what's for dinner wednesday - mmm

malasadas, manapua, and musubi - oh my!
whenever i'm in hawaii, i gain at least 5 lbs from stuffing my face full of delicious and not so nutritious treats.  some of my favorites are the three things listed above.

malasadas are portuguese deep-fried doughnuts rolled in sugar.  they are insanely good.  and insanely bad for you.  leonard's is the place to get them (all over the island) and even though you can't order them online (they're best eaten fresh anyhow) they are working on their online store to get fun souvenirs...

this is the truck closest to where i used to live (right by the outlets!)

manapua is the hawaiian word for what the chinese call char siu bao, and the filipinos call siopauo.  the original treat is a pork-filled steamed bun.  the hawaiian version is much larger than its chinese cousin (go figure) and can be either baked or steamed.  the hawaiians are also much more liberal in their types of fillings.  instead of bbq'd pork, i like the kalua pig filling.  i'm also a big fan of the purple sweet potato (okinawan).  my favorite place on oahu to get manapua is chun wah kam noodle factory.  they have the most varieties and freshest tasting manapuas ever.  i may or may not have tried them all at some point or another.

and last, but definitely not least, is musubi.  spam musubi to be more exact.  now, i realize that i have probably lost most people with the mention of spam, but i cannot explain well enough how good it really is!  hawaiians love spam and i will have to save that whole story for another post but suffice it to say that musubi is just not the same with other meats.  i've tried the chicken and it's not bad but it's not the same.  so simple yet so delicious.  spam, rice and nori.  when i was deployed, my hawaiian friend sent me my very own musubi maker, some spam, nori and the perfect sticky rice.  i'll share my super easy recipe for spam musubi another time as well.

 

in the meantime, back to the gym!