SushiFest - Part V: The Supreme Sashimi

New Year's is upon us, and we have finally arrived in the what for my generation has always been, "The Future!"   It is the year 2010.   When we all live in the sky in apartments that are so far above the ground you never see it.  When we all drive flying cars, which run on garbage in our Mr. Fusion.  When we frequently take vacations on the moon at Luna Park.  Wait.  What do you mean we don't have any of those things yet?   Are you saying television lied to me??  Dang it!  Then again, my flip top cell phone looks remarkably like Captain Kirk's communicator (and when my wife has her bluetooth earpiece in I'm constantly reminded of Uhura), the automatic sliding doors at Ala Moana cound certainly pass for the ones on the Enterprise, and my tablet PC looks bears a striking resembalance to the padd that Yeoman Rand carried.   So we're getting there, we're getting there.

Meanwhile, I guess we'll just celebrate New Year's the old fashioned way.   In Hawaii of course, that means a literal ton of fireworks.   Having so many Chinese families in Hawaii, you just have to have a 20,000 string of  firecrackers to scare off the bad spirits, with little bits of red paper all over your driveway to welcome in the blessings of the new year.  I was always particularly fond of those little ground blooms, that spin and look like red, yellow or green ladybugs. These days, fountains have gotten so complex, that they look like a little fireworks show in your driveway.   But I have never had any lack of a fireworks show.  Where I live, somehow every other family in the valley has gotten their hands on illegal aerials.  I really don't know where they get them from.  All I know is that, despite the illegality of it, you simply cannot stop the firmly entrenched tradition of it.  This is something I'm glad about, because from my parents' house, you can see practically the entire valley.  Every New Year's, we're treated to the most spectacular aerial fireworks show around, all at around eye level for us, just about 180 degrees all around us.  It's absolutely amazing.   Of course the smoke is also amazing.  It's as thick as San Francisco fog, and the thundering booms mirror that of a warzone.  But I wouldn't have it any other way.

However, while the rest of the country is singing Auld Lang Syne, and are focused on the crystal ball dropping in Time's Square, New Year's in Hawaii has always been more of a Japanese holiday than an American one.   In fact, aside of Obon, it is probably the biggest Japanese holiday of them all.  Rather than religiously watching Dick Clark's countdown, the Red and White song competition (also called Kohau Uta Gassen) has always been a yearly tradition in my family.   While most anime fans are familiar with J-Pop music, it is the Red and White competition that fostered my love of enka style music.  My favorite was always Saburo Kitajima (famous for playing the Chief of the Megumi Fire Brigade on Abarenbo Shogun).  His crooning is as unique and unmistakable as Sinatra, and to me it just isn't New Year's without hearing it.

Practically every other door is adorned with a kadomatsu (or a bamboo & pine arrangement).  Like the firecrackers to the Chinese, the kadomatsu to the Japanese is a way of warding off evil spirits and welcoming in the blessings of the new year.   Besides the traditional decoration at our doorstep, many businesses and homes are scrubbed spotless, and all debts paid, to start the New Year clean.   Thankfully, being Chinese, like getting an extension on your income taxes, we get a reprieve from all that cleaning until Chinese New Year, about a month later.   But perhaps nothing is more iconic of New Year, than a stack of mochi with an orange on top.

Mochi Variety from Kansai Yamato

Mochi is essential to the Japanese for New Year's.  Just like gao for Chinese New Year, the stickiness of the mochi is meant to symbolically bind the family together for the New Year.  Back in high school, I actually got to try pounding the mochi myself (in tandem with a partner of course).   Swinging that giant hammer over your head is worthy of Looney Tunes, but it's much heavier than it looks.   I would just as soon leave it up to the experts.   In Hawaii, that usually means picking up a pack of Hawaii Candy from Longs.   But we also have a true mochi specialist, right in the Makai Market food court at Ala Moana, called Kansai Yamato.  Just like Mana Bu's who makes nothing but musubi, Kansai Yamato makes nothing but mochi.  This fanatical dedication to making one, and only one product, naturally yields nothing less than absolute mastery and perfection in their craft.   The mochi at Kansai Yamato, is simply the perfect texture.  Soft and sticky, and nothing like the hard, chewy, dried up nonsense you can pick up at some places.  Their variety pack even has flavors that you wouldn't even find in Japan.   Besides the traditional an dango (the white with azuki bean filling) and kinako an (the shoyu brown one), you can get brilliant local flavors and colors like cruncy peanut butter, mango, melona, and guava.   Each one is distinctly local tasting and different from each other, but all of them are just mouth watering.

Besides mochi, the other crucial thing you must have at New Year's is of course sashimi.  Fresh fish is so important to the New Year's celebration that a quarter of the island seems to pack itself into tiny little Tamashiro Market on New Year's Eve.  Not only is everyone frantic to get a piece of fish, they're willing to pay several hundred dollars a pound for the really premium quality fish.   I wouldn't be surprised if Tamashiro makes half its dividends on New Year's alone.   Of course, once you get it home, you really must know how to cut the fish properly too.   This is a precision task that takes years to master, so if you're not up to the task, I would recommend finding a sushi chef that really knows his stuff.   My very favorite sushi place, would have to be Yanagi Sushi, at the downtown end of Kapiolani.

Family Roll at Yanagi Sushi

If you my wife, she will tell you that sushi may be my all time favorite food.   I'm completely addicted to it.  In my quest for the perfect sushi, I've found innovative makimono rolls, battleship shaped gunkan passing by on the conveyor belt, perfect bowls of poke, ingenius temaki hand rolls with supremely crunchy nori, and the master sushi chefs that serve you with an obsession for the perfect bite.   But when it all comes down to it, Yanagi Sushi is the one place that I would consider my absolute favorite sushi restaurant.  On my birthday, it usually tops my short list of places I want to go.  I'm definitely not alone in this regard, either.  When you walk in to this unassuming little restaurant, the walls are lined with the most photographs of patrons I've ever seen adorn a restaurant, many of them big celebrities.  

