Flying southward for winter fun in the sun, we’ve discovered extraordinary and affordable island food. Hawaiian vacations embrace the taste of aloha.
Foraging with locals for bargain delights, vacations start at Hawaii’s unique Costco, continuing at farmers’ markets and rural honour stands. Avoiding national super markets, our shopping adventures include locally owned grocers for familiar and special island foods like scrumptious apple bananas, extraordinary avocados, strawberry papayas and sweetly ripened Maui Gold pineapples. Seafood sections stock fresh ahi tuna, marlin, snapper, ono and a popular Hawaiian specialty: poke. Varieties contain combinations of raw fish, soy sauce, sesame oil, kukui nut and seaweed. Delis offer other treats like lau laus: steamed meats, fish or veggies wrapped in taro leaves. Our list always includes POG, a delicate blend of passion fruit, orange and guava juices and bags of Maui potato or taro chips! We prep simple meals at our Kona condo enjoying these on an outside lanai or picnicking on beaches.
Restaurants, like Huggo’s, contribute to foodie educations. Though sounding unappetizing, we soon learned pupus are appetizers ranging from coconut shrimp and exotic shellfish to special veggies. Yum!
“Like fruits and vegetables, over 90 per cent of our seafood is caught or farmed locally,” explains our waiter. “This restaurant began over 42 years ago. At that time, our founder spotted fishermen in the harbour and bought up their fresh catches. Try the meaty mahi mahi or sweet tasting ono. Incidentally, ono also means delicious!”
Luaus give newcomers a chance to try Hawaii’s ono-licious cuisine. Our resort’s sunset luau buffet offers mahi mahi poached in coconut milk and lemon grass, Hawaiian fiddlehead ferns, purple Molokai sweet potato salad and succulent, smoky Kalua pork baked in an earthen oven. Multi-ethnic dishes introduced by early immigrants include delicious Chinese rice glass noodles, Japanese teriyaki sauce smothering upland Hawaiian beef and lomi-lomi Canadian salmon. A favourite is the barbecued huli-huli chicken infused with soy sauce, garlic, brown sugar and ginger root. Hawaii’s purple poi adds colour to delicious Portuguese sweet bread. For dessert, Kona coffee chocolate cake joins haupia coconut pudding, a perennial favorite!
To stock up on Kona coffee, we head up to two of the 700-plus registered coffee farms, which stretch 22 miles north to south. Our caffeine fix is soon satisfied at Mountain Thunder in a 3,200 foot cloud forest on Mt. Hualalai. Joining a tour, Bryce introduces this organic farm’s primary fertilizers and weed eaters: four friendly burros and a flock of geese. He then leads us into the wet mill.
“Stripping coffee beans, we sell their red cherry coverings to Kona Red producers,” Bryce notes. “The drink’s high in healthy antioxidants – and delicious.”
In their dry mill, beans are screened for size. “Arabica beans thrive in Kona’s rich lava soils. Our altitude slows the growth, enlarging and enhancing coffee flavour.”
Stocking up on their premium coffee, we drive south to Greenwell Farms. Entering Greenwell’s old general store and museum, we learn that Kona has grown coffee since 1812.
“Henry Greenwell put Kona on the map in 1873, when his beans won Vienna’s prestigious competition,” guide Jackie recounts. “Burnaby, B.C. receives tons of our green coffee beans and uses a Swiss water process to retain our coffee’s smooth, low acidic flavour.”
For beer, you might tour downtown Kailua’s Kona Brewery. Like us, you’ll discover their secret: Hawaii’s pure water distinguishing its brews. After gawking at huge gauged vats and stainless steel plumbing, our group gathers in the pub’s garden restaurant to toast and taste six flavourful creations.
Hawaii promotes sunny recreations, splashy investigations and ono cuisine. Always hungry for adventure, we’ll return for more good times heightened by tasty delights.
For more details, see Huggo’s website at www. huggos.com, Kona Brewery: www.konabrewingco.com, Mountain Thunder: www.mountainthunder.com, and Greenwell Farms: www.greenwellfarms.com.
For accommodation, consider: www.islandbreezeluau at King Kamehameha’s Kona Beach Hotel or www.haleoluau.com at Sheraton Keauhou Bay Resort.
