I'm leaving on a Jet plane....

Don't know when I'll be back again.... going back up to the mainland this afternoon, back to the cold wetness of winter sigh.  I had a last breakfast at Liliha Bakery, just down the street from where I live.  This is a wonderful bakery with awesome coco puffs, but their sit down counter top breakfast, lunch, dinner is also yummy. I had to go with my favorite breakfast, Portuguese sausage, eggs, and rice for my last meal here.  It came with their famous butter roll.

 

Da menu

Old school countertops where they cook right in front of you

 

Portuguese sausage, eggs, and rice & Loco Moco

Good last breakfast. Time to head back to the mainland where the rain and cold will welcome me.  Oh well, all good things must come to an end, but the good thing is that more good things will come as well!

Local Food Day

Tomorrow I fly back to the mainland so in light of that, today I ate at some of my favorite local food places: Helena's Hawaiian Food, Waiola Shave Ice, and Leonard's malasadas!!

Hawaiian food is best here at home and Helena's is one of the best. Today I had the kalua pig, lomi salmon, laulau, pipikaula, and haupia.  If you've been there before, you know it is a hole in the wall restaurant in Kalihi, across from Mitsu-ken and next door to Mitsuba, two other great local places.  Parking is limited so its best to get there early for lunch.  Everything is served on mismatched plates and family style and because it is a family owned business, everyone from the waiters to the tutu working at the register is friendly and welcoming.  Food is home cooked and did I mention, delicious!!

 

Helena's, love the comfy home feel

Let the eating begin!

 

Excellent pipukaula, haupia, and lomi salmon

Laulau, kalua pig, beef stew at the top

I had to get my favorite shave ice after lunch at the original Waiola's. Flavors today on the large cup were li hing and mango! This mom and pop store has been here for as long as I can remember and it's still the best!

Best shave ice ever with super fine ice!

 

Large li hing and mango and cannot forget da homemade musubi

Last stop, Leonard's for some fresh malasadas! Flavor of the month for the custard filled is lilikoi, YUM!

Got malasadas? 

 

Delicious sugarness

Two bites and I got to the lilikoi custard 

It was a wonderful day of eating local food.  Don't know when I'll be back again so today was an all out day of indulgence which I do not regret at all!

Helena's Hawaiian Food

1240 North School Street
Honolulu, HI 96817-2013
(808) 845-8044

Waiola Shave Ice

2135 Waiola Ave corner of Paani Street
Honolulu, HI 96805

(808) 949-2269

Leonard's Bakery

933 Kapahulu Ave
Honolulu, HI 96816

(808) 737-5591

Yama's Fish Market

Back home in Hawaii nei! First thing to do after getting off the plane and dropping my things off at home is to go grab some local food. Couple of friends and I headed to Yama's Fish market down by Moiliili Park.  It was my first time there, but I had heard good things about it, particularly about their katsu ahi.

It was easy enough to find, but parking was a whole different story.  They have about 5 stalls and it is in a residential/business area so after driving around for 10 minutes I realized I could park at the park and walk over, problem solved! 

 Yama's Fish Market

Yama's apparently moved from their old location to this new one so the front of the store was nicely painted and there were two outside tables to eat from.  Inside, there was a local home feel to the place. Directly in front of you when you enter is a  large selection of fresh poke.  On the shelves there are goodies of local snacks as well as their fresh ahi patty bentos.  In the refrigerator case there are desserts, their varieties of haupia pie, li hing pineapple and mango, kalua pork, etc etc.  The people who work there are awesome and so friendly.

 Poke!!

Menu was extensive and they have daily specials of the day of which the ahi katsu was not a part of so I went with their grilled ahi instead. Delicious! Two big pieces of ahi, grilled to my preference of medium rare with mac salad and 2 scoops rice.  I got a dish of their li hing pineapple for dessert as well. 