Sashimi Deluxe at Yanagi Sushi

While Yanagi makes some fantastic sushi rolls, it is actually not the sushi (which by definition requires the sweet vinegar rice), but the sashimi that is my favorite thing there.    Their Sashimi Deluxe platter may be one of my favorite meals in the whole world.  Every item is super fresh, premium quality, and masterfully cut to bring out its own magnificent natural flavor.  The oyster is plump and briney, with a full intense oyster flavor.  Every piece of ikura (salmon roe) is bursting crisp little sphere, none of which are dry or shrivelled.  The ika (squid) is crisp and clean, and doesn't have that slimey pastey film that bad quality ika has.   The ebi (shrimp) is blanched so fast that it has an ever so slight crispness, while retaining all of it's raw natural sweetness.  I especially love the piece of shiso, which has such an intoxicating perfumey fragrance, that perfectly complements the flavor of the fish.  I would rather have shiso than wasabi any day.  But what makes this platter so perfect, is how well they do the core triumvirate of sashimi, the ahi, hamachi, and salmon.   All 3 of these incredibly buttery.  The natural fat and fish oils in each piece of fish makes it so rich and flavorful.  Eaten with a nice hot bowl of steaming, slighly sticky, plump, calrose rice, the fish flavor just melts like butter on hot bread.  The ahi, salmon, and hamachi each has its own distinct flavor, and I adore each one.   Despite how elite and prestigious the sushi at Sushi Sasabune is, I think that the flavor of the fish at Yanagi even surpasses it.  The shrimp is sweeter and the flavor of the hamachi is much stronger.  Besides that the atmosphere is a lot more relaxed and unpretentious, and the price is much more affordable, so the overall experience is just far more enjoyable.

Even though my family isn't Japanese, in Hawaii each of our cultures has become so integrated with our super-culture, that we just couldn't welcome in the new year without all the Japanese elements.  It is tradition that I look forward to enjoying year after year for decades to come.

SushiFest - Part III : Trust Me

My sister came home for Christmas, and this year we decided to treat ourselves to a very special dinner, to spend some brother/sister quality time together.   I have read many, many sources saying that simply the best sushi on the island, is at Sushi Sasabune.  Period.   In fact, people just won't take you for a serious sushi afficionado unless you've been there.  But I've also heard that it was extremely pricey.   As it is the true sushi.  The gourmet sushi.  The sushi equivalent of buying the highest grade beluga caviar (at several hundreds of dollars an ounce, vs. the kind of caviar you can get from $15/jar at Foodland).   So it is one of those, once in a lifetime experiences, that you simply must try.  As a serious foodie, my sister is pretty much the only person I know who would appreciate and enjoy this level of sushi as much as myself.   So this year, we finally decided to give it a try, and I was very, very, excited about going.

I have heard many things about Sushi Sasabune.  For one thing, I've heard that the sushi chefs there are ridiculously strict about how to eat their sushi.   Sushi must not be cut in half (Cutting the sushi in half, is like cutting a boat in half.  The boat will sink.)  Each piece must be eaten in one bite.   Sushi should not be dipped in shoyu, unless allowed to do so by the chef.   Dipping the sushi from the rice side, is a no no (as the rice will absorb too much of the shoyu and fall apart).   Dipping the fish side only is difficult.   The proper technique is to use the pickled ginger to dip in the shoyu and brush it over the sushi.  Even when I called, the host wanted to make certain that I understood, "We serve only sushi.  We don't serve Japanese food.   We don't serve California rolls."  These rules have given Sushi Sasabune an image similar to that of the infamous Soup Nazi from Seinfeld.

The strict enforcement of these rules intimidates many people from wanting to try the experience.   But somehow this doesn't bother me at all.  For one thing, even in Western culture we've got rules about etiquette that we follow in a fine dining environment.   You're not supposed to put your elbows on the table.  You're supposed to use the right fork for the right course.  You're not supposed to talk with your mouth full, or open your mouth while chewing.   We don't complain about these rules because we've grown up with them.  The Japanese rules of sushi etiquette just take a little learning beforehand, and you will have the same level of comfort.   But besides that, I understand that when I cook a dish, many times I want my audience to eat it in a certain way, just so that I know that it tastes the way that I am trying to present it to people.   If, for example, they add a lot of shoyu (or any other condiments for that matter), it will be saltier than I had intended.  After spending a lot of time trying to find the right balance of seasonings and flavors, I don't want people to distrupt the flavors I'm trying to present.  Some people may think that enjoying food should be adjusted as a matter of personal preference, but then it's not what I, as the chef, have created.  You don't go up to the Mona Lisa and add a little flower in her hair because you think it would make her prettier.  Likewise, I want to pay my respects to the sushi chef  by eating it the way he wants to present it.   In fact, if I'm paying this huge amount of money to eat there, I definitely want him to tell me how he thinks his creation is best enjoyed.   I want to hear the story he has to tell, and not put words in his mouth.  My only qualm would be if they were unfriendly, rude, or obnoxious about their rules.   But they really weren't.  They were as attentive, friendly, and welcoming as any other fine dining restaurant in town.

Naturally, we didn't bother to order anything.   We went with the omakase, meaning we left it up to the chef to decide what he wanted to serve us.  This presumes he knows what his best dishes are, he knows what is fresh that day, and he will serve you what he thinks is best.  So, what did I have at this ultra elite, fine dining sushi experience?    What was the story that the chef wanted to tell?   Here it is, course by course:

Albacore Tuna & Blue Fin Tuna Sashimi in Ponzu Sauce at Sushi Sasabune

First up, was an appetizer of albacore tuna (white) and blue fin tuna (red) in ponzu sauce.   The first thing that I noticed, was that the tartnessof the ponzu sauce instantly woke up my mouth, and fired up all of my taste buds.   A good opening gambit.  The second thing I noticed was both tuna, were cut absolutely, unmistakably, perfect.  There was not a single vein in any piece of fish whatsoever.  It was incredibly smooth.  Though both tuna, the albacore definitely tasted different from the blue fin.   My sister liked the albacore better, whereas I thought the ponzu overpowered it a little.  I liked the blue fin a little better, as I thought it had a stronger fish taste, but she thought the reverse.

Squid Stuffed with Blue Crab at Sushi Sasabune

My next dish was a squid stuffed with blue crab.   The squid was a nice soft texture, but what made this dish was the crab.   The crab inside was just incredibly creamy, and full of crab flavor.   It puts any crab cake in the world to utter shame.  The sweetness of the sauce below was counter balanced by the strong roasted flavor of the sesame seeds on top.   All of which was just superb with the crab.

