Ok, nuf already with the chicken wings posts. We ate at The Alley again cause we had one Entertainment Book coupon for buy one entree get one half off...plus we was having our monthly hunger for the tasty chicken. Of all the ono stuffs at The Alley, the Lemon Drop Crunch Cake might be the best. Get one 3-layer version and a 5-layer version too. I not one expert on baked goods, but if I had to describe this cake, I would say it's semi-sweet like Japan style bakery. The cake part is light and moist. The lemon curd cream between the layers is lemony, but not cringing kine lemony. And the toffee bits on top crumble nicely in your mouth. Small kine expensive at about $5 one slice, and worth every penny.
Dirty Lickins' Aiea Shopping Center (next to Aiea Bowl) 486-8500
Been eating Dirty Lickins' for a while now and we keep going back. Not sure how it compares to what you can get in NY where the dish was invented, but it makes my opu happy. I think it's one of the few places on Oahu where you can get authentic buffalo wings. Wings are fried crispy on the outside yet tender on the inside. Not greasy at all. It's glazed in a flavorful, vinegary, salty, mildly sweet sauce. Stain your fingers orange like after eating Cheetos. Get 5 levels of heat from mild to volcanic. We got the mild cause we NCH (No Can Handle). Was around $4.75 for 4 wings with fries. Oh yes, sop up the extra sauce with the fries. For the real low down on buffalo wings, and to buy authentic buffalo wings sauce, check out Anchor Bar who claim to have invented buffalo wings.
235-5799 Choke people, including myself, go KJ's for the fried chicken, but I like their Korean drumettes too. Sometimes get and sometimes no more. Maybe sometimes they run out. I not sure. I think the drumettes are fried crispy in their ono KJ's dredge, then it's dipped in this salty sweet shoyu based kalbi style sauce. Get hint of the Thai sriracha flavor in the sauce. But it's not spicy at all. Full of flavor, sticky on the fingers, and satisfying, especially for wings lovers. I think you get the 6 drumettes plate for about $6.
In the Meat Jun Mayhem, Sam's Delicatessen ranked near the middle of the pack for a pretty tasty meat jun. Another ono flavor is their Korean Chicken Wings. I think the wings are marinated in some kind of secret kim chee style sauce then deep fried. When you bite in to the wing, the meat is moist and tender and get tiny red chili pepper flecks on the meat. The overall flavor is just right ratio of salty, garlicky and small kine sweet. Good with hot rice. The outside is fried light and flaky. She fly all over the places when you crunch in to it. I forget the price of the plate, but was regular plate lunch price. Plus Sam's is one of the few places that give you taegu as a side choice.
The Shoyu Shimmy took place on February 28, 2009. We've run in to some snags planning the kal-bi blind taste test, so in the mean time, we did a mini shoyu challenge. The big 3 local shoyu favorites went up against a popular mainland brand tamari soy sauce and a healthy shoyu substitute (wildcard control entry). To see if certain shoyus taste better in a cooked application and others are better for table use (i.e. dipping), we tasted the the shoyus in both a uncooked application (tofu dip) and a cooked application (shoyu sugar hot dog). Click the tofu pic above to see the uncooked shoyu results and the shoyu sugar hot dog pic to see the cooked shoyu results.
Kunio Japanese Restaurant Waikele Shopping Center (Waipahu side) Near McDonald's and Party City 680-9188
We always on the look out for killah miso yaki butter fish, but we never thought to go da shopping mall for killah butter fish. Kunio, at Waikele Shopping Center, make one mean butter fish. The piece butter fish was on the smaller size compared to places like Tadashi. Cooked perfect with a crispy just under-charred outside and light, flakey, moist (but not mushy slimy) inside. Well marinated with nice flavor all the way through the meat. Miso glaze was balanced salty sweet with mild fermented miso flavor. I think they debone em too. Other stuffs we grinded was the chicken katsu which was light, crispy and satisfying. The tonkatsu donburi was flavorful and good size portion. Pretty good price at average $10-$15 for most dishes. Was a happy moment.
When you ask most local folks about shoyu, you most likely get one ear full about the three local standards, Kikkoman, Aloha Shoyu and Yamasa. And then shoyu talk gets more complicated because people say some shoyus are better for cook with and some are better for table use. But everybody get their own opinion. So we put the 3 local shoyu favorites through our WOW Grinds Blind Taste Test and threw in couple wild card entries just for fun. In addtion to ranking them like we usually do, we wanted to see if the same shoyu would come out on top in both a cooked and uncooked (i.e. dipping) application. So for this one we did two rounds of shoyu tasting. First round was tasting shoyus in a uncooked application (dipping with tofu) and second round had the shoyus in a cooked style (shoyu hotdog). The results will be posted soon.
Just for fun. We made a short video montage to pay homage to some of the places who came out on top in the blind taste tests. Thanks for cooking up some ono grinds.
Thanks to judge Hot For Helena for suggesting Shige's Saimin Stand in Wahiawa (map) as his favorite place for saimin and teri burger combo. This is one real local style old skool hole in the wall saimin stand. The saimin was tasty but not overly salty. The saimin noodles was small kine thick, little bit flat and curly kinky. Kinda like one skinny burinki linguini noodle. The small saimin was about $4.25. Then the teri burger...oh yesu the teri burger!...was a homemade patty with about 50/50 ratio of hamburger to filler. I think they griddle fry it till the egdes come salty crispy goodness. The teri sauce is thicker viscosity so get good amount of sauce with each bite. The teri sauce is flavorful and little more salty than sweet. Not like Forty Niner teri sauce which is more sweet than salty. Then get the classic mayo and lettuce toppings. Nice size burger for about $2.50...I think. The saimin and teri burger can hold their own as separate dishes, but when they combine forces they may be able to rule the saimin stand world. Could this be the best saimin and teri burger combo on Oahu?
Hi Nate. In response to your comment on the Sushi Breakfast Handrolls post, "Sausage that's made for musubi? I don't think I've seen that before. Where can you get it? Do you have a picture?" I got really curious to see who still selling it. So I checked out Marukai and they had em. Only had a few packs left in the chilled sausage section. I bought one to get pics for you and also was one good excuse for grind Portuguese sausage musubi this weekend. Hopefully the Marukai in your area sells it or maybe Costco. Let us know if you can find it.
