Hawaii Restaurants~Halekulani Orchids

Every so often we meet up with Mike's grand aunty for lunch.  She has refined taste and "tsks" at us if we say that we want to eat lunch at McDonald's or Zippy's.  I do not think that we have ever eaten at a restaurant that served food in styrofoam containers with his Aunty.
A couple of months back, she said that she wanted to go to her favorite restaurant, "Orchids" at the Halekulani hotel.  Apparently Mike's aunty frequently dines there because every staff member at the restaurant and the valets knew her by first name.  Wow! I guess Mike and I do not frequent places enough for staff to know us.

Bread Basket containing cheese focaccia bread, multi-grain rolls, and lavosh.  My favorite was the lavosh, Mike's favorite was the multi-grain roll.

 I ate the Onaga "Orchids Style" which was cooked Chinese style with shiitake mushrooms, green onion, cilantro, and soy sauce and seasame oil. The fish was cooked perfectly and I ate it all up!

Mike and his aunty both ordered the lobster and shrimp burger (with sambal aioli, and pickled cucumber, and potato wedges).

Here's a macro shot of the burger . Mike's aunty always orders this burger because it's so good!

Lilikoi and Chocolate bar Bar with mango coulis, and coconut ice cream.  The plate was also dressed with orange peel like pieces, which were actualy lilikoi gelee (yum!) and toasted macademia nuts.  

I can see why Orchids is Mike's aunty's favorite restaurant. The service was impeccable and the food was delicious. I do not think that Mike and I will be frequenting Orchids with our current budget, but maybe one day in the far far future...

Orchids
Halekulani
2199 Kalia Road
Honolulu, Hawaii 96815
(808) 923-2311

Healthy Soybean Snack

My grandma used to make boiled soybeans as a snack.  They are slightly crunchy and similar in texture to crunchy boiled peanuts.  Soybeans are low in fat and a good source of protein.

Soak dry soybeans for a couple of hours. 

Boil the soaked soybeans for about 15-20 minutes until the beans taste cook and are only a slight bit crunchy.  Sprinkle a little salt on the top and enjoy.

Goat Cheese, Scrambled Eggs, Spinach, and Honey Burritos

Back when Mike and I were living in Texas, we tried Good 2 Go Tacos and loved the Honeybear Taco (link to my old post).  We finally tried to recreate the taco at home.

Here's the spread-goat cheese, scrambled eggs, spinach, bacon, honey, and spam (I'm not sure why Mike cooked spam, but we have spam with the meal).

Here's all the fillings of my taco.  Mmmmmm....the tacos were pretty tasty, but the tacos from Good 2 Go Tacos were much better. The tacos we bought probably were more tasty because 1) there was a lot more filling; 2) there was a lot more grease; and 3) it contained a much higher quality bacon than the Farmer John's Thick Cut Bacon that we used. I think we have to buy Wright's bacon or that thick slab cut bacon from Sam's Club next time.

Favor Ideas

Okay this idea is probably a couple of years old, but still I like how it looks and made these for a friend's baby shower.

I bought some pearly pink Sixlets. Remember Sixlets?  The round candy coated chocolate pieces? Now they come in pearly iridescent colors perfect for wedding favors.  I bought mine online from Hobby Lobby (sold for about $5.99 a bag), but then found out that it was being sold at local Price Busters for $3.50 a bag.  Darn darn darn. Oh well, next time I will purchase them from Price Busters.

I also bought some regular pink sixlets.

Then filled this 8"x1" bags with the candies and tied a little ribbon bow on top.  Below here's a picture of some pastel M&M's in the bag.  It's such an easy favor.

Drooly Bibs Tip

It seems like I've been shifting my focus to watching my baby girl and coming up with different ways to make live easier. Here's a good use of those Asian hanging laundry drying holder (was that a good description?).

Our baby girl was drooling so much and going through TONS of bibs each day, so this is how we dried them.  Mike's mom came up with this idea. Isn't it genius?  We could then dry out her cloth bibs so they did not get all stinky and have that "wet dog" smell before we had time to wash them.

Sushi Man

The other weekend we celebrated Mike's grandparents 90th birthdays! We had a Sushi Man come over to Mike's aunty and uncle's house and he and his wife prepared sushi-to-order and other Japanese food. 

Here's a picture of some of the nigiri sushi

Here's the set-up of the sushi.  I had some California rolls and some spicy tuna rolls.

We also had garlic chicken, noodles, green salad, macaroni salad, and BBQ meat.

Dessert was lemon crunch cake from The Alley.  Yum!

Snow Puffies

The other weekend, Mike and I attended a birthday party and someone brought Snow Puppies.  Well, at least that's what I heard her call it. I thought, what a cute name for a pastry.

I searched "snow puppies hawaii" online and then realized that these cream filled Napoleon-like pastries are called, "Snow Puffies."

These are so airy and not too sweet.  I'll have to remember to stop by this bakery if I am ever on this side of the island again.

Paalaa Kai Bakery
66-945 Kaukonahua Rd
Waialua, HI 96791
(808) 637-9795