Izakaya Nonbei, Honolulu

No doubt I've been complaining how good-food-deprived I am here in Hawai'i but mainly it's because I haven't been actively wandering around the island and also am a bit intimidated to do so. Seeing homeless people sleeping on the streets, walking around with a push carts was actually the only culture shock that I experienced here and this is also the reason that I've made myself stay in my room more often.

Then again, I won't deny that there are actually pretty impressive hole in the walls around the island. Izakaya Nonbei is one of it and dayumm, the variety of good Japanese places on the island does not stop here!

Sharing the same liking as the boy, this places serves incredible Tamagoyaki (egg sushi)! Blogging about these just makes me want to have another round of it again!

The other dishes, also fanta-licious! My favorite was the wafu steak, the tenderness of the meat was impeccable. If you know me well, you could probably imagine me saying SO GOOOOOOOD, right after having it.

I've decided to share some of my favorite places in Hawaii and my trips to other island and California! Till I get back to Hong Kong, this blog will lack some fashion updates.

My Extended Weekends

A picture taken from the Lanikai Pillboxes hike last weekend. Woke up at an ungodly hour - 5a.m after only having a 2-hour sleep the night before that just to catch the sunrise. Definitely worth it since I still get to explore new places and had good food afterwards.

I'm glad I didn't choose my usuals, sunny side-ups and bacon and went for this instead. Red velvet pancakes at the Cinnamon's, perfectly temporarily satisfied my cravings for red velvet cupcakes. It was only close to 10 when we finished our breakfast and when I reached my dorm, I collapsed and only regained senses till 4pm.

Head down to Waikiki afterwards to catch up with the girls and plan our Big Island trip during the Spring break. We tried out Ramen Nakamura, where I had the best gyoza (dumplings) ever since I came here. Every time single time I have a bowl of ramen, it just reminds me of the more awesome and satisfying Butao back in Hong Kong! AHHHH, how I miss queueing up for it.

And this was from last week.
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Everyone in their shades, all prepared for a wonderful morning out in the sea to whale watch. Unfortunately the boat engine had to break down yesterday, which lead us to kick start our day with hefty American breakfast instead.

They have pretty awesome waffles, which we get to try while we were waiting for seats.

The special crabcake egg benedicts that Tady ordered. Pretty yummy!

Got my usuals! Next time, I'll try scrambled eggs, mmhm I'll try to remember.

As for today, I did another hike at the Chinaman's Hat island. Too bad I can't take any pictures since we had to walk/swim to the island. It was a semi tough hike for me, wish I could just not worry about so much things and just hike. Pfft!

Other than experiencing a 'scene' from the boys, I collected a few bruises and cuts from the hike. Well, at least it wasn't another sun burn, 'cause till now my skin are still peeling.

That's roughly what I do every weekend. There's so much to do that I've never really sleep in on the weekends, not complaining though.

Yardbird, Sheung Wan

3 papers down, 1 last one happening on this Tuesday. That didn't stop us girls from having a great time around Central last night. Again, I picked a place for good food and Michelle braved herself, drove all the way to Sheung Wan with Ronny's direction. Well, we got a bit lost *ahem* before reaching the place. As I will always say, with the iPhone's map application in hand, you'll never get lost in Hong Kong. That's my surviving motto in this city.

I've read so much good reviews on Yardbird and I was glad that the food did not disappoint me. I would consider it under the fusion category, a Yakitori shop but with a NYC ambience surrounding it.

Abundant variety of alcoholic drinks, as you can see on the board. The fact that the drinks menu is two-paged while the food menu is only one-paged says everything.

From top to bottom: Sweet Corn Tempura; Short Ribs; Meatball; Chicken & Rice; 

That was our first round of order. My favorite dish out of these 4 would be the sweet corn tempura and the rice. The piping hot rice was served with egg, chicken skin and peas. Me being a carnivore actually walloped the whole bowl because the little peas actually tasted like corn. Two words, lip-smacking delicious!