Hamachi Collar Nitsuke at Sushi Sasabune

My sister is allergic to squid.  Once in Nanjing, China, she had some squid that made her eyelids swell so much, they essentially swelled shut, making her look like a blind cave salamander.   So the chef happily took that allergy into accomodation and prepared her an alternate second course of hamachi collar.   If you've never had it, hamachi collar is pretty much the best part of any fish you will ever eat.  It is the most tender, perfect fish meat.   And his preparation was an awesome nitsuke style dish.  It was a very familiar shoyu flavor, and she just loved it.

Toro Nigiri at Sushi Sasabune

Our third course was the first actual sushi.  In this case, it was toro (or fatty tuna).   Frankly, I was suprised to see this dish so early on.   When you eat a piece of pear that's sweeter than an apple first, then you eat the piece of apple it seems kind of bland.  The same goes for sushi.   Usually you want your fattier pieces of fish to come later, otherwise you won't enjoy he leaner pieces as much.  But in any case the toro was excellent.   What I also immediately noticed, was that the rice was warm.  Body temperature in fact.  This is kind of odd when most places serve you chilled or room temperature rice.   But I really liked the warm rice.   It brought out the fish flavor more.  Imagine a piece of butter on room temperature bread.  Then imagine a piece of butter melting on warm bread.  That is essentially the difference with the warm rice at Sasabune. 

Flounder (top) & Amberjack (bottom) Nigiri at Sushi Sasabune

Our fourth course was a combination of amberjack and flounder sushi.   The flounder has a crunchier texture, similar to king clam.   Which was a nice contrast to the buttery, fatty, toro in the previous course.   The amberjack had a nice piece of toasted garlic on it that gave the entire piece of sushi a very strong garlic taste.   It was wonderfully garlicy, but I didn't taste the fish too much.  

Hamachi Nigiriat Sushi Sasabune

Our fifth course was hamachi.   I adore hamachi.  It is my favorite sushi fish of all, so I had very high expectations here.  Unfortunately, I was a little disappointed.   On the downside, the wasabi was just a little too strong in my piece, so it really overpowered everything else.   Also, the flavor of the fish just wasn't pronounced enough.   It should have been much fattier, more buttery, but it was just lost to the wasabi.   On the upside, that had one of the best textures I've had from any piece of hamachi anywhere.   So the texture was awesome, but the flavor of the fish not strong enough.   In fact, if there was one complaint my sister had throughout, this would be it.

Scallop (top) & Salmon (bottom) Nigiri at Sushi Sasabune

Our sixth course consisted of scallop and salmon.   The salmon, like the hamachi, just didn't have a strong enough salmon flavor.   It had a piece of pickled kelp on top which again overpowered the fish.   Again, it had a fantastic texture, but not enough salmon taste.   The scallop on the other hand was really huge, plump, and had one of the sweetest seafood tastes anywhere.  It was super sweet.

Oyster Dynamite at Sushi Sasabune

Our seventh course was a baked oyster (sliced into 2 bites for you).  It was hands down one of the plumpest, juicest oysters I've ever had.  They cooked it just right too, so it was still plump and tender, and hadn't started to get shrivelled up or tough.  It had a really strong oyster flavor, which was just complemented by the baked dynamite on top.  

Blue Shrimp (top)  & Mackeral (bottom) Nigiri at Sushi Sasabune

Our eighth course was a blue shrimp and spanish mackeral.  This dish seemed very out of place to me.   Following the oyster, both pieces seemed a little bland.   I have had much sweeter shrimp in other places.   So this dish was a little less memorable.   By this time, my sister complained that she was getting full, but I convinced her the better stuff was still coming.

Snow Crab (left) and Mackeral (right) Nigiri at Sushi Sasabune

Our ninth course was a different type of mackeral and a snow crab.   Again, the mackeral was not that memorable.   But then always prefer the buttery grilled saba, to the kind of sour sashimi or sushi mackeral.   The crab on the otherhand was fantastic.   The chef took the roux (or as my wife likes to call it the "green stuff"), out of the head of he crab, and made it into a sauce that he drizzled on the crab itself.  This nearly floored me.   The combination of crab roux and sweet crab meat was just awesome.   It gave it a truly intense crab flavor.   It may just be the greatest piece of crab that I have ever put in my mouth.  

Negitoro Nigiri at Sushi Sasabune

Or tenth course, was the negitoro.  Now, they serve negitoro at Genki Sushi, but that might as well be a completely different dish entirely.   This negitoro is the signature dish at Sasabune.   They take the fish and chopped it so fine, that it practically has the texture of whipped cream.  By pulverizing the fish, they also draw out much more of the fish flavor, than the regular piece of toro at the beginning.   It was superb, and easy to see why it's their signature dish.   I thought that this might be the last dish, as it was their signature, but there was much more to follow.

Spiny Lobster at Sushi Sasabune

Our eleventh course, was a spiny lobster.    The lobster was cooked absolutely perfectly.  It was just the right balance of tender and firm.   So it was just perfectly succulent.   But by this time, my sister is seriously complaining that she's over stuffed, so she didn't get to enjoy it too much.  Again, I thought that this might be the last dish, as lobster is a pretty substantial thing to end on, but we pressed on.

Unagi Over Tamago at Sushi Sasabune

Our twelfth course, was an unagi over a piece of tamago.   This was kind of innovative and interesting to me, because the chef substituted tamago for sushi rice.  The tamago was a very soft spongy texture, which is worlds better than the tamago you usually get in your bento from Shirokiya.  But again, this dish seemed out of place for me, because it was far less interesting than the crab, or negitoro, or lobster.   At this point, my sister decided she just couldn't stomach any more, and told the waiter to stop for her.   I on the other hand elected to keep going, for two reasons.  Firstly, I didn't want to stop short, and not get my full money's worth.   Secondly, and more importantly, I didn't want to cut short the story the chef was telling.   As I explained it to my sister, you don't read a mystery novel, and quit before you find out who done it!   I wanted to ride the train to the very last stop to see where the chef was going with it.

Blue Crab Temaki at Sushi Sasabune

For my thirteenth course, I got a blue crab hand roll.   Now this was the same blue crab that I had gotten at the very beginning.   While still extremely flavorful and creamy, I couldn't really understand why the chef had elected to repeat himself.  This story was starting to not make any sense to me.   On the other hand, as it was a hand roll, I figured the chef was just trying to fill me up with rice, as you would towards the end of a meal for diners who are still hungry.  While the crab was tasty, it was still kind of ordinary to me.

