Hawaii~Off the Wall

While Mike and I were in Hawaii, we met up with a friend of Mike's at Off the Wall in Pearl Kai shopping center, which is an Okinawan/Asian fusion type place.  For some reason, I thought that this restaurant was supposed to be like a plate lunch/okazuya type place, but it's actually has a hip restaurant/bar feel. 

Oh this appetizer was soooo good. It was my favorite dish of the night. It's a crispy andagi filled with a shoyu pork, and topped with a shoyu sauce and pickled ginger. I normally do not like eating pickled ginger, but Mike's friend said that you the had to eat the ginger with the dish. He was right, and the ginger adds to the delicious combination of flavors.  I figured it out that when I want to replicate a dish at home, that means that I really enjoyed a dish. 

"Okonomiyaki Gyoza" This is a fusion of Japanese Okonomiyaki sauce over gyoza.

We ordered "Mochiko Style Fish Bites" and I thought the menu said Ahi bites, but when we received the order, we were pleasantly surprised that the fish was soft and buttery and definitely not ahi. If I had to take a stab at what fish this was, I'd have to guess that it was butterfish, but I have never had butterfish prepared like this before. I described the fish to my mom and she thought that it was monchong, but when we ate monchong at Roy's we realized that this was ont monchong.

Bubu Arare Chicken Karaage. You could pass on ordering this dish. It needed a little bit more flavor. 

Okinawan Shoyu Pork Soba Pasta-Our server told us this was the most popular dish at the restaurant. I'd say that the Shoyu Pork Andagi is the one dish you must try at Off the Wall.

Miso Eggplant and Tofu-I was expecting this dish to have more miso, eggplant, and tofu. I think the combination of the three ingredients sounds delicious, but this dish was more like a stir-fry.  

Overall, Mike was not impressed with Off the Wall, but I'd go back. We both agreed that the anadagi was the best dish, and I'd be interested in trying out the other creative dishes like the nagaimo tofu natto.

Off the Wall

Pearl Kai Shopping Center

98-199 Kamehameha Hwy, B-10
Aiea, Hawaii 96701

Hawaii~Aulani

During our stay in Hawaii, Mike and I were fortunate enough to stay a couple of nights at the Disney Aulani resort in Ko Olina.  When we go back home to Hawaii, we usually stay with family, so it was nice to play "tourist" and enjoy Hawaii like a visitor for a few days!.

Can you see the Mickey Mouse heads on the quilt? Isn't that cute?

The view from our room's balcony. I'm not sure if you can see it from this picture but the Aulani has a water play area for kids, a man-made lagoons, several pools, and a tube slide and water slide.  SO FUN!!!!

Our room's bathroom.  I figured that this would probably be our first and last time that we would be staying at the Aulani, so I took pictures of the room (and bathroom) to remember the experience. 

The beach on the Aulani property.    

Aulani is a beautiful resort and the staff is warm and welcoming. We were able to enjoy some of the amenities the hotel had to offer and even went to a Hawaiian storytelling late one night. I only wish that our schedule wasn't so booked, or we would have checked out more activities at the resort.

We were able to catch a beautiful Hawaiian sunset.

Thank you to my sister and her husband for hooking us up with our stay at the Aulani. They belong to the Disney Vacation Club so they were able to reserve us a room and used their points to pay for our stay (I think the cheapest rooms are $399/night)!  I heard that there are limited spots for locals, so we were lucky to check this new hotel out!

Just Kidding...*cry*

So Mike and I did fly back from Hawaii and I was off to Michigan.  The work trip lasted a little longer than anticipated, so I was able to spend a little over a week in Texas. 
Now I'm off to Boston for about one month.  I am planning on prepping some pictures from Hawaii so that I can blog in my down time (hopefully there will be some down time). 

Here's a new picture of Butters lounging in his bed. He's happy even though he's not smiling.

Plate I painted for my sister.  It's blurry on the right side because I smudged out her name.

Plate for my sister's husband.  It's Daniel the boy Hello Kitty.

Thank you all for being patient with this blog and me. Later on this year I hope to have more time for it. 

