A Long Weekend in Hawaii!

May 15, 2016May 14, 2016Leave a comment

I was lucky enough to go back to Hawaii to not only pick up the rest of my stuff, but to also do some of my favorite things while I was there!

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First stop at my favorite food place! Poke for days! 🐟 #foodporn #instafood #foodstagram #eeeeeats #myfab5 #f52grams #eatfamous #hawaiieats #hawaiisbestkitchens

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First stop: Ono Seafood for their half miso and half spicy tuna poke bowl!

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That bone marrow though. 😍 #foodporn #instafood #foodstagram #eeeeeats #myfab5 #f52grams #eatfamous #hawaiieats

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I won a free voucher for Grondin when I still lived there so we put it to good use!

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We came here for the cocoa puffs. #foodporn #instafood #foodstagram #eeeeeats #myfab5 #f52grams #eatfamous #hawaiieats #hawaiisbestkitchens

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We also got cocoa puffs from Liliha Bakery because why not?

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Brunch with the #bae = mochiko chicken and mochi waffles. 😛🍗🍴#foodporn #instafood #foodstagram #eeeeeats #myfab5 #f52grams #eatfamous #hawaiieats #hawaiisbestkitchens

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We then had my favorite chicken and waffles from The Nook

And then we did the Pillboxes Hike in Lanikai

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You need a #valentine or nah? #foodporn #instafood #foodstagram #eeeeeats #myfab5 #f52grams #eatfamous #hawaiieats #hawaiisbestkitchens

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And rewarded ourselves with my favorite shave ice from Uncle Clay’s House of Pure Aloha

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Happy #ValentinesDay! May your #valentine make you feel as special (and fatten you up with 8 course dinners with wine pairings) as much as mine has. I don't think we had enough glasses though. 😅 #foodporn #instafood #foodstagram #eeeeeats #myfab5 #f52grams #eatfamous #hawaiieats #mostexpensivemealofmylife

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Matt treated me to probably the best meal of my life with the 8 course Valentine’s Day dinner at Chef Mavro

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Can't stop won't stop eating. Eating all the poke/eggs benedict/prime rib/lechon for #ValentinesDay brunch at #Orchids! ❤🍴🌺 #foodporn #instafood #foodstagram #eeeeeats #myfab5 #f52grams #eatfamous #hawaiieats #grammasters3

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And we somehow managed to go to brunch at Orchids the next day

It was seriously AMAZING.

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Jeez, don't all these people have #valentines they need to go home to?! 🐋🌊💕 #happyvalentinesday #Waikiki #hawaii #beach #hilife #travel #wanderlust

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And hung out in Waikiki for the rest of the day.

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An #epic last breakfast at my favorite place! Crab cakes eggs benedict, shoyu pork loco moco, & guava chiffon pancakes. 😍🍳🌈 #foodporn #instafood #foodstagram #eeeeeats #myfab5 #f52grams #eatfamous #hawaiieats #hawaiisbestkitchens

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And for one last meal we ate at my favorite brunch spot Cinnamon’s and had crab cakes eggs benedict, guava chiffon pancakes, and shoyu pork loco moco.

And then it was back to LA 😢

That Time I Decided to Move to LA

July 14, 2015July 14, 2015Leave a comment

The last few weeks have been, to say the least, a whirlwind. As fate/luck/the forces that be would have it I have found myself in LA where I’ve been offered my dream job!

In any case, it seemed like #Jessicaloha had a short revival and my last week in Hawaii/one week visiting NJ + NYC was a fun time to have several (actually, many) yolo meals and experiences.

Goat cheese chicken and waffles from Bru’s Waffle in LA

Taco plate from Tacos Por Favor

My first taste at Philz Coffee

The best pastrami sandwich I’ve ever had from Mickey’s Deli

When I landed in New Jersey, I came home to a great welcome home committee – including a lobster dinner from my grandma!

My sister brought home my favorite platter from The Halal Guys

I also jam packed a day in NYC to visit some of my favorite places and see some of my favorite people.

