Poke – Page 2 – mmm-yoso

The Takeout Rotation – HFS at Centerpark Labs, Sue’s Korean Kitchen, and Tenkatori

February 2, 2024 mmm-yoso Japanese Restaurants, Korean Restaurants, Poke

Just clearing out the memory card here with some takeout revisits. Looking at my takeout "rotation" I quickly noticed a couple of consistencies in my choices. The places all open before 11. I get to work quite early in the morning and am not a big fan of crowds. So, if I can grab my lunch by 1030 or so, I'm happy. It seems like these places actually opened during the pandemic. And of course, it's not a far drive to any of these places for me.

So, here goes.

HFS at Centerpark Labs:

It's been a while since I'd done a post on HFS and I'd just got done making a final visit to Poke 8th and B recently (post upcoming). We had nice, almost late spring weather before the storm set in today; so it seemed like the perfect time to grab some poke from HFS.

HFS Again 01

I arrived five minutes before opening and got in and out in minutes.

HFS Again 02

Got the shoyu and the "Kilauea" which had some pretty good spice. This did hit the spot. Good quality fish, nutty brown rice……

HFS at Centerpark Labs
6835 Flanders Dr.
San Diego, CA 92121
Current Hours:
Daily 10am – 8pm

Sue's Korean Kitchen:

Sue's has been a regular Kimchi Fried Rice spot for me since my first visit in spring of 2021. I was a bit surprised at how much the serving size seemed to have shrunk on my last visit, so I needed to return to check things out.

Sues Again 01

They always seem so happy to see me here and are so nice. Which is one of the reasons I keep returning.

Sues Again 02

So, how was it? Well, it seems that my previous visit was just an off-day as the portion size returned to what I had on previous visits.

Sues Again 03

Rice was a bit mushier than normal; but I enjoyed the spam, the fermented spiciness of the dish.

Sue’s Korean Kitchen
6755 Mira Mesa Blvd. Suite 109
San Diego, CA 92121
Current Hours:
Mon – Sat 10am – 9pm

Tenkatori:

And last, but not least, yes yet another visit to Tenkatori. I've been a regular here since my first visits in spring of 2022. I always go at the 1030 opening time. That parking lot can be a horror show. I also will usually order when I arrive or call it in, ever since I noticed a $3 upcharge for online orders.

Tenka Again 01

Tenka Again 02

I had recently read Kat's post about getting tori nanban and was craving that. So, that's what I got.

Tenka Again 03

Whoa, the tartar sauce here is a bit too rich for my taste. I felt like I needed a shower after eating this!

Tenka Again 04

Yes, just like when I tried it before, there wasn't enough vinegar tones in this to cut all the richness. I gotta get back to Okan and see if I still enjoy their tori nanban.

On my next visit a couple of days later it was back to the same 'ol, same 'ol.

Tenka Again 05

Yes, I'll often go twice in a week!

Tenkatori Miramar
6780 Miramar Rd. Suite 104
San Diego, CA 92121
Current Hours:
Mon – Fri 1030am – 2pm, 4pm – 8pm
Sat – Sun 11am – 230pm, 4pm – 8pm

Hope everyone keeps dry and warm on this rather wet weekend! Take care!

Honolulu – Fort Ruger Market a Quarter Century Later

January 4, 2024 mmm-yoso Honolulu, Markets & Grocers, Oahu, Poke, Seafood, Travel

The Missus and I were looking at some of my old photo albums and flipped the page to my third grade class photo. I started cracking up and the Missus gave me a quizzical look. I then pointed something out to Her. All the boys were wearing long pants (no shorts were allowed in those days), Aloha Shirts (after all, it as class photo day), the girls Mumu's, but…….most of us were barefoot! I explained to the Missus that until the fifth grade, many of us actually did walk to school barefoot (though not uphill both ways). I mean this was the late 60's, early 70's, and things were different then. Plus, as I mentioned in my post on my "old neighborhood", Ali'iolani Elementary was just a block away from where we lived.

