Paesano Ristorante Italiano – Waimalu (Aiea)

The wife and I had occasion to dine at Paesano Ristorante Italiano recently – the one in the Waimalu Plaza across the parking lot from Safeway. I’ve always enjoyed Paesano, and its sister restaurant Assagio. Both offer wonderfully rich Italian dishes that cater to my tastes.

It was late afternoon when we decided to have an early dinner, and being as how we were toodling around in Aiea, we decided to try the Paesano there, having eaten at their Manoa location but never at the Waimalu Plaza site. Lucky us, they opened at 5 p.m. for dinner, just as we pulled up to the entrance.

We weren’t terribly starved, but we were hungry. Salad, soup and/or appetizer? Nope, not that night. We went straight to the entrées.

Eggplant Alla Parmigiana

She ordered one of her standards (a usual favorite) – Eggplant Alla Parmigiana, one of their specialties on linguini. Nothing really fancy, but according to her, very tasty. I tried the sauce (as usual) … yes, very tasty.

Scallops Alla Scampi Style

I was in a mood for seafood so I went with their Scallops Alla Scampi Style with snap peas and linguini. A word of warning: Do not plan any kissing after dinner if you have this one. It’s very garlicky. Yummy garlicky, but garlicky for sure. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, but you might want to hold off on the kissing unless your partner or date has something garlicky as well.

I’m just saying …

Anyway, be that as it may, my food was cholesterol-heaven. Lots of butter, lots of scallops. It was heavenly! The linguini was perfectly cooked, the sauce was richly buttery, the garlic was great (they did use a lot, but minced it up really fine, and of course, one could always brush it off and moderate its effects).

A garlicky scallopy meal like that deserves a dessert to finish it off. Tiramisu, of course. If I were still rating tiramisu on my Heaven in the Mouth website that I sold a few years ago, I’d give it an 8 out of 10. And that’s the highest grade I’ve given to tiramisu in Hawaii.

I loved that you could taste the liqueur in the espresso that the ladyfingers were dipped in. And, nice guy that I am, I let the wife have the cherry on top.

Paesano Ristorante Italiano: 98-1277 Kaahumanu St. (808) 485-8883.

Aloha Specialties Restaurant (Las Vegas)

Located in the mezzanine area of the California Hotel Casino in downtown Las Vegas, near the overpass to Main Street Station, Aloha Specialties Restaurant is a favorite of Hawaii residents who frequent the Boyd Gaming Hotels.

It offers all kinds of “Hawaii local foods” that Island residents are familiar with – saimin noodle soup, teriyaki beef, shrimp tempura, beef stew, bento plates … y’know, take-out food.

I finally decided to give it a try the last time I was in Las Vegas, since I was staying at the California Hotel. As I stood in line to make my order, I was in a quandary as to what to order. See, I don’t usually eat local Hawaii food in Las Vegas. I mean, why go to Las Vegas to eat something I can easily get at home?

This is one of those places where you stand in line to give your order, they give you a number to take with you and display on your table, and then they deliver your food.

I ordered their beef stew. Oh my, not a good move. The beef stew was much too salty and the meat was not tender enough. If you look at the picture, you’ll see what looks like two big hunks of potato next to the rice. It’s not potato. It’s fat. Big globs of fat attached to a couple of small chunks of meat.

The rice was a bit on the pasty side, which is a turnoff for some people, but not for me. I like it that way. Too bad the gravy was too salty.

The worst part? They don’t accept the Boyd Aloha coupon books.

Aloha Specialties Restaurant: California Hotel, 12 E. Ogden Ave., (702) 385-1222.

Kit n Kitchen (Honolulu)

The wife and I were going to have breakfast after my visit to the dentist, and the assistant told her to try a little place in the Moiliili area of town called “Kit n Kitchen.” I’m eternally grateful to her, because it was a very good experience.

Kit n Kitchen is the type of coffee house/café that I love going to – independently owned, offering more than the usual breakfast meat, eggs and potatoes (or in the case of Hawaii, rice). In fact, I seek out these places in my travels.

The Yius have been there for about 10 years now, and added their breakfast service about a year ago.

It’s located near the Bank of Hawaii building on University Avenue, at the corner of University and Coyne … easy to find, and lots of parking (if the shopping area’s lot is full, park in the huge Bank of Hawaii parking lot, although you’ll have to pay to do that).

