'Ono Kine Grindz

Sweet Home Café

Several weeks ago while looking for a place to eat, I found this spot.  Sweet Home Café occupies the shop next to Kiawe Grill (sorry folks, Kiawe Grill is NOT gone) and is located across the way from India Bazaar.  I believe this place is run by a Taiwanese woman, but I just might be mistaken.  In any event, the menu is dominated by hot pots and desserts.  It wasn't really what I was looking for that night, but the mala hot pot that I had was enjoyable.

Ingredients for the hot pot.

Mala hot pot (US$14.95)

Black sand beach (US$3.50)

Sweet Home Café
2334 South King Street
Telephone: 808.947.3707

Yauatcha - London, UK

I am going to be writing about my visit to Yauatcha shortly, I just need a little more time to collect all my thoughts.  In total, I spent about £30 here (US$60 +) and I was sadly disappointed, not necessarily by the food, but by the overall experience.

Yauatcha
15 Broadwick Street
London, UK
Telephone: 0870.780.8265

Bar Shu - London, UK

This was the only Sichuan restaurant in London that I came across and I found the food to be excellent. I later discovered that celebrated Sichuan food expert, Fuchsia Dunlop, was the restaurant's culinary consultant.

Pock-marked old woman's beancurd (£7.50).  The legendary dish, named after a smallpox-scarred restauranteur who once lived in the Sichuanese capital, Chengdu.

Boiled sea bass in extremely spicy soup (£28.90).  Lavishly topped with chilli and Sichuan pepper.

Bar Shu
28 Frith Street
London, UK
Telephone: 020.7287.6688

Sun Sui Wah Seafood Restaurant - Vancouver, BC, Canada

Sun Sui Wah Seafood Restaurant
3888 Main Street
Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Telephone: 604.872.8822

Chin's Kahala

Chin's Kahala
4230 Waialae Avenue
Telephone: 808.737.7188

Jun Bo Chinese Restaurant

POST IN PROGRESS

What's a Chinese restaurant doing hidden away in a dark alleyway?  Is it any good?

Shanghai Bistro

I have been here a couple of times and the food is good, but not exceptional.  I enjoyed this meal on Chinese New Year with a couple of friends (one of them visits this restaurant quite often).  I did not order the food, but the owner of Shanghai Bistro, Li May Tang, prepared this special menu for us.  Cost was US$30.00 per person.

--------------------------------------------------

Located in the Discovery Bay Shopping Center, Shanghai Bistro seems a little out of place with a McDonald's and a Starbucks nearby.  It's by chance that I had the opportunity to dine here on Chinese New Year and I honestly expected there to be more of a crowd -- but there wasn't. 

When we arrived at noon, the restaurant was practically empty.  If I had visited a dim sum restaurant like Fook Lam, Legend, or Panda Cuisine, I can guarantee you that there would have been hordes of hungry people around.  Not so at Shanghai Bistro.  After being seated, I glanced around the room to discover four or five tables occupied in the bright and expansive dining room.

Instead of being brought a menu, owner, Li May Tang approached our table at the front of the restaurant and chatted in Mandarin with one of my friends.  After their little exchange, I was told that she was going to prepare a special menu for us.  Several minutes passed by before the first course arrived.  I don't know what the names of the dishes are, but I'll try my best to describe them.

First up, was a salad that was served in a champagne flute with a long, thin shrimp roll jutting out from it.

The shrimp roll was still hot and the shrimp were fresh and cut into small chunks.  The salad consisted of baby greens and alfalfa sprouts with a bit of spicy thousand island dressing on top.  The dressing made a wonderful "dip" for the shrimp roll and this only had me wondering about what was to come.

Just as I was finishing my salad, the next course arrived at the table.  It was a crispy bacon tofu roll.

A block of tofu is wrapped in bacon, then deep fried until golden brown.  Crisp outside, and mouth meltingly tender inside, this dish was a wonderful contrast of textures and flavors.  Salty bacon, savory dipping sauce, soft tofu and crisp bacon -- this was probably one of the better dishes.

A few minutes later, the house specialty, Shanghai style pork dumplings with broth, arrived.

Thin-skinned wrapper shaped like a rose concealed a tiny bite of minced pork and lots of steaming hot broth.  I carefully picked up one of the dumplings and sucked the broth out from a hole in the top.  Afterwards, I found myself dipping the dumpling into the red vinegar and ginger so I could finish it off. 

As we sat there enjoying the dumplings, our server brought out this -- the Shanghai bamboo cup.

In a "cup" consisting of a length of bamboo, was a bit of clean, fresh tasting broth filled with chicken, pork, mushrooms, ginger and other ingredients.  A palate cleanser, no doubt, but a very warming one.

