I love eating eggs…sunny side up, hard boiled, scrambled, you name it…I love it! So I was excited to read this article on how to make the perfect boiled eggs.

According to their in depth study here is the recipe:

Soft Boiled Eggs

Ingredients
3 quarts water
1-6 large eggs
Procedure
1. Bring water to a simmer in a medium pot. Reduce heat until water is barely quivering. Gently lower eggs into water with slotted spoon or strainer (do not drop eggs into water, or they might crack).
2. Cook for exactly 6 minutes, then remove eggs with slotted spoon, and serve.
Hard Boiled Eggs

Note: If you have a particularly strong burner, a very thin-walled pot, or live at high altitudes or in a very cold or hot environment, initial volume of water may need to be adjusted. Once you figure out the specific volume for your location, use that same volume every time.
Ingredients
1.5 quarts cool water
1-6 large eggs
Procedure
Place eggs and water in saucepot. Place over high heat and bring to a bare simmer. Immediately shut off burner and wait at least ten minutes. Peel eggs under cool running water, and serve.

The method I’ve always used is to put an egg in a pot and fill it with cold water. Turn heat on high and bring water to a rolling boil. Once it starts to boil, turn off the heat and let the egg sit in the pot for 15 minutes. I’m not sure if my eggs were “perfect” but they were good enough! I didn’t know there were all these tricks to making hardboiled eggs.

Here are some of the places we ate at in Hawaii and that I highly recommend! If you’re planning on visiting Honolulu be sure to bookmark this page. :)

Shave Ice at Waiola’s
Wow I’ve never had such finely shaved ice. It was SO goood. Unlike any shave ice I’ve eaten here on the mainland. This is a must stop in Oahu. I did not try the famed Matsumoto’s so I can’t say it’s the best on Oahu but it sure was good!

I had the POG – passion fruit, orange, and guava

Boyrobot had the green tea with condensed milk which was also amazing

We tried a few other shave ice places like at the food court in the international market and the shave ice truck at the Diamondhead Crater and it’s safe to say that not all Hawaii shave ice are created equal. While these were decent, they tasted more like something you can get on the mainland. With the hot weather, I think this place was my favorite eating experience in Hawaii. Never knew shave ice could be so good!

The garlic and butter shrimp scampi plate at Giovanni’s Shrimp Truck
If you are headed to the North Shore, you’ll notice a lot of shrimp farms and shrimp trucks. I believe this is the most famous one and I initially read about this place because it is one of Josh Holloway’s (from Lost) favorite places to eat! I did not run into him there though :P The shrimp was really good and oh so garlic-y. I didn’t care much for the rice though. It was kind of dry and hard but some people in our group liked it so I guess it’s your own preference on how you like your rice cooked. It was topped with a bunch of garlic so that was good.

There is also a spicy shrimp plate that I hear is super spicy even if you like your spice. On the menu it says “No refunds” next to that item. I was curious to see how spicy it was but nobody in my group was brave enough to get it either.

Spider Poke at Tokkuri Tei
Tokkuri Tei is a japanese izakya. We went here because I wanted to try some poke and I had heard that the beef tongue skewers were to die for here. Unfortunately, we went kind of late in the evening and they were all out. I was SOOOOO SAD! But at least I got to try the poke!

This is the spider poke and it was the 2000 Sam Choy’s Poke Contest winner. It was very pricy at $16 but how many times am I going to eat poke in Hawaii? Might as well get the best right? :) My picture really does not do it justice though, it was beautifully presented.

We also tried the squid pancake which was also super tasty!

Dim Sum at Fook Lam
We were all craving dim sum so we decided to hit up chinatown at a restaurant called Fook Lam.

We ordered the usuals: chicken feet, pork spareribs, shu mai, sticky rice, fried taro, har gau, cheung fun, egg custard tart, etc.

Everything tasted so hot and fresh. It was actually yummier than when I eat dim sum in San Gabriel Valley! I especially liked the shu mai….which I’m usually whatevers about.

