NEW52-Week27-Ted's Bakery and Morimoto Waikiki

So the real reason why I had to join the gym is because I love to eat.  This week's NEW 52 post is a very sharp contrast in the types of dining options on Oahu.  On Sunday, we ate at Ted's Bakery for breakfast/lunch.  Ted's is a bakery, you order at the counter, then sit outside to eat.  Very simple, no table services, very casual.  The kind of place one would go after surfing the north shore.  So we stopped off at Ted's on our way home from Turtle Bay.  I had the local moco (rice, hamburger, raw egg, and gravy).  The local moco is a classic dish probably only found in Hawaii.  Well I had to say that this was one of the best loco mocos I ever had.  The gravy was perfect!  To make myself feel better, I had it with brown rice.  Here is a quick photo (below).  Tate had the fried rice omlette but it wasn't really wasn't anything special worth photo or blogging about.  We passed on their yummy pies since we can get them at our local grocery store.  However, if you go, you need to eat their chocolate haupia pie.  My favorite!

Last night, we had our second NEW dining experience for the week.  We went to Morimoto Waikiki.  Yes, this is the new kitchen stadium of Iron Chef Morimoto.  It was one of our favorite dining of all time.  Tate liked it better than Chef Mavro's.  It was like having a familiar Japanese meal with a twist.  Let me just show you . . .

So for appetizers, we had the toro tartare.  It had the toro sashimi smeared on a wooden block and you had a choice of different things to top it (nori, cream cheese, wasabi, maui onion, avocado, and rice crackers).  This was a perfect way to start the meal.  Next, we had the kakuni.  This a a piece of pork belly that has been cooked for 10 hours.  It was so soft and full of flavor.  The third appetizer that we ordered was the wagyu carpaccio.  This was probably everyone's favorite meal of the night.  It was raw wagyu beef that was in a sauce of hot oil, ginger, and yuzu.  It was also my first time eating totally raw meat and I was so happily surprised.  For our entrees, my mom ordered the surf and turf.  She said her steak was even better than Ruth Chris Steakhouse.  The turf potion was ahi poke (raw fish).  It had a bonito foam on the top.  That was really cool.  My mom really loved her meal.  My dad, Tate, and I all ate the seafood toban yaki (lobster, crab, shrimp, scallops, clams, mussels in a spicy miso broth).  A little too spicy for dad, but Tate and I really enjoyed this meal.  I thought it was a really good deal at $43 for the quality and quantity of seafood that we got.

Morimoto Waikiki is located in the Edition Hotel.  This was the first time I even heard of the Edition.  It renovated and replaced the old Ilikai Hotel.  The Edition is really modern and classy.  We will need to plan our next staycation there.  Our waiter said that many movie stars and celebs frequent this hotel and he gets to serve them.  The Prince of Morocco was just there last night having a private party out on the outdoor lounge area.  Here are a few other photos from the night.  The only shot I didn't get was their gorgeous bathroom.  It was the nicest bathroom ever.

Here are my NEW layouts from the last few weeks.

This one shares highlights from our 4th of July celebration at Turtle Bay.

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