Next came this dish, the pan fried Dungeness crab with garlic and chillies.

The Dungeness crab was pan fried with lots of minced garlic and chillies.  And although this was probably the most expensive dish served that day, it wasn't the tastiest.  I felt that the crab had been overcooked as the meat in the legs and pinchers was quite dry.  The garlic and chillies, though, were a wonderful addition to the seafood fried rice.

This plate of kung pao chicken arrived at the same time as the crab.

Boneless pieces of chicken were stir fried with sliced garlic, peanuts, dried chillies and some green onions.  This dish was the sweetest, and the spiciest, of all the dishes we had, but it wasn't necessarily the best.  The chicken was moist and tender, though, I wish it had been a bit spicier.

As we were starting to get full, our waiter brought out a bowl of seafood fried rice.

Stir fried with pieces of scallop, shrimp and squid, the rice was a bit tasteless.  It took several spoonfuls of the garlic and chillies from the crab dish to perk this bowl of rice up.  I was kind of surprised that this came at the END of our meal.  I almost feel like it was an afterthought.

For dessert, we were presented with this.

If you asked me what it was, I couldn't tell you.  It's best described as a combination of rice (black rice and glutinous rice), azuki beans, sesame seeds and various herbs.  It was slightly sweet, very sticky, chewy and medicinal in taste.  Interesting, but not something I would have served a guest, nor would it have been something I would have ordered.

The food at Shanghai Bistro has never wowed me.  It's borderline good to mediocre, even though some of the dishes like the garlic butter rice, the crispy bacon tofu rolls and the xiao long pau are better than average.  The food here is a expensive given both the quantity and the quality, while the service leaves much to be desired.  Based on this experience, as well as a few past experiences, I don't think I'll be heading back here anytime soon.

Shanghai Bistro
Discovery Bay Center
1778 Ala Moana Boulevard Suite UL-10
Telephone:  808.955.8668

The Mandalay

For a while now I've been walking by the old Yong Sing location in downtown Honolulu wondering if that space would ever be occupied again.  Then about 9 months ago, I noticed a bit of activity around the restaurant.  First, the entryway was cleaned -- it actually looked like someone homeless was camped out there.  A few weeks after that, I caught the doors open and it looked like the insides had been gutted.  Shortly there after, I would pass by every now and again to check out the progress.

At the end of June 2005, I visited the Mandalay's booth at the 14th Annual Taste of Honolulu.  After speaking with the owner, Linda Chan, I learned that the restaurant was planning an October opening (if I remember correctly).

Soon, October came and went, and the Mandalay still had not opened.  Then on Wednesday, January 18th, I saw a "Now Open" sign in front of the restauarant as I was walking back to the office from Great Harvest.

[insert photo here]

Interested, I walked in and got a menu.  When I got back to the office, I called the restaurant and attempted to make a reservation for the following evening, only to be told that the restaurant was going to be closed for a private function.  From what I was told by a co-worker that had lunch there that day, the restaurant was closed for an industry party. 

Since I wasn't able to enjoy dinner here on Thursday, I decided to have lunch here on Friday.  Walking up to the restaurant, I noticed a small area dedicated for take out lunches (great idea) which was set off to the side from the main dining room.

[insert photo here]

Looking over the options, I decided to try the dim sum which is noted on a sign right inside the door.  There were two options -- the "A" plate and the "B" plate. 

Since I was hungry, and because I wanted to sample as many items as possible, I decided to try the dim sum plate "B" (US$6.95).

The plate contained one of each of the following (individual photos where necessary):

Steamed sticky rice with chicken wrapped in lotus leaf, steamed pork dumpling, steamed BBQ pork bun, deep fried shrimp dumpling, deep fried mixed meat dumpling, mini egg tart in crispy shell & mochi with peanut and coconut.

Here is a photo of the steamed sticky rice with chicken wrapped in lotus leaf after it has been upwrapped.

And here is the inside of the steamed BBQ pork bun.

As a whole, this plate of dim sum wasn't very good.  The steamed BBQ pork bun was mostly bun and not enough filling.  What was there was mostly fat.  The deep fried shrimp dumpling was soggy and cold -- almost as if it were sitting on a cart for a long, long time.  The steamed pork dumpling was cold and oily.  I couldn't get the taste out of my mouth for a while.  I wish that I had ordered, or brewed, some tea to wash away the oil.  The other two fried items were really oily as well.  The mini egg tart in crispy shell?  Well, it was named incorrectly because the shell wasn't really crispy.  And the steamed sticky rice with chicken wrapped in lotus leaf was probably the best thing here, even though the rice was a bit "wet", it was still flavorful and stuffed full of ground chicken and dried shrimp.

After the lackluster experience with the dim sum plate, I decided to go back for something else.  This time, I decided to have something from the hot food station.  I decided on a two choice plate (US$5.95). 