They have a pretty good variety of breakfast items: “Egg-in-da-hole” (egg nestled in a hole cut in a slice of bread, with breakfast meat and a chunky tomato sauce), Huevos Rancheros (I’ll talk about this in a little while), Breakfast Wrap (tortilla filled with scrambled eggs, grilled chicken, ham, onion and zucchini, roasted potato and cheese, with salsa), and a couple of Eggs Benedict dishes.

They also have something called a “Lamb Cave” (a grilled tortilla bowl containing thin slices of roast lamb, romaine, cucumber, diced tomatoes and sour cream), and “The King of Pig Sandwich” (grilled pork and stuff in crispy French bread).

The wife ordered Eggs Benedict, which were pretty nice. She ordered hers with rice for her starch, which I thought was a little weird, but consequently, she was able to mash her substantially wiggly egg yokes in it, just as she does at home.

So what do I know! Plus, she got some fruit on the plate, which made her a happy camper.

I had the Huevos Rancheros. Now, it’s not like huevos rancheros I’ve had elsewhere. But it was good. Two sunny side up eggs on a large flour tortilla, nestled in a playground of diced cucumbers, roasted potatoes, Portuguese sausage slices, olives, parsley, black olives, sour cream, barbecued beans and salsa.

I didn’t know where to start. Every wedge of tortilla I cut off had a different ingredient on it. And that made ME a happy camper. Pretty fun meal for me!

Each of us also got two pancakes – free. The pancakes were pretty light, but a little short on flavor. Good thing they supplied a lot of thick maple syrup. I’m sure they give the real thing and not the fake kind that Log Cabin or Aunt Jemima sell in the stores.

We were kind of full, so we took the wife’s pancakes home, along with one of her Egg Benedicts.

The second time we went there, I ordered their Steak and Eggs. It's not just any old steak and eggs, however. The steak is thinly sliced and served with chimichurri sauce - a Hispanic green sauce with a bit of heat.

Usually, when I have steak and eggs, I'd use a steak sauce and a few drops of Tabasco sauce to add heat. This time, however, I didn't have to do any of that. Not only did the chimichurri sauce add a chili heat, the meat was nicely spiced as well.

Instead of potatoes, I upgraded to their pineapple fried rice, well worth the small addition to the price. This is one dish I'll order again, that's for sure. The steak was so very flavorful, the sunny-side up eggs were cooked perfectly, and the pineapple fried rice was a nice change.

Since those first two times, we've been back for a couple more meals, the most recent being dinner. They have an item on their dinner menu that caught my eye immediately - Beef Tongue Stew. I love beef tongue, and just HAD to order it for myself.

The sauce was pretty much tomatoey Italian (very delicious), and the tongue was nice and tender, as tongue almost always is. What flavor! There are those who absolutely refuse to even try beef tongue, and to them, all I can say is they don't know what they're missing.

And the good thing is, I finally was in a position to order dessert. I had a slight waver during my decision, but in the end, I fell back on my fave - tiramisu. Gotta say, though, that the next time I have dessert at Kit 'n Kitchen, it's going to be the creme brulee, which along with tiramisu constitute 40% of my "5 best desserts" list.

The tiramsu was heavenly. They describe it as "Heaven in your mouth" on the menu, and I've been debating whether or not to ask them where they got the phrase as I had it for my tiramisu website catch phrase almost 20 years ago. Well, be that as it may, their tiramisu was heaven in my mouth.

According to their menu, they give you a choice at breakfast: free pancakes or a coupon to use next time. We lucked out. We not only got the pancakes, we also got a couple of coupons. And you can rest assured that we’ll be going back again – maybe for breakfast, but also, maybe for dinner.

P.S. You might want to check out the owner Kit Yiu’s Coca-Cola bottle/can collection. He says he’s been collecting for 30 years, and that some of them were given to him by customers.

Kit n Kitchen: 1010 University Ave. (808) 942-7622.

SeaBlue (Las Vegas)

It was my last night in Las Vegas so I went wandering around the MGM Grand on the Las Vegas Strip, searching for a place to have dinner. As usual, it was about 5:30 p.m.

I like to eat dinner early when I’m looking for a fine dining restaurant because I can usually get in without a reservation.

My ploy worked again. And you should know that when I was done, there was a line waiting to get in. Awright! Score!

But I digress.

