Day 19 - Monday

Ah, Mondays are always a little hard.  I was pretty sleepy when I woke up so I actually drank a cup of coffee at work, after about a year without any coffee.  The good thing about drinking coffee after such a long drought is that it's very effective.  I perked up quite well and worked through the morning.

Then lunchtime!  All the law clerks rallied for an outside lunch, very exciting.  Usually we can get 2 or 3 of us out to lunch, but rarely do all 4 of us get out together, so this was special.  Upon my suggestion based on good ol' Yelp, we went to Cafe Grazie for lunch, a small Italian place that serves a pastas special, paninis and salads.  I wanted the chicken breast panini, but after an extended conversation I learned there was Parmesan in the pesto.  Sadness.  So I got their pasta special which was grilled veggies in marinara with angel hair pasta.  It comes with a salad and bread too.

 

Even though the pasta was in a small container, it was absolutely stuffed and was a deceptively large portion of delightful vegan pasta.  The veggies were really tasty and the pasta was pretty good.  The marinara was sort of regular, nothing special.  It was nice to have something different for lunch from the standard sandwich or my fall back of Japanese food.

The afternoon went on.  Dinner became kind of a dilemma because I didn't know what to eat.  Meaty?  Noodles?  Asian?  Even though I had noodles for lunch, I really wanted soupy noodles.  I know, I eat too much noodles.  But anyway, I thought about maybe going to Zippy's for their zip min which I hear is super tasty. Granted Zippy's is like Hawaiian fast food, but it's hearty fast food.  I decided to go to the one near where I live so I could walk there for exercise.  But when I got to Zippy's I realized that I was really close to Onos!  One quick call to my GPS (aka Peter) confirmed that Onos was only 2 blocks away, so I skipped the Zippy's and headed to Ono Hawaiian Foods, one of the most famous places to get Hawaiian food on the island.  The last time I had Onos was for my 22nd birthday when I was in Oahu working for Google.  The line outside Onos was so long, but luckily that was for sit-in, and I was getting take out.  The wait was only about 20 minutes for take out and I left with delicious kalua pork with rice, pipikaula (beef jerkey-ish meat), and lomi salmon (not my thing).  The prices were definitely more than I remember (now $14.90!!) but I guess if they can charge that much and still have a line then they can do it.

I walked back to my place and decided to make that seaweed soup from yesterday into a base for ramen.  That way I would add some kalua pork and the pipikaula into the soup with noodles!  

My own creation - soup from Seoul Jung, kalua pork and pipikaula from Onos, and Ichiban ramen.  Yum!

I felt good to make my meal, even if it was really just assembling stuff from other places together.  I love to cook but it just doesn't seem worth it here when there's so much great food to explore in a short amount of time!  

Waikiki Sunset on Dwellable

Day 18 - Sunday

Got some much needed sleep after my Kailua adventure and this past week at work. I slept for 12 hours! Whee!

I got up with a strong desire for breakfast, even though it was in the afternoon. I had wanted to go get breakfast last night for dinner, but I didn't want to take the bus all the way over to the other side of Waikiki where there is a 24 hour diner, or spend a lot of money on mediocre food at Denny's. Anyway, I got my breakfast craving satisfied today.

I got on the bus and headed to Bogart's Cafe, which is a place that serve breakfast all day. I was worried about the wait, but luckily I went at an off hour and although it was packed, I got there just as someone was leaving so I snagged a table. I ordered a breakfast bagel sandwich with Portuguese sausage on an onion bagel. Their breakfast bagels are supposed to be the best in Honolulu, but I'm not sure how many places were competing for that title. I also got a side of country-style potatoes.

Breakfast bagel comes with egg, tomato, spinach, and you can order a meat for $1.85 more.

A very very large bowl of country-style potatoes

The breakfast bagel was really good. I really liked that they put spinach in the sandwich. I was disappointed by the amount of meat - they gave like chopped up bits of Portuguese sausage that definitely could not be tasted with every bite, so not worth the $1.85 extra. But the bagel itself was impressive - dense and doughy - similar to NY bagels but not quite the same. The potatoes were tasty but it would have been better if they were crispy. I was pretty potatoed out from the day before so I saved half the potatoes to take home.