Butterfish with Monkfish Liver Sauce at Sushi Sasabune

For my fourteenth course, I got a butterfish.   But instead of done, misoyaki style, as we're used to in the islands, the chef made a sauce out of monk fish liver and poured it over the butterfish.   Monkfish liver has been called the foie gras of the sea, so I was very excited to get to try it.    However, at this point, I asked the waiter how many more courses there were, and he told me that the chef just keeps going until you tell him to stop.   A little alarmed now, I politely told him that that would be it for me.   Since I was a little frazzled by this new information, I really didn't get to enjoy the butterfish that much.  

Not understanding how the omakase concept worked at Sasabune had 3 huge drawbacks that threw a big damper on our evening.   Firstly, my sister had a huge tummy ache, and she moaned practically the whole way home.   Had she known we could've stopped at any time, she probably would've stopped way before hand, and saved herself some pain.

Secondly, my understanding was that it would be a fixed price for the omakase course, like a prix fixe menu.  But, even though we hadn't ordered ala carte, they were charging us for each dish we ate.  So as we were eating more and more, we were racking up the tab.  Since almost 90% of the menu was imported from around the world (like Japan and New Zealand), with very little local ingredients, you would expect it to be pretty pricey.    In total, for the whole evening (including tax and tip), we paid $250 for just the two of us!   I was expecting it to be expensive, but that was even more than I had anticipated.   Doing the calculation, it was roughly $10 per plate on average (compared to Genki Sushi where it is roughly $2 per plate).   Sasabune, has a 4 plate per person minimum, so had we known, we could've spent $80 minimum for the two of us.  

Thirdly, and the thing that was the most disappointing to me of all, was that this meant that there was no story that the chef was trying to tell.   There was no logical progression from dish to dish, one leading to another, the chef building up to a climax and a denouement.  This was just the chef slapping together whatever the hell he felt like making.  This was especially disappointing, because like my example of the apple and the pear, certain foods must preceed others as to not be overpowered.  For a restaurant that places so much emphasis on precisely how the food should be eaten and enjoyed, for the price I was paying for the chef's expertise and artistry, not having a planned progression was a huge let down.   It's like hiring J.K.Rowling to come and play with your magnetic poetry board, rather than to write. 

Having experienced probably 75% of their menu, the next time I visit Sasabune, I would probably just order ala carte.   Conforming to their 4 plate minimum, I would probably pick the squid stuffed with blue crab, the oyster dynamite, the snow crab, and the negitoro (not necessarily in that order). I might get the lobster, or the albacore and blue fin tuna in ponzu sauce too.   Then again, having experienced Sasabune once in my life, I think I'm pretty satisfied.  I really did enjoy it.  They certainly showed extremely high quality ingredients, and an absolute mastery over their preparation.  My own lack of understanding should not be counted against them.  I will say this for certain, that is one dining experience that I will never forget.

Curry Crazy

One of my cousins from Canada came to visit recently, an naturally I took him on a whirlwind eating tour of Hawaii.  As we were passing through McCully Shopping Center, to visit my favorite little plate lunch place, Regal Diner, my cousin noticed the name Curry House.  His first thought was that the place was an Indian restaurant.  I suppose this comment shouldn't have disoriented me as much as it did.   Indians are well known for their curry worldwide, and there is even a place downtown on Bishop St., next to Remington College called Komala Curry House, which I'm still very interested in trying one day.  But my immediate reaction to my cousin was that he was so strange.   After all, in Hawaii, the first curry that you think of is Japanese curry.   Curry House is of course a part of the multi-national Japanese chain, Curry House CoCo Ichibanya.

My reaction to my cousin just underscored the difference in viewpoint between us islanders and people from the mainland.   But in truth, in Hawaii we've got many different kinds of curry.   Of course we've got the Indian curry that my cousin initially thought of.  However, to me, Indian curry (really a masala or a vindaloo) isn't the best example of curry, because they use so many different spices in conjunction with their curry, that it kind of overwhelms the curry powder itself.   While the resulting dish is outrageously delicious, it doesn't allow the curry spice enough of the spotlight.    We've also got Thai curry, Vietnamese curry, and curries from other parts of Southeast Asia.   The Thais in fact have red curry, yellow curry, green curry, and others (my favorite being Panang curry), each with their own distinct flavor.   But again, this is not the best example of curry, because the predominant taste is that of the coconut milk, the thai basil, and the chili peppers that they use.  Again, while extraordinarily delicious, it doesn't give the curry spice the center stage.   For the true curry taste, you've got to look to our beloved perfectionists, the Japanese.  

Only the Japanese aesthetic is able to recognize and bring out the beauty of a stark, singular item, such as a single piece of sashimi atop a small mound of rice.   It is this aesthetic that recognizes the flavor of the curry powder itself, and allows it the opportunity to shine on its own.   In Hawaii, we've adopted Japanese style curry, as our own curry stew, the close cousin of our local style beef stew.  Essentially the same big cubes of beef, hunks of potato, carrot and onions in the a curry based gravy instead of a tomato based one, curry stew is a favorite on plate lunches across the islands.   Alternatively, replace the big hunks of beef with some hamburger, add some peas, and you've got the hamburger curry which is usually one of the best things to get from a lunchwagon.   But while our local style curry is extremely popular, it is sort of a milder version of the original Japanese curry.  

Special Mix (Teri Beef, Hamburger Steak, & Beef Curry) at Regal Diner

For the real curry taste, the prefection in a solitary flavor, you've got to have some of the authentic Japanese curry.  The Japanese love their curry, especially young kids and teenagers.   If you've ever watched the popular anime, Inu Yasha, there is a scene where Kagome first introduces curry to the titular half yokai, Inu Yasha, with great comedic effect.   In typical anime over-exaggeration, he runs around screaming trying to wipe the burning spices from is humourously extended tongue.   But the small scene is just an example of how common curry is in Japan.  You can make it at home, with pre-mixed packages of S&B Golden Curry, something which to me completely outclasses a Hamburger Helper meal.   But if you don't know what you're doing, and you want to taste the true essence of curry, done by the masters, the place you want to go is Curry House CoCo Ichibanya.

Corn Salad at Curry House CoCo Ichibanya

When visiting Curry House, you really must begin your meal with a small salad.   Besides their extraordinary Japanese curry, Curry House is known for their two salad dressings.   Their creamy dressing is one of my favorite dressings in the world.   It is a sweet, creamy, slightly miso tasting, dressing.   Unlike vinegarettes which can be overpoweringly sour, or blue cheese or ranch dressings which can drown your vegetables in cream, the creamy dressing is light and sweet and seems to augment the natural sweetness of the crisp refreshing lettuce below.  You can even buy bottles of it to take home, but I just like having it as a cooling preamble to whet my appetite for the warm, yummy curry to follow.

