Flying Home~My Favorite Hawaii Restaurants

I'll be back in Hawaii in about 24 hours. The blog posts will be limited, but I already know I'll be checking out numerous restaurants during my three week stay back home.

Restaurants on tap:
Hanamaru
Doraku
Yogurt Land-it's not really a restaurant, but I would like to go there.


Places to go, things to see:
*Trying to include a day to the North Shore with K. and her mom, and V. for Matsumoto's, garlic shrimp, and other yummies
*Dim Sum at some place good
*Find some place that sells kulolo. Since the Ward Farmer's Market closed down
*The Poke Bowl
* The Fat Greek

Other restaurants/places that I always like to squeeze into my visit:
*KJ's -Furikake Chicken
*Ichiriki
*Dave's Ice Cream-lychee sorbet
*Shokudo or Sansei
*Samurai Shave Ice - for the Maui-style guri guri
*Liliha Bakery for Orange chiffon cake
*Zippy's for chili (both the regular and vegetarian)
*Wholesale Unlimited -my aunty''s store
*Ka Ikena at Kapiolani Community College (small factoid-I attended culinary school at KCC in 2004)

Daring Bakers-July Challenge~Filbert Gateau with Praline Buttercream

This month's challenge was hosted by Mele Cotte. The challenge was to make a Filbert Gateau with Praline Buttercream following the recipe found in Great Cakes by Carol Walter. I was so drained this month that I was thinking about skipping July's challenge. But next month I'll be taking a few weeks off and flying to Hawaii to get married, so I didn't want to skip two challenges in a row. So I sucked it up and bit the bullet.
I went to two supermarkets and Walmart and could not find hazelnuts (fliberts) so I decided to use almonds instead. Whenever the recipe called for filberts, I replaced it with almonds. I also did not incorporate any alcohol in my recipe.

I first started by making my almond praline paste. I got excited because the recipe involved caramelization which is non-enzymatic browning! If there is one thing I learned in my Food Chemistry courses, its about the different kinds of browning reactions. An example of enzymatic browning is when you cut an apple and it turns brown. The polyphenyloxidase (enzyme in cells in apples) is exposed to oxygen and browning occurs.

In the case of making a praline paste, granulated sugar (which is a non-reducing sugar) is heated. The heat excites sucrose (a dissaccharide) molecule and breaks it into fructose and glucose molecules. These two molecules release water and dehydrates the sugars. Some rearrangement of the molecules occur it results in a burnt sugar (caramel) flavor.
This same non-enzymatic browning process occurs when toasting marshmallows or when you leave a bottle of ketchup in your pantry for a while and the red color changes to a dark brown color.



The cake cooked fine and my swiss buttercream frosting worked well and it didn't break. Here's the glazed cake prior to my attempt to decorate it.

My piping skills (or lack of skills) resulted in a flower mess. See those globs, they are supposed to be flowers. I ended up scraping them off and then making a porcupine cake by dotting the whole surface of the cake with praline buttercream frosting.

If you would like to check creations made by other Daring Bakers, check out the Daring Bakers blogroll.

baked goods

These days I feel so emotionally drained that I haven't really felt like eating much. This “blah” mood has resulted in as minimal cooking possible. My basic staples have been string cheese, yogurt (that fiberone yogurt is pretty good, you can’t even taste or feel the fiber. and inulin is great), and fruits that you just wash and eat (blueberries, strawberries, grapes). When emotions take a toll on you people revert to the "binge eating" mode or the "i'm just not feeling hungry" mode. I fall into the second category which I guess is the better of the two.
Anyways, here's some pictures of the yumminess I baked last month:

I love lemon bars. One of my goals in life is to create the ultimate perfect lemon bar recipe with a gooey tart filling with a barely there crispy shortbread cookie-like crust. The closest recipe I've found is the Barefoot Contessa's recipe.
Then I decided to make cinnamon rolls. I borrowed one of those "Best of America's Test Kitchen" cookbooks and tried to make a light cinnamon roll. Boo. It could be my fault because I did not have buttermilk so I soured SKIM milk with vinegar, so I lost some fat in the process. The rolls looked really good, but were too bready and dry. I think gooey, sticky, over-indulgent, "I-don't-wanna-know-how-many-Calories-are-in-this" rolls are much better than lowfat ones. I will now refuse lowfat rolls and only go for butter-coma, cream cheese-laden rolls from now on!

Korova Cookies. I have never made these cookies before, but Anita at Dessert First proclaimed these Korova Cookies as her favorite. She is like the cookie expert, so I decided to make these cookies. And oh my goodness, these cookies were good! I made a few alterations to the recipe and used a mixture of all kinds of chocolate I had laying around (ghirardelli 100% cacao, neuhaus chocolate, some tollhouse morsels). The dough was quite crumbly to work with and the final cookie was not sweet like typical American cookies, but the texture and the flavor was quite good. It was a really chocolate-y cookie with an unusual almost crumbly texture. mmm....this will definitely be a part of my favorite recipe collection.