Banana macadamia nut pancakes at Boots & Kimo’s
Ok this has to be my worst picture of the lot which is ironic because I think this was everybody’s favorite meal. I think I was so anxious to try the pancakes that I just shot this picture very quickly so I could dig in! This picture makes it look like some white glob doesn’t it?

Well, in reality it was 3 banana pancakes covered in a white macadamia sauce with shaved macadamia nuts. I’m not sure what was in the sauce but it was SO DELISH.

And of course I had to order some hash browns with my pancakes:

Thanks to boyrobot’s friend Si for recommending this place to us!

I just googled to see if there was a copycat recipe out there and there is: Boot’s & Kimo’s secret macadamia nut sauce. Can’t wait to try this out.

Other places we ate at:
Ono’s – If you want straight up hawaiian food this is the place everyone recommends. The lau lau was pretty good here! They also serve poi here but I’m not a fan.
Paradise Cove – We went here for our hawaiian laua. I will talk about the luau more in pt 2 of my recap but the food here was pretty good. They served a variety of typical Hawaiian food and it was all very tasty for a buffet style meal.
Leonard’s – I can’t believe I didn’t take a picture of the malasadas here. I think it was because I couldn’t stop to take a picture before scarfing these down. My favorite had to be the original white sugar malasadas. I say skip the custard filled ones. This is also a definite must eat in Hawaii!
Iyasume – I couldn’t go to Hawaii without having some spam musubi. Boyrobot also had a spicy fried chicken musubi which he thought was really good. I regret not taking a bite!
Kapiolani Community College Farmers Market – Omg! I wish all farmer’s markets were like this one. There were samples galore and everything was so yummy. If you love food, you have to go here!
Random ramen restaurant – For the life of me I can’t remember the name of this ramen place but that should show you how memorable the food was. The ramen was decent, nothing special.

Ok, I think that covers most of our meals in Hawaii. Next I’ll cover all of the things we did! That post might come a little later though since I want to post some non-personal girlrobot posts first

I am on vacation until Sunday. I know…wasn’t I just on vacation? Well, I couldn’t pass up the chance to visit Hawaii!!!

While I’m there, I’ll (hopefully) be continuing my 200 situps. Seems like a few of us are doing it together. We started yesterday! So join us if you can. :) And since I’ll be traveling within the US, i’ll have internet access! I’m gonna try and twitter my trip, so follow me if you’re interested in reading about me eating spam and snorkeling all day!

Who doesn’t love free stuff. Well on your birthday, usually you can finagle several free items or discounts on meals, desserts, car washes, and more! Free Birthday Treats is a website that keeps track of all of the places you can take advantage of on your birthday.

My favorites: Sephora free birthday item, Disneyland admission, scoop of ice cream from Baskin Robbins, and The Melting Pot’s chocolate fondue for two!

Different varieties of massages – for if you ever wondered what’s the difference between deep tissue and shiatsu, etc.
Dental health tips – for a non-alcohol rinse…try crest pro health. I love it!
Intermission etiquette in Germany – what an odd tradition
The one thing Robert Kenner of “Food, Inc” would never eat again – I’m sad to find out it’s strawberries!!!
16 photographers share their toughest shots – amazing pictures and stories to go with them
Which date works – a website that helps a group of people decide on a date
15 of the world’s strangest animals – some of these critters are gonna give me nitemares!
Another innocent man gets killed by the death penalty – so not only did he lose his daughters but he gets accused and killed for murdering them! this is soooo sad.

Funny typo…

If you travel a lot, this is a very handy diagram to bookmark. It shows you the different power plugs and sockets from around the world.

You can view a bigger version here.

And if you’re looking to buy some plug adapters….here is a hot deal for a 3 piece set for 15.99!

What they say is right…after you get married, you start to let yourself go. I remember in the weeks leading up to the wedding I was so stressed out and losing weight like crazy. No diet is better than the wedding diet!