Kids Curry at Curry House CoCo Ichibanya

As I've mentioned before, curry is very popular with kids in Japan.   While my son has difficulty eating the overwhelming spices of Indian curry (which makes us wonder what Indian kids eat), he has no problem with the kids curry at Curry House.   The kids curry is remarkably mild, with lots of little fun, kid friendly sides.  While mild, it maintains just a hint of the curry flavor, enough for him to enjoy.

Mixed Vegetable Curry at Curry House CoCo Ichibanya

My wife likes the vegetable curry at Curry House.  The wide assortment of vegetables, especially the hasu (or lotus root), makes for a great texture mix (nothing like horrible, textureless mix of frozen diced carrots, grean beans and corn that you get at most diners).  The sweetness of the vegetables also adds to the curry.   As my wife does also does not like a lot of spices, she greatly prefers the mild curry at Curry House to going to eat Indian curry.   However, even in their mild curry, you can taste the full flavor of the curry powder.  The gravy just seems to magnify the true curry taste, with the perfect Japanese rice gives it a warm soft body to enjoy.

Chicken Katsu Curry at Curry House CoCo Ichibanya

For me, nothing will do except the spicy curry.   Although it's spicier, the spices do not at all overwhelm the taste of the curry powder.   In fact, it's not really spicy at all to me, it's just enough to give the curry powder a little kick in beginning, something that wakes up your taste buds so that they recognize the lingering curry powder taste to follow.  In Hawaii, the combination of curry and chicken katsu has become extremely popular, from plate lunches to real Japanese food.  Curry House naturally does it the best.   There is just something about the crunchy, fried, batter of the chicken katsu as it is just on the point of softening in the warm curry gravy (it's similar to putting crunchy cereal in milk).  Although it is a contrast, it seems so harmonious.  It's probably the reason that curry croquettes and curry doughnuts are so popular at Japanese bakeries, like St. Germain or Panya.  Even the plating at Curry House is perfect.  Unlike at certain plate lunch places where they just pour curry stew all over the chicken katsu, which eventually leaves it soggy if you're taking it out to eat, the katsu is positioned so as to maintain its crunchiness while just dipping its toes into the curry for artful aesthetics.   The curry to katsu ratio is then yours to control and enjoy.   It is a fantastic combination and my favorite dish at Curry House.

If you're feeling hungry, you can also order a slightly larger portion of rice with your curry (400g instead of 300g).   The fact that they measure the weight in grams of course throws us Americans off, but suffice it to say the 400g is nicely satisfying. I remember when Curry House first opened many years ago, they had one of those eating challenges (like the ones seen on Man vs. Food).  It was I think 1000g or something like that, which was roughly equivalent to a whole small pot of rice and curry.   I guess the local blalahs could eat much more than they were expecting, because they no longer offer the challenge.  It's too bad, because I do love their curry so, that I did want to try it one day.  It's probably for the best, and I'll always have my 97 second spaghetti eating days.

Calpico at Curry House CoCo Ichibanya

When eating Indian curry, my wife always has to cool her tongue with a yogurt based Indian lassi.   Although this isn't necessary while eating the mild curry at Curry House, there is a Japanese sweet yogurt drink that just goes great with their curry.   I, of course, am referring to Calpico.  There is just something about the mild, sweet, ever so slight tang, and milkiness of Calpico that reminds me of all the wonderful Japanese candy (like Fusen gum) that we used to have when we were kids.  The sweet taste of Calpico is almost comparable to ice cream sodas or New York egg cremes, but as its not carbonated its much easier and smoother to drink.   The sweet reminder of childhood, emphasizes how popular curry is with Japanese youngsters. 

Indian and Thai curries may be delicious and have worldwide notoriety, but for the ultimate, quintessential, true curry flavor, nothing beats Japanese-style curry.  As popular as it is with the youth of Japan, we're so lucky to grow up with and enjoy it here as well.

Rice on the Run

They say that breakfast is the most important meal of the day.   In the old plantation days, you obviously needed the energy to keep working in the fields.  These days, you theoretically need the energy to stimulate your mind for whatever tasks you have on hand.   Even if you're trying to lose weight, breakfast is supposed to jump start your metabolism so you start digesting and burning calories from the moment you wake up.   In general, it's just supposed to kick start all the functions of your body for the day.   However, with today's lifestyle, a nice leisurely dinner is usually the biggest meal of the day.  Breakfast usually gets lost in the rush of getting to work or school, and the need for just a few more minutes of sleep.   I, personally, am not really hungry in the mornings either, so breakfast has never been a big thing for me.

In our mad rush to try to grab a bite to eat in the morning society has compensated by creating mad rush breakfast items, like Pop Tarts.   Back in high school, I had a friend who adored pop tarts.   He would toast Pop Tarts and spread Duncan Hines frosting all over them to give them an even more intense sugar rush worthy of thisiswhyourefat.com.   I've personally never understood why in society we've come to consider pastries which really should be desserts as viable breakfast options.  I had another friend who used to love Carnation Instant Breakfasts, a slightly more nutritious option.   However, instead of mixing them into milk and creating a milkshake, he would simply tear open the packets and pour them into his mouth in powder form.  I have to admit to trying this, and liking it, myself.   Somehow munching on the powder was like an intensesly milky flavor, and sinking your teeth into a mouthfull of dry powder as it packs itself densely between your teeth is strange but somehow satisfying sensation.  There are also Quaker chewy granola breakfast bars.  They are rather small and unsatisfying for an adult, but they are just perfect for my preschool aged son as we usher him into the car.

Of course you can stop into a fast food place, and grab a greasy, bacon or sausage, and egg breakfast sandwich.   But as Lisa said of Bart as he was peparing for his mini golf championships, "Steak and Eggs will make him sluggish.   Oats are the preferred choice of champion thoroughbread racehorses."   Of course, here in Hawaii, we don't favor oats or wheat as much as we favor rice.  So how do we get our fix of rice in the morning while we're on our mad rush out the door?    Well, the classic Japanese solution to the problem of traveling rice came in the form of the onigiri or musubi.

