Guess what today is?

It's 31-cent ice cream day at Baskin-Robbins! From 5-10pm tonight it's Baskin-Robbins annual event to honor fire fighters. I wasn't going to go watch "Top Chef" tonight because I'm totally swamped with work and feel absolutely drained, but after my friend called about it and the thought of ice cream perked me up.

When it comes to ice cream, shave ice, and candy I am not one to stray from what I know is good. Rocky Road is my all-time favorite flavor of Baskin-Robbins ice cream. I've tried other brands of rocky road, but none of them are as rich in chocolate and have crunchy nuts and whole marshmallows in it. Yum yum!

I have an analogy about dating and ice cream...I think people should approach dating like how they approach ice cream. You have to taste the different flavors to determine what you like. Everyone knows the typical ice cream characteristics they like or dislike (i.e. I do not like caramel, any fruit besides strawberry, and stale nuts in my ice cream); so you make selections based on what you think you like. You try double chocolate or very berry strawberry. You then end up becoming fond of that oreo cookie ice cream, you keep ordering it, and it becomes your favorite. And it is okay to try that pink bubblegum one that you think might not be the best bet, but have been eying out from afar. Okay, that's where my analogy ends.

Long story short, Mike is my Dave's ice cream lychee sherbet and I'm his mint chocolate chip. Glad I could enlighten you all.

squirrels

Okay, this post has nothing to do with food....
I was walking through the Quad today and saw an old man on a bike. He was tossing peanuts at the squirrels. These chubby squirrels were not afraid of the man and I swear it seemed like some of them were catching those peanuts.

Shokudo!!!

While I was back in Hawaii, some of my high school friends got together to celebrate a friend's birthday. The restaurant of choice was Shokudo which is a Japanese tapas style restaurant.

My secret santa gave me a gift card to Shokudo and suggested that I order a vodka soda, tofu salad (see picture) and the ishiyaki unagi rice. I took her advice but did not care for the lychee vodka which the server said was one of the top two popular drinks. My friend's lychee martini was the better option. The tofu salad was amazing and my favorite dish! It's soft homemade tofu (so creamy) topped with fried noodles and a ponzu-type sauce. I've had the unagi rice before and opted for the ishiyaki shrimp and garlic fried rice. It was good and garlic-y. My only complaint was that we received most of the rice dishes after we received the main dishes like the rib eye steak and the chicken karaage.
Other interesting dishes I tried that night...fried mochi and cheese and the spicy tuna on crispy rice. The mochi was err...different. I'm a fan of mochi and cheese....individually; something about the similar texture threw me off. As one of my friends put it, she did not know when she was eating cheese or mochi. If you want to mimic this dish at home, fry some mochi, put a glob of mozzarella cheese on it, and add some nori shavings. There was a sauce on it, I think it was shoyu-based, but I am not sure. It's a tasty dish, but not for the average person.
The spicy tuna on the other hand was excellent. Ive never grilled my rice before but I've seen it on Soko ga shiritai so it's pretty common. I think the play on textures of this dish was intriguing and will try this grilled crispy rice combo with different flavors.

The food is tasty here, but the portions are small for the price so be prepared to spend at least $25 per person without drinks. I'd still definitely recommend this restaurant and the price does not deter me from eating here.

Shokudo
1585 Kapiolani Blvd
Honolulu, HI 96814
(808)941-3701

date challenge-spinach & egg beaters

The other day i bought a bunch of beautiful fresh spinach, so that's why Mike and I decided to have a spinach and egg challenge.
I was tired and lazy so I finished my dish in less than 5 minutes. An omelette containing garlic, spinach, mushroom, and provolone cheese. It was a basic healthy comfort food with no bells or whistles.

Mike's dish polenta cakes (no "wow" points because it was store bought polenta), topped with a scrambled egg, spinach, and chorizo sausage. His parents commented that the dish was "interesting." He receives the "A" for effort because by the time he finished, I had cooked, washed my dishes, and eaten my food.

Mike conceded that if it were a taste test, I'd probably win; but visually maybe he has a chance to win the challenge. I guess he should win the challenge because he remembered to use the key ingredients this time.

my new baby

I was planning to name my new laptop "KIRBY" but after purchasing it, i don't think it looks like a Kirby. The computer looks more like it deserves a cooler name like "Blaze" or "Hunter." Anyways, it's an HP Pavilion special edition that has direct disc labeling (it can etch the top of cds), it has tivo capabilities if you buy a special accessory, and it has a 14.1" screen and weighs 5.25 pounds. I'm quite excited about it and have yet to turn it on.

Now I'm debating whether to fork over the $300 to purchase the Best Buy 3-year warranty. My sister told me that it's a great deal, but a friend told me to check out my credit card's benefits. If something goes wrong with my computer, I bring it in to Best Buy and they'll fix it. If they cannot fix it, I get a new laptop. What do you think? Is the Best Buy warranty worth it?

