Hello there, outwars here. As the year is coming to an end, I would like to share some of the photos I have of the different home meals I had when I visited Hawaii. I wasn't able to take a lot of photos for these meals, so it is hard to create a separate post for each. Since the year is also coming to an end, I think it is perfect to make a post about looking back and documenting the wonderful meals I've had.
This year is the first time I celebrated Thanksgiving. It feels like this is one of, if not, the most important celebration for Americans. A lot of relatives fly out and get together to have dinner and be with family. While I have heard/read different stories about the history of this celebration, what most people say is to just be Thankful for everything that they have. I think this statement is very nice and should be observed not just during this time of the year.
For our dinner, we had a different types of dishes. We had turkey with gravy which was a staple. This is also my first time having turkey. It tastes less flavorful than regular chicken and seems a bit dry, but the gravy solves it. We had Lumpiang Shanghai with Sweet Chili sauce, which was perfect. For greens, we had green beans with garlic cooked in butter, and brussel sprouts with bacon. We also had mashed potatoes, buttered corn, and sweet bread. The food was excellent, and the company was even more so. This was truly a day where I was very thankful.
The other meal that I had was a Shabu-shabu dinner, or hotpot. We had cabbages, bokchoy, mushrooms, dimsum and meat. We also bought dipping sauces for the food. What's interesting is that due to a miscommunication, someone actually bought 2 trays of Wagyu beef. We eventually just had a laugh and just savor the flavor.
Wagyu beef is already soft in itself, but when it is cut very thinly for hotpot, it becomes almost transparent. We just dipped the Wagyu for around 5 seconds in the hot water, and it is already cooked. I will have to say that while it was a cool experience, I can't help but think the rich flavor of the wagyu is a bit lost after dipping.
The last meal I wanted to show was the steak made by my brother in law. I consider his steaks to be the best I've ever tasted. Before this, he used to cook his steak in the oven where he monitors the temperature and is closely timed. After a few times, he tried Sous vide style. For this one, he cooked the steak in a Reverse Sear style.
Reverse Sear is when the oven is heated to around 120 degrees Celsius, leave the steak for 27 minutes or until the oven temperature is around 46 degrees Celsius. The meat is then seared on a scorching hot skillet/grill. This results in a steak with a nice crust, but has all the juices inside. You don't even need a sauce for it.
For Dessert, we had Ambrosia and Blueberry cheesecake. Ambrosia is similar to the Filipino Fruit Salad, except that Ambrosia has marshmallows in it as well. This is my first time trying Ambrosia, but I think I like it. The marshmallow adds a unique texture to the dish; providing something soft to contrast the crisp from the pineapple chunks.
The Blueberry cheesecake was really good. The complex combination of sweet, salty, and sourness mixed perfectly without overpowering one another. I don't usually like this, but I think it was excellent.
And that is it for my post. I hope you had a wonderful year, and I wish you have an even better one next year. Don't forget to be thankful, and to spend more time with your loved ones.
