Kat's 9 Lives

After all these years, I've finally made my way to Hawaii! There's so much to explore and so little time.  Ms. Lin Guide and I came here for my birthday celebration.  It's important that you plan on renting a car to explore the island and get around.  The drive is quite scenic and full of good eats! We spent a full day exploring North Shore.  One place that I researched and caught my eye was Kahuku Farms because they offer a wide variety of local products ranging from lotion to butters to syrups and more! They even serve drinks and home made desserts.  The grilled banana bread is a must! It caught my eye and I just had to try it.  They cover it with decadent caramel and vanilla haupia.  So delicious!

Their 'cafe' is almost just like a small street stand.  The people were very friendly and you can sample all the products they sell before you purchase.  What really caught my interest is lilikoi, which is passion fruit.  The syrup tastes just like a fresh passion fruit, of course enhances with sugar.  I've beehn trying to find a real tasting passion fruit syrup.  So many options are just chemically made and don't have the same fragrant aroma that theirs have.  If you are going to chemically make passion fruit syrup, people please taste what a real passion fruit tastes like! Lol. I bought two bottles for home.

Picture from Kahuku Farms website

They also offer lilikoi butter and varieties of jam.  At the stand they offer bulk deals if you buy 4, which was not bad.  Everything tasted very fresh and had a smooth texture.  They would go great on bread or pancakes.  Both Ms. Lin Guide and I picked up a bunch for ourselves and to give away as gifts.  If you buy $40 worth of products, you receive a free tote as well.  Before I checked out, I heard. Someone talk about a secret code for extra discount.  Hint : find one of their brand ambassadors to get the code and sign up for rewards.  We bought so much that we left with 3 rewards.  😇

Picture from Kahuku Farms website

It's getting harder and harder to find good happy hour deals.  Brio Tuscan Grille has always offered a pretty decent selection of happy hour appetizers and drinks.  What's even rare is that the prices are quite reasonable!

For about $5 you can get their Beef Carpaccio, which is quite reasonable.  They definitely don't skimp on portion size.  I always order one for myself as I don't share my meat! Lol. The carpaccio is always light and refreshing.  This appetizer contains four of the five food groups, so I'm counting it as a healthy dish.  😇

Their Chicken Pesto Flatbread is also a must that's only $5.  Be sure to ask for their fresh Parmesan cheese to give it that extra kick.  I enjoy the crispy texture of the flatbread mixed with a tasty pesto sauce and shavings of chicken on top.  Definitely eat it fresh and hot from the oven.

For the holiday season they offer a gift card special.  If you buy $100 worth then you will receive a $25 bonus gift card.  You can even use it for happy hour, which is an even better deal.  To my surprise, they brought out a small bottle of their olive oil.  Perfect for holiday cooking!

For fans of the HBO show “Silicon Valley,” one of my favorite scenes is when the character Gavin Belson, CEO of Hooli, tells his team that “the bear is sticky with honey” after making tea. Hilarity ensues as his team then spent days to decipher his comment as shome metaphor and eventually brought in an actual bear for an upcoming product launch. You have to watch that episode!

As a result, I’ve never been able to look at another bear bottle of honey without laughing!

Nonetheless, these adorable bottles of honey are constant staples in my cabinet. They are good not just for tea and other drinks, they also make a much healthier and more natural substitute for sugar/sweeteners in cooking. I use honey in everything from curing my cold (honey and lemon/ginger do wonders) to marinating chicken/ribs/pork chops to topping my dessert (especially ice cream) plus much more.

Sweet Harvest offers a good variety of honey, from your standard honey to a craft line that includes monofloral sources such as orange blossom and lychee. They also offer organic and non-GMO products as well.

Who has time for cooking these days? I actually do but I'm too lazy to cook all the time. You know what I mean. 😁. I was browsing through H Mart and they had some tasty samples.

They were sampling a bunch of Pulmone products that actually motivated me to purchase. I was even more motivated since they were simple to make. The Pork and Glass Noodles Potstickers were super tasty and reminded me of the Chinese chive pockets. Although the skin used is different, the filling tastes very similar. It's flavorful enough not to need any dipping sauce. I personally like it more crispy so you can keep them on the grill longer until golden brown.

Ever since my first trip to Paris eons ago, I've been going to Cafe Angelina for their famous African hot chocolate served with Chantilly cream.  They offer a wide variety of French pastries and typical cafe items. On my first trip I bought their famous African chocolate shavings to bring back and make my own hot chocolate.  Sadly it wasn't nearly as good because I'm sure they slow churn the chocolate at the cafe to give that velvety thick texture. When you make it at home it is so watery.  Now they actually sell the chocolate drink in a bottle.  I've bought some but haven't had a chance to drink them yet.  The consistency looks more like what's served at the cafe.  

During one of my fine cheese sprees, I came upon a new delight.  They were sampling the Sartori Provence herbed cheese and it was delicious! I couldn't leave the market without picking up two wedges for myself.  The herbs are so fragrant and really complement the savory cheese.  It's a hard cheese so perfect to slice into cubes or thin rectangles, depending on your own preference.  I are mine with some low sodium roast beef.  So refreshing! Other times I just ate the cheese by itself, it's addicting!

For my birthday we decided to travel to Croatia.  Luckily Ms. Lin Guide has status for Star Alliance that allowed us one free check-in luggage.  Even though Croatia Airlines was a little more pricey but they were the only ones to offer direct flights and we can get some mileage plus one luggage.

Ms. Lin Guide needed to find a place with wi-fi nearby and Royal Tea for the bill.  The staff seemed friendly.  They offer a happy hour after 6 pm but we were too early.  I wanted to utilize the deal as they offer my favorite salted cheese.  Ms. Lin Guide did get a drink and it was just so-so.  Even though we were there long enough to reach happy hour, I did not buy a drink.

Looking for some tea with real fruits?  Elephant Tea offers a variety of teas to choose from.  Their signature Elephant fruit tea is a passion fruit tea filled with fresh fruits.  When I say 'filled', I really mean filled! Lol if you take out just one slice of the watermelon, the amount of tea goes down by 20% and they have two slices in there.  The funniest part was that they even put a baby tomato inside.  Ms. Lin Guide and I were a little befuddled but had a good laugh.

As I mentioned before, I'm very into drinks that come in cool bottles! Even though I was on crutches, I still made my way to Icy Cream Roll because of their fun drinks.  They were very busy at night so I went again in the day time and it was a much shorter wait.

On our most recent short trip to Vegas, I wanted to take the time to check out the M&M and Coca Cola store.  It's been so long since I've visited the M&M store and I had find memories of the Coca Cola Museum in Atlanta.  Both stores were designed purely for fun and shopping. So if you like the respective brands and products then you will love it.

Roasting Water has been one of my favorite new go to milk tea places because of their awesomely cute/beautiful bottles! It's become one of my hobbies to get my drinks with the special glass and many places have started this trend.  The best thing about Roasting Water is that all their drinks come in their bottles.  There's no extra charge and the prices are very reasonable.

My sweet friend brought me snacks back from Japan that were a real treat.  I received these Kabaya Pureral Gummy from her.  As soon as you tear the top seal, you can smell the fragrant grape flavor! You just might salivate instantaneously from the scent!

After coming back from Japan, I've been craving okonomiyaki.  It's a specialty that came out of Osaka, where I visited. I found this delectable hole in the wall that spoke no English at all and only had a Japanese menu.  There's not many places to get okonomiyaki, even in So Cal!