Rick's BLOG about anything!

Coffee at the Coffee Commissary on Fairfax in Los Angeles

2012-01-05T12:34:00.000-10:00

The last coffee spot that I was able to check out during my few days in Los Angeles is called Coffee Commissary. I was surprised that this coffee shop was actually the closest place to the hotel I was staying at and I didn't actually make it there until after checking out of the hotel on the last morning.

We parked on the street directly in front of Coffee Commissary and paid the meter then saw a sign that said there was free parking in the rear. Oh well, next time. :)

The ambiance here felt energetic even though there weren't that many people going through it, but I think it was mostly because the hip hop-ish beat music is played slightly on the louder side here. If you want to have a quiet conversation, you probably should grab a table on the outdoor patio. This seemed to be a popular spot for people to stop at while they are walking their dogs. It was probably in the most sub-urban type of neighborhood of all the coffee spots that I visited this trip.

We had a couple of pastries for breakfast along with our coffees. I started with the Sightglass Kenya Nyeri AA Washed Process. It is described as "heavily fruited and floral in its fragrance and aroma. Flavors of fresh strawberry and peach with a lemonade-like sweetness". I remember recognizing those flavors as I sipped this delicious coffee. I loved it and was tempted to purchase a bag of it, but since I only saw one bag left on the shelf, I didn't. I wish I did!

I also got a second cup to go, but I can't remember what it was. The second coffee also tasted good, but kind of regular. I didn't notice any flavors that really popped out. It also cost less so it made sense that I felt that way.

I'll probably be visiting this coffee shop again since it's so close to the hotel that I will probably be staying at when I am in Los Angeles. It's probably a reasonable walk since it was only a four minute drive.

Here is my foursquare list of coffee places that I <3: https://foursquare.com/ricknakama/list/coffee-i-3.

Coffee Commissary
801 North Fairfax #106
http://coffeecommissary.com/

http://twitter.com/RickNakama

Picked up Handsome Coffee Roasters coffee at Spring for Coffee, Downtown Los Angeles

2011-12-29T15:44:00.001-10:00

Driving into Downtown L.A.

Another favorite spot that I picked up coffee from while in Los Angeles is this LITTLE coffee bar called Spring for Coffee. They have two locations and I searched for their Los Angeles Street location as we drove through Downtown Los Angeles. Los Angeles is a big city and Spring for Coffee is really tiny sliver among blocks and blocks of businesses. I had to drive around the block twice to figure out exactly where I should stop.

Can your spot them?
Spring for Coffee
in the Academy Awards Building.

I almost gave up thinking that nothing in the area was open (yet). It was about 845AM, but it was December 23rd, a Friday. As we drove around the area, all the shutters of the store fronts were closed. I thought Spring for Coffee must have been behind one of those rolled down shutters and wondered if we should move on with our journey to Torrance. It was a good thing that my co-pilot (not navigator because my Google Navigation was handling that), Kelli, spotted the little chalkboard sign just before we gave up. You might need to look at the full size of the store front photo to find Spring for Coffee. It is probably easier to spot that shoe shining chair which is just to the left of the entrance to the building.

When I first walked in, I was a bit surprised... Spring for Coffee serves amazingly delicious coffee out of a coffee bar tucked in the corner of an elevator/stairway lobby of this building. I did not take any photos of the entire operation (I could have by just stepping back a couple of feet). I will save it for you to see in person when you visit them for coffee! :) Oh and by the way, I asked the barista what time the shops on the street would open up and he said that they would all normally be open by that time so everyone probably decided to close for the holiday weekend.

I was pleased to see that they were serving the Handsome Coffee Roaster coffees here. They had the Don Medardo Honduras that I tried the day before at Paper or Plastik and the Ruthagati AA Kenya. I tried the Ruthagati AA Kenya and loved it. Their description of the coffee is "Passion Fruit, Nectarines, Juicy Goodness" and that it was! Juicy Goodness! Strangely, I am not much of a passion fruit or nectarine lover, but this coffee was delicious. I was practically finished with my cup before getting back to the car and was tempted to buy a second cup. Instead, I bought two 12 ounce bags of Handsome Coffee Roasters coffee.

I purchased a bag of the Don Medardo Honduras and a bag of the Ruthagati AA Kenya to bring back to Honolulu. I wish I remembered to take pictures of the bags of coffee! I brought the bags over to Beach Bum Cafe and left them there for some friends to try out when they stop in to enjoy Hawaiian Coffee. I also left the barista at Spring for Coffee a little bag of Aloha Farms Kona Maragogype beans that I brought to LA with me from Beach Bum Cafe. I hope he liked it. I wonder what he thought of it. Hmmmmm???

When I brought the bags of coffee over to Beach Bum Cafe, I did take one photo of the Don Medardo Honduras. You can see the variety of beans in the coffee. Looks like there are some peaberry coffee beans in there too. Doesn't the bag look "handsome"? I also thought it was cool that each of their coffees had a Twitter handle to follow. This bag says, "Follow @HCR_DonMedardo" and the Kenya coffee says, "Follow @HCR_Ruthagati". Being the tweeter that I am, I followed their suggestion and followed both of those and a whole bunch of others that I found. Now I just need to find the actual coffees!

This might be a good time to mention that I created a foursquare list of coffee places that I <3. Of course Spring for Coffee made it on that list! Here is the link: https://foursquare.com/ricknakama/list/coffee-i-3

Spring for Coffee @ 817 South Los Angeles Street | SpringForCoffee.com

http://www.handsomecoffee.com/

http://twitter.com/RickNakama

Coffee at Paper or Plastik on Pico Boulevard.

2011-12-28T10:22:00.002-10:00

Another coffee spot that we were able to experience while in Los Angeles was Paper or Plastik on West Pico Boulevard. This cafe is known for being an artistic place as well as serving delicious coffee. I really enjoyed the atmosphere here because it was in a sort of light industrial area, surrounded by automotive repair shops and those types of businesses. If you don't know, the automotive performance industry is a significant part of my past (and hopefully future... it's just not so much in my present).

Here is one of the custom
metal work tables. Also notice
The custom pipe barrier to designate
their outdoor seating area. :)

The cafe fit in nicely with a lot of industrial decor. They had custom tables that were crafted from metals and each table had a different design. It was very cool to just sit, enjoy coffee and look at the unique characteristics of each table. By the way, certain tables were designated "no laptops computers".

We sat window side, in one of those laptop free tables, but we did use our phones while we were seated there. I assume that was acceptable. I hope we weren't offending anyone.

While this cafe is known for serving Intelligentsia coffee, I opted to try the Handsome Coffee Roasters Don Medardo Honduras because this was one that I was hoping to try. I spotted this coffee while enjoying a cup of Intelligentsia at Tiago. Tiago wasn't brewing it yet so I couldn't try it there.

Handsome Coffee Roasters
Don Medardo Honduras

I was very happy drinking this Honduras coffee! I immediately tasted nuttiness and citrus when I had my first sip. A little later, I went up to take a photo of the coffee selections and saw that the coffee was described as having a "citrus pop with a nutty but sweet aftertaste". A perfect description for this delicious coffee! I enjoyed this coffee so much that I purchased a bag of it (at one of my next coffee spots that I will write about later).

If I lived in this area, I can imagine I'd be here everyday to enjoy a morning cup of coffee. I would probably be sitting at a table that is laptop friendly. I'm sure I'd find a lot of people around the neighborhood to chat with because of all the automotive shops in the area. I'll visit this cafe when I am in Los Angeles again.

Paper or Plastik
5722 W. Pico Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90019

Follow Handsome Coffee Roasters Don Medardo @HCR_DonMedardo

http://twitter.com/RickNakama

Tiago Coffee Bar & Kitchen on Hollywood Blvd.

2011-12-27T14:12:00.004-10:00

I was in Los Angeles last week for an appointment that was just one morning of the week. I took advantage of the extra days by enjoying some delicious coffees in some of the finest cafés in or on the way to the areas that I happened to be headed.

The first morning we were there, I chose to stop at Tiago Coffee Bar and Kitchen located at 7080 Hollywood Boulevard. They are located on a corner just a few minutes drive away from Universal Studios Hollywood. There's some validated parking in the building, but I just parked across the street and paid the meter instead o trying to figure out where the parking entrance is.

I had the Ethiopia Yirgacheffe coffee by Intelligentsia. It was very good! It is described "sweet coriander, lemongrass, honey and floral". I should've taken notes as I was drinking so I could recall what I tasted, but I didn't. I'm sure it was as they describe. I know it was bright and delicious!

We also shared a breakfast platter of hotcakes, bacon and eggs. This is a great spot to visit if you want an actual meal because it has a full kitchen type menu and excellent coffee! They also serve Handsome Coffee Roasters coffee, but they weren't serving any of that morning so I did not try it there.

I'm sure I'll check this café out again for breakfast and coffee in Hollywood.

Tiago Coffee Bar and Kitchen
7080 Hollywood Boulevard
http://www.tiagocoffee.com/

HTTP://twitter.com/RickNakama

Posted by mobile phone.

Shangri La, Doris Duke Foundation for Islamic Art... the tour.

2011-12-15T14:16:00.000-10:00

I won a lottery to visit the Shangri-La / Doris Duke Museum for free. The excursion was for four and it was last week Wednesday. Kelli and I went along with a couple of friends/Realtors from my office.

I have always wondered how the Shangri-La was because it was Doris Duke's residence that she left to the museum to share Islamic and other pieces of art and design that she picked up from her world travels. Photography is not allowed indoors so here are a few photos that I took in the areas that were permitted.

You board the shuttle at the Honolulu Academy of Arts.

The Diamond Head View from the lawn.

Another view of the water feature & the view.

Path to the tennis courts.

The front door.

3 Combo Lunch Special from Da Ala Cart

2011-11-15T12:23:00.003-10:00

After errands in downtown, I went in search of lunch since I already had parking. As I was walking down Punchbowl Street, I stumbled across Da Ala Cart (HTTP://twitter.com/DaAlaCart/) just outside the Hawaii State Capitol. Since I've heard so many positive comments about the food served out of this truck, but have not been able to make my way to it to try it, I took advantage of the opportunity.

I had the $7 "grab n go" combo. It included a tsukune (ground chicken skewer, asparagus skewer and a musubi (Japanese rice ball). It was a perfect combination. The tsukune was soft, moist and seasoned with a sweet shoyu (soy) sauce. The asparagus had a thin bacon wrapping with a citrus and white pepper seasoning that I really enjoyed. (I love pepper.) The musubi balanced out the lunch with it's light crisp from the grill and it had a shoyu okaka like filling.

I will be searching for Da Ala Cart again! In fact, if I had more than $3 cash left on me, I would've went back and bought more to bring to my friends at Beach Bum Cafe! Too bad they don't accept credit card payments.

Sent by mobile.
Rick Nakama (R)

Hawaiian Micro Brew Coffee Spot - Beach Bum Cafe

2011-10-29T15:33:00.001-10:00

Andrew and Dennis
Beach Bum Cafe

I haven't blogged about Beach Bum Cafe in several months. I know I've tweeted and facebooked photos many times since my 1st blog about them back in February 2011, but those are a little difficult to search or compile so I thought I'd write another blog to help and do just that.

If you are a true coffee lover, you must have Hawaiian coffee at Beach Bum Cafe if you are in Oahu. I will admit that their location, in the middle of Hawaii's business district, is inconvenient even for most of us that live here, but that doesn't keep me away. If you need parking, I suggest parking at the Iolani Palace lot and paying the meter for a couple of hours of parking. I believe that parking there is the most affordable and it is only a couple of blocks (5-10 minutes walk) away. In fact, if you are a tourist, I suggest planning to go on the Iolani Palace tour and walking over for coffee after purchasing your ticket for the tour that begins later in the day. Don't forget to feed the meter if it's running out of time. The maximum you can pay at once is 4 hours.

Rusty's Red Caturra
Natural Process
Pour-over Sock Pot

You can also visit the Hawaii State Art Museum located in the middle of the walk from Iolani Palace to Beach Bum Cafe. The King Kamehameha statue is also located across the street from the Iolani Palace. Including Beach Bum Cafe in your plans to tour this area would be ideal for coffee lovers and people looking to purchase the best quality Hawaiian coffee beans as gifts. Believe me, this is not the stuff labeled, "100% Kona Coffee", that you can buy in department stores or is being served at your $500 a night hotel with your $35 breakfast buffet. I can barely drink that stuff when it's served free.

Anyway, on to the true topic of today's experience...

Affogato treat!

This morning's experience is not the normal experience that you should expect at Beach Bum Cafe, but I felt like sharing it on my blog. Beach Bum Cafe only serves the best quality Hawaiian coffees. In addition to having my cup of Rusty's Farm Yellow Caturra, we were able to experience Andrew's (@MAndrew808) personal roasts of a single harvest, El Salvador grown bean that was processed 3 ways; wet, pulp-natural and dry [Sweet Maria's Glossary]. It is always amazing how the cupped coffee flavors vary so much just by the different processing and roasting techniques. The consensus of the group that was there sampling this morning seemed to prefer the wet process then the dry followed by the pulp-natural. This coffee had a fruity or wine like flavor to it and that was most noticeable in the dry process. The wet processed batch probably had the best balance of flavors to most of us while the pulp-natural seemed to lack the kick of any significant flavors. Dennis, the owner of Beach Bum Cafe, sometimes does these special tastings for us as a Saturday treat and we love treats! =) Speaking of treats, Dennis finished up with a surprise affogato made with Tahitian Vanilla ice cream and his special Beach Bum Cafe espresso blend! 8) 8) 8)

The 3 different processes brewing.

The 3 processes ready to sample.

All samples gone!

Our Rusty's Kau Yellow Caturra
French Press
I think my preferred method of brewing for this coffee is the vacuum pot.

If you enjoy coffee, I hope you get to visit Beach Bum Cafe. Below are some links to my and other friends' past photos or blogs about Beach Bum Cafe.

My February blog: http://nakama-m-photos.blogspot.com/2011/02/micro-brew-coffee-shop-beach-bum-cafe.html?m=1

My picplz photos: http://picplz.com/search/pics/?q=@beachbumcafe&page=1

@S4xton's photo blog: http://s4xton.com/scenes-from-a-coffee-tasting-at-beach-bum-caf

Vacuum Pot is my
favorite brewing method.

