Even though we were only in Hilo for 4 days, we indulged (maybe over-indulged) in a few of the sleepy town’s local favorites.

Located across the parking lot of Rainbow Falls is a little storefront, Rainbow Falls Connection, not more than 12 feet long and 8 feet wide. Here, you will find an offering of lavosh, Hawaiian honey, butter spreads and cookies, that are made and produced locally. The store is run under a non-profit organization that uses the sales proceeds to create job-skills programs, for the low-income community.

The lavosh here is reasonably priced at 4 for $15.00. They come in several different flavors. My favorite is the macadamia nut lavosh which has a butter cookie like taste, with a hint of macadamia nut flavor or essence. There are no macadamia nut pieces in the flat cookie, so I’m guessing that they grind the macadamia nut to a powder form and mix it in with the rest of the ingredients. The lavosh is good plain, with a cup of tea. But, sometimes, I top the macadamia nut lavosh with macadamia nut honey – I know, macadamia nut overkill – but it’s good. This is a perfect afternoon snack.

Another notable local favorite is Two Ladies Kitchen. This little shop, run by, you guessed it, two ladies (and the rest of their family doing behind the scenes stuff), is known for their strawberry mochi, a Japanese sweet rice flour dessert. When my friends were telling me that they were picking up some strawberry mochi to take back to Honolulu, I thought they were talking about strawberry flavored mochi – oh, was I mistaken. Imagine a whole strawberry (humongous Costco-sized), smeared with sweet bean paste then wrapped with fresh steamed sweet mochi, forming a golf-ball sized little package of heaven. Here’s a picture of it that I found online:

I know…UNBELIEVABLE!

The mochi was perfectly chewy with just a touch of sweetness and the strawberry was perfectly ripened.

Other than the strawberry mochi, Two Ladies Kitchen also offers a variety of other mochi. Call ahead of time to place an order as their supply for the day runs out pretty quickly. And once they’re sold out for the day, you’re out of luck.

A trip to Hilo is not complete without a stop at Big Island Candies. I call it the “Home of Chocolate Dipped Goodness”. They’ll dip anything in chocolate – shortbread cookies, strawberries, potato chips and even dried squid. I usually stick to the dipped shortbread cookies.

One of the newest items that they added to their lineup is their lemon shortbread dipped in white chocolate. Crisp and tart, yet buttery, as only a lemon cookie can be, then dipped in white chocolate to add a silky touch to the bite-size cookies. Ahhh…

Another reason why I love this place is they have SAMPLES of everything!!! So you can try, before you buy!

*****

Rainbow Falls Connection

47 Rainbow Drive

Hilo, Hawaii 96720

(808) 969-9316

rainbowfallsconnection.stores.yahoo.net

*****

Two Ladies Kitchen

274 Kilauea Avenue

Hilo, Hawaii 96720

(808) 961-4766

*****

Big Island Candies

585 Hinano Street
Hilo, Hawaii 96720

(808) 935-8890

www.bigislandcandies.com

When we were younger, my parents would wake up my brother and I early on the weekends because my mom wanted to torture us and have a “Let’s Play Tourist Day” or to bribe us into doing our chores by taking us out for breakfast somewhere. My brother and I hated “Let’s Play Tourist Day”. It meant that we’d be driving around the island to visit tourist traps – um, I mean tourist sites – that we’ve already seen a gazillion times. On some of these outings, Mom would even bring the camera and make us take pictures. I mean, really, how many times do you need a picture of your kids with the view of Diamond Head in the background? What was worse, she’d never get the pictures developed. Anyway… I digress…

So, on this one particular Saturday, our parents woke us up and told us to pack an overnight bag because they were taking us out for breakfast. Still too sleepy to question anything, we packed our bag and an made our way to breakfast.

Driving down our street, past our favorite breakfast stop, The Original Pancake House in Kalihi, we eventually reached what seemed to be our breakfast destination – the airport. My brother and I looked at each other, dumbfounded, and one of us (most likely me) finally asked “I thought we were going to breakfast?” My parents just looked at us and said, “We are. In Hilo.”

We hopped on a plane and 45 minutes later, we landed on the island of Hawaii and headed to our real breakfast destination, Ken’s House of Pancakes. Breakfast was then followed … by a day of “Let’s Play Tourist”. We didn’t complain this time, as Hilo was new tourist territory for us. I remember how cool it was to check out Volcanoes National Park and a hotel that my grandfather helped build. This is definitely one of my fondest childhood memories.