And this kinda brings me forward to this post. On our last trip back "home", the Missus asked me when I first remember having poke. We had just finished doing some stuffs at Ala Moana and I decided to show Her. Way back, when I was in the 5th or 6th grade, my Mom had an appointment in the Fort Ruger area. I was raised by a single parent and my Mom never ever drove, so we had to catch the Ruger bus and I waited while my Mom did her thing. After the appointment, we walked over to Ruger Market, and that's where I first remember having poke I really liked, over 50 years ago! I'd probably had it before; of course during the holidays there was sashimi and stuff, but I remembered the poke from Ruger Market clearly. Later, when I was older, my friends and I would drive on over after going to Cromwell's (I can't believe the cove is still around, though maybe not for long) and grab some poke, then go for a drive around Diamond Head Road and eat at the lookout or hele on over to Kapiolani Park or Paki Park and grind there.

So, we drove on over….and heck, I hadn't been to Ruger Market since before I left the islands; which would be over 25 years, but the place looks pretty much the same.

IMG_5734b

Though it's more of a seafood- Filipino/Hawaiian restaurant these days. When I was growing up, this was the neighborhood grocery for the area.

Different grades of Ahi is available, you can get poke made with pre-frozen Ahi (nah) or with fresh Ahi, what is called "Auction Fresh Ahi" on the sign.

You know what we got, right?

We'd already had some small stuffs to eat at Foodland Farms and this was a kind of a spur-of-the-moment thing, so we didn't go too crazy. We got one poke bowl, with brown rice, the chicharrons looked really good, so we got that, and also some boiled peanuts.

And then we headed off…..just like those hanabuddah days, I drove around Diamond Head Road to the lookout.

You can find the Amelia Earhart Plaque here as well.

As well as the "best seat in the house"….at least on this day.

And the local "security detail".

We headed on down and found parking and a table at Kapiolani Park and proceeded to dig in.

I was surprised to find that the kimchi was decent; not overly fermented, but still quite refreshing. The brown rice added a nice nuttiness to the bowl. The quality of the fish was good; tender and buttery in texture without connective tissue. We preferred the restrained, classic, soy-saltiness, with a hint of oceany sweetness of the Local Style Ahi. The Spicy Shoyu wasn't very spicy and was a bit on the salty side. Still, the quality and prep was way above anything here in San Diego.

The Chicharron was as good as it looked.

Crisp, with a slight crunch; porky and savory, which just enough salt. Talk about a guilty pleasure.

As for the boiled peanuts, well, the Missus was saving them for later. Though this little fella tried to make a move on the legume.

The Missus loves Her boiled peanuts, so he didn't stand a chance!

It was good to know that Ruger Market still makes decent poke.

The older I get, the more I treasure and appreciate those times and the chances I get to reflect on them. And it was wonderful to share a bowl of memories with the Missus.

Fort Ruger Market
3585 Alohea Ave.
Honolulu, HI 96816

And I also want to thank you for sharing in those memories with me! Thanks for stopping by!

Big Island – Tex Drive In (Honokaa), a Revisit to Suisan (Hilo), and Liliʻuokalani Gardens

December 15, 2023 mmm-yoso Desserts, Hawai'i - The Big Island, Poke, Travel

After enjoying our visit to the Waimea Town Market, we packed up, checked out, and headed back to Hilo. We could take our time since our flight wasn't until 230pm and decided to stop at Tex Drive In in Honokaa. It had been a bajillion years since we'd been here and decided it was time to try out the malasadas one more time.

We were surprised that it wasn't very busy as this was a Saturday.

We just ordered one plain malasada.

It was as we remembered; a bit too dense and bready for our taste. But it was fun just to be here again after all these years.

Tex Drive-In
5-690 Pakalana St.
Honokaa, HI 96727

From here it was a clear shot down the Belt Road. We had been in these parts many times so we really didn't bother to stop until our "lunch" destination. You know what the Missus wanted, right? Yep, it was Suisan one more time! In other words "hana hou"!

This time we got a plate; with the Ahi Shoyu and the Ahi Mango Habanero, a half pound of the Ahi Limu, and a Half pound of the Spicy Ahi.

The quality of the fish in the Shoyu Ahi was much better this time; but still not the best. The ahi habanero was quite buttery and there was some decent spice and salt. I never knew that the Missus had never had Ling Hing Mango before! She just loved the stuff! The rice was a bit on the dry side but passable.

There was much more limu in the ahi limu this time around and the fish was nicely salted and tender. This was quite "old school" delicious.

The spicy ahi was good as well. Mild spice, the fish tender.

Suisan Company Limited
93 Lihiwai St
Hilo, HI 96720

We were lucky and scored the bench right in back of Suisan.

