Catching Up...Joyful Garden

OK, so I've been bad in not keeping up with my posts. At least now I have material stored up...just hope I can remember all of the details...

Anyway, I saw that Nadine Kam had reviewed Joyful Garden, a chinese restaurant in Kaneohe, in Sunday's Star Bulletin. You can read her review here.

Here's an outside shot...



I didn't totally agree with her review so thought I would post my own (no offense to Nadine Kam, of course...who I believe is a fellow Waipahu High graduate...yay Marauders!). And, everyone is well aware that no visit is the same when you go to a restaurant... Anyway, Nadine...the restaurant is located in Windward City Shopping Center, not at Windward Mall! The bad thing is that it's located in the back of the shopping center(which traditionally is slow) but the good thing is that the back has slowly been building up traffic, due to eateries like KJ's, Genki Sushi, Pizza Hut and now, Taco Del Mar.

I've been going on and off to Joyful Garden since they first opened in February (my wife reminded me that it was Super Bowl weekend). On that first weekend, there was a substantial amount of traffic...guess it was all of the people like us checking out the new chinese restaurant in town...plus they were advertising free soda as a promotion...can't beat that, right? I was impressed with the space...very spacious plus there was an adjoining room for private parties, I guess...and they had a plasma tv mounted. Formally dressed waiters...haven't had that in Kaneohe since Eastern Garden left... The wait time was kind of slow and the food was OK...nothing special..but it was their first weekend... Gotta give those new restaurants time to settle in, right?



A few months down the road and a few more tries... Less people dropping by(the room was mostly empty) but the quality of food has improved some. Seems like less wait help (maybe because less traffic?). Looks like they're starting to advertise "local style" plates and that they're going to have dim sum service in the summer...hope that drums up more business for them.

OK, now it's the middle of summer and they finally have dim sum! Kaneohe has been missing dim sum since Eastern Garden closed down. Only thing is, I went to Panda Cuisine last month so this has to be pretty good to top that.



So we went inside and notice that there were quite a bit of people there. Of course as soon as we sat down, the carts gravitated towards our table and the usual showing of dim sum took place..."would you like some _____?"..."or, how about some _____?" ...and they pretty much go through what they have on the cart. There were two carts...one for fried stuff and one for steamed stuff. Not a lot of wait help...noticed only about three people running around. Anyway, seems that the carts didn't have a lot of stuff that we wanted and we were told that the items we wanted were "coming out soon". So we got these...

I like good blackbean spareribs so I usually have to try it at least once at a new restaurant...this one had lots of tiny bits which made it difficult to eat...


Pork hash, I think it had shrimp inside too...


Taro puffs...


There was a long period where no dim sum was offered to us...decided to order from the menu...beef choi sum chow fun...tasted Ok but lots of cornstarch...


We were waiting for new stuff to come out but the carts kept on going farther and farther, never coming back. I know at dim sum restaurants, they like to hit on the new customers but usually they eventually rotate around the room. It was kind of disappointing that this didn't happen. Fortunately, a couple sat down near us so we pounced on the cart after the couple was done. Unfortunately, by that time, all of the new stuff was almost gone...and my daughter was looking forward to har gau...we got the two baskets that was left though.


Taste overall was pretty good but the service was pretty lousy, especially when we had asked for specific items but never got them and had had to ask repeatedly. Kind of disappointing for us. Could be they had an off day. Seems that they are pretty inconsistent, hopefully it gets better. Pricing was pretty standard, I think it started at $2 something for the lower end dim sum. Ended up spending just a little under $20, which is low for going to a dim sum restaurant for us...top it off to the unavailability of stuff we wanted. Guess I'll check back later to see if it changes...

Joyful Garden
Windward City Shopping Center

Sorry! Falling behind....

Hi everyone! Sorry I'm falling behind on posts but the new school year started and I'm trying to get back to the regular routine. That means PTA & other parent type meetings on week nights, trying not to go out with the family on week nights, making sure the kids do their homework, etc., etc. I have stuff accumulated and will try to post... :)

Pea Salad w/Smoked Almonds

One food site that I love to check out daily is Simply Recipes by Elise. She features great recipes that are easy to follow and are personally tested. Recently I saw that she had posted an interesting Pea Salad w/Smoked Almonds. My wife and I love to eat pea salad but the kids refuse to even touch it... I read the reviews and everyone posted that they loved the salad...OK, I was hooked...this sounded good...

Pea Salad w/Smoked Almonds Recipe from Simply Recipes (http://www.elise.com/recipes/)
16-ounces frozen petite peas (do not thaw)
1/2 cup chopped green onions
6 ounces smokehouse almonds, rinsed to take off the excess salt, chopped (preferably by hand)
8 ounces chopped water chestnuts
2/3 cup mayonnaise
2 tsp yellow curry powder
Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

Combine the frozen peas, green onions, smokehouse almonds, and water chestnuts. In a separate small bowl, mix together the mayonnaise and curry powder. Gently stir the mayonnaise mixture into peas. Add salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste.
Serves 6.

