Dim sum here I come. Yeah, I’m sure no one has ever said that before. When it comes to Dim Sum, I consider myself to be pretty darn experienced. Growing up in Pleasanton, California every Sunday our family would drive to San Francisco just to have dim sum. My father would read the Sing Tao Daily the week before in search of what the critics were saying was the newest, flashiest, and most affordable dim sum restaurant in all of San Francisco. Of course they were always in China Town. Thinking about it now I can’t help but miss my family. Golden Place is my first dim sum experience in Hawaii and it brought back fond memories for me.

I say that because like a lot of dim sum places that I went to as a child, from the outside it looks like a standard Chinese restaurant, but you walk in and it’s a little bigger, brighter, and busier than what you’d expect. As soon as we walked in one of the ladies pushing the carts of food stopped everything she was doing and ask, “how many?” We say, “two” and being a small group she points us over to the smallest table at the far corner of the restaurant.

I can’t tell you how aggravating it was to be ignored. Since we were in the corner they would of had to roll out of their usual route to get to us, not hard right. It wasn’t like they couldn’t see us, because the restaurant was a big open rectangular room. They just chose not to see us, probably because we wouldn’t have given them very much business being just two people. The table next to us, of two as well, we’re also getting impatient. Finally after sitting there for about 20 minutes I get up and decide to take it upon myself to get some food. Oh, also, I forgot to mention, that it was our anniversary on this day. August 25th makes it two years since we’ve been together and we’ve been engaged since February. Back to the story, so I go up to an abandoned cart, go through the bamboo trays for something tasty to eat. The lady comes back, I direct her to our table and have her follow me. She’s a total bitch and just stands there instead of showing us what was in the trays, so again I’m like whatever, don’t mind if I do. I get up and start going through all the trays myself showing Ray what was underneath each lid while the lady just stood there next to me. This is what we picked out.

This is sticky rice wrapped in banana leaves flavored with minced meat and sometimes a yolk from an egg. This is one of my favorites at dim sum and very filling.

This is my all time favorite pastry, pineapple bun. I don’t even know why they are called a pineapple bun as there is really no pineapple flavor. Like most pastries they’re best hot. Inside their cavernous walls lies gooey moist egg custard. Here’s some more fun food knowledge for you. I don’t know why, but for some retarded reason they only sell these pineapple buns at dim sum restaurants. Bakeries will sell similar ones, but the inside is usually some kind of dry filling, like coconut or beans and never as good.

I don’t know anyone who doesn’t like Pork Hash. It’s the one of the few things every person new to dim sum must try. These were really good.

Here’s some more fun food facts according to yours truly. Pork hashes are always accompanied in the same cart as these shrimp dumplings.

Maybe it’s because they just go so well together. We got two each of the pork hash and shrimp dumplings.

We decided that next time we eat here we’re going to say, “party of five, they’re meeting us here.” That way, we’ll be seated at a much larger table that is along side of their cart route. The bill came out to just over $12.00 for 6 dishes. Not bad for dim sum, but if you didn’t notice, only 3 items each were given per tray but they were a lot bigger than the usual 4 pieces that are given from most dim sum places so we were o.k. with it. There’s also food being sold just as you walk into the restaurant for to go. So if you want to eat but not dine, that would probably be better.

View Larger Map

Golden Palace Seafood.
111 N. King St.
Honolulu, HI
(808) 521-8268

Amongst spam, sushi and Kahlua pork, ramen is a popular commodity here on the island. Now, I’m not a huge fan of Ramen. Honestly, I’m a little confused as to why it is so popular. Why would anyone want to eat noodles in steamy hot broth in Hawaii? It’s like drinking hot green tea in a sauna. Hot soup in Hawaii is to green tea in a sauna. The more I thought about it the more cleansing and relaxing it sounded to me. I suddenly felt the need for a proper detox, the Asian way, the Ramen way.

