As in, yoso-silly, yoso-hungry, yoso-full, or best of all; mmm-delici-yoso!!!!! A San Diego based food and travel blog. An Ex-Pat Kama'aina and Friends explore food, restaurants, and travel from San Diego and points beyond.
Upon arriving in Athens we headed straight for the X95 bus which took us from Athens International Airport to busy Syntagma Square, pretty much the heart of Athens…….
A couple of quick questions later and we were on the metro, headed in the direction of Hotel Tony. We got off the metro, found the street and walked up the hill to the hotel located on the corner of Dikaiou and Zacharista in the Koukaki neighborhood, located North of the Plaka and on the back side of the Acropolis. The neighborhood looked fairly residential and we kind of enjoyed that. Tony himself is quite a character, larger than life, very funny, whose tastes in furnishing and decor matches his personality. They were still working on renovating the building we were in….it looked like faux marble stairs and various statues were being put in. Tony's rooms, at least in this building were large and very colorful……
The room was large and had a kitchenette. We could tell by Tony's, how should I say it, physique, that he loved to eat. So we asked for a recommendation for lunch straightaway. He recommended a restaurant called Strofi a few blocks away, close to the back of the Parthenon.
The place was pretty empty when we arrived and we were led to the patio on the third floor.
The Missus ordered a half liter of red wine almost as soon as we were seated.
While looking over the menu, an amuse of sorts arrived. The place consisted of chopped tomatoes, feta, and what they called "brioche", but was actually "rusk". Rusk is a twice baked bread that is like toast, which they called paximadia. When served with tomatoes and feta, they call this "Dakos".
You dip the rusk into some water to soften, then top with tomatoes and feta. The Missus loved the paximadia and would end up consuming it every chance She got in Crete. Also, a small carafe of what was called Tsipouro was provided. This was pretty bitter stuff at first, but we both came to enjoy it. It is called Raki or Tsikoudia in Crete and we really got used to having it with dessert. It can be pretty potent stuff, but I really enjoyed it. You'll be seeing a lot of Raki in future posts……
We decided to stick with getting three appetizers…….
The Missus didn't enjoy the anhcovy with lemon and olive oil.
I thought this was decent, but the flavor of the anchovies were too much for Her.
We both really enjoyed the Melitzano Salata, the eggplant dip….
Wonderfully smoky and full of flavor.
The Fava Skordalia was a hit as well…….
Mild garlic flavor, wonderful texture, this was also a winner…….
Not a cheap lunch by US atandards at 30 Euros, about 45 bucks at the time. But it was a satisfying meal and put us in a good mood as we headed to the Acropolis Museum.
I developed a bad habit during my trips back home. I found myself taking photos of my breakfasts with my phone and sending them to my friends. And for some reason, I've kept on doing this even after returning to San Diego. Recently, JohnL suggested that I do posts on these, which I thought was a great idea, so here goes….we'll start with Oahu.
I found myself getting up pretty early, say at 5am or so in the morning during our stays on Oahu. Not wanting to wake anyone up, I'd often take a drive, sometimes with an objective in mind, or perhaps just to fill up gas. On the morning I hit up Nam Fong, the roads were clear with no traffic, so I headed all the way up to a place that's near and dear to my heart….. Like Like Drive In. Talk to any "townie" of my generation and you'll come with a list of places like Tin Tin Chop Suey and Like Like Drive In. Actually, this location of Like Like is not the original from 1953.
Back in the 90's the folks running Like Like swapped the restaurant over from the portion of the building to the right.
Walking in the place at 430 am on Thanksgiving was quite interesting. As I entered, the last of post drinking crowd was leaving and all the old-timers, newspapers tucked under their arm were entering. Still, this being a family holiday, the place was empty. The look and feel, down to the booths really stirs memories…….
I'm not much of a coffee drinker these days….but here, I just needed that cup o' joe……the table just needs a cup of coffee on it.
I really didn't order a locomoco per se, but looking over the menu I just happened to order two easy over eggs with rice and a hamburger patty. The woman serving me said, "you need gravy with that, right?' Not do you want some gravy, you "need" some gravy. And you know what? She was right….I needed some gravy with this.
I usually don't care for burgers that have been pressed down on the flat-top, but this patty had developed a wonderful crust from a well aged griddle and had been seasoned to boot. The gravy was decently flavored and not glue-like and went well with the runny eggs and rice.
It was a nice way for me to start the day……just like old times. Though I'm not doing too much active work nowadays, so I pick my spots.
Not too many of the places I grew up eating are left….Kaimuki Inn, Kuhio Grill, Alakea Grill, Chunky's, Wisteria, Suehiro, King's, McCully Chop Suey (the first air-conditioned Chinese restaurant in Hawaii!), King Tsin, Ebisu, Aotani Fountain, all gone……. Not too many like Like Like left, I'm hoping they'll be around for just a bit longer.
Like Like Drive In 745 Keeaumoku St Honolulu, HI 96814
Open 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
One morning, I went to gas up our rental and drove into Waipahu, which is just down the street from my In-Laws place in Ewa Beach. For some reason, Leeward Drive-Inn called to me.
