Big Island, Hawaii
(Food and Travel, 2009)
In the beginning, God created heaven and earth and Big Island. The largest island in the volcanic Hawaiian archipelago is a prototype paradise, as if God couldnt quite make up his mind, and experimented with all but two of the worlds climatic zones to draft a lotus-land blueprint. Its still a work in progress as Mt Kilauea continues to erupt and throw rivers of fire into the foaming Pacific to create a brave new world.
Big Island is a geographical theme park where the landscape abruptly switches as you go inland or upland from coral reefs to volcanic peaks, cacti-studded prairies, grass meadows, misty orchards, tropical plantations and rainforest. The hot west coast is sun-seeker central with blue and turquoise banded seas; in the north and east the rainfall, unleashed by the trade winds, nurtures orchids, brilliant emerald forests, vertiginous cliffs, braided waterfalls, and secret valleys with ghosts of ancient Hawaiian warriors and princesses.
The contrasts are as head-spinning as too many mai tai cocktails: miles of barren brown-black lava, curiously dotted with white coral graffiti, form the hinterland of a string of billion-dollar resort-hotels that line the north-west coast, where honeymooners buy diamond-studded, gold flip-flop pendants.
Theres nothing subtle about the charms of Hawaii: all the colours and fragrances, the welcoming garlands of fuschia and magenta plumeria blossom, have an intoxicating intensity. Everything is big on Big Island. Especially the weather, which can include earthquakes and hurricanes, tsunamis and eruptions as well as enough sun to turn you the colour of a glossy Hawaiian macadamia nut. Elemental, my dear Watson.
Travelling round the island, majestically anchored in the middle of the Pacific, the weather unfolds like wonders in a medieval tapestry: baroque graphite clouds, slashes of blue sky, fleeting wind-born showers, fat raindrops that drum on the tin roofs of the painted wooden houses, and angry wind to crash the surf against jagged rocks. There are sunsets like tropical fruit salads and drive-through rainbows formed from liquid sunshine. As it snows on Mauna Kea, green turtles bask on black beaches in the light of the silvery moon.
When Hawaii became the last state to join the union there was, in the words of the Honolulu Advertiser, the biggest wingding in Island history. Fifty years later, with a Hawaiian-born President, the party goes on in Obamaland. As Dayne Tanabe, local-born Japanese-American chef at the Hilton explained, Everyone here loves to eat and enjoy themselves. And because we have so many different foods, ethnic cultures and climate zones, we can cook, grow, raise or catch just about anything.
There are as many strands to Hawaiian cooking as a palm frond basket, but the story begins when the first Polynesians arrived from the South Pacific by double-hulled canoe around 1,600 years ago, bringing essential survival foods to the largely barren islands, including breadfruit, sweet potato, coconut, sugarcane, bananas, chickens, pigs and taro.
Taro, with its handsome, heart-shaped leaves, is part of the revival of native Hawaiian food, language and culture. It has a mystical significance in creation stories, and once only men were permitted to pound the starchy corm into purple poi paste. It is, perhaps, an acquired taste, but it takes on other flavours well, and is popular in bread and pancakes, and makes excellent crisps. Taro is the spiritual centre of every luau or feast although the unprepossessing mush is usually ignored by tourists headed for the roast pig, itself too often oven-roasted rather than slow-baked in the traditional imu or leaf-lined pit.
Another luau essential which traces a connection to pre-contact Hawaii is poke, raw fish chunks seasoned with sea salt, seaweed and roasted candlenuts, to which more recent immigrants have added Asian flavourings: its a brok da mouf dish, as they say in pidgin, and as good as sushi to serve as pupu with a good Kona-brewed beer.
The first Hawaiians found abundant fish and shellfish, and developed a highly sophisticated fishing system, only eating certain varieties at certain times, never catching more than needed. Fish was also cultivated in sweet and saltwater ponds: the tradition lives at the Natural Energy Laboratory where a giant pipe sucks water from 3,000 feet down and allows a range of cold seawater enterprises such as abalone, clams, oysters, seaweed, lobster (revived from mainland jet lag), Pacific sea salt and the excellent, firm-fleshed Kona Kampachi fish, farmed offshore. Inland, a few growers are breeding tilapia, melding aquaculture and hydroponic systems to raise sustainable fish.
Island food changed radically with the arrival of explorers, traders, whalers, sandalwood merchants and missionaries. There is a corner of Big Island that will be forever England, in the memorial to Captain Cook. The Union Jack also occupies part of the state flag, a symbol of the dawn of Empire and the subsequent waves of immigrants from Asia, Polynesia, Europe and mainland America who came to the islands to work the former sugarcane and pineapple plantations. Even Hispanic cowboys rode the range on Big Islands huge ranches, bringing a food legacy of malasadas, sweet yeast breads, chorizo, and cabbage soup.
The result is that eating in Hawaii is a riot a full blown, genuine melting pot of American and Japanese, Chinese and Filipino, Puerto Rican, Thai, Korean foods and more that reflect this remarkably harmonious multi-ethnic society. As the distinguished food writer Joan Namkoong explained, The predominant notes are Asian - ginger, soy and sesame - but it really is a big mish-mash.
