Funky Food

I seem to be in a ADD stream of consciousness today. Maybe it is because it is my last day at my old new job and I start on Monday at my new new job. It is kind of a strange intermingling of my old and new life as I have coordinating a talk story session for the volunteers at my old new job featuring the veterans from my new new job today.

I am very happy though about this change in employment as I feel like I am now at home and my heart is at peace. However, I am still really shaken up about Michael Jackson passing away, especially since the usual comment is that he is another Anna Nicole. Yes, he had a dependency on prescription drugs but how can you compare him to Anna Nicole in any other manner? Ugh.

I tried a bunch of new places this week trying to come up with a lunch that the kids could eat quickly and cleanly in the car - both didn't pan out very well. The first was Manabu's which is a musubi store on King Street, near Baskin and Robbins across from Washington Intermediate School. I was really looking forward to it as I've read great reviews and everything there is healthy. It was very clean and there was a great variety of musubis as well as very detailed labels setting out each ingredient and country of origin. I picked up a bunch of different musubis, three organic pepsis (very cool bottle), two strawberry musubis and three custards - grand total $45. The consensus from the kids was thumbs down except for the pepsi and the teriyaki spam musubi. Everything else smelled and tasted "fishy" to them even though nothing had fish or dashi in it. I liked the broiled miso musubi at first bite but it had a fishy aftertaste. I ate it anyway since I knew Oscar the Grouch would be P.O.'d if I tossed a $1.50 in the rubbish. I think I will stick to the 7-11 musubis for the family. The kids ate only 1/2 of the custard, they thought it was too thick. Definitely more of a place for jiichans and baachans.

The Professor has been nagging to try to new crepe take-out place at Shirokiya so I picked up three hot dog crepes last night. The guy there said it would take about 5-10 minutes so I went to the Childrens Place to buy the Mad Cow yet more swim suits. The total for 3 crepes was $17.50. It was also very disappointing and pretty much a rip off. It consisted of a hot dog cut into two pieces lengthwise, some old lettuce leaves and catsup. That was it. The Mad Cow wouldn't eat it since it had catsup and lettuce and the Diva just said it looked gross. The Professor ate it but said it wasn't something he would eat again (too humbug to dig out the lettuce and scrape off the strange tasting catsup). My Dad ate a whole one and he seemed to like it. I didn't see how they made it but I have a feeling it is premade and then just put on a griddle for a short time or in the microwave to heat it up. By the time I picked it up and took it to the car, it was already cold. It wasn't crispy or warm like the fresh ones at the regular crepe stores. Definitely steer clear from this place. I should have known it was going to be terrible as this was the only place in the Shirokiya food area that had no one around.

The dango with the shoyu sauce now on sale at Shirokiya was KILLER though. The Diva and I were fighting over it. The dango was super soft and the sauce was perfect, not too sweet. Don't try to eat it in the car while driving like I did. I looked like I was in a drive-by and bled teriyaki instead of blood.

There is a new buffet at Shirokiya too. Got my Dad some guisantes (identified as pork with peas on the buffet). You fill up a container and then put it on a scale to weigh - like at Whole Foods. The price is $6.99 a pound. My Dad said it was very good but then what does he not like? It was very fresh looking and hot which is a good thing. There were some kind of odd entrees there - eggplant with apple juice which looked good but just sounded too strange and zucchini jun.

The kids did not like the new custard manapua at 7-11 but they love the fried rice one. Just be prepared for the blast of salt and ajinomoto that hits your nose as soon as you open the package.

My current five favorite foods :

1) Any bread from the Himalaya Restaurant in Kaimuki - a whole page of Nepalese and Indian baked goods (make Homer Simpson drooling sound now)

2) Vegetarian dim sum and tofu dishes at the Kirin Chinese Restaurant on Beretania - so ono and so good karma

3) Whole Foods hot entree bar for the Indian dishes and the potatoes for breakfast. Even my MOM will let my Dad buy the breakfast potatoes and you know how she goes into cardiac arrest when she sees the prices there.

4) 7-11 deluxe spam musubi (without the spam)

5) Rum cake served at the quarterly Birthday parties at the Clubhouse