Roy's Restaurant

One of my favorite restaurants in Hawaii is Roy's which serves Hawaiian Fusion Cuisine. You cannot go wrong with the fish dishes and the hot chocolate souffle. I've only been to the Roy's Hawaii Kai in the past, but this time Mike and I checked out Roy's Waikiki after finalizing our menu for our wedding reception in Waikiki. The meal started off with poke style edamame (soybeans). Mike ordered the Prix Fixe menu consisted of a appetizer trio (blackened ahi, some kind of short rib, and chinatown chicken spring roll), his main dish was a tender braised hawaii kai braised short rib, and dessert of the hot chocolate souffle.

We definitely have different tastes when it comes to ordering. I usually stay away from anything with bones (ribs, pork chops, fried chicken), and anything that is found in a petting zoo (duck, rabbit, lamb, goat). His food was okay, personally I think my mom's roast meat could compete against Roy's dish.

Moving on to my selection. As I mentioned before, FISH is excellent at Roy's. I chose the "plate lunch" which was three different kinds of fish prepared in three different ways. (Side note: I usually am a sucker for samplers or menu selections with multiple options). Blackened Ahi (which I had them cook) in a spicy soy wasabi butter, misoyaki butterfish in a sizzling soy vinaigrette , and hibachi grilled salmon citrus ponzu sauce. The butterfish was by far the best fish there and is one of Roy's signature dishes.

We finished off our meal with the hot chocolate souffle (which is one of the best molten chocolate cakes i've eaten). Once you cut the cake high quality semisweet chocolate oozes out of this moist cake. Yummy!

teaser #2

Honey Toast with Chocolate $7.95~Shokudo
I don't have a lot of time to blog, but here's another teaser. Even though we stuffed ourselves silly with the drinks, appetizers, and entrees, we all somehow managed to find room for honey toast!

Personally, my favorite is the plain honey toast. Toasted Japanese bread, drizzled with honey and topped with vanilla ice cream. It's a simple dessert, but oh so D-E-L-I-C-I-O-U-S! Shokudo is quite pricey when you add up the all the Japanese-style fusion tapas, but the taste of most dishes is spot on. I'll be posting more about the yumminess we enjoyed at this restaurant.

teaser

get excited! i will be blogging and posting food pictures from roy's waikiki, satura cakes, chinatown, grand cafe, basta pasta, top of waikiki, cpk, and shokudo.
i haven't uploaded those pictures yet, but for now, i'll post a wedding dress teaser. i initially wanted a simple dress with no lace or beading and a tiny train if any at all. i guess shopping with your mom changes things.

the bf

This is the guy that chooses an egg mcmuffin challenge and makes his sandwich without an egg. The guy who makes a better fried rice than me and can cook up a mean spicy edamame. His favorite ingredients to cook with are bacon, siracha sauce, and garlic. we've concluded that if you want to create a food that appeals to the masses you can 1)deep fry it; 2)wrap it in bacon; 3)add butter or cheese to it; 4)deep fry a bacon-wrapped something stuffed with butter or cheese.
Anyways, this is my post dedicated to the "man of my dreams,"(that's what he likes to be called),the guy that I'm going to marry , in a few months, and the guy I have known for almost 10 years of my life and have been dating for over 4.5 years. he's kind of goofy and silly but we match. he even was a sport and didn't mind taking pictures all over chinatown for my blog.


a picture of a manapua (char siu bao) and steamed rice cake from char hun sut. that's also a picture of mike's hand.

home in hawaii

i'm currently in hawaii so the blogs will be kept at a minimum. i can't wait to post all the food pictures i've taken already!
unfortunately i caught a cold on the plane ride home. don't you just hate it when you end up sitting next to someone who is sniffling, coughing, and blowing her nose. you just want to raise your hand and say, "excuse me, she's polluting my breathing space." yeah, i'm not sympathetic to sick people on planes. especially when your plane is delayed and you have to sit in the plane for that extra hour by the sniffler.
it's a prety nasty cold with watery eyes, a sore throat, green phelgm, and I have body aches. i cancelled the engagement photos because i look like rudolph from all the nose blowing, I always look like I'm crying, and my skin is all blotchy.
anyways, I'll still be taking pictures of yumminess.

Avocado Cookies

I've been hearing the buzz about replacing some of the fat in baked goods with avocado. It reduces the fat of the recipe by 35% but also provides healthier fats in your product (not to mention a slight green tinge).

I am a fan of crispy things. Tacos win over burritos; Crunchy Cheetos win over puffs; crunchy cookies win over soft cookies.
This cookie ended up a soft cookie. It wasn't bad, but nothing to write home about.