@HNLmark's Twitter Stream

@Konaish's Twitter Stream

@BeachBumCafe

1088 Bishop Street

Honolulu, Hawaii 96813

(808)521-6699

The Good Table at Ola Restaurant at Turtle Bay. A Fundraiser for Lanakila Pacific Meals on Wheels.

2011-10-07T13:51:00.001-10:00

October 6th at 6pm, 2011, the annual Lanakila Pacific fundraiser dinner for Meals on Wheels took place. The event is called The Good Table and it takes place at about 50 different restaurants around Oahu at the same time. The Chefs at each restaurant prepares a special menu for the guests of The Good Table making this a very special dinner for everyone. The goal of this annual event is to raise funds that will be used to supply thousands of meals to seniors (Kupuna) throughout Oahu and spread awareness by way of the social dinner and the use of social media by the diners. Read more details about Lanakila Pacific Meals on Wheels and The Good Table at their website: http://lanakilapacific.org/.

I am a Lanakila Pacific volunteer and I deliver a Meals on Wheels route on Monday mornings in the Nuuanu/Downtown area. I was lucky to receive The Good Table at Ola Restaurant in the Turtle Bay Resort and I invited a few friends of mine that would be able to help Lanakila Pacific spread the word about Meals on Wheels over social media.

Chef Fred DeAngelo, the chef at Ola, prepared a special four course sampler menu and dessert with wine pairings for this The Good Table dinner. Here is a group shot of us [flickr]. Chef Fred was definitely cool, as documented by @RickyLi99's Tweet.

1st Course [Photo]- Butter Poached Lobster & Caviar, Spicy Scallop & Ahi Poke, Alaskan Snow Crab Claw w/ Lilikoi Butter. Paired w/ Lunetta Prosecco.

2nd Course [Photo]- Big Island Hearts of Palm Salad w/ Pupukea Field Greens, Grapefruit, Watercress & Calamansi Vinaigrette, Grilled Hamakua Mushroom Salad in Parmesan Crisp w/ Blue Cheese & Toasted Walnuts, Oven-Dried Hau'ula Tomato & Fresh Mozzarella in Basil Oil. Paired w/ Ferrari Carano Fume Blanc.

3rd Course [Photo]- Misoyaki Butterfish w/ Wilted Baby Bok Choy & Kabayaki Butter, Chef's Signature Togarashi Glazed Salmon w/ Okinawan Sweet Potato Puree, Ginger Crusted Lehi w/ Lomo Tomato Relish. Paired w/ Pacific Rim Dry Riesling by Bonny Doon.

4th Course [Photo]- Grilled Australian Lamb Chop Gremolata, Manoa Honey Glazed New York Strip, Five Spiced Braised Beef Short Rib w/ Kahuku Corn Relish and Natural Jus. Paired w/ Simi Cabernet Sauvignon.

Dessert Course [Photo]- Tahitian Vanilla Scented Creme Brulee, Lilikoi Cheesecake, Rasberry Sorbet. Paired w/ Dow's 20 year old Tawny Port.

We (included other The Good Table diners) took a whole bunch of photos and most of them can be found here http://www.flickr.com/photos/thegoodtable/page3/.

@StarletShay has a YouTube video up. Check it out, it has each of us introducing ourselves during the dinner and lots of great scenes of our The Good Table. http://youtu.be/fyHVKMkWqQY

@RickyLi99 managed to capture a lot of great photos of our dinner despite him finishing up the bottle(s) of wine our courses were paired with. Many of those linked photos are taken by him.

I think we all enjoyed our The Good Table dinner. It was fun night at Ola with @KelliNakama, @WorldWideEd, @RickyLi99, @StarletShay & @MegsDriveIn's Jess.

Some of our other friends were enjoying their The Good Table on the other side of the island at Kai. You can read about their dinner at the Nonstop Honolulu blog: "Peek at The Good Table".

If you are curious about volunteering for Lanakila Pacific Meals on Wheels, drop me a comment, email, tweet or whatever. :)

By the way, all these photos about The Good Table had another purpose too. Aside from spreading the word about The Good Table during the dinner, there is also a photo contest. The winning photo will be the photo with the most Facebook "Likes" at the end of the contest, October 14, 2011. Check out the photos and like some.... Hopefully you "like" the ones with Ola and us in it! :) https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150865459645077.749454.138499950076&type=1

Hoki Poki Hand Picked 100% Estate Kona Coffee at the Made in Hawaii Festival

2011-08-21T11:22:00.001-10:00

Today is the last day of the Made in Hawaii Festival. The festival is at the Neal S Blaisdell Center over the weekend of August 19 through Sunday, August 22, 2011 until 5pm. Admission is $4 and parking could be a challenge because the Made in Hawaii Festival attracts more than 35,000 visitors, but yesterday I parked in the $1 lot a block away on Young Street.

While I was at the festival yesterday, I stopped at the Hoki Poki Hand Picked 100% Estate Kona Coffee booth to meet Suzy. Suzy is the owner of the business that sells 100% Kona Coffee from her uncle's farms, Murasaki Farms. I don't have any photos of the booth, but Suzy had a nice presentation of the family coffee farm in a traditional photo album. I learned as much as I could about Murasaki Farms and the Hoki Poki Kona Coffee as I could in 2 minutes. It was quite a bit considering the crowd of people surrounding the booth attempting to get a sample cup and take a peak at the creative art on a special line of their new packaging. I didn't get a photo of Suzy, but @HNLmark did. [@HNLmark is a fellow coffee enthusiast from Seattle that joins us on our Saturday Twitter #CoffeeCrew Tweetups at Beach Bum Cafe.]

A few bullet points that I am able to remember from the 2 minute presentation are listed below:

Hoki Poki is 100% Kona Arabica Coffee.
Single Sourced from the family's farm in Kona, Murasaki Farms.
The Murasaki Farms has over a 100 years of experience over 3 generations.
The Hoki Poki branded Kona coffee is a blend of the top 3 grades of Murasaki Farms harvest (there is a percentage of Kona Peaberry in it).
Hoki Poki recently created an artistic packaging line featuring the creative art by Jenny Lee, Brand Marketing and Creative Director of Hoki Poki 100% Kona Cofffee.

On to the Kona coffee I brought home...

They had 4 ounce bags of their coffee for sale for $8 (if I remember correctly). I brought one home to try it. To my surprise, when I woke up this morning and headed into the kitchen to make my cup of 100% Kona coffee, I realized the bag I had was pre-ground! This was a slight problem because I have a full-auto espresso machine so I need whole beans to use the machine. I was forced to do a pour over, a bit challenging to do when I just wake up (I prefer to press a button on my espresso machine and have some coffee to drink in a couple of minutes).

So anyway, I searched my cabinet for my trusty $1 store pour over brewer and a paper filter. I added 2 tablespoons of the 100% ground Kona coffee and measured out 12 ounces of filtered, boiling water and set off to watch my coffee brew for the next few minutes.

The grind looks a bit coarse.

I moistened the grounds with about an ounce of hot water and let is rest for about a minute.

Slowly pouring over an ounce or so at a time, watching the coffee oils emerge, anxiously waiting to drink some Hoki Poki... I was ready to turn myself about!

Finally, a 12 ounce cup of 100% Hoki Poki Kona Coffee... That's what it's all about!

Hoki Poki Kona Coffee
hokipokikonacoffee@gmail.com

Here is the back of the package. It has their "motto" hand / heart.
It reads...

quote...

Hoki Poki Kona Coffee is proud to feature Jenny Lee's whimsical portrayals of a coffee farm for its new creative collection.

Our hand | heart collection offers a lovely eco-friendly package on the outside, while providing the highest quality on hundred percent Kona Coffee on the inside. As always, Hoki Poki Kona Coffee only uses beans grown, hand picked, and drived on the Murasaki Farm where for 3 generations they have been using traditional methods of Old Hawaii, honoring their family heritage with every harvest.

We bring the farm to your coffee cup

end quote...

Then it goes on to their process and serving instructions. Their mission is "to make coffee that tastes good, makes people feel good and does good for the environment." You can click the photo to enlarge it to read everything on it.

Here is a closer view of Jenny Lee's art on their creative collection.
Doesn't it just make you want to drink a cup of 100% Kona Coffee?

There were other designs, but the Made in Hawaii Festival was so busy that they only had this design left. Also part of the creative collection are smaller "favor" size bags labeled with the art or their other metallic purple bag to honor the Murasaki Family. Murasaki in Japanese translates to purple. The favor size bags would make great wedding favors or souvenir gifts if your budget is lower.

The 4 ounce package of ground coffee that I have should be able to make four 12 ounce cups of 100% Hoki Poki Kona Coffee. That is about $2 a cup. Not a bad price for 100% Kona Coffee. As for the flavor of this cup, it started with a very strong roasty flavor. The package says "medium roast", but the flavor seemed a bit darker than I expected. As the cup cooled, the coffee had a much smoother finish. It was a good cup of coffee, but I tend to prefer the more fruity or nutty Hawaiian coffees, which are also a lot more expensive.

If you have time this afternoon (and you actually read this in time), stop by the Made in Hawaii Festival. They close at 5pm. When you're there, be sure to visit Suzy at the Hoki Poki Hand Picked 100% Estate Kona Coffee booth. Try a sample and "like" their Facebook Fan Page if you like their coffee!

If you can't make it this afternoon, their Facebook Fan Page says they are at the Waikiki Farmer's Market every Saturday afternoon. **Edit** Click the link to their Facebook Page to see their farmer's market schedule.

Now it's time I brew another cup and head off to open houses and a birthday party later tonight. I'm a little sad I will miss the 4th Yoga in the Park this afternoon, but if you're interested check it out! Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

Yoga in the Park with Keith Sato #YogaHi

2011-08-12T10:55:00.000-10:00

On Sunday, July 31, 2011, @Keith_Sato officially started "Yoga in the Park" on Sunday afternoon. The group meets at 530pm in a little grassy park between Waikiki School and Kapiolani Park. Most of us that meet, know each other from Twitter, but you do not need to be on Twitter to participate in Yoga in the Park.

View Directions to Yoga in the Park from Kapahulu Avenue 21.268725, -157.815428 in a larger map

That map sort of shows the location of the park. It is the rectangular grassy park with several trees in the middle of it. There is usually a lot of free street parking on both sides of the park and because it's a small park, it's easy to keep an eye out on your car while we're all just several yards away.

Yoga in the Park is guided by Keith Sato. The bunch of us that have attended the 1st couple of sessions are mostly beginners, but there are several that do practice yoga regularly. It's a perfect balance for us beginners and those that have more experience. My experience only came from doing yoga with my Wii Fit. The routine is very similar, but the difference is Keith is there to actually make sure your form is proper. The Wii Fit doesn't really do that part very well.

Here are some photos from Yoga in the Park.

Here are some photos by @RickyLi99: Keith Sato's Yoga in the Park.
Here are some photos by @PhotoluluTV: YOGA TWEETUP AT THE PARK.
The official hashtag that Keith's Yoga in the Park group uses is #YogaHI. If you want to keep track of tweets that may be coming from Yoga in the Park.
@Capsun is part of the group. He created a YogaHI Twitter List. This list has most of the people who have attended so far. Tweet him if you are missing from the list.

Yoga in the Park by Keith Sato is currently planned to take place every Sunday from 530p to 645p in the same park. There is a requested donation of $5 that Keith will use to provide additional equipment for the group.

Hope to see you there!

The Art of Hawaiian Coffee at Waikiki DFS Galleria

2011-08-12T08:29:00.001-10:00

The first Art of Hawaiian Coffee event at the Waikiki DFS Galleria started on August 9th. The event runs through August 16th with complimentary tastings of Hawaiian coffees between 7p-10p. During this week long event, the mall also features all sorts of coffee related art displayed through out the lower level.

I checked out the first night because that is when they had the latte art contest. It began at 8pm with a few demos by Pete Licata then proceeded to the finalists competing. I took a few videos of Pete doing the demonstrations and explaining to the audience how they would be judging the latte art. By the way, Pete is the 2011 US Barista Champion and the Runner Up in the World Barista Championships.

In this first video, Pete started with the "easiest" common design for latte art, the heart.

He progressively demonstrated the designs that require more skill. This video is the rosetta.

After the rosetta, he demonstrated the tulip.

The final level of difficulty that he demonstrated was the multiple rosetta. In this video he went for three.

I know those weren't the best videos, but oh well. I was there in person to enjoy the demonstration and just thought having video to share might be cool so I shot it with my phone.

If you get to check out The Art of Hawaiian Coffee, be sure to sample some of Rusty's Red Bourbon. I had a cup of this when Beach Bum Cafe had a secret stash of it. This is an award winning batch of coffee and when I saw the Rusty's Coffee booth sampling the Red Bourbon, I had to get a sample cup. Yum!

Of course, you'll also get to check out some of the art on display and read about coffee at all the displays. I think some of the displays change daily. The latte art photos are from the competitors of the contest.

I met up with Melissa Chang, blogger with NONSTOP Honolulu, there. She wrote about the experience here: The art of Hawaiian coffee. She also has more photos of the coffee tasting booths and the art that is on display.

We also met up with @S4xton that night. He also took a few photos and those can be found here: Shots from the Art of Hawaiian Coffee event & Latte Art Contest at DFS Galleria Waikiki.

I hope to get back to The Art of Hawaiian Coffee this weekend so that I can taste the Greenwell Farms coffee. When we were there, there was nobody at that booth and that was a recommended coffee to sample. At least I got another few sips of the Rusty's Red Bourbon. :)

After all this coffee talk, I am definitely going to walk over to Beach Bum Cafe for a delicious cup of micro-brewed Hawaiian coffee after I get out of here this morning.

Went for a ride in a Tesla!

2011-08-10T16:04:00.000-10:00

A couple days ago, @S4xton drove me around the block in a Tesla that he had. This was my first experience in a fully electric street vehicle and it just so happened to be a Tesla. How will I ever be satisfied when I finally decide to get a Nissan Leaf? Hehehe.

