YuZu have to try this place

YuZu Restaurant

410 Atkinson Dr
Honolulu, HI 96814

(808) 943-1155

Located on the ground floor of the Ala Moana Hotel, YuZu, the most recent work of Chef Isamu (Hale Macrobiotic), offers a cute lunch spot with mouthwatering options.

This yuzu honey drink is made from deep sea water.  It was really good.  Almost like a non-alcoholic mojito, but at the alcoholic price.  The cute straw wrapper accent was cute.  Almost makes you want to do it everytime.





Lightly salted edamame and a watercress-lettuce salad.  The watercress is local from Watanabe Farms and had a very mild flavor, the yuzu dressing was also good. 





The lunch menu comes as a set, you choose the main entree that varies day by day.  I selected the daily special: Spicy Tan Tan Udon.  The udon noodles came in a large pot of water with a smaller bowl of the dipping broth.  The dipping broth was a spicy sesame medley of tender slices of chicken and mushrooms.  I enjoyed it and would defintely order it again.




As an additional add-on, you can choose a set.  I wanted to try the yakitori and temari sushi combo.  The yakitori had two skewers: one teriyaki and one shio yuzu.  Delicious!  So tender, so flavorful.  YUM.  The temari, wowzah!  The shoyu yuzu was already in the rice, so no additional flavor was needed, and the fish was delicious.  One tuna and one salmon with ikura.  I honestly don't like salmon or ikura.  But with whatever that white stuff was, made it awesome.  The wasabi and pickled ginger helped a little, too.





I would definitely go again.  In fact, I went on a Wednesday, then on that Saturday while dining in the area , I suddenly realized we should have gone their instead.  Then I vowed to suggest it next time we're shopping and looking for somewhere to grind.

Next time, I hope to try the Beef Sukiyaki Udon and the various Vegetable Sushi.  What?  Carrot puree like uni?  Tomato like maguro?  Mushrooms like unagi?  That's crazy talk.  Crazy delicious talk!

Another bout of ambitiousness

Saimin is a noodle soup dish that is popular in Hawaii, and one of the top favorites for kids.  It has noodles (kids love noodles) and mild broth pleasing to the palate, unlike ramen which focuses more on having good, chewy noodles and a rich, flavorful broth.

One of THE BEST places to get saimin is at Hamura's Saimin on Kauai.

Unfortunately, that is a plane ride away.  However, you can buy the noodles and make your own saimin at home!  Of course it won't be as delicious.  I don't have time for a slow simmered, days long vat of soup.  BUT I do have time to make some roast pork!. 

Roast pork isn't too ambitious, right?

What is in a name

A lot of older people have mentioned to me how much they love that we named Ella.   I get the occasional, "Is it because of Twilight?" -- which, by the way, the character's name is Isabella or Bella.  Not Ella.  Although I may have been reading the books before I was pregnant, it wasn't our inspiration.

Ryan really wanted to name our first daughter Kaylee.  I really liked the name, too.  Until our friends named their daughter Kaylie.  So that got crossed off our list.  We also liked the name Addison, "Addy" for short.  Until our PCP named her daughter Maddison (our other friends had a daughter a few months after us and named her Madisyn, so fortunately we weren't the name stealers that time..).  I really wanted the name Calla.  Like the lily.  But some people thought that was lame.  Shrug.

As we were driving from the ultrasound doctor's office, we were just talking and I said, "What about Ella?"  The sound just resonated.  We both loved it.  There were no more discussions on what we would name our daughter.  It's elegant, it's simple.  It's the same name as Ella Fitzgerald.  Although it's not the inspiration, many older people have stated that they love that we named Ella, and how much they love Ella Fitzgerald.