Friday, February 18, 2011

http://twitpic.com/3zker7 #ProgressIs this blog replacing my #DeskDiary @Audi


Tweet forwarded by @RickNakama

RickNakama: @johngarcia - #ProgressIs on the last day of the contest, #DeskDiary keeps up the pace for charity win!

Original Tweet: http://twitter.com/RickNakama/status/38670521323233280

What's all this tweeting and retweeting with the #DeskDiary and #ProgressIs hashtags all about?  I'm not so sure how it all started, but I think it had something to do with a commercial that aired for Audi during the Super Bowl. 

Long story short, @JohnGarcia (HTTP://twitter.com/JohnGarcia) made the National Finalist list.  So here we are, the social media community of Hawaii trying our best to win this contest! 

The simplest way to help is to click my original tweet above and retweet it making sure the Twitpic link and both hashtags are in the tweet.  John gets points for each view of the #DeskDiary Twitpic.

RT @JohnGarcia #ProgressIs using social media to give back. H... on Twitpic

What will John win?  Audi will donate $25,000 to a charitable organization of John's choice.  I'm not sure what charities actually qualify, but John asked the community to give suggestions and we all offered suggestions.  Some probably don't fully qualify as a charity but if anything, awareness was spread through social media.

What Hawaii charity do you want John to consider?  Let him know!

By the way, #ProgressIs me being able to substitute my #DeskDiary with a blog that I can create by sending an email from my mobile phone while sitting in my parked car. 

This blog post should hopefully score John some bonus points at the last moment.  I think there are only a couple of hours remaining in this contest.  Let's help John win this thing!!!!

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Rick Nakama (R) GRI SFR SRES
http://RickNakama.com

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Jin Din Rou Taiwanese Dim Sum Restaurant.

A couple of weeks ago, after my usual Monday @LanakilaPacific #MealsOnWheels route, we had lunch at Jin Din Rou.  This was during their soft opening.  It was suggested by @LalaLinzy because she was anxious for fresh, hot restaurants to review for her blog post about Jin Din Rou <here.  I told her I would hold off a few days before posting my blog about it so that her photos and blog could get a lot of traffic.  Ok ok, It's couple weeks later, but I'm posting about it now.  Hopefully I still remember enough to keep it accurate.  If you don't think I can remember, just read Linzy's Blog ;)
When we went, they were open only during lunch and the menu was very simple.  It was either select the specialty Jin Din Rou dim sum plus 1 or 2 other items.  We each selected to go with the 3 choice price which was about $14.  The way you are required to select a certain item from each tier of items was a little disappointing to me because I kind of wanted 2 things from the same tier.  Anyway, I'm sure different people will have different opinions of that.
I chose the Pork Eggplant.  To me it tasted it bit too much like shoyu.  It was served in a hot ceramic sizzling pot and the shoyu sauce was burning away in there.  It wasn't bad, but just seemed like shoyu flavored food.
The other item I selected was the fried rice.  I chose the Takana Fried Rice.  The second fried rice selection was Shrimp Fried Rice, but since I am not a shrimp eater, Takana was my choice.  I really liked the fried rice.  It was very well executed.
It was nice to go with a group of 3 (@Lalalinzy and @MarkTRC) because we were able to sample almost everything they had on the menu.  Some of the other things I tasted are the Tan Tan Noodle, the Fried Egg Pork Jaer's Ear, Deep Fried Chicken and the Shrimp Fried Rice.
Jin Din Rou isn't a traditional Taiwanese Dim Sum restaurant.  It's a Japanese style Taiwanese Dim Sum restaurant so things are a little different.  Oh!  I almost forgot to write about the dim sum!  Anyway, the specialty dim sum is the pork dumpling that is steamed.  The special part about it is the soup that is contained in the dumpling wrapping.  When you pick it up, you need to be careful not to tear the wrap or the juicy insides will leak out.  These dumplings tasted good.  I don't really care if there is soup inside of my dumpling or not.  I just like dim sum that tastes good. 
The last few weeks, I've been a tester for @OCMobile's Intelligo thanks to @WorldWideEd and contributing to the AndHere.com Blog <this is my test at Jin Din Rou.  I'm happy to say that my Tmobile 3G was not able to penetrate into Jin Din Rou (OK no I am not really happy, I'm disappointed!), but the Intelligo was getting a good 3G signal.  While it wasn't a 4G signal, the benefit of it providing me a 3G signal where I was only able to receive EDGE from Tmobile was wonderful.  On a side not, if I was using my @Clear 4G Spot, it would not have helped because there wasn't any 4G reception in Jin Din Rou.  Anyway, I've enjoyed testing the Intelligo Wifi Hotspot for @OCMobile and will write about it later.  This makes a nice segway to this evening...  Tonight, filming of the final scenes for the @OCMobile and AndHere.com commercial.  It will be at Ka Restaurant and Lounge and there is a Twitvite if you'd like to participate.  As of now, there are only a few spots left.  
Will I see any of you there??  :)

Jin Din Rou


1491 King Street

Honolulu, Hawaii 96814

(808)947-1133


Thursday, February 17, 2011

Dinner: Hiroshima Style Okonomiyaki

For tonight's dinner Kelli wanted Hiroshima Style Okonomiyaki.  It's basically yakisoba with a crepe style egg covering it.

I've posted about Hiroshima Style Okonimiyaki a few times before this.  They can be viewed here http://nakama-m-photos.blogspot.com/2010/10/okonomi-house-fukurou-hiroshima-hiasia.html .

Do you prefer traditional style Okonomiyaki or the Hiroshima style?

