Koloa Mill Ice Cream & Coffee

We were in Koloa yesterday, taking Olive to meet her great-grandma. Kea, Olive, my mom, my brother, and I took the 9 am flight in and spent the day at great-grandma's house with various uncles and aunties. By 3 pm, Olive was cranky but refused to take a nap and Kea and I were ready for our second coffee of the day so we went for a drive. We stopped by blow hole and then the little commercial area in Koloa near Sueoka Store. We stopped by Koloa Mill Ice Cream & Coffee and I was not expecting much.

First happy thing was that they saw my local driver's license when I opened my wallet to pay and gave me a discount. Second, the iced coffee is just about the best I've ever had. Smooth. Third, the iced mocha was also good--not too sweet. This place is super awesome. I want to go back! They also have locally-made Roselani ice cream--and plenty flavors too, not just the kind they sell in the grocery store.

sandwich of the day

toast+cream cheese+korean pear+walnuts

Tea at 1024, Honolulu

Went here for my cousin's bridal shower yesterday. I was excited because I've always wanted to try it. You get to choose your own teacup to use from off the shelves. Just a little thing that is fun. This is the one I picked.

They also have hats and boas to wear, which is kinda cute.

They gave us their house tea first, a black tea with raspberry and rose petals I think they said. I didn't think I'd like the rose, but it was good. Later they asked us if we wanted to try another tea.

Food was good. There were sandwiches, of course. My favorites were the smoked salmon, curry chicken, crab and olive, and cucumber. The egg salad sandwich was a bit boring and the cheese sandwich was strange. The scones were good and hooray for clotted cream. Idk what that stuff is but it's so good. I wouldn't know what to do with it besides put it on scones though.

Desserts were also good--and pretty. In the glasses is some kind of lemon dessert. In the chocolate cups is chocolate mousse; I think they said it was chocolate haupia, but it just tasted like chocolate to me. And the flower-shaped thing is like a brownie with a molten center.

I've had tea at Waioli Tea Room before and can't decide which I like better!

wendy's frosties...

... are so reasonably sized.

Grand Cafe and Bakery

The back story

I always heard great things about Grand Cafe and Bakery but never went until yesterday.

It's kind of a random story. We had to pick Kea's dad up at the airport at around 8 and I had a doctor's appointment in the Chinatown/downtown area at 9:30. We figured we'd go for breakfast. Kea's dad is mostly into Local food. Actually, I think it's more that he's not into spending money on food. Like I think when Kea was growing up, they never ate out. And when his dad does eat out, it's like okazuya and plate lunch places mostly.

So Kea and I were trying to think where to have breakfast with his dad. We thought about Byron's, Mitsuken, and Char Hung Sut (his dad's favorite place to get manapua) but were kind of at a loss.

Anyway, it was his dad's idea to go to Grand Cafe. Every time he makes this kind of suggestion, we immediately think, oh this must be some place his girlfriend introduced him too. It's amusing. In any case, I was glad for a chance to try the place.

The food

First off, their pastries are amazing. I am not a pastry person. I often will eat them if they're around because it seems like you should and then I'll like barely even enjoy it and feel totally sick after. The Grand Cafe pastries, though, well, they're small, which is fine with me. The size is closer to that of rugelach than the bear claws we usually see though. The pastry itself is amazing. I usually think of the pastry as just the holder for the filling, but this pastry was seriously the best part. Anyway, I had the apple and tried the lemon cream cheese; I definitely preferred the apple. The lemon cream cheese was too cheesy for me. Kea and his dad had bear claws and Kea tried the lemon cream cheese too; he preferred the bear claw also.

I had a pretty basic breakfast. I can't remember what it was called, but it was basically pancakes, eggs, and bacon. I didn't know what to order and I figured this way I could try a little of everything. And even this basic breakfast was good. The pancakes were very light, as advertised. Even the eggs were good. I'm not a fan of scrambled eggs and only ordered them because I'm not supposed to eat raw yolks right now, but these were a good texture and tasted better than scrambled eggs I'm used to too. (Maybe scrambled eggs are usually overcooked? I'm not sure exactly what it is.)

Kea had the breakfast panini and his dad had corned beef hash and eggs. His dad spoke highly of the omelettes and eggs from what he remembered last time.

One last thing: There was a Bananas Fosters French Toast on the menu. I was so tempted to order it, but it came with gelato, which just sounded out of control.

Empanadas

Made empanadas for a get-together last night. They were a hit; I think I'll try and make them again some other time now that I got the kinks out. In hopes that you can learn from my mistakes, here is a list of things I forgot to do:

• Thaw the puff pastry. I'd allow about 20-30 minutes for this.
• Roll out the pastry before you cut it into 4" squares. Luckily, if you mess up you can just have bigger empanadas, which is not too much of a problem. I don't know if pastry sheets are always folded into thirds, but ours were and each third seemed to roll out to about 4" wide.
• If you don't have non-stick baking pans, use Pam or something.
• Don't forget the vegetable oil on top; I think it just makes it brown up nicer, but that is a good thing.

I also didn't use a full 1/4 cup of oil in the filling. I just started with a tablespoon or two and added more as needed to keep the filling saute-ing (and not burning).

I also didn't make the salsa provided in this recipe because I am nervous about fruit salsas. Luckily someone had brought homemade salsa and that was a good thing. (The corners tend not to have much filling so salsa is nice with those bits.

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.