Wedding

The countdown to the wedding is now down to less than three weeks. In less than two weeks I’ll be back home in Honolulu. I’m mildly freaked out about the whole event. I was never the type of girl who dreamed of her “fairy tale” wedding or planned out the details when she was six years old. If I had my way, there would have been an easter egg hunt, piñatas, and an “iron chef”-esque challenge. Everyone would be having a blast, playing games and winning prizes. Lucky for me, there is a smidgen of the wedding that I actually have control of, so there will be some non-traditional activities.

Okay, back to the reality of the matter, I’ve been crying more sad tears than happy tears these past few days. I guess that’s inevitable when it comes to planning a wedding for ~300 guests...and you live miles away. Luckily, I have a really caring sister and awesome and supportive friends both back in Hawaii and Illinois.

My advice to future brides:

1. If you do not want a big wedding, then be firm and stand your ground (whether this is against your parents or fiancé).
2. It’s YOUR wedding. There is no “right” way that a wedding should be. Do not let others control your wedding or do not let others dictate or guilt you in what is appropriate.
3. Remember to smile and breathe. Things are not as bad as they seem.
4. When in doubt, eloping is just fine.

Pictures: Top-where the ceremony will take place; Middle-same buffet we'll be having; Last-my friend who took me as his "date" so I could scope out an actual wedding at the venue (it was last year during Winter Break).

Curiosity Challenge~French Macaron

Have you ever tried to bake or cook something that you have never tasted before? If so, how did you know you made correctly made the item?

After reading about the many different macarons that Kat has tried, I thought, “these cookies must taste delicious.”

I began my research like I always do by using Google . Names like Pierre Herme and Ladurée popped up and I thought, “these things must be good if there are stores selling macarons and people wait in line for them!”

It’s a French pastry that is not to be confused with the chewy coconut macaroon. One letter change makes a big difference. Just like when Pilates exercise was gaining popularity about 8 years ago, I thought it was an exercise combining ballet plies. Okay, okay, that more than a difference of a few letters, but still, I thought it was the same thing.

Getting back to macarons....macarons are composed of blanched almond meal flour, powdered sugar, granulated sugar, egg whites, and flavorings. They are quite popular in France and Japan, but to my knowledge are not quite popular in America yet.

Being the naïve yet ambitious baker that I am, I decided to start my own “curiosity challenges” just for myself. Why should I only limit myself to the “Daring Bakers” monthly challenges. Some would call me a “lazy baker” but I’d prefer to refer to myself as a “smart baker.” I skim recipes and I sometimes merge recipes together to get the best of both worlds. My philosophy is why should I spend 3 hours in the kitchen when I can do the same thing in one hour.

After my extensive research (i.e. googling “macaron history,” “macaron recipes,” etc), I found these sites to be the most helpful. Dave Lebovitz , and Serious Eats interview with Dorie Greenspan. On the Serious Eats site, there is a labeled diagram breaking down the key components to the perfect macaron. It’s composed of two stacked cookies (with feet) with a meringue inside and a thin eggshell crust filled with a filling of choice.

Reading Dave Lebovitz’s blog was quite entertaining and may soon become one of my favorite blogs. He conducted seven trials and came up with a recipe, so I decided to try it. Plus, his recipe involved pulverizing the almond meal and powdered sugar in a food processor, and that sounded heavenly as composed to sifting the ingredients to ensure fine particles. Dave’s recipe also did not involve letting the dough sit for an hour to obtain a “skin” on the top of the dome. Isn’t this recipe sounding better and better? He’s managed to cut down the macaron-making time by 1.5 hours.

Dave Lebovitz’s Chocolate Macarons

Macaron Batter
1 cup (100 gr) powdered sugar
½ cup powdered almonds (about 2 ounces , 50 gr, sliced almonds, pulverized)
3 tablespoons (25 gr) unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder
2 large egg whites, at room temperature
5 tablespoons (65 gr) granulated sugar
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (180 degrees C).

Line two baking sheets with parchment paper and have a pastry bag with a plain tip (about 1/2-inch, 2 cm) ready.

Grind together the powdered sugar with the almond powder and cocoa so there are no lumps; use a blender or food processor since almond meal that you buy isn't quite fine enough.

In the bowl of a standing electric mixer, beat the egg whites until they begin to rise and hold their shape. While whipping, beat in the granulated sugar until very stiff and firm, about 2 minutes.