Man, when was the last time I ate here? The sign said "since 1964" and I think I probably had the fried noodles, which is what they, well, at least in my day, were known for….probably circa 1984. The parking lot has seen it's share of cars, all the lines for the stalls have worn away, though in typical Hawaii style, everyone seems to park their cars as if those lines still existed.
Funny thing, there were a bunch of guys having breakfast before work sitting in back of a minivan parked in front of the dining room. The big guy, sitting on a ne of those handy-dandy folding stools looked me up and down and said, "eh, I thought you one katonk, but you get da' shuffle…." Translation; "Based on your pale and unhealthy complexion, I believed that you were a Japanese from the mainland. However, when I observed your gait, it became obvious that you were not." I guess I still walk like a local? I laughed and told him, "at least you didn't think I was a bobora!" Translation;"you are indeed quite observant. I am flattered the opinion that my country of origin was Japan never entered your mind." It was just an expat local bonding moment…..
The menu at LDI is pretty large and extensive……. but I made up my mind fairly quickly. Once my food was ready, I grabbed my plate and headed off to the flourescent orange tables. The dining area looked kind of beat and no one was eating in the area so I could grind in peace.
I got Portuguese Sausage, Eggs, and Fried Rice, which was a pretty good amount of food.
This was just passable, the fried rice was very "local style", that is, made with Calrose rice. There were bits of Portuguese Sausage and some funky tasting "faux Spam". The sausage wasn't browned enough for me and tasted a bit off. The eggs were fine….this ended up just being nutrition.
Leeward Drive Inn 94 209 Pupukahi St Waipahu, HI 96797
Hours: Mon – Thurs 430am – 11pm Fri – Sat 430am – 12midnight Sunday 5am – 11pm Cash Only
This last one is sort of a quiz…….folks who have been to Hawaii will probably know this one. A fairly decent plate of Rice, eggs, which was really hard, Portuguese Sausage, and Spam®.
Quite an artery clogging breakfast……brought to you by:
Yep, Mickey D's in Hawaii serves up Portuguese Sausage, Spam®, or even both, in what they call the "Deluxe Breakfast". Don't remember the last time I actually had food from a McDonald's, but I happened to be close to the Pearl City location early one morning…..
I realize this post has been kinda long….so thanks for hanging in there are reading.
Here's the sunrise as I pumped gas one morning.
Of course I listened to KCCN…..until they kept playing the same songs over and over……what happened to variety?
We had done a good deal of walking so my appetite was in great shape. Not wanting to go far out of the way nor in the mood for anything particularly fancy, we asked the folks at the hotel for a recommendation. They came up with Sultan Kosesi which was just a couple of blocks away and a bit off the main tourist track of Divan Yolu Caddesi.
The restaurant was roomy and brightly lit, the menu full of the standards with a couple of interesting items. Most fun of all was our Server…..who was so very nice, but kinda looked and sounded like PeeWee Herman. All angles and twitches, he was unable to remember more than two items and when we had questions we got him thoroughly confused! But he was so genuinely friendly, that whatever he did, we could never hold it against the fellow.
This being Turkey, we were of course provided with an entire loaf of bread……
I went with a cup of ayran, the ubiquitous yogurt drink. It wasn't as light and foamy as other versions, but gladly not a salty either.
The Missus saw a couple of items that interested Her. The first one being sahlep, which She just had to try and turned out being one of the most wonderful items we had on this trip. Sahlep is a warm milk based drink that is flavored with a wonderfully fragrant flour made from Anatolian mountain orchids. It is mildly sweet, a bit thicker than plain milk, and wraps you in that comforting warmness that a great cup of chocolate would.
The other item didn't quite work out as well. We'd seen Kuru Patlican, dried eggplant, hanging from strings in shops and had been wondering about the taste and texture. The Missus order the Kuru Patlican Dolmasi – stuffed dried eggplant.
The filling was seasoned nicely, tangy and mildly spicy like ezme. The texture of the dry eggplant was….well, we couldn't cut it with a knife. It was really hard and had a flavor I could recall from my childhood…..cardboard. I don't know if it wasn't re-hydrated enough or what, but this wasn't the best thing I had to eat on this trip.
I ordered the Sac Tava, in this case a very mild meat was used. The Tava is a steel pan in which the food is cooked….for some reason it sort of reminded me of a hub cap.
Nicely flavored, this was quite good with the bread. The menu said that veal was used for this dish…..I can tell you it wasn't lamb or goat.
Overall, the food was decent, the prices a bit lower than many other places….the Server was so nice and kept us in stitches with his antics……and the Missus discovered sahlep. I'd say that this was a pretty good time.
After dinner we decided to take a walk down these back streets. And like I said before, there's history around every corner in Istanbul. At the end of one of the streets we came across this mosque.
This mosque is known as Küçuk Ayasofya Camii, "Little Hagia Sofia". You know, it does look like Hagia Sofia. This was previously the Church of the Saints Sergius and Bacchus, built by Justinian I in 527 AD, making it one of the first buildings ordered by Justinian. During the Ottoman reign it was converted to a mosque.
As we walked the grounds….we were eagerly welcomed into the mosque. The older gentleman waved us in……the interior is quite striking.
Climbing up the stairs so we could view the colonnades and the rest of the mosque, I noticed how worn the stone stairs were…….