Anyway, the torque was nice. I was a little weird-ed out by the silent acceleration that this vehicle is capable of. While I may be used to feeling the type of power and acceleration that this car offer (it's been a while since I've been planted back in my seat while someone drove me around the block) it was sort of scary not hearing the roar of 400 horsepower blowing out of an 80mm exhaust pipe. I guess I was concerned the other cars wouldn't hear us coming.

It was a great ride and I enjoyed it. Even considering the majority of the time we were sitting in bumper to bumper traffic in the hot sun.

Here is a little video that I took. It's not much, but it's what I got.

A few other friends also got to ride in the Tesla.

Here is a video that @RickyLi99 put together and posted. http://www.vimeo.com/27481184

Here is a blog post about @TokiDote's experience in the green machine! http://briandote.com/2011/08/09/bolt-of-lightning

Here is a youtube video of @Melissa808 screaming during her ride with @S4xton.

Finger Sweets Petit Custa Ginza ギンザ　プテイカスタ　in Shirokiya

2011-08-05T18:19:00.002-10:00

We happened to walk into Shirokiya and stumbled upon an amazing aroma. In the area that used to be book-off, was a Petit Custa Ginza shop set up. They make these mini donut like "finger sweets".

Here is their website http://www.petit-custa.com/shop/shop.html/.

I really like the Caramel Crunch and Cream Cheese flavors. I don't care much for the fruity filled ones.

They are only here until August 6th so check it out quickly, like by tomorrow!!!

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Rosemary cuttings for Granny.

2011-08-03T18:32:00.001-10:00

Kelli's Granny wanted some rosemary plants a few weeks ago. We told her not to buy any because I have bushes of rosemary and discovered recently that if I cut a branch and put it in water, it very easily grows roots.

About 3 weeks ago I cut these branches. They were about 7 inches long. I cleaned off about 2 inches at the bottom, removing any pines or little branches and put them in about a half inch if water.

This is how the roots look today. I've planted them in little pots with a mixture of some potting bark and vermicast from my worm bin.

I hope these bushes grow big and Granny makes a nice rosemary roast pork for dinner! :)

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Whew what a day. Had to fix my roof!

2011-07-08T17:40:00.001-10:00

A panel from my roof flew away yesterday.

I had to fix it up and make it all good today. Boy was it hot up on the roof today!

I'm starved! I didn't get to eat lunch so I'm eating now.

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This special lemonade @EdsTown during the #Foodography shoot was delicious!

2011-06-13T15:18:00.003-10:00

On Saturday, I received an invite from @TrulyJoannies to drop by Town Restaurant, in Kaimuki. The TV series Food(ography) was set up in the restaurant to feature @EdsTown in an upcoming episode that would be showcasing a few of Hawaii's unique restaurants. We dropped by to be background diners in the restaurant for the Food(ography) episode.
@TrulyJoannies, Twitterless Jenna and I were seated at a table where we were to try to eat the delicious plates of food slowly. It took a lot of restraint to not eat everything in sight as soon as it was placed on our table. We needed to eat slow enough for the camera crew to capture enough usable footage of us enjoying the delicious Town Restaurant food.
Here is a Twitpic photo of the scene that @NathanKam took of us. seated at the table waiting to eat.

It was nice to be able to eat the delicious food that @EdsTown will be explaining in this Food(ography) episode and the Lemonade was amazing! Be sure to watch this episode to learn why Town Restaurant is unique.

Thanks Town Restaurant, Food(ography), @NathanKam, @EdsTown and @TrulyJoannies!

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Another Saturday coffee experience @BeachBumCafe

2011-06-01T16:21:00.002-10:00

I was just noticing that I failed to post anything on my blog during the entire month of May! How could that happen? I know why it's happened. It's because of Facebook & Twitter. The instantaneous posting of photos and what I'm doing to my Facebook Profile and my Twitter Stream have caused me to lose focus on my blog!
I decided to see what I could come up with in the last 10 minutes that I sit in this cafe (umm not the one I'm posting about). I looked in my recent photos and found a bunch from Saturday's coffee hour at Beach Bum Cafe. So here it goes...
Saturday, @Konaish, @KelliNakama, @Knyghtingale and Twitterless daughter of @Konaish met up at at Beach Bum Cafe for coffee. It's always a fun group when we meet there on Saturdays!
We we shown a Maragogype coffee bean (largest in the world) and a Kona Typica (I think that's what it is... the smallest bean in the world). I took a picture and it's in this bunch.
That's all I have time for now. I gotta go.
I have posted about Beach Bum Cafe in the past. Here is the post about Beach Bum Cafe.
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Marukane Udon

2011-04-22T16:18:00.001-10:00

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Palace Saimin 1256 N King St

2011-04-14T20:03:00.001-10:00

We just had some saimin and won ton min at Palace Saimin. They normally don't open for dinner until 8p and close at 11p. Luckily, we were able to get our large group in before normal business hours.

Pictured are a small won ton min ($4.25), barbecue stick ($2.25) and a large won ton min ($5.25). I had the large won ton min and I'm stuffed!

Palace Saimin
1256 N King Street
Honolulu, Hawaii 96817
(808)841-9983

Tuesday - Thursday 11a-3p & 8p-11p.

Friday & Saturday 11a-11p.

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Leftover Big Ramen from Big City Diner makeover for breakfast. #NextCheapDinnerTweetup

2011-03-27T12:23:00.001-10:00

Recently, I have been "tweeting up" or meeting other Twitter friends over some meals. These friends happen to be @ParkRat, @Mel808, @FunHiGuy and @AlohaGadgetGal. a href="twitter.com/Mel808">@Mel808 started a Twitter hashtag called #NextCheapDinnerTweetup. At this time, you can only see @LinhChic's and my Tweets in the search because @Mel808 has a private account so her tweets don't appear in the search results. Anyway, what is #NextCheapDinnerTweetup all about? It just happened to start because we all have these coupon books that were purchased during the Christmas Season from Taco Bell / Pizza Hut for $5. These coupon books have $20 worth of coupons in them that are all for a certain menu item. It's not a coupon like $1 off or "buy one get one free", these are straight forward like, "1 crunch taco" or "1 single topping personal pan pizza" so they are good coupons, but you can only use one per customer per visit. That is what makes them slightly difficult to use up. Due to that requirement, we all still have a bunch of coupons that need to be used by the end of March.

Last night, @Mel808 intended to use one of her $30 credits at Spaghetti Factory because it was going to expire soon. @ParkRat, @Mel808, @MarkTRC, @KelliNakama and I (@RickNakama) met at Spaghetti Factory, but the 1 hour wait was too long. We ended up relocating the dinner to Asahi Grill, but this left us still wanting more.

@ParkRat has been talking about this Big City Diner (@BigCityDiner) "Big Ramen" for several months and I have been curious to try it. The catch is the "Big Ramen" is only available during lunch or after 10pm on Friday and Saturday nights. I don't really get to Big City Diner for lunch and I'm usually sleeping before 10pm so I have never seen this "Big Ramen" in real life... That is until last night.

@ParkRat, @Mel808, @RSuenaga, @KelliNakama and I met at Big City Diner after leaving Asahi Grill for "post dinner". At first, I wasn't intending on ordering the "Big Ramen", but I felt I should since I was there specifically to check it out. I knew I wouldn't be able to eat the whole thing because @KelliNakama and I wanted a "Big Oreo Sundae" for dessert! I ate about a quarter of the ramen and asked for a bowl so I could take the leftovers home. This surpised @ParkRat, @Mel808 and @RSuenaga. They all thought having this ramen as leftovers for breakfast was not an appetizing thought. I insisted that it would be ok. To further escalate their disgust, the ramen was packed in one bowl with the noodles soaking in the soup. Since they were all against the idea of me having this ramen as a leftover breakfast, I said I would show them a photo of my leftover breakfast dish made from the "Big Ramen".

And here are the photos...

The "Big Ramen" as originally served.

The "Big Oreo Sundae".

Added more vegetables just to add to @ParkRat's disgust.

Draining the ramen from its soup.

Stir-frying the vegetables with some sesame seeds, seasonings, vegetables and the leftover ramen.

The Final Product - "Big Ramen" as breakfast leftovers!

I think it tasted just fine as a leftovers breakfast.

We have just a few more days to use up all those coupons that expire on March 31, 2011! Where and when will the #NextCheapDinnerTweetup be? We can have a potluck at @Parkrat's Table again. See you there! :)

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Lunch at Inaba Restaurant

2011-03-04T15:45:00.001-10:00

I met up with @WeHeartHawaii, @Yumi1001 and @NaniGurl for a lunch at Inaba (or I-naba) Restaurant. It is located in the spot that the original Dai-ryu used to be. Prior to this lunch, I have only been to Inaba once, several years back, just after they opened. In fact, they didn't even have a sign displayed at that time. Since I haven't been there since then and @WeHeartHawaii invited me to join the lunch, I did.

I had the Ume Gonomi Soba. It is a cold soba noodle dish in a refreshing and light broth garnished with ume (Japanese pickled plum) and finely chopped shiso (perilla leaf). It enjoyed it and would love to have it again.

They also these little information cards about soba. It explained what soba was made with and how it was healthy for you. On the opposite side of this card was even more information about the health benefits that soba provides.

It was great having lunch with @WeHeartHawaii and nice to meet his friends @Yumi1001 and @NaniGurl in real life.

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Yajima-ya Lunch Truck (@YajimayaHawaii)

2011-03-01T11:13:00.001-10:00

I got an email from @WorldWideEd yesterday asking if he was able to use at photo I took at @YajimayaHawaii several weeks ago. The photo he wanted to use can be found here, in my blog post about Yajima-ya last month. As you can see, it's not the greatest photo in the world or even in my blog for that matter. Anyway, Ed used it and it is on his latest write up about Yajima-ya. Read his full write up here at AroundHawaii.com.

It was just timely early last night we stopped at Sam's Club to buy some groceries. On the way back to S. King Street, we got tied up in some merging traffic on Sheridan Street. We were stuck right in front of the driveway that leads to the Yajima-ya Truck! After about a minute of waiting in the traffic trying to decide if we would use our Taco Bell coupons or Jack in the Box coupons, we made the call on the fly and turned into Yajima-ya!

I figured, "Hey, maybe I can get Ed a better photo for his write up!??". Hmmm, well obviously, I am too late for that! No way to stop the presses, this guy was too fast!

Last night I had the special, Pork Curry Plate for $7.50. It is seriously just stewed pork in a curry sauce that is typical of a slightly sweet, Japanese curry sauce. No visible vegetables other than the spinach salad it is served with. The rice had some furikake on it too. I would've enjoyed some Japanese pickles to go along with this or some shouga (ginger), but that's ok. It tasted good and the pork was so tender!

It was Kelli's first time at Yajima-ya and she wanted to know what I recommended. Since the only thing I have experience eating there is the Buta Shougayaki Don (gingered pork bowl), that is all I was able to recommend. Of course she enjoyed it. I also think this photo is much better than the one I took at my first visit there.

If you're ever in the area (around Keeaumoku Wal Mart/Sam's Club), stop by Yajima-ya and enjoy their covered seating. I just found out while sitting in that line of merging cars that they are open until 730pm! Perfect for dinner because it's much cooler at sundown. :) They are right across the Cosmo Gas Station driveway on Sheridan Street and can accommodate about 3 cars in the driveway and seat quite a bit of people.

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

2011-02-18T15:43:00.001-10:00

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.

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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Jin Din Rou Taiwanese Dim Sum Restaurant.

2011-02-18T11:40:00.002-10:00

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

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Dinner: Hiroshima Style Okonomiyaki

2011-02-17T19:09:00.001-10:00

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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Ja Gal Chi Korean Restaurant (Honolulu)

2011-02-13T18:33:00.001-10:00

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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Mo's Bacon Chocolate Chip Pancakes - Modified

2011-02-12T11:01:00.001-10:00

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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Micro Brew Coffee Shop Beach Bum Cafe #FB

2011-02-11T17:45:00.006-10:00

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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buta shougayaki don @YajimaYaHawaii w/@WorldwideEd

2011-02-04T15:57:00.001-10:00

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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Fruit & Maple Oatmeal from McDonald's

2011-01-30T10:26:00.001-10:00

I used a coupon this morning to try the new Fruit & Maple Oatmeal from McDonald's. It was crazy in the Palolo McDonald's at about 945am this Sunday morning.

The oatmeal is served in a bowl and appears to have all the fresh fruits already mixed into the oatmeal when I received it. While I love the fresh fruit (mainly apples) in the oatmeal, I think overall it's too sweet for me. Perhaps it's the maple flavor, but the raisins also taste very sweet. It also seems to be more fruit than oatmeal.

After eating my oatmeal, I had my fruit & yogurt parfait. Believe it or not, I think the oatmeal was a little sweeter than the parfait.

I would prefer the oatmeal to be less sweet with more oatmeal. The maple might even be better if left separately so it can be added to taste.

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Chinese New Year #ILoveChinatown Party in Chinatown Honolulu

2011-01-29T21:54:00.001-10:00

We went for a walk through the Chinatown Block Party tonight. I had a black sugar jin dui & a peanutbutter crepe.

When we left at around 9p, the festivities were still going strong. If your in the neighborhood, go check it out!

#End
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Curry Broth Shabu Shabu at Sweet Home Cafe

2011-01-20T20:24:00.001-10:00

A few days ago we were hungry early. Like 430pm early so we went to Sweet Home Cafe for an early dinner because if you go anytime after 530pm, there is usually a line of people waiting. When we got there at 445, there was no need to wait! :)

This is the first time we tried the curry broth. It was spicy and has a slight coconuty flavor. It tastes like a Vietnamese style curry. I really liked the flavor and it goes very well with rice if you don't want to get too much meat or vegetables to shabu shabu with.

We ended up coming home with about 60 ounces of curry broth because they offer to pack it up for you to take home. I am almost certain they added more to it too, but I'm not complaining.