Carefully fold the dry ingredients, in two batches, into the beaten egg whites with a flexible rubber spatula. When the mixture is just smooth and there are no streaks of egg white, stop folding and scrape the batter into the pastry bag (standing the bag in a tall glass helps if you're alone).

Pipe the batter on the parchment-lined baking sheets in 1-inch (3 cm) circles (about 1 tablespoon each of batter), evenly spaced one-inch (3 cm) apart.

Rap the baking sheet a few times firmly on the countertop to flatten the macarons, then bake them for 15-18 minutes. Let cool completely then remove from baking sheet.

*I modified his recipe by adding a half a pinch of salt. Also I only had Trader Joe’s almond meal, so my almond meal had skin on it. If you do not have the pristine cream-colored almond meal, make chocolate macarons, you can’t tell there are skins in it.

Oh and so how do obtain those cute little signature feet on the bottom of the macaron? After you pipe your batter onto the baking sheet, gently lift your baking pan up a few inches(less than 3) and let if drop to the counter. Repeat a few times. That’s my definition of “rap”

I have not graduated to making a filling and a sandwiched macaron. I figure, one step at a time. The end result for my first attempt was quite positive. I do think that I bake what people would call a French macaron. The outer layer was thin and delicate like an eggshell, the middle had a slight chewiness to it like a meringue cookie, but with more give, the cookie had feet, and for the most part the domed top was smooth. But how would I know if I did. It’s not like there are any stores in Champaign, IL that sell perfect macarons for me to compare my little light domes to.

In a future post I will seek to explain why almond meal paste (almond flour) is a key ingredient in a macaron. Why not use just plain flour with high protein? My spur of the moment guess would be that it’s because of the fat and protein content of almond meal

New Orleans Part 6 (last post)~Serio's Muffaletta

On our last day in New Orleans, K., A., and I went to Serio's which was a restaurant that was challenged by Bobby Flaw on the show "Throwdown." Serio's muffuletta beat Bobby Flay's version of this sandwich filled with an olive spread, salami, and some other Italian cold cuts on a thick bun. That sandwich was massive! K. ordered a half muff and look, she can hardly fit it in here mouth!



I opted for the "Greenie" Po'boy filled with turkey, lettuce , and italian dressing. A. had a shrimp po'boy. The food was tasty here and the portions were huge!







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New Orleans Part 5~Cafe Du Monde

Cafe Du Monde is by far my favorite restaurant that I visited while in New Orleans!
They only serve beignets and beverages there, but those beignets were AMAZING!

I was advised to not wear dark colors to Cafe Du Monde, but forgot to heed this advice. Look at all that wonderful goodness with heaps of powdered sugar!

Cafe Du Monde is also famous for their Chicory coffee. I don't drink coffee, but I bought a tin for my parents to try. The history behind chicory mixed with coffee was that in the late 1970's chicory was used as a coffee substitute because an embargo was put on coffee.
I looked up information on chicory and it's leaf chicory is also called endive and what is sometimes used in salad. Chicory root also contains inulin (which is a fiber source) and is the key ingredient in those delicious Fiber One bars with over 9 grams of fiber per bar.

We finagled ourselves some cute hats and took a picture after our tummies were filled with those fattening yummy beignets!

New Orleans Part 4~Dickie Brennan's Steakhouse

After our second place win, a former student of our advisor who works at Tate & Lyle took the Product Development team to dinner at Dickie Brennan's Steakhouse. Thank you Tate & Lyle for the yummy dinner!

The steak was probably the best dish I consumed while in New Orleans. I guess my palate is not familiar with creole food, therefore I do not care for the tastes I experienced over the past few days. E. and I decided to share a steak and order a bunch of sides. She was intrigued by the "Wedge Salad" made out of Boston Bibb Lettuce. This about it, how can you cut a wedge out of a soft head of lettuce? You can do it with romaine or iceberg because the leaves are crisp and firm, but not a softie like bibb. Anyways, to quench our curiosity we ordered it and found out it was half a head of lettuce.


We ordered a wild mushroom saute which was a bit overcooked. boo mushrooms.
I wanted to try the BBQ shrimp because the previous night I had a wonderful BBQ shrimp salad at a bar called "Alibi" and thought that maybe I'd have the same luck at Dickie Brennan's.
This is the other E.'s vegetarian platter. She was relieved that there was a vegetarian option at the Steakhouse. It had not been on the menu but when she started ordering salad, a baked potato, and asparagus, the waiter asked her if she was a vegetarian.

For kicks (I'm keeping my blog PG) and giggles, here's a picture of me after dinner with a Bourbon street sign.

New Orleans Part 3~ The Food Expo

Although it may seem that all I did in New Orleans was eat, I did spend most of my days at the IFT conference. Here's some proof:
I admit that I am short, but J. (the guy behind me) is like 6 feet something so it's even more apparent. In Hawaii, my height is not that noticeable.


