Imari Bentos!

For lunch today, we're headed to Imari's for the most delicious bentos on the island!

I've posted on Imari's previously, but we're eating something different today and thought you all might be interested in...

...Japanese kine hamburger steak! Pretty awesome huh? It looks kinda funny if you don't know what it is, and at first I thought the hamburger steak was deep fried cause the top looks well, fried. But I was very wrong. Two 'mounds' of hamburger steak (thicker than patties, but flatter than meatballs), simply seasoned with salt and pepper, then pan fried and topped with grated radish in a ponzu sauce! Super NEATO! The daikon/ponzu topping is clean and refreshing, cuts through the meatiness of the 'steak' quite nicely. I actually liked the topping more than the hamburger - one big bowl of rice and one medium bowl of grated daikon and ponzu, and we can call it dinner!

My mom had a salmon bento which came with all the same sides. Mom and I are definitely brown rice people (but we still have FIFTY pounds of white rice to finish at home, hehe), I find the nutty flavor of brown rice comforting. That's Japanese potato salad on the top middle, more vinegary than creamy, and rather 'light' considering it was potato salad, you know? It was super awesome though, and almost tasted semi-healthy, more better than the usual potato salad you find at local potlucks! (But for really good potato salad, I like the Korean version at Yummy's Don Quijote location).

After lunch I needed to drop by Ala Moana cause apparently Banana Republic has a good sale going on right now. I shopped, I bought two shoes and three dresses, but most importantly, I had dessert! Well I didn't intend to eat dessert, it just happened. I just wanted to read browse books at Barnes & Nobles, but I was tired so I also wanted to sit at the cafe. But you can't sit at the cafe without buying something. So I had a cookie. An oatmeal raisin cookie. It was a very, very big cookie. If you were there, I would have shared. But no one was there. So I ate it all myself. It was a decent cookie, maybe a bit overbaked and/or dried out, super crunchy. But lots of raisins and not toothachingly sweet. So I read magazines and ate the cookie and peeked around to see if there were any cute guys (cause if you don't know by now, the Ala Moana location of Barnes & Nobles is often patronized by cute guys!). But there were none. So I finished the cookie and went back to the office. I'd say it was a pretty good day :)

Imari
661 Keeaumoku St. #102
Honolulu, Hawaii 96814
808 941-8866