Mama's Fish House

Prior to my trip to Maui, I had asked my friend JP for trip recommendations - and the advice, to paraphrase it, was "there's no need to really plan... BUT GO TO MAMA'S FISH HOUSE." Well, why not? On their site, Mama's bills themselves as the first fresh fish restaurant on the island, and we're always down for good seafood.

Mama's Fish House is located on Maui's north shore around Paia and is literally on the beach. The two pictures above were taken while standing literally from the same position! Parking is valet only, because the place gets busy, but it is free. Definitely get a reservation, since it got packed, but don't worry about dressing up - it's very casual and beachy.

We all got started tropical fruit mashed iced teas - ice tea with pieces of either mango, passionfruit, or guava. I'll make a note here that, if the weather is nice, either come early or request for a table next to the open window - we were looking out onto the palms and the beach our entire meal, and it really accentuated the experience.

Soft fluffy bread and asparagus bisque were complimentary. 

We had the three fish sashimi for an appetizer - three types of fish, four slices each, just enough for us to all get a taste and for me to immediately wish there was more. Each type was dressed with a different kind of flavoring with a tropical, Hawaiian touch.

Ono (which wikipedia tells me is the wahoo fish?) with calamansi citrus and Molokai pink sea salt: very salty and citrusy, fresh and clean flavors.

Ahi with ponzu, shiso, and citrus pearls: this had a more traditional Japanese flavor with the ponzu and the shiso. I LOVED the citrus pearls (the little stub on the top right): it's basically filled with tiny little beads that tasted limey. I poked out and slurped up every last one of them, dignity be damned.

Onaga (snapper) with lilikoi, chili pepper, and black salt: unusual combination. The passionfruit flavor is really strong and, despite only being a small pile in the picture, the chilis manage to pack a decent kick.

We splurged on a fish cooked the traditional Hawaiian style. It's listed as a "Ti-leaf Roasted Opakapaka caught over 80 fathoms deep", which uses a lot of words I'm going to assume is a local codeword for "fresh and tender." The snapper itself isn't strongly flavored, and you use the tomato-y sauce above to add some saltiness to the dish, but the fish is fresh enough to not need much flavoring! 

Our more traditional other pick of mahimahi came with some veggies and Kalua boar on rice. 

The mahimahi itself we got was in a much more traditional manner: stuffed with crab and lobster, with a macadamia crust and a decadent sauce. Tasty, but the portion was small when splitting amongst four people.

We didn't know what octopus luau was but decided to give it a try, which to our surprise, was actually pieces of octopus in a sweet, green, coconutty sauce. I'm not a fan, but I'm not sure how octopus luau should taste anyways.

Poi is complimentary and freshly made on premises - just make sure to ask for it. The day before this I had tried poi at a luau, which was very sour and watery and just utterly unlikable, but this was nothing like that! Our server said that Mama's doesn't ferment their poi, so it tastes more like smooth taro grits. I wouldn't say I'm a poi fan, but these were actually not bad and I finished my little bowl.

We had a post-meal coffee, locally farmed. Came with some cookies for everyone.

Our first dessert was what our server said was a customer favorite: the passionfruit creme brulee! Very nicely done creme brulee with good crust and a definitely strong kick of passionfruit flavor. Flavor wise, this was my favorite of the desserts.

Our server also mentioned they had a "most instagrammed dessert", so as major vacationing camwhores we had to give it a try. The Polynesian Black Pearl is a mousse placed in pastry shells, with some chocolate syrup, passionfruit syrup, and cream all around. This was beautiful, and delicious as well.

Finally, full and satiated, we're sent off with some squares of coconut treats and towels. (Funny anecdote: we were used by now to foods with unfamiliar Hawaiian names, so as we were brought the plate by a server, AK eagerly asked him "ooh, so these are towas? How do we eat them?" "...towels. For your hands. To wipe.")

As you leave, you can see all the celebrities who have also come and enjoyed them.

Terrific, memorable meal, and definitely some of the best fish dishes I've had since it has the benefit of fresh fish and great cooking methods. Honestly, even with all the beaches and sunsets and activities I had on my vacation, the meal at Mama's remains one of my fondest memories of Maui.