I decided to also order lunch there. I wanted to have an easy day today where I just hung around the house and their menu was so extensive. I was tempted to try another breakfast item for lunch, but instead opted for the crab cake and avocado sandwich. This was a patty of real fresh crab pan fried and then placed in a sandwich with avocado, tomato and lettuce. I ordered it to go, and took from pictures of it when it was fresh.

Even several hours later the sandwich was SO GOOD! Oh man, the crab was really delightful. I enjoyed this even more than the breakfast bagel.

I left Bogart's around 4pm and wanted to grab the bus, but the buses never came. I'm not sure if I was on the wrong side or what, but anyway, it's not a far walk, one mile to be exact, so I decided to walk home after waiting a long time for the bus. This route was part of the route I had taken that first weekend I was here when I got off the bus prematurely and had to walk through Kapiolani Park with Whole Foods groceries. Luckily today was much cooler and my load was much lighter, so the walk back home was quite easy.

After puttering around in the late afternoon and early evening I wanted to grab some dinner next door at the Korean food place, Seoul Jung. As I left my place I realized I hadn't brought my keys with me, locking myself out! Ugh, this was the second time I have done this. I felt so bad as I called the manager who had to come down and unlock the door for me. He lives in downtown so it was a bit of a trek. I quickly went to order my food in Seoul Jung before he got there. Seoul Jung is located on the second floor of a hotel right next to my building and it's a pretty fancy looking restaurant, but hardly anyone was inside. I ordered the bee bim bop. Usually it would come with little side dishes but since this was take out it didn't. I did get some sort of meat-based soup with a lot of seaweed that was pretty tasty.

Saved most of the soup for later to cook with ramen noodles!

Very tasty bee bim bop. I wasn't impressed with the restaurant's hot sauce, so I took some Sriacha sauce from Blazin' Steaks. It was perfect after that.

I hung out on a corner by my apartment eating my food and waiting for the manager to arrive. Someone eventually went into the building and then I followed them in to wait in the lobby. By the time the manager came I was pretty tired and then just hung out in my room watching some TV and of course, updating the blog.

Diamond Head on Dwellable

Day 17 - Saturday - Kailua!

I decided to "take an easy" and head over to Kailua on Saturday for a day trip.  Kailua is about an hour away on bus to the east.  A lot of the directors and associates at the firm lives there and the beaches in the area are supposed to be the best beaches of Oahu and some of the best beaches in the world.

It started to rain on my way to Kailu and I was so worried it would be raining there.  But it was sunny!  I arrived in Kailua at 12pm and headed over to Boots and Kimo's upon a director's suggestion for good food. The place was SO packed and there were several groups waiting outside to eat.

Apparently they have some of the best macadamia nut pancakes on the island, but since I couldn't eat that, I ordered the Korean Chicken.  I decided to order take-out and it was still a 30 minute wait for the food.  I picked up drinks across the street at Safeway while I waited for the food.

 
YUMMY!!  The Korean Chicken was SO GOOD.  Crispy and juicy and soy-saucy.  The only bad thing was that the chunks of thigh meat still contained little pockets of fat, so I had to dig those out before eating.  The rice was also good, but the mac salad was pretty mayo-y and tasteless.  But yeah, I can see why they are so popular.

From Kimo's I walked over to Lanikai Beach which is a little over 2 miles away.  Lanikai Beach is supposed to be one of the best beaches in the world where the sand is fine and soft.  The bus only comes every hour which is why I walked to the beach.  The route is quite nice, and it goes through residential areas that are a combo again of fancy houses and more rundown residences.  You pass Kailua Beach as you walk uphill to get to Lanikai Beach.  The view of Kailua Beach was wonderful.

Kailua Beach

Small island off the coast of Kailua.  Lots of people kayak to there. 

After a long walk I finally made it to Lanikai Beach!  It was really beautiful!  People had talked about how the beach is disappearing, which is totally true.  There are public access ways now that just hit water, no more sand.  This is because people built sand walls that, because of the currents, are causing the sands to disappear. 

The beach had a pretty good amount of people for how small the area was.  What was cool was that there were so many dogs.

I snorkeled for a while and checked out the coral, but it was not nearly as impressive as Sharks Cove.  Though there were more fish than at Turtle Bay.  I hung out in the water a lot but then clouds started coming in.

And then it started raining!  And it wasn't stopping, so I high tailed out of there and started walking back.  Unfortunately there was no shelter!

By the time I walked to Kailua Beach, the rain had stopped.  I was drenched from walking in the rain and decided to change back into my regular clothes.  By the time I got out, it was super sunny again!

