So far, Kauai has been a pretty good food island. Every meal we've eaten has been tasty - which is pretty impressive, considering this is a tiny isle and the offerings are somewhat slim. Well, we've been aided by this book, but so far, everything has indeed been ono. Yesterday, we ate lunch at a little steakhouse and I had the Kau Kau Tin Lunch. Rice, kim chee, teriyaki beef, and shrimp and vegetable tempura packaged into stacked tins like sugar plantation workers' lunches of days gone by. Man, was the food tasty! Actually, the tempura was a little soggy, but all was forgiven with the teri beef. It had a nice smoky note, and the sauce was sweet. And the smallest pieces were little crunchy caramelized bits very much like meat candy. Yum!
I've had shave ice (apricot, coconut, and lilliko'i) over mac nut ice cream, lilliko'i (passion fruit) chiffon pie, coconut and lilliko'i ice cream. (Do you notice a theme - lilliko'i is ono!) We have had lots of kalua pig (shredded slow-cooked pork with sea salt), and not nearly enough seafood. My Japanese food craving has almost been completely satisfied. I could do with some sushi, though. Hawaiians love their Spam, and I'm seriously contemplating finding a place that serves Spam rolls. The guidebook says it exists... Anyhow, a couple nights ago, I had a tasty dinner called chicken hekka - chicken, glass noodles, tofu, green onions, bean sprouts, and mushrooms - plus rice, somen salad, and some sort of vinegary cabbage dish that tasted vaguely of anise. I haven't any idea what it was called.
And there's been macadamia-crusted salmon, chocolate-covered macadamia nuts, macadamia nut shortbread, honey-roasted macadamia nuts. I need to remember to try mac nuts in my banana-coconut bread recipe when I get back home. They're pretty tasty on top of ice cream desserts, too. :)
I wonder why tropical fruit is so tooth-numbingly sweet. Like, what's the biochemical reaction that causes such intense sweetness in fruit grown in the tropics? Bananas, guava, lychees, sugar cane, etc - they have a different quality, a richness, almost, from mid-latitude fruits like apples, grapes, peaches. I'm going to have to research this.
There's a fruit stand on the north side of the island that I'm dying to get to. Maybe this afternoon.
It's now later. We went to the fruit stand, and I got myself some lilliko'i syrup (thinking mac nut pancakes when we get home...) and some apple bananas (like regular bananas, but smaller and with a bit of a tang). I was hoping for some fresh coconut, but there was none to be had. In
retrospect, I should have snarfed up some fresh lychees. Perhaps we'll head back that way tomorrow. We had a lovely lunch, though not stellar like our others. The bar has been set pretty high, after all. Brian had a piece of chocolate cake, which, while tasty, I'm of the opinion that when in Rome (or in Hanalei)... so I opted for the shave ice down the road. Mmmm - very fine shave, like eating snow. I'll give you one guess as to the flavor I chose. :)
I've had shave ice (apricot, coconut, and lilliko'i) over mac nut ice cream, lilliko'i (passion fruit) chiffon pie, coconut and lilliko'i ice cream. (Do you notice a theme - lilliko'i is ono!) We have had lots of kalua pig (shredded slow-cooked pork with sea salt), and not nearly enough seafood. My Japanese food craving has almost been completely satisfied. I could do with some sushi, though. Hawaiians love their Spam, and I'm seriously contemplating finding a place that serves Spam rolls. The guidebook says it exists... Anyhow, a couple nights ago, I had a tasty dinner called chicken hekka - chicken, glass noodles, tofu, green onions, bean sprouts, and mushrooms - plus rice, somen salad, and some sort of vinegary cabbage dish that tasted vaguely of anise. I haven't any idea what it was called.
And there's been macadamia-crusted salmon, chocolate-covered macadamia nuts, macadamia nut shortbread, honey-roasted macadamia nuts. I need to remember to try mac nuts in my banana-coconut bread recipe when I get back home. They're pretty tasty on top of ice cream desserts, too. :)
I wonder why tropical fruit is so tooth-numbingly sweet. Like, what's the biochemical reaction that causes such intense sweetness in fruit grown in the tropics? Bananas, guava, lychees, sugar cane, etc - they have a different quality, a richness, almost, from mid-latitude fruits like apples, grapes, peaches. I'm going to have to research this.
There's a fruit stand on the north side of the island that I'm dying to get to. Maybe this afternoon.
It's now later. We went to the fruit stand, and I got myself some lilliko'i syrup (thinking mac nut pancakes when we get home...) and some apple bananas (like regular bananas, but smaller and with a bit of a tang). I was hoping for some fresh coconut, but there was none to be had. In
retrospect, I should have snarfed up some fresh lychees. Perhaps we'll head back that way tomorrow. We had a lovely lunch, though not stellar like our others. The bar has been set pretty high, after all. Brian had a piece of chocolate cake, which, while tasty, I'm of the opinion that when in Rome (or in Hanalei)... so I opted for the shave ice down the road. Mmmm - very fine shave, like eating snow. I'll give you one guess as to the flavor I chose. :)
No comments:
Post a Comment