Hawaii Day 3 Visited 5/20/2013 4 Forks

Lemongrass Express -  Waikoloa Beach Dr Kings Marketplace Food Ct, Waikoloa, HI 96738

Usually when I'm on vacation, I like to go to places that more of the locals hit up and less of the big chains or touristy places.  So after our massages, Deanna and I asked the lady at the spa for any good local recommendations that were near our hotel.  To be honest, there aren't a ton of restaurants on the Big Island in general but she was able to rattle off a few options.  The closest one she mentioned was in the nearby shopping center, Queens Marketplace.  Since we were pressed on time, we decided to give it a try, even though it looked like it was more of an expressversion of the original restaurant.

When we arrived at the mall, I didn't fully realize that it was literally inside a mall food court.  The other places inside the food court was a Subway Sandwiches and an ice cream parlor.  I'm usually not a fan of mall food courts so I was definitely a bit weary of this place.  But to their credit, Lemongrass had 3 tables and high top that seated 5-6 people, so it wasn't literally a food court to-go type of place.   Although I do love Thai and Vietnamese food, I was really more in the mood for Hawaiian style food, but they did try to fuse Hawaiian influences with their dishes.  They have your usual pad thai, curries, pho, and green papaya salads.  Luckily for their lunch specials, they had an ahi poke special ($12).  It was cubes of tuna marinated in soy and ginger and served with crispy wonton, pickled vegetables on top of rice.  While it's not a traditional poke, it was still delicious!  It had the right amount of heat and it was extremely flavorful.  It's not as clean tasting as a regular poke but the pickled vegetables and spicy flavoring was a nice touch and the white rice just made it more filling.  I cleaned my entire plate.  The one thing that was a bit off-putting was that when I cleaned my plate, you could see all the oil from the sauces on my plate.

The great thing about Thai/Vietnamese food is that they usually have good veggie options.  Deanna got the a tofu/veggie noodle dish that I didn't taste but she mentioned that it was great.  All in all, I gotta say that I was very pleasantly surprised by this meal.  Who knew that good food actually could exist in a food court?  Apparently the locals did.  I did notice that the only people in there were locals, so I guess this should teach me a lesson to not be so judgy. :)

Hawaii - Day 2 Visited 5/19/2013 3 Forks

Cafe Pesto 308 Kamehameha Ave #101, Hilo, HI 96720

Deanna and I decided to hit the road on Sunday and drive to the volcanoes near Hilo, which were about 2 hours away from our hotel.  By the time we stopped at several look out points and waterfalls, we didn't get to Hilo until 3pm.  Hilo is the exact opposite of the resort area of where we were staying.  It's much more local and not really catered to tourists.  We did find Cafe Pesto right off the main drag and decided to stop for lunch.  The menu is pretty typical cafe food of soups, sandwiches, pastas and pizzas.  The inside is pretty cute though and had a nice island feel to it.

Since I was in Hawaii, I wanted to try as much fish as I could here so I opted for the Ono (also known as Wahoo) Fish sandwich ($16).  The waitress asked me how I liked my fish, so I said medium rare and I thought it was going to be thick like a tuna steak sandwich.  But instead, it was just a thinly grilled piece of white fish.  The fish was still tasty and fresh tasting but I don't understand why they would ask me how I like my fish, when white fish is generally just grilled until it's cooked.  I don't believe they would serve rare white fish.  The sandwich also came with a potato salad - which turned out to be mashed purple potato.  It was good but when I read potato salad, I was envisioning the typical mayo based salad but this was literally just cold mashed potatoes.  Deanna got a pasta ($16) that I didn't try but she said was totally fine and hit the spot. All in all, there wasn't anything amazing about the place but it was the right spot at the right time in the right place (there's really not much going on in Hilo).  The total bill was $23/pp including tax and tip.

Norio's Japanese Restaurant - Fairmont Orchid, 1 N Kaniku Dr, Kohala Coast, HI 96743