The hill where I took the shots of Kailua Beach.  Past this hill was Lanikai Beach.

  I was pretty tired so I decided to start heading out of the beach area to get some food.  I planned on going to Uahi Island Grill which got really good review on Yelp and supposedly had some vegan mocha cake.  The route to get there was another mile away from Kailua Beach Park but I was determined.  Before starting on my walk I stopped off at Kalapawai Market just for some cold water and to sit down for a while since I had been on my feet since the rain started.  The market was selling burgers that were being BBQed right there, made to order, but I really wanted that vegan cake.  After a good mile walk in very hot sun, I got to Uahi Island Grill, but it was CLOSED!  As in there was paper covering all the windows as though it had gone out of business.  Another group of people had wanted to eat there, so it took them by surprise too.  Ugh, I was so sad.  I called up Peter to figure out if there was anywhere else I should try in this area.  Turns out nothing was particularly appetizing to me from what we talked about, so I decided to go to Formaggio Grill on the recommendation of the same director.  He claimed they had some great fries and I wanted something greasy and salty after all my walking.  Luckily the restaurant was only half a mile away.

It was pretty empty in Formaggio because of the off-hour (3:30pm) so I got great service.  It was pretty dark in the restaurant but the air conditioning was a welcomed relief.  I ordered the truffle oil french fries with pepper and a special tapas that was an antipasto with salami, pickled veggies, boiled egg, flatbread, and whole ground mustard.

The plate of fries was HUGE.  Granted it cost $8, but totally worth it.  The truffle oil (I don't think I've ever had truffle oil) was SO tasty.  It was sort of like olive oil but a little stronger.  

Mmm, hot, crispy, peppery, with parsley and truffle oil.  I ate the WHOLE plate (it took me like 1.5 hours to do so)

Antipasto tapas - I was impressed with the pickled veggies which were refreshing.  Also the flatbread was really tasty. 

I thought it was kind of weird that the egg was a bright orange color.  It was very good with it's slight pickled flavor, but still, a little weird. 

Needless to say I was stuffed.  I took my time eating since I was not in a rush and because I really liked those fries.  I read Dune while eating as I've become a pro at eating alone in restaurants so long as I have a book.  It's only been two weeks and I've already read like half the book between times on the bus when I can read (and not get car sick) and eating meals. 

I hopped on the bus and made my way back home.  I got home around 6:30pm and was exhausted from walking so much in the sun/rain.  I mostly vegged out, ate a little food around the house, and then slept.    

Kailua on Dwellable

Day 16 - Friday

Sorry for the delay.  Similarly to last weekend I spent this Friday night figuring out what to do over the weekend, so I wasn't able to update.

Friday was a very fruitful food day!  A paralegal at the firm was kind enough offer to pick up bentos for anyone who wanted from K's Bentoya. K's is pretty far away so there was no way I would be able to get there myself for a lunch.  The bentos there are quite Hawaiian.

   Clockwise from the top left - fried chicken, teriyaki hotdog, tofu, inari, luncheon meat (not spam), musubi, shimp, sushi, corned beef hash, rice ball.

Everything is so cute in the bento!  I loved to just look at it.  I got to work a little early so I was hungry hungry by like 11am.  I snacked a little on the bento, and saved the rest in the refrigerator since it turned out that I got invited to lunch with a director and associate!  I didn't ruin my appetite for some exciting food from Hukilau.  Hukilau is actually a restaurant that started in Northern California by Hawaiian guys (I actually had a birthday at the Palo Alto location that is now closed).  We had kalua pork egg rolls and sweet potato fries for appetizers.  I ordered the skirt steak salad for lunch.

Mmm, so tasty.  The steak was a teriyaki flavor that was really tender.  

Lunch was so good but the tasty food just continued.  During work in the afternoon one of the legal secretaries had a huge bag of kettle corn that was being passed around the office.  The first bite made the corn stick to my teeth which I hate, but then the second handful was perfect - sweet and crunchy without getting stuck to my teeth! 

After work I headed over to Ross to try to get some more work clothes.  Unfortunately I only found one shirt there.  By Ross there's a Japanese restaurant that makes their own udon noodles called Go Shi Go.  I'm always a fan of homemade noodles, so I went there after shopping at Ross.  I got their dinner special which consists of a bowl of udon noodles and a bowl of rice with grilled steak, seaweed and pickled veggies.  