It made me wonder….how many pairs of feet had climbed up these stairs?
History is everywhere here……
Leaving the mosque, we took a different street back to our hotel. And at the corner of Aksakal and Nakilbent we came across a market……
There are few things we enjoy more than explroing the local markets and bazaars…..
The ones like these….the neighborhood versions show us what folks are eating and buying.
This was a nice little stop for us. After a while we walked back to the hotel….we needed to get some sleep, we'd have to get up at 5am for our transfer to the airport the next morning…….
As I mentioned before the Missus' cousin Long Hui is quite a character, she lives life in a carefree way, loves bright colors, wears high heels to the beach, and basically keeps the Missus in stitches. Even though she doesn't speak much English (though it's better than my Mandarin), what little she says still cracks me up. Whenever I take a photo of her, she'll assume a faux glamorous pose, one hand on her hip the other raised behind her slightly tilted head, eyes looking off in the distance. Once the photo is snapped, she'll tell me "YES or No, yes or no!" Basically, she needs to give her approval before the photographic evidence lives in perpetuity. Oh, she also loves to eat….and as I found out, really loves Jia Ji….fried chicken.
So here's her rating of the three different fried chicken she had during her stay:
1 – Tanioka's Seafoods & Catering
During our stop directly from the airport we picked up some of Tanioka's boneless fried chicken. Little did we know how much Long Hui loves her chicken……..
Man, did she love this…… Not sure why, I'll have to have some on my next trip. Long Hui is not sure either telling the Missus maybe it's because this was the first she had.
Tanioka's Seafoods & Catering 94-903 Farrington Hwy Waipahu, HI 96797
2 – Fukuya Delicatessen
One early morning, I went for a visit to my Mother's gravesite. I stopped by Fukuya one of my favorite, albeit expensive okazuya's. My Mom loved their fried chicken so much that I ended up using them to cater her wake.
Love that Fukuya has the old-fashioned okazuya hours – open at 6am (or earlier). The place has been around way longer than I have (founded in 1939) and will probably be going strong long after I'm gone.
In the typical local-style, it's all thighs, all the time. Temptingly salty, this is really good stuff….not sure why it didn't make numba' one though…..
Fukuya Deli & Catering 2710 South King Street Honolulu,Hawaii 96826
Open Wed – Sunday 6am – 2pm
I did leave a piece for mom……….
3 – Zippy's
The stuff we picked up from Zippy's in Ewa Beach just didn't measure up. But Long Hui wasn't complaining……
After all, someone had to finish last……
The Missus tells me that Long Hui is very witty, using puns and rhymes skillfully. It almost makes me wish I understood Mandarin. I'm hoping she'll visit again….this time we know she loves fried chicken, we'll be better prepared.
To quote cousin Long Hui: "we are all middle aged, too old to care, we should just relax, have fun, and eat!"
After our visit to the Giant Panda Breeding Base, the Missus' cousin drove us down to Wenshu Temple to spend the rest of the day.
The monastary and temple has a history of over a thousand years and is probably best know for the "Peace Pagoda of One Thousand Buddhas", the tallest iron pagoda in China.
The crowd was interesting, the tourists being a mix of typical wanna see folks and actual true believers. A cloud of incense smoke rose above the buildings and courtyards of the monastery.
For some reason it was the wooden depiction of the Hindu Avatar, Matsya that grabbed my attention.
According to the Hindu scriptures, a devotee of Vishnu named Satyavrata was at a river washing his hands when a tiny fish jumped into them. This tiny fish pleaded for his life so Satyavrata took him home and placed him in a jar which the fish eventually outgrew. Over time the fish kept growing, moving from the jar to a pond and ultimately became the "biggest of all fish". The fish instructed Satyavrata to take it down to the ocean where it revealed itself to be an incarnation of Vishnu and warned Satyavrata of an impending flood instructing him to build a ship…..yes, a Hindu version of the Great Flood. Satyavrata became known as Manu (The First Man).
After walking the grounds for a while we gathered and headed off to one of the two tea houses on the grounds of the monastery.
In contrast to the low hum of the temple area, you could hear the rather raucous laughing and yelling as we approached.
Folks bought a cup of tea and maybe some snacks, they keep refilling your cup with hot water as many times as you want. Folks were reading, napping (in spite of the racket, some people were indeed crashed out), playing cards, games……folks just seem to be plain enjoying themselves. Shells from sunflower seeds flying about….even the birds here are pretty aggressive, flying right onto your table to take "their cut" of the profits.
Of course, after about four cups of tea, the inevitable happened….I needed a restroom, which is how I came across the worst restroom of our trip to China. No mean feat, as anyone who has been to China knows, there are contenders everywhere. But this one took the crown by a wide margin. As I walked to the toilet, I could already make out the ammonia like smell. I had thoughts of finding a bush somewhere, but banished them immediately. This was a monastery, what would my punishment be in Naraka be if I peed on a bush! I took shallow breaths as I walked into the lavatory and was amazed at the sight of the trough….it was a trough, with a trough…..a almost even pool about a half inch deep and three feet wide of liquid(take a guess) surrounded the trough. Dozens of beetles and insects performed synchronized swimming demonstrations in the pool. What the heck was I to do? In the end, I did as probably most everyone else did, I stood well clear of the pool, hoped my ab muscles worked ok and fired away…… As I stumbled out of the lavatory, a young man entered, (all these folks drinking tea, what else was going to happen?) he came to a stop a couple feet in front of me, halted by the wall of ammonia. I could feel his pain. I really felt icky and when I sat down next to the Missus I whispered to Her:
"Do I smell like pee?" "Why, did you pee on yourself?" "No, but I feel like I've just walked through a cloud of it. Whatever you do, don't go to the bathroom!"