Lox breakfast from The Grey Dog

The view inside Chelsea Market

Delicious lychee ice tea from Takumi Taco

My favorite view of the city from my old office

Froyo with one of my childhood friends

Only in NYC

Had dinner at Shake Shack in Madison Square Park

Good crew at the Rooftop Bar

Treated my dad to his favorite pork chop at Emeril’s Chop House

And with my last 3 days back in Hawaii, I ate my heart out at my favorite places in Hawaii.

Ramen bowl from Lucky Belly

The lobster bake from Shokudo

Oreo honey toast from Shokudo

Tuna crispy rice from Shokudo

My last taste at poke

The last mai tai sunset

The last 4-course supper in #Hawaii: North Shore garlic shrimp with local veggies and avocado, Hawaiian boullibaise with Alaskan crab, lobster, & prawn, loco #foiegras moco with qual egg, and the signature coconut creme brulee with toffee crumble.

Holoholo from Kalesa

My favorite bubble tea (taro, almond, coconut black tea) from T Pumps!

And finally wrapped up my last weekend of funemployment at my first California hike and unlimited Korean BBQ.

And because I passed my written exam for the driver’s exam on the first try, I am now officially a California resident! Excited to share food finds, cheap eats recipes, and more as I start my next adventure in the Golden State!

Also, hopefully I can actually make posting a regular thing 😉

Life’s Short, Eat Dessert First.

June 15, 2015June 15, 2015Leave a comment

A quick summary of all that was tasty and delicious over the past few weeks. Including that time we had Bubbie’s ice cream before dinner.

Chili moco from Downbeat Diner

Spicy tuna with uni from Maguro Bros.

Sweet chili chicken chicken from Kaka’ako Kitchen

The “What the Pho?” sandwich from Kaka’ako Kitchen: Wagyu beef brisket, swiss cheese, sriracha aioli, on a taro hoagie with pho dipping sauce: “an ode to the Philly cheesesteak, French dip and pho.

French toast with cinnamon apples from Cafe Kaila

Took a quick hike up Diamond Head – starting with the little hikes per my sprained ankle.

And got the ritual shave ice afterward.

Lemon lime and POG shave ice with condensed milk from Waiola Shave Ice

Stuffed salmon

Steak burrito from Oahu Mexican Grill

And because we had some friends in town, we took them to drinks at House Without a Key

Green spaghetti from Goofy Cafe & Dine

Dim Sum overload at Mei Sum Dim Sum

Beer flight and mac and cheese from Honolulu Beer Works

Crab cakes eggs benedict from Cinnamon’s

Shave ice from Island Snow

The view of Kailua on our way back home

Homemade fried rice stuffed chicken and Asian noodles

What a view from Outback Steakhouse (yes, one of my favorite chains) at Hawaii Kai

Cookie butter macaron from Bubbie’s

Mochi ice cream assortment and “Multiple Orgasm” ice cream cake from Bubbie’s

The crazy delicious dinner from Mud Hen Water: yaki o pa’i’ai, grilled he’e (octopus) in luau leaves, cold ginger rabbit and puffed rice, oxtail risotto, and egg white topped kitchen cocktail.

Mochiko chicken and mochi waffles from The Nook

And with that, I am finally caught up!

Kona Adventures!

June 8, 2015June 8, 2015Leave a comment

Our last day in Kona started off at Island Lava Java for brunch. Probably one of the busiest beach side brunches in town (and for good reason). Live music, delicious food, and a view of the ocean – can’t beat that!

Delicious (and huge) cinnamon roll

Beachside breakfast

Matt and I shared the famous cinnamon rolls. I had macadamia nut banana pancakes with Portuguese sausage and he had a kalua pork omelette. Both of us had humongous coffees because #Konacoffee.

We did lots of sightseeing afterwards, but mostly I just wanted to lay out on a beach after driving 7+ hours this whole trip.

Our historic stops included Pu’uhonua o Honaunau National Historical Park and the Painted Church.

While we did stop by Kahaluu Beach Park to spend the rest of the day, we decided instead to go up a bit more north to avoid the crowds. We made a pit stop at Umeke’s to share a poke lunch plate and then enjoyed most of the afternoon at Mani’owali Beach (Kua Bay).