All of the plate lunches are served with white rice, seafood fried rice or gon lo mein.  Since I didn't feel like eating rice, I had gon lo mein with orange beef and stir fried green beans.  The orange beef was overly tenderized and really sweet.  It didn't feel like I was eating meat.  The stir fried green beans were selected because they had just brought a fresh pan out of the kitchen.  The beans were crisp and stir fried with ground pork and dried shrimp.  I really enjoyed these and would have asked for a double order had I known the beef was going to be such a failure.  The gon lo mein, on the other hand, was dry and flavorless.  Some chilli sauce improved the taste a bit, but not enough to make this worthwhile.

After the poor showing during lunch, I am reluctant to visit the Mandalay for dinner.  I've come to two conclusions here.  One, don't order the dim sum for take out.  By the time you get back to the office, it's sure to be cold and nearly inedible.  Maybe the Mandalay should reconsider offering dim sum to take out.  Two, when visiting during lunchtime, make sure you select whatever has just been brought out.  I had a feeling that the gon lo mein and the orange beef had been sitting a while.  The stir fried green beans were a hit because they were freshly made.

Was it worth the wait?  Definitely not and it definitely wasn't worth the cost.  Will there be a next time?  It's hard to tell.  Ask me in a few weeks.

The Mandalay
1055 Alakea Street
Telephone:  808.525.8585

Fook Lam Seafood Restaurant

Several weeks ago I was in Chinatown hoping to have some Taiwanese food for lunch.  As luck would have it, it was a Monday, and K C Kitchen was closed.  I also thought about visiting Season's Ice & Eatery, but remembered that the owners of the shop were out of town for two weeks.  Since I was already in the area, my friend suggested having something to eat here.  After that first visit, I decided to come back again and try a few different things. 

Upon arriving at Fook Lam, I found the restaurant to be crowded.  Stepping inside, I left my name at the counter and was given a little slip of paper with the number 71 on it.  Below that was written the number 2 (for two guests).  After waiting for about 5 minutes, I heard over the loudspeaker "chat yap sat", "qi shi yi", "number 71" -- funny!  At least they gave me three chances to respond.

Once inside, we were seated at a table in the far corner of the restaurant.  This is the crowd at 1:30 pm.  Can you imagine how many more people are here at 11:00 am?

Once seated the carts started coming around to visit.  This one was on it's way and contained mostly fried stuff in the bottom and a number of desserts up top.  See the hungry look on the man in red's face?  And how's the girl with her mouth open.  I think she saw something she wanted.

We chose a few items off the carts and also ordered a few items that are not on the menu.  Let's start with this -- #24. honey tripe (US$1.90).

Sweet and just a little spicy, the tripe retained just enough bite to make this enjoyable.  One thing that I don't usually like about tripe, is that it's most often overdone -- too tender, with not enough texture. That was definitely not the case here.  If you like tripe, you'll definitely like this.

#9.  Chicken feet with black bean (US$1.90).

After the first bite, I couldn't really tell that the chicken feet were braised using black bean sauce.  Instead, the flavorful chicken feet seemed to have been flavored more with chilli and star anise.  Distinctive in flavor, I wish this would have been braised for just a little while longer so the chicken feet would have been just a bit more tender.

#21.  Steamed spinach & scallop dumplings (US$1.90).

Tiny bay scallops and wilted spinach were surrounded by a thin, semi-translucent rice flour skin.  Soft and tender, with just the right amount of filling, these dumplings were nearly perfect.

#33.  Beef look funn roll (US$2.75).

Thick and slippery look funn noodles were wrapped around lots of flavorful minced beef before being topped with sweet soy sauce and a healthy sprinkling of chopped green onions and cilantro.

Pan fried turnip cake with XO sauce (US$4.95).

This dish is actually not on the menu, but they will make it for you if you ask.  Mashed turnips were mixed with flour and dried shrimp before being pan fried until crispy with savory XO sauce.  Garnished with slices of cut red chillies, chopped green onions and cilantro, this was one of my favorite dishes here.  It reminded me of the chai tow kway that I had in Singapore.  All this needed was some of that sweet, dark soy sauce.

Xiao long pau (US$3.80).

Ever elusive, this dish is another that is not on the menu.  Xiao long pau, or pork dumplings with soup, are a rare find on dim sum menus here.  If you know to ask, you'll be in for a treat.  Eat them while they're hot, otherwise, the soup will be absorbed by the skins.  These were nicely filled with ground pork and well flavored with lots of ginger.  The skins could have been a little thinner though.

#43.  Fish rice soup (US$3.95).