About twenty minutes later the teahouse started closing and emptied out pretty quickly. I loved the way they stacked the chairs.
Our destination for dinner was to be the at the vegetarian restaurant on the monastery grounds…..vegetarian? Monastery? Food like what the monks eat? Really????
The place was fairly clean, looking like many of the other restaurants we ate at during our trip…..
Suddenly a friendly looking, middle aged gentleman walked up to our table. The Missus proclaimed, "oh, he made it!" So who was he? Another uncle or relative joining us for dinner? So I asked the Missus:
"Who is he?" "He's here for you?" "For me?" "Yeah, while you went to the restroom, I asked the ear cleaner in the tea house to come over and clean your ears, but they closed before he could get to you. So he came over here to finish the job." "Finish the job?" "Aaaah, don't worry, that's the good thing about ears, you have two. One gets messed up you still have another!"
I wasn't too keen on having anyone without "MD" after their name putting anything smaller than their elbow in my ear, but what the heck, the Missus was right after all, eh? eh? eeehh?
It was kind of strange at first…..having someone probing around in your (insert orafice of choice) ear.
Notice the young lady in the photo. She is the oldest daughter of the Missus cousin. Mesmerized by what was taking place and the possibility of gore and bloodshed as well I assume. After all, it's not everyday that you see a relative you've never met before get his brain punctured through his ear canal….. Actually, the amount of awe and attention made me nervous. I really don't think this is something that is a normal part of everyday life here……
But this guy really was a pro……
And when it seemed that the potential for bloodshed was diminished the young lady sat back down with her sisters. The ear cleaner told the Missus that my ears were really clean, but that my right ear canal was red and irritated, which is true. I told the Missus, "tell him I know that, it's the ear you yell into all the time….."
The only thing that felt really weird was when he put the vibrating tuning fork to the ear probe…it sent a huge buzz that I felt to my bones through me. It actually gave me "chicken skin".
In the end, this was an interesting experience…..don't know if I'd do it again, but the guy was very professional.
After that, the meal seemed somewhat anti-climatic. The standard of vegetarian dishes was fairly high, but as with most of these type of restaurants was really varied.
The plain vegetable dishes are the easiest to take as well as being the most "safe", but aren't much better than what you'd get else where.
But I really enjoyed the dish of peppers and green beans. The peppers were mildly spicy, but with a nice sweetness to them.
Of course there are the obvious bean curd dishes. This wasn't too bad.
I loved the Cherry Peppers in this dish, nice sweet-spicy. Interesting dish overall, those faux squid things are basically an after-thought.
The filling for the baozi tasted pretty much like standard issue vegetarian-mushroom filling. The dough was kind of mushy and the bottoms were too soggy for my taste.
The sizzling rice was actually quite good.
Nice flavor……
The rest of the items weren't to my taste. The faux sweet-sour fish was too mushy, too sweet, and I didn't care for the texture.
Needless to say, we didn't leave hungry!
Since our flight was early in the morning, we stayed in Chengdu. After being dropped off at our hotel we decided to take a walk around the area……I'm pretty sure there was a college or university around because on one of the side streets…..
For some reason, I had never finished my posts on Thailand…sheesh. I suddenly realized this tonight as the Missus mentioned something about our stay.
So here's a super-late COMC (Clearing Out the Memory Card) post of mostly photos of the city that always smells like something;s cooking….really, it does. On our way back from Chiang Mai, we stayed in the Silom area of Bangkok, in what was the business district. Silom Road seems to be in constant traffic jam mode. Here if you pull yourself away from all of the food stalls, which by the way are right outside all these major business buildings, you can see the infrastructure of the Skytrain. It's sort of like having main street paved with food vendors…one long food court if you will.
The juxtaposition of skyscrapers to the tons of food carts and stands made this quite an amazing sight.
We entered one of the malls, only to come across a large snack and food stand right by the escalators……
Check out this counter….that's piles of pork sung, one of my least favorite foods……
But this was different. The pork looked like they were candied and as the woman offered me a sample in her gloved hand I couldn't resist! But she stopped me before I put it in my mouth……and handed me a ball of sticky rice! God forbid I forget the sticky rice! It tasted like pork candy…pork candy….need I say more? Pork candy……
Back on the street we passed a couple of duck restaurants……
Roast Duck and Rice for 40 Baht ($1.25/US), are you kidding me??? So follow along kiddies, candied pork sung, nam prik, and roast duck and rice so far…..
Then we hit the motherlode , this little stand right in front of a huge bank was this stand.
It was a mother and son team making what looked like Khai Jeaw Mu Sap – Pork and Egg omelete…..
