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May 20, 2008

Somen Salad (215)

We had spaghetti for dinner last night but due to some kid craziness, I forgot to take leftovers again, something I was really upset about since I love spaghetti. With no food to take to lunch today, I ended up making somen salad.


I had somen noodles hiding away in a drawer. They've been patiently waiting for me to remember them and so this morning they cried out in joy at the thought of being the center of attention on AIB at last. Luckily, I still had eggs. I say "luckily" because I am really bad at keeping fridge inventory. I'm constantly going to the fridge for eggs or mirin and going, "Oh crap."

I had a kamaboko in the freezer, which was easily defrosted under water. The Okuhara or Okamura or whatever brand of kamaboko is usually cheaper, but having grown up in Hilo, I am biased and always buy the Amano brand. I chopped up romaine lettuce really fine, added the egg (which I did not mess up TOO badly), added the kamaboko, then topped it with toasted sesame seeds. I have the sauce separately. My mom has a reeeeally good somen salad dressing recipe, but unfortunately she never wrote it down and can't quite remember it. She's working on getting it down again and hopefully I can post it then. For today I have store bought sauce.

I was going to add spam to it, but horror of horrors, I looked in my cabinets and found NO SPAM. I AM A DISGRACE TO ALL HAWAII MOTHERS. *sob* Trip to Costco planned ASAP.

As I mentioned, we ate at Kyoto Ohsho on Friday night. This place is located at Ho'okipa Terrace at Ala Moana or "the fancy schmancy top floor".


We had pre-ordered all our food because had a huge ass party (maybe 35 people) but we still didn't get our food until like 7:45, which was quite annoying, especially since we seemed to have only one waiter for all of us. I do have to note though, they have AWESOME rice. I can't really describe it, but the rice was just divine. They brought a bowl of miso soup for the kids and a bowl of rice and while feeding them I tasted some and I just had to keep eating it. Plain, nothing else. It was that good.


I got the Grilled Salmon. Usually I drown (and I am speaking literally) my salmon in shoyu because I just love salmon with my shoyu, but the salmon at Kyoto Ohsho was salted, so it was very tasty on its own. It was also cooked thoroughly, yet still very moist. So in the end, despite the service, I was quite happy with my food. The kids' teriyaki chicken was really good, too. I had a lot more pictures of the appetizers and sides, but I ended up having to delete them because my camera was full. Candle blowing and family pictures are more important than food. ^_^


On Saturday we took the kiddies to go eat at Genki Sushi and while we were eating I suddenly smelled smoke. I looked up and one of the chefs in the middle was flamethrowing some sushi. I picked one up off the line and

OH

MY

GOD

It turned out to be something they'd added since my last visit, Garlic Salmon. It was soooo good. Raw underneath, cooked with char taste and mayo on top, this thing was some of the best sushi I'd had in a really long time. I ordered a second one and popped it into my mouth before remembering to take a picture, so that is why one is missing. I just couldn't wait to eat it!! They had two other garlic sushi types, but I didn't try them. Someone commented on my Flickr stream saying the ahi one wasn't as good, so maybe I'll just stick with the salmon cause boy that one was a winner for sure. Yum!!

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

:p That was me who commented about the garlic ahi. I had the same reaction as you when I tried it. Hadn't gone to Genkis for a long time and saw that. Man that was good. The Salmon collar was pretty good too. Its no Hamachikama but better than I expected.

kbrow said...

No spam? I'm a transplanted-from-the-mainland-haole, and even I have spam in the cabinet... Seriously, I can relate to the spam craving. I've been lurking on your blog a while, and gotta tell ya, you are an inspiration to me. I'm a teacher, and it's sites like yours that have helped me to break a nasty school lunch habit! Viva la bento!

Pikko said...

kitty: Good to know who is who! lol

mysticalfeet: I know, how embarrassing to have no Spam at home... Glad to hear I'm a positive influence somewhere! :D

FranMag said...

Ah...someone to share my shame. Went to the pantry a couple nights ago and we're out of SPAM too!! Shame on us. :-)

I'm even from Guam and if any one loves SPAM more than Hawaiians, it's Guamanians!

Thanks for the tip on the garlic salmon at Genki. We didn't like the ahi version either, but the salmon one sounds great!

Yvo Sin said...

I have spam in my cabinet...and I've never eaten it before, and I'm in NYC.. neener neener. Just kidding, lol.
BTW, question, am I supposed to refrigerate my mirin? Uh oh...

Pikko said...

FranMag: Yes!! I'm not alone! Woohoo!

Yvo: Only after opening I think!

Anonymous said...

actually I didn't know we were supposed to refrigerate mirin after opening... its just sitting in the cupboard in mines.. next to the spicy spam. :)

Lunch Buckets said...

That salad looks great - pretty too, I think it would be a great lunch for a hot Arizona day. What kind of sauce do you use? Is there an actual Somen Salad Sauce?

Rico said...

Your food not only looks delish as it also has loads of presentation. keep it up. If you fancy a change you can also visit my blog at http://ricocoffeeshop.blogspot.com