check it out:

chicken katsu moco!  this is from L&G drive-in (these plate lunch people really need to think of better names for their restaurants).  it’s at a food court in pearl city that has a bunch of tasty looking and affordable places.  we will definitely return there.

it was quite delicious.  but, i think it would be even better if it were a zippy’s chili chicken katsu moco.  it was good though.  they gave three gigantic pieces of chicken that were cut up.  even i could not eat it all.  this place does serve chili hamburger steak though so maybe i could convince them to make me a chili chicken katsu moco.

ALSO, i heard that natto (fermented soy beans) helps get rid of/prevent clots in your blood.  so maybe if i eat my chili mocos with natto, that will be better.  i think natto is growing on me though.  it is quite tasty with rice and furikake.

L&G Drive-In
1000 Kamehameha Hwy
Pearl City, HI 96782

another place cameron and i tried recently is daiichi noodles cafe.  they have really cheap combos!  this one only cost $7.25:

it includes a bowl of ramen (which has some pork), chicken katsu, and curry rice.  they also have other choices like gyoza and other kinds of katsu.  i had a big bowl of ramen:

it was quite good.  they give a ton of vegetables (good) and the broth is very drinkable.  even at the end, i didn’t feel all salted out like i often do at other ramen places.  the only thing is that i only got one piece of pork so i kind of wished there was some more meat here.  luckily i ate some of cameron’s chicken katsu so that was good.

i’ve found that these huge bowls of ramen have one problem: i get tired of eating them.  i think a GREAT idea would be to serve 2-3 bowls of ramen with different broths and toppings.  wouldn’t that be cool?  halfway through my bowl, i started drinking some of cameron’s miso broth for a change.  i think my multi-bowl ramen idea is pretty good.  if i knew how to make ramen and yummy broths, i would start an awesome ramen shop.  and eat lots of ramen.

Daiichi Noodles Cafe
Aiea Shopping Plaza 99-080 Kauhale Road
Honolulu (Hawaii)
(808) 486-7432

we had a pretty full day planned for our last day in hawaii (saturday), and it began with some tasty dim sum with cameron’s parents and their friends kevin and monica. we went to the tiny china town and ate at won kee restaurant:

the dim sum was quite tasty. i don’t know if it’s as good as the best dim sum in L.A., but it was very respectable. random assortment #1:

on the above plate there is (clockwise) siu mai (shao mai), a yummy seafood mix wrapped in bean curd, turnip cake, char seu chueng fun (bbq pork in the big white noodle thing), chives and shrimp dumpling, and no mai gai (sticky rice with chicken).
random assortment #2:

pictured above is (clockwise) ha gao (shrimp dumpling), pork and other stuff wrapped in bean curd, pork and scallop dumpling, bo lo bao (pineapple bun with custard), char seu bao, egg roll, and in the center some sort of dumpling.

the seafood bean curd thing was something i don’t see at other dim sum places, and it was really tasty! it had this really yummy fish in it. the bo lo bao (my favorite dim sum) was pretty good here, but i like the top part to be a little sweeter and more crumbly. the custard inside was extremely creamy and smooth though.

after that cameron’s parents spent the afternoon driving us around the island.

first stop: national memorial cemetery of the pacific

the national memorial cemetery of the pacific is located near the punchbowl, and it’s a memorial for people who served in WWII, the vietnam war, and the korean war. it also contains the courts of the missing, honoring more than 10,000 people from those wars. there’s a large walkway with murals showing some of the major battles, and there’s also a really nice lookout point nearby.

after that, we drove to the dole plantation! pineapple!

the dole plantation is a total tourist trap (but i love it). they have the world’s largest maze, the pineapple express, a plantation garden tour, and plenty of photo opportunities:

i wanted to go see all the attractions, but they charge admission for everything! i didn’t get to go that day, but one day i want to go to the maze! i did buy some stuff at the enormous gift shop. the dole plantation is totally the man in hawaii (like starbucks and microsoft). they even had an informational panel about that:

i really wanted to try the dole pineapple softserve but the line was too long. i liked the dole plantation a lot though… pineapples are so happy!