And at only 20 Baht (65 cents US), are you kidding me? So if you're keeping score….candied pork sung, nam prik, roast duck and rice, corn on the cob(from I dunno where, I was hypnotized by me egg), and Khai Jeaw Mu Sap.
As we headed back around…….
The Missus couldn't help but pick up more sweets……
Now our hands were full, ….candied pork sung, nam prik, roast duck and rice, corn on the cob, Khai Jeaw Mu Sap, and various sweets……
But that wasn't the end of it. As we headed back to the hotel, we noticed that the kanom krok stand in the alley was now making sausages…..so guess what?
Why not, right?
That pork sung tasted mighty fine and ended up being my dessert…..
The nam prik makhua was not bad…..
The corn on the cob was meh….
The sausages were pretty good…..
As was the roast duck on rice…..
Can't tell you about the sweets, but for me, the winna' was the Khai Jeaw Mu Sap…..the photo doesn't do it justice…..man was it good.
In fact, this is what inspired me to ask Koby, who was then still at Sab E Lee 2 to make this for me.
Good thing we only stayed one evening…a week here and I would make Paula Deen look like Twiggy!
We still talk about the abundance and availability of food everywhere, at all hours in Bangkok. Like I've said before, "they say in America, the streets are paved in gold. In Bangkok, the streets are paved in food!"
I'm thinking I should have put "some lunch" in tiny letters here….so I wouldn't mind at all if you're not interested in Pandas, if you came back another day……but otherwise……
The base itself is a bit over 200 acres…making it quite large. There are different trails to take, a large lake, a museum, panda food processing center, etc, etc…….
But of course, we were here to see pandas….. so we headed off, past the ponds….
We thought we saw something as we turned a corner……
But no, these were Red Pandas…cute in their own sense, but nothing like the giant pandas we wanted a glimpse of.
In my reading I found that red pandas belong to the family musteloidea, more closely related to weasels and skunks than the giant panda.
As we meandered along the trails, past the empty nursery (it was not quite the season for little ones), I was prepared for not really seeing a giant panda….which wouldn't have been such a bad thing as I could always go to the San Diego Zoo to see them. Then as we walked down one of the trails we saw this…..(feel free to click on the photos to enlarge)
Laying down, lazily munching on some bamboo……
Suddenly the Panda decided to sit up…….possibly recalling that mom always said never to eat lying down…"you might choke on something!"
All the while having a firm grip on bamboo….never missing a beat, all done in a leisurely fashion.
Only to decide that supine was only way to eat………I'm sure this one approved of breakfast in bed.
As we walked pass the pandas, the Missus was totally gaga over them, it made me wonder…..
What made pandas so cute….was it the head to body proportion? Or perhaps the white and black color and the black around the eyes that made them look larger? Or perhaps the somewhat ambling movement that made the panda seem to be eternally dawdling?
For some reason, I really enjoyed watching them grasp their food, in an almost human way……I guess I could really relate to that. I recall seeing something on one of those channels once, about how the pleasure center of the brain got going after just a brief glimpse of something "cute"…..
Heck maybe fellow blogger Lynnea can tell me why………..
Because in the end……
I decided that knowing the why's would take all the fun out of it…….it was better just to forget about it and enjoy……
Which is what we did at the Giant Panda Breeding Research Base.
It was a bit past normal lunchtime when we left the Panda Center and the Missus' cousin here was really not food-centric…so we could really understand the effort he had put in during the past two days…heck, we'd be bushed too. So we didn't blame him at all for choosing one of the tourist type restaurants right across the street from the Panda Breeding Center for lunch.
And the food, unlike many tourist centric restaurants in other countries (including our own) wasn't too bad.
Here's another item that folks living in the Western world sometimes find strange…remember, cucumber is a gourd and it is treated as such….
This is pretty much a COMC (Clearing Out the Memory Card) post. During our time in China we stayed in Jianyang for one evening, here are some photos we took during that time.
The hotel provided a buffet style breakfast, that looked quite typical, but had quite a few breakfast items that were interesting.
Sure there was rice porridge and the like…..but there were a number of spicy Sichuan dishes as well. I had really never given thought to what the typical Sichuan breakfast would be…..the thought of having some "ma-la" (numbing hot) dishes first thing in the morning seemed very different to me.
Just as tomatoes are often treated like fruits in China, potatoes are treated like true vegetables. It's not uncommon to see them stir-fried.
I wasn't sure how my body would react to having this stuff early in the morning….but it turns out that I enjoyed it to some extent.
Even though the population of Jianyang is pegged at 1.2 million and I'm assuming growing as the local textile industry does, the streets in the area where we stayed were wide and pretty much empty. Perhaps everyone had already gone to work……
This seems really great, but as anyone who has tried to cross the street in China knows……other than driving on the correct side of the street (something which is rather flexible in its own right), the "rules" here are different. Because there was no traffic, cars and trucks were driving as fast as they could on these streets….shades of Phnom Penh!
Many of the smaller businesses were located on the side streets…..
I heard a familiar buzz as we passed the Baozi stand…..I immediately knew what it was, as we turned the corner I found that my hunch was correct.
It was the local morning market……
For me, the most entertaining set-up were all the meat hanging for display, it was a literal "meat curtain".