If you haven't been to Hawaii before, you should know that there are tons and tons of sushi places.  It's almost like you're in Japan but it makes sense with all the fresh fish they have and all the Japanese influence on the culture there.  So I was excited when the group dinner was at Norio's - it was supposed to be one of the better sushi places on the island.  It's inside the Fairmont and it was definitely priced as if it was in the Fairmont.   It was a huge group of us eating there so we shared a bunch of different plates.  We started with a sushi appetizer which was totally fine.  Honestly, I prefer sashimi or rolls to actual sushi because I usually think there's too much rice in sushi.  But the fish was fresh and flavor was simple as sushi should be.  Our table ordered last, so as we waited for our food, we tried the other table's leftovers.  One of the dishes was the crispy Macadamia nut coated asparagus ($8).  The asparagus was nicely cooked with a great crunch and the macadamia nut crust gave it a nice local flare to it.  For my main dish, I split a bunch of rolls with the CEO of the company (that was a bit awkward).  I ordered 4 rolls since I figured 2 per person isn't too much to ask for.  We got the Red Dragon Roll ($24), Spicy Hamachi Roll ($13), Spicy Scallop Roll ($14) and the Rainbow Roll ($22).  The dragon roll and rainbow roll were both priced ridiculously at over $20 but I will say that they have a LOT of pieces and they were very big as well.  The Red Dragon Roll consisted of shrimp tempura, avocado, green onion, tobiko, and sweet mustard aioli and wrapped in raw big eye tuna.  I generally don't like tempura rolls and this one didn't really convince me that it's worth the money.  The roll was totally fine (and very filling) but to me, it's just not sushi if there's something cooked in it.  Next I tried the hamachi roll and this was disappointing.  It was served with habanero masago, spicy aioli, sesame seed oil and kaiware.   The habanero and spicy aioloi made the roll beyond spicy and you couldn't even taste the fish at all.  Mark and I both commented on how crazy hot this roll was and to me that detracts from the actual fish.  The spicy scallop was roll came with chopped up scallop, green onions, tobiko, cucumber and kaiware.  The roll was good but again nothing to write home about.  Strangely enough the star of the platter was the rainbow roll.  I usually find rainbow rolls kind of a cop out because it's just a California roll with fish on top.  But for some reason I just decided to go for it.  The avocado in this roll was amazing and so creamy and delicious.  The roll was huge and probably would have filled up one person if they ate it on its own.   My main gripe with all these rolls was that they were so poorly executed.  Many times, the roll just completely fell apart once I picked it up with my chopsticks.  It felt like the rice wasn't of sushi quality because it it didn't seem to have that stickiness that the rice needs to bind everything together.  I really had a hard time finishing my portion of the sushi, but like a good trooper I powered through it but thought that I was going to throw up at the end.

All in all, the dinner was totally fine but I wouldn't say that it's even close to some of the best sushi I've had in NYC.  I find most of the sushi places in New York to be much better than Norio's but maybe of all the places on the Big Island, it is the best place to get sushi.  Total bill for the entire group of people $2,100!

Photo Credit: Yelp

Hawaii - Day 1 Visited 5/18/2013 3 Forks

Sunset Luau at the Waikoloa Beach Marriott- 69-275 Waikoloa Beach Drive, Waikoloa 

Ahhh - Hawaii.  How I love thee.  It's seriously one of the most beautiful and relaxing places in the world.  Of all the times I've been there, I've actually never been to a traditional luau.  I've always thought that they were kind of touristy and pricey.  And you know what? They are totally touristy and pricey but you should check it out at least once in your life.  Luckily, Deanna's company paid for and organized the whole thing, which was great because they were able to get us seats right up front so that we could see everything.  The back drop of the luau is beautiful as it's on the beach behind the Marriott and you could see the gorgeous sunset as you were enjoying your drinks (open bar was included in the price of admission).  

The luau starts with kind of a sad appetizer.  They give you this plastic plate with a half pineapple and some cold coconut shrimp with sweet and sour sauce.  I was a bit underwhelmed and was hoping this wasn't a sign of things to come.  Well, let's be honest, luau food is a bit like wedding food in that it's really hard to make food for hundreds of people and make it taste good.  You're really there for the experience and to say that you went and not necessarily for the quality of food.  Before the show started, they announced that they would be unearthing the suckling pig that had been underground for the past day baking.  I thought it was going to be a full pig that they pull out, but it turned out that it was large chunks of cut up pork already, so that was a bit disappointing (although for shock factor they do have the head in there).  I've seen full pig roasts in the Dominican Republic and in Asia before so it wasn't a huge deal that I didn't see it. 

Afterwards, you are led to the buffet portion of the night.  Honestly, it's your typical buffet with lots of green salad options (pretty fresh veggies), mayo based salads (think pasta and potato salad), teriyaki chicken (pretty dry), purple potato, fried rice, grilled vegetables, and the pork that they unearthed.  All of it was just kind of eh.  The best thing that I did eat was the poke (which was my favorite traditional Hawaiian food on the trip) but it was interesting that they hid it on another table away from all the other food.  I would have never found it if I didn't keep walking around the buffet area.   Poke is essentially cubes of raw tuna marinated in soy, ginger, garlic and other herbs.  It's refreshing and amazing and it's all I wanted to eat on the whole trip.  After we ate, they started the luau show and it was as expected.  Lots of hip shaking, hula dancing, yelling, and fire twirlling.   While the food didn't knock me over, the overall experience was worth 3 forks because it really is very Hawaiian and you know what? I am a tourist, so why not do touristy things every once in a while?  The cost was covered by Savo but I read somewhere they it's about $100/pp - so definitely pricey and I probably wouldn't have paid that much for it knowing how mediocre the food is, but if you can get a better deal than that, then it might be worth it. 

