Pastrami & Cheddar Panini Grilled Sandwich

My parents and the electrician were over this today. The electrician is doing the wiring for the kitchen renovation. Since I have no kitchen and needed to provide lunch for everyone, I hade the "Pastrami & Cheddar Panini Grilled Sandwiches" in the little grill thing I bought at Home Depot. I also forgot to take a picture of all the sandwiches when finished, but I had 1 1/4 piece left to photograph! :p I seasoned the outside of the bread with some dried Italian herb mix, black pepper, garlic powder, butter and extra virgin olive oil. The inside has a spread of Best Foods Mayonnaisse, Grey Poupon White Wine Mustard, Pastrami from Costco, grilled red onions and cheddar cheese. Then I close the grill on it and let it grill. I had it all nicely laid out on this tray, but forgot to take the picture! Oh well.

Update to Kitchen Renovation Project

Here is the floor plan for the renovated kitchen. All appliances are being relocated to create what I hope to be a more efficient lay out. Related posts: Kitchen Renovation.

Home Coffee Roast Nicaragua Placeras Estate Miel - At City+

Nicaragua Placeras Estate Miel. I roasted this bean to a City+ Roast. This Nicaragua Placeras coffee has a nice scent when brewed. It's described by Sweet Maria's Coffee as "At City+ to Full City+ Malt and grain sweetness, beeswax aroma, raw honey, nuts, caramel, medium-heavy body." My taste buds recognize the "nut" and maybe "malt" is the other flavor I'm noticing along with the medium body. I like this coffee. Actually, I'm beginning to realize all these home roasted coffees are tasting really good. I'm glad I began this. Related Links: Guatemala Fraijanes- Finca Aqua Tibia to Vienna, Sulawesi Grade One Toraja & Rwanda Butare Bourbon, Mexico FTO Oaxaca Pluma - "At City+" & Sumatra Classic Mandheling - "Full City+", Guatemala Fraijanes, Brasil FTO Poco Fundo, 1st Home Roasting Post, Zimbabwe AA -Dandoni Estate Full City + Roast, CoffeeGeek.com, Sweet Maria's Coffee, Sweet Maria's Roasting Guide.

DIRT & PERSPIRATION flavor soda??!!?

Jones Soda introduces 'dirt,' 'perspiration' flavors Puget Sound Business Journal (Seattle)<-- Read Full Story. I usually post news about real estate related matters on my other business section of my website. I came across this story in the Puget Sound Business Journal about dirt, perspiration and other odd flavored Jones Sodas. This doesn't have much to do about real estate, but it is very interesting so I posted it here. Has anyone tried this? I am wondering if I should... Related Link: Jones Soda Company

Update to my kitchen renovation project...

Yesterday I purchased the flooring tiles and got some lumber, etc. for the new partial height wall. This morning, I made the frame of the wall. The higher part will be hiding the range top and counters of the kitchen from the living room. It will also double as a high bar counter that you can stand or sit at and see out to the ocean and Hilton Hawaiian Village (and their weekly Friday night fireworks. The "kitchen renovation" label below should bring up all my past posts about my kitchen renovation.

Home Coffee Roast of the week- Guatemala Fraijanes - Finca Aqua Tibia.

Guatemala Fraijanes - Finca Aqua Tibia. I roasted this bean to a Full City Roast. It does have a good taste to it. I still think I prefer the Zimbabwe AA flavor the best. It's described by Sweet Maria's Coffee as "At Full City: Tangy, bittersweet chocolate notes with spicy accents of clove, cardomom, apple cider in finish." Related Links: Guatemala Fraijanes- Finca Aqua Tibia to Vienna, Sulawesi Grade One Toraja & Rwanda Butare Bourbon, Mexico FTO Oaxaca Pluma - "At City+" & Sumatra Classic Mandheling - "Full City+", Guatemala Fraijanes, Brasil FTO Poco Fundo, 1st Home Roasting Post, Zimbabwe AA -Dandoni Estate Full City + Roast, CoffeeGeek.com, Sweet Maria's Coffee, Sweet Maria's Roasting Guide.

New fish for wall aquarium bowl...

Yesterday Kelli bought a beta that she wanted to have in the wall aqaurium in our bathroom. Here is a picture. Below a a couple pictures of my other aquarium.