The meat did look quite fresh……
The market itself wasn't too crowded, so after a cursory walk-through we headed back down the street to a bit more exploring. Daily life in Jianyang seemed a bit more laidback, though the speed of things in Chengdu seemed quite relaxed as well.
You never know what you'll see wandering down the street in a city that you don't reside in.
You see things that are unfamiliar, greeting them with almost a child like wonder…..
I loved the makeshift "ramp" built from rebar. You relaly couldn't make out the rebar from a distance. You'd suddenly see a jug zipping across the sidewalk!
We saw this hanging in front of a Jianyang Mutton Soup shop(luckily no carcasses of wild dog in sight), we saw a typical display of how the Chinese stretch the law a bit….
There was an older man with a large cutting board squatting on the sidewalk chopping and hacking at the mutton. Imagine if you will, someone doing this on a major four lane road in your city! He was dressed in the typical stained white teeshirt, white paper hat (after all there are hygenic standards, right?), cigarette dangling from his mouth, hacking away. Suddenly, a police vehicle drives to the curb and one of the guys starts yelling …..I'm assuming telling him not to portion his mutton the the sidewalk. The "chef" ignores the officer. So what does the guy in the car do? He grabs a megaphone and starts using the darn thing, loud enough to shake the leaves off the trees (which are falling on the chopped mutton meat). He screams for about five minutes, but is just ignored. So what does the officer do next? Does he and his partner get out of his vehicle to enforce the law? Heck no, they just swear at the guy (so the Missus says – through the megaphone) and drive off. Jianyang's finest on the job!
Later that morning, the Missus' cousin took us on the short tour of one of the lakes in the area. There are islands in these lakes that house hotels and resorts. You can get to them by boat.
We ended up having lunch at one of the hotel restaurants. Nothing particularly memorable.
Like I said earlier; potatoes are treated as a vegetable…..
Actually, the "saliva chicken" (so good you can't stop drooling) was decent. Not very spicy (La), but it numbed half your face (Ma).
As a whole, like we were told, the food in this part of Sichuan isn't as spicy-hot.
For dinner we were taken to a Hot Pot place.
Which was more of a "hip" hot pot shop, where the young folks seem to going for hot pot and socializing.
Actually, the broth was pretty good, though again, more numbing than spicy.
It was a nice side trip for the Missus as She got to meet relatives…….
I realized on one of our recent trips back to Hawaii that I never did show the Missus my old neighborhood. When we first met, I'd taken Her to a couple of my favorite places to eat, but I'd never really went into detail about it. I consider myself very lucky to have grown up in the Kaimuki/Kapahulu area and it holds a very special place in my heart. Back before our trip to China, I hadn't been back to the area in over a decade and I had wondered how the area had changed. We didn't have much money and my Mom never did learn to drive so everything was either Da' Bus or footmobile for us. In that way, the set-up of Kaimuki was just perfect, even though it's situated on a hill, the main drag, Waialae Avenue is perfect for walking. According to the Historic Hawai'i Foundation's site:
"Kaimuki is a naturally dusty, dry area that wasn’t heavily populated during pre-contact times because of a lack of water supply."
When development started, the main pipe was located along what is now Kaimuki Avenue. Like many now urban neighborhoods, Kaimuki was designed as a suburb, a place where people would live, then commute to Honolulu for work. When the H-1 freeway cut through Kaimuki, the neighborhood became very connected.
Because Kapahulu was literally right down the street, I've always considered it my neighborhood as well. So it was only right that we start our day at Rainbow Drive-In.
Kapahulu sure has changed….Alex's Drive In is long gone, as is KC Drive In (tho' they were never the same after they moved from the Ala Wai) and Love's Bakery has been gone for a couple of decades so is Kapahulu Theatre. But all through that Rainbows has endured and is apparently going strong. I did wonder if things had changed much……I used to recall getting chili here for under a buck.
One thing I noticed right away was a sign that explained the food….say what? Who needs an explanation of Chicken Cutlet…..Loco Moco maybe…why?? When I jokingly asked what was up? The lady at the window told me, "aaah, it's for all da' tourists eva' since the Obama thing." Oh…. I do recall:
“I’m going to get a plate lunch. I might go to Zippy’s. I might go to Rainbow Drive-In. I haven’t decided yet…." Circa 2008.
The Missus wanted a chili dog……while I grew up eating the chili here, I wasn't a big fan of the hot dogs Rainbow uses. It is skinless with a real mystery-meat texture, which strangely reminds me of eating cold Vienna sausages. But whatever, it's what the Missus wanted:
For some reason the chili struck me as being on the sweet side…..I'm guessing my tastes have changed quite a bit since I last had this.
I got a BBQ Beef Sandwich. No it's not slow smoked brisket on a bun……this is a Teriyaki Style Beef sandwich. Local style teriyaki (BBQ) is more salty and less sweet than what is the norm on the mainland.
From the photo you can tell that the meat is not the most tender, but it's what I grew up eating. It's also much better than most of the L&L stuff. For some reason, I've gotten to appreciate the role of lettuce in these type of sandwiches, it seems to cleanse and refresh the palate. Love the mayo and onions too…..
Rainbow Drive-In 3308 Kanaina Ave Honolulu, HI 96815
There are just two requests that the Missus has when in the area; one of them is Leonard's. I still remember the pure bliss on Her face the first time I took Her to Leonard's for malasadas.