Deluxe Spam Musubi from 7-Eleven

Hawaii is of course well known for the spam musubi.   Probably the simplest, and one of my favorite, ways to have a semi-decent breakfast on the run, is to simply stop into 7-Eleven, and pick up a deluxe spam musubi.   With a little bit of egg, spam, and rice, it's just the perfect size and content for breakfast.  They're warm and yummy, with a bit of furikake to give them just the right seasoning.   What more could you ask for?  

Japanese tourists in Waikiki, would probably prefer the more traditional approach to the musubi.   The best place to get them is at an ABC Store (which of course you find on every block in Waikiki).   They have a rather ingenious way of plastic wrapping the musubi, so that the nori is kept separate from the rice, while mainting the triangle shape in the display.   You open it by pulling on the tab, which cuts open the plastic right down the center of the triangle.   Then, with the plastic essentially cut in half, you pull on the two lower corners of the triangle.  This pulls the plastic away from not only the outside, but the inside separating the rice from the nori, as well.   So then you're left with a perfect freshly wrapped triangle musubi.   They come in flavors of salmon, classic ume (picked plum), or my wife's favorite, konbu (the sweet salty shreds of seaweed you get to sample with toothpicks at Shirokiya).  These convenience store musubi's are quite popular in Japan.   They even feature prominently in the Cutey Honey live-action movie, where the adorable, titular, female android is said to be powered by musubi's.  There is a quite cute and funny scene where she devours 37 of said convenience store musubi's and is subsequently ready for action.

Musubi's are actually a time honored food item in Japan.   They appear a great deal in the jidaigeki, or samurai period dramas, in literature, movies, and anime.  The classic image of a lonely ronin walking down the Tokaido Highway, with his large hat over his eyes and a musubi in his hand, is engrained in any fan of Japanese cinema.   It even appears in the opening scene of one of my favorite anime movies of all time, Ninja Scroll.   The main ronin, Kibagami Jubei, is walking over a bridge eating his musubi, when he is assaulted by a band of assassins.   Naturally, he tosses his musubi in the air, kills all 3 assassins, and promply catches the musubi to continue eating it, all in one fluid motion.   Whenever I get to eat a classic Japanese musubi, that is immediately the image that comes to mind.    So where can you get the really classic Japanese musubi's here in Hawaii?    Well, you can stop into any okazuya, of course.   But on the corner of Punahou and King, there is a shop called Mana Bu's, that specialzes in making nothing except musubis.   Naturally, this singular pursuit of perfection in a single item, yields some pretty remarkable results.

Konbu Musubi from Mana Bu's

Mana Bu's has musubi's of tons of different flavors (except ironically spam).   Their specialty however, is their rice.   After all, what makes for a great musubi, except great rice.   For health nuts like my sister, they have organic rice, brown rice, and even 10-grain rice.   But, I am a purist, especially when it comes to musubis.   Nothing but the softest, stickiest, plumpest grains of white rice will do.   Mana Bu's does it very very well.   You can taste the subtle but full rice flavor in every bite.   They are also liberal with the other ingredients.   My wife simply adored their konbu musubi, with many bits of konbu throughout the entire ball.

Tuna Mayo Musubi from Mana Bu's

My only complaint would be that having pre-wrapped their musubi's, their nori is not nearly as crunchy as the musubi's you get from ABC Store.   But this is easily overlooked with the quality of rice, and the seasoning to the other ingredients.   My favorite is always the tuna mayo musubi.

Yaki Musubi with Spicy Salmon from Mana Bu's

Mana Bu's also has another classic Japanese preparation, the yaki musubi, where the musubi is grilled and browned on the outside and glazed with a sticky, sweet, salty, teriyaki like glaze.   This crisps up the outer layer of rice, in the same way as Korean dol sot bi bim bap.    It creates a fantastic texture where you first bite through the cruncy toasty outer layer of rice, and plunge into the soft warm inner layer.  The contrast is immensely satisfying.

In one of the last season episodes of Star Trek, Captain Picard expresses his distaste for elaborate breakfasts and preference for a simple coffee and croissant in the morning, in typical French fashion.  Often times, I mimic this sentiment, but in Hawaii fasion, it would be a nice musubi and a bottle of Ito En green tea.  Simple, but perfectly satisfying, and just the thing to get you going in the morning.

Where There's Smoke

If there is any Korean food that is popular on the mainland, it is Korean BBQ.   In fact, that may be the only form of Korean food that people on the mainland are generally familiar with.   Even when I was away at graduate school, there was a Korean BBQ nearby.   I was really bad actually.  There was one class that I had which was a business case study course.   The class was divided in half, during the first half different groups would come up and present their analysis of a classic business case and after the break the professor would lecture about the concepts we were supposed to have learned.   Unfortunately, the professor was just so old and boring that I just couldn't stand listening to him, and the fact that the class was an evening class just made it worse.   So almost every other week, after the first half, my friend Sean and I would skip out of class and go to have dinner at the Korean BBQ.   Given the choice between an exruciatingly boring lecture and some warm inviting bulgolgi, the bulgolgi wins out every time.   It would always aggravate my classmates to no end, especially since my friend and I actually did so well in that class. 

Back at home, we're no stranger to Korean BBQs.   However, they're never given the name Korean BBQ.   Nor are they really called by their Korean name, gogigui.   They're always called yakiniku restaurants.  Of course this is a little bit odd, since yakiniku is a Japanese equivalent, but these are Korean restaurants, not Japanese.   To add further confusing, the kanji for yakiniku, in Chinese reads "siu yuk" (or roast meat).  But siu yuk, is what we call the Chinese roast pork with that nice crispy skin on top.   So a newcomer could easily be confused.   But here in Hawaii, we know that yakiniku places are Korean restaurants.

There are quite a number of yakiniku places here on island.   Just driving along Kapiolani next to Ala Moana, or driving up Keeaumoku, you will find at least a dozen of them.    Ironically one of the nicer yakiniku places, is actually a Japanese chain (although it's Korean food), called Gyu-Kaku.  What sets them apart, is that whereas most yakiniku places use a propane burner, Gyu-Kaku uses coals.   The orange red glow of the coals gives everything a better flavor than using gas.   The only drawback of Gyu-Kaku is their smaller portions (of which you're meant to buy many of), but not-so small prices.   My favorite yakiniku place however, is Camellia Buffet Yakiniku on McCully (across from where McCully Chop Suey used to be).   They also have a place called Yakiniku Camellia on Beretania closer to the University, but I think the McCully location has slightly more variety.