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Rick Nakama (R) GRI SFR SRES
http://RickNakama.com

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Sunday, February 13, 2011

Ja Gal Chi Korean Restaurant (Honolulu)

I have been enjoying the food at Ja Gal Chi or Jagalchi (not sure which way is correct) since this little restaurant was first introduced to me by its currently reigning Foursquare (HTTP://foursquare.com) Mayor, @TrulyJoannies (HTTP://twitter.com/TrulyJoannies).  Last night was my third visit there in the last month and Kelli's second.

We've had the Meat Juhn here each time because it's yummy!  I have tried the Kim Chee Pancake and would love to eat it again. 

I've had two versions of their Soon Doo Bu (soup).  Both were good, but the first time there was too much seafood stuff in it which I do not like.  Last night I had the beef and tofu version and it was perfect (no seafood hehe).  I think it could be a lot spicier, but I guess it's good like this so more people can enjoy it.

I tried their Spicy Beef Bi Bim Bap (stone pot fried rice) last night and it's the first time I've had a Bi Bim Bap with that special rice that they use.  It's a little small for the cost, but very tasty.  This was also not spicy at all.  I was still served a bowl of rice separately and I was told to add more rice in the stone pot if it was too spicy, but I didn't do that.

The ambiance at this restaurant isn't the greatest, but the food definitely continues to get me back there.  Right now I'm just wondering if I'll get to eat at Ja Gal Chi again this week!  :)

1334 Young St Ste 106
Honolulu, HI 96814
(808) 593-8830

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Saturday, February 12, 2011

Mo's Bacon Chocolate Chip Pancakes - Modified

During Christmas shopping last December, Kelli bought this Mo's Bacon Chocolate Chip Pancake gift tube from Neiman Marcus.  She intended it to be a gift, but the last tube they had was slightly dented and she ended up deciding not to give away the flawed tube.  It stayed in our pantry.
 
Last weekend, I made half the batch of the mix.  It makes about 3 pancakes per recipe portion (2 portions per tube).  We didn't have buttermilk last week so I substituted with 2% milk and vinegar. 
 
This morning, I decided to use up the other half of the pancake mix and bacon chocolate chips.  I opened the refrigerator to find we didn't have any milk, but we had a case of Brown Cow Greek Yogurts!  I substituted the buttermilk portion of the ingredients with a containter of the Brown Cow Strawberry Greek Yogurt.  I also added a little water to it so it wasn't so thick. 
 
The pancakes come out great.  It's kind of difficult to mess up this mix even if you don't follow the instructions.  They do make the instruction rather complex sounding asking to separate the egg white and yolk, then mixing them separately.  Anyway, this is not the usual thing that I cook at home.  Pancake mix is not something I keep on hand because it can be made rather easily with the basic ingredients on hand.  Bacon Chocolate chips is another story.  I don't think I would necessarily put bacon into a chocolate chip pancake that I made, but being that it is a novelty item, it was interesting to try.  I still would prefer real bacon strips sitting on the plate beside my pancakes!  
 
What do you think about this Mo's Bacon Chocolate Chip Pancakes mix? 

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Friday, February 11, 2011

Micro Brew Coffee Shop Beach Bum Cafe #FB


Beach Bum Cafe in the Executive Center on Bishop Street had their Grand Opening on February 4, 2011.  It coincided with Downtown Honolulu's First Friday Festivities.  (I posted about First Friday back in 2007 http://nakama-m-photos.blogspot.com/2007/09/downtown-honolulu-first-friday-art.html).  Since we were spending some time in downtown that night, I wanted to also check out Beach Bum Cafe's Grand Opening.
They had about 7 selections of single origin Hawaiian coffees at that time.  Each coffee comes with a recommended brewing technique, but you are able to request which ever combination you'd like to try.  The special brewing techniques here are the Chemex and Vacuum Pot methods.   I don't know of any other coffee shop in Honolulu that will have these brewing methods available.
Our first visit there, Kelli had the Ka'u Yellow Bourbon vacuum pot.  I had the Waialua Chemex.  Both were delicious, but the Yellow Bourbon was my preference.  It reminded me of some of the green beans that I ordered from Sweet Maria's and did small batch home roasts with.  (I blogged a little about that here http://nakama-m-photos.blogspot.com/2007/09/home-coffee-roast-zimbabwe-aa-dandoni.html). 
After that night, I have been figuring out how I can have coffee at Beach Bum Cafe again.  Since I don't work in downtown, parking is a concern.  I had other engagements in downtown today so I decided to take advantage of the opportunity and stop by for a cup of coffee after lunch.
Matt (http://www.solomish.com) had lunch with us too and did not hear of this place yet so he came to try a cup.  I suggested the Yellow Bourbon and he tried it.  He really enjoyed it as far as I could tell.  I had the award winning Ka'u Rusty's.  We both opted for the vacuum pot brewing method.  I enjoyed my Rusty's, but I like the Yellow Bourbon the best so far.
I am looking for more reasons to go into downtown so I can stop for an excellent cup of coffee.  Any suggestions??  ;)
Beach Bum Cafe
1088 Bishop Street
Honolulu, Hawaii 96813
http://beachbumcafe.com/
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Friday, February 4, 2011

buta shougayaki don @YajimaYaHawaii w/@WorldwideEd

RickNakama: buta shougayaki don @YajimaYaHawaii (@ Yajima-ya) http://picplz.com/nX7V

Original Tweet: http://twitter.com/RickNakama/status/33667383809806337

This is mostly a test to make sure it's going to the correct Posterous account.

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Rick Nakama (R) GRI SFR SRES
http://RickNakama.com

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