Dan and I hiked Diamond Head. He's a hiking newbie so seemed fitting to do the easiest hike on Oahu.
It was pretty hazy but still really nice! Maybe a sunset hike in the near future. Note to self: buy some legit shoes. Keds just don't cut it.
Before that we ate at J&J Bistro which is a pretty awesome French-Laotian place that is relatively reasonable in price. I got the "De Afternoon Tea" set which was about $15. It came with a pot of tea (English Breakfast!) and a entree set that included a mini turkey croissant sandwich, ham and corn quiche, crab ragoon, scone with orange marmalade, and a smoked salmon with avocado spread on a slice of french baguette bread! Oh, and dessert, which was a chocolate coffee mouse cake, red velvet cake, and a small orange tart. Dan got a pizza!! It was super good.
I gotta work on updating with greater frequency. I promise, a backlog of photos will be coming up real quick!
so it was (as i've mentioned) my birthday this past weekend. dana and diane, two of the kitchen staff, made me a (belated) birthday cake!
it ended up being creme fraiche cheesecake! my favorite cake from the store! i can only hope that at my new job i'll meet people as great/fun/thoughtful as them.
me doing my mom's signature "thumbs up? or not?" pose with my new work apron on. i kind of missed wearing full length aprons so this is a nice change. my first day on monday was fantastic! i shadowed/did a booklet thing/watched a guy make 107 frappuccinos in roughly two hour period single-handedly. sure, i may have washed a few blenders to assist, but it was really all him.
i'm kind of looking forward to actually starting to work there, which won't be for a while. i'm still "training." heh.
so friday ended up being a lot of fun. i didn't go to the bon dance as i had originally planned, but i did go out and drink way too much. thanks to everyone that i did see. in all honesty, i was sort of picturing my night as me drinking by myself at various bars. i didn't anticipate to see as many familiar faces as i did, nor the not-so-familiar, but i'm glad i did and thanks for all the well wishes. a special thank you to joe, who is always there to take care of me. i've got your back this year, buddy.
saturday morning i had the worst hang over of my life. okay, not greek festival '09 bad, but still pretty horrible. i spent most of my day eating rice and curry and playing starcraft as i attempted to recover.
if you haven't already played this game (at all, or the new version) it's pretty amazing. i'm hooked! the new battle.net system is pretty amazing, too. friends list! yay! send me your bnet ID, guys!
my dad had me over for dinner a little later in the evening and we had roast pork/mochiko pork/ steamed veggies. my step mom, atsuyo, introduced me to her love. avocado and wasabi shoyu. it's kind of amazingly good but there's something about knowing it's really bad for you. i imagine a wasabi shoyu dressing on an avocado arugula salad would be amazing. i'll try it out and let you know. my dad also baked me a really huge cake. three layers!
i do not know how i will finish this all. so. much. sugar. gah! but thanks, dad, if you're reading this! it's actually really good. two layers of funfetti cake and the middle is lemon with a cream cheese icing between and regular frosting on the outside. nummy!
then last night i went to this show for a friend's brother. it was his birthday. all kinds of madness came out of that night, and while i still can't stomach the reality of certain things the boys are absolutely right. i will absolutely look back on last night and think "wow, that was some awesome/crazy shit." i am going to keep this vague for a reason because a) what did happen was pretty obscene and b) i don't want to get anyone in trouble. man-oh-man, though, i'll never forget... not even if i tried.
i've never had a jack in the box double cheese burger in my life. generally speaking, i really have a dislike for fast food burgers except when i'm poor, but even then i'd rather eat a cup noodle. last night i realized that i really do not like these types of burgers and while everyone gave me a little shit for ordering it, i can honestly say that i regret it immensely. the way it sort of floated in my stomach atop all that beer was the most unsettling feeling. never again. but i always say that and i always find myself back in line at mcdonalds. convenience is a hard thing to pass up.
anyway, to sum this post up, i had an amazing, exciting, crazy, change-filled weekend. totally looking forward to august and the rest of this year!
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.
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.
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.