I was able to re-visit Ken’s recently. I spent the last 2 weeks of March in Hawaii for my brother and new sister-in-law’s wedding celebrations. The ceremony and first reception was held in Hilo, on the Big Island, and the second reception was held a week later in Honolulu.

Upon arriving in Hilo, we picked up the rental and headed to Ken’s House of Pancakes, a mere 5 minutes from the airport. (Actually, you can pretty much get to anywhere in Hilo town in 5 minutes.)

Consistently good food, with a menu that rivals Cheesecake Factory’s food “catalog”, every time I left there I was satisfied (more like way too full), and so were the rest of my dining companions. We were in Hilo for 4 days and had a hearty breakfast at Ken’s 3 out of the 4 days.

Hawaiian style hospitality, massive proportions, consistency and reasonably priced food make Ken’s the perfect place to eat for tourists and locals alike. They’re open 24 hours a day and all items on the menu are available any time of the day. So if you feel like eating breakfast for dinner, you can. Don’t forget to get the pancakes and ask for the coconut syrup. SO GOOD!

For those of you with saimin dreams, the saimin here is onolicious. The broth is flavored well, if not a bit on the salty side for me, but what put their saimin in a different league from other saimin offerings elsewhere, were the noodles that they use – chewy, tasty, perfectly cooked noodles. If you’re really hungry, try the Sumo Saimin if you dare – it’s MASSIVE. Enough noodles and broth for a family of six, or as the name implies, enough to feed a Sumo wrestler. They’ve got this ritual where if you order the Sumo Saimin (or any of their other Sumo size specialties), a bell is rung or a gong is banged and the staff as well as the many regulars scream “SUMO!” as the food is delivered over to your table. I wanted to order the Sumo Saimin just to hear them do this. Quirky, but the gimmick works! You can even buy a shirt that says something like “I survived the Sumo Saimin” or something close. Corny, I know, but in a sleepy town like Hilo, you can’t expect much.

Here’s a sample of what I ate at Ken’s on my trip to Hilo.

Sweet Bread French Toast

I’m a sucker for French Toast, especially if someone else is making it.This was nothing really noteworthy. Just your basic French Toast recipe using Hawaiian Sweet Bread instead of regular bread. Lots and lots of butter to smear all over the already moist and delicately sweetened French Toast, that syrup was not necessary.

Lana’s Special

A de-constructed loco moco, if you will (as it’s not all piled up in a bowl). Or a Hamburger Steak plate lunch with 3 eggs. Talk about artery clogging and kanak attack producing, but oh so good! Way too much rice for my taste, even for a someone who grew up in Hawaii. The hamburger patty is grilled to your liking and then covered with your basic brown gravy and grilled onions. The eggs are also done to order.

If you get a chance to go to Ken’s, make sure you try the different syrups that they offer.

This is a picture of their coconut syrup and their guava syrup. They also have a blueberry syrup, that’s not fully shown in this picture. Your usual maple syrup is also available, if you’re not adventurous enough to try the tropical flavored ones.

Here’s their buttermilk pancakes, that I drizzled with their different syrups.

Maple syrup was drizzled over the left side and coconut syrup over the right side. Which side was better? For me, I enjoyed the coconut syrup better than the maple. It wasn’t as sweet as the maple. It added a different taste altogether to the pancakes and made my pancakes and my tummy very happy. It’s a pretty rich and heavy syrup, so I’d suggest you pour it sparingly over your pancakes. Drizzle a little of the blueberry syrup over the coconut syrup and it’s like blueberry cheesecake-ish – yeah, it was good. I wasn’t too much of a fan of the guava syrup, though. It was too tart and runny in consistency, like guava juice.

So when you’re in Hilo, stop by Ken’s and enjoy their local style food and hospitality. Don’t forget to take a look at the photos on the walls of “famous” people that have visited Ken’s (mostly local entertainers and a bunch of Polynesian wrestlers from back in the day) . This is one picture that I found hilarious -

Remember him???