There’s a ramen place in side the food court at the Ala Mouana Mall. I decided to check it out after a long day of shopping. Naniwa Ya Ramen didn’t look very busy, the prices looked decent and the place looked clean. After further examining the menu, I ordered the won ton ramen. Now if your not familiar with what a won ton is, it’s a flat square noodle that is wrapped around meant, usually ground pork. Won tons can be prepared in soup, deep fried , or as my mother use to serve them, steamed with a dipping sauce. It took about 5 minutes till I got my food, I took a minute to observe my food before I ate it. The noodle’s were perfect, not over or under cooked, just like the green veggies that came with it. the broth was tasty, and hot. Temperature of food is a big deal for me. If food is meant to be hot, then that’s the way I want it to be. The brightly colored pink thing in my soup was scrumptious. It tasted like some sort of seafood. Just think of imitation seafood meat, but not flaky and not imitation. the won tons, on the other hand were a huge disappointment. the noodles were a little too soft, probably from being over cooked. The meat that resided within was barely the size of the meat in a can of spaghetti O’s. Not to mention it tasted like free-range meat. There was absolutely no thought put into the creation of what could have been a very tasty treat. Considering my family use to own a small Chinese restaurant where I have spent many hours in mass production of the won ton, yes it is safe to call me a won ton expert. I’ll have it put in bold print on my new business cards. At first I didn’t think enough of them were given, but the more I ate the more I wanted to trade them in for those brightly colored pink seafood things. The meal cost me a little over $7.00. Now $7.00 still puts you in the cheap food catacgory, but when it resembles that of a .25 cents top ramen pack it starts to look a little pricey. If you want my advice, go to the grocery store and buy some green tea and head to the nearest sauna.

Directions to Naniwa Ya Ramen

Oh so many choices and well, considering I don’t have a job quite yet, so much time. I probably have enough time to eat until I grow back boobs, though I probably wouldn’t get much loving from my hubby to be. On the bright side, more boobs to fondal until I find some low calorie meals to blog about.

O.K. I’m going to start this blog off with the epitomy of “hole in the wall,” Kalakaua Plate Lunch. It’s one of those places where you wonder how the hell they past health inspection. But hey, ignorance is bliss- as long as it taste good, and it causes no pain while in or coming out I don’t want to know. The place is 200 maybe 250 square ft, large enough to store four small tables. The menu was handwritten on a large white board and also on white typing paper held to the wall by scotch tape. Behind the register stood a little Asian man. He held a matter of fact attitude and was an impressive one man army.

I order the kalua pork. All their plates came with steamed rice and macaroni salad. If your new to the Hawaiian food scene you’ll soon find out that macaroni salad is big here. It’s usually smuthered very generously with creamy mayonaise. This macaroni salad was Asianfied with a slight hint of white pepper. The pork was dry and almost a little crispy in some areas. I thought it was just good. But you see I have a gift, I thnk everything is good. I’m one of those people that can eat anything and convince myself that it’s good. However, I do know the difference between just good, and I’ll take the back boobs, give me more, that was amazing. So when I say that it was just good, that’s not saying much. Real kalua pork is so juicy and tender that it melts in your mouth the instant it enters your mouth. So needless to say, this did not give real kalua pork any justice.

I guess I should of just stuck to Chinese food at a Chinese restaurant. Shane, my fiance’s trusty side kick ordered the small order of kun pao chicken. The great thing about this place is that they give portion options, small and full. The small portions ran about $4.15 and the full ran about $5.50. His kun pao was delicious. He offered me a taste, and when he wasn’t looking I allowed myself some more, strictly for blog research purposes.

Ray, my fiance, ordered a fish sandwich. It looked boring, like something that came out of a drive through. I asked him how it was, and he said,”ehhh,” but his face said, it was edible.

Within the menu I found items like a cheese burger for $1.55, a shrimp burger for $2.00 and a soda for .75. As far as prices go this place definitely kicks ass. They also get an A for being environmentally conscious since I did see a box of recyclable items atop the garbage can. As for cleanliness, well if that’s a big issue for you, I suggest you order take out.

Direction to Kalakaua Plate Lunch