We still had a bit of time on our hands after lunch, so we decided to cross the street and check out Liliʻuokalani Gardens. Man, we hadn't been here in years!

The original 5 acres was dedicated by Queen Liliʻuokalani to be a public park in 1907. The park was increased in size to 17 acres in 1917.

The park was then dedicated to the first Japanese immigrants to the island and has claimed to be the largest Edo-style garden outside of Japan.

There are lovely arching bridges over fish ponds, pagodas, torii, stone lanterns, and a wonderful view of Hilo Bay…..

Funny thing, even though I've been here several times, I never knew the history of the park until after my return from this trip.

You can find even more info here.

Soon enough, it was time to fill up the rental car, and head to the airport.

I'm hoping we won't have to wait another decade before returning!

Poke Etc. Revisited

December 11, 2023 mmm-yoso Local Kine Stuffs in San Diego, Poke

Recently, the Missus sent me to National City an urgent mission to get an ahem, "essential item". So off I went. I really don't get to the area as much as I used to….you know, when we used to complain about gas being $3.50 a gallon? Since my destination didn't open until 11, I decided to pick up lunch….but the question was where? It was a rather warm day for November and I decided that a revisit to Poke Etc. would be in order. I knew I hadn't been there in a while; but man, it had been over 7 years since my last visit! Time sure has flown by, hasn't it?

Poke Etc Rev 01

I was surprised to see the parking lot only half full….on a weekend! It looks like they've refreshed the sign since I last visited and now even call themselves a "Hawaiian Restaurant". Hmmm…..

Poke Etc Rev 02

Well, at least from what I remember, they aren't one of those "Chi-poke" places…you know 2 ounces of poke and all kinds of other "stuffs" for twenty bucks….

I just went with the "create your own bowl" priced at $14.95. I'm glad the guy working asked me how many scoops of rice. I only wanted/needed one scoop. I got my plate and headed on home.

Poke Etc Rev 03 Poke Etc Rev 05 I saved the seaweed salad for the Missus, not a fan of the stuff. The rice was moist and cooked decently.

I had checked out the poke and ordered the Spicy Garlic Ahi and Ahi Limu.

The ahi in the spicy garlic was really chewy and tough, not great quality fish. It was however, decently spicy, so much so that I really couldn't make out any garlic.

The quality of the fish in the ahi limu was better, though not great. But at least it didn't have too much "sugi" (connective tissue). I love the crunch and the oceany with a slight touch of salty-iodine flavor of good ogo. I do wish there was more of it. The seasoning wasn't overly salty; I could taste a bit of sesame oil and of course shoyu. Overall this was not bad. I'll put the place in the "etc" category.

Poke Etc Rev 04

My curiosity abated; it's back to HFS at Centerpark Labs for me.

Poke Etc
916 E 8th St
National City, CA 91950
Current Hours:
Mon – Sat 10am – 730pm
Sunday 10am – 7pm

The Market at HFS has Moved and is Now Hawaiian Fresh Seafood (HFS) At Centerpark Labs

August 24, 2023 mmm-yoso Local Kine Stuffs in San Diego, Markets & Grocers, Poke, Seafood

A couple of weeks back, I decided to head on to the Market at HFS. For some reason I went to their website and noticed the name of the place had changed to HFS at Centerpark Labs? I took a look and noticed that the address had changed as well! Strange because I had been to the Weathers Place location just a couple of weeks before! Anyway, I headed on over to make the 10am opening time. The "new" location was one traffic light further east on Mira Mesa Boulevard at Flanders Drive. Driving in, I found the new location with minimal problems because they were setting up as I drove into the parking lot.

HFS Centerpark 01

I parked and walked on over. There a large outdoor eating area at this location.

HFS Centerpark 02

And I saw a familiar face setting things up. It was Hope the manager who is from Aiea.
HFS Centerpark 02

After setting up, it was still before opening time and Hope saw me, waved and came on over to chat! It was great seeing her. Hope told me they had just completely moved things over a couple of weeks before and things were now busier than ever with an expanded menu and hours. The Weathers Place shop still did wholesale and Hope was in charge of both places! Yikes! She was working long hours, but was trying to find some manager candidates.

