All posts by Nate

Nate is the Techie / Barbecue-y half of the House of Annie team. Born in Hawaii, his favorite hobby is surfing...WEB surfing that is. Visit my Google+ Profile

Ono Pops and Grilled Abalone @ KCC Farmers’ Market

We found some delicious cool and hot grinds at the popular Saturday KCC Farmers’ Market in Honolulu.

KCC Farmers Market

Annie and I are suckers for farmers’ markets. There’s just something magical about being in the open air, browsing (and grazing) the different stalls for whatever is in season at that moment. Whether it’s sand dabs in Saratoga, pimientos de padron (and pervs) in Palo Alto, California mangosteens in San Carlos, slurpaliciously fresh oysters in San Francisco, a delicious Japanese bento lunch in Austin, fiddlehead ferns at a Kuching night market, water apples at Kuching’s Satok Market, cat’s eyes in Serian, or live chickens in newspaper tubes at Sibu’s Central Market, you never know what you’re gonna find.

So even though we’d barely gotten off the plane from Taiwan, we knew there was no way we were missing the Saturday farmers’ market at KCC (Kapiolani Community College). It’s my neighborhood farmers’ market – situated on the backside of Diamond Head – and a foodie destination for locals and tourists alike.

What new foodie finds would we discover on this trip?

Continue reading Ono Pops and Grilled Abalone @ KCC Farmers’ Market

Surprised by Dinner @ Hotel Novotel Taipei Taoyuan

Sick of airplane food and not interested in airport food, but pleasantly surprised by airport hotel food!

Chinese Restaurant at Novotel Taipei Taoyuan

We’re on our way from Kuching to Honolulu, but we made an overnight stopover in Kuala Lumpur first. Unfortunately, we didn’t have enough time in KL to get any mamak or roti canai. Breakfast was a bowl of porridge, while lunch was a McDonald’s cheeseburger and a Diet Coke at KL International Airport. Totally uninspiring.

The second leg of our journey took us from KLIA to Taipei, Taiwan. Our onboard airplane meal was special – especially horrible, that is. We should have known something when the supervisor at the check-in counter warned us about the kosher meal that Annie and I had reserved.

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Happy 9th Birthday to Daniel

This past Saturday, we celebrated Daniel’s 9th birthday with great games and fine food.

birthday cake

Daniel turned 9, and for his birthday present he requested that we have a birthday party at our place. Since we had thrown a party for Esther’s birthday last year, it only seemed fair. This time around, though, Daniel would be inviting some of his schoolmates to come.

The trouble is, while we have lots of experience with cooking dishes for big parties, we don’t have so much experience organizing kids’ party games. Thankfully, Annie’s colleague came to the rescue.

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January Top Commenter: Test With A Skewer

Meet Sharon, aka Shaz, from Test With a Skewer who is the Top Commenter for January! Like previous top commenters, to thank Sharon I want to introduce her delicious site to you.

Test With A Skewer Screenshot

I first met Sharon through the Muhibbah Malaysian Mondays roundup, which she started along with 3 Hungry Tummies.  Sharon blogs from Sydney, Australia where she is living, cooking and eating.  Her site is full of traditional Malaysian recipes as well as tantalizing bakes and cakes.

Here’s our fun little “interview”:

Continue reading January Top Commenter: Test With A Skewer