Dining Out: Hy's Steakhouse in Waikiki

The presentation was much nicer when it arrived at our
table, but since we always share our meals, this is the
result of splitting meals!

Waikiki's not a local's favorite place to go, but once in a while it's ok.  Don't get us wrong, Waikiki has a lot to offer visitors - a beautiful beach, many places to stay, lots of shopping and great restaurants like Nobu's, Morimoto's and more.  Nobu's is great, pricey, but the food is wonderful.

Waikiki was very different way back when...at one point it was known as the playground for the Hawaiian Royalty.    For us, a visit to Waikiki is on a "as needed" basis!  It's the crowds and traffic we try to avoid.  We have gone to Waikiki for some great get togethers with friends from the mainland.

Scallops

Last night we dined at Hy's Steakhouse on Kuhio Avenue.  Hy's is a fine dining restaurant, but the attire for Hawaii's fine dining really just means no shorts, tank tops and jeans (although some allow jeans).  For men, slacks and aloha shirt is just fine for a fine dining restaurant here.

The restaurant is basically in 3 sections: the front area where you can watch the chef grilling steaks behind a glass wall; the bar area which has has some nice tables and tonight they had live music (mellow); and what looks like a restaurant decorated back in the 70's.  We decided at the last minute to go to Hy's, so we were seated in the last area.  The first two dining areas really look like you're sitting in an old mansion - they even made part of it look like you're sitting in the mansion's library.

Making the Chocolate Lover's Flambe

The service is excellent, our waiter made some great recommendations.  The food was fabulous, but pricey.  We started with a shared Caesar salad (if you order two or more orders, the prepare the Caesar tableside).  The salad was good, a bit on the sweet side though.  For our main entrees, we shared the Fresh Catch Opakapaka (pink snapper) cooked in an Asian sesame oil/green onion/ginger sauce and served with stir fried Asian veggies.  Very good.  The steak and scallops combo with a Delmonico steak served with Hy's mashed potatoes; also very good.

Chocolate Lover's Flambe

Since we had a gift certificate and were trying to use it up, we decided to treat ourselves to dessert.  As always, the male half of this couple let the female half of this couple choose all the dishes....Chocolate Lover's Flambe it was!  Wow, it was very good.  Hy's is one of the few restaurants on Oahu that still serves tableside Flambe.  What a treat!

If you're looking to treat yourself to a great steak experience with that supper club feel, we highly recommend this place!

Enjoy!

This weekend's crock pot plans

Have you ever had Pollo in Potacchio?  It is a braised chicken dish, very light and pretty darn healthy.  It's one of the female half of this couple's favorite dishes from Cafe VIII 1/2 in Downtown Honolulu.  It's a very simple restaurant, small, cozy...run by a husband and wife team.  It can get a bit weird in there, but nothing extreme...if you've been there, you know what I mean?

Everyone's favorite dish there seems to be Radiatore Verde which doesn't seem to have radiatore pasta in it.  Looks like penne pasta to us.  Anyway, the sauce looks like a pesto sauce with chunks of steak.  It's good, but not as good as the Pollo in Potacchio!  There was a table of 6 people - 4 of them ordered the Radiatore Verde.

We found some Pollo in Potacchio recipes and will be tweaking the recipe for the crock pot.  We may be ambitious and trying making a double order to have enough chicken and sauce for a Pollo in Potacchio Lasagna in the Crock Pot.  We'll see how that goes!

Crock Pot "Anchor Bar" Buffalo Chicken Strips for Two

RECIPE RATING:
HE SAID: Very good
SHE SAID: Very good, but should have skipped the flour part...will be making this again and again!

It looked better on the plate next to some rice

The other weekend as show aired on Travel Channel, you know one of those "best of" types.  They mentioned coming up "the original Buffalo Wings" and we're a fan of Buffalo Wings, so the chef of this couple was all ears.  I never bothered to google this, but supposedly Buffalo Wings was created by a woman who owned the Anchor Bar in Buffalo, New York.  We had to google the recipe.

We found many variations of the Anchor Bar Buffalo Wing recipe and sorry, but can't remember which one we ended up with.  What we normally do is read through several recipes and the reviews and tweak the closest sounding recipe to our liking.