HFS Centerpark 04

Meanwhile there was line forming, but I didn't care since I was enjoying my chat with Hope. She even guided me into the shop and had the young lady running the register hand me a menu. Hope told me that they had really expanded the menu with cooked items, I'd already tried the fried ahi belly, but she recommended the Ahi Kama, the collar, which I'll make sure to try on one of my future visits.

Meanwhile, I gave "JeffP" my copy of the menu since he's a fan of HFS and didn't know they had moved, so here's a copy from their site.

HFS Centerpark Menu

These days, you can gaze at the seafood offerings like before…..

HFS Centerpark 05

But you order at the register, where they also have the available poke as well.

HFS Centerpark 05b

On my two visits, I just went with my typical poke bowl, I always get the rice separate from the fish and I usually avoid the salmon items.

HFS Centerpark 06

And the portions seem a bit bigger, but the poke is as good as always.

HFS Centerpark 07

And it makes me miss "home".

If you have trouble finding the shop, look for the big "6835" on top of the building, or the outdoor eating set-up, and there are signs strategically placed.

HFS Centerpark 10

And yes, you can get poke for dinner since they're open until 8pm these days. Though I'm not sure what the selection will be like then.

Maybe "FOY" Jason who mentioned stopping by this location as well might know?

HFS at Centerpark Labs
6835 Flanders Dr.
San Diego, CA 92121
Current Hours:
Daily 10am – 8pm

HFS Centerpark 08

Rebuilding the Rotation – The Market at HFS, Sue’s Korean Kitchen, Bay Park Coffee, and Zgara Greek Grill

July 6, 2023 mmm-yoso Breakfast/Brunch, Greek Food, Korean Restaurants, Poke

I'm not sure you've noticed, but we've gone on quite few trips since December, one of which was a month long! I know, we here all about "revenge travel" these days. Well, I'm not sure that's what it is for us. We're all getting older and for…at least me, I'm thinking better revenge travel now than to have wait longer and let it become "Depends" travel if you know what I mean. With all of those trips; it's been pretty difficult getting "back in the rhythm" of things like developing that rotation.

But it looks like things are straightening out and I'm ever slowly falling back into a routine. So here are a couple of places, most should be quite familiar to regular readers, I'll just leave it as a C(learing) O(ut the) M(emory) C(ard) post with a minimum of verbiage.

The Market at HFS:

**** HFS has moved their retail location and is now HFS at Centerpark Labs

It seems that the warmer the weather gets, the more I visit.

There had been a gap of over five months since I've restarted my visits and I no longer know the folks working here. The selection is smaller these days; at least on my two recent visits, though those didn't take place during what I recall were the peak days.

I basically stick with the ahi poke here and it still hits the spot. As things heat up and the Missus starts wanting poke, I'm sure I'll be visiting even more often.

Sue's Korean Kitchen:

The folks in the office really like Sue's, so it's been a fairly regular stop for me. Plus, they open at 10am which helps me to beat lunch time crowds.

It's the Kimchi Fried Rice that has us coming back.

Sue’s Korean Kitchen
6755 Mira Mesa Blvd.
Suite 109
San Diego, CA 92121

In my neck of the woods; well, there's not much. But here're two places that I hit up regularly.

Bay Park Coffee:

I usually meet our good friend "Alle" who was Frankie's favorite Auntie for coffee and to catch up on things once a week or so.

BPC COMC 01

And though they've had some staffing turnover over the last year or so, the folks working are quite nice. We usually catch up on things over a cold brew and veggie bagels.

BPC COMC 02

Bay Park Coffee
4130 Napier St
San Diego, CA 92110

Zgara Greek Grill:

After my last revisit to GyroGrill, I headed straight back to Zgara. I hadn't been in a while and business there seems to have really picked up.

Zgara R 01

And take a look at the photos from my last visit to GyroGrill and compare the gyro there to this version.

Zgara R 03

So, of course I'm now back in the habit of visiting as often as I can and it's still the pork gyros here for me. It's always great to chat with Eric, who remembers me from the days when Zgara was in PB.

Zgara Greek Grill
1229 Morena Blvd.
San Diego, CA 92110

So, hopefully I'm back in the rhythm now and will be adding places back to the rotation. As always, I'm so thankful for your visits and comments!

What's been on your rotation recently?