Avocado poke, special garlic aioli poke, crab salad, lomi salmon, and furikake brown rice.

Fresh catch being prepared right behind the counter

And because we need to kill an hour before our flight, we stopped by Kona Brewing Co. to try a couple of the beers we can’t get in Oahu.

: Beer flight

: Cubano slow-roasted kalua pork, canadian bacon, provolone, sliced pickles and cuban mustard. baked on our house-made herbed flatbread

: Special Greek pizza and caesar salad

And that’s it! Maybe next time I’ll get to check out the Hilo side of the island, but I probably need to go on a few other adventures before then 🙂

I Saw a Volcano!

June 1, 2015June 1, 20152 Comments

The Big Island is. . . big.

It takes us about 2 hours to get down to the Volcano area from where we were staying, so we planned ahead, grabbed some to-go Kona coffee and cranberry macadamia nut scones and started our road trip down there.

Our first stop was Punalu’u Beach – a beautiful black sand beach which was a big mix of Asian tourists and locals camping out for the weekend. You can’t really go in the water because the ground is so rocky in the water, but it’s nice that the sand wasn’t sticky and you wouldn’t find it in weird places later (I promise it wasn’t dirt).

We also knew we wanted to stop by the farmer’s market over in Maku’u (driving passed the Volcano) which was huge and had a crazy assortment of things for sale. We grabbed $2.50 bags of lychee and rambutan (my favorite! one bag in Oahu is about double that price and you can’t even find rambutan on the mainland), a bbq smoked meat plate, corned beef and coconut milk wrapped in tea leaves, a haupia cheesecake, poi balls, and macadamia nut chocolate chip cookies. We kind of have a sweet tooth.

Poi balls

Red bean cake

Smoked Meat Plate

This looks like poop, but it’s corned beef, coconut milk, in taro leaves!

After stuffing our faces at the farmer’s market, Matt and I met up with his family who took us around the Volcano National Park. We checked out Volcano house (it was a pretty rainy and foggy day unfortunately), walked through the lava tubes (which reminded me a lot of the caves we checked out when I was in Australia), and even checked out some of the lava trees – which is a pretty interesting concept in itself if you look up what a lava tree is!

It was a pretty foggy day unfortunately =(

In front of the lava tube entrance

Inside the lava tubes

Lava tree!

Make a wish in a . . . steam vent?

I forgot what weather was under 70 degrees

Matt’s aunt and uncle own Village Teapot in the area (if you’re ever in the area, you should consider staying there!) which is just a very cool, cute, and comfortable property.

How cute is this place?!

His aunt even hides teapots and teacups throughout the property!

We snacked on some lilikoi cheesecake before dinner (cause life is short. Eat dessert first) and then headed over to the Crater Rim Cafe in the Kilauea Military Camp for dinner. Forgot to snap some pictures of this meal, but it was super delicious and was a great deal! I highly recommend if you get hungry in the Volcano area.

Lilikoi cheesecake. . . our appetizer?

After dinner, we headed up to the Jaggar Museum to finally see the volcano! It was super crowded, cold, and muggy, but we did get to catch the reflection of the lava in the sky. We didn’t stay too long because we had a 2 hour drive ahead of us, but I’m pretty proud to say that I’ve finally seen a volcano!

Very faint outline, but you can see it from afar + the reflection in the sky

Up next – eating our way through our last day in Kona!

Big Island Adventures – Day 1 – Up North on the Kohala Coast, Waimea, & Eating All the Things

May 31, 2015May 31, 2015Leave a comment

This Memorial Day Weekend, Matt and I took a trip over to one of the neighbor islands (my first neighbor island trip ever!) With 3 days, a full tank of rental car gas, and a Google Doc planned itinerary we started out our first day up north on the island.

Oh! But first here are some pictures from Matt’s birthday dinner at Roy’s. He was a good sport and let me take the pictures of him in the birthday hat they provided (thanks Roy’s!)

Round 1 of Matt’s birthday dinner! Roy’s Beachwalk Canoe: Szechuan Baby Back Ribs, Shrimp Sticks, Crispy Mini Crab Cakes, Chicken Spring Rolls & Spicy Tuna Roll.

