Category — Product Reviews

Whenever I go to Hilo, I try to time it so that I can go to the Hilo Farmer’s Market if at all possible. It’s so fun to browse around and see the different foods, products, and flowers from the Big Island.

For omiyage I usually bring back either strawberry mochi from Two Ladies Kitchen or chocolate mochi from Nori’s. If I have time there are several other things I pick up from other places, but these two are pretty high up on the list. Sadly, Two Ladies was closed on the day I was returning. And since I was at the Farmer’s Market, I decided to hunt for omiyage over there instead.

I was just about to give up when I came across this plastic bin of cookies. I thought it was going to be just standard chocolate chip or cornflake cookies but when I looked closer I saw some very interesting flavors!

The cookies came in regular or Splenda types. I picked up a regular bag of Lilikoi Shortbread for my friend who was watching my dog.

For our family we got the regular as well as Splenda Ulu Crisp and Mac Poi Chip cookies. They were both good with a distinct earthy aroma. The Ulu Crisp was sweet and indeed crispy. And the Mac Poi Chip was filled with macadamia nuts and lots of chocolate chips!

These local style chips below also looked good and were a little different than the standard bag full of only taro chips. They came lightly salted and were a nice light snack.

I really enjoyed all of the Blue Kalo products. But if I had to choose my top three it would be the…

Ulu (Breadfruit) Chip

Kalo (Taro) Chip

and Mac Poi Chip Cookie – Mmm, so ono! These chips and cookies have made it on to my new Hilo omiyage list. Keep up the great work Aaron!

Here is a nice quick way to start off your morning – or in my case since I’m not really a morning person, to end a day of work.

I’m not particularly a fan of Boca Burgers or other veggie patties. But when I tried this sample at Costco I was instantly hooked!

Here’s the box and nutrition info. Continue reading →

I wondered…could this box of Vermont Curry be better than the long timer S&B Golden Curry? Also, why is it called “Vermont” Curry?

These days there seems to be so many Japanese curry options when I check out places like Shirokiya, or even just the Asian food aisle at the supermarket. My mom has changed over from S&B to House brand Vermont Curry so I thought I’d also give it a try.

I made a simple chicken curry with mushrooms, onions, and eggplant.

It was really easy to make. First I cut up all the vegetables and a couple pieces of chicken into bite sized pieces. I cooked this up in a nonstick pan. Then followed the directions on the box adding water and the curry.

The only major change I made is that I used less curry than the recipe called for. I wanted to cut back on fat and sodium so I used around half of what it called for on the box.

While I assume it’s called Vermont Curry because of the “touch of apple and honey”, I can’t really taste those two items. But given that, I still think that this brand tastes very good. And even without using the full amount of curry, there was still lots of savory flavor!

Have you ever had to wash pieces of cooked fish in the sink? No? Didn’t think so. Sad to say, I was once put into the situation where I had to do just this.

Back when I was in high school, I tried out this black bean garlic sauce for the first time. What I wanted to do was recreate my favorite fish with black bean sauce order that I would get at the Chinese restaurants. My stream of thought went: I love fish with black bean sauce — I love black bean sauce — You can’t ever have enough black bean sauce in a dish — More black bean sauce!!
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If you remember, the other week I picked up Chanko Nabe soup broth from the market to make a nice pot of soup. On this night I’m trying out the same thing but in a different flavor…Miso Kimchi Soup.
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I’ve been craving stuffed peppers ever since the other week when Kat made some. The only thing is, on this night I didn’t have the right ingredients for her recipe and I was too tired to go grocery shopping after work.

What to do, what to do…I began to dig through the pantry trying to figure out what else could work to stuff inside the peppers. As soon as I saw this box of jambalaya mix, I knew I was set!
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The other night I tried out this Marusan Chanko Nabe Soup that was on sale at Don Quijote. Inside the bag is 1.7 lbs of tasty broth ready to cook up with all the vegetables, tofu, and meat that you want.
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A special thank you to my coworker who gave me this bag of Japanese style rice cracker snacks earlier this year. Thanks!!

The little star on the package is telling me “Baked Not Fried”. Could that mean this is a healthy snack? After an inspection of the back label I spy one ingredient that I try to stay away from (well, at least when I’m cooking at home), MSG. It’s number 6 on the list of ingredients. But on the plus side, there’s no fat or cholesterol, and a respectable amount of sodium and carbs. I’d say this qualifies as a good substitute to snacking on potato chips.
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Akamai Foods is a local company that has been steadily increasing their number of followers since they began selling their oatcakes at the Kapiolani Community College Farmer’s Market in 2003. I was first introduced to their products when I tried one of their readymade oatcakes at my parents’ house last month. At first glance I thought it would be too health food-ish for me. I was thinking, oatcakes with flaxseed…I guess I’ll try it.
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Normally I’m one to just eat the cheap Sapporo Ichiban ramen. But when I saw this fresh ramen at the market I decided to give it a try. Was it worth it?
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