Hawaiian Fresh Seafood Liberty Station

June 6, 2023 mmm-yoso Poke

On a recent drive to Con Pane to get some sourdough for the Missus, I decided to drop by HFS's shop in Liberty Station. Strangely, I've been to the Market at HFS numerous times. Heck it's even on HFS Liberty Station 01 my warm weather rotation. But strangely, I'd never been to the shop they opened in Liberty Station that opened during the fall of 2021. It's not quite "poke weather" for me. But, after our recent trip "back home" I was kinda missing some decent poke so I decided to drop by.

This location is located off Womble Road (now that's a name) and Historic Decatur Road, in the back of Trader Joe's. It was just past the 11 opening time and I was shocked to find the place empty!

HFS Liberty Station 03

I figured that they wouldn't have a huge selection here and was correct. Only 6 different poke and three were salmon, which, sorry, I'm not going to get.

HFS Liberty Station 02

The young lady working was very nice. I got a Medium Bowl with Brown Rice ($18). And as is the usual when doing takeout, had the rice separated from the fish.

HFS Liberty Station 04

Got the shoyu ahi and the kimchi ahi. While there was some "sugi" (connective tissue) in the shoyu ahi, the quality of the fish was good overall. That kimchi ahi had a nice "kick" to it. The shoyu ahi was well coated and nicely flavored, not overly salty. The ahi pieces without the sugi was nice and buttery. A good portion size overall.

HFS Liberty Station 05 HFS Liberty Station 06 And this was just what I needed at this moment. Don't get me wrong, this would be just decent poke back home; but it sure beats all those "chi-poke" places out there. And it made for a nice lunch.

Hawaiian Fresh Seafood Liberty Station
2400 Historic Decatur Rd. Suite 107
San Diego, CA 92106
Current Hours:
Daily 11am – 6pm

HFS Liberty Station 07

Big Island – Koana and Mountain View Bakery (Mountain View), Chain of Craters Road, and Suisan (Hilo)

May 27, 2023 mmm-yoso Bakery, Caffeine Fix, Hawai'i - The Big Island, Poke, Seafood, Travel

We had a wonderful first day and evening on the Big Island. Man, it's hard to believe that it had been a decade since we last visited.

And since we were staying in Volcano Village, we wanted to resurrect an old tradition we had. But first, the Missus wanted a nice cup o' joe. I had done a bit of research and found a place in Mountain View, about a 15 minute drive from Volcano Village that just seemed perfect for the "coffee snob" in the family. A place named Koana.

This specialty coffee shop only did pour over….like I said, this place would be perfect for the Missus, right?

The bright, rustic space was quite welcoming.

As was the owner; who kindly took time to explain everything they had for the day.

In addition to the local coffees the place sold….

There were other local kine stuffs as well.

The Missus immediately homed in on the Paradise Coffee Kona Geisha Champagne Natural. The owner of Koana, Brian, told us that this coffee won the 2022 Hawaiian Coffee Association competition. Oh-kay…..

While we waited for our coffee we took a quick look around…the place has a real "old time" feel to it and reminds me of Honolua, way back in the 60's and 70's.

Meanwhile, I felt a bit peckish, so I walked on over to Mountain View Bakery. Man, the last time I was here was back in 90's, before I met the Missus.

This place is famous for their Stone Cookies and has been around since 1936! It's got a real old time, small town feel to it.

I got a taro mochi donut and a Spam Musubi. Breakfast of champions!

The mochi donut is made from glutinous rice and has a bit of a chew to it. It wasn't overly sweet. I liked it, but the Missus did not.

My musubi was perfect!

The Missus loved Her coffee and wanted to buy a bag. So, we went in and took a look around and could not find the coffee. So we asked Brian who told us he had two bags left behind the counter. He sold us one. It was $95! The Missus just absolutely loved this coffee.

Thus is life in the mmm-yoso household. The Missus gets Her $95 Kona Geisha coffee and I get a……Spam Musubi! Sounds like a fair deal, right?

We also bought some other stuffs as well.

Koana
18-1325 Old Volcano Rd.
Mountain View, HI 96771

Mountain Vewi Bakery
18-1319 Old Volcano Rd.
Mountain View, HI 96771

From here we headed back into Volcanoes National Park and proceeded to do what has become sort a tradition for us; a drive down Chain of Craters Road.

It's something we've done on every visit to the Big Island since we got married years ago.

It all seems familiar, and yet, different on every visit.