An update to my car project blog...

I don't post my car stuff on this blog, but clicking this will take you to that blog if you have interest in my "race car stuff".

The Waikiki Ho'olaule'a...

This is a video clip of Kapena performing for a crowd of hundreds or maybe a couple thousand packing the street and beach in front of this stage. There were a dozen or more food booths. I wanted to eat the Paniolo Chicken at a booth toward the area in front of Outrigger Waikiki. I walked the entire Ho'olaule'a before deciding on Paniolo Chicken. That was a mistake. By the time I got back to the Paniolo Chicken booth, they were done!! Sold out! It was only about 830pm! I didn't even take a picture of them roasting the chicken. This picture is of the Huli Huli Chicken booth. Huli Huli Chicken is a Hawaiian Rotiseree Chicken. It's probably the same as the Paniolo Chicken, but this booth ran out of rice! What a disappointment. I didn't eat any food from the booths. The picture on the right is Kalakaua Avenue's vehicular traffic. This is at about 1030pm and many are waiting and hoping the road is about to open up. The road usually opens up around 11pm. This Ho'olaule'a was not as crowded as last year's. Maybe it was because people thought it might rain. There was a lot of good stage performers out (Kapena, Maui, Society of Seven and some Hula Halau). Here is a short clip of Society of Seven performing Y.M.C.A. in front of the Outrigger Waikiki. Related Links: AlohaFestivals.com, Ho'olaule'a Translation, Google Maps Kalakaua Ave, Kapena, Maui, Society of Seven, Outrigger Waikiki.

Tonight is Waikiki's Ho'olaule'a (Block Party)

Tonight (Friday 9/21) will be the Ho'olaule'a on Kalakaua Avenue in Waikiki. Hawaii is celebrating with it's Aloha Festivals right now and this is one of the events. This picture is just because I'm amazed there are 3 parking spaces open on my street (2 pictured in the lower right). Anyone who is familiar with Waikiki knows that parking is a premium. All of a sudden, I have my car parked on the street now and there are 3 more open stalls with a big event happening tonight!! What's going on? Is the weather scaring people away? There have been passing showers through out the day. Anyway, if you want more information go to AlohaFestivals.com. There are a whole bunch of events happening. Related Links: AlohaFestivals.com, Ho'olaule'a Translation, Google Maps Kalakaua Ave.

盆栽 Our first night at "Art of Bonsai" class with Master Walter Liew.