Yelp rates it as $$$$ but I think the prices make this more of a $$$ establishment? (Considering I pay bay area prices for restaurants, I don't know if that's much of a consolation, but still...) This is one of those rare restaurants that I went to knowing the massive hype, but still had my expectations exceeded. Visitors to Maui, definitely schedule this into your itinerary. And residents of Maui... if you could only feel my jealousy right now.

Mama's Fish House

Mama's Fish House Yelp

Maui, HI

Hops & Hominy

A trip for a belatedly bar night in San Francisco needed some pre-drinking food. Luckily, a yelp search in the afternoon found us an interesting place that actually still had reservations for a Saturday night. Hops and Hominy is around Union Square and has southern food with a nice selection of beers (ah! pun names, my favorite).

The place was packed but thanks to our last minute reservation, we were seated immediately. We had cornbread served in a little cast iron dish, with an amazingly soft and sweet butter. Together, this was amazing - I would've gladly made a meal out of this alone.

We had every intention of getting our grub on, but to get the "hops" part of the meal satisfied, we also ordered drinks. FT had an Alegash White while I went with their "porkchops and applesauce" cocktail. Good beer selection, but fairly standard cocktails. There was a slight salty/bacony flavor to my drink, but it was hard to distinguish.

Chicken fried steak: tasty. Arugula salad side was just a tad toooo healthy, but the mashed potatoes helped even it out.

Cheese grits were amazing! Best dish of the night, we literally scraped the dish bare.

Pork belly sliders: good sauce, but very meh bread and portions.

For dessert, we got this monstrosity of sweet potato ice cream covered in marshmallow and topped with gobs of caramel syrup and nuts and all that. Not bad but super sweet - too much sucrose for just two to handle.

Overall, very enjoyable dinner; there's hits and misses with the dishes but if you stick to their versions of more traditional southern dishes you'll probably be safe. They have stick to your ribs southern dishes reimagined with kind of a hipster, more-health conscious execution.

Hops & Hominy

Hops & Hominy Yelp

San Francisco, CA

Shanghai No. 1

Dim sum options in Los Angeles, and especially in the San Gabriel Valley (the "626", as the kids who are definitely cooler and younger than me have coined the area), are a dime a dozen. (Coin - geddit? Geddit?) But first world foodie problems pop up, and sometimes you just want to try something new. So on one Saturday morning, my family and I ventured out to try a place called Shanghai No. 1. 

This place looks like a normal chinese restaurant from the outside, but as soon as you walk in it's a color explosion. There are tons of decadent and ornate Chinese restaurants around already, but this would be the even flashier, extremely flamboyant cousin that loves musical theater and pinterest. The display above greets you as soon as you enter the door. Elaborate decorations line all the hallways. If you look on the top picture, the dining room has red velvet walls, ornate plush chairs, and chandeliers. 

The place is styled like old-time Shanghai, from the decorations down to the outfits of the waiters. It's unusual to say the least, as theme-dining for Chinese food is something you'd usually only see in pseudo-Chinese restaurants for tourists. The dim sum menu looked pretty standard though.

Sauced duck - sweet and very salty. 

Traditional dim sum fare of turnip cake and a beef rice roll - the sauce on the rice roll is sweeter than usual.

Pan fried soup buns - very nice! 

Pork and thousand year egg congee - ok, but not salty.

Cha siu rolls.

Shrimp dumplings and shu mai, the most standard of dim sum fare. I have to note that portions here are pretty gigantic for these.

Vegetable dumplings - didn't like this one, the filling was slimy and strangely tart.

Portuguese style egg tart - yum!

Overall, many of the dishes here have a distinctly sweeter flavor for their sauces and fillings - almost like a Shanghainese interpretation of traditionally Canton style foods? The dishes had good execution, but I think I prefer less sweetness and more flavor in some things. My phone kept ringing while I was eating with Facebook notifications telling me this place is mediocre, and I would for the msot part agree. The pan fried buns and the egg tarts are excellent though.

If you live in the area and get tired of your existing dim sum options it's worth it to try this place as a flavor twist on dim sum dishes and just to experience the amount of crazy kitsch that is involved in being served by a middle aged waiter wearing a pageboy outfit, but I wouldn't recommend it as a dim sum spot if you're just looking to satisfy a good dim sum craving. I didn't have dinner here, so no opinions on their usual dinner service.

I did get a lucky tea stem standing up in my tea while here, so that's gotta count for something.