It's a reminder of how amazing this "Blue Marble" we live on is. We make stops along the way. At familiar places, like the Hōlei Sea Arch.

And there's another tradition we have or at least had, which I mentioned in my post from all those years ago:

" We always drive to the end of Chain of Craters Road, park, it used to be that you'd park just a couple of yards from the flow, but now you walk about a half mile or so. I always take a photo of the Missus at the point where the lava is covering the road.

When we look back at the older photos, we've noticed that the flow has moved and even though things might seem the same when the picture is taken; looking at the photos all lined up reveals that nature never stays still. For us, this is a nice timeline of sorts….the Missus on the lava flow, moving, maybe at an imperceptible speed, but nevertheless, still slowly moving."

Well, with time comes change. What used to be this:

12052012 293

In 2012, is now this in 2023. Though it's chained off.

Of course soon enough the question of "what's for lunch" came up. Well, the Missus had Her heart set on Suisan, which has long been a favorite of Hers. We'd arrived in Hilo on a day when Suisan was closed. So off we went on an hours drive into Hilo!

We were interested to see what effect the "time of Covid" had on Suisan and it was soon evident. Gone are the tables out front. You wait in line in front of the shop, there's a limit to the amount of folks they let into a shop at any one time.

Gone are the cold cases and the selection of poke is much smaller now.

We got a poke bowl with the Ahi Hawaiian and Shoyu Ahi ($15.50), a quarter pound Ahi Mango Habanero, and even went and tried the Scallop Lemon Shoyu and the Butter Garlic Prawns. We took our stuffs to the former location of the restaurant outside Suisan which is now closed and went for it.

In terms of fish quality the ahi in the Ahi Limu and the Mango Habanero was excellent, tender and almost buttery. Some of the pieces in the Shoyu Ahi had "sugi" that made it chewy. I wish there was more limu in the Ahi Hawaiian, though the flavoring for all three poke was spot on, not too salty, but well prepped and seasoned. The Mango Habanero was a nice surprise, fruity spice, perfect salt, without being too sweet.

As for the "pupus", well, the Butter Garlic Prawns were really tough, not much garlic flavor.

The Lemon Shoyu Scallops were also really chewy and there was an amount of "grit" in it that we didn't enjoy.

Still, that poke did "hit the spot". We'd return one more time before leaving the Big Island; though we'd stay with just poke on that visit.

Suisan Company Limited
93 Lihiwai St
Hilo, HI 96720

Hilo – Poke Market and Hilo Farmer’s Market

January 30, 2023 mmm-yoso Farmer's Markets/Night Market, Hawai'i - The Big Island, Poke, Travel

The Missus and I were so excited about heading to the Big Island. We both love the amazing environmental diversity, the warmth of the people, and just the relaxed vibe on the Big Island. I had good friends who had resided in Hilo for almost a decade and another good friend whose family used to own property in Kamuela that we'd check on, so we had visited many times in the pre-blogging days. So when the Missus asked me when was the last time we were on the Big Island, I gasped; it had been a decade! Even though we had only a couple of nights, we felt comfortable with the Big Island and had seen much of it before, so we'd spend our time focused on a couple of things and just enjoy ourselves.

It was interesting flying First Class on HAL, the Premier Lounge is quite comfortable, but only has coffee, tea, soft drinks, and those little bag of snacks they give you on flights.

Still, things were quite mellow here and it was right next to the gate for our flight to Hilo. The first place the Missus wanted to hit when we landed in Hilo was Suisan. Sadly, this was a Wednesday and I had to break the news to Her that Suisan is closed on Wednesdays. Which led to the question, "where are we going to get poke?" Luckily, I had a back up plan. I'd read about a little shop on Waianuenue Avenue simply called the Poke Market. We lucked out and found parking in the lot on the corner of Waianuenue and Keawe Street. The place was across the street. Ordering was done at a simple window and your food brought out from the door.

There was one young lady waiting to order at the window when we arrived and one rather disheveled old timer standing with his bike by the door. The young man running the place came out and handed the gentleman a poke bowl and simply told him, "you come back later and pay, okay?" I'm guessing this guy had no money and the owner of this place was really displaying true "Aloha".

Anyway, two of the six featured poke were sold out by the time we ordered. Because we had a rather substantial breakfast, we decided to just get three 1/4 pound portions of poke. The Hawaiian Style, Ginger Sesame Soy, and one that I would usually never order, the Shiitake Salmon. I'm not a big fan of salmon in poke.