Tuesday evening was our first "Art of Bonsai" class with Master Walter Liew. The class is held at the Windward Community College Campus on Tuesday evenings and it's 8 sessions from 6pm-8pm. The cost of the course is $80 + $15 to Master Walter Liew for him to provide the proper tree. There were about 30 expected (about 10 more than he expected), but about 25 of us were actually there. They provided name tags, a course itinerary, a brochure to Dragon Garden Hawaii Bonsai Culture Center/Museum of Living Art, and a 16 month calendar featuring 16 different "Artistic Bonsai with Style" styled by Master Walter Liew himself. I can't find any official website for Dragon Gardens in Waimanalo, Hawaii so I'll let you Google and search on your own. The course started off with a lecture on the history and philosophy of bonsai. It was about an hour and a half of lecture and very interesting and entertaining. I am impressed by Master Walter Liew's speaking/lecturing skills. He does speak with a heavy Chinese accent, but makes him even more believable and intriguing. He also manages to plug a comedic one-liner about every minute or so. The lecture contains his personal experiences and why he's considered the master of bonsai as well as stories that he integrates to help the students understand the importance of knowing the history and philosophy of bonsai. Here are some highlights of what I learned last night or just some important information about bonsai: -Bonsai is popular because of Japan so it's commonly refered to as bonsai. -Originated in China about 3000 years ago. -Bonsai started in Japan about 700 years ago. -First documented in writing about 1100 years ago during the Tan Dynasty. -Bonsai (盆栽) is the Japanese pronounciation. -Penzai (盆栽) is the Chinese pronounciation, of course the characters are the same. -Penjing is an art form that umbrellas over the penzai or bonsai art. -Penjing covers forests, bonsai, flower arrangement and rocks. -Feng Shui started in China about 2700 years ago. -Feng Shui started in Japan about 800 years ago. -Zen/Buddhist Monks originally practiced bonsai because they would use hard to get leaves or branches from trees that were located all over China for medicines or herbs. It would sometimes take days for the monk to travel to the mountain that has a particular tree growing. This is what started the idea of bringing the tree back and growing it in a pot. -盆 (bon or pen) means pot. -栽 (sai or zai) means plant. -Bonsai became popular in 1829 when Japan brought bonsai to a world trade show in America. Then to another world trade show in Europe. This is how it became widely known as a Japanese culture or art form. -Most bonsai that is not artistically created with style by a true master of the art would be considered a "junk tree in a pot" to a true master of artistic bonsai. Even though it could seem to be a nice bonsai to some who claim to be bonsai masters with decades of practice. -Japan's style of bonsai is regular "bonsai". Japan's history and experience with bonsai doesn't go back far enough for them to create "artistic bonsai with style" and cannot fall under the umbrella classification of "peng-jing". -Properly styled bonsai will create happiness. -When monks began creating pensai/bonsai for China's royalty 2700 years ago, that's when they began to realize that the potted tree in the interiors would provide fresh air and health. This began the feng shui and zen practices. Those are the things I have decided are important from the first lecture. Master Walter Liew has been practing the art and style for over 55 years and he says he's now 74 years old and in good health because of his 700+ "premium" bonsai at his Dragon Garden Center. He says that he is know internationally as a master of bonsai with style. My google search of his name seems to back up his claim. The pictures of his 16 bonsai in the calendar also prove his claim. Most collections in books with pictures will be a compilation of several "master's" bonsai work. It's unheard of to have so many bonsai of this quality, style and beauty come from one master. I look forward to the next class which won't be until 10/2 because Master Walter Liew left for China this morning and won't be in town next week. He's going there for quality trees for bonsai and other supplies. I'll keep you posted on the bonsai. I'm so excited and seems like a long wait until the next class!!! Google Satellite view of Dragon Garden. View Larger Map Related Links: Master Walter Liew Googled, Google Maps of Dragon Garden, Yellowpages Dragon Garden Listing, Full Size Photo Album, My Bonsai Posts.

Monsaratt Ave Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf

This morning I had some time to kill because I wanted to have an appointment at 8am, but the person I'm meeting preferred it to be 9am and we worked it to about 830am. So here I am at Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf at their new location on Monsaratt. I really wanted this location for my cafe, but I knew I would never be able to afford it. I've been thinking of this corner for years!! Anyway, I tried the Yum Yum Cake (a over-sized Hostess Cupcake Knock-off) and the large dark roast coffee of the day. Of course the coffee is great. The Yum Yum Cake??? hmmm I think I rather buy a pack of Hostess Cupcakes at $2.29 for this. It was covered with a thick fondant type of chocolate that wasn't very tasty. Also, the bottom doesn't even have cake holding the center white stuff in. It's an open bottom. Off to my meeting.... have a nice day!! Related Links: Guatemala Fraijanes- Finca Aqua Tibia to Vienna, Sulawesi Grade One Toraja & Rwanda Butare Bourbon, Mexico FTO Oaxaca Pluma - "At City+" & Sumatra Classic Mandheling - "Full City+", Guatemala Fraijanes, Brasil FTO Poco Fundo, 1st Home Roasting Post, Zimbabwe AA -Dandoni Estate Full City + Roast, CoffeeGeek.com, Sweet Maria's Coffee, Sweet Maria's Roasting Guide.

My Kitchen Renovation...