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Kissaten Cafe in Hawaiki Tower #FB

2011-01-08T18:07:00.002-10:00

We stopped for lunch at Kissaten Cafe, a new Japanese coffee bar that opened up recently in the Hawaiki Tower. It's a very cool looking place that's easily accessible from the street as long as you aren't driving. They are on the Northeast corner of the building, visible from the sidewalk.
Kissaten Cafe (HTTP://KissatenCafe.com/) is open 24 hours. I'm very impressed with this. While I admit that I don't spend many nights out past 10pm anymore, I always wished for a 24 hour cafe around town and actually thought I wanted to open one (still do actually). I'm not sure if they have any parking arrangements within the building, but there are metered street stalls right outside their doorstep.
Their website only has their drink menu, but they do serve sandwiches, soups and salads during lunch (the time we visited). They mentioned that they also serve breakfast, but I don't know what is on their breakfast menu.
Since Kissaten Cafe calls itself "kissaten", a Japanese coffee shop, I felt it necessary to sample the quality of their americano even though I've already had one at home and a second at Barnes and Nobles just prior to arriving at Kissaten Cafe. I had a solo americano and it was good. I think they may be using Waialua coffee, but I am not certain. Perhaps it's just a custom blend. The other drinks at our table were a peach iced tea and a strawberry cream soda; both were good.
The lunch selection isn't very vast, but there were enough appetizing sounding items to choose from. We ordered a Pulled Chicken Sandwich (the last order available), a Kissaten Melt sandwich, a Kissaten Salad and a Hamakua Tomato Bisque.
The Pulled Chicken Sandwich was served with a small cup of the Hamakua Tomato Bisque and some dipping sauce. It tasted like a slightly vinegary "adobo" or a barbeque chicken. I was good and I'm certain I'd eat it again.
The Kissaten Melt is a panini type grilled ham and cheese. This was served with a little side of greens. This tasted good and had a nice mustard dressing in the sandwich. Definitely would eat this again.
The Hamakua Tomato Bisque is what I ordered along with the Kissaten House Salad. The bisque exploded with sweet tomato flavors and went very well as a dip for the Kissaten Melt and the roll that was served with it. The salad was nicely seasoned with a house soy dressing. Paper thin slices of asparagus gave this salad an added flair. I'd eat these again, but I would also like to try their Potato Leek Soup on my next visit.
I didn't test the wifi this time but that isn't really a big deal for me since I usually use my own internet connection anyway. The seating appears to be ample with lots of seating for laptop users that don't necessarily want to sit at a regular table. I did not notice any outlets to plug into, but I didn't really look for any.
Depending on how their food menu evolves and what is on it in the late night hours, I could see this cafe becoming a popular spot to lounge and meetup (tweetup) with friends for late night coffee and chit chat. I certainly would've been here nightly if I was still out and about in the middle of the night, but those days are long gone for me (for now). Who knows, I just may change my whole schedule just to take advantage of this 24 hour espresso bar! ;)
@RickNakama

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Le Crepe Cafe in Manoa #FB

2011-01-08T07:56:00.001-10:00

This afternoon we stopped at Le Crepe Cafe in Manoa to pick up a couple of dessert crepes to go along with the Hamakua Mushroom Pizza we picked up for dinner at Fendu Boulangerie.

The inside of Le Crepe Cafe is very nicely decorated to feel like you're in France. While I've never been to France, this is what it makes me feel like. At least it sort of makes me feel like I'm in the Paris Hotel in Las Vegas.

My tweeted photo, "picking up desserts (@ Le Crepe Cafe)" http://picplz.com/Vt89

They were out of strawberries this afternoon so we had them substituted with blueberries in both of our crepes. Kelli chose the "Romeo & Juliet ". It is described as strawberries, bananas & Nutella.
My tweeted photo, "the Romeo & Juliet w/Blueberry instead of Strawberries (@ Le Crepe Cafe)" http://picplz.com/Vt9s

I had the "Honey Lovers", honey, strawberries & bananas.
My tweeted photo, "Honey Lover's w/ Blueberries instead of Strawberries (@ Le Crepe Cafe)" http://picplz.com/Vt96

@RickNakama

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Blue Truck Teppanyaki Juicy Steak Plate #FB

2011-01-06T18:22:00.001-10:00

*Trying to post again because of the annoying Android GMail App failure that keeps dropping my photo attachments!*

This afternoon we stopped to pick up dinner from the Blue Truck Teppanyaki food truck. We usually see this truck parked here in the afternoons, but this was the first time we stopped to buy dinner there.

There isn't a lot to choose from. I think it was just a choice of steak, chicken, hamburger steak or "steak rolls" for main plates. There are also some vegetable side orders that you can order.

We ordered 2 "Juicy Steak Plates" ($7) & a side order of eggplant ($2). The steak was ok. It wasn't the most tender steak that I've ever had, but it wasn't necessarily tough. The steak is served with steamed white rice, grilled round onion, grilled zucchini, corn and some teriyaki sauce in a little dipping cup.

I hear the hamburger steak is the best in the world here so I think I will try it the next visit.

@RickNakama

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Blue Truck Teppanyaki Juicy Steak Plate #FB

2011-01-06T18:15:00.001-10:00

There isn't a lot to choose from. I think it was just a choice of steak, chicken, hamburger steak or "steak rolls" for main plates. There are also some vegetable side orders that you can order.

I hear the hamburger steak is the best in the world here so I think I will try it the next visit.

@RickNakama

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Lunch @ZPizzaHawaii w/ @MarkTRC & @Melissa808

2010-12-16T18:10:00.002-10:00

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Yesterday, after an appointment with Mark, we headed to Z Pizza for lunch. We tweeted up with Melissa there around Noon because @ZPizzaHawaii (http://twitter.com/zpizzahawaii) had tweeted me, enticing me to have pizza there again.
I had the Mediterranean Rustic Pizza. It has roasted artichokes, olives and pili pili oil. I don't know what pili pili oil is because I haven't Googled it yet, but I'm sure I'll know soon enough. I love this pizza because I love artichokes and olives!
Mark ordered the Thai Chicken Pizza and Melissa ordered the Tuscan Pizza. We also had a couple of little samples brought to our table. It's always a bonus to eat at Melissa's table! (http://twitter.com/Melissa808).
Anyway, Mark (http://twitter.com/MarkTRC) is fresh to the blogging world. His first Foodie post is about this Z Pizza experience so I'll let you read the details there- http://theangrychinaman.posterous.com/zpizzahawaii. Go check it out and give him the experience of how it is to maintain a blog! Let's see how good he is at keeping up with the hard work! Hehehe.
Ps- I'm sending this from the new Posterous for Android Application. I don't think I care for it. No save as draft options. It's just a fancy email skin. :P
http://ricknakama.com/

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Lunch @LilihaBakery - Hamburger Steak

2010-12-14T15:16:00.001-10:00

Today I stopped at Liliha Bakery after dropping by the bulk mail center of the post office to help Mark (http://twitter.com/MarkTRC/) and some other Lanakila Pacific (http://LanakilaPacific.org/) volunteers finish up a bulk mailing task.

I brought my friend Craig with me to help out because I was at Kahala Mall where Craig's office is (he's a loan officer at Pacific Access Mortgage). Originally, I planned to just see if he was available for lunch, but Mark asked if I could go help them because he felt like there was another couple of hours of work with just the four of them. Anyway, Craig said he had a couple hours for lunch and he didn't mind helping out so we headed there with bottled water and a requested Cinnabon to help them hold out until a late lunch.

Once Craig and I arrived, there wasn't that much left to complete. With the six of us there the job was done in about 15 minutes.

We then all headed to Liliha Bakery (http://twitter.com/LilihaBakery/) for lunch. We arrived at about 1230p and managed to get seats for the six of us in 2 groups (4 & 2) at the diner counter.

I had a hamburger steak with a butter roll and their famous florescent pink jelly (ok I played with the photo a little).

Here's another photo I tweeted while I was there. http://picplz.com/z1wK

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Our Potted Christmas Tree (@KanuHawaii #SimplifyTheHolidays)

2010-12-07T22:01:00.003-10:00

This year I suggested we get a living potted Christmas tree from Helmano Farms in Wahiawa. It is partly my effort to support http://KanuHawaii.org/ with their "Simplify the Holidays" commitments and the fact that I like trees (see my bonsai posts http://nakama-m-photos.blogspot.com/2007/10/art-of-bonsai-with-master-walter-liew.html#uds-search-results/). I selected several items to commit to and created a profile that can be found here- http://www.kanuhawaii.org/member/?id=1290712931576401/. OK, I haven't really done much to my profile yet, but one of these days I will and I will post a journal in my profile too. It's just taking me a little while because I need to work on it from my computer. I can't just email it in like on Posterous. ;)
Here is our potted Christmas tree. Kelli decorated it and made it all nice!
http://ricknakama.posterous.com/our-potted-christmas-tree-kanuhawaii-simplify
More information about Helemano Farms can be found on their website- http://www.helemanofarms.com/.
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Sunday Breakfast at Cinnamon's w/@NaneaKalani #FB

2010-12-07T20:43:00.001-10:00

This past Sunday we met up with @NaneaKalani and her family in Kailua's popular Cinnamon's Restaurant. I checked in with the hostess at about 825a and was asked if we'd prefer indoor or out. I wasn't familiar with the restaurant because this was my first time there so I asked what she recommended. She recommended I be on the list for either. This is probably to avoid the long waits that I have heard about, but I barely waited 5 minutes for a table outside in the courtyard area.

While we waited for our table, I was offered self-service coffee from a coffee station set up next to rows of seats that the people waiting for tables can sit on. I thought this was a nice touch although I am not sure if it's complimentary or added on to your bill if you start drinking while waiting. I didn't try the coffee from this station, but I did have coffee at the table which was described as 50% Kona Blended coffee. If the same coffee is used in the coffee station, I'm sure it's not free because it's $2 something a cup on the menu.

For breakfast I had the Portuguese Sweet Bread French Toast with Ham and 1 Over Easy Egg. The French Toast was light with a crisp outer layer. The ham was very tender I barely needed to use the knife to slice it. My over easy egg was a little more than over easy; probably more like plain over, but it was ok. I found I had to use a lot of syrup. I don't know what kind of syrup it was, but it seemed watery and lacking sweetness. And, I'm usually not one that prefers sweet things.

I also took some photos of everyone else's food, but I didn't try them all. The other dishes are Half Order Traditional Eggs Benedict, Blueberry Pancakes and a giant omelet!

Cinnamon's Restaurant is found on the web at http://www.cinnamonsrestaurant.com/.

Thanks for the breakfast treat Nanea!

PS- if you enjoy keeping up with news discussions, follow http://twitter.com/NaneaKalani. She is a reporter for http://www.civilbeat.com/ (http://twitter.com/civilbeat/).

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Flat Bread Lunch at Mix Cafe on Alakea w/@PrincessTara459 #FB

2010-12-07T15:24:00.001-10:00

I headed into downtown for lunch today because I needed to get an address change form into the DCCA (licensing office). Since I was going to have to be in the downtown craziness, I decided to have lunch with a downtown friend, @PrincessTara459.

I parked my car at Iolani Palace for $1 an hour paid by quarters into a parking meter. This is a photo I tweeted at the beautiful Iolani Palace - @RickNakama: just posted a pic: (@ Iolani Palace) http://picplz.com/z0CM/.

Anyway, @PrincessTara459 took me to eat at one of her favorite downtown spots, Mix Cafe. We got there a little later in the lunch hour (about 1245p) so the selections were slim. There was a choice of a portobello sandwich, chicken sandwich or the flat bread with pesto tomatoes and mozzarella cheese. We both had the flat bread.

The flat bread is toasted on a hot stone oven. It's nicely browned in a couple of minutes and served with cool mixed greens and a balsamic vinegar and olive oil dressing. Very delicious and not overwhelmingly filling; perfect for lunch!

Here is there website. http://mymixcafe.com/

When I walked back to my car I still had about 40 minutes left in my meter so I decided to take a look at the Honolulu City Lights Christmas display. If course this was in the early afternoon so the sun is brightly shining and I can't see the lights, but it's still interesting. Here's the photo I tweeted- RT @RickNakama: since I'm across the street may as well do my Honolulu City Daylights Tour (@ Honolulu Hale) http://picplz.com/z0CN/.

I also took a photo of the YWCA (@YWCAOAHU) because I seemed to have just missed a couple of tweeps (@TrulyJoannies & @Melissa808) that were right there when I was so near by! Here is that tweet- RT @RickNakama: .@trulyjoannies here's a pic of @ywcaoahu for you. ;) hehe (@ YWCA of Honolulu) http://picplz.com/z0sL/.

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Tacos from @EatGogi Korean Taco Truck #FB

2010-12-01T15:27:00.001-10:00

Today, the Korean Taco Truck Eat Gogi (@EatGogi) Tweeted a special. The special was "Tweet a pic of the truck and get 2 free tacos!". Since I saw the tweet, I thougth it would be a good opportunity for me to finally check out what a Korean Taco Truck is all about.

Here were my tweeted pictures to qualify me for the 2 tacos:

"RT @EatGogi: Tweet pic of truck get 2 free tacos! Today 1637 Kapiolani Blvd 11:30-2pm! #FB /"

"@eatgogi RT @RickNakama: just posted a pic: http://picplz.com/zx1Q "

Yes, I sent out 2 photos and tweets. May as well since I got 2 free tacos. They did this promotion to try to reach 1000 followers on their Twitter account. Doesn't look like they reached it just yet so I wonder if another promotion may be coming up tomorrow?

Anyway, on to the tacos... I tried one of each taco. They have four varieties of tacos on their menu and each taco costs $2. They are, obviously, Korean flavored ingredients: Beef Short Rib (Kalbi), Spicy Pork, Chicken and Tofu. They definitely all tasted somewhat Korean-ish. They were not really spicy; even the Spicy Pork. Each taco is about 2-3 bites worth of taco so four tacos was just right for my lunch.

It does take a little while to get your food because each order is made when placed, but the truck still appears to have quite a following. I was probably at the truck for about 20 minutes and the crowd eventually grew to about 15 people standing around for their lunch. Interestingly, most of them didn't seem to know about the "Tweet a pic" special or maybe they just didn't want the free tacos.

Thanks for the two free tacos to go with my two paid tacos!

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Jose's Mexican Cafe and Cantina - Spinach Burrito

2010-11-27T18:31:00.001-10:00

Last night we had dinner at Jose's Mexican Cafe and Cantina in Kaimuki. We eat here every month or so when we're craving for some Mexican food. The location is convenient for us because they are at 1134 Koko Head Avenue and we are usually able to find free parking on Koko Head Avenue in the evenings.