We then walked down Waianuenue and then onto Kamehameha and sat on the stone wall in front of the Tsunami Museum, which looked like it was closed and had our poke.

The Hawaiian was our favorite, though it was on the salty side. The fish was tender and of good quality. Could have used more ogo, but this as much better than what we'd had the day before.

The Ginger Sesame Soy also had good quality fish.

We were surprised at the Shiitake Salmon, the salmon was tender, it had a nice savoriness and umami. I'm still not a fan of mayo on my poke though. I think it detracts form the texture of the fish….but since this was salmon…..

This was a nice start to our stay on the Big Island. And the Missus was to even get Her "Suisan fix" over the following days as well.

Poke Market
41 Waianuenue Ave.
Hilo, HI 96720

We decided to head on over to the Hilo Farmers, a place that we both love.

It was good to see that the place hasn't changed much. The Missus got some rambutan which She enjoyed over the next couple of days.

It was comforting to see that things haven't changed much since our last visit.

Hilo Farmer's Market
Corner of Kamehameha Ave. and Mamo St.
Hilo, HI 96720

We dropped by a couple of shops as we wandered back to the car.

As we sauntered over to the vehicle, the Missus and I looked at each other and laughed. It was so good to be back on the Big Island. All the craziness of life on the mainland had been paused and we had settled into "island time" quite quickly. Something that usually takes a couple of days. It was a great feeling.

We smiled and looked forward to our next stop. Volcano Village and Volcanoes National Park!

Oahu – Fresh Catch (Pearl City)

January 27, 2023 mmm-yoso Airport/Airline/Cruise/Rail Food, Oahu, Poke, Seafood, Travel

We were finally visiting "home", the four years away seemed like forty. And it wasn't without some apprehension on my part. I wondered if Covid had changed the Hawaii that I knew. How were things going to be, what had changed, had I changed?

It was drizzling as we left San Diego.

The remnants of the "atmospheric river" that pounded San Diego for over a week. On the other hand, back home, rain is seen as a blessing…..

We flew Hawaiian Airlines and while the food wasn't stellar, unlike most domestic first class, HAL seats will lay flat, so you can actually take a nap if you want to.

But I shouldn't have worried…once we landed, it felt like "home". And like the Missus says, "once you get here you walk different and talk different". Some things never change.

Of course as soon as we landed poke was on our minds. Unfortunately, due to our schedule, we weren't able to visit two of our favorites as Tanioka's was closed the day we arrived and Ono Seafood was closed on the day we went into "town".

Still, we wanted our poke fix, so I did some searching and found that Fresh Catch had opened a location in Pearl City at the end of 2020. So, we decided to head on over to grab some poke for an afternoon "snack" of sorts.

The young man working was really friendly. While looking at the offerings, the Missus pointed at the Oio Lomi, the scraped bonefish that's really an acquired taste. She wanted to try it….well, the Missus had really enjoyed aged poi, so I thought "why not" and got a quarter pound of it.

Unfortunately, She found it much too gooey and "fishy" for Her taste.

I, on the other hand had eaten my share of this growing up and thought this was a decent version. I enjoyed he tongue coating texture…yes, it does "taste like fish". It was a bit on the salty side as was everything else we got from here.

The "Hawaiian Blend", basically Ahi Limu was really salty and the fish was on the more "chewy" side.

Too much salt, too much shoyu. Some really tough pieces with too much "tsuji" – connective tissue.

The Ahi Wasabi was a bit better.

Though again, we thought the quality of the fish wasn't quite up to what we enjoy. Still a bit overly salty which muddled the heat from wasabi, a bit too overly sauced as well.

Kind of a bummer overall as we'd enjoyed our visits to the Kaimuki location on previous visits.

Fresh Catch
98-371 Kamehameha Hwy.
Pearl City, HI 96782

Of course, we had jiaozi for dinner. We had really missed my MIL's handmade jiaozi! Over the years it's become comfort food for me. I basically ate this whole plate. In fact, when my MIL asked us what we wanted for breakfast, lunch, or dinner, it was jiaozi! We can't get anything close to this in San Diego.

And then we had baozi for breakfast!

With some potstickers!

Before we headed off to the Big Island.

It was so good to be "home"!

Thanks for stopping by!