***!!! A Licensed Contractor should always be used to perform renovations!!!*** 9/13-9/14 I live in a Waikiki 2 bedroom, 2 bath condo. It is in a great location, that offers channel views of the oceans and iconic buildings in Waikiki. (Hilton Hawaiian Village, Outrigger Reef and soon, Trump Tower, etc.) The original kitchen design practically blocks all nice views from the actual living area of the living room while displaying the not so nice views of the neighboring buildings. My renovations should alter this and make the nice views highlighted while blocking the "ugly" views instead. Big job! These are the new cabinets, boxed, unassembled. They are custom designed and imported. They took about 2 months to arrive. 9/18... This morning, the cabinet manufacturer came to assemble the cabinets that are in the boxes pictured above. Upon inspection, we realize that the colors of certain base boards and other places of the cabinet do not match the doors. This photo shows the 2 colors and materials. The exposed areas are supposed to the the lighter colored, thermofoil finish (doors, baseboards, etc.) and the insides are supposed to be a cheaper laminate finish that doesn't quite match the thermofoil coloring (back of cabinets, shelves, bottom, etc.), but "close". Now, if this is as close as it gets for the inside to match the outside, it might be okay to pass off because nobody would normally be seeing the insides. The problem is there are glass doors therefore allowing the inside to show out and the exposed baseboards are also done in the inexpensive finish so it's very visible!! It seems the supplier is going to try a 2nd attempt at this custom order and bring it in again. Now the kitchen will be looking as shown in this picture for another month and a half! Of course, we'll work on the flooring and the mid-height wall in the time being, but that would probably be done in a week or less. At least there is no rush for that now. **Note: Made in China...** To be continued... Related Links: My Kitchen Renovations, Google "Dorm Room Cooking".

Temporary Kitchenette set-up... Dorm Room Kitchen/Cooking.

I posted and am updating a post about my kitchen renovations. During this time, I have a small basic set-up to continue cooking in the 2nd bedroom/office/living room during the renovation process. We were at Home Depot on Saturday night. (Yes! Home Depot! Not a night club, restaurant, etc.) Anyway, there was this 1 "Everstar 3 in 1 Griddle" left on sale for $12.99. It was an open box special. We bought it to add another appliance to the temporary cooking set-up. It has a griddle plate, waffle plate and those triangular smashing ones. Panini Style Grilled Chicken Salad Sandwich I made this grilled sandwich with my left over chicken salad mixture that I prepared last week. First I splashed some extra virgin olive oil on the griddle then sprinkled some Italian dried herb mix, garlic powder and black pepper. I rubbed the slices of bread over the mixture. Then I put spread some of the chicken on one side and some cheddar cheese on the bread. Put it together like a sandwich then pressed it in the griddle for about 5 minutes. This is not fancy stuff, but it's fancier than just eating a sandwich on toast. Related Links: My Kitchen Renovations, Google "Dorm Room Cooking", Grilled Chicken Breast with Curry Fried Rice and Chicken Salad Sandwich.

Matsugen Soba Restaurant 255 Beachwalk, Honolulu, Hawaii 96815 (808)926-0255

Before the US AF Thunderbirds Air Show, we had some lunch at Matsugen, a small, nice soba restaurant on Beachwalk Street in Waikiki. I had the Gomadare Cold Soba and Kelli had the Mori Cold Soba. We were seated at a counter type seating that surrounded an area that they use to make the hand made soba noodles. Unfortunately, we didn't get to see anyone make some fresh noodles while we were seated there. As you can see, we enjoyed it and ate it all! Kelli's Mori Soba came with a pitcher of hot soba water (water used to boil the soba noodle) about mid-way through eating. I wasn't quite sure what it was, I thought it was hot tea, but we didn't have any tea cups. I looked inside and realised it was the soba water. Kelli was wondering what to do with it. I had an idea that it was to pour into the dipping sauce for the soba and then drink it as a soup. But then I thought it was odd to drink HOT soup after eating a cold soba dish because it was a hot day. Anyway, that seemed like the only option so I asked the waiter what it was for and he explained that it was the traditional way to finish the Mori Soba meal. So we did. It was good. I guess it was similar to drinking some hot tea at the end of the meal to help you feel refreshed after eating. We enjoyed the soba here and will most likely be here soon because it's just minutes walking from home. Our bill was $19.06 plus gratuities. Parking may be an issue here, but maybe you can valet at Embassy Suites and when I walk by this restaurant there is usually always a long line of people (all Japanese) waiting for a seat. We went at opening time, 11:30am, before everyone started coming. Related Links: Google Maps, Yellow Pages Listing, Matsugen Waikiki Googled.

The U.S. Airforce Thunderbirds perform for Waikiki!