The ingredients and preparation were simple enough...I thought, "How could anyone mess up a salad?" So I went to the store... Couldn't find petite peas(and I normally see this at the store) so I got "sweet garden peas". My wife doesn't like green onions so I picked up a red onion(on the spot substitution time). And I took the chance that I had water chestnuts and curry powder at home. When I got home, I found out I had water chestnuts but no curry powder(seems that we've been using those Japanese curry mixes so no curry powder). I chopped the water chestnuts, the red onion and found out the hard way that chopping 6 oz. of almonds is a major pain...should have used the food processor. I ended up doing a semi coarse chop. It says to not thaw the peas so it went straight from the freezer to the bowl. Added the mayo and figured I needed something to spice it up and since I didn't have the curry powder I threw in some of that Nalo Farms Creamy Herb dressing that I had bought from the farmers' market. Some salt and some fresh ground pepper. OK, it was tasting time....and doh! ... I found out that frozen peas stay hard for awhile...OK, waited a little longer for the peas to defrost at least a little bit more for the second tasting... This time, it's great! I just love the texture...everything's crunchy...the peas, the almonds and the onion...and the taste is good too... And the best thing is that it's coooold! On a warm evening, it's a great taste treat for your mouth. If you like pea salad, try this...I'm sure you'll like it...and don't forget, use the food processor to chop the almonds :)

A Quick Bite @ Shiro's

We were running late one day and decided to catch a quickie lunch. As we were around the Waimalu area, we decided to go to Shiro's. There's a lot of places that sell saimin but Shiro's is one of the few that I actually like. For me, I'll eat saimin any place as I love noodles but sometimes there's places where you just savor the experience... Here, they have curly noodles that are chewy...the way local-style saimin should be. And the broth is tasty, not overly salty like some places. I remember when Shiro's first opened and people were saying that they had all of these different varieties of saimin. When I later visited in person, I found out that a lot of the "varieties" included some kind of food item on the side (saimin with _____). These days, I've found that the economy has affected the size of the bowls at Shiro's as the amount you are served is much smaller than I remember.

Here's a "table-view' from the front...


There's all these sayings that Shiro Matsuo (the owner) created and printed out and posted on the walls all over...great for reading while you wait for your food...




A snapshot of the first page of the menu...




And what did I eat? Guess you could call this a carbo-special...a medium saimin, no vegetables (veggies cost extra) and an order of crinkle cut fries...yum!

Shiro's Saimin Haven

98-020 Kamehameha Hwy

What I'm Eating - Truffle Oil

Here's my latest indulgence... truffle oil. I was reading an article and it just sounded so good so I went out and bought some... Went to R. Fields in Kailua and picked this up.



Of course, I researched it first... I found an entry on the Wikipedia and read other articles & recipes on the internet. Seems there's this controversy where a lot of truffle oils are actually artificially created using molecules that make up that great flavor of truffles. Here's a good article from the NY Times. Makes you kind of wary. Anyway, this is supposed to be a good brand. I've been using it all week as we had grilled a huge amount of steak and vegetables earlier and ate leftovers for a couple of days...it was great on those. The taste is very earthy and the aroma is very very strong(my wife & daughter said that it was stinky, lol)...to me, it's kind of like mushrooms on steroids...but don't get me wrong...in the right amount, it really enhances the dish. You can't overdo, just a little drizzle is enough. Next, I'm looking for truffle salt...it's supposed to be awesome on popcorn (drool) :)

Lunch @ Bravo Restaurant

Last week was the last time I had to take my home to rehab...after this she's supposed to continue her exercises at home. When lunchtime came, we decided that we had had enough of Big City Diner and went through our choices. We finally decided on Bravo Restaurant, right below Anna Millers at Pearl Ridge. It's always hard to find a place that is "acceptable" to my mom... You know she'll say, "any place you want to go" but inside she's secretly saying, "not that place"... Luckily, italian is one cuisine that my mom will eat. Bravo Restaurant has long been a local favorite for casual italian dining and often appears on local "best" or "favorite" lists. Parking is always at a premium there when it approaches the peak dining hours so we headed right over. Luckily it was early enough where there was ample parking available. We headed down the stairs as it is located below Anna Millers...



There was a menu posted outside...



The restaurant had only been open for about 20 minutes so it wasn't crowded.



Of course, everyone comes for the garlic rolls...They're freshly made and brought to your table right away, so they're hot! They're so good that the best strategy is to have everyone at your table eat them right away and have the server bring another basket so you can eat that with your meal...



On this visit, oddly the garlic on the rolls seemed to be somewhat on the raw side...they had a lot of bite, if you know what I mean...The mints they gave at the end really came in handy...

We weren't that hungry so we decided to order the specials off the lunch menu...a lot of the specials are half portions of pasta with salad (choice of garden or caesar). Normally, I like to order the regular portion of angel hair pasta with fresh tomato pomodoro sauce. For some reason, I really like this sauce as it's very simple with fresh crushed tomatoes in it...yummy...and, sometime in the past, I got hooked on it. However, I really wanted a salad too. But I didn't want the fusili with meat sauce that came with the pasta with salad special. Luckily, the waitress informed me that I could substitute the angel hair pasta w/the pomodoro sauce for the fusili (for .75 more)...Yay!

