I miss my mom

My mom flew in from Hawaii and spent a week with us. For many this means absolute terror. For us its pure culinary delight. She's born in China, raised mostly in Japan, then moved to Hawaii and made friends among the Filipinos, Hawaiians and Koreans there. Among her friends she's learned to make some pretty killer dishes.




Here's a peek at what she made while she was here in Long Beach. I didn't get to take photos of everything because we dove right into it soon as it was ready. This one below is gyoza (in Japan) aka mandoo (in Korea) aka potstickers (in China). Its filled mostly with ground pork and cabbage. She makes them extra big and I swear, its the best I've had in years. She has definitely perfected this one since I've had it last:
We had bowls of udon noodles that night with bits of pickled veggie goodness as well:
Another night we had (from the left) oxtail adobo, a Filipino dish, using oxtails which simmer for hours in vinegar, soy sauce, ginger, and other things I should know but I forget. The noodles are fried saimin (local Hawaiian fav), in the bowl is shrimp poke (pronounced po-kay or po-key, another Hawaiian fav) and the last item is sweet corn from the Long Beach Open Market:
For lunch one day we had soba (buckwheat) noodles, which is served room temperature with the dipping sauce that's served slightly chilled in a small bowl. Dried seaweed is spread over the soba noodles. In the little dish is grated daikon radish, which is put into the dipping sauce for flavor. Really excellent dish for hot days:
Last one is sukiyaki. Broth is simmering in this shallow hot pot. Then you add tofu, shitake and enoki mushrooms, noodles, onions, and thinly sliced quality beef. This one is eaten family style and usually leaves newcomers asking or more. This dish is eaten over a bowl of rice, so the sauce gets all over the rice and you're stoked:
I'm full.