Monday: Leftovers and Lunch

First, the leftovers:

Oven reheating worked well, and I did use the cider and cream to make sure the colcannon was smooth before putting it in, and I covered it with foil to ensure it didn't dry out.  Om nom nom.

For lunch, I tried Island Manapua Factory again, after being disappointed in them previously.  This time, however, I skipped their plate lunch/panda-style Chinese, and went for the manapua, in the hope that they'd fill the kolache niche for me.  I got four, as I wasn't sure how filling they'd be.  I think in the future, three is probably a more reasonable lunch portion:

They're all about four inches in diameter, with a pretty decent amount of filling inside.  They have both steamed and baked manapua, although the baked ones aren't warm (which is kind of disappointing).  The steamed ones have regular bao dough, and the baked ones a sweet Hawaiian bread. 

Steamed pizza manapua. Not as good as a proper pizza, but pretty decent.  A pile of these would make a good movie watching/Superbowl snack.  Kind of like a big fluffy pizza roll.

Steamed chicken curry.  Yummy Japanese style curry with lots of meat.  Mine had a bone in it, which wasn't too surprising, since almost everytime I get boneless skinless thighs at the store, they're only 97% bone free.  Still, probably good to watch out for.

Baked char siu. This one got a bit cloying towards the end, as the sweet bread and overly sweet pork kind of got too much.  Still, the meat was moist, and a quick trip through an oven or microwave wouldn't have hurt it any.

Baked kalua pork.  This was more BBQ-y than I was expecting, but that wasn't a bad thing.  As you can see, this one kind of had structural issues, which was disappointing.  A lot of the others had thin bottom crusts, this one just took it to extremes.

All in all, this was a good idea.  Four big yummy buns for $7 make this about the best lunch deal around.  I'll have to try some of the other flavors next time.  It's a bit of a shame they don't have a sweet bun to eat for dessert, but I guess lunch isn't supposed to be multi-course.