then we kept driving to the north shore to look for the tasty shrimp truck and to get shave ice. we found one of giovanni’s trucks, but it was sold out. they said there was another truck farther down the road, but first we got shave ice at aoki’s:

apparently there is a more famous shave ice place nearby, but cameron’s parents said this one is just as good.

mr. taketa had the rainbow one, mrs. taketa had mango and some other tropical fruit, cameron had the sunset one, and i had one with blue hawaii (?) and some other tropical flavors with some li hing on top. i also got ice cream and red beans in mine:

mmm… the red bean and ice cream was really good. the ice kept melting though, so we tried to eat it faster, but…

BRAIN FREEZE!!! (best picture of cameron)

we kept driving after that, and then we saw it…

giovanni’s shrimp truck! this truck sold only one type of shrimp:

deliciously fresh and juicy garlic shrimp. even though i wasn’t a huge fan of the way the shrimp was cooked (and swimming in oil), the shrimp itself was very good. they were pretty large, tasted fresh, and had good texture.

after our shrimp stop, we drove around more, stopped at some scenic places, and enjoyed the nice weather.

for dinner, we went to yasura for some tasty ramen:

i was craving ramen the whole week we were in hawaii, so i ordered the big bowl that had everything in it:

cameron called it my dream bowl of ramen because it had so many different toppings. corn, hard boiled egg, seaweed, shrimp tempura, pork, chicken katsu, bamboo, napa, bean sprouts, and a couple other types of vegetables. it was all very delicious. the only thing i didn’t like as much was the broth. initially it was okay, but by the end, it was much too salty. this was not like the delicious udon broth i had at jimbo’s. still, it was a very satisfying bowl of ramen.

and speaking of dream bowls of ramen, here’s mine: the broth of jimbo’s with fresh ramen topped with two (or three?) soy sauce/tea eggs, two poached eggs (cooked until the yolk has just solidified), corn, fried fish cake, vegetables, and maybe a slice of pork. mmm… so good.

cameron had the mapo tofu ramen:

his was not quite as large as mine, but he said it was quite good and not too spicy.

THE END!

by day 8, cameron was craving some plate lunch so cameron’s dad picked up some yummy stuff from kai’s. cameron had the garlic chicken, which he says is really good at kai’s:

i tried some. man, that is really garlic-y chicken! it has some nice flavor though. i had the giant plate of chicken katsu:

for dinner, we went to jimbo, a japanese restaurant specializing in udon.

it was pretty crowded when we got there, so we had to wait about 15 minutes for a table. the restaurant is pretty small and the tables are pretty tight together, but it’s a cute little place. i liked it. i ordered the chicken, tempura, and vegetable udon (it looked like the biggest one they had):

it was by far the best bowl of udon i’ve ever had. it might be the best bowl of noodles i’ve ever had. okay, first of all, the udon is homemade so that alone was really tasty. then, all the toppings were really excellent and balanced. there were a few different types of vegetables, all cooked to a good consistency and with good flavor. then the egg was in a poached style with the egg just barely cooked solid. the chicken was also simply cooked but tasty, and there was also a yummy fried fishcake. but the real star of this udon was the broth. i could really tell that they put a lot of care into their broth. the flavors were really rich and deep, full of different vegetable flavors and the perfect amount of seasoning. a lot of places just put in a lot of salt and artificial flavors, so by the end of your bowl, all you taste is that saltiness. i drank this broth down to the last drop because is was so amazingly tasty and well-suited to the udon.

cameron had one of the combos so it had a bowl of udon, a small plate of pickled vegetables, and a bowl of rice and vegetable tempura.

cameron said his meal was also excellent. later on, we had a snack at ALOHA SUSHI:

cameron and i each had a spam kimchi roll. mmm… it is kind of nasty but so tasty. and of course…

my last and final banana ice cream:

i love you, holotta ice cream