Unfortunately, it seems like Leonard's is a major tourist stop nowadays…..two tour buses pulled up as we arrived and there was a line out the door…..
The Missus decided that it just wasn't worth the wait…..so we moved on to Her other favorite stop in the area; W & M Burger…..
Located right off Waialae Avenue, with half a dozen parking stalls, this little joint is a big part of my younger days. This location is actually not the original, I'll have that a bit later on in the post. W&M always seemed on the expensive side when I was a kid, but luckily, one of our neighbors used to work there….so she'd often bring home a ton of burgers at the end of the day. The parking is absolute "horrors", so we always plan our trip to arrive before it gets too busy for lunch. You can take your chances in the City Mill parking lot next door, but leave someone with the car, or hope you have some luck. Just to digress; the location of City mill was where I had my first taste of pizza as a kid; at a place called Chico's Pizza……
Actually, the woman working the counter I recognized from way back when……
The burgers at W&M are basically teri-burgers made from a "secret" blend of soy sauce etc…… Since we were on what was basically a crawl, I ordered a Deluxe, no mayo/sauce/etc, and some fries "extra crispy"……
The Missus wasn't too fond of the fries extra crispy, so I think I won't order it that way anymore. But that burger was a spot on taste of my youth……
It's one of the few things that the Missus says tastes exactly the same as the first time She ate one.
In a nice distraction move, the Missus told me, "don't you have to take a photo of the front." Which I did, only to turn around and find Her chomping away at that burger……..slick move……
W & M Bar-B-Q Burger 3104 Waialae Ave Honolulu, HI 96816
Next stop was right up the street. Dating myself, I'll tell you that this was Crown Drive-In when we first moved from Palolo Valley to less than a block from here. But just a short while later it became…..
I believe that this was the second location for Zippy's (McCully was the first). It is also kitty-corner from my elementary school…Ali'iolani.
Which, except for missing the huge, rickety, auditorium looks basically the same.
I should have ordered chili and rice, but for some reason went with the chili-loco moco……
Man, the chili tasted terrible…..very bland, but almost rancid……
I also had a piece of the fried chicken, which tasted much better than the last time I had it.
I don't quite know what to say….maybe bad day for the chili and good day for fried chicken. Oh well…….
Zippy's 3345 Waialae Ave Honolulu, HI 96816
This is, of course, one of perhaps a zillion locations…..
After this I drove up to Palolo to check out my Intermediate (now called "middle") school….Jarrett. It's a sign of the time I guess, as now there's a fence going around the school.
We drove out of Palolo Valley via 9th avenue and I pointed out what we called the "Jade Building" which we considered kinda swanky for this area when I was a kid. It was pretty much the only high rise in the area. Here are some photos from Jade Circle taken by Ian Lind from his blog. Funny thing is, Ian's wife Meda actually taught a class I took….small blogging world, huh?
On the corner of 9th avenue and Waialae was one of the most important businesses to us. It was a small IGA market called Zane's Market. This market used to deliver groceries if you bought over a certain amount. Since we had no car, it was godsend…..
Right across the street is the original location of W&M Burger.
A bit further up the street is Kaimuki Park, where I wasted a good deal of time as a kid……
Right across the street was my favorite saimin stand Tanoues, now long gone, of course…but the memories remain.
Man, the facade of the old Queen Theatrewas still there. I remember watching movies there when I was a kid…until they started showing porn films, in Kaimuki! Yikes!! Eventually, the place was raided, then shut down. The place is now 75 years old, I'm hoping that it is somehow restored…… unlike Kaimuki Theatre, which used to reside here:
Kaimuki Inn used to be here……
All those places are gone….but as we turned the corner on Koko Head I saw a familiar sign….
What is crack seed you may ask??? It's basically what we called preserved, salty and sweet preserved fruits that the Chinese brought to Hawaii. The most well known being Li Hing Mui. This place has been here for as long as I can remember.
Even more funny, the same guy is still running the place….I'm thinking for over the last 30 years or so??? He was very friendly….though my recollection of him was as a pretty tough, no-nonsense guy. Maybe time has muddled my memory, or he's mellowed over the years?
Of course I got some olive peel (aka Olive Cake) and rock salt plum……
Turning to cut through the municipal parking lot, the Missus chuckled when I told Her that the first place I had "Mexican food" (using a very broad definition here) was indeed at a place called Jose's…..
I was surprised and rather pleased to see that Victoria Inn was still alive and kicking:
After this, I thought the Missus had enough and it was time to head on back. As I gassed up the car, there was one more building I pointed out to the Missus. In that spot was a Food Pantry, which I thought was an odd location on Harding and 11th avenue. I think they still have their offices there. There are quite a few more places…but I think this is more than enough for a post…… And if you actually stuck around to the end…well, thanks so much for reading!