*****

Ken’s House of Pancakes

1730 Kamehameha Avenue

Hilo, Hawaii 96720

(808) 538-1877

Open 24 Hours

Every now and then, I crave okazuya (Japanese delicatessen) food. Especially shoyu chicken and shoyu long rice. A couple of years ago, by accident, I concocted this recipe that satisfies both cravings, in one dish.

Here’s how it happened. We were moving into a new apartment, with the help of some of my brother’s college friends. To thank them for their help, I promised to make them a homemade, “local style” dinner. One of the requests was shoyu chicken.

So I made the shoyu chicken, but there was way too much liquid in the pot once the chicken was done. Not wanting to waste any of the sauce, I threw some long rice noodles to the pot to soak up the excess liquid. What initially was a MacGyver moment for me, ended up being quite a hit. I’m often asked for the recipe to this dish, even if it’s fairly simple to figure out by taste.

So, by special request… here’s my recipe for

Shoyu Chicken:

Ingredients:

3/4 cup sugar

3/4 cup Kikoman soy sauce

3/4 cup sake

1 cup water

3 pounds chicken thighs

2 thumb sized pieces ginger root, sliced about a quarter inch thick

2 stalks green onions, sliced (optional)

1 package long rice (optional)

Directions:

In a medium sized pot, mix sugar, soy sauce, sake and water. To this mixture, add the ginger root.

Add chicken thighs to the pot. Sauce should cover the chicken thighs.

Bring pot to a rolling boil, then cover pot and decrease heat to medium high heat.

Cook for 45 minutes.

Check on pot occasionally, turning chicken over every so often to disperse flavor to both sides of chicken and to keep chicken moist.

Optional:

Turn off heat, then mix in green onions to sauce.

Do not “cook” the green onions with the chicken as the green onions will eventually turn black if kept too long in the sauce.

Serve. (or go to next “Optional” step…)

Optional:

The sauce will eventually increase as water and oil is drawn out from the chicken.

To “soak up” some of the sauce, place 1 package of long rice in the sauce and cook, uncovered, until noodles are done (approximately 5 minutes).

There should still be enough sauce for your rice = ).

I made this for dinner tonight. Here’s how it turned out:

There he was. The UPS Guy. Standing before me, looking like a life-size chocolate bar in all his “brownness” – brown shirt, brown shorts, brown socks. Sweat beads started to form at this brow as he handed over the box of porn that I ordered the other day. He looked really hot (it was about 90 degrees and I doubt that his chocolate brown truck had any air conditioning).

With a coy smile on his face, he asked, “You were waiting for me, weren’t you?” (Omigod, did he really raise and lower his bushy eyebrows?)

I smiled (actually, smirked) back, in a totally non-flirting kind of way (he so wasn’t my type – he wore brown calf length socks with athletic shoes, for crying out loud – ewww - so not hot!) and replied, “No. I wasn’t waiting for you. I was waiting for my box. Now hand it over buddy, and nobody gets hurt.”

OK OK OK, before your twisted mind goes into overdrive, in the box were the latest additions to my food porn library – research material, so to speak.

Here’s what I got:

The Silver Spoon by Phaidon Press

This is THE quintessential Italian cookbook. I’ve been wanting to get this cookbook for a while, as it’s claimed to be THE bible of Italian cooking. There’s a bunch of recipes that I’ve already flagged to try. I’ll let you know how they turn out when I do try them out.

Things Cooks Love: Implements, Ingredients, Recipes by Sur La Table and Marie Simmons

Ok – this one is dangerous. One, it makes me want to drool and two, it makes me want to go on a shopping spree. Talk about gadgets and ingredients aplenty! And what’s worse is they make you believe that you really need these gadgets by showing you how to use them and also includes recipes that require the use of these must-have ingredients. A whole book of eye candy – YAY!

Simply Sensational Desserts: 140 Classics for the Home Baker from New York’s Famous Patisserie and Bistro by Francios Payard

A great book for the dessert voyeur in everyone. Wonderful pictures of delectable deserts and recipes that seem simple enough for the average cook. I’ll be trying a bunch of recipes from this book also and will report to you in future posts. Payard recently opened a patisserie and bistro at Caesar’s Palace here in Las Vegas. I’m hoping to make a trip to the Strip soon to try out some of their desserts. Wanna join me?

