#1462 foodie Friday - Hawaiian style

Before I write about food, I just want to acknowledge what a crazy/wonderful/horrible day it has been in the world. I woke up this morning to learn about terrorist attacks in four countries. Later in the morning, the US Supreme Court determined that same sex marriage is legal and Constitutional in all the states. President Obama declares that love wins, then sang Amazing Grace at the funeral for the preacher that was shot in South Carolina. In the afternoon, one of the escaped prisoners in New York was shot and killed and authorities are closing in on the second man. And Team USA beat China in the women's World Cup to advance to the quarterfinals. Whew! So. Many. Things.

~~~~~~

MT and I will be going to the family reunion, but we decided not to leave until early tomorrow morning which gives me a chance to write tonight. Works for me! I was thinking about what to talk about when I realized that it's Friday and I can write about one of my most favorite things: FOOD! I'll tell you about some of the food we ate while we were in Hawaii.

I had a Hawaiian food bucket list. It wasn't a long list; there were only three things that I really wanted to have: shave ice, malasadas and a plate lunch.

Let's start with the shave ice, even though it was actually the last thing on the list that I had. I met some Hawaiian ladies at the pool in the condo (they were from the Hilo side of the island where it rains a lot, so they vacation on the Kona side). They told me the best shave ice on the island was just up the road on Kawaihae Rd. After a morning at Hapuna Beach, I directed MT to Big Island Shave Ice. It was a trailer in the parking lot of a restaurant and there was a bit of a line, but everyone wanted to give it a try, so we did!

I thought the shave ice would be a sno-cone. You know,

NO. I couldn't have been more wrong. I mean I think you can get shave ice that looks like that, but mine certainly did not. Here's a pic of MT showing off our pineapple cream shave ice.

Let me tell you about this stuff. On the bottom is a scoop of vanilla ice cream. On top of that is shave ice which is ice that is thinly shaved. You know it's ice, but the texture is firm but not crunchy. It's smooth somehow. Ours was topped with pineapple flavor and some condensed cream and topped with whipped cream. It was divine. It was heavenly. It was delicious. You eat the top part and as you get toward the bottom it becomes like a milkshake. It was awesome. T and Denise had the chocolate sundae shave ice. Kelly had a root beer float shave ice. Jake and Linda had the pineapple one like us. We were all delighted with it. It's a good thing we had it on the last day or we might have been there every day!

Malasadas are described as a Portuguese sweet bread that is fried, rolled in sugar and can be filled with Bavarian cream or raspberry or guava or mango fillings. I read that the best malasads were in a town called Honoka'a at a place called Tex Drive In. When we were planning our trip around the Big Island, it seemed like we would not be close to Honoka'a, but I was wrong! We went right through it! I directed MT to Tex Drive In and we all went inside to check it out. Now, the photos I had seen of malasadas looked like they were just bigger than a donut hole, so I wanted to order two dozen. There were seven of us and we'd gobble donut hole malasadas. So I order two dozen, most with filling and the bill is $40. Holy schmoly! There's no discount for buying a dozen. Oh well. We wait for them to be boxed up and when the two boxes are handed to us, they are pretty heavy and kind of big boxes. Yeah, the malasadas were bigger than a donut. They were huge! Oh well. The malasadas were warm and covered in sugar and filled. Mine was Bavarian cream; MT and T had chocolate and I think the rest of the people had raspberry. I thought it was delicious. I probably even moaned a couple of times. I don't know if everyone shared my enthusiasm, but I was totally happy. The best part...we had many left so I had them for breakfast for the next couple of days.

The plate lunch is usually a main dish like chicken or pork or Spam served with rice and macaroni On the same day as the malasadas, which I call "Tour the Big Island" day, we stopped in a town of Naalehu at the Hana Hou restaurant. We were HUNGRY and it didn't seem like there were a lot of places to stop after Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. I was happy to find the Hana Hou listed in the guidebook. I had the roasted pulled pork with gravy and rice. Maybe it was because I was hAngry but it was delicious. It was simple and tasty. MT and Kelly both had the special of the day which was Korean-style chicken and roast pork. I don't remember what the others had, except for T who had a quesadilla. I do remember that Linda ordered a burrito and T ordered the quesadilla, but there was only one tortilla left, so Linda ordered something else. Pulled pork with a BBQ sauce, I think. I'm not really sure what would be typically Hawaiian, but this place seemed to fit the bill. I liked it. Even though it wasn't a true plate lunch, I still count it. :)


You may be wondering if we had any Spam. MT did, of course. He tried it a couple of times. Once he had it in a sushi-type format. The Spam was rolled in sticky rice and wrapped in a piece of seaweed. He didn't love it. That was at Pearl Harbor. The second time he had it at McDonalds in Honolulu. They serve a "local breakfast" with Spam, Portuguese sausage and sticky rice. Looked fine to me, but I didn't have a taste.

We did go to a luau on Oahu at the Polynesian Cultural Center. I will write more about the PCC and the luau another day, but I will say that the food was plentiful and tasty. T really liked it. Again, we were all pretty hungry, so that always makes food taste better, doesn't it? There was chicken, kalua pork, fish and lots of side dishes including poi (MT tried it), green salad, sticky rice, sweet potatoes, purple rolls made from taro root (delicious) and fruit. There was also a big dessert table. I loved the guava cake, but I was the only one in our group who thought it was fantastic.

We went to one restaurant twice. The Lava Lava Beach Club is on Anaeho'omalu Bay (A Bay) which is where our resort was. We went to the LLBC for lunch one day and dinner on our last night. It sits right on the beach and the view of the sunset there is unparalleled, I'm sure. I had the same meal both times I was there: the LLBC burger. Imagine this...fresh island-grown beef stuffed with bleu cheese topped with avocado, fried onion strings, tomato (not on my burger though) and arugla topped with a chive aioli. Oh my friends! Talk about Cheeseburger in Paradise! I highly recommend it along with an ice cold Big Wave Golden Ale from the Kona Brewing Company. Awesome!

No wonder I gained four pounds during the vacation. Good thing I walked so much or it would have been a lot worse. :)