Cold Asile at Camellia Buffet Yakiniku

Camellia is probably the best value you can get eating at a yakiniku place, since it's a buffet.   But don't let the buffet part fool you.  This is not a matter of quantity over quality.  Everything that they have tastes quite fresh and high quality.   The big drawback to most buffets is that the food sits there on the line getting cold.  Things start to congeal.  Things get overcooked.   Things get soggy or wilted.   But at a yakiniku place, this is a completely negated problem.   The only things sitting around are the cold vegetables (kept in refrigeration units), and meats (which are sitting in their marinade getting more flavorful).   Then as you eat, you're cooking directly on the burner, so everything you're eating tastes completely fresh off the grill (because it is).   In this sense, this is probably the best buffet there is.   Ever.   

Marinating Meats at Camellia Buffet Yakiniku

All of Camellia's meats taste fantastic.   That's because they're basically just sitting there all day in their marinade, getting tastier and tastier.   They've got all the standards: chicken, bulgogi (beef), kalbi, spicy pork, and when you come at dinner tri-tip beef steak.   You can throw on garlic, mushrooms, onions, lots of other goodies to enhance the flavor as well.  The worst part about eating steak, or any meat is when it gets cold and the fat starts to congeal in it, making it very unappetizing.  But at a yakiniku place, you basically can take it right off the grill and pop it in your mouth (if you're careful not to burn yourself).   In my opinion, there's pretty much no better way to eat any meat.

Vegetables at Camellia Buffet Yakiniku

Just because they've got tons of meats, doesn't mean that the veggie world gets left behind here.    They've got a huge, supermarket long aisle of veggies.   About half are different varieties of kim chee.  But the other half are yummy seasoned vegetables, like choi sum, cabbage, seaweed, bean sprouts, and a whole slew of others.  They're nice and cold too, so it goes great along with the fresh off the grill meat.    It's like those old McDLT commercials where McDonalds would give you a container that kept the (burger) hot side hot and the (lettuce & tomato) cold side cold.   Only this is even hotter, colder, and fresher as it's not take out.

Kalbi & Bulgolgi on the Burner at Camellia Buffet Yakiniku

My wife's big complaint about going to Camellia is the smoke.   The moment you step through the door, it's like you're walking into a thick haze of smoke.   It's practically like fog.   She says that after you leave all your clothes and your hair smells like you've just escaped from a burning building.    But to me that smell is completely alluring.   It's intoxicating.  Smoke, sizzling meat, fire.   There's something primal and irresistable about it.   They actually did a study and found that women are more attracted to flowery scents (which is why guys should always bring flowers to a woman on a date, even if they just don't see the point).   Guys on the other hand are more attracted to food scents (so if women want to attract guys, they should wear things like vanilla, cinnamon & sugar, orange or other fruity scents).   So I always tell my wife that she smells great after we've gone to eat there.  She thinks I'm daft, but I'm only half-joking.

Spicy Pork on the Burner at Camellia Buffet Yakiniku

Going to Camellia to me is kind of a guy thing.   I mean there's fire.  Mmm, fire.  Grunt.  There's meat.  Mmm, meat.  Grunt grunt.  And if you're so inclined there's soju and Korean beer.  It satisfies all of the basic caveman urgings that guys tend to have.   But actually going to yakiniku can be kind of romantic too.   My wife is, once again, going to think that I'm out of my mind, but sitting around the warmth of the fire at a yakiniku place, kind of reminds me of camp fire at senior camp at Camp Erdman.  My whole class as sitting on log around the fire, and I was sitting there alone when she came and sat down and snuggled next to me (although she still says I sat next to her).   It was the warmest and coziest I felt in my entire life, and that had nothing to do with the camp fire.   Somehow sitting around the fire at a yakiniku reminds me of this (although the warm, glowing coals at Gyu-Kaku are probably better for this than the sizzling, smokey haze at Camellia). 

Fire.   Meat.  Smoke.  Warmth.   As much as you want.  Who cares if you smell like you just escaped from a burning building.   The yakiniku experience is one of my favorite dining options in the world.  It's primal.   It's carnal.   It's simply outrageously delicious.

I Want Candy

Halloween in Hawaii is the same odd combination of scary stories and sugar rush that it is elsewhere in the world.   Although it really fascniates me how a Celtic festival of the dead, Samhain, could evolve into a modern confection extortion racket.    The Celtics believed that as Samhain was the beginning of the "darker" half of the year, it was the time when the barrier between the world of the living and the world of the dead was thinner, and it was a time to tell tales to your ancestors.   In this sense, it is almost similar to Chinese Ching Ming, or Japanese Obon, except that neither of those festivals are remotely macabre, and celebrate ancestors rather than demonize them.   But Halloween has evolved considerably from its pagan worship days.   Here in Hawaii, both ghosts and candy are given our own local flavor.

Hawaii has always had its share of ghost stories.   We are actually a very richly spiritual place, and sometimes you can just feel the mana in the air after a cool rain, or standing on the lava rocks with the sea spray in your face.   So it should be no surprise that we've got so many ancient legends and stories.   When I was in high school, my skin would shiver every time I would walk the campus at night.  My favorite boulder, where I would sit and have lunch, for example, turned out to be an ancient heiau, and there were stories that it would transform at night and walk down to the ocean.   As an old boarding school, people always told stories about the girl who hung herself in the stairwell, and if you looked in the 3rd story at night you might see her wandering the halls.  

But it would take the mastery of Prof. Glen Grant, from UH's Department of History, to really solidify the various scary stories of Hawaii and have them emerge onto a sub-genre of their own.   Reading his Chicken Skin series or his Obake Files series were always the scaries things to read, because every place mentioned was some place you were familiar with or relatively close to your home or daily routine (it is a small island after all).   While on the mainland, Halloween is filled with Hollywood horror characters, like Dracula or Frankenstein, in Hawaii, it is the nightmarchers or the faceless obake that really sends shivers down your spine.   Even though he's passed away, his influence can be seen everywhere, such as in the Polynesian Cultural Center's Hauted Lagoon.