Our entrees for the night: Beach Walk Trio: Hibachi Salmon, Macadamia Nut Crusted Monchong, Misoyaki Butterfish & Rice Crusted Hapuu’puu with Tomato Raviolis.

Happy Birthday Matt!

Also had a sushi-ritto from Up Roll Cafe in Kaka’ako for lunch on the day of our flight.

Salmon roll from Up Roll Cafe

Okay! Now for Big Island adventures. 🙂

The first place we visited was Hapuna Beach – white sand, lots of space (and convenient parking!), but because it was the first stop of the day it was a bit too cold to enjoy the water. Afterwards we visited Pu’ukohala Heiau (Temple of the Hill of the Whale) where King Kamehameha I built one of these last major Ancient Hawaiian Temples.

We even saw that there were a few newer offerings left at the site.

Since we hadn’t eaten anything since dinner on Oahu, we appropriately decided that our first real meal on Big Island should be the best burgers up north in Waimea.

Kahua Ranch wagyu beef burger with avocado and an egg, goop parmesan fries, and part of Matt’s chipotle goat cheese veal burger.

We also stopped by Waimea Coffee Company to load on caffeine before we hit the road again. I had a really yummy iced dirty chai, and Matt had the special of the day – a hand crafted spicy espresso beverage spiced up with cayenne pepper! We also shared a macaroon cause they were basically calling our name through the glass case.

The drive up the Kohala coast was beautiful – very different than driving on Oahu (we were pretty much the only ones on the road for most of the drive). We stopped by the original King Kamehameha statue (the one that was lost at sea) and drove all the way to the end of the highway at Pololu lookout.

After exploring Hawi for a bit, we rushed back to try Da Poke Shack before they closed – the #1 place on Yelp!

Wet Hawaiian poke, sesame baby octopus, & teriyaki calamari over furikake rice.

And because Matt knows I love eating al fresco, we booked dinner at Cafe Keei to watch the sunset and enjoy a really tasty dinner (although, my appetite was cut short from all the burgers and poke in one day).

Baked brie

Eggplant rolls

Enjoying my seafood soup while Matt eats the fresh catch of the day.

Lilikoi cheesecake for dessert

We also had some drinks at On the Rocks later that night – overall a busy first day to our long weekend! Next up, my first trip to see a volcano!

Costco Card Meals and Weekend Eats

May 18, 2015May 18, 2015Leave a comment

Costco cards are presumably for the much bigger families out there – which is why we only go about once every 2 weeks or so. And if you’ve got a membership, you know that a salmon meant for two, actually lasts about. . . 6 -8 meals.

Lemon pepper salmon on top of sauteed greens and cheese topped with an egg.

Teriyaki salmon with oyster sauce veggies and brown rice

This week’s Feast Friday we went to Lucky Belly. We went pretty early for lunch, and there was already a wait outside the door.

Lamb lumpia with roasted pepper and kochujang sauce

The Belly Bowl with sausage, belly, & bacon

Later that day, we headed over to Ward and tried out Bellini Bistro since it just opened. I had the raspberry frozen bellini and we shared an order of calamari.

And since I won that gift certificate to Kaka’ako Kitchen last week, we used it on some of the new items on their menu:

New spicy burger with curly fries

Deep fried bao buns – the meat and the buns were both deep fried!

We also stopped by Ward’s Courtyard Brunch today. The courtyard was super cute and was something out of one of my Pinterest boards. The event was very organized, and my best friend would’ve loved the yellow color scheme.

Everyone eats underneath this huge tent, and there’s plenty of places to sit.

Matt and I shared several things with the tickets we were given – Aloha mimosa, duck fried rice with a duck confit spring roll from #Morimoto, breakfast porridge rice soup with seafood, pork, lobster meat balls and egg topped with chicken cracklins from #PigandtheLady, Italian sausage strata from #EatHonolulu, and spicy tempura shrimp with bacon infused waffles from #PokeStop!

We’re off to the Big Island next weekend so my continuous blogging streak will come to an end. After living in Hawaii for over 3 months, I finally get to see my first volcano!

