Tag: arkansas

Food Review: Hokaben Japanese Kitchen Maumelle

Hokaben is the new-ish Japanese place for take-out here in the Maumelle. It replaced the Captain Express Hawaiian BBQ place, which originally replaced Dominos Pizza. While we have plenty of Japanese food options here in Maumelle (2 food trucks and 1 full restaurant), this new addition has a few items no one else has…and I’m loving it!

MENU

The expansive menu can be found on their site. There are plenty of appetizers, a ton of sushi options, poke bowls, bento boxes, and then the typical hibachi dinners with one exception: you can get noodles instead of rice!

While I haven’t tried one yet, the bento boxes are supposed to be so good! I just can’t bring myself to not order those hibachi noodles!

FOOD

OMG Roll: $12.
Description: Sushi rice, spicy tuna, crab stick, avocado, topped with crunchy, sriracha aioli, eel sauce, scallion

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I’m a sucker for a fried sushi roll, so this is easily delicious! Even though it was packed hot, it was still plenty crunchy at home.

Spicy ahi poke bowl: $11.50

Source: https://hokaben.square.site/

This was such a great surprise. While I love making my own poke bowl so I can add to it what I like, this had just about everything I could want!  There was salmon in a spicy sauce, seaweed salad, avocado, onions, roe, wasabi, scallions, and more on top of a bed of rice. It was spicy! If you want a fresh, healthier option, go for one of these poke bowls. They are quite large, as well.

Hibachi Shrimp with Noodles: $10.25

While I love fried rice, these noodles are even better! So saucy and flavorful, plus they give you extra yum yum sauce to use as you please. I just dumped all of it over the noodles, veggies, and shrimp and mixed it all up. Absolutely delicious!!! These made for amazing leftovers, reheated in the microwave, as well….for days. This is a HEAVY box, full of more food than you would ever expect.

Hibachi Chicken with Noodles: $9.75

Everything I said about the shrimp holds true here. The chicken was perfectly cooked and so tender and flavorful. There was a lot more chicken here than there was shrimp in my shrimp box, so I’m going to stick to the chicken hibachi from now on.

Side Order of Grilled Vegetables: $4.75

I always order extra veggies to put with my leftovers so I’m not just eating noodles only for lunch.

Overall, you can’t go wrong here. There’s still so many things I want to try on the menu, but I’ll always have to get those hibachi noodles! I’ll get a bento box soon, though!

Mountain View’s Bean Fest is a Gas!

Mountain View, AR holds an annual “Bean Fest” and I’ve been going for a few years now. It’s my favorite Arkansas festival, actually. There’s tons of free music, a ridiculous amount of free beans and cornbread, vendors, food trucks, and it closes with outhouse races. I can’t make this stuff up.

This year was particularly crowded. Many running the event said they never expected the numbers of people attending would be higher than ever this year.

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I showed up an hour and. a half before noon, when the beans were scheduled to be served. I shopped, got my favorite chai latte from The Old Town Espresso drive-through. It really does have the best hot and iced chai tea I’ve ever had- SO much flavor! A must-try, really.

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As we sat and listened to live music with the enormous crowd, at about 11:15, it was announced that the beans were being served now. Thank goodness I showed up early!

We got in long lines at one of the twelve stations where competitors were serving their beans.

You are encouraged to try as many beans as you can and then pay a dollar for a vote stub to vote for your favorite. There’s bowls, spoons, and cornbread at every station.

Drew and I got to try three different types before the bowls, then the beans ran clear out.

We were lucky being there early, as the many people who showed up at noon were told the beans were all gone. All was left was the outhouse races at 1:00. Usually, there are multiple entrances in this race, but this year there were only 6, I believe.

The winners were announced: Daniel Andrews won the best beans and JoJo’s Catfish Wharf won the outhouse race.

This event is really special. Dozens of businesses come together to donate everything (raw beans, propane, pots, etc.) so people can take part in this fun competition. If you’ve never been to Bean Fest, check it out next year….but show up early before the beans are gone.