Monday, April 21, 2008

Heart Attack on a Plate



From Grace's Inn...Chicken katsu, 2 scoops rice, 2 scoops macaroni salad, chow fun, kim chee, katsu sauce, and gravy over everything. (The kim chee is missing from the photo). This is what islanders refer to as a Plate Lunch. Eaten for breakfast, lunch, or dinner, it is still called a Plate Lunch. I only eat a couple of plate lunches a year at the most because it's so full of fat and calories and plainly not good for you, especially the way I enjoy it. You can make better choices than I do and enjoy a plate lunch much more often, but I'd rather give up quantity for quality, if you can call it that. LOL As time goes by and these drive-in's change owners (largely purchased by Asian immigrants) the old-time flavor of the food changes too. Graces, Rainbow's, Diner's, Ige's and Tsukenjo's still retain that old-time local flavor. Many islanders who make their home away from Hawaii, dream of the day that they can return home to have one. Upon their arrival, it is not unusual to head straight from the airport to a drive-in for a plate lunch. Yes, plate lunches are that good!



Aside from eating terribly this weekend, I feverishly worked on my pincushions. I have set a goal to complete all pincushions by the end of this week. I totally dislike stuffing things because it gets pretty challenging trying to get stuffing through a very small hole. I believe that is what was holding me back and why I lost interest in completing this project. Now that the worst is over, I feel motivated to finally get them done.

I hope you all have a great day. Gotta get back to those pincushions if I plan to reach my goal!

Aloha!

***Don't forget to enter my giveaway. If you are new to my blog, please refer to my post of April 8 for the rules.***

7 comments:

sweetiepie said...

Lettie - Your plate lunch sounds good, although I have never had a chance to try most of the dishes you described and for some reason, I am not seeing the pictures, just little red x's. It would probably just make me hungry if I could see them.

Way to go in getting motivated to finish your pincushions. I look forward to seeing a pile finished ones in the near future. Have a great day! Joyce in Iowa

Sue Cahill said...

I live in Western Ny and in Rochester there is a local favorite, the "Garbage Plate".

It is a disorganized combination of cheeseburger, hamburger, sausages, steak, chicken, hots, or eggs, on top of two out of (homefries, fries, beans, or mac salad), made to order. On top of that you get the options of mustard & onions and hot sauce. This usually comes with a side of white bread and butter.

It sounds terrible but is actually quite good. Like you I only indulge a few times a year.

Thanks for the description of your local favorite. If I ever end up in Hawaii I will be sure to seek it out.

I love to try different foods.

Netter said...

First you made me hungry then I read sbonetsue's comment and that made it worse. I'm going to right up and get a big glass of ice water...maybe that will fight off the munchies.

I love your pin cushions. I saved the directions and its in my "to make" pile. Now, if I can find the time...

annemarie said...

Your pincushions are so beautiful. You really should sell your items on Etsy. We have some killer dinner plates here in Texas - chicken fried steak and fries smothered in cream gravy -just to name one. Have a great day - Anne from Texas

Rowena said...

Lettie, I am dreaming I tell you! I am de-fi-nite-ly DREAMING! The first thing that I am going to eat as soon as the plane touches down in Lihue is a big, steaming bowl of saimin from Hamura's. And then it'll be a plate lunch to clog the arteries. lol!

Anonymous said...

I had a few of those plate lunches...but not too often. They are definitely a heart attack on a plate! But yum!!!

Ruth's Place said...

The pincushions look lovely. One food surprise for me when I moved to South Africa was banana and bacon pizza - I'm yet to try it!