I was in the mood to try something different last night and I saw the Spinach, Mushroom and Water Chestnuts Burrito ($13.95). It sounded a little strange for a Mexican dish so I asked the waitress what she thought of it. Of course she said it was one of her favorites! I went ahead and ordered it. It was really delicious! It actually tasted like Mexican food without any meat. I liked it because it didn't leave me feeling super bloate like I feel after eating the ground beef burrito or other meaty selections.

Kelli had the Taco Salad with Ground Beef ($11.95). She orders this quite often and it is a good taco salad.

I'm looking forward to going to Jose's again for that Spinach Burrito! Sorry, Jai's Burrito, my other favorite!

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Bella Mia in Kaimuki, Honolulu Lasagna #FB

2010-11-24T19:33:00.001-10:00

Today I met up with a bunch of Twitter people at Bella Mia, an Italian restaurant in Kaimuki. It was my first time there and I wasn't sure what to try. I decided to go with the Lasagna ($10.95).

The lasagna was served nice and hot out of the oven. A nice perfectly charred layer of cheese encrusted the top of the baked-in dish. As I cut into the lasagna, it appeared a little wet under the crisp top layer. The flavor resembled a meaty pizza for some reason and not so much a lasagna. Perhaps it has to do with the blend and proportions of the cheeses uses that makes it taste more like pizza. The serving is large! I managed to eat the whole thing along with about 3 of their complimentary fresh baked bread rolls, probably because I didn't eat anything all day until this lunch. The excess moisture in my lasagna didn't matter too much because the seasoning was balanced and it didn't taste watery.

I like the setting of this restaurant and I'm sure I will be visiting again since it is in my neighborhood. I may try the Eggplant Parmesan next, as recommended by my friend @NaneaKalani. Too bad I ordered before checking what was just tweeted at me as I was deciding what to order. I definitely enjoyed the restaurant and the group that invited me to join their lunch. I had a chance to try someplace new and meet some new people at the same time over lunch.

Thanks @TrulyJoannies, @Hawaean, @TheChickenBus, @RSuenaga, @JNoblezada, @MarkTRC, @Legendjy, @Knyghtingale, @Keith_Sato and @SMurata for letting me join your lunch today! :) It was nice seeing/chatting/meeting and having lunch with you all. Here's a photo of our table courtesy of @JNoblezada's iPhone & Plixi post: http://plixi.com/p/58914116/. Thanks to our waitress who offered to take it.

Have a great Thanksgiving everyone!

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Bale in Hawaii Kai Shopping Center

2010-11-23T18:25:00.001-10:00

For today's lunch a few of us from the office went over to Bale. I go there a few times a month since it is just a few minutes away from our office.

Today I had the Won Ton Noodle Soup. This noodle dish doesn't come with the white rice noodles. It is served with the yellow thin noodles. The broth is also richer than the broth their pho is served with. I like these noodles and the slightly sweeter flavors of the broth.

Another guy that went with us ordered the Crispy Noodle Chicken. I don't know what it tasted like, but it looked so massive I just had to take a photo of it!

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Hagensborg Mocha Truffle Pig

2010-11-23T17:13:00.001-10:00

Yum yum. And... it has little cute pigs on it!

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Pulehu Rubbed Grilled Chicken @OnoToGo Lunch Truck #FB (add photo)

2010-11-23T12:15:00.001-10:00

*Re Post - well my Gmail for Android application has failed me again and dropped my attached photo. Here's my second attempt.*

On Nov 23, 2010 12:11 PM, "Rick Nakama, R GRI" <ricknakama@gmail.com> wrote:

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Pulehu Rubbed Grilled Chicken @OnoToGo Lunch Truck #FB

2010-11-23T12:11:00.001-10:00

Yesterday after completing my Monday Meals on Wheels route with Mark's assistance (again) we did the usual lunch to feed ourselves. We have both heard and read a lot about Ono to Go (http://twitter.com/OnoToGo/) so we were anxious to check out their lunch truck.

Ono to Go is usually found in a parking lot on the corner of Sheridan and Makaloa Streets, near Sam's Club's driveway. Their truck is brightly painted in a street art fashion so it should be easy to spot. They may occasionally be spotted in other locations so it is best to follow their Twitter account, @OnoToGo.

I had the Pulehu Spice Rubbed Grilled Chicken plate for $7 plus I opted for the $1 up charge to have brown rice "genmai" instead of white rice. It was very tasty and I will be trying to make my way to this truck for more lunches!

You can also find their information at http://Facebook.com/OnoToGo/.

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Happy Hour at The Counter Burger

2010-11-18T18:53:00.001-10:00

Before going to our free movie screening of Fair Game tonight (courtesy of Ryan http://twitter.com/Hawaii/), we dropped into The Counter Burger in Kahala Mall (http://www.thecounterburger.com/honolulu/). We made it there at around 5pm and their happy hour specials are until 6pm.

We had the Mini Cheeseburger Trio for $4 and the Mini Locomoco for $5. We also ordered a "Fifty-Fifty" (half sweet potato fries and half onion rings) for $6.75.

The happy hour specials were a great bargain! The locomoco didn't seem like a mini at all! The fries were just way too much for two people. I sent a tweet to Mark (http://twitter.com/marktrc/) asking him to come help us eat the fries because I knew he was also coming to the screening, but he didn't come to The Counter in time.
Well, we're standing in the line for Fair Game right now. We'll see how it is.

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Pongo's Kitchen (@PongosKitchen) Mini Tofu Steak Plate #FB

2010-11-16T15:28:00.001-10:00

Yesterday, I did my Meals on Wheels route for Lanakila Pacific (@LanakilaPacific) with the help of my friend, Mark (@MarkTRC). After delivering the meals to the seniors, Mark and I stopped at Pongo's Kitchen (@PongosKitchen) for lunch.

Last week, I had my blood tested for cholestorol levels a the HMSA HealthPass Tweetup (@HealthPass). More about that on Mike's blog (@MikeSumida) found here http://mikesumida.blogspot.com/2010/11/healthpass-tweetup.html/ or my past post about it here http://nakama-m-photos.blogspot.com/2010/11/bangga-bangga-spicy-poke-bowl.html/. Since my reading was borderline high, I've been attempting to make better choices when out eating. I have to eat out frequently for lunches and dinners and it is not easy to always find healthier options on all menus.

At Pongo's Kitchen, I decided to go with the Tofu Steak. The slab of tofu is seasoned and seared then topped with the "drizzle" of choice. My choice was the shoyu and green onion drizzle. It is all about the "drizzle" at Pongo's Kitchen.

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Kakaako Kitchen Veggie Tofu Patty Plate

2010-11-12T19:33:00.001-10:00

Today I had my second lunch out after learning that I had borderline high cholesterol levels. You can read more about that here.

I tried the Roasted Veggie and Tofu Patty with Olive Tapenade. Tasted good, but I was hungry again within a couple of hours.

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Bangga Bangga "Really Spicy Poke Bowl" (@WorldwideEd @LalaLinzy @HealthPass #HealthPass20th #FB)

2010-11-11T21:54:00.002-10:00

After learning that my LDL cholesterol blood test results were "borderline high" at yesterday's HMSA Healthpass 20th Anniversary Tweetup (http://search.twitter.com/search?q=%23healthpass20th/), I decided it was time to try to reverse the damage done by my usual diet. I am sure that taking the blood test a week after returning from three weeks of travel and eating didn't help my results either. Anyway my result was a 159 (borderline high), if I had a 160 I would just be considered a high cholesterol person!

As you are out and about, it's not very easy to find convenient, healthy food at a reasonable cost. I first looked through Shirokiya upon arrival at Ala Moana Center only to find that almost everything was fried. This is not surprising considering that Shirokiya is primarily a place for bento (Japanese box lunch) type foods and fried foods have longer shelf life. Next I browsed through the food court and passed places like Panda Express and The Fat Greek. I decided to try Bangga Bangga, a place that Ed (http://World-wide-Ed.com/) first tried when I was with him. He said it was ok so I figure I can rely on his opinion because he is always eating fish.

Bangga Bangga specializes in ahi poke (raw tuna/sashimi). I ordered the poke bowl and was asked what type of sauce I wanted. Again, I was faced with cholesterol damaging options like spicy mayonnaise and wasabi mayonnaise. I resisted temptations and selected the spicy jalapeno shoyu. I was then asked if I wanted little spicy, regular spicy or really spicy. I wondered how spicy can it actually get considering it's only jalapeno peppers so I ordered the "really spicy".

The spicy jalapeno shoyu poke bowl is raw tuna seasoned with shoyu and sesame oil then topped with raw red onions, sprouts, sliced jalapeno peppers and Japanese cavier over steamed white rice. It wasn't very spicy, as anticipated, and it tasted good.

This is the first day following my eye opening HealthPass results and my attempt to start opting toward the healthier selections when eating. It's not going to be easy and I know it's not going to be cheap, but I will see how I can do at my attempt to ear healthier. Hopefully I can put a big dent in that number through diet and exercise because I don't want any medication for this!

Thanks HealthPass for holding that Tweetup and getting me to check my cholesterol level. I was really surprised at my results! I'm glad I know I need to do something fast!

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Need a little #HIasia KitKat snack before #H50 starts! http://twitpic.com/358xfz

2010-11-08T21:11:00.001-10:00

Just tried a blueberry cheesecake KitKat. Very tasty, but I still prefer the otona one because it's bitter chocolate!

Now time for some #H50 live Twitter commentary action! I missed it while away on my #HIasia travels.

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Had "New & Improved" Version of Mr. Mandoo after #MealsOnWheels delivery

2010-11-08T15:45:00.001-10:00

Today I had help from Kelli because she offered to be the driver for me as I delivered the lunches for Lanakila Pacific's Meals on Wheels program. After completing the deliveries that take approximately an hour with the help of a second person, it was the perfect time and area for lunch at one of our favorite spots, Mr. Mandoo.

I've posted a few times about Mr. Mandoo and those posts can be seen at these following links.

http://nakama-m-photos.blogspot.com/2010/03/lunch-at-mr-mandoo.html

http://nakama-m-photos.blogspot.com/2010/05/mr-mandoo-mandoo.html

Anyway, today we has a Kogi Fried Mandoo 9 piece side order and a Steak & Kalbi Mix Plate for about $18. We ate there and shared the food.

The owner told us that they've changed their fried mandoo a lot so let her know how it is after we try it. It was delicious! This new version seems to have a much crispier outside while also having a juicy and moist inside. We really enjoyed, but *warning* watch out for those juices! They may squirt out as you crunch in to take a bite!

This was my first time trying the steak and kalbi. The steak was tender even at a medium well preparation (how Kelli prefers it). The kalbi has a nice flavor with a slightly spicy kick to it.

Everything went well together especially with the little dish of pickled vegetables. The pickling juices also doubled as a nice second dipping sauce for the mandoo and steak!

If you think you might be interested in volunteering for the Meals on Wheels program to help get hot lunches to Hawaii's seniors, you can read more about it here: http://nakama-m-photos.blogspot.com/2010/10/lanakila-pacific-good-table-dinner-at.html/. Or just ask me if you want to help me on a route. :)

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Isetan Market Restaurant AGIO in Shinjuku, Tokyo #HIasia #FB

2010-10-29T13:58:00.001-10:00

Last night after checking into our awesome hotel (not), we went for a walk around the Shinjuku area. We decided to use the evening to browse Isetan Department Store.

When we got there, we went up to the 7th floor to check out the restaurants because we were hungry. Most of the stuff looks like overpriced regular food, displayed attractively. We opted for the Italian restaurant, AGIO.

The prices at AGIO were moderate, 1500-3000 yen a dish (around $20-40 at current exchange rates :-/). We had the AGIO pizza and the meat sauce type spaghetti.

The spaghetti tasted too much like beef stew (concentrated beef flavor) with spaghetti noodles. It wasn't impressive at all. In fact I don't recommend it. :P

The AGIO pizza thing was OK. The crust was OK, but not really a pizza crust. Seemed more like a flour tortilla with hamburger helper and cheese on it. The cheese didn't really match the "pizza" flavor.

Anyway, that's my experience at AGIO. I doubt I would eat there again. It is rather surprising considering how obsessed, for so many years, Japan has been about creating this Japanese style of Italian cuisine. While this place isn't a Japanese flavored Italian restaurant, it certainly wasn't an authentic Italian flavored one either.

Hope we have better luck with breakfast. We are cooped up in Starbucks right now because the typhoon changed or Disney Sea plans. Nothing else in Shinjuku is open yet, other than convenience stores, and it's almost 9am!! Don't really want to eat Starbucks for breakfast! :P

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Iyemon Salon Kyoto 京都のお茶カフェイエモンサロン #HIasia #FB

2010-10-28T14:35:00.002-10:00

While we were in Kyoto for one evening, we met up with some friends. We first had dinner at Gogyo (the post prior to this) and then we went to have tea. お茶しょうか。(Ocha shiou ka?) Is a common Japanese question/invitation. It translates to, "shall we have tea?". It is just like it sounds, have tea, coffee and desserts while socializing.

We made it to Iyemon Salon just before last call for kitchen items. There were some unusual items on the menu and I ordered one of them, the matcha soda or green tea soda. It was very interesting. Slightly bitter as it is served, but tastes nice after adding some sweetener. I used a little of the dark molasses looking syrup that came with my panna cota or custard looking thing.

It is a very nice place in the city to have tea. The front of their store has tea and souvenirs available for retail purchases. The rear of the restaurant has a nice Japanese garden. I wish I could've taken a photo of it. I couldn't because there were too many other customers sitting around that area.

Iyemon Salon is a cool place! I hope I can go there again some day. If you're in Kyoto City check it out. Their address and phone number are in the photo of the receipt. If you're in Kyoto for a longer period, I'm sure you'll have tea and dango at other traditional places near temples and such places. Iyemon is a different setting because it's a fancy place in the city. :)

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五行京都 Gogyo Restaurant in Kyoto #HIasia #FB

2010-10-28T03:39:00.001-10:00

A few days ago, we met up with some of my friends in Kyoto. My friend, Taka, suggested we have dinner at a "secret spot" in Kyoto city. It's not really secret, but it is very difficult to find even for the locals because they can't remember which block it's on and all the street blocks look almost exactly alike. After circling a few blocks, he finally found the place he was looking for. It's called 五行 or Gogyo. Taka describes it as a sort of ramen place, but izakaya (bar tavern) style because they have a special ramen, but it's a type of restaurant that you can sit around an snack on various other dishes while chit chatting and drinking. A perfect venue for entertaining out of town/country guests like we are.