So, when East and West no longer fall into familiar place, and the horizon tugs you beyond known boundaries everything, including the food, seems a little topsy-turvy. They boast they serve All kine food here - mostly on the same easy-going plate when it comes to Local creations such as Hawaiian Thai Pizza and the ubiquitous Mixed Plate lunch.
This Hawaiian soul food or grindz a combo of mains with white rice and macaroni salad as well as dishes such as loco moco and saimin, is not always pretty to look at, but is filling and nourishing, deriving from a time when multi-ethnic labourers shared their lunches in the fields. The popularity of canned foods, especially iconic Spamâ„¢ (Hawaii tops the world Spamâ„¢-eating league), dates from wartime shortages: Spamâ„¢ musubi remain an essential part of every Little League game.
A decade ago, a group of leading chefs, already influenced by fusion and Pacific Rim, launched Hawaiian Regional Cuisine, motivated by flavour, conservation and community. Their focus on local ingredients was a reaction to the fact around 85% of food is imported. Despite the excellent grass-fed beef and lamb on Big Island, in a crazy economic system it is cheaper to send cattle to the mainland to be intensively finished and re-imported. HRC has helped sustain small producers by guaranteeing them a market. Joan also notes a trickle-down effect, Both in and out of the home you get Asian ingredients with European techniques and vice versa. For example, you might get a wasabi mayo now served with fried fish or a good green salad in instead of macaroni.
Tropical fruit expert Ken Love works with chefs to identify their needs and educate them about an astonishing range of new fruit possibilities from ice cream bananas you can spread with a knife to snow apples, Rangpur limes and the cherimoyas prized by Mark Twain as deliciousness itself. It was crazy, Love recalled, we were importing oranges and avocados, fruits that grow better here than anywhere else!
According to Four Seasons Executive Chef James Babian, There was formerly a disconnect between chefs and farmers: artisan produce can still be unpredictable and expensive as it is so labour intensive, but the quality is outstanding.
Peter Merriman was one of the original HRC founders. His chef Allen Hess described the local community spirit: We trade our own home-smoked bacon and sausage for produce people just drop by. But HRC is also about the quality of chefs coming out of Hawaii, raising the bar has been the real legacy, people now have a lot more pride in island restaurants.
Although the movement is state-wide, Dayne Tanabe thinks Big Island has the edge because of the sheer range of produce, but denies any inter-island rivalry, Thats not the Hawaiian spirit.
HRC has in turn encouraged a remarkable number eco-conscious farmers markets committed to products that can be grown, not flown here. At the two superb Waimea Farmers Markets, for example, locavores can take their pick from sourdough bread baked in a mobile wood-fired oven to Wagu beef spiced sausages, rare honeys, superb goats cheese, purple sweet potatoes, Asian mushrooms from The Fungal Jungle, fried green tomatoes cooked with aloha and some of the freshest salads and herbs known to mankind.
In addition, Hawaii is the only US state to grow coffee. Mineral-rich soil, altitude, sunny mornings and afternoon cloud on the western Kona side of Big Island allow around 700 small-scale farmers to produce a smooth, hand-picked Arabica coffee of fine flavour and rich body. They have the bragging rights but another boutique coffee area has recently been revived over in the east. Tea is also being successfully cultivated here, and the Volcano Winery on the slopes of Kilauea produces fine white wine as long as mountain goddess Pele blows the volcanic smog away.
Big Island is full of big talk story. In Kailua-Kona, Bob Cooper of the Original Hawaiian Chocolate Factory, uniquely in the US cultivates Criollo and Forastero cacao trees and processes chocolate at his secluded farm on the diagonal high slopes between clouds and sea. And, on the lush Hamakua coast, Hawaiian Vanilla is the countrys sole commercial producer, the heady, lava-black beans painstakingly hand-pollinated by the enterprising Reddekopp family.
Avocados, macadamia nuts, hearts of palm, figs and a profusion of tropical fruit grow as if in an earthly Eden. There are 200 varieties of mangoes, 100 bananas, 20 dragon fruit, exquisite yellow passionfruit, spiky rambutans, sweet star fruit as well as indigenous volcanic cranberries. Yet many native plants and animals - over 90% are found nowhere else - remain in danger of extinction, threatened by invasive species such as feral pigs, wild guava and firetrees. Paradise is easily lost.
Big Island, of course, has its share of technicolour tourist kitsch aloha shirts, six-pack surfers, Blue Hawaii Elvis mugs, twinkling ukeleles and pineapple in, on and with everything - but even if you come no closer than a dashboard grass skirt doll to the fiercely contested Merrie Monarch hula festival in Hilo, you are plugging into a proud heritage, mythology and generous spirit.
Aloha is the most famous word in the multi-syllabled Hawaiian language, which is as soft as the scented air and melodic as the wind in the papery parasol palms. It has a profound layer of meanings of which welcome and farewell, love and friendship are only the starting points.
