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Lunch at Tsukiji

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Went to a lunch buffet at Tsukiji Fish Market and Restaurant that recently opened at the Ala Moana Ho`okipa Terrace. A big interior with lots of tables, lots of people, lots of space to walk, and lots of food.


The restaurant opens at 11am, and there was a line waiting to get in. Good thing we had a reservation and got a big table. Interesting interior design. Quite a bit of variety of quality food that sure beats Makino Chaya. Though the selection of protein was limited to kalua turkey, kal bi, and teri chicken, but if you’re a sushi lover, you had a choice of sashimi. The salads and desserts were limited but then again, I didn’t come to a Japanese buffet to eat salad and dessert. After stuffing myself, I did get a shave ice with condensed milk which was actually pretty good.


Some random scenes from the day. Club 939 is featuring the ultimate adult-themed Halloween party on Halloween night. Cinnamon Girl has a new exterior facade. I hope their terrible exchange policy has gotten better.


Saw this older gentleman chillin’ on the Ho`okipa Terrace listening to his iPod (see them distinctive earbuds?), but check out his socks. Is that a Jordan Jumpman logo? Young at heart baby!


And Catherine “Cat” Toth was out shopping.

See all the pictures in my .Mac gallery.

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About WeGoEat.com

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By now, I hope you’ve heard about and checked out WeGoEat.com, a directory of all the best restaurants in Hawaii. But what’s the deal with WeGoEat.com and where is this site headed? Luckily, head developer Ryan Kanno was willing to answer a few of these questions for Pulpconnection readers.

Why did you create WeGoEat.com and how did you come up with the name?

I contribute to the Django project (look for me next time you download it). It’s a Python web framework very similar to Ruby on Rails. I wanted to write technical articles to educate others on how to use it, and I figured that I better practice what I preached. Once I figure out all the Hawaii IP addresses, I want to restrict registration to only people in Hawaii. Everyone else will only be able to read reviews. I’m hoping two things: 1) The people of Hawaii will take it for what it’s worth – A forum to voice opinions about their favorite eatery and that 2) People outside of Hawaii will realize that though places like Yelp are neat, but what better place to get an opinion than from the people who live and breathe the culture. The local market is something that Googs/Yahoo have a tough time competing and I’m hoping to fill a niche. Also, since I’m pretty accessible, I can turn pretty much anything into a reality in terms of functionality/features, etc. Try requesting Yahoo to change their Fantasy Sports or a new feature to Gmail and see if that goes anywhere. 😉 Whew.

And of course, WeGoEat for obvious reasons… just something said a lot @ my family parties. 🙂

Where did the idea for WeGoEat.com come from and what makes this site different?

I just chose a market that I thought needed help. I haven’t really thought to differentiate it feature wise (yet), but I am hoping to differentiate it community wise.

What’s the long term vision for WeGoEat.com?

I’d like it to become a forum for Hawaii people to voice their pleasures/concerns/etc about places to eat. Ideally, restaurant owners will check it out to see what people are saying and improve, damnit. 🙂

How many active developers are working on this project?

Ahahahahahha. You’re kidding right? 😉 1.

What features are planned for the future? A Facebook app? Embed into blogs? Integration with software like IconFactory’s DineOMatic?

All of the above is viable. I’m tracking how people are using the site in Googs Analytics now and wanted to let the usage dictate the features. I figured the first thing I’d write is a little Javascript to embed your favorite restaurants into your blog. DineOMatic looks neato. I just emailed them to see what it would take to integrate. I wanted to work on a “magic-wheel” where you put in criteria and out comes a random restaurant, but I wanted a Flash developer for that (hint, hint). Ideally, I’d like to display menus as well, but that’s seriously time consuming unless I can get buy in from the restaurants to input their own menu. Finally, I’m always reading about ‘Hawaii’s’ best restaurants by some random questionnaire conducted by the Advertiser or Honolulu Magazine – I’d seriously love to audit their results especially since there’s usually some serious conflicts of interests (the people you are paying to advertise with are saying you’re one of the best in Hawaii)… I’m hoping this site will let the people speak volumes about what really is the best in Hawaii. 🙂

Thanks Ryan and good luck with WeGoEat.com!

Goodies at Diamond Head Market & Grill

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Heard good things about Diamond Head Market & Grill so we had to check it out. They have all kinds of stuff – snacks, flowers, cakes, hot items, cold items, scones, sandwiches, salads, and a ton of desserts.

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Goodies!

Prices are high, but the food does taste good. The portobello mushroom burger was tasty but at $8 with no fries, it’s too much. Packed in that small container doesn’t help either. A mini serving of the wasabi ahi was more affordable at $7 and was just the right size. The Diamond Head Torte looked better than it tasted. Too much Cool Whip topping overpowered everything else.