We loved this recipe!  We chose to use boneless skinless thighs even though wings are very tasty...thighs are easier to eat at work.  We followed the recipe, including the flouring up the chicken part, but that didn't go so well in the crock pot.  We realized it AFTER we turned the crock pot on, but by then it was too late to wash the chicken off.  We're posting the recipe minus the flour.

Neither of us has ever tried Anchor Bar's Buffalo Wings, so we wouldn't know if it tastes the same or not.  If you have tasted Anchor Bar's wings and are trying this recipe, let us know if it's close!

RECIPE:

Prep Time: 20 minutes
Cook Time: 6 hours on low
2 qt crock pot

6 - 8 boneless skinless thighs, cut into strips (depending on the size, 6 large thighs or 8 small thighs fits into our 2 qt crock)
1 T. olive oil
1 1/2 T. white vinegar
1/4 t. cayenne pepper
1/8 t. garlic powder
1/4 t. Worcestershire sauce
1 t. tabasco sauce
1/4 t. kosher salt
6 T. Frank's hot sauce
6 T. unsalted butter

Put oil in crock pot.  Add chicken strips (or you can leave them whole).  Mix all other ingredients in a small pan and over low heat bring to a simmer, stirring occasionally.  Pour sauce over chicken.  Cover and cook for 6 hours on low.

We ate this with Japanese rice (since we had leftovers from the fish the night before) and white corn (our favorite).

Enjoy, we sure did!

Crock Pot Chinese Style Steamed Fish For Two

RECIPE RATING:
HE SAID: Good, but a little salty and too much ginger
SHE SAID: Good, but yes, a little salty.  Nice and light.

Finished product

A slight change in plans with the public utility strike starting up this afternoon...no Morimoto's due to a revised work schedule (plus longer hours) for the male half of this couple.  He's non-union, so he now becomes an essential worker.

Decided to make some Chinese Style Steamed fish, a local favorite at Chinese restaurants.  Normally the dish is prepared either by steaming the fish in the sauce on the stove or pouring the hot oil mixture on the fish.  We figured the fish would steam nicely in foil packets in the crock pot and we were so glad we tried.

This recipe is simple, inexpensive and oh so good!  We had a lot to do, so being able to whip up the sauce, throw it in the crock pot and 3 hours later have a wonderful meal was perfect.  We used tilapia since it was the only white flaky fish at the local market.  Due to the heavy rains we had, the green onion crops are low, so we couldn't do the green onions sliced in long, thin strips.  Went to the markets AND the farmers market...no green onions, no chives, nothing!  Luckily we had some chopped green onions in the freezer.  You can also garnish with chopped chinese parsley (cilantro)...we didn't just because it wasn't on sale.

Here's the recipe:

Prep Time: 10-15 mins
Cooking Time: 3 hours on low
4 qt crock pot (although I think this would have fit in the 2 qt)

1 lb. tilapia fillet (or other white flaky fish)
1 t. kosher salt
1 1/2 T. minced fresh ginger
3 T. thinly sliced green onions (chopped works too)
2 T. low sodium shoyu (soy sauce)
2 T. peanut oil
1 T. sesame oil
chinese parsley (cilantro) for garnish

Dango from Nijiya Market

Mix ginger, shoyu (soy sauce) and oils together in a bowl.  Lay out pieces of foil (one per fillet - large enough to fold into a sealed packet).  Wash and pat dry your fish, then rub with kosher salt on each side.  Place the fish in the middle of the foil.  Make a "boat" with your foil (see picture above) so when you pour sauce onto the fish, your sauce doesn't spill out of the foil.  Pour sauce over each piece of fish, divide the sauce up equally.  Scatter green onions on fish.  Fold foil into a sealed packet and place foil packets into the crock pot.  It's ok to stack the packets, they will all cook evenly.  Cover and cook on low for 3 hours.  Be careful when opening packets, steam will come out of the packets when opened.  Garnish with chinese parsley (cilantro) if desired.

We served this with stuffing (just because someone gave us some stuffing the night before), but next time will serve with Japanese rice.

On another note, we finally stopped at Nijiya Market and bought some dango.  It was very good for previously frozen dango.  It's not quite as good as eating dango from the street vendors in Japan, but after microwaving the dango, it was pretty close!

Enjoy, we sure did!

More Crock Pot Meals!

North Shore near Haleiwa

Decided we need to eat in on Friday and Sunday since we'll be joining some friends for pupus (appetizers) at the new Morimoto's in Waikiki!