My mom ordered the pizza of the day w/salad..it was barbecue chicken pizza (we told her that she could have gone to CPK). I thought that the slices were on the small side...



My daughter didn't know what to order so I suggested the spinach & ricotta cheese ravioli in alfredo sauce...she liked it but I thought it looked kind of soupy...



My wife ordered linguine with clams...



And here's mine...the angel hair pasta with the fresh tomato pomodoro sauce... I was a little disappointed as the pasta was definitely a little overcooked, not al dente...wish they gave more fresh basil... Nice salad, fresh romaine with carrots, radish slice, an olive, tomato slice, garbanzos & lots of parmesan over it...



It was an OK lunch. I really liked Bravo in the past but when I've gone in recent times, I've felt that the quality has declined a bit and the portions are smaller (blame it on the economy). But, the taste is good and the service and atmosphere is great! It's a good place to have a casual meal with friends or family...

Bravo Restaurant @ Pearlridge
98-115 Kaonohi Street
http://www.bravorestaurant.com/

KCC Farmers Market

Last weekend, before going to Ala Moana, we got up early and went to the KCC Farmers Market. We usually end up going a couple of times during the year. We like to browse through the various produce vendors and checking out the prepared foods.

As usual, it was pretty busy...


Lots of traffic in front of the booths...


This was pretty popular...a tomato mozarella pizza (North Shore Farms)...with, not sure, might be pesto? under the tomato/mozarella...they were cooking it on a grill...saw a lot of people walking around eating this...will definitely try this next time...


Lots of tomatoes from North Shore Farms...




Taro Delights...features a variety of taro based products including spreads and wraps, salmon and taro lau lau...tried a couple of the dips...very different but pretty yummy...


Xotic Eats...features tofushi (sushi made from tofu) and bentos...the owner was pretty nice...she jokingly told me she charged for pictures...






The Ba-Le Bakery tent was pretty busy...they had great samples...


The North Shore Cattle Company feature hormone free beef...cuts of beef and cooked hamburgers, sausage, etc.


My wife had the andouille sausage...


Don't remember who this is...some farm from Kahuku...they were featuring samples of different colored grape tomatoes in front...


Besides buying some produce, we ended up purchasing -
...some taro poke...chunks of taro w/poke style seasoning...kind of like making poke but without the fish and substituting taro. Green onion, sesame oil, red pepper, salt, limu/ogo (seaweed)... Tastes pretty good and it's supposed to be healthy because of the taro. We couldn't figure if it should be eaten by itself like poke or was it to be eaten with chips/crackers? as the booth had given chips to scoop samples on...


Also, got some dressing from Nalo Farms. This is the Creamy Honey Herb...I was shocked to find out that it had very low sodium (50 mg/serving) and very low cholesterol. I've been trying to eat salads on a daily basis so this goes great with the spring greens I got from the wholesale club...


Last of all, my wife thought that I should have a healthy snack so she bought me a package of Nori Brown Rice Crackers from Ba-Le.



I plan on going back and trying the other things that I couldn't get to...stay tuned... :)

Mmmm...Mochi Cream!

Went to Ala Moana over the weekend and did some back to school shopping. Also remembered my camera so I able to take pictures. When we got there, it was so early that most of the stores weren't open yet. I took a few pics of the display while walking past La Palme D'or...





Eventually (after everything opened) we worked our way over to Shirokiya. Here's some pics of the usual offerings...












This weekend, Shirokiya was featuring Mochi Cream. Now we all know what Mochi Ice Cream is, but what the heck is Mochi Cream? I knew that they had featured it before but I hadn't been able to go and see. I guess we were early, no lines... The price is pretty steep...6 pieces for $8.99. You get to pick what you want...



There's a lot of different flavors...


Nicely arranged in the display cases...








Some flavors were sold out...


...and they had truffle flavors too...most unfortunately, sold out...


this was the display box of the truffle flavors...


Ok, we selected our 6...they were: green tea, cafe au lait, mont blanc, passion orange, cream apple & peach cream. Here's our box...




Here's a closeup on one...


Here's our 6 laid out on a plate...




And now, the moment of truth...what exactly are inside these???






I have this bad habit of trying to analyze food and dishes and trying to figure out how they are made. The mochi creams have three layers. The core is some kind of cream, not sure what kind, but it tastes good. The next layer is definitely made out of lima bean paste which has been flavored. It's been pureed really fine and you can really taste the flavor that was blended in. I noticed one flavor had specks of azuki beans inside. The final layer is mochi that has been flavored...guess you get a double dose of the selected flavor that way. The green tea one was also dusted with matcha powder on the outside. And the taste? It was great! Different from a regular mochi with azuki inside...very sweet...and the selected flavor comes through from the two outer layers. The cream in the center also adds to the taste experience. These are also very soft and kind of on the gushy side. I think they picked those type of flavors because they are very strong flavors. I really liked the cafe au lait but they all probably tasted good. Didn't get to taste all 6 as we kind of shared it around. Wish I could have gotten some of those sold out flavors. The only con is the price. Wonder if I could make these? Hmmm...