Im lost, I said to a stranger.
Well, he smiled, youve come to the right place. Aloha.
WHERE TO STAY AND EAT
Four Seasons Resort Hualalai, Kaupulehau
325 8000
www.fourseasons.com/hualalai
Immensely stylish but discreetly designed super-luxurious hotel-resort with natural snorkel pool, private golf course and fabulous spa.
Eat stylish mango gazpacho, lobster ravioli and shrimp, pineapple and hearts of palm salad at the California-Italian Beach Tree restaurant ($80)
$725 upwards per room
Kona Village, Kaupulehu
325 5555
www.konavillage.com
Super secluded resort with thatched huts. Utter tranquillity with no phone or tv but no lack of other luxuries. Prices include meals. Dont miss the wok fried moi with tomatoes, edible seaweed and BI wild boar bacon. They also do the best commercial luau on the island.
$660 upwards (for two).
Hilton Waikoloa Village, Waikoloa
886 12324
www.hiltonwaikoloavillage.com
Massive complex with its own railway, waterway, dolphin pool and fun for all the family. Book a table for a sunset dinner at the Kamuela Provision Company restaurant and enjoy organic Kamuela tomato salad with Maui onion and macadamia nut vinaigrette, and ginger-steamed Kona Kampachi. ($70)
$209 upwards per room
WHERE TO STAY
Waianuhea B&B
45-3505 Kahana Drive, Honokaa
775 1118
www.waianuhea.com
Beautiful country inn in idyllic, secluded green countryside with views of both Mauna Kea and the ocean. Sumptuous breakfasts might include tropical fruit plates, banana bread, pancakes and omelettes.
$195 upwards per room
Mango Sunset B&B
73-4261 Mamalahoa Highway, Kailua-Kona
325 0909
www.MangoSunset.com
Homely, friendly B&B in North Kona that lives up to its name, part of a working coffee farm (and you get the best coffee on the island).
$95 upwards per room
WHERE TO EAT
Merrimans
65-1227 Opelo road, Waimea
885 6822
Excellent cooking based on fresh, local, seasonal produce in a smart but unpretentious setting. Signature dishes include ponzu marinated mahimahi, wok-charred ahi and blackened striploin of Kahua Ranch beef ($80.)
Also try Merrimans Market Café at the Kings Shops at Waikoloa. ($60)
Hilo Bay Café
315 Makaala St, Hilo
935 4939
Joshua Ketner flies the flag for local, organic and seasonal, with accomplished eclectic cooking with undertones of Hawaii, such as macademia nut and praline seared scallops, smoked bacon and angel hair pasta, and lemongrass-scented haupia with local citrus. Ignore the unlikely shopping mall location. ($60)
Back to the 50s Highway Fountain
Laupahoehoe
962 0808
Fantastic shrine to 50s Americana that serves excellent, juicy grass-fed beefburgers and home-made fries. ($20)
Huli Sues
64-957 Mamalahoa Hwy
885 6268
Fall-off-the-bone, BBQ ribs and fresh farmers market salads in a laid-back setting. ($30)
Tex Drive-In
45-690 Pakalana
Honokaa
775 0598
The best place for freshly malasada doughnuts for breakfast and throughout the day.
Tropical Dreams is the finest ice cream on the island. Try flavours such as Coconut or Macadamia Nut.
GLOSSARY:
ADOBO - Filipino marinated chicken or pork
AHI - yellowfin tuna
CRACK SEED - favourite Hawaiian snack foods made from sweet, salty and sour dried fruit
HAUPIA - Hawaiian coconut pudding
HULI HULI CHICKEN - spit-roasted chicken
KALBI - Korean marinated short ribs
KALUA PORK - traditional smoky, shredded, pit-roasted pork
LAU LAU - taro leaves, pork and salted butterfish wrapped in ti leaves and steamed
LILIKOI passionfruit
LIMU edible seaweed
LOCO MOCO - Local dish of rice, hamburger, fried egg and gravy
LOMI LOMI salad of diced, salted salmon, tomatoes and onion
MAI TAI rum cocktails made with pineapple and citrus juice
MAHIMAHI dolphin fish, or dorado
MALASADA Portuguese fried doughnuts (without a hole)
MOCHI Japanese rice cakes made from pounded glutinous rice
MOI delicate white threadfish (now mostly farmed)
MUSUBI Japanese rice balls
ONO excellent mackerel type fish. Also the Hawaiian word for delicious.
OPIHI limpets (eaten raw)
PIPIKAULA dried beef jerky
PUPU cocktail hour appetisers
SAIMIN Chinese noodles in Japanese broth topped with char siu, Spam* or Japanese fish cake.
SHAVE ICE finely shaved ice flavoured with syrup
Note: Hawaii is the islands original name, but as it is also the state name, to avoid confusion it is generally referred to as Big Island.
BIG ISLAND VISITORS BUREAU
250 Keawe Street, Hilo
961 5797
www.bigisland.org
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