Grilled Chicken Breast with Curry Fried Rice and Chicken Salad Sandwich

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

Downtown, Honolulu First Friday Art Gallery Exhibitions 9/7

On Friday, 9/7, we went to the First Friday event in Downtown, Honolulu. It's held on each First Friday of the Month and it takes place throughout the Downtown and Chinatown districts of Honolulu. The center of the events radiate around Mark's Garage. It's recommended that you find parking early (between 5pm-6pm) because of the crowds this event attracts. I'll post links to any related sites at the bottom of this post. We found parking at a municipal parking garage in Chinatown at the $3 rate for evening parking. Our first stop was to find some dinner. We chose Du Vin, a wine bar and restaurant located on Bethel Street across the Hawaii Theatre. Kelli and I were last here for the 2006 Louis Vuitton Film Festival's Opening Party. We started with 2 glasses of Zilliken reisling and the Cream of Asparagus Soup then the Baked Brie in Puff Pastry, Escargot, Crispy Duck and ended with the Chocolate Souffle. The food was excellent! I especially loved the Crispy Duck. As far as the ambiance of the restaurant, it's tight and cozy, low lighting, rustic decor and no air conditioning. Yes, NO Air Conditioning! The last time we were here, it was a cocktail party so we were standing and walking around in the courtyard area. That was much cooler. Sitting down inside was uncomfortably warm! Don't expect to feel fresh and cool after a sit down dinner inside. Try to look for a table in the courtyard if you want to keep cooler. The service is on the slower side. There is a sign posted saying "allow 20 minutes for menu orders". To be straight forward, our ice water arrived after about 5 minutes, then our wine at about 10 minutes, ordered from the menu maybe 20 minutes from seating. Our food started coming out about 30-40 minutes from seating, but the waitress not once refilled our waters or asked if we wanted another glass of wine. Anyway, it was too hot in there so we drank, ate and got out of there. The total bill was $72.45 plus tip for the items we ordered. I would dine here again, but I probably would do it on a cool night. The famous Honolulu Theatre was holding an "Open House" as part of the First Friday events. Also on Bethel Street are several art galleries that were packed with people interested in seeing the artwork and meeting with some of the artists that were displaying their work. Below are some photos from First Friday. Left: Bread of Life sweetbread. We bought 2 loaves for $8. Right: Click to link to the full size map by Art at Mark's Garage. Related Links: Full Size Photos. Art at Mark's Garage. Google Maps of First Friday Area. Du Vin 1115 Bethel St Honolulu, HI 96813 (808) 545-1115 Other reviews on Google Search.

HGTV's Design Star Challenge Final in Hawaii at the Outrigger Reef Hotel.

HGTV's Design Star Challenge Final in Hawaii at the Outrigger Reef Hotel. <--Go to HGTV's website.

Last night (Sunday) HGTV aired the final competition for their Design Challenge Series. The last 2 competitors are Kim Myles and Todd Davis. This is the first episode of this show that I have watched. The only reason I watched it is because I have worked for Outrigger Reef Hotel for over 7 years.

My personal vote went to Kim Myles. I think her design fit the profile of a luxury suite much more than Todd Davis'. Todd's was also creative, but too casual to be a luxury suite.

If there's a re-run, check it out.