SeaBlue is a Michael Mina’s contemporary seafood restaurant, one of five restaurants that Mina operates in Las Vegas. The ambiance transports the diner under the ocean – it’s dark and peaceful inside.

First up, appetizer. They had oysters, so that’s how I began. First, they brought me some naan bread with a small variety of spreads: hummus, feta cheese with nicoise olive tapenade, and red pepper and walnut muhammara.

Me too. I’d never heard of muhammara. So I asked my waiter Derek what it was (Derek, by the way, and with no insult intended, looks like an early toon version of Elmer Fudd). Turns out it’s a Middle East (Syrian) hot pepper condiment. It’s good.

The oyster platter arrived with three varieties of the wiggly stuff – Kumamoto, Fanny Bay and Gold Creek oysters – accompanied by cocktail sauce, horseradish, and a light sweet-sour vinaigrette dip, all very delicious. The three varieties of oysters had their own subtle flavors and I have to say I couldn’t choose a favorite from the trio presented to me.

My sea bass entrée (the server’s favorite fish, as he so pointedly informed me) had some mighty crispy, intensely flavored skin. No wonder it was his favorite. It was a perfect contrast to the Japanese snapper I’d had the night before at Japonais. Not fishy at all, very white and soft, yet flakey. A warm salad of mini-greens and mild golden pepper sauce complemented the fish.

For my vegetable side, I ordered some spaghetti squash. I’m still drooling over this one.

After a lovely meal like this, one just has to have dessert and coffee. For me, that night, it was a trio of profiteroles – little cream puffy pastry with a milk-chocolate crust, filled with rocky road ice cream, with dabby domes of chocholate and whipped cream gracing the plate.

I could hardly walk outta the place.

P.S. How could I forget this: They gave me two chocolate truffles to sweeten my mouth after dinner. Beats Andes chocolate mints any day.

SeaBlue: MGM Grand Hotel & Casino, 3799 Las Vegas Blvd. So. (702) 891-3486.

Café Bellagio (Las Vegas)

Café Bellagio is one of the brightest, prettiest hotel cafés in Las Vegas. And the best thing about it is that after you’re done dining, you can wander right into the Bellagio Conservatory, where the wonders of the season are presented in flowers for your delight.

There may be a long line when you get there, for it’s a pretty popular place. I had a 20-minute wait in line, but that was pleasant enough, thanks to the nice people in front of and behind me, and the colorful displays of the Conservatory.

Then when I was in the next four groups to be seated, I was asked if I wanted to sit at the counter. I wish I'd known early on that they had a counter … I could have been satisfying my appetite much, much earlier. Still, lemme think about this. Maybe the wait wasn’t so bad; I could feed my spirit and soul while waiting to feed my body.

So, what did I order? Eggs Benedict, of course. Except that they call it their “Café Benedict.”

What can I say that hasn’t already been said about this most perfect of breakfast dishes? Nothing. Except that the Café Benedict had hugs slabs of Canadian bacon draped over the English muffin.

The muffins were crispy (yay!), the egg yolks were hot and runny (yay!), the hollandaise was perfect (yay!), and the hash browns were tasty and crispy and tender all at the same time (yay!). I really liked the hash browns, and I loved the Café Benedict.

(Good coffee too.)

Café Bellagio: In The Bellagio, 3600 Las Vegas Blvd. So. (702) 693-7223.

Stage Restaurant (Honolulu)

 

Stage Restaurant is one of the better dining experiences I’ve had in Honolulu and it’s often written up in the guides. It’s not a cheap place to eat, but one way to try it out is to go there for lunch.

I did just that, calling in for an 11:30 a.m. reservation. When I got there, I was the first through the doors and nobody else showed up for at least 10 minutes. And then the rush started as it neared everybody’s 12 noon lunch break.

They start you off with a nice piece of herb bread and some cute little butter florets as you peruse the menu. I know how it is to over-order (having walked out of restaurants so bloated that I became light-headed) so I decided to order a reasonable – albeit substantial – lunch of an appetizer, sandwich and dessert.

(That looks so innocent when described that way, doesn’t it?)

 

For my appetizer, I pondered the Ahi Poke, then the Imu Pork Quesadilla, finally settling on their Crispy Fried Calamari (Graham cracker crusted, yuzu chili aioli, cocktail sauce, yukari powder, aji amarillo [Peruvian yellow chili purée], topped with chopped shiso leaf). Which, wouldn’t you know it, was the most expensive appetizer on the menu. Aaah, so what!

