Big Island Grinds

Need a little break from shopping at the Hilo Farmer’s Market? Check out Hilo Bay Sugar Shack, located right next to the Farmer’s Market. They make a great halo halo, the popular Filipino desert.

The fruits in the halo halo were really good, especially the shredded coconut, which tasted really fresh. There were even slices of fresh avocado and it was topped with a cherry (kind of odd, no?). Make sure to top it with ube ice cream! It’s the only way to have it. Maybe they get some of their fruits from the Farmer’s Market, which is why it tastes really good.

They also serve ice shave, ice cream, smoothies, and other kind of snacks.

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.

in Waipahu, Oahu

Being born and raised in Waipahu, my family ate here all the time ever since I can remember. It just feels like home everytime I eat here. No wonder I always try to visit here when I fly to Oahu. Unfortunately, they moved to a different location in Waipahu recently, but the food and atmosphere here is still the same and very homestyle.

When I was little, I don’t recall many Filipino restaurants around, but now there are many other Filipino restaurants sprouting up in Waiphu and other places (i.e. Golden Coin). But as far as I’m concerned, Elena’s is the best!

My two favorites here are the Sari-Sari (a tasty vegetable & pork soup) and the Kare-Kare (a peanut buttery oxtail soup).

Here’s the Sari-Sari.

Mixed vegetables, egg plant, squash, ongchoi, and very crispy lechon (pork skin). I love having this for breakfast! The hot soup is very rich with a strong fish and pork flavor, the vegetables are nice and fresh, and the crispy lechon is scrumptious.

Here’s the Kare-Kare.

This is like an oxtail & vegetable stew but with peanut butter. This might sound weird to some at first, but the peanut butter really thickens the stew up and balances out the flavor. The oxtails are fall-off-da-bone soft and the vegetables soak up a lot of flavor. The salty Bagaoong is a perfect compliment to this slightly sweet dish.

Filipinos love pork. Here is pork presented three ways: pork guisantes (pork & peas), pork adobo, and dinuguan (pork blood stew). Elena’s got these traditional dishes down to a science. They all are so tasty and tender. The flavors permeate through all of the pork. My favorite has always been the dinuguan.

I can’t wait to come back to Oahu to eat here again. Hilo just doesn’t have any good Filipino restaurants.

My good Filipino friend was really excited to show me this simple dish he learned. He told me about it and I was instantly excited too! Anything with bagoong has to be good. *grin*

So, on a sunny Sunday morning, we headed down to Marcy’s Variety Store, which specializes in Filipino foods.

Look at their selection of bagoong! It took a good deal of searching to find the one that my friend needed.

The bagoong we used was Lingayan Brand’s Fish Sauce. It has a smooth, slightly thick consistency and smells very fishy. Other kinds of fish bagoong should work, too. We also got a bag of eggplants from Marcy’s. The thin eggplants work better in this recipe.

For this dish, the eggplants need to be grilled until the skin is charred. The ideal way to do this would be over a real flame, but we were hungry so we just tried the electric stove.

Just make sure to keep moving the eggplant around until the eggplant is charred all over. After the eggplant is charred, you should be able to easily scrape off the burnt skin with a fork. You can leave the stems on.

Next, scramble enough eggs to soak all the eggplant in. We used four eggs for about seven eggplants. Then, pour in a small amount of the bagoong. We eyeballed the amount, but it looked like about one tablespoon, maybe, but just trust your bagoong instincts.

Once the egg batter is all ready, mix in all the eggplants.

Now you’re ready to cook! Put some oil in a hot pan and then place the eggplants in the pan. Then you can pour in the rest of the egg batter.

Cook the eggplant and eggs like an omelette, scraping the cooked eggs to the center and letting the uncooked egg run to the outside. After a few minutes, the “eggplant omelette” should be ready to flip. The secret to a good flip is to go all the way with confidence! Otherwise, you could flip it section by section.

After just a few seconds after the flip, slide it onto a plate, and you’re all set to grind! No forget da rice!

Easy lang and masarap!

On a non-food related note, Marcy’s also rents out Filipino movies. My friend rented a this DVD called “Mr. Suave“. Very funny (and strange) movie! It also has english subtitles, thankfully. Hoy! hoy! hoy! hoy! hoy! hoy!

Marcy’s Variety Store
266 Makaala Street, Hilo, HI 96720
(808) 935-5889

Today, my co-worker and I went to Island Filipino Kitchen, one of the few Filipino restaurants in Hilo. Hilo is full of Filipinos, yet there are hardly any Filipino restaurants. What’s up with that? The restaurant is a bit hard to find since it’s on the side of a warehouse, but there are big signs on the street.

Island Filipino Kitchen is a sit down or take out restaurant. During lunch, you can make a plate by choosing from the hot plates. There was a good variety with about fifteen dishes. The lady serving us was very friendly. She told us what all the dishes were. I had a hard time choosing since they all looked so masarap!

My co-worker got a 3 choice plate ($6.50) with Adobo, Squid Salad, and Pansit. I got a 2 choice plate ($5.50) with Dinuguan and Sari Sari.

Co-worker’s plate:

The Adobo was said to be tasty with lots of flavor. It wasn’t too dry either. The squid salad is a mix of squid, onions, and tomatoes. It was served at room temperature and was said that it would have been better colder and with a little more salt. The pansit was also good.

My plate:

The dinuguan was good! Most pieces were really yummy but some others were kind of dry. The blood sauce was really good, though. It tasted like the authentic Dinuguan at Filipino type parties.

The sari sari was good too, but they should give more soup. It was mostly squash, pork, and some kind of beans. The beans seemed out of place to me.

Overall, Island Filipino Kitchen was very good and I will probably go back for more in the near future. Hilo needs more Filipino restaurants, though!