 Photo Credit: Yelp

The Odeon Visited 5/10/2013 3.5 Forks

Odeon 145 W Broadway (between Duane St & Thomas St), New York, NY 10013

The Odeon is the classic quintessential Tribeca restaurant.  It's trendy but not hipster and everyone is just a bit too cool for school in the downtown way.  I have been to The Odeon before but it's been years despite working 5 minutes away from it.  But I ended up there on a Friday night with Betsy and Cicily and it was kind of the perfect after work Friday night place to catch up on everything.  The food here is your classic bistro food ranging from mussels to burgers to hanger steak.  I was starving and craving a burger but decided to go a bit "healthy" and opted for the Tune burger ($22) instead.  Both Cicily and Betsy got the burger ($18 plus $2 for cheese and another $2 for bacon) and I also split the shrimp and grits appetizer ($14) with Cicily.

The shrimp and grits came out and it was shockingly small.  Cicily and I were both like "what? this was $14?".  I guess when you come from seafood cities like New Orleans and DC like Cicily and I, it's always surprising to order something with seafood for $14 to only get 4 pieces of shrimp.  But I will say at least the dish was pretty tasty.  The shrimp was cooked perfectly and the grits had a lot of flavor with bits of jalapeno, chorizo, scallion and bacon jus.  I just wish there was more than 4 bites of the dish.  Then came our main entrees.  My tuna burger was served with wasabi mayo and fries.  The burger here was the kind that was chopped up tuna and then formed into a patty.  I asked for it to be cooked rare and they did a good job of it.  While it was moist and a good burger, I still prefer my tuna burger to be more of a big piece of tuna steak such as the one at Sel de Mer because it has a bit more stability.  The chopped up patty version comes apart more easily but the burger here did have enough binding it in that it wasn't so messy.  My main gripe with my dish and it's not a major one were the fries.  Usually with something like a burger I like my fries to be the thicker steak cut fries but the ones here were the skinny versions.  It just didn't feel like I was eating a hearty side dish.  I had to dip into Betsy's fries to get full.  Since it was Friday and we wanted to treat ourselves (and frankly I was still hungry), we all split the sundae ($10) for dessert.  It was ok, nothing really special at all.  It was 3 scoops of vanilla ice cream, pralines, whipped cream (on the side) and both hot fudge and butterscotch (on the side as well).   It felt like a dessert I could have easily made at home my self and not worth the $10, but it did satisfy my sweet craving for the night.

All in all, I had a nice meal and it was the perfect place to catch up with some friends after work.  We had gotten there pretty early (around 7pm) that the restaurant was really hopping by the time we left at 9:30.  The place is casual enough that you don't have to feel too threatened by the downtown crowd but it's got enough character and trendiness to it that you still feel like you're out somewhere nice for the night.  Total bill: $71 with tax and tip

Photo Credit: Yelp

Carbone Visited 5/9/2013 4.5 Forks

Carbone 181 Thompson St., New York, NY 10012

I'll say that I really wanted to hate Carbone.  I know, why would I go to a place thinking that I would hate it? Well, Carbone is one of the hottest restaurants now so being the total buzz sucker I am, I had to try it but then I heard about some of the outrageous prices and so I wanted to go there and write them off as just being another trendy hot spot of the moment.  But alas, the Torrisi boys got me again.  I guess should know better because I really did enjoy both of their other restaurants, Torrisi Italian Specialties and Parm.