One last thing….if you've spent anytime in Hawaii since 1981, I'm sure you'll recognize this one – Kanipoli Slack Key. Always makes me smile when I hear it:
After a fairly hectic couple of days in Cappadocia we caught our flight back to Istanbul. We'd be staying one night then heading onward to Athens and Crete. By this time we had the metro and tram system pretty much down pat and made it to Sulthanmet Park and got out and made our way to the Hotel Djem, which is located across the park and the Hippodrome on the opposite side from our previous hotel. We enjoyed this hotel so much that we decided to make it our base for the rest of our time in Istanbul. Walking out into the street, you can see the back of the Blue Mosque rising into the air….there's something so exotic and exciting about Istanbul.
When we arrived the first thing the manager did was offer us tea while he checked on our reservation. The moment he found our reservation he told us to have some breakfast….and typical of Turkey, it was quite a spread.
There was a little guy who worked the breakfast buffet who was constantly in motion….he seemed to always be on a mission of sorts. Watching him work kept us entertained during our breakfasts.
We loved the gentleman who managed the place…when he found out we'd be leaving early the next morning, before breakfast service, he asked, well more like told us that we'd need something to eat…so they would have something ready for us if we wanted. We told him yogurt and some fruit would be perfectly fine….you gotta love Turkey!
While the Missus was freshening up, I asked the young man about cruises on the Bosphorus…….and really appreciated his honest advice. "You just arrived today and are perhaps a bit tired. Personally, I would just take one of the more inexpensive two hour cruises, the all day ones are a bit long……and after a while, all the buildings will start looking the same. You will stop enjoying it." We took his advice…… He would be our best source during our stays in Istanbul.
We caught the tram down to Eminonu as it started to drizzle and looked over a couple of the cruises near the Galata Bridge which I posted on before.
As we boarded it started raining a bit harder…..it was also fairly cold. The chestnut dude was doing great business though!
Here's what the regular ferryboats look like.
It turned out that two hours was just about the right amount of time for us. Here are some of the sights.
The gentleman at the hotel was right….by the time we hit Rumeli Hisari we had peaked and had our fill……though the cruise really highlighted how little we saw of Istanbul during our trip.
There was one thing that kept us form getting bored though….it was this lovely couple…..
Both were middle-aged. Neither sported wedding rings. The gentleman sported a very serious and conservative suit. The woman wore…well, I mostly remember her for the pointy tipped shoes like we saw in the souvenir shops. Both acted like teenagers in love. As the woman walked to the back of the cabin the gentleman trailed her filming her every move. In fact, he filmed just about every move she took. Once, I thought she had her fill and walked out of the cabin….but no, she was just stepping outside so she could do poses right out the window…..yep, you guessed it, just so the guy could film it! It almost seemed like something out of a comedy. It kept our attention for most of the return trip……it was sweet, cute, hilarious, and just plain bizarre all at the same time.
All along the area around the Galata Bridge are boats selling Balik Ekmek, the famous fish sandwich.
The boats have grills installed on them which already gets your attention, but many have eye-catching…well, almost gaudy design and ornamentation. Some of the hawkers even dress up in what I can only guess is Ottoman style garb…all the while yelling out "BAAaaaa-Liiiik". There's an area where several of the boats gather that have a fairly nice looking dining area set-up.
I walked on over and really didn't like the smell of the fish so I passed.
However, as we got off our boat, I noticed this little boat doing some serious business.
So I decided to try one….you can't beat the price, 2.5 TRY, about $1.25! This being Turkey, the sandwich had quite a bit of bread.
I made a mistake when I first got my sandwich; I had a taste of just the fish, undoubtedly mackerel,which tasted just plain fishy and off. Ick. However, when nestled in the bread, the pungency of the onions helped to cut the fishiness and oil. It tasted much better, but I didn't enjoy the aftertaste…it was not among my favorites from this trip. In fact, I'd take "fish curd" and even "fish poo" (fish preserved in it's own intestinal scrapings) that I had in Laos over this any day of the week.
As we walked to the underground crosswalk I saw the infamous mussel vendor. But after my Balik Ekmek I decided to pass…..
Whenever you're near the Galata Bridge, you can't help but notice the wonderful looking mosque across the street, next to the Spice Market.
The name of the mosque is Yeni Camii, "New Mosque", though it ain't that new being built in the 17th century.
In fact, the Spice Market was built as part of the mosque complex to create revenue for the mosque.
We had heard that the Mosque is quite beautiful and though we passed by several times it was suaully around one of the calls to prayer. We wanted to be respectful and not intrude…so perhaps next time.
There are women selling bird seed to feed the thousands of pigeons that flock around the mosque.
On one afternoon, we saw these men performing Wudu the sacred wash before prayers.
We walked back to our warm and dry room at the Hotel Djem, in need of a shower…..
The room was large and had a kitchenette. We could tell by Tony's, how should I say it, physique, that he loved to eat. So we asked for a recommendation for lunch straightaway. He recommended a restaurant called Strofi a few blocks away, close to the back of the Parthenon.
The Missus ordered a half liter of red wine almost as soon as we were seated.
You dip the rusk into some water to soften, then top with tomatoes and feta. The Missus loved the paximadia and would end up consuming it every chance She got in Crete. Also, a small carafe of what was called Tsipouro was provided. This was pretty bitter stuff at first, but we both came to enjoy it. It is called Raki or Tsikoudia in Crete and we really got used to having it with dessert. It can be pretty potent stuff, but I really enjoyed it. You'll be seeing a lot of Raki in future posts……