Would I go back again? Only if I were in the area. The food ain’t that super good that I’d make a special, out-of-my-way trip.

Across the street, saw multi-disciplined artist Willow Chang at Coffee Bean, and yeah, she’s a Mac user.

Wanna see what I saw? Check out the pictures!

I Eat Way Too Much Junk Food

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It’s already a known fact that I eat too much junk food. So how can I resist the assortment of muffins from Costco? I got the usual variety pack of blueberry, chocolate, and cinnamon. Only thing is the cinnamon wasn’t cinnamon after all.

costco-muffin-pumpkin

Costco went seasonal with the muffins and replaced the cinnamon with a pumpkin chocolate chip muffin!

costco-muffin-inside

Anyone know if Costco offered this pumpkin muffin before?

I Eat Too Much Junk Food

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The Angry Asian Girl scolded me for eating too much junk food, picking up some Doritos Collisions and Pop Tart Splitz. To cheer up my low spirits, I headed off to McDonalds for some comfort food.

Vanilla Iced Coffee. Only $1.50 for this “medium” sized drink. You know it’s not the greatest when the McD workers have Starbucks cups behind the counter. Still though, it’s only $1.50.

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A large medium

Strawberry sundae. Part of the $1 menu. Only one measly buck!

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A little melted but still good!

I feel much better now.

Mashups at the Market

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Silly me. Here I thought mashups were an Internet thing where you take something like Google Maps, combine it with say Flickr images, and other data like where you met a LOST actor, combine it all and make a map showing all the Hawaii locations where LOST actors have taken pictures with fans. But mashups are not limited to the cyberworld.

Your local market has mashups too! Check out this sampling of mashups I just came across.

Doritos Collisions. What a concept that took long enough to materialize. Take two flavors of Doritos chips and throw them in the same package! So simple, it’s genius. Saw two varieties – Hot Wings & Blue Cheese and Zesty Taco & Chipotle Ranch.

Hot Wings & Blue Cheese
Zesty Taco & Chipotle Ranch

I’ve had the Doritos Hot Wings, and they are hot. Makes sense to temper it down with some Blue Cheese. Never tried the Chipotle Ranch so I bought one of these.

Strolling through the breakfast aisle led to more mashups. The never ending array of Pop-Tarts caught the mashup fever with the Splitz. You can get a Pop-Tart that’s half strawberry and half blueberry or half chocolate and half vanilla. With respect to Michael Jackson, I went with the black and white Splitz.

Pop Tarts Splitz
Pop Tarts Splitz

And lastly Snap, Crackle, and Pop didn’t want to be left out so they have their own Choconilla Cocoa Krispies.

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Choconilla Cocoa Krispies

I wasn’t in the mood for “sweetened rice cereal” so I passed on the Choconilla.

Let’s face it, mashups have gone mainstream.

What’s with Anna Miller Pie Tins?

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Anyone know anything about the pie tins from Anna Millers? This is the only place I know of where you need to place a deposit on the tins in addition to the cost of a pie.

If you bring back used tins, you get a partial refund. Wonder what’s so special about the tins? Yeah, they’re stronger and sturdier than the ones you get with sweet bread but still. I’ve never come across another bakery that does something like this.

Can anyone shed light on this age old mystery?

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I Have a Weak Mind

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I admit that I have a weak mind and can easily be influenced by television advertisements. After watching guest judge Rocco DiSpirito peddle Bertolli frozen dinners in Top Chef Episode 6: Freezer Burn, I succumbed and bought the Italian Sausage and Rigatoni (on sale at Don Quijote this week).

The promise of these Bertolli meals is a pasta dish for two after 10 minutes of cooking. You empty the bag into a skillet, and let the magic begin.

bertolli-start

And 10 minutes later, voila!

bertolli-end

My own top chef added some mushrooms, and the meal delivered as promised. Enough for two, 10 minutes of cooking, and it tasted pretty good. Salty but tasty. This would make a good meal for those single, young (minded), partying, strip club owning guys out there!

bertolli-mushrooms

Remembering Local Kine Grindz at Kin Wah Chop Suey

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Remember Local Kine Grindz? Not the on-line recollections of an enginerd in Hawaii, but the local television show featuring Bruddah Sam and Lina Girl sampling Hawaii’s various eateries. What a scam angle they had – in exchange for free advertising and publicity, Sam and Lina got to eat all the (free) food they wanted. Brilliant!

Anyways, while looking through a vintage collection of VHS tapes, I came across this gem of Local Kine Grindz visiting Kin Wah Chop Suey. It goes something like this…


Poor pops-in-law got subtitled!

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