Balls Of Joy

TNT!

Not quite like the ACDC song. I'm thinking more T&T Supermarket. But I always think of the song when I think of T&T, Canada's Asian supermarket superstore! So my awesome dad sometimes helps my baking business by running grocery errands for me... I love my dad!! And the other day, along with cans of coconut milk and bags of leaky icing sugar, he brought with him two boxes of frozen delights from Asian Supermarket Land:

LOTTE!! Which is the yummiest most delightfully soft Japanese mochi covered ice cream balls; and the second box: weird-ass Imuraya-brand ice cream cone coated green tea ice cream and red bean filled frozen dessert.

Lotte taste test: Scrumptious. A light and airy ball of vanilla ice cream "enrobed" (hate that word, but ridiculously fun to use, strangely) in mochi jacket.

Weird-ass ice cream cone coated green tea ice cream thing: Weird-ass. The light green colored "coating" really tasted just like those unflavoured ice cream cones you get when you cheap out at an ice cream parlour and don't get the sugar cone.

If you're having a green tea and azuki bean ice cream craving, try seeking out Maeda-en brand! Buy a pint of each flavour and scoop it up, scoop it up. Or, buy some green tea ice cream and pre-packaged azuki beans found at Japanese grocery or probs T&T, and you have a delicious little Asian-zone sundae! Note to Vancouverites: I found Maeda-en at little Norm's Fruit & Salad on Commercial Drive and Gravelly Street. NICE!

TASTE OF HAWAII

My family and I just returned from a mega fun trip in Maui, land of whales, lore, and AMAZING cool food stuffs. I have fond, fond memories of family trips to Hawaii as a kid, so lucky to be able to boogie board all day, run up the sand to beach towels and umbrellas and snack on Maui onion chips, drink Hawaiian Sun guava and passionfruit ice cold canned juices and tear into teriyaki burgers from the Rainbow Drive-In in Waikiki. I remember going to Hawaii in grade 9, I had a super wicked Body Glove flourescent cut out swimsuit!

Anyhow... highlights from this trip to Maui: BUBBIES, which are delicious mochi ice cream balls found in grocery store freezers; my dad's Hawaiian style breakfast: fried spam slices, Portugese sausage, white rice and fried egg; the same fried spam between chunks of soft, fluffy King's Hawaiian sweet bread; ice cold cans of Hawaiian Sun juices; plain tart yogurt with fruit and macadamia nuts and Haupia chocolate cream pie!

On Oahu you can find plenty of "shave ice" places, which is finely finely shaved ice colored and doused in juices and sweet syrups with Japanese anko (sweet red beans) and vanilla ice cream! Matsumoto is perhaps the most famous, and there's a reason: SUPER OISHI!! Honolulu is also the home of the amazing Nisshodo mochi!! We headed straight for the "factory" and stocked up on the soft, delicious and tender Chichi Dango, a total Hawaiian taste memory for me. Also, if you're heading to Waikiki, a crucial stop is Ala Moana Center, not for the wicked stores but for the BEST FOOD FAIR EVER. Also they have Shirokiya, the Japanese department store, with the most scrumptious and well priced Japanese quick eats, like prepackaged super fresh sushi, black cod, inari, noodles and sweets. Shirokiya also has a gourmet mochi ice cream stand!

I miss swimming in the warm Pacific ocean (here in Vancouver you can really only swim in the hot days of summer cause otherwise it's too chilly!), the rustle of palm tree fingers dangling in the tropical breeze... and the FOOD!

xo