I will say that the prices are definitely high but as Lav pointed out, we've paid the same if not more at other restaurants and didn't enjoy our meals as much.  I managed to snag a 6pm reservation on a Thursday and they led us to this table in the back right next to these ultimate Wall Street schmoozers.  I mean, I used to have dinner like them so part of me was jealous that I couldn't run up a tab into the thousands, but it also made me happy that I was no longer in that world because they just reeked of douchiness.  If there is one downside  to my meal, it was that the clientele definitely leaned towards those with big expense accounts (except for the couple next to us).   I did enjoy the "freebies" of snacks that they offer you while you wait for you food.  It consisted of yummy paper thin prosciutto, foccacia bread with tomato sauce on it, and nice and crispy garlic bread.  They were a nice touch while you waited for your meal.  Ordinarily I would say "how sweet! Free food" but once I saw the prices they were charging for their food, I realized that it wasn't really free but just baked into the prices of the dishes. .  At first glance, the menu (which is HUGE, not in how many dishes they have, but I mean it's literally a giant piece of paper that would take your eye out) was definitely on the pricey side.  Veal parm for $50?!  House salad for $15?! I mean this was why people have been complaining about this place.  But since I was here, I was going to shut up and make the most of my meal.  Lav and I shared the Asparagus Genovese ($16) which was grilled asparagus with mozzarella, the fettuccine con funghi ($28) and the spicy rigatoni vodka ($24).  Our waiter was incredibly helpful in picking out vegetarian appropriate dishes and giving us recommendations (he strongly suggested the  fettuccine over the angel hair pasta).

The asparagus genovese was about 5 very thick stalks of asparagus, grilled and served on top of soft creamy mozzarella and pesto sauce.  I don't know why that when the waiter explained the dish and said mozzarella I assumed it would be hot and melted but the whole dish was cold and that wasn't really my thing.  But the asparagus was grilled perfectly because it still had that nice crunch to it but it wasn't raw or tough to eat.  I just would have wished it was served warm.  But the real winners of the meal were the pastas.  I know, I know.  I've said so many times in the past how I hate overpaying for what I think is a dish I could make myself at home.  But honestly these pastas were so freaking amazing and there is absolutely no way I could ever make them myself.  The fettuccine was incredibly soft and buttery and served with sliced shiitake mushrooms and tomato.  It was heavenly and simply amazing.  Then I tried the spicy rigatoni and holy shit was that good too.  It was a sweet tomato base with just the right amount of heat and the rigatoni was perfectly cooked.  It seriously rivaled some of the pasta I had in Italy.  The fact that they were not just good but a bit different (not your typical alfredo or spaghetti) made me feel a bit better about paying $20+ for pasta.  I inhaled my food and was ready for more.  Luckily we saved room for dessert and they literally wheel out an entire tray with cakes the size of our table.  We opted for the chocolate cake and they also served it with "free" fried dough with powered sugar.  The cake was nice and moist and a lovely way to end the meal.

All in all, it was a fantastic meal. Yes, the prices are a bit expensive (did I just pay almost $30 for pasta?!?) and maybe it was because I was starving when i got there but the pasta was seriously out of this world.  Now I see why there were so many big wigs there because I would have loved to have had free reign over the menu without having to worry about the bill.  Total bill: $91/pp with tax and tip

Photo Credit:  Time Out New York

Alder Visited 5/3/2013 3 Forks

Alder 157 2nd Ave., (between 10th St & 9th St), New York, NY 10003

While I haven't been to WD-50 before, I was curious to try out Wylie Dufresne's latest restaurant because it seemed a bit more accessible.  Wylie is big on the celebrity chef scene, so I was surprised when I actually saw him at Alder last night overseeing the operations from the back of the room.  I wasn't starstruck but I was impressed that he was there in person.  Similar to the style of WD-50, the food at Alder has a funky and eclectic slant to it.  It's very far from anything traditional.  Anuja and I decided to share the pub cheese ($9) and the fried cauliflower ($15), and for her main dish she got the salmon tartare ($14) and I got the chicken liver toast ($17).  The waiter gave us this look that told us we hadn't ordered enough food but we had seen a 16 Handles next door to Alder and had our mind set on getting a big frozen yogurt with tons of toppings afterwards. 

The pub cheese and salmon tartare came out first and they were on the smaller size so we were a bit afraid that the waiter was right.  The pub cheese was served with pistachio-fig brittle and Martin’s “potato chips”.  The cheese (pictured above) was purple and had a cream cheese like consistency.  It was good and definitely filling but wasn't something I would necessarily run back for.  The salmon tartare was served inside slices of  avocado that was made into a half sphere.  When you cut inside of the avocado, the chopped salmon was inside.  It was served with a side of horseradish cream which most definitely had a strong kick to it.  It was served with a risotto based cracker that was so fragile that it just didn't have the strength to hold anything to it.  Again, the dish was fine and there was nothing wrong with it but there wasn't a wow factor to it.  Next they served the chicken liver and fried cauliflower.  The cauliflower was HUGE, it was almost half a head of cauliflower served with lemon-almond puree, a thin layer of lardo on top of it, and cocoa nips in the puree.  Yes, that's right, cocoa nips.  Pretty different right? The cauliflower was roasted nicely and the puree and cocoa was actually a nice combination with the cauliflower.  This was probably my favorite dish of the night because it was so different and unexpected.  My chicken liver dish was also good but since I had to eat it on my own, it was a bit too much for one person.  It was served on top of a bed of cornbread and a side of grapefruit marmalade and topped with 3-4 pieces of fried chicken skin.  It was a classic formula of chicken liver (loved that it wasn't grainy) and I loved the acidic tang of the grapefruit with the chicken liver.  Even though the portions seemed pretty small, eating an entire log of chicken liver myself really pushed me over the edge and by the time we got to 16 Handles I was pretty full.  I smartly I mostly avoided the chicken skin but I took a couple of nibbles of it.  Since it wasn't actually attached to the chicken, it was a bit dry and didn't have that that crunch that you'd get from a fried chicken skin.