How I Established Feast Friday at Work

May 11, 2015May 11, 2015Leave a comment

Since I’m saving up for a couple of trips this year, I’ve established Friday as a “treat yourself” state of mind AKA creating a google spreadsheet of all the lunch places nearby and seeing how many I can cross off with my co-workers.

The spicy ahi bowl from Mama-ya downtown.

And because you can never turn down any family friend gathering and the buffet that they provide, I had my first taste of the famous coco puffs from Liliha Bakery

Most recently (since it’s been kind of rainy here in Honolulu) we visited Pho to Chau – a super delicious Pho place with the signature, authentic Chinatown experience.

Feast Friday was later followed by half-and-half pizza from JJ Dolan’s and a surprise grand prize raffle win from Civil Beat’s 5th anniversary celebration!

And of course, no weekend is complete with a little bit of staycationing.

One Day, I Will Post Regularly. . . One Day.

May 4, 2015May 4, 2015Leave a comment

Things have been a bit crazy lately, but I am trying to stay committed to updating as often as possible! Since I last blogged, there have been a lot of eatings and events (including deciding to dye my hair again!).

Well, per usual, a lot, a lot of food has been the center of basically everything I take a picture of.

Finally crossed of Marukame Udon from my bucketlist (the onion bomb and the fish cake were pretty delicious)

I also had my first try at some fried rice spam musubi

I also tried out a new zucchini boat recipe. Super easy and yummy, and I drowned it in as much cheese as possible.

The start of feast Fridays at work with this pesto chicken sandwich from OEC Cafe

Matt also had these tickets for a booze cruise that we never went on, so we spent one Saturday afternoon eating, drinking and watching the sunset.

Eh, the view was pretty nice 😉

Crazy delicious lunch at Pho My Lan in downtown Honolulu

Our friend Jason was performing at the Mission Houses Museum and they had pretty delicious, fresh food also. Check out the colors in the fresh beet and taro sides!

2weeks ago we visited Kailua, so of course we had to spend some time at my favorite beach , Lanikai.

Fresh potato gnocchi with

Bacon baked bean pork chops

Shepherd’s pie

Crab cakes

Dessert with Bailey’s affogato and homemade oreo mint ice cream

And since we took the east side way back to town, we also stopped by my favorite shave ice place – Uncle Clay’s Pure House of Aloha

And no weekend in Hawaii is complete without a gorgeous sunset

Because my best friend had friends in town, we shared a massive meal from Side Street Inn – complete with kalbi beef, pan fried island pork chops, spicy chicken, fried rice, “big ass steak,” and yaki soba.

Also got to spend another Feast Friday knocking off another restaurant from my bucketlist – here’s the Cochon de Lait Po’Boy from Scratch Kitchen & Bake Shop – Puerto Rican roasted pork, romaine, pickled trinity, creole mayo, demi baguette, and buttermilk-herb roasted potato salad.

And since it was the last Friday of the month last week, we went to the Filipino-themed Eat the Street! Here’s the pork adobo french fries topped with crispy chicharones.

Bisteak pizza

Oh, and if you were paying attention to the beginning of this post, I actually did dye my hair! Thanks Tabby Magic.

Okay, okay, I promise to update this on a regular basis – just so my mom doesn’t go crazy when she’s trying to figure out what I’m doing with my life from 5,000 miles away 😉

Staycation Weekends.

April 10, 2015April 10, 2015Leave a comment

One day I’ll run out of weekend adventures on this island. . . .nah. 🙂

The Kaiwi Shoreline Trail leading up to the Makapu’u Tidepools

Makapu’u Tidepools

My favorite shave ice place and favorite reward after hiking – Uncle Clay’s Pure House of Aloha

Date night noms – oxtail poutine, lazy luau dip, ahi poke cupcakes, haupia bread pudding, and sweet potato crunch from Off the Wall Craft Kitchen

If you ever find yourself on the last Friday of the month of Honolulu, check out Eat the Street for a bit! Tons of food and lots of options, but get there early to try and avoid as many long lines as possible.