And we're back...

 I hope that you enjoyed the last of the Spain posts. By the time that you read this post, Mike and I should be back in Texas after our short trip to Hawaii.  That's our last planned trip for the year. :(
But I'm not complaining; in 2011 we travelled to Las Vegas, New York, and Spain!That's not even including all the work travel of 2011. I lived in a hotel for over 80 nights last year!
San Francisco and Hawaii within the first two months of 2012 means that a bunch of vacation days were sacrificed. Now it's back to the daily grind. 
That means I won't even be able to sleep in my own bed in Texas before I take my first work trip of the year.  I'll post about San Francisco and Hawaii when I return. 

Barcelona Restaurants~La Mar

One of our friends visited Spain back in June 2011, and recommended "La Mar," a seafood restaurant to us.  It was located between a bunch of restaurants and it was one of the few non-touristy places that did not have a staff member beckoning us to come in.  (FYI-The lack of someone trying to encourage us to dine at a restaurant is always a good sign that the restaurant might be good). 

Fried Calamari. Look at all those baby squid!

For those of you who have dined with me, I love fried calamari. All my co-workers who I have travelled with know that if calamari is on the list of appetizers, I'll usually order a plate.  These calamari were a bit different from the typical calamari we eat back in the States. These were tiny squid instead of squid rings. They kind of reminded me of the fried squid sold from the Rada's Piroshki on Fort Street Mall back in Hawaii. 

Seafood Paella. We figured that we should order paella at least once in Spain.  This restaurant serves a non-traditional paella without the saffron.  The two-person portion was huge and Mike and I were unable to finish all that rice!

This is my plate! The chef brought the paella pan to the table and portioned it out for us. 

Hazelnut Three Ways~

This dessert reminds me of the soy three ways dessert that I had at Morimoto's last year.  Hazelnuts were the feature of this dessert. Caramelized hazelnuts, a hazelnut cake, paste, gelato, and a mousse.  It was interesting concept, but not something I would rave about.

Barcelona, Spain~Boqueria Market Food

There was a huge crowd surrounding one of the made-to-order seafood food stands, so like lemmings, we decided to plop ourselves down on some seats and order some food.  We've found that when in doubt on restaurant choices-look for a busy restaurant. That usually means the food is good.  If the cooked food also smells delicious, that's also a plus.  When you are at said restaurant, look to see what most people are ordering-if it looks good, order that. 

So, with all our tips in mind, we settled on a plate of garlic fried razor clams.  Why? 1)A lot of people were ordering them; 2) The cooked garlic smell was calling my name. 

Yum yum yum. Mike let me eat most of it because I really like clams and we haven't seen razor clams on a lot of menus in the US.

Here's the little kitchen/food stand. It was such a tiny area, but these chefs cranked through tons of plates of food.

Pimentos de padron-Fried mini peppers

Tako (Octopus)

Mike ate this sausage kebab from another food stand. He enjoyed this while walking through the Boqueria.

Barcelona, Spain~ Boqueria Market

One of my favorite places in Barcelona was the Boqueria Market in the La Rambla area. This crowded open food market is filled with rows and rows of vendors selling all kinds of fresh food. There was a seafood section, fruit and vegetable section, meat section with various bakeries, food stands (think crepes, sit-down cook-to-order places, deli-type), and cheese vendors interspersed  between the sections.  I enjoyed looking at all the fresh food and buying unusual looking items. 

Preserved meats

Fresh figs!

Dried mushrooms and vegetables.

Beautiful heirloom tomatoes!

All different parts of animals were sold at this market.  Look brains!

I was grossed out when I saw all the goat heads staring at me, but I had to take a picture of it. 

I'm not sure what fruit this is, but I thought it looked interesting. Does anyone know what this is?

I had to take a picture of the assortment of gummy candies on display. 

Look at the assortment of fruit. I bought that tray of poha berries (ground cherries).

Freshly squeezed fruit juices! Look how colorful and pretty the juices look. I had to try one! I had a strawberry guava and Mike had a strawberry coconut.