Besides having our own genre of scary stories, Hawaii has its own style of sweets, popularized by the various ethnicities that have worked our plantations.  They aren't necessarily associated with Halloween, but I would always be most excited, if my Halloween haul included a piece or two of our own candies.   And where would you find the real local style snacks?   The crack seed store of course.   Honestly, I don't understand how neither Bourdain nor Zimmern made it into a crack seed store while they were here.   Other kids on the mainland don't have the same rush of memories of small kid time like we get whenever we walk into a crack seed store.   If the expression were coinned in Hawaii, it wouldn't be "kid in a candy store", it would certainly say crack seed store.  Everyone has their favorites.  When I was little, I always loved the Crack Seed Store, on the corner of Waialae and Koko Head.  When I was in high school, being in Manoa, I would visit Kay's Crack Seed, in Manoa Marketplace.   When I was little, I also went to Chinese school, with 2 boys whose family runs the Crack Seed Center in Ala Moana, so I am quite fond of them as well.  But probably the cheapest place to buy crack seed in bulk (besides the ones you can get at Costco), would have to be Wholesale Unlimited.  

Ironically, despite the tons of different varieties of crack seed the different stores have, and even though Li Hing Mui is the flavor that is most popular in Hawaii, the one I have always liked the best, is the imported "uncracked" whole seed plums called Chun Pei Mui the best.  I remember my Goong Goong always having a bag of the blue and white wrapped plums around (although sometimes they were red or green colored labels).  Because they're individually wrapped, you can unwrap the outer layer (like any other candy wrapper), open the clear plastic layer inside and just pop them in your mouth without getting your hands dirty.   They were also wet, which I liked better than the dried seeds like red or white Li Hing.   They were whole seeds, so you don't have to worry about seed fragments.   And they were always nicely sweet (never had to worry about it being too sour or salty or strong the way Li Hing is).  

Besides Chun Pei Mui and other seeds though, there were always a ton of other things you could get from a crack seed store.   Similar to crack seed, were the flavor of Chinese Haw Flakes.  They were like fruit roll ups, but a little more rigid, and they featured a Chinese fruit instead of the standard Western fruits.   Of course, as a little kid, never knew that the fruit was Chinese Hawthorn.   I just knew I liked the taste.  As a little kid, I also liked the disk shapes.   Years later, when I was learning calculus, and we were finding the volume of a cylinder, using Itegration to sum the areas of the circular cross section, I always thought of it as a sum of infinitely thin Haw Flakes.

Haw Flakes

It's funny, I was thinking looking at a Costo jar of "Chocolates of the World" the other day.   It had Belgian chocolates, Germain chocolates, French chocolates, and Swiss chocolates, yet no one ever mentions the Japanese chocolates.   But I always like Japanese chocolate among the best, because they tend to be the smoothest in texture, and most even in consistency.   This is especially true of the Meiji brand of chocolates.   It's always a toss up, whether you like Glico's Pocky Sticks or Meiji's Yan Yans more.   Both have a very light, crunchy, even texture.   But I always liked the fact that with Yan Yans, you are able to control the amount of chocolate (or strawberry or vanilla) on each stick.   This means that you could save up for a massive chocolate payoff at the end.   Besides that the chocolate on Yan Yans are smoother and creamier than on a Pocky.  Sorry, but American Twix can't even compare.

Meiji's Chocolate Yan Yan

If you don't feel like having chocolate, I always like munching on honey boros (or as my wife calls them, "nup nup"s) too.   They're fantastic when you're a kid, because they're sort of the opposite of pop rocks.   Whereas pop rocks will explode in your mouth, honey boros will just disappear.   Right after the initial crunch, they will completely dissolve and disappear in your mouth, leaving only a sweet memory.

Honey Boros

The Japanese also make the best gum in the world.   Whereas kids my age on the mainland would fondly remember Bazooka bubble gum or Pal bubble gum, my favorite was always the small Japanese squares of Fusen gum.    For one thing, their bubble gum was much softer than any American equivalent.  The sweetness seemed to last longer, because of the softer texture.    Besides, you would always get some kind of temporary tattoo in the wrapper, usually of someone resembling Kamen Rider.   You just can't beat that.

Fusen Gum

All other snacks aside though, there were two candies you could get a the crack seed store which were the epitome of Hawaiian candies.   One was Japanese the other was Chinese.   Both featured yummy, transparent, rice paper wrappers which would disolve to nothingness in your mouth.    Something I thought was so cool.   In fact, I would try to trim off the excess rice paper and eat it all by itself first, before eating the candy.  The Japanese one is of course, Tomoe Ame, while the Chinese one is, White Rabbit.

Tomoe Ame Candy

Tomoe Ame was so beloved by writer Stan Sakai, that he created a character called Ame Tomoe in his famous Usagi Yojimbo comics.   Tomoe Ame features a fruity chewy center (although I could never distinguish which fruit it was.   It also had the advantage of a toy in each box (just like Cracker Jacks).   But for me, my favorite candy was always White Rabbit candy.   I just loved the creamy milky center inside.   It was like a Tootsie Roll, but a bit firmer and with a creamy milk taste instead of chocolate.   Poor White Rabbit had to undergo a product recall a while ago, as dairy products in China were found to be contaminated with Melamine (a substance used for making plastics that could cause renal failure).   When it came back on the market, in order to avoid the stigma of the tarnished White Rabbit name, they began marketing it as Golden Rabbit Creamy Candy.   Additionally, the Golden Rabbit was made using milk from Australia instead of China.   But it tastes pretty much the same as we remember it.

Golden Rabbit Creamy Candy

White Rabbit Candy will also have a special place in both my and my wife's hearts, because it was also the favorite candy of her snowy, long haired, hapa-persian cat, Snowflake.  Snowflake was just beautiful, as she was hapa, and had the luxurious long white hair of a persian cat, but didn't have the smashed stubby face.  When I was little, I always wanted a cat that looked just like Snowflake, so when I first came over to my wife's (then girlfriend's) house, I immediately took it as a sign of pre-destined romance.   For my wife, Snowflake was a friend, confidant, and familiar for 20 years, and her approval of me when we were younger is among the things that sealed the deal for me.   Snowflake would love to eat small pieces of White Rabbit candy, and whenever we taste it now, we will always think of her.

My Firstborn's First Halloween

Besides, our own style of scary, and our own style of sweet, Hawaii's sizable Asian population also makes one thing different about our Halloweens.   Halloween isn't just an opportunity for wearing a costume, but an outlet for anime and sci-fi cosplay.   When my first son was ready to dress up for his first Halloween, we had to of course uphold this tradition, and my wife made him a fantastic Kikaida costume.  Just the thing for wandering around the neighborhood, avoiding nightmarchers, and collecting Tomoe Ame and White Rabbit candies in.