The noodles were definitely great.  They were not over cooked but also chewy.  The soup was disappointing though as it wasn't very flavorful.  I guess I've been so spoiled by really tasty ramen soups that this udon soup was underwhelming.  The steak was unfortunately very tough.  The rice was great and all the ingredients mixed up was tasty, but after such tender steak during lunch, this tough stuff was so disappointing.  

After dinner I walked down to a restaurant called HALE (pronounced "ha-le") which specializes in macrobiotic foods.  I still have no idea what that even means but the important thing is that there are vegan desserts there!  I got the macha green tea cake with vanilla soy ice cream.  The cake was warm and not too sweet but with a strong green tea flavor.  It was a little bitter but overall it worked well with the vanilla ice cream.  Unfortunately it was not worth $8, but I think there would be potential for other desserts there.  

      

After dinner I walked over to Nordstrom Rack which meant overall I walked about 1.5 miles from Ross to Nordstrom Rack.  And it started to rain on the walk!  Well, I made it over to Nordstom Rack to find some more work clothes, but all the clothes I tried were disappointing and I walked out without any new clothes.  After shopping I waited for the bus, headed home, and then started figuring out what to do over the weekend.  

Ewa Beach on Dwellable

Day 15 - Thursday

So I tried pretty hard to get to work early. I woke up at 6:30am but unfortunately since the bus was just not coming I didn't get to work until about 8:20am, which isn't much earlier than normal. Oh well, I did the work I had to get done in the morning just fine.

Unfortunately waking up and getting to work so early meant that I was starving by the time lunchtime came around. I decided to try Dim Sum House for lunch. Yelp reviews said that they have pretty good dim sum for cheap, only $2.18 for 3 pieces. Dim Sum House is located on the basement level of a shopping area that has a lot of lunch places. The counter is split between cheap express Chinese food and pre-made dim sum in steamers waiting to be bought. Unfortunately there was no har gow when we got there and I didn't want to wait for it to cook, so I got shrimp with spinach steamed dumplings instead. SO GOOD! Unfortunately everything else was just so-so. If I go back, I'm only going to get the steamed dim sum and not the fried stuff or sticky rice. The fried stuff was overly greasy and not crispy while the sticky rice had a lot of fat in it which I'm not fond of.

Representation of the dim sum I ate, I was so hungry that I drove in without taking the picture so I had to use some of my fellow law clerk's food to represent what I had already inhaled. From top left - red bean sesame ball (too greasy), steamed shrimp/spinach dumpling (YUMMY), pan fried dumpling (gross), sui mai (pretty good), sticky rice (too fatty), char siu bao (tasty).

After lunch I was so stuffed but that was good because at 4:30pm I stopped working to join an associate at her pro bono gig which is as an intake attorney at Volunteer Legal Services. There's a clinic where people can sign up to see an attorney and that attorney decides the next steps. Usually the next steps are either finding an attorney to take the case pro bono or guiding the person through the steps of helping answering forms and not bringing in an attorney on the case itself. We went over to the office and met with five clients, one over the phone. The associate just does family law stuff for pro bono, so all these people have either a guardianship, custody or divorce issue. Man, it really made me want to help them. The clients were bring quite reasonable and they just needed some help. I was so impressed with how well some of them had their papers in order. They had records of all the past court orders or doctor's notes. Also there was a client who didn't speak much English so that was challenging too.

Pretty spacious intake office for Volunteer Legal Services. Some of the other volunteer attorneys were in significantly smaller rooms.

We finished up around 8pm and then I got a ride home. Was was pretty hungry by then and decided to walk over to Morio's Sushi for a tempura shrimp roll. Morio's is literally in the same space as Ruffage so there are only like space to seat 15 people. I asked to order take out and they said it would be 45 minutes! Ugh, forget that. I then went to Me's BBQ which was right behind Morio's but they too were packed with tourists. It was bad when there's a line for food that's supposed to be made quick. Ugh ugh. Defeated, I walked back home and got the steak and shrimp combo at Blazin Steaks. I said to cook the steak medium, but I forgot Hawaii's medium is like California's rare, so I had to re-cook the steak at home. Regardless it was all quite tasty. The meat was tender, the shrimps were juicy, and the rice was moist and fluffy.