The calamari was excellent, and the sauces were very tasty indeed. I loved the aioli, and even the marinara sauce was a bit over the edge. As for the cocktail sauce, they only gave a little plop of it, but that was enough … it made my head perspire (translation, “It was good!”).

I decided to bring half of the calamari home with me, because I still had my sandwich and dessert coming.

They listed six sandwiches on the menu, but they only had five available, because they were out of the Peppered Pastrami.

 

My choice was their Open-Face Crab Sandwich (snow crab meat, bacon and cheddar cheese on in-house-baked baguettes). It came with a petite house salad, although I could have opted for French fries. But I can get French fries anywhere, and wanted to taste their vinaigrette salad dressing.

That was one of the richest crab sandwiches I ever had. The cheddar cheese added a butteriness to the huge piles of crab that were accented by the slight saltiness of the bacon.

Again, I couldn’t finish, so I brought most of my second half home with me.

Ordering dessert has a dual purpose for me. Something sweet helps clear the mouth of strong flavors, especially seafood (and especially, especially crab when it’s covered with melted cheese). Plus, if it’s one of my five favorite desserts (apple pie or variant, tiramisu or variant, key lime pie, bread pudding, or crème brulée), I can take a picture to post on my 5 Best Desserts picture blog.

And that’s why I order dessert. This time, it was Apple and Blueberry Crisp (with housemade honey ice cream drizzled with caramel sauce). Not only was it beautiful to look at, it was grand! The ice cream was perfect – not frozen hard, but mouth soft. The crumbles were crunchy, the apples were sweet, and the berries added a fresh dimension to the shootin’ match.

Gotta go back. Maybe next time I’ll take the wife with me if she behaves.

By the way, parking is accessed from Piikoi Street, so don’t drive past the Honolulu Design Center or you will have some majorly long blocks and right turns to negotiate your way back.

Stage Restaurant: Honolulu Design Center, 2^nd Floor, 1250 Kapiolani Blvd. (808) 237-5429.

Japonais Restaurant (Las Vegas)

If you like Japanese food, you may like Japonais. It all depends on how you envision Japanese food to be. If you’re into traditional Japanese food, let me tell you that Japonais is nothing like traditional.

Those who like a simple meal with steamed hot rice on the side are going to miss the rice. And, there’s no teriyaki anything on the menu. They do have a sushi bar, and that’s about as traditionally “normal” as it gets.

I knew going in that Japonais was going to be different. And I wasn’t disappointed.

They started me off with an amuse bouche of a slice of albacore sashimi in a mild soy broth. It was so beautiful in its tiny little bowl that I hesitated before disturbing it. But y’know, that’s what it’s there for, so I actually took two nibbles to finish it, savoring each little bite.

I ordered a Robata charcoal-grilled appetizer of skewered sweet shrimp and diver scallop sprinkled with yuzu (a Japanese citrus) salt. Again, they don’t overwhelm you with quantity, so I took my time eating it and explored each nuance of taste.

To wash everything down, I had a bottle of Badoit sparkling water.

For my entrée, I selected Japanese Red Snapper “poached in sake with seared diver scallop and Japanese eggplant stew in a black bean vinaigrette.” The snapper was mild in flavor, tender and flakey, with a crispy skin full of flavor.

The eggplant stew was very similar in flavor to Japanese sanbai zuke (a soy-preserved daikon condiment and side dish). Also accompanying the fish were mini-daikon that were actually cool and a refreshing contrast to the mouth after eating the semi-tart eggplant stew. Baby bok choy and some shredded green onions (the white part) finished the dish.

I wasn’t disappointed with the entrée. It was different, and maybe not to a traditionalist’s taste, but I did enjoy it.

To complete the meal, I ordered a dessert. Now, there’s nothing actually Japanese about apple pie, except that they prepare it with ginger sugar: “Apple Pie Toban Yaki” consisted of Washington red and green apples with a ginger-sugar crumble (kind of like chopped up chunks of crust sprinkled over the apples), all served in a hot clay pot and topped with honey vanilla ice cream.

They recommended a glass of Marco Negri Moscato d’Asti, but I demurred and had a glass of iced green tea instead.

It was sinful. I ate it all, reveling in the syrup at the end. I could have soaked in it if I had a bathtub-full.

Japonais: The Mirage, 3400 Las Vegas Blvd. So. (702) 791-7111.