For this weekend, the planned crock pot meals will be Foil Packet Tilapia made with a shoyu (soy sauce) ginger base (kinda like Chinese Style Steamed Fish) and Buffalo Chicken Strips (using an Anchor Bar recipe we found online.)  A few weeks ago the Travel Channel did a spot on the original buffalo wings originating from the Anchor Bar in Buffalo, New York.   We love bufffalo wings, so we just have to try it!

We will post our recipes..even if they are flops...that way you creative chefs out there might want to take the recipe and tweak it a bit to make it better!  Will also post a review of Morimoto's too!

Decided to include a pic taken with our camera phone during our last bike ride on the North Shore near Haleiwa.  It's a beautiful bike path!  We started near Shark's Cove and headed towards Kahuku for about 4 miles before the sun started going down.

Crock Pot Pork Chops and Sauerkraut for Two

RECIPE RATING:
HE SAID: Very good, tasty! (he's eating leftovers!)
SHE SAID: Good, will make this again using bone in pork chops and less sugar.

Pork Chops and Sauerkraut

The female half of this couple started feeling disconnected with her crock pot.  The male half of this couple commented sadly (in a jokingly way) that he didn't get any home cooked meals this past weekend.  As per our previous post, last weekend was busy - we dined out a lot.   Decided to slow cook some pork chops for us this week.

We're happy with our crock pot pork chops!  We splurged this week and bought farm raised pork chops which are 3x the price of the mass produced pork.   It was worth it!  We got the pork chops in the crock pot late, so we had to cook them on high (not our preferred way of cooking).  We'll definitely be making these again, but slow cooking it next time.

Served this up for him with some Japanese rice and corn.  For her, the one trying to stick to a lower carb diet, just two pork chops and a small scoop of corn.   We used brown sugar to cut down on the tang of the sauerkraut, but next time we'll try a little less sugar.

You may also use other cuts of pork, but stay away from tenderloin (too dry).  We're trying to eat leaner cuts of meat.

Here's the recipe:

Prep Time: 20 minutes
Cook Time: 7-8 hours on low (4 hours on high)
4 qt crock pot (if you're only doing 4 or less pork chops, use a 2 qt)

4-6 pork chops
14 oz can of sauerkraut with juice (if you're cooking 4 or less pork chops, you may want to use half the can)
1/2 red onion, sliced
1/3 c brown sugar (next time we'll try 1/4 c.)
3/4 c beer (we used Fosters because we already had it in the kitchen)
kosher salt
fresh ground pepper
garlic powder
2-3 cloves of garlic, minced

Before cooking

Season pork chops with kosher salt, pepper and garlic powder (to taste, we are on a lower sodium diet, so we use more pepper and garlic powder).  Sear in a pan, then transfer pork chops to the crock pot.  Deglaze pan with the beer, transfer the beer to the crock pot (don't forget to scrape the bottom of the pan).  Pour sauerkraut and juice on the pork chops.  Sprinkle brown sugar into the beer sauce along with the minced garlic.

Cover and cook on low for 7-8 hours.

We already rice cooked from the night before, so the male half of this couple ate the chops with rice.  Next time we want to try adding halved red potatoes to the crock pot.

Enjoy...we sure did!

Catching Up On Our Crock Pot Meals

Last weekend turned out to be a busy weekend, not to mention how humid and voggy it was.  Our schedule didn't allow for any crock pot meals...or any homecooked meals!

Tonight we're trying some Pork Chops and Sauerkraut.  Will post that recipe soon.  It smells wonderful.

A side note - last weekend we ate at a couple of great restaurants.  After our spur of the moment sunset bike ride on the North Shore Bike Path near Haleiwa we stopped at Cholo's in the North Shore Market Place.  It was packed!  We ate at the bar which was just fine.  The service is great.  Free chips and salsa (they make their own) and shared a fish burrito which was also great.

On Sunday we went out for a late Valentine's dinner at Hiroshi's.  Another great place.  It's located near Aloha Tower in the Restaurant Row.  Everything we had was fabulous.  The specialize is Eurasian Tapas. We tried two tapas dishes, the hamachi sushi and the misoyaki butterfish.  Both were delicious.  We shared the snapper meal which was good, but the male part of this couple got the half with all the bones :-(

We are looking forward to more homecooking in our crock pot!