i love omiyage

so the best part about being japanese is that my people have some sickening obsession with bringing back gifts from our adventures abroad. unfortunately, i don't have a ton of friends frequenting the motherland (japan) nor relatives that come visit me here in hawaii that often. but luckily, my mom has made friends with a new vendor for her company (she works in the tourism industry) and he is constantly flying back and forth. my mom asked me what i wanted from tokyo. my answer? this.

http://www.tokyobanana.jp/

my first encounter with a tokyo banana was in the fall of 2006. i was working at a restaurant in waikiki and one of my coworker's parents were in town. she brought some food gifts for everyone and was handing them out in the back office. i picked it up and said "what is this? a twinkie?" and everyone started laughing. "what, you've never seen a tokyo banana before?" i shrugged, ripped the plastic wrapper off and shoved the soft cake into my mouth.

oh. my. god. it's the softest sponge you'll ever EVER eat with this light, creamy (but not too much so) banana flavored filling. i know people are always skeptical when it comes to banana flavored things... apparently it's a hard flavor to replicate. but trust me, there is something just jaw-dropping amazing about this. i am in love.

a quick google search seems to show that most people have mixed reactions about my favorite little cake of all time. to them i say screw you. more fucking tokyo banana for me. i should also mention there is a choco-tokyo banana! except it looks like a poop because it's brown. still good! they also have a bunch of other amazing things. wafer-like cookies, strawberry banna, etc etc. the list goes on.

anyway back to my mom and this super awesome faceless nameless guy. hey, man, thanks so much. this is the third box he's brought back for me and well? to be honest? i think you might be a god or deity or something. thank you so much for your generosity. i owe you so much.

now excuse me while i gorge myself in what is so holy and right.

regularly updating? really?

yeah, really. but mostly because i developed that roll of film and am just posting all those images.

so if you didn't know already... i work at satura cakes. my family in japan wanted to see what the cakes look like... so i took a very grainy shot. i should probably get a flash of some kind for my LC-A.

these are just some really cute mini-cupcakes the chefs made. to be honest, they look better than they tasted. so azn. all about the presentation. oh well, free none the less.

the other day i stopped by coffee talk to visit my friend, brittnie. i always forget how empty it is there on sunday afternoons. makes me want to make it a ritual. too bad jewel or juice isn't opened on the weekends... then i could get my acai fix as well.

kaimuki is such a lazy area on the weekends. i wonder why it's always so busy during the weekdays? so much traffic, congestion, people at all hours. what is there even to do there besides eat? and even then, most of those restaurants operate on such strange hours. i guess now that the burning tree is open i guess i have something to occupy myself between eateries.

brother's birthday

back in may my brother turned 20. he really likes italian food, so we decided to go where we normally go: arancinos. a lot of people tell me this place is inconsistent. but when your mom is friends with most of the staff and the owner, they tend to kick the service up a notch. we eat here really often. family gatherings, birthdays, when my mom's friends are in town, when they introduce a new item to the menu. we're irregular regulars, so to speak.

bread. mom usually eats this with balsamic vinegar + olive oil. i just it eat it plain, because it's already baked with seasonings.

blurry photo of my penne arrabita. it's a sort of spicy tomato based sauce with penne pasta. super delicious.

my mom always gets the same thing. tobiko and calamari spaghetti and a glass of merlot.

my brother, craigin, and his lasagna. also what he always gets. the portion is enormous.

mom, again.

blurry photo of the bar.

i suppose i don't know what real italian food is supposed to taste like, as i've never been to italy or been served by real authentic italian chefs. but in terms of flavor/portion/price, arancino's is always satisfying to me. i really like the duck pizza they have. it's duck, looking a lot similar to bacon but thicker cut, atop a thin hand made crust. topped with mozzarella cheese. and normally as a starter we get the bagna cauda. it an assortment of vegetables (celery, carrots, cauliflower, peppers, beans, etc) with an anchovy olive oil garlic dipping sauce.

if you haven't been here i'd absolutely recommend it. it can get a bit pricey (peroni beer is like $6 a bottle here) but the portions are big enough to satisfy me. i usually leave with left overs. they have two locations: one in the marriot hotel and the other on beachwalk.

semi-food related

man, writing about food all the time isn't so bad. i guess it's hard because i feel strange just describing what i've eaten. i wish i could show you guys, but my camera is still broken/i haven't bought a new camera. kind of getting back into the film thing again. i bought a snappy lxii at my friends garage sale this past weekend for a $1. very typical point and shoot, except that it automatically winds. yes! replaces my now defunct colorsplash.

speaking of cameras, i really really still want the canon ae-1. i wish i had it already. blah blah.

the other day i made the most amazing ramen. there's this open market on fort street three days a week and i picked up some choy sum there. generally speaking after that chinatown rat scare i've been really hesitant about open vegetable marts as i don't really know where they've been sitting. but the old lady at one of the stands is really sweet and always offers to help me out (as i'm clueless when it comes to picking out good veggies) so i guess i trust her.

i was a little unhappy that i had to use thinly sliced beef instead of shabu shabu pork, but it was delicious either way. poached egg on the top with togarashi seasoning!

did you guys know you can freeze certain vegetables? it really cuts on prep time. i've been doing this with green onion! a few weeks ago i bought some green onion and only used a third of it before it went bad. frustrated, i googled ways i could save green onion. shazam! my mom has been using most of it, though, which i guess i don't mind.

anyway more pictures later i gotta play sims 3!

so i broke my digital camera + other ramblings

my digital camera broke. which basically means lack of actual meal related posts... or at least ones with pictures. perhaps a blessing in disguise, since my camera was horrible anyway.

so if you're reading this, dear internetz, what kind of digital camera should i invest in? i realize a point and shoot would be my best option in terms of $$ but i am willing to spend a pretty penny on something that becomes an investment instead of a lemon... y'know.. like my stupid nikon was. i should probably note that i am a huge klutz and it probably broke because i suck at taking caring of things. still accepting suggestions!

anyway i decided to throw proper capitalization out the window unless i really feel like it. i kind of always enjoyed blogging like this anyway. i feel like it's less serious... less in-your-face. UNLESS I'M YELLING. but i won't do that unless i'm super excited about something.

also considering spinning this into a day-to-day blog because i grow tired of livejournal and their "you must wait till this advertisement is done" pop-ups. yuck. hate how ad ridden free websites have become.

anyway back to food. today i ate toast with butter and strawberry preserves. i generally prefer preserves over jams and jellies because i like the chunky bits of fruit! i've been meaning to find some recipes online (since it is summer and i want to be all d.i.y. and stuff). i found one i like that is pectin-free! apparently, according to these jam and jelly snobs, pectin free is the way to go since it keeps the natural fruit flavor. yum!

oh and since it's summer it's obviously iced tea season. i found this website, Adagio Teas, sometime last year that i've been meaning to order from but have been hesitant to do so. i want to try the sampler, but something about that picture of yunnan gold just does something for me.

how could you resist it? it looks fucking amazing. i just want to pop that right into a silk tea bag and let it steep for five minutes. i bet it comes out a nice yellow. maybe like morning pee. i'm joking, i'm joking. really. but when you think about it... okay i'll stop. seriously.

anyway i'm kind of out of things to write about. so here's a picture of me and this leather bag i bought at goodwill for $7. and my xavier: renegade angel season 1&2 DVD on my bed. yeah, i know, i should clean my room. whatevz.