Soul

Finally finally went to Soul, a soul food restaurant in Hawai'i. (Word of caution: their website kind of stinks. Not sure why but the links are super slow for me.) This place has been getting a lot of good press. If I remember correctly, they started out as a food truck, and before that, the chef Sean Priester was at Top of Waikiki and getting good press there. And who the hell goes to that restaurant anyways?

Anyway, was trying not to get my hopes up. For one thing, there aren't many places to get soul food in Hawai'i so this place doesn't even have to be good, but it is. I heard the fried chicken was the best in Hawai'i and I'd also heard good things about the vegetarian chili. K and I both had the chicken and chili, which also comes with collard greens, coleslaw, and cornbread. Sooo good. Seriously, the juiciest, most flavorful fried chicken I've ever had. A little on the salty side, but I prefer that to too bland. I wasn't sure about getting fried chicken because I find it's so messy and I usually get lazy about eating it. Not this one though. It's good stuff. K pointed out that they separate (but don't remove) the bone before they fry it. This way, the chicken can cook all the way through without getting dry.

I wasn't that big a fan of the chili, although K and our other friend really liked it. I really liked the cornbread, but, honestly, it was all good. We shared a slice of sweet potato pie after and K said he thinks maybe that was his favorite.

Parking is a pain here, yes, and the restaurant is pretty crowded too. Our party of three got there a little after 6 on a Saturday night and they managed to squeeze us in. Also, the level of fancy is a bit confusing as it looks nice inside, but you go up to the counter to order. We talked about how it reminded us of India Cafe back in the day; both restaurants even have the TV playing "cultural" entertainment. lol.

Bacon-Wrapped Asparagus

Made this for a family party. I ended up with 14 sticks (6-7 pieces/stick), which used almost two full packs of bacon and I'd say not even half a Costco bag of asparagus. The instructions I found online said to cut the asparagus to the width of the bacon but I might consider cutting it longer next time to up the asparagus:bacon ratio.

I found that cutting the bacon into quarters makes it a good length for wrapping; any shorter and it's messy.

Baked in a single layer on a foil-covered cookie sheet for 25 minutes at 400 degrees. (I find that the back of my oven is hotter so next time I'll rotate the pan halfway through. And soaked the skewers beforehand of course.)

Surprisingly, these don't need to be eaten super hot. Still good at room temperature. They were a big hit--even though my health freak dad was alarmed at the amount of bacon.