Bake till Bubbly: The Ultimate Casserole Cookbook by Clifford A. Wright

I ordered this one on a whim. The title made me smile, so I said what the heck. Talk about comfort food overload. I love to make casseroles, especially for large groups. I especially love making breakfast casseroles for my “bed and breakfast” guests – it’s quick and easy and always a crowd pleaser.

Check out my online store, CRAVINGS, for these and other books and things.

Earlier this year, I flew out to Arizona for the weekend, for my soon-to-be (at that time) sister-in-law’s bridal shower. Although she knew about the shower, she didn’t know what we had in store. Hints about Nogales, Mexico and pitchers of margaritas served as a decoy to what we really had in store for her. We “accessorized” the bride-to-be’s outfit with a pink feather boa, gaudy tiara and blindfold, then whisked her away, semi-abduction style, for a day with the girls before she kissed her single days goodbye.

We spent the early afternoon at the spa, where we set up our little party area with flowers and our version of spa food – fruits and veggies, cheese and crackers, and let’s not forget the chocolate and at least 3 bottles of bubbly…

After hour-long drool producing massages, followed by hour-long facials and by-this-time tipsy manicures and pedicures, the 6 of us somehow made our way to dinner at Sushi Eye in Motion for more girl bonding time and even more drinkies.

Sushi Eye in Motion is a fairly new sushi restaurant in the Gilbert-Chandler area, having just opened in November 2007. Sushi Eye in Motion is a “conveyor belt sushi” restaurant. For those of you not familiar with the term, let me take a moment to attempt explain it to you.

A conveyor belt sushi restaurant is a sushi restaurant where plates with sushi are placed on a conveyor belt that winds through the restaurant. Most of the tables are situated at right angles along the conveyor belt, or in Sushi Eye in Motion’s case, a counter type table is placed along the conveyor belt, making it easy for each person to grab their own sushi.

Basically, you pick up what you want from the selections that are moving along the conveyor belt. If you don’t see anything you like on the conveyor belt, you can place a special order with the sushi chef(s) on hand. Each plate is color coded to represent a different price. The most inexpensive item is usually on a plain or white plate. More expensive items are usually on ornately decorated or gold colored plates. At the end of your meal, the plates are counted and totaled up accordingly to the price.

Some conveyor belt sushi restaurants step it up a bit and get a little fancy-schmancy where instead of plates, they use “sushi boats”. Similar concept – the bigger the boat, the bigger the bill.

Conveyor belt sushi restaurants are usually considered the bottom rung of sushi establishments, as many use lower quality ingredients as compared to traditional sushi restaurants. But what makes Sushi Eye in Motion different is that the sushi here is actually good, and not just ok. They use quality ingredients and offer a lot of different sushi selections as well as other Japanese appetizers like edamame (steamed soybeans) and shrimp tempura. Their special roll menu is also quite extensive, offering many creative sushi rolls. The sushi chefs here also take great care in the presentation of the sushi.

My favorite sushi is hamachi (Japanese yellowtail) and let me tell you, the hamachi at Sushi Eye in Motion was on point.

Super fresh, a bit sweet in taste, buttery and melt in your mouth good. I had the hamachi both nigiri style (over a small mound of rice) and sashimi style, which I preferred.

We also tried some of their special rolls, but my favorite that night was what I consider a masterpiece. I don’t remember what it was called, but here’s what it looked like.

Several plates of this sushi taunted me as it passed before me. I couldn’t figure out what was in, on or around the sushi, so I asked the manager/owner. When she told me what it was made of – part of me cringed, part of me was intrigued. The next time another of these pieces came around, I got up enough courage to finally pick it off the conveyor belt to try it for myself.

This particular sushi starts off with a mound of rice that serves as the base for the other elements of this wonderful creation. The entire piece had to be at least 2 1/2 inches in diameter. Along one half of the perimiter of the sushi is a long piece of maguro (bluefin) tuna, sliced thin. The other half of the perimeter is covered by thinly sliced, ripened mango. The maguro and the mango served as a “barrier” for the remaining ingredients. Within the “barrier”, on top of the rice, was a heaping amount of tobiko (flying-fish roe), which shamelessly overflowed onto the plate. Then the piece de resistance, and what had me intrigued in the first place, was a raw quail egg yolk, delicately placed on top. The entire piece was then drizzled with a sweetened, mayonnaisey sauce.

