poke – ThE DeNTal AeStHetic Clinic

October 16, 2018

Aloha!

Oh yes! After photography class and roaming around the park, It’s time to have a Hawaiian style cooking class !

It was a 3 hours home cooking experienced hosted by Linda in her lovely home far from the hustle and bustle of Waikiki. I was greeted by “bacon”, so amazing to have seen and touched a domesticated pig! Adorable!

We were in a group of four, the kitchen and ingredients were all assembled and ready. While we were learning all the recipes, Linda gave us some stories, and information about Hawaiian culture, stuffs etc. It was like, cut-talk-hand me-talk-mix-talk-cook- and a lot of more talk-and eat of course! It was so indulging and I enjoyed every minute of it.

First thing in the menu? SPAM MUSUBI of course! So popular in 7/11 or abc stores. Two years ago, my friend taught me how to make it but I want to learn more. It was exciting to know it was included in the cooking class. It gives me a lot of memories.

Spam Musubi – is a popular snack or lunch in Hawaii. So easy to make and easy to pack as well. It is composed of grilled or fried spam sandwich in between with a pack of rice or a variation of different ingredients, the scrambled egg could be in the middle of the rice and the spam is on top of the rice. We sprinkled furikake, salt, fried onions, add some slices of avocado and wrapped it in with nori sheets.

Next popular dish is POKE – is a diced raw fish served as either an appetizer or for main dish. My sons love it so much but honestly, I don’t eat raw food and poke is not on my dream list. This is my very first time to prepare and eat Poke.

We prepared three kinds of POKE: Spicy Tuna Poke, Shoyu Poke and Hawaiian Style Poke

Spicy Tuna Poke

Ingredients:

1Lb Ahi Tuna, cut into 3/4″ cubes

1/4 cup mayo

1 tbsp toasted sesame oil

1 tsp shoyu (soy sauce)

1 tsp Alae red salt to taste

1/4 to 1 tsp Ichimi (ground japanese chili)

a few drops of chili oil to taste

1 TBL tobiko or Masago

Mixed all ingredients together well and serve with sliced scallions on top.

Hmm, checked out my photos below 🙂 I don’t need a caption to prove that I am a first timer in POKE!

And while we were enjoying the Poke preparation, the COCONUT BUTTER MOCHI was already in the oven. We mixed all the ingredients ahead of time, so the sweets was hot and ready for dinner. baking time : 45 mins to 1 hr.

Coconut Butter Mochi

Ingredients:

2 cups sugar

2 cups milk

2 eggs

2 cups shredded coconut

1 box mochiko flour

1 stick of unsalted butter,melted

1 can of evaporated milk

Coconut Shrimp

Ingredients:

12 large shrimp, deveined, peeled to the tail and skewed

3/4 cup panko

1/2 cup flaked coconut

flour for dusting

2-3 eggs, lightly beaten

salt and pepper to taste

Tips: roll in the FLOUR – EGG – PANKO/COCONUT mix

Ladies, I recommend this experience if you are traveling solo, in here, you meet new friends, learn how to cook few dishes and have an enjoyable dinner! drinks were on the house 🙂

Cheers,

jamilamimi@beautybeyondfifty

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At first when I heard from my son, Chef Kevin, he wanted to see the Fish Auction in Honolulu, I was bewildered! There’s a lot of scenic tours around the island why at the Pier 38?

2016-07-02 at 05-33-13 (1)

4 Am mom!

What? Why? Are we going on fishing? Are we selling fish? Why 4 am?

Do we have to take part in auction?

What about the smell?

Well, this is his holiday gift so I just went along with the idea. We woke up at 4:30 and was at Pier 38 5:30 am, the auctions starts at 6 am. Thought provoking? Yes! you can say that again, a lot of things in my mind 🙂 Anyhow , as I see the excitement on his eyes , I begun to feel excited too!

a groupie selfie 🙂

To my surprise, the place is clean and I hardly smell the fishes.Before going in, we passed through a small board with water ( i’m assuming it is mixed with disinfectant) . I noticed a small portion of the fish tail is cut off and I learned later that it was done to show the color of the meat i.e.: bright red is fresh, streaks of white indicates high fat content and if brown, oxygenation has taken place. Would you still buy it? The guide said, are you going to eat it raw? or are you going to cook it? It depends 🙂

a small piece of meat is cut off from the tail to show the freshness

Why are we wearing headset? Well, with all the people around trying to bid, it would be hard for us to listen to the guide. The auction is done like in the wall street trade but instead of suits,hand gestures and screaming, auctioneers are in jackets and boots,quickly moves in rows of fish and speaks in steady fast manner.

The most common is yellow fin tuna and big eye tuna, but they also have opa – moon fish

Well, I’m happy that I went along with chef Kevin’s idea. I enjoyed the tour as well. And here are the few things I learned:

-Tuna contains the mineral selenium (selenoneine) which is antioxidant and together binds with the mercury which lowers the risk of mercury-related problem. When we eat tuna we likely get the same antioxidant protection.

-Interesting to note, and tricky too :0 Tuna has a higher mercury content than other fishes so it was advise pregnant women should avoid eating it, but other researches shows when pregnant women eats more tuna, the kids are more smarter.

-Hawaiian name for big-eye tuna- (Ahi) yellow fin, blue fin (maguro)

After the tour, we had breakfast at Nico’s Pier 38

I enjoyed the tour as well 🙂 I had a better idea of what is going on in an auction like this. I also have a better appreciation of the fishermen and the chefs who have gone through fish searching , so we can savour the menu on the table.

Way to go!

Cheers,

Jamilamimi

Tag: poke

10 days in Waikiki : (day 2/2) Hawaiian Style Cooking Class

Thought provoking… Honolulu Fish Auction