The U.S. Airforce Thunderbirds will be performing for Waikiki today. This photo is from this past Thursday's "practice" performance. We watched the practice performance from the pool area/roof top of my condo. Today we will be heading out in front of the Outrigger Reef Hotel or Army Museum area for a better view. The Thunderbirds are scheduled to perform today at 230pm in the Waikiki area. After watching the practice runs, most of the stunt climaxes appear to be taking place in front of the Halekoa Hotel through the Outrigger Reef beach front areas. I'm heading out there shortly to get a better view. This is going to be AWESOME!

Home Roasting Coffee - Brasil FTO Poco Fundo Full City Roast

I recently roasted 3/4 cup of Sweet Maria's Brasil FTO Poco Fundo to a Full City Roast (After 1st cracks & just before 2nd crack, about 12 minutes). After cupped, this coffee tastes really good. Sweet Maria's description is, "At Full City to FC+: A funky, fruited flavor profile, with winey berry notes, nut, chocolate and great body". I'm beginning to understand what those descriptions mean. I can make out the "winey berry notes" and I also can distinguish the "nut" and "chocolate" descriptions. This is one of my favorites so far. Related Links: Guatemala Fraijanes- Finca Aqua Tibia to Vienna, Sulawesi Grade One Toraja & Rwanda Butare Bourbon, Mexico FTO Oaxaca Pluma - "At City+" & Sumatra Classic Mandheling - "Full City+", Guatemala Fraijanes, Brasil FTO Poco Fundo, 1st Home Roasting Post, Zimbabwe AA -Dandoni Estate Full City + Roast, CoffeeGeek.com, Sweet Maria's Coffee, Sweet Maria's Roasting Guide.

Grilled Chicken Breast with Curry Fried Rice and Chicken Salad Sandwich

Kelli requested curry fried rice for dinner so here it is. Kelli bought this convenient cutting board with a built in silicone strainer from Costco this past weekend. It is about $20 (it's $31.99 on-line) and allows me to use the area above the sink as additional counter space which is really valuable when living in a condominium. I think she just wants me to cook for her more so she bought it. These are some Waikiki condominium balcony grown green onions. I have these growing in the pot of a potted banyan tree. They are growing quite well. Better than those in my aquaponics set-up. (More on my aquaponics another time.) Every week, I do a partial water change for my fish aquarium. I water my plants with the aquarium water. I am just making fried rice so it doesn't really matter, but since I was going to test the new cutting board, I sharpened my knife and decided to brush up on my green onion chopping skills. I used to work under Master Mori at Izakaya Nonbei in the Kapahulu area. He is a very strict chef to work under and was very concerned about how the food is presented. Green onions especially was a chore at the beginning of each night. I would finely chop 2 pounds of green onions each day and they were to be as thin as possible and none of them should be attached to another. Many times they did not meet his expectations. I had a lot of practice there!! Of course, fried rice doesn't require this fine chop, but I just wanted to see how well I could do after not doing a fine chop for so long. I prepared some egg crepe style. Then I rolled it and chopped it up. I like it this way so it looks nice and yellow in the fried rice. The chicken breasts are seasoned with the basics and the bowl has the chopped ham, bacon and egg for the fried rice. Normally, fried rice is made with left overs. I didn't have any left overs so I had to steam 2 cups of white rice. I chopped 1 red onion heated my wok and lightly oiled it. I added the chopped onion and bacon and allowed it to sweat. Then add the ham and season with some salt, pepper, garlic, ginger and curry powder. This varies depending on how you want it to taste, but I used about 3 teaspoons of S&B Curry Powder for this batch. After cooking these ingredients with the seasonings, I add the steamed rice a little by little mixing it in with the flavors. This is half of the steamed rice (1 cup). Here is where my Grilled Chicken Breast is about half done and my Curry Fried Rice is also about half done. I try to make sure they will finish at the same time so I can plate them both and not have one colder than the other. I purposely made extra chicken breast because Kelli has been wanting Chicken Salad Sandwich for her lunch that she brings to work. I have some finely chopped red onion, Best Foods Mayonnaise, Grey Pupon White Wine Dijon Mustard, Hawaiian Sea Salt and black pepper. I also chopped up 2 of the Grilled Chicken Breasts after they cooled and then mixed them all together. I let it chill in the refrigerator over night so the flavors all blend. Related links: Izakaya Nonbei, Costco Cutting Board, S&B, Larger Photos.