Basically to eat this, you either had to open up your mouth pretty wide, risking some major lock-jaw (and possible choking) and eat the entire piece in one bite.

OR… do what I did – eat each half separately.

I decided to start with the half with the maguro “barrier”. My chopsticks deftly grasping the half with the mango, I put the maguro half in my mouth and bit through the quail yolk, leaving half of it still on the other half of the sushi and also dripping on to the plate.

OH MAN, WAS I IN HEAVEN!!!

The tuna was fresh and its taste was unobstructed as I opted to not dip it in the usual soy and wasabi sauce. The tobiko crunched and popped ever so slightly and somewhat oddly in my mouth, with the miniscule egg sacs lodging themselves in unsuspected places in my mouth. There was a lot of tobiko – maybe a bit too much. But what held it all together, I have to say was the quail egg yolk. This one element made this sushi over-the-top, toe-curling good!

I waited a bit to eat the other half, truly enjoying what I had just experienced. I was a bit skeptical about the ripe mango aspect of it all. It seemed like an odd combination – mango, rice, tobiko and yolk. But rest assured, the remaining half made its way to my mouth.

And you know what, I not sure which half I enjoyed more. While the half with the maguro was pretty amazing, the half with the mango made the sushi a perfect balance of sweet and savory… And the quail egg – already puddling on the plate that I had to use the bottom of the sushi to act as a sponge to soak it all up – just rounded out the different flavors with a buttery finish.

It took a lot to stop me from licking the plate, it was so good.

After this masterpiece, I didn’t want to eat anything else, for fear of forgetting just how good it was.

Well… almost anything…. We went out for gelato afterwards = )

*****

SUSHI EYE IN MOTION

58 W. Buffalo Street, #110

Chandler, AZ 85225

(480) 686-8183

FRIED CHICKEN!!! In all its Crispy Golden Juicy Goodness. No hesitating. No pondering. Bottom Line. Final Answer. FRIED CHICKEN. No food makes me happier than the crackling and popping of succulent pieces of chicken, lightly floured and expertly seasoned, frying to the desired temperature of at least 165 degrees. Even as I type this, I begin to salivate.

Oh… and WAFFLES.

Roscoe’s Chicken ‘n Waffles would be the perfect venue for this “last meal”. A landmark to most soul food enthusiasts, entertainment types, Los Angelenos and Snoop Dogg fans, Roscoe’s has been a venerable force in the late night restaurant roster. Since the opening of its first restaurant on the corner of Sunset and Gower in Hollywood back in the 1970’s, the chain has expanded to add four more restaurants in Southern California, making it easier to find one in your neighborhood. Definitely one of my go-to spots whenever I’m in the Los Angeles area.

Bigger and brighter than the Hollywood location, but with as much hospitality and fried chicken goodness emanating in the air, I sat down with some good friends and collectively, we had quite an enjoyable lunch. (Parking’s also easier here – there’s a parking lot across the street.) Roscoe’s always delivers good food to your table. I don’t think I’ve ever had a bad meal at Roscoe’s, which is why I try to visit one of their locations whenever I’m in the area. (What would have made it even more memorable would have been if Snoop and David Beckham stopped by for some chicken and waffles.)

Here are a few pictures of what landed on our table and settled happily in our stomachs…

THE CHICKEN

THE CHICKEN – smothered with gravy and onions

THE WAFFLES

THE MAC ‘N CHEESE

THE NUMBER 22 (2 thighs, mac ‘n cheese, cornbread, greens)

Hungry yet???

“What would you eat for your last meal on earth?” - an age-old question to chefs and foodies alike, with answers that range from simple food fare to the most exquisite banquets ever imagined. I lean more towards the simple food fare, myself.

So I ask you… What would you eat for your last meal on earth?

*****

ROSCOE’S CHICKEN ‘N WAFFLES

Hollywood: 1514 N. Gower St. (Corner of Sunset Blvd. and Gower St.) (323) 466-7453

West Los Angeles: 5006 W. Pico Blvd. (Near LaBrea Blvd.) (323) 934-4405

Los Angeles: 106 W. Manchester Blvd. (Corner of Manchester Blvd. and Main St.) (323) 752-6211

Pasadena: 830 N. Lake Ave. (Between Orange Grove & Washington Blvd.) (626) 791-4890