I must go shopping for produce on the wrong days because almost every time I’m at the market all the veggies look so sad.

Every time except for last Wednesday that is. That day I found the most perfect bunches of baby bok choy I’ve ever seen. No nasty holes from bugs or wilty looking leaves, it was my lucky day!

I threw together this simple recipe to make use of my find. It was very tasty over some brown rice!

Continue reading…

Back in June we received some omiyage from our friends visiting from Tokyo - Yum! We’ve already eaten all of the arare you see in the sakura package below. But it has taken me a while to think of something to make with that freeze dried tofu.

I’ve never cooked with it, or even tasted it before. But I thought I’d try it out in this wakame shiitake broth.
Continue reading…

Sitting at our breakfast table in some hotel in Europe, our friends from Australia asked if we were going to eat the kiwi fruit that was in the fruit basket in the middle of our table. We quickly said no. It was a weird sort of reflex answer.

In Hawaii, we had never bought kiwi fruit, ever. I must’ve had a small taste of it somewhere along the line but it just didn’t seem like a fruit that we eat.

Anyway, our friend quickly picked up the kiwi, peeled it and started to enjoy this very juicy looking fruit. With every bite I wondered why I was so quick to say no to it.

Well ever since then I’ve wanted to try it myself. So when I saw it on sale at the market the other day, I finally decided to get some. Immediately, I remembered why I was so hesitant about kiwis. I was standing there looking at these rows of kiwis not knowing what made a good, ripe kiwi.

Also, there were two stacks and I had no idea what the difference was. One stack was a little bigger and the skin was I guess you could say…prettier. So I bought a couple of those.

I brought it home, cut it open and found…

Hmm, not green like I remember. Turns out these kiwis that I bought were something called Gold Kiwifruit. I gave it a taste…very nice. Like a cross between mango and pineapple.

Continue reading…

It’s been a catch and release kind of week. Meaning, we haven’t been able to bring anything up worthy of the dinner table recently. On most days the only bite I get is of whatever I have for lunch. So sad.

However, there have been a couple hook ups. At the first beach (picture above) I brought up a little eel in the afternoon. Disappointed without any fish, we tried some simple handpole fishing and picked up a kupipi…

and a bunch of mamo. All went quickly back into the water to enjoy another day.

At this other place we tried, there were a lot of nibbles on the line but no big bites. Continue reading…

When I’m in central Oahu I go to Highway Inn for my Hawaiian food fix. However, when I’m in town I often stop by Yama’s Fish Market on Young Street.

We always get the same thing here. He gets the #3 - Lau Lau, Lomi Salmon, Poke & Haupia ($9.00).

I get the #12 - Kalua Pig Cabbage plate ($5.85) and a side order of shoyu poke.

But wait, there’s more! Continue reading…

After making those Pumpkin Cinnamon Nut Rolls the other day, I still had about half a can of pumpkin leftover. That was just the perfect amount for these pumpkin pancakes.
Continue reading…

This summer we’ve finally had time to catch up on all the things we’ve been meaning to do for the last half year or so. And one of those things has been cleaning. Since we were in Japan during the typical spring cleaning time, that (unfortunately) was on our to do list for the summer.

One benefit of cleaning the house is that you occasionally find things that you’ve all but forgotten about. For me it was a can of pumpkin that was hidden away in a box near the kitchen.

If I recall correctly, my mom gave this to us back in November and I guess somehow it never made it into the cupboard! Needless to say, seeing the orange can of pumpkin set me in the mood for some kind of pumpkin treat this week.

Here is the recipe for something I’ll call Pumpkin Cinnamon Nut Rolls…
Continue reading…