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