The specialty ramen is what is called a koge (burnt) taste soup. Hearing or seeing a dish described as "burnt", wouldn't necessarily sound appetizing. I assure you that while this ramen soup does have a burnt taste, it is balanced well and gives this ramen character. Please try it in either the shoyu or miso koge flavors.

Gogyo not only has delicious ramen and other foods, but it provides a nice environment for chatting with your friends. It was great catching up with Taka, Masami and Takeshi. Thanks for taking us there!

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お好みハウスふくろう広島 Okonomi House Fukurou Hiroshima #HIasia #FB

2010-10-27T14:32:00.001-10:00

Last night my family in Hiroshima took us to a Hiroshima style okonomiyaki restaurant near their house. When I say near, I mean really near, like a 2 minute drive. This may not sound unusual to hear unless you realize how deep into the boonies their house is from the "city". It's over an hour drive just to get near the city. The drive back and forth passes beautiful rice fields and other local agriculture. The roads in and out are barely wide enough to fit one sub compact car at a time. In fact one morning driving in to town while we yielded to a stop to let oncoming sub compact car (actually k-car smaller than sub) pass, his (passing driver) car slammed into our cars side view mirror and he continued driving along on his merry way as if it's a casual experience. Hehe.

Anyway, the restaurant is called Okonomi House Fukurou (お好みハウスふくろう). Okonimi is a Japanese dish that is popular in the Kansai areas around Osaka. There you will find "traditional" okonomiyaki, resembling a pancake type of food texture filled with hearty ingredients and topped with sauce. In Hiroshima, okonomiyaki is traditionally prepared differently. It's more a yakisoba (Japanese fried noodles) type of dish than the pancake dish. Many rivalries are debated about which is better. As far as I'm concerned, I prefer Hiroshima's style. Not just because it is where my family is from, but I don't care for the gooey pancake type.

This restaurant, as its name suggests, resembles visiting someone's home for dinner. There are about 5 tables with teppan (Japanese grill) in them. What I liked about this restaurant is that the actual cooking of the okonomiyaki is done by the chef at a big main teppan. After it is done it is brought over and set on your table's hot teppan. You eat the okonomiyaki hot off the teppan. :) If you go to some other places in the city, your okonomiyaki is cooked on the teppan right in front of your face. While this may be an interesting experience for most people, the experience also comes with excessive heat and leaving smelling like food and cooking oils. I can do without smelling like I just got off work at a restaurant. After all, I hated smelling like that everyday after finishing work many years ago.

If you're in Hiroshima, give Okonomi House Fukurou a call and reserve your table. Their phone number and address is in the photo of their menu.

PS benefit of an hour+ drive into the city each morning is a lot of time to write my post and tweet! ;)
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Add photos Fwd: すし辰広島 sushi tatsu hiroshima #hiasia #fb

2010-10-26T22:45:00.001-10:00

Sorry gmail android application dropped my photos again! I hope it works this time! :P

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: "Rick Nakama, R GRI" <ricknakama@gmail.com>
Date: Oct 27, 2010 5:29 PM
Subject: すし辰広島 sushi tatsu hiroshima #hiasia #fb 　
To: "Posterous All" <Post@posterous.com>

Today we had a kaiten sushi lunch at SUSHI TATSU in Hiroshima. It is a kaiten sushi restaurant (the sushi goes around in circles). There were some interesting varieties that they have there. Take a look at the photos.

In one or two, you should see what looks like a giant mountain of negi toro (scallions & fatty tuna). That was an unusual sighting. I guess even in Japan they've started adding strange things at kaiten sushi restaurants. I didn't see any spam today. ;)

There's another photo of a pineapple going around the belt too! Interesting! おもしろかった！

Another neat thing was the tea powder at the table and a hot water dispenser to make your own green tea. Fresh ocha whenever you want! This ocha tasted good too and the cup/tea didn't taste like chlorinated sanitizer, like in Honolulu. Check out the qik video link below to see a short clip of the お茶(tea) ceremony. Hahaha.
http://qik.com/m/v/16858892?link=06c79d33

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すし辰広島 sushi tatsu hiroshima #hiasia #fb

2010-10-26T22:29:00.001-10:00

There's another photo of a pineapple going around the belt too! Interesting! おもしろかった！

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Matsukiya near Karahashimae Station. #HIasia #FB

2010-10-23T21:24:00.001-10:00

We just arrived at my cousin's town, Ishiyama in Shigaken. After dropping our luggage at their house, we went for lunch at a restaurant that specializes in serving Oumigyu (近江牛肉), the specialty beef of the origin that is similar to Kobe's famous beef.

It is a small three story building just a few steps from the
Karahashimae train station. The ground floor is a shop that sells the raw beef and the second and third floor the restaurant are where the restaurant seating are. We sat at the second floor in the teppan grill seating.

I ordered the "Lady's lunch" because it was an assortment of food for 2800 yen. Lots of beef tataki or raw beef dishes were part of the set. It was delicious!

Kelli had the beef ginger fried rice. It was also delicious!

If you're in the area, try it out.

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@Michael_Choy here's a couple HK ads I could picture you in. #HIasia (@egg104 @RickyLi99)

2010-10-22T16:21:00.001-10:00

A Twitter friend of mine, @Michael_Choy, had a nice hair make over done by another Twitter friend, @egg104, a couple of weeks ago. After the new hair do, he had a bunch of photos taken by again another Twitter friend/photographer, @RickyLi99. He posted a nice web portfolio of his photos.

After seeing the portfolio, I told him that I can imagine him on one of the many billboards in Hong Kong since that was where I was at at that time. Here are a couple that I think really seems to match him.

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Toast Box dinner in Hong Kong #HIasia @FB

2010-10-21T22:40:00.001-10:00

Last night we stopped for dinner at Toast Box during our walk back to the hotel. It's one of those places that says no photography so I just had to take some covert photos! ;)

The food was just ok. Not really anything great, but the atmosphere really is attractive. The service was terrible. It seemed like they didn't want to help us. They also gave me a fork to eat the noodles without offering or asking if I preferred chopsticks. I had to ask for some after realizing there weren't any at the table.

It's also connected to a bakery called Bread Talk. I tried the matcha bread and a matcha pound cake from Bread Talk with my Starbucks coffee one morning. The pound cake was good, but the bread was really dry.

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Using Hong Kong's Octopus Card to buy dessert. #HIasia #FB

2010-10-21T04:21:00.001-10:00

Well tonight is our last night in Hong Kong. When we arrived, we bought the Octopus Cards at the airport. The cards were 150 HK$ each, but I believe $50 of it is a deposit for the card.

We were advised to get the card to simplify using the subway. The card is like a prepayment card so the subway or other transit fees are automatically subtracted from the amount deposited to your card. I believe that means we started with a $100 balance. We only rode the subway about four times. I assumed it was probably only a few HK$ worth of use so knew that we had not used nearly enough of our balance and I don't think we get any of that reimbursed when we return the card for the deposit refund. Of course we could just keep the card, but I have no idea when we'd be back in Hong Kong so we aren't.

We stopped at one of the jelly drink dessert shops that is near our hotel, The Royal Pacific Hotel and Tower on Canton Road. This shop is on one of the little side streets and appears to be very popular with the young native language speakers so we tried it out.

I ordered the mango and herb jelly drink and Kelli ordered the mango and lychee drink. They were both delicious.

When we ordered, I noticed they had the Octopus Card payment device on the counter so I gave it a try. I paid for my drink and at least now I know I have 61.80 HK$ left on it. I hope I can use that up and pay the balance in cash when I buy my Starbucks coffee in the morning.

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Park Cafe at Royal Pacific Hotel (@RoyalPacificHTL) Mall.

2010-10-20T21:18:00.001-10:00

Upon returning from our overnight stay in Macau, we are checking back in to the Royal Pacific Hotel and Tower for one more night before flying to Japan.

We arrived back a little prior to noon and our room isn't going to be available until around 2pm, the normal check in time at this hotel. Luckily, the shopping center area connected to this hotel is blanketed with free wifi! I am a little disappointed that they don't just extend the wifi into the actual lobby or rooms of the hotel (for free), but some free wifi is better than none! (I was unable to find any free wifi in Macau.)

This one area in the mall has become our Hong Kong office branch for this trip. It is equipped with a large flat panel TV airing the local news and three web enabled PC terminals available for free use. It has a suggested usage limit of 15 minutes, but as far as I can tell unless someone is waiting it seems you could use it indefinitely.

The area has a few stools to sit at. Unlike malls in Honolulu, it seems that the malls here lack seating areas except for those in restaurants. I guess it's because they want you spending your money by shopping or dining rather than using free wifi! ;) hehe.

So anyway, while we were waiting for the room we had lunch at Park Cafe. It is just below the lobby level of the hotel and sort of us the merge between hotel area and shopping center areas. There are a few tables and seats that sprawl into the mall.

We both ordered the three course menu for about 80 HK$ each ($10 USD). It comes with a choice of soup or salad an entrée and a dessert. We both had the soup and my entrée was the braised mushroom chicken and Kelli had the deep fried pork chop (the one that looks like tonkatsu with udon). My chicken was great. Nice and peppery, how I enjoy it. Kelli's was good, but neither of us expected an udon type dish by reading the menu.

As soon as we ordered, the waitress asked us to choose dessert. We asked if we could choose later, but she recommended we make our selections now as they will run out. I didn't believe that (it was 1215p and the case was full) but we made our selections, the matcha cake with red bean paste and the blueberry cheesecake. About thirty minutes later, as we enjoyed our meal, it was to our surprise that the cake case began to appear bare! In fact, all blueberry cheesecakes were gone (on hold on the little dish) and there was only 1 matcha cake left!! Amazing! I'm glad I listened to our waitress.

Both cakes were delicious. I'm wondering what the orange colored fruit is that is garnishing the cheesecake. Do you know? Is it the "squash" that the Japanese air fresheners smell like? That's my best guess. It tasted sweet but tart with little seeds inside. The skin is like a tomato, but the leaf resembles that of a squash or gourd type of plant.

Well it's time to get our room. I hope you're enjoying my experience in Asia! :)

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Day Trip to Macau by Ferry. #HIasia #FB

2010-10-20T17:56:00.001-10:00

Day Trip to Macau by Ferry. #HIasia #FB

Yesterday morning we departed from the Hong Kong Ferry Terminal at about 9am to head over to Macau for an island tour and overnight stay.

The ferry ride takes approximately an hour and has assigned seating in a climate controlled cabin. At first I was hoping to be able to walk around and explore the deck area to try taking some photos, but I realized quickly why that wasn't a good idea. About half way into the voyage, the opposite side (from where we were sitting) of the ferry was getting drenched by the crashing waves. If we weren't in a sealed cabin, everyone on the ferry would have been soaked, if not totally washed of the boat! Anyway, taking photos through the salt crystallized windows doesn't show well at all.

Upon arriving to the Macau Terminal, we go through the immigration check point. This terminal makes it a point to get their message across that waiting (for others in your party) is not allowed! The result of not waiting meant Kelli and I, the first of our group of five, exited immigration in under 5 minutes from disembarkation. We then located our tour guide, "Danny" and ended up waiting almost another 30 minutes for the rest of our group to exit.

Our tour began immediately upon departure from the terminal. The island is very small (only about 7 square kilometers), had a population of 550,000 residents and had approximately 23,000,000 visitors last year. It is an amazingly crowded island, yet it doesn't feel that way when walking around.

Our guide, Danny Ieong is an excellent guide. He speaks 6-8 languages (claims he's still learning languages 7 & 8). He is a Macau local who has lived in Belgium and other areas of Euro for 20 years. He speaks Cantonese, Mandarin, Portuguese, Spanish, English, French fluently and is practicing Japanese and German. He has travelled all around the world and is also a part time professor that teaches up and coming aspiring tour guides (tour guides require licensing in these areas). I highly recommend hiring his services for a very informational and entertaining introduction to Macau.

Our room for the night was at the Rio Hotel and Casino. It's not the greatest place in the world, I'd say comparable to a Downtown Las Vegas casino. We walked over to the MGM to make our deposits and ate at the Wynn. I will confess, I am not comfortable with eating at most of the places I have seen around this island that is why we headed to the "Las Vegas" environment. This has brought a whole new understanding to me about the success of "touristy type restaurants" in Honolulu (my home town). I have travelled around Japan, Taiwan and Hong Kong without difficulty finding restaurants to dine in, but in Macau I was stumped.

My dining experience in Macau started with lunch at the Rio Hotel's buffet. First of all, I'm not a buffet type of diner. I despise most buffet meals. I don't like eating food that dozens or sometimes hundreds of other people have touched the serving utensils and possibly inappropriately handled the food or the utensils. It just grosses me out. Anyway, I took a few pics of the stuff I tried at the Rio. I'll do a post on the "Las Vegas" style areas separately to avoid confusion of the noodle photos. :P

Macau is definitely an interesting place to experience the culture and learn about their history by sight seeing with a good guide. I can't see returning here for the casinos. It's just a little too out of the way and not to mention confusing with the currency conversions. I would like to return for the Macau Grand Prix some day! Apparently I am a few weeks early this trip.

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Dim Sum Lunch @ 18 Brook 十八 #HIasia #FB

2010-10-19T04:36:00.001-10:00

Yesterday we had a meeting to attend at the Hong Kong Convention Center. After the meeting we had lunch in the building. The restaurant is called 18 Brook. It's a large dim sum restaurant that probably serves many visitors to Hong Kong since it's in the business/convention area of Hong Kong Island. The price is not very cheap here due to that factor.

Lots of great dim sum dishes came out to our table. I'm sure I missed at least a couple in my photos.

