Restaurant Reviews, Food Writing, Food Blogging, Food Articles, Cafe Reviews, Gourmet Reviews

Restaurant Kintaro

Food
Kintaro isn’t the only Asian-inspired restaurant in Kapaa, but it sure serves the finest sushi, tempura, and yakitori in town. Nabemono and Bali Hai (seafood and smoked salmon with wasabi mayonnaise) are the crowd-pleasers. The fish is always fresh and the veggies can always be paired with your own choice of meat.

Ambiance
Crowds gather at the sushi bar or huddle at the tatami-mat seats and tables. Those who like to dine in private opt for seats obscured by shoji screens. Asian decor permeates the serene but steaming atmosphere in Kintaro. Since it’s a favorite hangout, expect to see hordes falling in line.



Volcano Golf & Country Club Restaurant

Food
Suggest a typical Hawaiian meal and Volcano Golf & Country Club Restaurant surely has it in the list. Rice, Hawaiian stew, fish sandwich, short ribs and pastas are staples, but the restaurant comes up with new concoctions each time. You’ll find stir-fry and teriyaki chicken or beef in abundance.

Ambiance
If you love looking at a green landscape while munching your hamburgers, dining at Volcano Golf & Country Club Restaurant is the perfect spot for you. The air is cool and there are a lot of locals to mingle with. The golf club houses two eateries, so you won’t run short of tables to pick.



Pagoda Hotel’s Floating Restaurant

Food
Hawaiian, Asian and American food blend together in Pagoda Hotel’s Floating Restaurant. Folks come for reasonably-priced breakfasts, brunches and dinners. Some stations serve prime ribs, salads, seafood, sushi, hot entrees and desserts. But if you’re in for a real treat, try the buffet Sunday brunch.

Ambiance
Pagoda Hotel’s Floating Restaurant is named as such because it’s a Chinese infrastructure characteristically surrounded by waterfalls and Oriental gardens. Visitors will feel like dining in the middle of a lake or a lush tropical forest. There are private teahouses suitable for three groups who wish to get a view of the Pagoda’s surroundings.



Pavilion Cafe

Food
The menu is described as “New American” but we do know it’s a collection of superb eats featuring salad specials, sandwiches, desserts and entrees. Some of the well-known grubs are the white bean salad with a touch of balsamic vinegar and parmesan, beef tenderloin or roast turkey sandwiches with chutney fixings.

Ambiance
Dale Chihuly and Jun Kaneko exhibit their glass sculptures in the Pavilion Cafe. Diners can revel at the sights of both human art and nature interspersed within this indoor and outdoor cafe. A waterfall and a shaded area where a great monkey pod tree stands is a favorite spot for al fresco dining.



Pollis Mexican Restaurant

Food
Pollis is the excellent place for both the gourmet and the gourmand. Diners always have a choice between vegetable dishes, barbecue ribs, burritos, enchiladas and tacos. For the true Mexican food-lover, you can order the special chimichangas, fajitas, and the famed bunuelos for takeout.

Ambiance
The sombrero is a renowned Mexican symbol for cowboys. Pollis serves hot Mexican food while diners enjoy the atmosphere reminiscent of the wild cowboy days adorning the walls. In fact, Pollis gives you the opportunity to relieve your Wild, Wild West hunger with a seafood burrito and a couple of beers.

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sample: cooking blogging, food blogging, recipe blogging

Grilling Salmon Like a Pro
 
Cooking a smoky fish recipe is one thing, but grilling it without ruining the skin is another. In fact, the trouble with fish-grilling arises when I’ve just set up the Hibachi with the right amount of coal, with the vents keeping the constant flow of air inside, but the heat becomes uneven in a span of thirty minutes or so. I’d grit my teeth in frustration when the skin gets stuck on the parallel wires. Also, there’s the potential of burning the lower area of the salmon and leaving the upper side raw.

Check Your Coals

I thought I learned from mistake, or maybe it was just some well-groomed French chef back at cooking school who taught me tricks to maintain the heat level so as not to burn the salmon when being grilled. Actually, what he did was check the coals time and again. In some tropical areas I’ve been to, they wrap the fish in aluminum tin foil or banana leaves. Since these aren’t always available, the French chef, in his faltering English, demonstrated to me how he positioned the fish away on the opposite side where the coal lumps are placed.

Alternative Tricks

Somehow, I never thought my Hibachi would be too small for this salmon grill trick to work out. He showed me eventually how to put an improvised insulator such as an aluminum pan right over the grill, while putting another mesh or fish grill above it. If this still sounds inconvenient, he asked me to baste the salmon with lemon juice while rotating the Hibachi time and again. At the rate I’m going, I told him, I’d probably be finished in five hours!

http://www.free-cooking-recipes-online.com
Monday, May 7. 2007

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sample: garden blogging, recipe blogging, food blogging

Tomatillos Garden Food
I’ve never known how to cook a tomatillo jam until I grew a shrublike plant with yellow flowers and thick-husked fruits. They are more often called ground cherries. Lots of gardeners in Texas (of various zones) dote on the tomatillo because these edible flower-fruits reseed like hell they don’t have difficult time planting them. Another is that these tomatillos have been good sources of Vitamin C like any citrus fruit. So far, I’ve collected recipes which allows me to include the tomatillo in the meal.

Mexican Dishes

For instance, I’ve tried salsa. There’s no doubt that only in salsa will you be able to exploit the real taste of the tangy sweetness tomatillo. There are species that taste like pineapple. Some like to put the Aunt Molly variety into various chili recipes and jams. My cousin never thought it’s possible to feed humans with tomatillos but he’s done some experiment with the chickens in the backyard. As long as it’s warm and sunny, there will always be tomatillos in the garden.

Salsa and Chili Recipes

The sauce made of tomatillo, mixed with onions, olive oil, jalapeno, oregano, chili, beans, cilantro, chicken stock, and also lime juice makes for a really savory chicken stew. I’m sure no one likes to eat ground cherries stewed in a hot weather, but wait till the end of fall arrives. With a tomatillo in your garden, you don’t have to visit Mexican restaurants each time you’re craving for salsa and chili. A pureed version of the tomatillo salsa also makes for an amazing bowl of tortilla snack dips.

http://www.flower-garden-plants.com
Thursday, May 3. 2007

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