Big Island Grinds

Brah, it was one scorcha of a day in Hilo Town today. Plus, I was off of work because it was Kamehameha day, so no air conditioned office. But I’m not complaining. I was able to enjoy one of the great pleasures in Hilo while getting some much needed sun! (I gotta be one of the whitest Filipinos)

So what would you do if you were driving down this road at high noon? I’m sure you know the answer!

Mr. Itsu himself was there making ice shave for everybody. Bev and I ordered a Coconut Deluxe Bowl. Deluxe means that the ice shave comes with vanilla ice cream and azuki beans (made as a sweet red yummy paste). I’ll let the photos explain…

A nice scoop of vanilla ice cream is put on the bottom of the bowl/cup.

Next, the azuki bean paste is layered over.

Then shaved ice is put on top and formed into a nice big ball.

Pour some a generous amount of coconut syrup, and you get the bestest ice shave on the Island!

It was perfect and so refreshing. The shaved ice was really fluffy and the syrup was really tasty, and the azuki bean paste adds a nice tangy texture. Bev really liked the ice cream too.

Itsu’s is also famous for their $0.95 hot dogs, and now I know why. They are so good.

You can choose what to put on the hot dog. Get “da yellow sauce” (they’ll know what you mean) — it seems to be a combination of mayo, mustard, and maybe relish. The bun was served very soft and moist. The hot dog is the red kine (redondos?) — really juicy. It all just melts in da mouth and everything tasted so good together. Especially with an ice shave in the other hand. Highly recommended.

Other Posts on Itsu’s:

• Itsu’s Kim Chi Burger and Loco Moco
• Itsu’s Plate Lunch

Itsu’s Fishing Supplies Inc
810 Piilani St Hilo
(808) 935-8082

Here’s what I made and had for lunch.

I shared it of course!

How for make Spam Musubi:

1. Cook da rice
2. Cut up da Spam in thick slices and marinate in some shoyu, sugar, and oyster sauce
3. Fry da Spam until slightly crisp and sauce is carmalized around um’
4. Use da Spam can you jus used to mold da rice: compress da rice down wit one spoon
5. Turn da can upside down and tap da rice out — perfect size!
6. Put da rice on a nori wrapper (which has been cut in half)
7. Put one juicy Spam on da rice
8. Wrap da nori around and use some water to seal um

Da Optionals:

• Put scrambled egg on top of da Spam before wrapping
• Mix da rice with lil bit rice vinegar for make um more tasty
• Put furikake on da rice before putting da spam on top

Okazuya-style places are great if you want a nice variety of food at great prices, and Hilo Lunch Shop is one of the most popular ones in Hilo.

It was only 12:30 when we got here, and already most of the food was gone! No more sushi, and a lot of the hot plates were missing/empty. Luckily, there were still some choices left. We made it just in time. Here is what we got to share…

2 scoops rice, 4 pcs nori chicken, 2 pcs breaded Ono (Wahoo fish), nishime, mac salad, and a spring roll. All this for $7.98. Not bad for 2 people… I’m lucky Bev is a light eater.

We both thought everything was really ono. Bev especially liked the nori chicken and mac salad. They are famous for their nori chicken… very flavorful and moist inside, while being crispy on the outside. It’s so good. The mac salad was actually a potato/mac salad with cucumbers, eggs, and carrots — really yummy. Everything else was good too. The breaded Ono was nice and moist inside, the nishime was fresh and tasty. The spring roll was big and crisp, but just average tasting.

Hilo Lunch Shop serves up some onolicious food. Just make sure to get here well before noon!

Hilo Lunch Shop
421 Kalanikoa Street, Hilo, HI 96720
Phone: (808) 935-8273

Hi everyone! James finally found his camera but is still too lazy to update his blog, so this is his wife Bev writing the latest one for you.

Yesterday morning we headed out to the Farmer’s Market, which is becoming part of our weekly routine. The sun was out, the market was packed with people, and we were hungry. So we made our way through the crowd and found our way to a vendor that sells all kinds of musubis and Filipino foods. Choosing what foods to buy was a tough one because everything looked good, but here is what we got…

… spam and egg musubi, teriyaki chicken musubi, and a tray of pancit. The drink we got from a nearby vendor — a fresh lilikoi drink for only $1! And da guy even wen put ice for free!

After our adventures at the market, we took our food back home to eat. First things first on my list of foods to try: the PANCIT! There wasn’t any meat in this pancit but was still really ono. It was mostly veggies and noodles, and oh yah! Kalamansi, which is a small lime that has a tangy and a little sour flavor — squeezing the juices all over the pancit is an essential part of the whole experience.

Next, was their spam and egg musubi. A very flavorful musubi, I must say. I think the furikake and proportions of the musubi were just right. It was much better than a 7-11 Spam and Egg Deluxe Musubi. I wish I could say the same about the teriyaki chicken musubi, though. There was too much rice and the chicken was kinda dry. Kinda hard to eat, too, since had too much rice. I’ll need a bigger mouth to take one good bite of it!

Finally, to wash down all the yummy foods we ate, we got our lilikoi drink with ice. It was freshly made and very refreshing — matched especially well with the spam and egg musubi.

This was a pleasant and fulfilling breakfast from the Farmers Market. I look forward to trying more things from this vendor next time, possibly their Arroz Caldo (rice soup). I heard it’s another popular choice from there.

We just want to thank everyone for all your wishes in the last post. We got wedding pictures up so you can view them at http://jamesrubio.net/wedding.