizes the scene, figures out which process is needed, takes multiple shots (if needed) and puts them together to make one picture. You can find out more here if you like. 

I have comparison shots below. All of the photos are SOOC (straight out of camera) JPGs with no post processing. What's interesting is that the camera chose totally different settings from me but with similar results. Not sure if it's because multiple shots are being put together that it's possible, but it chose a low ISO that I would never think could work given the dim lighting. 

The camera takes a smidgen longer to take a photo using Superior Auto, but it's still is a whole lot faster than me trying to figure out what settings to use. 

Superior Auto:  1/80, f4.0, 125 ISO


Me: 1/200, f5.6, 640 ISO


Superior Auto: 1/80, f3.2, 125 ISO


Me: 1/320, f4.5, 1250 ISO



Oh, and BTW, here's the recipe from Cafe Delites. The salmon was moist and delicious! 

INGREDIENTS

• ¼ cup butter
• ⅓ cup honey
• 4 large cloves garlic, crushed
• 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice (juice of ½ a lemon)
• 1.2kg | 2½ pound side of salmon
• Sea salt, to taste
• Cracked pepper, to taste (optional)
• Lemon slices (to serve)
• 2 tablespoons fresh chopped parsley

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Position a rack in the middle of the oven. Preheat oven to 375°F | 190°C. Line a baking tray / sheet with a large piece of foil, big enough to fold over and seal to create a packet (or 2 long pieces of foil over lapping each other lengthways to create your salmon packet, depending on the width of you fillet).
2. In a small saucepan, melt the butter over low-medium heat. Add the honey, garlic and lemon, and whisk until the honey has melted through the butter and the mixture is well combined.
3. Place the salmon onto lined baking tray | sheet. Pour the butter/honey mixture over the salmon, and using a pastry brush or spoon, spread evenly over the salmon. Sprinkle with a good amount of salt (about 2 teaspoons) and cracked pepper. Fold the sides of the foil over the salmon to cover and completely seal the packet closed so the butter does not leak.
4. Bake until cooked through (about 15-18 minutes, depending on the thickness of your fish and your preference of doneness). Open the foil, being careful of any escaping steam, and grill / broil under the grill / broiler for 2-3 minutes on medium heat to caramelise the top. Garnish with parsley and serve immediately with lemon slices.

ICE MACHINE BROKE!!!!!!

I'M SOOOOO HAPPY!!!!!!!!

If you don't know why, check the following:


The Bane of My Existence

%^&*@#

Ice Machine Update

Sony RX100 III

Some of you may know that I love my 9-year-old Canon 5D II.  I even call it My Precious. But last year while in Japan the size and weight of My Precious wore me down. It felt akin to dragging a ball and chain around everywhere with me. I vowed to look for a small travel camera to take on the next trip. 

There are quite a few small-sized cameras out there that appealed to me. Only thing . . . the ones with features to my liking cost big $$$$, and every single one of them had at least one flaw that prevented me from taking the plunge. 

Long story, not too short, this past weekend, on yet another trip to Best Buy . . . to look and touch and ponder . . . I met salesperson Maki. Maki himself had gotten the newest model (IV) of the Sony RX100 to take with him to Japan last year and he had loved it. He said that if I wasn't interested in the video aspect, then the Mark III (cheaper) version was just as good. 

Several factors came into play in my decision to buy this particular camera. (1) Maki himself bought it to take on his trip to Japan, (2) my trip is 1 1/2 weeks away, and I do not want to be lugging 5 pounds of camera gear into the bathroom stalls with me again, and (3) finally and maybe most importantly the camera is on sale right now for $100 less than usual. 



One of the things that people grumble online about Sony cameras is its menu system. They say that it is absolutely horrendous to maneuver through. And it turned out to be true. But that's because there are so many tweak-able options for you to choose from. Once you get used to it, maneuvering is not too bad. I've even been able to change functions on the control dial in the back of the camera to my liking . . . now I just press it right to change ISO, down to change shutter and down again to change aperture. I've assigned exposure compensation to the lens ring. There is also a programmable Function button where you can quickly access your choice of features.

Ironically, the hardest thing for me to get used to is the camera's small size. I've had to learn to hold it differently or my hands will cramp up.  Also, I find myself not using the awesome electronic viewfinder which I actually love. The viewfinder is positioned on the left side of the camera, but because I'm left-eye dominant my face gets in the way of the control buttons. A right-eyed person wouldn't have that problem. Maybe I can teach myself to use my right eye . . . we'll see. Luckily, I can use the screen in the back of the camera to view instead.  

I don't have any software to process RAW images from this camera right now, so I'll be shooting only JPG for now.  If the photos end up turning out okay though, I'll probably not even bother shooting RAW with it. 

Here are my first test shots.

1/80, f4.0, 125 ISO, 62mm, Program mode


1/80, f4.0, 320 ISO, 70mm, Manual mode


1/80, f4.0, 320 ISO, 24mm, Manual mode


1/160, f2.8, 160 ISO, 40mm, Manual mode


1/80, f2.8, 1600 ISO, 24mm, Manual mode


1/60, f1.8, 1600 ISO, 24mm, Manual mode


1/80, f3.5, 1600 ISO, 33mm, Manual mode


1/25 (!!!!), f2.8, 800 ISO, 70mm, Auto mode


1/80, f3.5, 1600 ISO, 70mm, Manual mode, (do you know what movie?)


I paid $750 for the camera . . . LOTS.  Hopefully, it'll be worth it. Getting excited!!

Cryo Therapy Hawaii

One good thing about Wendell (unlike me) is that he's not afraid to try new and different things . . . especially when it comes to enhancing his softball-playing skills. His latest discovery is Cryo Therapy Hawaii by Egan Inoue.

One session normally goes for $55, but Wendell bought a Groupon thing of six sessions for $122. You can check it out here. 

I went to a session with Wendell a few weeks ago and took these pictures for you. Wendell said that he likes the treatment, and that it is definitely helping his aching knees.

One tip for you:  You might wanna put bandages on your nipples so that they don't get frozen.















Here's Egan himself describing the experience.