Meat

If you’re a fan of Korean food, then you’ve probably eaten Korean pancakes or “jeon”. In Hawaii, you’ll find meat jun at any Korean plate lunch restaurant. These thin pieces of tender beef are marinated in a shoyu base, then dipped in flour and egg to create the outer layer.…

There are a lot of great mochiko chicken recipes out there, so this time Mom decided to cut out any added sugar and use Stevia and honey instead. The honey is definitely the key for this meal as it rounds out the taste and masks that fake sugar flavor. Of…

Mom loves to go all out when it’s our birthday and everyone knows that my brother loves his kalbi. Commonly known as short ribs, here in Hawaii we call it the Korean word, kalbi. Most people in Hawaii get their kalbi fix at any of the Korean BBQ plate lunch…

Probably my #1 favorite fried chicken dish by my Mom is her Korean Chicken. Korean chicken in Hawaii refers to a very specific dish. Deep-fried chicken that has been dipped in a sweet shoyu and vinegar sauce with roasted sesame seeds and green onions. This is so easy to make…

Green beans grow well in Hawaii especially in our yard. This year Mom has harvested from this particular crop several times over and is letting the last few beans grow large to plant the seeds. The bonus to growing your own green beans is how fresh they are. They just…

With a potential meat shortage underway due to COVID-19, Mom found a great deal for local whole chicken from 50th State Poultry, a local source for chicken in Hawaii. There were plenty still available at our local grocery despite the empty sections of beef, pork, and chicken. While this local…

With just 1 pound of beef, you can make 6 decently sized burger patties in just a few minutes. Mom’s normal beef burger patty is pretty elaborate. She’ll toss in onions, bell peppers, bread, and eggs, but if she doesn’t have time or wants to get food out fast, this…

Like teriyaki BBQ chicken, teriyaki BBQ pork is fast and easy. It does take a little extra time to thin out the meat, but it’s a minor step especially since cooking even a large batch goes by fast. On the first day Mom will slice this up hot and we’ll…

A friend gave my brother a humongous bag of pinto beans so he decided to make this hearty stew in a slow cooker. It ran out pretty quick and my Mom wanted some more but didn’t want to wait another 12 hours. So she made her own version for the…

The steps for this recipe is similar to mabo tofu: put in all your ingredients, add some water, let it cook, then thicken it up with cornstarch. It’s easy and straightforward and this is a great way to really get into the Chinese-style of cooking. My favorite is to eat…

Teriyaki chicken can be found at almost any plate lunch restaurant in Hawaii. It’s usually the cheapest meal on the menu because all you need is chicken, shoyu, sugar, ginger, garlic and a little marination time. It’s one of those recipes that Mom taught us early on and we never…

Mom’s Thai friend brought over some deep-fried pork jerky that she made and we loved it so much that Mom decided to recreate this tasty snack. I promise it will disappear quickly from the fridge so make sure you make a large batch to last you a while. So far…

Mom received some beautiful young squash from a friend that she decided to use in this jiaozi recipe. Normally, we use the common green cabbage for jiaozi or baozi since it’s cheap and easy to find, but squash has a nice give when you bite into it. For this recipe,…

Chicken katsu is originally a dish from Japan, but it’s also commonly found in local restaurants in Hawaii. The usual chicken katsu recipe you see online often has you dip the chicken in each outer ingredient (flour, egg, panko) in a separate tray. But realistically, the faster you can get…

Baozi (or bao) is just one of the many traditional dishes that I grew up with. My Mom would make these by hand and served hot they are a perfect meal or snack. When other kids would bring sandwiches and a bag of chips to a field trip, my brother…

Roast pork butt is one of the easiest things to cook ever. It’s literally salt and pepper all around, then put it in the oven for 3 hours at 350 degrees. Easy, simple, and very tasty. Even Daisy couldn’t resist the smell as Mom was cutting the roast pork after…