Restaurant Crawl

Last night the University of Illinois's Association of Food Technologists went on a Restaurant Crawl. Instead of a typical bar crawl, we restaurant hopped. The restaurants included in our stroll included Radio Maria for tapas, Peking Garden for dinner, and Ko Fusion for dessert. The night was filled with fun, food, and chatter. It's always a treat to go out to eat with fellow food scientists. Most of us love food and enjoy deconstructing and critiquing food.

The general consensus was that the tapas were the crowd favorite and Ko Fusion was the least favorite. Let's just say that everyone left a huge portion of their chocolate cake on the table and it wasn't because we were stuffed from the previous restaurants. Some of the comments associated with the chocolate cake were, "Do you think they used lard in the cake?" and "Why is it so dry and dense?" Although my White Dragon Martini (lychee liquor, coconut rum, and pineapple juice) was quite yummy, it doesn't make up for the poor quality cake.
The best dish of the night? The queso de cabra frito from Radio Maria. It was fried balls of goat cheese drizzled with a honey sauce. The honey and the warm goat cheese was excellent!
Thanks to Christy for planning this awesome activity!

Bread Pudding

Bread Pudding (if done correctly) is one of my favorite desserts. I prefer the warm type with the slight custard-like texture versus the kind of bread pudding in bakery displays. It's even better when topped off with a vanilla bean creme anglese. My all time favorite can be found at the Royal Hawaiian Hotel and a close second is the bread pudding at the Prince Court restaurant Prince Hotel

This recipe is not close to the perfection at these hotels, but is a pretty good home made bread pudding. In my ideal recipe, I'd be using Ani's Hawaiian Sweet Bread instead of the whole wheat bread that I used in my creation. But we cannot all be fortunate to live in Hawaii.

Basic Bread Pudding

6-7 cups of cubed bread
1/4 cup butter, melted
1.5 t. ground cinnamon
1/4 cup raisins
1/4 cup dried cranberries

6 large eggs, beaten
3/4 cup white sugar
2 t.vanilla extract
1/2 t. salt
3 cups scalded milk
1 pinch ground nutmeg

Preheat the oven to 375F, grease a 9"x11" pan. Mix the bread cubes, butter, cinnamon, raisins, and cranberries together. Place in the prepared pan. Beat the egges, sugar, vanilla extract, salt, and nutmeg together. Heat your milk and temper it into the eggs. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until the custard sets.

Core Pole

This is not really related to food, the inkling of the connection is that the more I exercise, the more I can enjoy yummy food.
Today I checked out a new fitness class at the gym. It's called "Core Pole" and uses this piece of equipment to work on strength exercises. NO it's not the strip pole aerobics class. It's just a class with a lot of resistance training. So far, it's not my favorite class at the gym, but it is one that I will definitely continue attending. I tend to do a mix of classes to work different muscles and also my knees have been giving me problems.
I'm pretty sure my body (obliques and triceps for starters) will be hurting tomorrow.

Breakfast Date Challenge-"Egg McMuffin"

My boyfriend suggested we have a breakfast cooking date. He said he'd call me at 9am my time (4am Hawaii time) to cook. Breakfast is the one meal that I hate to miss. So long story short, I cooked at 9am(CT), and after I ate my food, I called him and he started cooking at 5:30am. He's not a morning person, so I figured he'd need the extra sleep time to compete.

The only criteria for the challenge was to make an english muffin sandwich containing an egg.
My creation...homemade black bean hummus (black beans, chipotle, garlic, and salt) on a toasted english muffin, fried over easy egg, tomato slices, lettuce, turkey bacon, salt and pepper.

His creation...bacon, cheese (kraft singles), lettuce, and tomato....his special sauce: mayonnaise, chipotle, honey, paprika, and minced garlic.
He went to the store to purchase ingredients and assumed he had eggs at home. he was disqualified because he failed to meet the egg criteria. i told him to use tofu to substitute the eggs, but he thought i was sabotaging his sandwich.

Tongue Tattoo-The Highlight of my Day

This image is courtesy of my labmate's boyfriend.
OMG, this is super cool. A few of us were eating lunch in the lab today and someone had a Tongue Tattoo Fruit Roll up
It's so cool! If I were a kid, I'd be begging my mother to buy me these fruit roll-ups!
Yes, the mere blue inking on a tongue was the one event that made me smile and giggle the most today.

IFT Product Development Competition

It seems like a large portion of my day is consumed by working on our product development project. The Institute of Food Technologists has an annual Product Development Competition for us budding scientists to gain experience creating a food product These are the schools and products that we are up against.

Cornell University with Tranquili Tea
Michigan State University with Ready-to-Dough
Ohio State University with FruitZicle
University of Illinois - Urbana Champaign with Dream Pie Bars
University of Minnesota with Ediballs
Virginia Tech with Banana Splitters

Some of the names are quite interesting. I'm curious to see what the products really are. What do you think these products are? Why is there a 'Z' in the FruitZicle? What are Ediballs?

For more information about the competition, check out theiftsa website.