Imperial rolls (deep fried stuffed with minced pork, taro root and carrot) with rice noodles. Served with shredded lettuce, carrot, mint, bean sprouts, green onions, peanut, and house fish sauce. $6.75
Little Saigon, South San Francisco CA
Mmm, I love Vietnamese imperial rolls! I enjoy the crispy, almost hard texture of its fried wrapper and the salty fish sauce that it always comes with. Almost as good as lumpia, hehe.
Artwork at the South San Francisco Bart Station.
Kona kampachi slices, miso glaze, macnut, scallions, and ogo (seaweed). $12.95
Don the Beachcomber, Kailua-Kona HI
This wasn’t my favorite dish. The miso glaze was really a thick miso sauce and there was A LOT of it. When it was combined with the seaweed, the resulting texture and flavor wasn’t appetizing. It was a salty, briney mess! I ordered this dish because I’d never had kampachi before, but it was nearly impossible to taste it because of all the crap on top. Too bad, perhaps next time…
Kailua Bay.
California roll with spicy tuna on top, sweet and sour sauce, tempura flakes. $18
Tokkuri Tei, Honolulu HI
Kilauea is a volcano on the island of Hawaii so they stacked this sushi roll to resemble it – pretty creative. The reddish spicy tuna on top even mimics flowing lava. It tasted pretty good but I’m not sure it was worth eighteen bucks. The spicy tuna had a slimy, squishy texture that I didn’t particularly enjoy.
Light-covered palm trees, Kapahulu Avenue.
A giant plate of homemade tortilla chips covered in a pepper jack cheese sauce, spicy taco-seasoned natural black angus ground beef, tomatoes, onions, guacamole, sour cream, and green onions. $15
Giovanni Pastrami, Honolulu HI
This was definitely a largo plate of nachos, but it wasn’t very good. The seasoned ground beef wasn’t spicy at all at the pepper jack cheese sauce was super bland. Lame!
Coors Light beer. Pitcher $12
White bougainvillea flowers (Nyctaginaceae), Ainahau Triangle Park.
Ezogiku’s signature and most popular ramen. Topped with charsiu pork, fishcake, and green onion. $8.75
Ezogiku, Honolulu HI
Mmm, this totally hit the spot! I was craving carbs and salt and this delivered on both. The restaurant was packed during lunch so we had to wait for a counter seat to open up. Glad we did because the ramen was pretty good!
Combo with gyoza. $2.25
“Aloha Welcome to Hawaii” sign at Honolulu International Airport.
Salt and pepper calamari. Calamari deep fried with a salt and pepper coating, sauteed with jalapenos and scallions. Served with a cilantro lime dipping sauce. $11
Zadin, San Francisco CA
Finally made it to this neighborhood restaurant, and I liked it! We had four people in our party so it was great to try a lot of different items. This dish was really tasty, but maybe a bit over-fried. I loved the jalapenos and the cilantro lime sauce was different and yummy.
Pink Triangle Park, Castro and Market.
House-made chorizo sauasage, organic bell peppers and tomatoes scrambled with three eggs and topped with queso fresco, sour cream, homemade slasa and fresh green onion. Served with a warmed flour tortilla instead of toast. $14
Portage Bay Cafe, Seattle WA
This place was packed with a line out the door! Thank goodness we had reservations. I don’t completely agree why this place is super popular though. I get that they use fresh, mostly healthy ingredients but their preparations aren’t anything special. I expected a little bit more considering their shear popularity. The food was good, but I thought it was overpriced for what it was. And the service was random and slow at times.
Coffee.
Pike Place Public Market sign at the corner of Pine and Pike.
Vermicelli noodles, tomatoes, green onions, mint, cilantro, crushed peanuts, rice wine vinegar. $11
Jiao, Palm Springs CA
Mmm, this was tasty! The shrimp were tender and delicious and all the noodles and herbs kept the dish super light. A great, summery dish – noms!
Lychee iced tea. $3
Black sesame shortbread cookies. Complimentary with check
With sweet and sour pepper sauce. $7
Jiao, Palm Springs CA
I really liked this roll. The addition of ripe mango was great and the pepper sauce kept everything bright and fresh. We were looking for light fare so this was perfect!
Place settings.
Lemon tree in the backyard on a typical Palm Springs day.
With house-smoked chicken and cajun sausage. $17
Eureka Restaurant & Lounge, San Francisco CA
Mmm, great smokey flavor and lovely ingredients. I really enjoyed this bowl of gumbo!
Bread and butter. Complimentary
Finally saw The Lion King playing at the Orpheum Theatre, Market Street.
A plain arepa topped with pork fritada, green onions, sweet plantain, cheese, white beans, pickled onions. $9
Poquito, San Francisco CA
This was not what I was expecting when I saw “arepa” on the menu, but this was SO good! It pretty much had everything on it so it was pretty filling. The pork was delicious as was the fried plantain. A heavy dish, but very nommy!
Yellow Bermuda buttercup/African wood sorrel (Oxalis pes-caprae, Oxalidaceae), 17th Street. It’s wintertime in San Francisco so these weedy plants are popping up everywhere! I wouldn’t want these rampants weeds in my own garden, but I will admit that they’re cute.
With queso fresco, green onions, and home fries. $11
The WestWood, San Francisco CA
Not sure what made this dish El Salvadorian style, but it tasted decent. Perhaps adding queso fresco and chorizo? The home fries were cook beautifully though and oh so flavorful!
King palm (Archontophoenix cunninghamiana, Arecaeae), 16th Street. The long inflorescence strands spraying laterally from the trunk is always cool to see!
Vittle Monster 