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Hong Kong's Repulse Beach & near by areas. Part 3 #HIasia #FB

2010-10-19T04:08:00.001-10:00

A few more photos from:
Hong Kong's Repulse Beach & near by areas. #HIasia #FB

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Hong Kong's Repulse Beach & near by areas. Part 2 #HIasia

2010-10-18T03:26:00.001-10:00

Here is another batch of photos.

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Hong Kong's Repulse Beach & near by areas. Part 1 #HIasia #FB

2010-10-17T18:34:00.001-10:00

Hong Kong's Repulse Beach & near by areas. #HIasia #FB

Our group had a half day tour to Repulse Beach and the other tourist spots that are nearby, like Stanley's Market.

Don't let the name turn you off. Repulse Beach is not repulsive at all. It is a spectacular beach area (and don't forget, I live in Hawaii!). There are temples, godly figurines and other symbolic structures to worship along the cost. This has to do with the ideal natural geography of the mountains dropping down toward this bay area. It resembles the ideal set up in China's culture known as Feng Shui. This is why the Victoria Hills area, above the beach, is one of the most prestigious residential real estate areas that big time millionaires and billionaires own. I wouldn't mind owning a vacation condominium there myself! He he one of these days.

The Stanley's Market area is like a bazaar of vendors peddling a variety of goods ranging from useless souvenir trinkets to common everyday necessities and clothes. Not everything there is necessarily a bargain. If you're familiar with Waikiki's International Market Place, this is very similar, but in my opinion the ambience at Stanley's is much "cooler". Although, being from Honolulu probably has a lot to do with this.

Here are some photos I snapped during this tour.

PS- if you are the OCD type that cannot use public restrooms because they gross you out, be sure not to hold it with plans of using the restrooms at Repulse. Apparently, the women's restroom was repulsive enough for Kelli to do a 180° turn and walk right out to wait for the next opportunity. On a side note, most of the other public restrooms throughout Taiwan and Hong Kong have been very clean and comfortable. Unlike public restrooms in Japan.

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Hong Kong's Repulse Beach & near by areas. Part 1 #HIasia #FB

2010-10-17T15:13:00.001-10:00

Hong Kong's Repulse Beach & near by areas. #HIasia #FB

Our group had a half day tour to Repulse Beach and the other tourist spots that are nearby, like Stanley's Market.

Here are some photos I snapped during this tour.

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Our First Night in Hong Kong. #HIasia #FB (@RoyalPacificHTL)

2010-10-17T14:38:00.001-10:00

Our First Night in Hong Kong. #HIasia #FB (@RoyalPacificHTL)

Here are some photos from our first night in Hong Kong.

We arrived at Hong Kong International Airport at around 830pm and got to our hotel somewhere around 930pm. The transportation over to the hotel was on a private coach bus and it was a very scenic ride to the Royal Pacific Hotel and Towers. The guest service associate was very nice and provided us with an upgraded room. (HTTP://Twitter.com/RoyalPacificHTL) I've included a couple shots of the view that we have from our room. It is an amazing view! I also took a video, but I will upload and post that later when I have a more stable internet connection (I'm very frustrated and suffering from foursquare.com check in withdrawals!).

After settling in, Kelli and I went for a stroll around the area to find something to eat, buy some bottled water and a prepaid SIM card.

We ended up eating at McDonald's. Not the one in the hotel's mall area, but one about a 1/4 mile away near a subway terminal because the mall one was already closed. Check out the menu prices! I just couldn't believe I was going to eat a Big 'n Tasty meal for $30! Of course that is in Hong Kong Dollars equivalent to a little under $8 US, but I'm finding it difficult to buy things that look so expensive because they're priced in dollars and I cannot get used to it in such a short time. It's different from my experience in Japan because everything there is priced in Yen and is not labeled with a $ sign. I've included at photo of the Hong Kong Dollars I received in exchange for $100 USD.

Another note about McDonald's is that they provide "20 minutes of free wifi". My experience with the wifi at this visit was not good as you can look back at my tweets and I did not get to check in on foursquare! I was able to connect and accept the user agreement through the browser to gain access to the web on my Android phone, but the connection was not stable enough to use any other apps like foursquare, Fring, Nimbuzz or Seesmic. I was able to get Seesmic to refresh my Twitter stream a couple times, but was unable to load a Twitpic. Also foursquare wasn't able to find a connection preventing me from checking in at this Hong Kong first meal at McDonald's (and most likely the last - it was just late and conveniently open). The browser appeared to be working much better. I'm finding that the browser can handle unstable and slow connections much better that the apps. For example the Gmail app will not sync and download the new emails, but if you visit Gmail through the browser, you will find a dozen new emails waiting in your inbox. Out of the free 20 minutes, I was able to refresh my Seesmic Twitter stream twice and get the browser to check some of my new emails.

Along the walk, we also stopped at 7-11 to buy bottled water and prepaid SIM cards for GSM phones. We bought a couple liters of water for around $23 HK, but I didn't buy the SIM card. The SIM cards were not on display in this 7-11 so I asked the cashier if they had them and she said yes. I asked to see it prior to purchase and decided not to buy them because they are for voice calls a SMS (text message) only. I don't have any use for that because I have no one to call or text here. All I really need is data!

The area around the hotel has a lot of the designer stores like LV, Ferragamo, Chanel, Tiffany & Co., etc. Very similar to the Ala Moana Shopping Center or the Western end of Kalakaua Boulevard in Waikiki. We stopped in this beautiful courtyard area and took a few photos. I don't know what it's called, but it's a great place for photos and looks like a spot where many young couples visit for some romantic ambience. Check out the giant banyan tree in a giant above ground planter! We walked up those stairs to the area under the tree and took a few photos. It is a spectacular place in the evening. I'm not sure what it looks like in the daytime, but I bet photos at dusk here would look fabulous!

Well our hotel doesn't provide free internet access of any kind. It is available at $40 HK an hour and I don't feel like splurging for that. I'm sure you're wondering when and where am I finding the time to write and post all these blogs. I'll do a post on that later. For now let's just hope I can find some decent free hotspots!

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Roundtable Discussion and Lunch on the last day in Taipei. #HIasia #FB

2010-10-17T04:21:00.001-10:00

Roundtable Discussion and Lunch on the last day in Taipei. #HIasia #FB

Yesterday, we had a lunch hosted by one of Laisin's (our Hawaii International Real Estate Council President and the person who planned the study tour) close personal friends, Alex, a director and consultant for the State of Hawaii DBEDT Office in Taipei. We met him at this restaurant that I have included a photo of the business card in this post (I can't read the card so I'll update this if I find out what it is called).

Like all our other meals in Taiwan, wonderful courses of indigenous cuisine kept appearing at the table! And of course, having lunch at this restaurant of Alex's choice means the food is also delicious!

I am not going to name every dish we had because honestly, I have no idea what each dish is called. Just look at some of these photos and you'll probably recognize some of the foods.

Thanks for the lunch and discussion Alex!

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Taipei International Flora Expo post 2 #HIasia #FB

2010-10-16T13:46:00.001-10:00

Here are a few more photos from the Taipei International Flora Expo preview. Also, I want to correct the start date of this expo is November 6th and not the 4th as I wrote in my prior post.

The expo is to showcase some of Taipei's latest technology in renewable resources. Here are a few photos of how they displayed their technology.

The structure is made with plastic water bottles that were recycled. This is amazing to see in person. If you can visit Taipei between November and April, I highly recommend visiting the Flora Expo!

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The Taipei International Flora Expo #HIasia #FB

2010-10-16T00:13:00.001-10:00

Yesterday, one of our (The Hawaii International Real Estate Council) meetings was at the Taipei City Hall with the Director of city planning division. When he learned that we were departing Taipei today, October 16, he immediately arranged for our group to have a preview tour of the Taipei International Flora Expo. The expo actually opens officially on November 4th and runs for about 6 months.

It was an amazing experience! I'm blogging a few photos right now as I am waiting to board my flight to Hong Kong. I took dozens of photos and some videos. We spent a couple hours touring the expo and I doubt we've experienced half of the full event.

The preview was made available to special groups of students and other VIP guests of Taipei city. Even with the limited, restricted, by special invitation only access during today, the expo was filled with thousands of visitors. It is sort of a soft opening to test their infrastructure and operations.

Having been given this VIP access to the expo, we had a very entertaining English speaking guide introduce us to the expo. We were also escorted through the expo with 2 of the government officials that helped the director with the presentation yesterday.

This expo all ties in with the city's plan to create a greener living environment in a major metropolitan city. It also featured the latest technologies in hydroponics, fiber optic indoor lighting systems that use natural sun light, photovoltaics and living walls.

I'll be posting more on this expo in sections since there were so many photos taken.

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Picked up Tokyo Banana @ Narita. 東京バナナクロ。＃HIasia #FB

2010-10-14T23:53:00.001-10:00

Picked up Tokyo Banana @ Narita. 東京バナナクロ。＃HIasia #FB

On our way from Honolulu International Airport to Taipei International Airport, our flight had a brief stop over at Narita International Airport. Everyone proceeding to Taipei as their final destination still was required to disembark the aircraft with all belongings and go through a security check again prior to re-boarding. It was about an hour and a half between the flights. That allowed just enough time to do a little shopping in the Duty Free Shops and use wifi at a free hotspot we found in the terminal.

When we arrive at our hotel in Taipei, we're going to be meeting up with one of my long time friends, James, whom I haven't seen for about 7 years. He used to live in Honolulu but now he lives in Taiwan.

I saw the Tokyo Banana being sold at one of the shops in the terminal so I thought it would be a nice gift (おみやげ) for James. This is the first time I saw the brown chocolate flavored cake that's being called "kuro/クロ" (black) and the sign said it was the top seller so since I am a chocolate lover, I bought 2 of the 8 pack boxes for 1000 yen each. I opened 1 box and snacked/tasted it during the flight to Taipei. It doesn't have a very strong chocolate flavor, but I do prefer it over the regular Tokyo Banana because it's not as sweet. I hope James likes it.

Anyway, if your stuck at Narita Airport in terminal 2 and are searching for wifi, you should be able to find the Narita Wifi Hotspot. The problem with that is that although it's not a secured hotspot, it isn't free! It costs 500 yen for a 24 hour period. I suppose it's not that bad a price to pay if you're stuck in the terminal for several hours, but we were only there for a little over an hour so I wasn't about to splurge 500 yen just to check my email (and check into foursquare of course). As we continued browsing through the shops, we came across an illy espressamante cafe that displayed a "free broadband wifi and computer access" sign. 8^) Just perfect!

I purchased a non required small iced coffee for a little under 300 yen and found out after asking the barista that I needed to see the NT desk that was right next to the espresso bar for the computer use, so that's what I did.

The NT desk requires you to fill out a form with your id and passport numbers, then they give you a tiny little USB wifi nub (I believe). I didn't take a photo of it, but didn't appear large enough to be a modem. Anyway, they have a bunch of fast notebooks all set up and you are assigned to a terminal where you just simply plug in the little USB nub thingy and you're browsing the web instantly at blazing fast speeds! She asked me in the beginning if I wanted to use my own computer, but I answered, "no" because it would have taken forever to start up my computer. Using their computer was so convenient! Also, we realized that our phones were also able to log on to the wifi by just registering on the homepage that pops up after connecting to the hotspot and opening your browser. It's a very simple process that just required your email address inputted twice a selecting "agree" on a couple radio dots. You can be online on your wifi enabled mobile device in under a minute! The registration page is available in Japanese and English.

Well I hope this tip helps those of you who may be searching for free wifi hotspot options at Narita International Airport. I know I had a very difficult time searching for this specific information while planning how I was going to gain access to the internet. I knew there was wifi at the airport, but it didn't say it was free.

There is one draw back to using this free wifi hotspot. That is you need to be near the cafe, but there are plenty of seats and computers in there and it also has a view out to the tarmac!

:)
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China Airlines In Flight Meals HNL > TPE #HIasia #FB

2010-10-14T18:54:00.001-10:00

China Airlines In Flight Meals HNL > TPE #HIasia #FB

I haven't flown China Airlines ever since they lost their Honolulu to Haneda route so it's been several years. I always enjoyed the meals provided on the China Airlines flights.

On the Honolulu to Narita flight, we had a breakfast and a snack. The breakfast options were pork congee or omelet with sausage. I had the pork congee. It was delicious, especially after adding in some black pepper. Kelli had the omelet. It also had a hash brown in it. I didn't care for the omelet and hash brown.

The snack was served just prior to decent. The choices were chicken rice or shrimp chili (I think that's what they said). Anyway since neither of us eat shrimp, we both opted for the chicken rice. The chicken was a sweet miso flavored grilled boneless chicken thigh over rice with garnishes. It was tasty and I would eat it again.

The leg from Narita to Taipei comes with one meal. The options we were provided were seafood or chicken. Again, we both opted for the chicken. Oddly, if you look at the photo of the bento withe the little carrot shaped like a cherry blossom, you should notice the "chicken" dish is practically half seafood (2 pieces of shrimp and a scallop). I thought this was odd because what if the passenger has severe seafood/shellfish allergies? Anyway, the chicken was a teriyaki grilled boneless chicken thigh This time, but it was an awfully small one. It was only about 4 bitefuls of chicken probably because of the accompanying shrimps and scallop. The salad dish with this meal was noteworthy. It was a curried potato salad with thin slices of roast pork. It was a.very light curry and citrus flavored salad with bits of cooked carrots in it providing bright orange accents. Also with this meal was an Australian lightly salted fresh butter to spread on the whole wheat bun. I was looking forward to trying it because it was different and not the Country Crock stuff served earlier. It was very creamy and tasted wonderful!

Okay, time to prepare for landing!
:)

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A photo from the Night Market in Taipei #HIasia

2010-10-14T13:03:00.001-10:00

This is just one photo. I'm testing my native gmail app on my Android. It hasn't been working since the airport. Seems to be working now. If so, more blog posts and photos to follow.

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The Lanakila Pacific's The Good Table dinner at Soul. #GoodTable @LanakilaPacific @PacificSoul @WorldwideEd

2010-10-09T11:31:00.003-10:00

**I am having some issues with the formatting transferring over from my Posterous feed to this Blogger post. I fixed it up a little on the Posterous link for easier reading. Posterous Version of this post.