Rice soup, or congee, is another favorite of mine, but one that I don't indulge in too often.  Normally, I will have the century egg (pei dan) with pork rice soup, but this time I decided to try something different.  Large chucks of fish were swimming in the bowl of smooth textured rice soup.  Add a little vinegar and a sprinkling of pepper and you're set.

After all that, I still had room for dessert.  I decided to have the red bean jelly (US$1.90).

Cool, refreshing and not at all sweet, this red bean jelly hit the spot.  It's not often that I indulge in dessert after having dim sum, but was so irresistable. 

The dim sum here at Fook Lam is, in many ways, just as good as the dim sum at my favorite place, Panda Cuisine.  The selection of items here is good and the dishes are thoughfully prepared, flavorful and well portioned.  In addition, the service here is better than at most dim sum places and given the quality of the food, the prices are very reasonable. 

Fook Lam Seafood Restaurant
Chinatown Cultural Plaza
100 North Beretania Street Suite 110-112
Telephone:  808.523.9168

Seasons Ice & Eatery Ltd

This is actually a Taiwanese snack shop located in the Chinatown Cultural Plaza.  Here is a sampling of what's available here.  I've actually tried almost everything on the menu and it's all pretty good.

--------------------------------------------------

Several months ago, I was on my way to meet a friend for lunch at K C Kitchen. On that particular occasion, I parked in a different location and ended up walking past Seasons Ice & Eatery and that's how I discovered this place.  It's kind of funny to think about because both of these places serve Taiwanese food and they are within walking distance of each other.  The atmosphere inside each restaurant is quite different and so is the food. 

As you approach Seasons Ice & Eatery, you'll notice the food photos on the window facing the mall.  The photos do give you an idea on what's on offer here and most of it looks good...especially when I'm hungry.  When I arrived, there were only a couple of people here inside the small shop -- there are only 3 tables (or was it 4?) inside this tiny shop.

There's a small area in the front of the shop which contains a refrigerator full of cold drinks, and a small ice shaver to make some icy treats which are especially good when the weather is hot and humid.  To be honest, I have never had dessert here, only because I'm usually too full after eating all of the delicious food.

If you've been to the Taiwanese restaurants that are in the area, then you're probably familiar with the bright colored strips of paper that adorn the walls -- I've been told that this is the menu.  Now, if I was able to read the Chinese characters, then I'd probably place my order based upon what I read there.  But...

...instead, on the table is a menu covered in tiny photos with the name of the dish in English as well as a number.  You'll soon find out why this is helpful.

You see, on each table is a laminated sheet of paper and a black marker, like what's shown below.  When you're ready, you indicate which dishes you want by writing the number of servings in the little boxes next to the description of the dishes.  Now, it's much easier, in my opinion, to look for numbers rather than the names of dishes and that's why I like the numbering system.  Besides, there should be no confusion with having an incorrect order brought to the table, or an incorrect tab, right?

I often order this combo -- #17. seasoned boiled egg (US$.50) and #18. seasoned tofu square (US$2.00).

The tofu is braised before being topped with some yellow bean sauce and chopped green onions.  The tofu has an interesting flavor, one that I've become accustomed to over the last several months.  The seasoned egg is tasty, but could use a bit more flavor.  Perhaps they could braise it for a longer period of time?

Depending on how hungry I am, I will also order the #12. fried rice noodle (US$2.50).

Thin strands of glass noodles are stir fried with vegetables before being topped with a some minced pork and chopped cilantro.  Despite the low cost, this is the perfect portion size for a light lunch and the flavorful noodles taste even better when a healthy spoonful of chilli is added on top.

More frequently, I will order a bowl of the beef noodle soup or niu rou mien (US$5.50).

The piping hot soup arrives with a ton of noodles floating around in the bowl of beefy broth.  Along with the chunks of lean, tender beef, there's a lot of chopped cilantro and chopped green onions in here as well.  The soup here is almost always a little sweet, and more often, almost never spicy enough.  While "fishing" around in the bottom of the bowl, I discovered one of their "secret" ingredients -- tomatoes!

If I don't feel like having too much starch for lunch, I'll order the above mentioned seasoned tofu and this dish, #7. Meat dumpling with beef soup (US$5.50).

Eight thick-skinned and plump dumplings are found floating around in the same bowl of broth as the signature beef noodle soup.  The slightly sweet flavor of the broth pairs well with the beef and chive filling.  Stuffed until they are almost ready to explode, the dumplings are excellent.

Despite being in the vicinity of the more popular K C Kitchen, Seasons Ice & Eatery definitely holds its own.  The food here in inexpensive and tasty, and the service is great.  Now all that's left is to decide who makes the best niu rou mien.

Seasons Ice & Eatery Ltd
Chinatown Cultural Plaza
100 North Beretania Street Suite 117
Telephone: 808.538.1978