However the short ribs was a tad bit disappointing, pricing at HKD240, that definitely wasn't what we had in mind. As I've mentioned that was only our first round, we picked another 3 different Yakitori for a try.

The Oyster was recommend by the friendly waiter at the bar. Juicy, succulent meat, topped with a its crispy skin followed by fats underneath, sinful but yummy!

It's a two-storey shop, the other level is underneath it. What I would advise is go there early and grab a table downstairs. Yardbird is open everyday from 6p.m till late, except Sundays and no reservations are allowed. So basically people will chill around the bar, which is on the Ground Floor, while waiting for their tables, so it gets a little noisy there.

Love the place and the food there, can't wait to go there again and this time, grab a table downstairs to chill and have proper conversation.


Yardbird
33-35 Bridges Street
Shueng Wan, Hong Kong

Let Me Tickle Your Taste Buds, Again

Before that I did a compilation of the food I had in this post. Here comes another one since I haven't been able to blog as frequent as I would love to.

Modern China Restaurant
Shop 1002,
10/F Times Square,
Causeway Bay


My favorite Chinese restaurant of all time in Hong Kong. Although the dan dan noodles was not as good as I first had it, but I still get it everytime I'm there. Always go there early to avoid the food queue that always last for at least half an hour.

Lan Fong Yuen
No. 2, Gage St. 
Central


A new chaar chan teng that I went with Maggie and Vinay after having out visa stuff settled. The shop has been there for quite some time so you could be rest assured that the stuff you order are definitely the original Hong Kong stuff! I love hanging out in such small, spaceless chaar chan teng, rather than those over-commercialised shop. After all, I'm in Hong Kong, where else is the best place for me to get the yummiest pork chop bun?

Prawn Noodle Shop
Shop 4, G/F, Rialto Building,
No 2, LanDale St.
Wan Chai


This was a bowl of warm, curry laksa mee that made me felt like home, better than Sabah Malaysian Cuisine! Though having that said, it is not very cheap and the amount of ingredients in it are not that much either. It's a pity but the soup base was great, and to me that's good enough I guess.

Sushi One
G/F Chinachem Leighton Plaza,
29 Leighton Rd
Causeway Bay


Just a few pictures on the food that we had that night when Ida was back in Hong Kong. Sushi One has branches all over Hong Kong and the best deal is to indulge yourself there after 10pm. 50% on all sushi plates and ala carte. Of course, food queue starts around 9.30p.m so be there early!



That's a lot of food for you to digest in a post I guess. Back to the books, having my first finals paper tomorrow.

Butao Ramen, Central

As I've blogged about here, yesterday was such a beautiful day and I am glad that I've actually had solid plans for it, instead of just laying on the bed.

Butao was the highlight of the day. An authentic ramen shop manned by a Japanese, right in the heart of Central.

This was only one side of the queue, there was also another line from the place that I was standing. We went 10 minutes after 11am and had to wait for an hour or so for the legendary ramen.

There are 4 different flavours to choose from, Butao King, Black King, Red King and the Green King. Don't ask me why they didn't name Butao King as the Yellow King. All 6 of us went with the Black King, after listening to Xiang Hui's recommendation.

Our order sheet. As you can see, you can basically customize your own bowl of ramen. What's missing on the picture is the extra ingredients that you want to add. I had seaweed added for my ramen.

All the extra ingredients come in a separate bowl or plate. Clayton's tree mushroom and my huge sheet of seaweed.

Complementary small side dishes available. You can dig in as much as you want!

A bowl full of happiness! All I can say that the waiting time is totally justified for this bowl of ramen. Since everyone went with the same flavour, I will have to come back again to try out the others.


Butao
11-12 Wo On Lane, Central.
Mon-Sat 11am-3pm & 6pm-9pm.

Directions: Take the MTR to Central station and exit at Exit D1. When you see Coach, walk straight up the road. At the third junction on your right hand side, you'll see the sign, Wo On Lane.