Well a few days ago I posted about the Lanakila Pacific Meals on
Wheels benefit, The Good Table (http://www.thegoodtablehawaii.org/).
It was a night of dining at participating restaurants around Oahu to
raise funds to feed hungry seniors in Hawaii. You can read about the
organization here HTTP://LanakilaPacific.org/
.

My earlier post was simply a list of tweets @PacificSoul sent me
describing the special menu for The Good Table dinner. That post is
here http://nakama-m-photos.blogspot.com/2010/10/tentative-lanakilapacific-good-table.html/.

I won this table for four at Soul Restaurant
(http://PacificSoulHawaii.com/ )
located at 3040 Waialae Avenue. We invited friends, Ed (@WorldwideEd
/ HTTP://world-wide-ed.com/) and Mai,
to partake in this special feast. I wanted it to be fun for all of us
and since I knew I was going to be taking photos and tweeting a lot to
help spread the word for Lanakila Pacific, I figured there couldn't be
any better couple (of my friends) to enjoy it with since Ed is a
powerful "web dude" and his wife Mai doesn't tweet. It sort of works
out almost flawlessly because as Ed and I are trying to take food
shots in a low light setting that are of Gourmet Magazine caliber (I'm
kidding we used our Android camera phones :P), Kelli and Mai had an
opportunity to complain to each other about their husbands being
always on their phones.

Anyway, here are the photos of the delicious food and fun that night!
Thanks Lanakila Pacific (@LanakilaPacific
), Sean Priester of Soul
(@PacificSoul ), Ed (@WorldwideEd
), Mai and Kelli for the fun night of
great food! Also, thank you to Melissa Chang (@Melissa808
) @HawaiiIRL and @MixitUpHI for
choosing me in the raffel during your live web stream lunch (Link to
Senior Fair Web Stream
).
You can view the photos from everyone's #GoodTable photo posts at
their official photo stream site here
http://www.thegoodtablehawaii.org/watch-it-happen.html. And don't
forget to check out http://www.lanakilapacific.org/volunteer.asp to
see if you can help volunteering in anyway. I myself will be away for
a few weeks so I will not be able to do my Meals on Wheels route.

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Mini Barbecue Chicken Plate from Bull Kogi - Windward Mall (@MarkTRC)

2010-10-06T21:11:00.001-10:00

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: "Rick Nakama, R GRI" <ricknakama@gmail.com>
Date: Oct 6, 2010 9:09 PM
Subject: Mini Barbecue Chicken Plate from Bull Kogi - Windward Mall (@MarkTRC)
To: "Rick Nakama, R GRI" <RickNakama@gmail.com>

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: "Rick Nakama, R GRI" <ricknakama@gmail.com>
Date: Oct 6, 2010 9:06 PM
Subject: Mini Barbecue Chicken Plate from Bull Kogi - Windward Mall (@MarkTRC)
To: "Rick Nakama, R GRI" <RickNakama@gmail.com>

I picked up dinner at the Windward Mall food court and brought it over to Kelli's grandmother's house for dinner. I have never tried one of the newer restaurants there called Bull Kogi Korean Fusion so I tried it tonight.

@MarkTRC on Twitter noticed that I checked in at Windward Mall on Foursquare and he asked me what I was doing in the area because he lives near by. I tweeted back to him asking how Bull Kogi is and he said he's never tried it so I thought I would let him and everyone else know at the same time.

I ordered the mini barbecue chicken plate for $6.25 + tax. It comes with 2 scoops of white rice and 2 vegetable choices. I chose the cucumber and regular kim chee. I also requested for a container of koochoojung (Korean chili sauce) because I enjoy spice! Overall it was good and well worth the price. The chicken was flavored well and was cooked just right. The regular cabbage kim chee was not very spicy and also a little bit too salty for my tastes. The cucumber kim chee was good and not spicy at all which is normally how cucumber kim chee tastes around Honolulu.

The mini plate was just the right amount to satisfy my hunger. I am sure I'll get food at Bull Kogi again and maybe try a different dish the next time.

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Tentative @LanakilaPacific The Good Table special courses @PacificSoul #GoodTable #FB @HawaiiIRL

2010-10-05T22:35:00.001-10:00

I was lucky to win a Twitter drawing held on http://www.hawaiiirl.com/ Mix It Up Hawaii and won an awesome table at Pacific Soul for Thursday's The Good Table event. If you aren't familiar with The Good Table, you can read about it here: http://www.lanakilapacific.org/ and here: http://www.thegoodtablehawaii.org/.

The Chef will be preparing a special menu for The Good Table and I'm so lucky to be able to experience it! Tonight Chef Sean Priester tweeted me the special courses he has planned for Thursday night's The Good Table. I am simply copy and pasting his tweets here.

RT @pacificsoul: @RickNakama The Good Table-Course #1 Kukui Sausage Chorizo and North Shore Farms Black Bean Nachos with Local Sweet Corn -Asiago Cream #fb

RT @pacificsoul: @RickNakama The Good Table-Course #2 Chef Mack Maryland Crab cake with Manoa Pomelo #fb

RT @pacificsoul: @RickNakama The Good Table-Course #3 Haricot Verts Salad with Naked Cow Dairy Feta and Citronette #fb

RT @pacificsoul: @RickNakama #4 Seared Olamana farms Talapia w/ Jeanne Vana Heirloom Beans & Sweet Patato hash w/ Sofrtio & Kukui spicy portugese sausage #fb

RT @pacificsoul: @RickNakama Course #5 Pork Tenderloin with Lomi-Lomi Sweet local Tomatoes, Manchego-Serrano ”Mac-n-Cheese” Orzo, Wailaua Braised Greens #fb
Sounds yummy doesn't it?? We can't wait to eat dinner on Thursday!

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My worm compost bin & a test of "compostable" Sun Chips bag #FB

2010-10-02T11:37:00.001-10:00

Well a few weeks ago, I posted a post about re-bedding my worm bin and none of the photos attached to the email that I sent to Posterous! That has become the most annoying thing about emailing my posts to Posterous straight from my phone. It isn't a Posterous issue, it's some kind of bug in my Android 2.2 (now 2.2.1) native Gmail application. I can attach photos to the email and see them in the draft, but when I hit send, none of the attachments stick to the email. The result is a blog post ends up without any photos. The only way for me to correct it, as far as I know, is to transfer all the related photos to a computer and edit the post by uploading photos to it or deleting the post and re-sendind the email. I try to avoid deleting the post because then there will be a link that doesn't link to what it's supposed to link to floating around out in Twitter world and the other places my Posterous feeds to. That has to be my most frustrating experience with emailing my blog posts. I continue to do it because it's so much simpler, but I just wish I could edit the post via my mobile and add photos to an existing post rather than going through all that stuff above.

So here's a follow up post, hopefully with the photos.

I forgot to mention in my last worm bin post that I was putting the Sun Chips "fully compostable bag" into my bin to see if it really does decompose and how fast it does it while in an actual compost bin.

Check back in a couple months when I look into the status of the Sun Chips bag and my worms.

Please photos, please stay attached!!!!

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Sunsets from Wa'ahila State Park & Trail

2010-10-02T07:12:00.001-10:00

We've been walking up to the Wa'ahila Ridge Trail a few times a week in an attempt to feel healthier. Wa'ahila is at the top of Saint Louis Heights.

These are a couple of sunset shots taken from the street, just before entering the heavily wooded park area.

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Mama Woo's Korean BBQ - 2080 S King Street http://twitpic.com/2s3uce #FB

2010-09-25T20:15:00.001-10:00

Another failure of the photo attachments so I'm resending! :-/

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: "Rick Nakama, R GRI" <ricknakama@gmail.com>
Date: Sep 25, 2010 8:11 PM
Subject: Mama Woo's Korean BBQ - 2080 S King Street #FB
To: "Posterous All" <Post@posterous.com>

I learned the story about Mama Woo's Korean Barbecue by reading http://www.nonstophonolulu.com/blogs/thedailydish/fuud-mama-woos-bar-b-q-in-moiliili/. As I drove by this new location over the past several weeks, I watched the location, across the Union 76 Gas Station on King Street, turn into Mama Woo's. I didn't make it in there until tonight, but reading the NonstopHonolulu.com blog about it a couple of weeks ago definitely put it on my list of places to try.

I had one of the specials of the day, the kim chee stew. Kelli had the meat jun and fried mandoo combo.

We enjoyed all the flavors of the food food. They offer a choice of white or brown rice and four "vegetable" choices. I liked all the "vegetable" choices we selected except the tofu, it was a but dry.

It is nice to have another great Korean barbecue take out restaurant in the area. I am sure that we will be eating there often.

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Rick's BLOG about anything!

Coffee at the Coffee Commissary on Fairfax in Los Angeles

Picked up Handsome Coffee Roasters coffee at Spring for Coffee, Downtown Los Angeles

Coffee at Paper or Plastik on Pico Boulevard.

Tiago Coffee Bar & Kitchen on Hollywood Blvd.

Shangri La, Doris Duke Foundation for Islamic Art... the tour.

3 Combo Lunch Special from Da Ala Cart

Hawaiian Micro Brew Coffee Spot - Beach Bum Cafe

The Good Table at Ola Restaurant at Turtle Bay. A Fundraiser for Lanakila Pacific Meals on Wheels.

Hoki Poki Hand Picked 100% Estate Kona Coffee at the Made in Hawaii Festival

Yoga in the Park with Keith Sato #YogaHi

The Art of Hawaiian Coffee at Waikiki DFS Galleria

Went for a ride in a Tesla!

Finger Sweets Petit Custa Ginza ギンザ プテイ カスタ in Shirokiya

Rosemary cuttings for Granny.

Whew what a day. Had to fix my roof!

This special lemonade @EdsTown during the #Foodography shoot was delicious!

Another Saturday coffee experience @BeachBumCafe

Marukane Udon

Palace Saimin 1256 N King St

Leftover Big Ramen from Big City Diner makeover for breakfast. #NextCheapDinnerTweetup

Lunch at Inaba Restaurant

Yajima-ya Lunch Truck (@YajimayaHawaii)

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

Jin Din Rou Taiwanese Dim Sum Restaurant.

Dinner: Hiroshima Style Okonomiyaki

Ja Gal Chi Korean Restaurant (Honolulu)

Mo's Bacon Chocolate Chip Pancakes - Modified

Micro Brew Coffee Shop Beach Bum Cafe #FB

buta shougayaki don @YajimaYaHawaii w/@WorldwideEd

Fruit & Maple Oatmeal from McDonald's

Chinese New Year #ILoveChinatown Party in Chinatown Honolulu

Curry Broth Shabu Shabu at Sweet Home Cafe

Kissaten Cafe in Hawaiki Tower #FB

Le Crepe Cafe in Manoa #FB

Blue Truck Teppanyaki Juicy Steak Plate #FB

Blue Truck Teppanyaki Juicy Steak Plate #FB

Lunch @ZPizzaHawaii w/ @MarkTRC & @Melissa808

Lunch @LilihaBakery - Hamburger Steak

Our Potted Christmas Tree (@KanuHawaii #SimplifyTheHolidays)

Sunday Breakfast at Cinnamon's w/@NaneaKalani #FB

Flat Bread Lunch at Mix Cafe on Alakea w/@PrincessTara459 #FB

Tacos from @EatGogi Korean Taco Truck #FB

Jose's Mexican Cafe and Cantina - Spinach Burrito

Bella Mia in Kaimuki, Honolulu Lasagna #FB

Bale in Hawaii Kai Shopping Center

Hagensborg Mocha Truffle Pig

Pulehu Rubbed Grilled Chicken @OnoToGo Lunch Truck #FB (add photo)

Pulehu Rubbed Grilled Chicken @OnoToGo Lunch Truck #FB

Happy Hour at The Counter Burger

Pongo's Kitchen (@PongosKitchen) Mini Tofu Steak Plate #FB

Kakaako Kitchen Veggie Tofu Patty Plate

Bangga Bangga "Really Spicy Poke Bowl" (@WorldwideEd @LalaLinzy @HealthPass #HealthPass20th #FB)

Need a little #HIasia KitKat snack before #H50 starts! http://twitpic.com/358xfz

Had "New & Improved" Version of Mr. Mandoo after #MealsOnWheels delivery

Isetan Market Restaurant AGIO in Shinjuku, Tokyo #HIasia #FB

Iyemon Salon Kyoto 京都のお茶カフェイエモンサロン #HIasia #FB

五行京都 Gogyo Restaurant in Kyoto #HIasia #FB

お好みハウスふくろう広島 Okonomi House Fukurou Hiroshima #HIasia #FB

Add photos Fwd: すし辰広島 sushi tatsu hiroshima #hiasia #fb

すし辰広島 sushi tatsu hiroshima #hiasia #fb

Matsukiya near Karahashimae Station. #HIasia #FB

@Michael_Choy here's a couple HK ads I could picture you in. #HIasia (@egg104 @RickyLi99)

Toast Box dinner in Hong Kong #HIasia @FB

Using Hong Kong's Octopus Card to buy dessert. #HIasia #FB

Park Cafe at Royal Pacific Hotel (@RoyalPacificHTL) Mall.

Day Trip to Macau by Ferry. #HIasia #FB

Dim Sum Lunch @ 18 Brook 十八 #HIasia #FB

Hong Kong's Repulse Beach & near by areas. Part 3 #HIasia #FB

Hong Kong's Repulse Beach & near by areas. Part 2 #HIasia

Hong Kong's Repulse Beach & near by areas. Part 1 #HIasia #FB

Hong Kong's Repulse Beach & near by areas. Part 1 #HIasia #FB

Our First Night in Hong Kong. #HIasia #FB (@RoyalPacificHTL)

Roundtable Discussion and Lunch on the last day in Taipei. #HIasia #FB

Taipei International Flora Expo post 2 #HIasia #FB

The Taipei International Flora Expo #HIasia #FB

Picked up Tokyo Banana @ Narita. 東京バナナクロ。＃HIasia #FB

China Airlines In Flight Meals HNL > TPE #HIasia #FB

A photo from the Night Market in Taipei #HIasia

The Lanakila Pacific's The Good Table dinner at Soul. #GoodTable @LanakilaPacific @PacificSoul @WorldwideEd

Finger Sweets Petit Custa Ginza ギンザ　プテイカスタ　in Shirokiya