 

Gigantic grilled Ahi with 2 scoop rice and mac salad is on the side in a container (not shown)

 

  Laulau, lomi salmon, poke, haupia, rice

 

Haupia topped brownie and the sweet potato pie

Ahi was tender and cooked medium rare the way I like it.  It came with a sort of pesto sauce that was a bit salty but with the rice the flavor evened out.  I didn't get a shot of the li hing pineapple, but let me just say that it was nice to taste li hing again! If you're ever in the Moiliili area and are hungry, Yama's is a good place to stop by for some grinds!

Yama's Fish Market

2332 Young Street
Honolulu, HI 96826
(808) 941-9994

Last days in Sydney..

It was a busy last week in Sydney with completion of my paper.  The weekend however was tons of fun.  I'll leave you all with pictures from this past week!

 

Jook Breakfast & Hillsong Service

 

Museum Time

World at my hands

Last time at Darling Harbour

 

Blue Mountains

 Spectacular Views

 

Dinner for the family

Great time!

 

This is how they do cappacino in Aus, YUM!

 

last view of Sydney from the air

 

Caught this beautiful sunrise as I fly into Honolulu

 

Departed the plane and the end of my AUS adventures

I have had an awesome 2 months in Australia and looking back now it has all gone by so fast. I've met many many people, made new friends, learned new things,  worked hard, gone through challenges, lived a different lifestyle, and have enjoyed it all! Thanks to those that followed. My posts will mostly be back now to food!

Back to Sydney!

2 days ago I headed back into the familiar town of Sydney with Yushi.  We caught the 3 hour train ride plus a ferry to Manly Beach where our preceptor picked us up and brought us to his home.  He has a flat adjacent to his house which affectionately is called the gummy flat because his 3 year old son couldn't say granny flat when he was younger.  It is a lovely place with an upstairs room with balcony and downstairs there is a kitchenette and bathroom, very quaint!

 

Train waiting/riding 3 hrs to Sydney

 Outside the gummyflat

The next morning we visited the University of Sydney for a meeting and then headed to the main even of our day, the beginning of the Chinese Lunar New Year festivities in Chinatown!  I finally got some real Chinese food and we were able to learn a lot about the province of Chongqing as this year the city of Sydney invited artists and performers to come and share their culture.  I did not know this, but Sydney has the largest Chinese New Years celebration outside of Asia and I can believe it as it is a 3 week long celebration.  We saw some amazing art work, dancing, famous change face show, food, and lion dancing. 

 

  

  

Steamed fish!

 

Shrimp & beansprout noodle with soup

 

Silk embroidery

Artist at work painting on banyan leaf

 

Lion Dance

 

Year of the Tiger!  Beautiful leaf painting

Gung Hei Fat Choi! More to come later....

Last week in Newcastle ......

Heading out of Newcastle to spend my last week in Australia working out of Sydney.  I made my rounds of the favorite places including Sprocket for their Pumpkin Lentil salad which they didn't have, but had their Pumpkin Israeli couscous instead,  Newcastle beach, and of course Goldbergs for a last dinner.

Also celebrated a birthday a few days ago and made some dinner for some of the girls at the apartment as well.  Can't believe that I have lived here for 6 weeks! I'm going to miss this little town.

Pics from this past week......

 

B-day dinner some of the girls at the apt made for me 

(steak & homemade fries, chinese vegetables, apple cake!)

Pumpkin Couscous from Sprocket

Newcastle Beach

 

Dinner for the girls

(Roasted chicken with lime & coriander, garlic rice, steamed vegetables, S & P shrimp one of the girls made)

Can't leave without having the lamington!

 

or making the last stop to Goldbergs......

Slow roasted lamb infused with garlic & rosemary

pan fried potatos, peas and pancetta pink peppercorn jus

 

Sea Salt Pork Medallion 

with chili roasted pumpkin, grilled caramelized apple, fresh asparagus & spicy rhubarb jam

  

Good times 

Not sure how much time I will have to blog in Sydney as it's getting pretty intense with the rotation work now.  It is Chinese New Year's this weekend though so definitely I will have a post on that.  See you back in Sydney!