The weekend is fast approaching and I have no plans. I wanted to go off island but the times for planes to Molokai don't work because all times are in the morning when I'm working, and the hotels in Lanai cost like $350/day (and no option to priceline!) Sigh, oh wells. I will likely not make it over to those islands this time around which is a shame but I'm pretty tired from not getting much sleep this weekend, so I'll be happy to catch up on sleep.

Waikiki Park Heights on Dwellable

Day 14 - Wednesday

What a gloomy day today! It started out quite sunny and by the time we stopped working it was raining quite hard!

Woke up early today to get on the bus and head to Safeway to buy ingredients for a salad. The four law clerks were getting together that evening to have a BBQ and I was tasked with making the salad. I got a bag of spinach, bag of romaine medley, cucumber, cherry tomatoes, and avocado! Safeway, while more expensive than Safeways at home, was noticeably cheaper than the Food Pantry and Whole Foods. If I get my act together I'll go here to shop for some groceries again soon.

Work was super busy today. I finished up that quick turnaround assignment and got another big assignment before that last one was even done. But I'm glad to stay busy as it's a more realistic feeling of what law firm life is actually like.

Lunch was super delicious today. We went to Mix Cafe which is an Italian sandwich shop. They have the sandwiches already made and then they put it into the oven to crisp and heat. I got the turkey sandwich which consisted of seasoned dark turkey meat (not processed lunch meat turkey) and tomatoes on ciabatta bread. The sandwich comes with a salad and balsamic vinaigrette. I was really impressed with the spongy yet crispy consistency of the ciabatta bread and the moist heartiness of the turkey. It felt like I was eating a fancy Italian style "Thankgiving leftovers" sandwich, mostly because that's the only time I eat real turkey.

Yum, real dark meat turkey

The sandwich is really big and I ate it all.

It began to rain pretty hard during the afternoon and it got super gray. I have to say that having such large windows when it's gray and gloomy does not really improve the spirit like looking out on happy blue skies and water.

The gloomy weather meant that the law clerk BBQ was pushed indoors rather than out in one of the clerk's building's garden/deck area. The apartment she's subletting is something I imagine a grandma would have. Cats everywhere! Real cats, cat figurines, etc. And the owner has just so much stuff. Books, plates, chairs, fake flowers, piles of canned food, paintings of sunflowers, Asian art and wall scrolls...lots and lots of stuff with lots of character. Naturally my cat allergy kicked up a little so I resisted petting the cat even when it would rub up against me.

Appetizers were Triscuits, spinach dip, hummus (you can see a little of the volume of stuff the owner has in the china cabinet in the back. No other photos of the apartment since I didn't have permission from the owner)

Salad I assembled - spinach, romaine medley, cherry tomatoes, cucumbers, avocado. Balsamic Italian dressing. There was way too much salad.

The law clerk's boyfriend is a great chef and grilled meat and veggie skewers (peppers, tomato, onion, pineapple) in the rain. Very hardcore.

My delicious dinner plate. From the top clockwise: Salad, veggie skewer, sausage, beef, chicken, brown rice.

Dessert was cookies from Honolulu Cookie Co., strawberries and cherries.

Oh man it was a good dinner. The meat was marinaded in a kind of apple cider reduction with some pineapple thrown in that made it sweet but not overbearing. The sausages were especially tasty as the saltiness of the sausage mixed well with the sweetness of the marinade. So yummy.

After dinner I got a ride with a law clerk since it was still raining! Actually did a little more work upon coming home from dinner and planning on getting up early tomorrow to head into work early since this new project will require a lot of time. Whew, busy busy.

Ilikai Hotel on Dwellable

Day 13 - Tuesday

Today upon my arrival to work I saw an assignment placed on my seat. Turns out it's due Wednesday at 12pm! So unfortunately today was spent working working and staying late doing more working (but it's Hawaii so staying late meant working until 7pm).

I did break for lunch and got food from Bishop Street Cafe. It's literally right in front of my building across this courtyard so it's the easiest place to get to and it was absolutely packed with people! Checking out their menu, I can see why. Everything is like $5-7 which is a steal in downtown. I followed the Yelp reviews and got the Chicken Katsu Curry Don. I know, I just had pork katsu yesterday, but I can't resist curry, especially for $6.50! The portion was absolutely huge for lunch and they give you pretty decent miso soup too. I only ate half of the katsu curry don for lunch and saved the second half for a snack at 5pm when I knew I would be staying for a couple more hours. Yum, if only I had some hot pepper to make it spicy. The katsu was crispy and juicy and the curry was flavorful without being too salty.