Anyways, now I’ve gained all this happy weight. And I haven’t worked out in FOREVER. Ugh! Anyways, I’m all about those silly exercise fads even though I never seem to finish them. Remember couch to 5K? ;) I think I attempted it 3 times and never made it past week 3 lol.

Anyways, the latest one I’m into is called Two Hundred Situps. A 6 week training program for doing 200 situps. Actually, they are the healthier/safer crunches. I am SO doing this! If I am still at this in 2 weeks, I will update with how I’m doing. :)

The other day I read this story about how to get rid of hiccups. Basically, a Filipino woman told her:

in her country they take a piece of material from something they are wearing, lick it, and place it on their forehead.

And swore it worked!

Turns out it’s a very common trick to get rid of hiccups for babies

So when boyrobot had the craziest hiccups yesterday, I KNEW I had to experiment this on him. First I let him hiccup for awhile, knowing that the only way he would be willing to do this is if he was desperate. So when I heard him complain about his hiccups I was all “WELL…I just read about a new way to get rid of hiccups…” and proceeded to tell him to tear a piece of his clothing off and stick it on his forehead. He was like NO WAY. I’m not doing that. And I was like YOU HAVE TO. I MUST FIND OUT OF IT WORKS. So we’re arguing like this and the whole time he is hiccuping like crazy. I start searching his clothes for a piece of thread hanging so I can pull it off, but I can’t find it. The whole time boyrobot is fighting/arguing with me.

So in desperation, I reach for the neck of his shirt and pull it over his head so it’s covering his forehead. HAHAHAHHA.

So imagine boyrobot with his shirt over his head, one minute struggling against me, the next he’s still….and he says “They stopped!” We sit like that for a few minutes to make sure it wasn’t a fakeout. NO. HIS HICCUPS STOPPED. AMAZING! We both couldn’t stop laughing. Boyrobot was in disbelief.

Ok, this is one of those you had to be there story. And I’ve logged it here more for myself (and for anyone suffering from hiccups).

One of my favorite moments with boyrobot. :)

I love October…it’s the start of the holiday season. Halloween is always fun, then comes Thanksgiving, and then Christmas!!! We started off the season with a corn maze. I’ve always wanted to do a corn maze and it did not disappoint. The one we went to had a scavenger hunt type game where you find “cornundrums” in the maze and if you find them all you get entered into a raffle to win $100 and/or a really massive pumpkin. The cornundrums were these pictures that you had to decipher into fun phrases. I *think* we found them all.

Surprisingly, the maze we went to was a lot bigger than I expected. We even got lost for awhile! It was pretty fun walking through the maze trying to figure out how to get out. If you get lost, they have an emergency number you can even call so someone can help find you hehe.

We also ate yummy food like grilled corn, garlic fries, and fresh lemonade.

And we entered in this contest to guess the weight of this pumpkin. Here is boyrobot and mouse trying to pick it up. It was so heavy!

If you are interested in finding your own corn maze to do this month, check out this webpage that I used. They have mazes listed for all over the US: The Maize

The only regret was I wish the farm we went to had a hay ride. Hay rides are so fun and would have completed my experience.

I was researching more corn mazes and look at these cool ones I found:

The world’s largest…omg….so big! I wonder how long it would take me to get through there…

The twilight corn maze – are you team edward or jacob? :)

Owl in a box – these pictures are pretty amazing. the one with the owl in the box with its bright yellow eyes freaks me out though!
What’s inside a cup of coffee – good to know what you’re putting in your body daily
Mustard taste test – grey poupon wins best classic dijon and now I want to try that beaver brand
15 best travel photo blogs – this isn’t gonna help my travel bug
Pam and Jim’s (from the office) wedding website – awww, my favorite couple!
Halloween anecdote – what an awesome costume idea!
How to land a helicopter – a skill everyone should know :P