Shanghai No. 1 Yelp

San Gabriel, CA

Coconuts Fish Cafe

My favorite Seattleites AK and DV went on a well deserved vacation to Maui, Hawaii with FT and me. We went with almost no food planning, as even food fanatics take breaks. That, or we were just lazy with planning...

Luckily, a leisurely yelp search while lounging on the beach showed a place in Kihei with almost a thousand great reviews. FT also had some kind of obsession with fish and chips during this week and badgered us until we went.

The place is in a pretty ordinary strip mall, but the inside has delightfully quirky shared surfboard seating: take your number, sit down, and make friends. Alas, being socially awkward people who also ate late on a weeknight, we had no strangers to meet, but the intent is good. 

We all got the highly recommended fish tacos, which boasts as having fresh fish, a mango salsa, and 17 different ingredients. Not sure what all 17 would be, but it's delicious and comes in a giant portion to boot - each order contains two tacos and comes on two separate plates.

With each plate color coded, so you can't split your order with someone else then swap them in the middle... alas, for I would've tried, they were incredible. I'd place them on the heartier side of the fish taco spectrum - pretty filling and heavy.

FT had a hankering for fish and chips as well. Chips are fairly standard thin fries. The fish is a thin batter on two types of fish - I believe one is mahi, and the other one might be ono? The fish is great and fresh, but I personally like a fluffy batter better. 

AK and DV also opted the ahi wasabi fish burger, which comes with a giant slab of ahi covered generously with the promised wasabi mayo. 

And yes, before you ask, delightfully rare inside. I had a quarter and it's delicious with the wasabi mayo.

We also had an order of onion rings, which made for an insignificant photo when all the fish tacos are blurring your vision, but they were nice as well - thick slabs of onion with light batter, golden brown.

The Coconuts Fish Cafe website indicates they now have a location in Scottsdale, AZ - logical next step for a fish restaurant to expand its reaches? Who knows. But if you happen to be on the south side of Maui, Coconuts Fish Cafe is a great place to stop by. Good fish, casual and not really that touristy; I'd highly recommend both the tacos and the ahi wasabi burger. And hell, if you're being a tourist, just splurge and get an extra order of the tacos, or you'll be typing up a blog post a few months later salivating and wishing you had both of your tacos instead of splitting your order...

Coconuts Fish Cafe

Coconuts Fish Cafe Yelp

Kihei, Maui, HI

Little Next Door

The Next Door is a fancy, trendy French restaurant in (what I guess is called) the Beverly Grove neighborhood of Los Angeles. Luckily for me and my didn't-pack-fancy-clothes self, I was meeting my friend JH for lunch at Little Next Door - literally, the next door's casual cafe "brasserie" extension. There is also a bakery section here if you are just interested in their baked treats.

It was a great day of LA December (sunny and 75 degrees) so we opted to sit out on the open terrace. Strangely, the heat lamps were still on, making it actually burning hot.

We got started with some nice french bread with a balsamic and oil dip. 

I was looking for a lighter lunch, so on recommendation from our waitress, I had the leek and gruyere tart. I found it to be a little mushy in texture as opposed to rich and creamy, but the flavor was wonderful.

JH had the grilled organic salmon burger which had marinated onions on the side. She apparently liked it, and all I could get from her about the brioche bread in between her bites was that "it is yellow... and very good." (Getting one liners from others' about their meals is difficult - #foodbloggerproblems?) Fries were skinny cut, well seasoned, and quite good - I know, because I stole quite a few from her plate.

I had the tropical fruit ice tea as well and it was very refreshing! A yelp deal gave me a free cookie for dessert, and I was pleasantly surprised when our waitress appeared with a palmier. 

JH splurged for their special Christmas cake, with pistachio and mango. Despite the looks, it was very rich (so eat slowly!) but amazingly delicious. The mango adds just the right amount of tartness to the rich pistachio cream.

Another view of the busy terrace - great people watching, by the way. Despite arriving at 1:30 on a weekday afternoon, the place was full and remained full even as we left. This place can't scream trendy harder if it had a megaphone, but the food is actually good, desserts even better, and most importantly, a nice locale for a good chat. As a temporary visitor it was a fun casual place to help get in the LA spirit, so to speak, and "do lunch." Their French breakfast items sounds delicious, so if given an opportunity on my next trip down I'll try to "do brunch" and report back again!

Little Next Door

Little Next Door Yelp

Los Angeles, CA