Entries Tagged as 'kalbi'

Hawaiian Thanksgiving with Billy and Ging Ging

November 28th, 2011 · 4 Comments


Billy & Dallas


Dallas

Two Hawaiian guys, slippers, Hawaiian t-shirts, hibachi, kalbi. Yep, looks like a Hawaiian-themed Thanksgiving!


Hawaiian-Themed Thanksgiving Dinner

For the holiday we went to visit Billy and Ging Ging in the East Bay. We’d originally planned on skipping all the traditional Thanksgiving food and just ordering Hawaiian platters from L&L Hawaiian Barbecue, but whattaya know? L&L is closed on Thanksgiving. So we ended up making Thanksgiving dinner, but still tried for Hawaiian style instead of the American classics.


Hawaiian-Themed Thanksgiving Dinner

Dallas and Billy took care of the meats: Kalbi Korean short ribs and chicken katsu. Ging and I made the rest. Mostly Ging, ok at least under her supervision. We made a chinese salad with ramen crunchies, a warmed spinach/cranberry/pecan salad, tofu, mac salad (with and without wahoo/ono), mashed sweet potato, and fresh pineapple with li hing powder. For dessert we made haupia and a pumpkin mochi.


Damien & Matt

Matt and Amy joined us for dinner. Made made lemon meringue pie and they brought a couple bottles of wine as well.


Damien & Billy


Matt, Amy, Billy


Ging Ging, Damien, Dallas, Rachelle

Amy wasn’t sure what Billy and Ging meant when they said we were having Hawaiian foods for Thanksgiving but when we told her the menu she told us she was looking forward to all of that more than turkey, stuffing and mashed potatoes!


Matt’s beautiful lemon meringue pie.


Lemon meringue pie, haupia, pumpkin mochi.

Ging and I prepared dessert plates for everyone. Each got a slice of Matt’s lemon meringue pie, a piece of haupia topped with chocolate pudding and freshly-whipped cream (kind of like haupia pie with no crust), and a piece of pumpkin mochi. The mochi didn’t really stand up to the sweetness of the pie or haupia, but when we ate it the next day on it’s own it was much better. The lemon mirengue pie was so delicious. I ate it for breakfast the next day too! And the haupia reminded me of Hawaii. I made it the night before. It was simple with a mix that Ging had from Lihue.


Ging (talking to her family & rubbing baby #2 due in April!), Matt, Amy, Billy, Damien, Dallas

After dinner and after Damien went to bed we watched a couple of movies: Super 8 and 50/50. I saw 50/50 in the theater and really liked it. I thought Super 8 was pretty good too.

I love turkey and stuffing and mashed potatoes and pecan pie, but this was a good alternative dinner and I was glad we did it! Also, remind us to tell you the story about how Billy and Ging don’t have a TV but borrowed one (+Direct TV). And then Dallas and Billy had to configure it so we could watch the football games on Thanksgiving. Craziness!

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Super H Mart

November 14th, 2011 · 1 Comment


Super H Mart :: Niles, IL


Come to H Mart and try some peaches. You will fall in love.


Durian


Jackfruit


Banana Flower, Aloe, Lemongrass, ToranDae


Wei-Chuan Preserved Duck Eggs


Just a few different kinds of kimchi to pick from.


Fish so fresh it’s alive!


Yes! I often feel this way about chips.


Marukome Miso – Chipotle flavor!


What we came for: Kalbi


Two whole aisles of nori


Bleh!! Beef bile & pork blood!


Sempio “salad sauce”


Many kinds of oil.


Fujiya candy at the checkout.


I got bibimbap at Durebak in the food court and it was not very good.


Not very tasty bibimbap.


Lots of toy vending machines at the exit.


Also, when we left we passed a Korean Best Buy inside the store.


Korea Times newspaper.

In preparation for my birthday barbecue back in September, Dallas and I went shopping out at the Super H-Mart in Niles. This Asian supermarket reminded me a lot of Mitsuwa, except that Mitsuwa is more Japanese and Super H-Mart is more Korean. (See my visit to Mitsuwa here.) But, it’s basically the same concept. Huge grocery area, a section of rice cookers and housewares, other stores around the edges, a liquor store, and a food court. Differences I noticed at H-Mart were that the produce section was really huge, in the other retail stores area there was a Best Buy with everything in Korean, and the seafood area had live fish.

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A Visit From Fiona

September 29th, 2011 · No Comments

Last Sunday Killian, Liz and Fiona came over for a visit and to watch the Bears take on the Packers. Killian came over at the start of the game and after the first half he and Dallas and I went up on the roof to grill the leftover kalbi ribs from my birthday barbecue. Liz and Fiona arrived just in time for dinner and the second half of the game, although, who could pay attention to the game when we had such and adorable baby to play with. Also, by that time it was clear that the Packers were going to win!

Everyone loved the ribs. Dallas said they were even better than at my birthday party. Fiona even sucked on a rib or two and seemed to like it. I think Killian was a little annoyed when I was trying to make her cheer for the Packers! It was nice to see Fiona again. She’s starting to show her personality more and can scoot around on the carpet. The last time we saw her was on the day we returned from our wedding trip (she was born on our wedding day) and she was only a few weeks old!

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Holiday Weekend at the Lake House

July 5th, 2010 · 1 Comment

A few of our friends own a lake house together on Cross Lake in WI. It’s about an hour outside of Chicago and technically their house is in WI, but the reason that the lake is called Cross Lake is because the state line crosses through it. One side of the lake is in WI and the other is in IL.

Dallas went with a bunch of the guys on the Thursday before Fourth of July and then the girls and more people joined them on Friday. We probably had 10 – 12 people coming in and out.. and about 6 dogs, who got along surprisingly well. Mostly we sat on the dock, rode the Sea-Doo, talked, drank, played bags, and ate. Nice and relaxing!

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Guri-Guri

July 23rd, 2009 · No Comments

Donna had a freelance photography gig in afternoon so Dustin, Dallas and I hung out. We went to Queen Ka’ahumanu Shopping Center to look for a store but it had closed, so we just had lunch there. I had Maui Taco again, but Dustin and Dallas went for Blazin’ Steaks. We ran a few errands and then Dustin took us to get Guri-guri.

tasaka_guri_guri

Guri-guri is a cross between sherbert and ice cream. The only place you can get it is in Maui at Tasaka.

guri_guri

When you walk into Tasaka, which is located in the Maui Mall in Kahului, there are just a couple people behind the counter. The older man behind the counter is Henry Tasaka and is the grandson of the founder. You can choose from two guri-guri flavors: strawberry or pineapple. I got one scoop of each. We paid a whopping $1.10 for two scoops, which are served in a little Dixie cup.
The recipe for guri-guri has been in the Tasaka family for 4 generations and is a closely guarded secret.

dallas_guri_guri

It’s said that guri-guri originated during Hawaii’s plantaton days in the 1890′s. Supposedly the Japanese plantation workers pronounced “goodie-goodie” as “guri-guri” and the name stuck.

Dallas doesn’t really care for guri-guri so he got Maui made Kitch’n Cook’d potato chips. He did try just a taste of my guri-guri, but didn’t get any of his own.

kitchn_cookd_maui

After our guri-guri adventure, Dustin took me to Billie J. Boutique (444 Hana Hwy, Kahului), a store that Donna loves. I got a dress, blouse, necklace and bracelet for less than $90, which I thought was a pretty good deal. I needed a dress for Cory & Chris’s wedding, so I was happy to find one at a great price!

Later on Dustin made kalbi ribs for us for dinner. Yum!

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