I did like the decor which was a quaint farmer house feel and the waitstaff was very sweet and nice.  While I was glad to have gone and the Wylie sighting was also a nice surprise, there wasn't anything that truly wow'd me and made me want to run back here.  But I wouldn't necessarily run away from here either if someone wanted to try it out.  Despite this, I still am interested in trying WD-50 and hope to be wow'd there.  Total bill:  $52/pp with tax and tip.  

Photo Credit: Yelp

Hatsuhana Sushi Visited 5/2/2013 4 Forks

Hatsuhana Sushi 17 E 48th St., (between 5th Ave & Madison Ave), New York, NY 10017

When my childhood best friend came to NYC at the last minute and told me she was staying by Rockerfeller Center, I panicked because I NEVER eat up there.  In fact the only other part of the city that I hate more is Times Square.  It's just teeming with tons and tons of tourists and there just aren't a lot of food options up there.  Even though I had a great meal here, I still wouldn't recommend this area as an optimal food destination. 

However, I did know that there were a few high end sushi joints nearby and found Hatsuhana while I was doing a quick google of sushi + Rockerfeller Center.  Boy am I glad that I did.  While it is a more formal, stuffy type of place than I generally prefer, the rolls and quality of the fish were truly fantastic.  We entered the restaurant and were quickly ushered upstairs and it was just a very Japanese, quiet, serious type of sushi joint.  But usually these type of sushi joints are very very fresh and high quality and Hatsuhana was no different.  We started with a basic order of edamame ($6.25) and at first glance I was a bit disappointed.  They looked overcooked and brown and frankly $6.25 for edamame is pretty ridiculous (I mean the entire bag costs $2 in Chinatown).  But honestly, they were cooked perfectly with the right amount of crunch to it and it was heavily salted to make them super addictive.  We also had the tempura appetizer ($10.50) which came with 2 pieces of shrimp, 2 pieces of broccoli, 1 pumpkin and one other vegetable.  I was not super impressed with the tempura, it was pretty standard and nothing to write home about but also nothing to complain about.  For our main entree, we decided to split a bunch of rolls.  I was leaning towards my usual order of some kind of sashimi or chirashi but it's been a while since I had rolls, so I was game to split them with Jeana.  We got the eel and avocado roll ($8), spicy scallop ($7.25), spicy tuna ($7.50), spicy salmon ($6.25) and spicy yellowtail ($7.50) - do you see a pattern? We both clearly love those spicy rolls.   They were all the perfect size with just the right amount of rice.  What I loved about the spicy rolls here is that they are not chopped up but large pieces of fish with a thin layer of spicy mayo in the roll.  The best one was the scallop.  It was a perfect piece of raw scallop in the middle of each piece and you could really taste the essence of the fish.  My next favorite was the salmon, as it was perfectly moist and melt in your mouth.  Even though the spicy yellowtail and tuna were comprised the same way, they just didn't seem as delicious as the other two rolls.  Mainly because they are generally less moist type of fish to begin with but don't take this to mean that I didn't like them because I still did, they just weren't as good as the scallop and salmon.  The eel and avocado roll was extremely enjoyable too.  Sometimes eel can taste old or dry but this one was neither and had the right amount of sauce to make it all work together really well.  

While I was doing my research for this entry, I noticed that they seemed to be famous for the Box of Dreams entree (pictured) and honestly every picture I've seen of it looks amazing.  It's 9 mini bowls in a bento box of raw or cooked fish for $41.  It's definitely a bit pricey but it looks good enough that I would contemplate going back just for that dish.  I was really surprised at how much I enjoyed my meal here and the only reason I didn't give it a 4.5 or higher rating was that I didn't think the tempura was amazing and they charged $6 for edamame?!  Totally stick to just the sushi/sashimi here and you'll be very happy.  Total bill:  $36/pp with tax and tip

Photo Credit: Yelp