Check out the different flavors or salsa. Blueberry& Bacon; Kiwi, Tomatillo, and Watercress; Acai Roasted Salsa. I thought that the tomatillo and kiwi would work well together because they both have a light green tinge and seeds. Nope, all three salsas were borderline disasters.
It's interesting to note that there was another company there which produced food bars made out of the scraps of vegetables and fruits. Some of the bars they made incorporated potato peels, cantaloupe rinds, carrot peelings... I do not know what the company was thinking...okay, let me rephrase this, I know what the company was thinking. They were trying to eliminate waste and create a food product that people would enjoy. Ewww....seriously, I am all about saving the environment, but really I do not think pets would enjoy these products.
When I spoke to the lady at the booth she told me, "Yes, we're a new company, and we just developed these products three weeks ago." All the while, I'm thinking to myself, "This is why companies should do consumer insight testing and/or hire sensory scientists."
Griffith Laboratories pulled pork sandwich with slightly sweet lime pita chips was delicious! I would have tweaked the flavoring a tad bit, but the pulled pork and slaw flavors were spot-on. They also had plantain chips that were quite tasty too! When you are a company that produces flavoring blends, your food should taste good! There were many other food companies with delicious foods at the Expo. Tate & Lyle was promoting "Promitor" which is a corn soluble fiber and the Kerry Group had a bunch of tasty products and I tried a lobster broth that one of my friends developed.
If you're interested, Mintel had a booth showcasing the International food trends. Last year I checked out the booth and most if not all of the trends they forecast were seen in the market.

The Big Day

It's technically less than one month away! OMG! So the blogs will slow down as I scramble to finish up some research and then fly back home to Hawaii.

Today the starbulletin.com had an article about the Four Seasons Resort Lanai, the Lodge at Koele. According to Travel and Leisure magazine, it's ranked the 15th best hotel in the WORLD! And guess who's going there for her honeymoon?

I've never been to Lanai before, but I've heard that it's supposed to be gorgeous! We decided to just take a honeymoon to another island because I have to return back to Illinois and we also plan to save up for a big trip next year (I'm crossing my fingers and hoping Italy...plus there's a conference next summer in Florence that I would like to attend).

This will be a food quasi-wedding blog for a few more weeks. Planning a wedding is quite time-consuming. And we haven't been following our budget as well as we had planned. We're conservative people, but we've been splurging a tad bit...I think we've spent over $10,000 and we haven't even paid off our vendors or for the food and drinks! That's just downpayments and misc. stuff. Considering that I don't get paid much as a grad student...yeah, we'll be eating 10 cent ramen for a while....maybe 25 cent ramen. Lucky for us we've never had to pay for school so both of us were/are debt-free from college.

***Factoid: In Hawaii, it's customary for the bride and groom to cover all our wedding party's expenses. so for us, that tacked on about $2000 right there! Weddings are crazy!

FYI, for any Hawaii brides to be out there:

Our Vendors:
Hair and Makeup - Dorys Foltin
Photographer - Mark Nomura
Videographer - imaginewurks
Entertainment- Jon Yamasato and Darin Leong
Florists - Eventful, Lei's by Ron (808)838-1455
Invitations - My mom, paper from paper and more
My Dress - Kiyomi's (which my mom told me will close down this summer)
BM Dresses - Ann Taylor
BM Shoes - Shoebuy
BM Accessories - Tsang and Mirai
Tux Rentals - A Black Tie Affair (808) 732-9474
I'm probably missing some vendors, but everything Else - My mom, and Mike and my family and friends

New Orleans Part 2~ Olivier's Restaurant

The next restaurant restaurant we visited was Olivier's Creole Restaurant. K. and T. had found this restaurant online and it was on the Food Network's website, so we decided to check it out. It was nice to see everyone again because during the summer most of us are off doing internships. J.'s at Kellog's, E. is at General Mills, and T. is at Wrigleys.
T. thought the food was amazing and was four out of five stars (I think). I guess I'm a picky eater (I'd like to think I have an excellent palate) because I wasn't impressed with the taste, but it was definitely better than Pat O'Brien's. I think that the consensus was that the food was quite tasty, but not "amazing" as T. put it.

Our meals started off with a house salad. I really enjoyed the dressing which consisted of garlic, a blend of spices, and olive oil. I chose to order the Taster's Platter (I labeled this seafood sampler). Everything on the plate except for the gumbo was fried...fried shrimp, oysters, catfish, and crabcakes. If you haven't noticed, I tend to order items with multiple selections so that I can maximize my dining pleasure. Also, just in case I do not like something, I have the other options to pick on. So if there is the word "trio," "sampler," or "tasting," I usually order that dish.



Here's some other pictures for you all to enjoy.