I did have a weird experience at Bishop St. Cafe where the person taking my order (a tall Caucasian man with a local accent) looked at my credit card and said "oh, Kimiko, you must have come over here as a child, eh? Or has some old school parents?" I got a little hissy and snapped back, "Nope, born in Los Angeles and 4th generation Japanese American" (without the Hawaiian accent I usually infuse into my speech with locals). He looked surprised. Shrug, I like my name, and that kinda thing seemed weird coming from someone just looking at my credit card.

After work I just headed home, ate the last part of my Yummy Korean BBQ leftovers with some eggs and watched Cupcake Wars! The vegan cupcake maker won! Yay! I also did some research on places to go this weekend but traveling to Molokai is not worth it based on the flights (would have to fly in Saturday morning instead of Friday night) and Lanai's hotels are astronomically expensive. I think it'll be another weekend on Oahu. I'm thinking I should make an effort to go find some cheap groceries at Asian markets.

Day 12 - Monday

Man, I was tired from the weekend still. Got to work early as I can't seem to perfectly time a 9am arrival. That's okay. The office was bustling because of a filing deadline so I mostly kept to myself in the morning. During lunch a fellow law clerk and I went to Salad Creations to get custom-made salads. You pick you kind of greens, plus 4 sides for $5 and then protein like chicken costs an additional $2.50. It kind or reminded me of the Tressider salad place back at Stanford. I got a spinach salad with cucumbers, tomatoes, boiled egg and sprouts with buffalo chicken and balsamic vinaigrette. The buffalo chicken didn't taste spicy and the salad was generally a little wetter than I would have liked (not from too much dressing, but rather too much water from somewhere). But overall the whole thing was just fine for a lunch salad.

After work I went over to Massage Specialists for a much need massage. I didn't get a massage back at Stanford before heading out and so I didn't have one for two months. Sitting in the office chair coupled with the bus has made me even more sore. My masseuse was Lynda she was super nice and worked really hard to help loosed my right shoulder which is still being a problem from the TV moving incident. A one-hour massage is only $50. The ambiance isn't spa-like, and it's definitely a no-frills establishment, but it gets the job done and it's clean and neat. I hope to get back there in about 3 weeks and then get another when I'm back in California.

I had debated going to a Pho place called Pho Bistro 2 located a block away from Massage Specialists, but the general neighborhood there wasn't that great and it was dark by the time I left the massage. I decided to just hop on the bus and head back to Waikiki. Pho Bistro 2 looks awesome though, so I plan on going there in the early evening at some point. Instead I headed back to my beloved Menchanko-Tei. I had read that their tonkatsu was really good because it's an expensive cut of pork they use, so I decided to order their Kuro-buta pork loin katsu. I also ordered a small version of their menchanko. The menchanko came out first and it was just as good as last time. I really love the noodles, broth, and mochi! The great thing about the menchanko is that is keeps your belly feeling warm for a long time.

Around the same time the menchanko came out a bowl of sesame seeds with a pestle in it came out with a couple sauces. I didn't know what that was for, so I asked the waitress who recognizes me. The waitress showed me how to crush sesame seeds with a mortar and pestle and add the sauce, which was ponzu sauce (and she insisted was katsu sauce), to the sesame seeds to create the katsu sauce. When she saw my confusion of why was she calling the sauce katsu sauce, she said, "Oh, right, locals don't use katsu sauce, yeah? Use ketchup." I was amused she thought I was local, probably more because I've been there over a longer period of time than because I act it. The katsu came out a little later and I have to admit that for $17 katsu, I was expecting more. The portion was pretty small. Admittedly the meat was really really juicy and tender. However, the ends of the katsu piece, I realized were quite fatty. It clicked in my mind that of course the really expensive pieces of meat for Japanese people would be the ones with a lot of fat in them. Unfortunately for me I'm not crazy about fatty meat. Admittedly the fattiness of the meat was not overbearing, but it was still not something I would seek out. Anyway, while I think their special Kuro-buta katsu flavoring was great, I'll stick with regular katsu.

Close up of the ponzu/sesame seed sauce. I'm usually not a fan of ponzu sauce but with the sesame seeds it was much creamier and created a great flavor.

Waikiki Landmark on Dwellable