I Just Want a Bowl of Rice and Misoyaki at Shirokiya

Colorful sourdough discard pizza focaccia with pepperoni, mozzarella, serrano, jalapeno, green bell peppers, onions, garlic, and leftover tomato sauce.

When Shirokiya was still around at Ala Moana Center, everyone went directly up to the top floor for the food before browsing elsewhere. Men would stand behind large, steaming grills flicking takoyaki (battered octopus balls) with chopsticks. Behind them in the back were aisles and aisles of tempura shrimp, spicy tuna hand rolls, and bentos ready to go.

Sadly, I never did much but look. I think I bought a hand roll once and sat at the restaurant in the corner, after loading up on okazuya (ready-made food) buffet.

Back then, in my high school to college years, I was still hung up on what I couldn’t have anymore. Namely, American food, Southern grits and catfish, East Coast Italian…Taco Bell, Pioneer Chicken, and Pizza Hut.

This is simit, aka Turkish bagels, which goes well with chopped tomatoes, garlic, salt, and pepper, sliced cucumbers, and Turkish white cheeses, as well as grapes.

I know better now, but it’s too late. I can’t get any of those Japanese delights, even if I went back to Hawaii. Shirokiya is no more, along with Liberty House, where I bought blueberry cheesecakes in the bakery on the third floor and my wedding gown.

But I could probably get my hands on even better Japanese (and Korean and Chinese and Taiwanese and Malaysian) food back home. Food I couldn’t have even dreamed of before…food that would’ve blown my dad’s mind, may he rest in peace.

I joke, but it’s true: the second I leave a place, it fills up with a foodie’s dream. When I die, the world will become an AYCE top-tier wagyu and lobster Benedict oasis, with plenty of arepa.

That’s just how it is.

Tomorrow, I prep filling for more lumpia. Not sure if I should shallow- or deep-fry. What do you think?

I’m thinking of Japanese food lately, because my son James is currently loving himself on top-tier AYCE wagyu in Osaka and god knows what else his greedy little heart desires, and you know I had to watch other food vloggers do the same on YouTube. Just to say I was there too, in spirit.

Until or if then…I bake and cook what I want with my little arthritic hands, depending on my passing mood and craving.

carolbanksweber

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Lately, I’ve only wanted small bowls of this and that, a throwback to when I was a child eating with my mom and grandma chewing loudly in the background, over-feeding me their childhood favorites pre- and post-Korean-war.

My favorite Korean food tends to come from that table: grilled or broiled fat, greasy Corvina fish, home-fermented kim chee stems and leaves, tofu and crab jjigae, soy-drenched sesame/perilla leaves, roasted, salted nori my grandma would hold over a hot stove grill, oil and salt, tteokguk rice cake soup, whelks (snails), squash jeon (fritter pancake), and Bacchus-D.

Wherever you are, I hope you’re eating well and not skipping meals.