Grandma & Dallas, Alewa Heights, Honolulu
For dinner or first night of vacation we called Dallas’ cousin Quincy to see what was up. Dallas’ Uncle Bob and Aunty Helen were traveling and his cousins Quincy and Kala were up at the house taking care of their Grandma (Dallas’ Grandma) and Grandpa (not Dallas’ Grandpa) who live with them. We were thinking maybe we’d bring dinner over since the grandparents are getting too old to go out. Quincy said that Uncle Mel and Aunty Wendie were coming over to barbecue and invited us over for that. We stopped off at the store on the way over and bought some poke for pupus and some beer. Steinlager is another beer that we always drink in Hawaii. (See also Hinano and Primo.) Steinlager is from New Zealand, so you don’t see it everywhere, but we have occasionally seen it at Jewel in Chicago and they have it at Quencher’s. Something new this time, though. They had Steinlager Pure at the supermarket so we had to try it.
For dinner we had some pretty standard stuff: rice, grilled chicken, grilled steak. The standout for me was the fish. Uncle Mel grilled kumu, a smallish-sized fish that Quincy caught, but not just caught with a fishing pole. He went diving in the ocean and speared these fish! The kumu had a very light, delicate flavor. I could see having some more spices or sauce on them and then grilling them to give it a kick.
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Tags:alewa heights·beer·dallas·grandma·Hawaii·honolulu·jewel·kala·kumu·mel·oahu·quenchers·quincy·steinlager·wendie
November 29th, 2008 · 4 Comments
A couple weeks ago we were watching Food Network and for about 10 seconds they showed someone wrapping a shrimp in some sort of wonton or wrap or roll. This got a brain worm in Dallas’ head that he wanted to make it for Thanksgiving… never mind that he never had before and didn’t have any sort of recipe.
Last weekend when we rented car to go to Wisconsin we also ran errands. We ended up going to Costco, Jewel and Whole Foods to get everything we needed… it turned out we were making spring rolls, which I didn’t even realize until we were buying the spring roll skins. About mid week Dallas made a couple rolls and we taste tested.
On Thanksgiving we started making spring rolls. Well, Dallas did most of the work. I just chopped up a few things and prepared the skins. We made a few with different ingredients and sauces and adjusted until we got to something we really liked. In the end we did shrimp marinated in 7 Paths Sesame Ginger Sauce, diced jalapenos, chopped cilantro, chopped leaf lettuce, diced water chestnut and chopped green onion. We tried a bit of Thai chili sauce but it was too hot with the jalapenos. For a dipping sauce we used Iron Chef Sesame Garlic Sauce because it was a bit thicker and it had a sweetness that offset the spiciness of the jalapenos.
What we didn’t think about is how labor intensive the rolls are. Not hard to make, but tedious. I mean, you have to stuff and roll each one and get a technique down. .. which our technique was a little sloppy. .. but at the end? Everyone seemed to love them. It was a fun, unique addition to our meal and was fresh and light in comparison to the other comfort foods that we eat at Thanksgiving.
A couple notes: We got two different kinds of spring roll skins. The ones on the left in the photo below were square and a bit thicker. The ones on the right were round and a bit thinner. Dallas preferred rolling with the thinner round skins.
Not the most attractive presentation, but we layered the rolls between sheets of damp paper towel so that they wouldn’t dry out. Dallas saw online that you were supposed to serve spring rolls within a few hours or they’d get dry. Using plastic wrap and damp paper towel helped keep them moist even until the next day when Dallas and I and Jill and Brian ate the leftovers.
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Tags:cooking and baking·costco·dallas·food network·jewel·shrimp·spring roll·whole foods
October 17th, 2008 · 3 Comments
Jewel, River North, Chicago
I saw this at Jewel and had no idea what it was used for. It was in the pharmacy area, not the grocery section. A Google search later .. I think it’s for ear wax? Or ear infections?
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Tags:Chicago·jewel·river north·Shopping·sweet oil
