Big Island Eats
As I write this in July 2020, Hawaii has extended their 14 day quarantine requirement for arriving travelers, so there will be no trips to Hawaii anytime soon, but I have happy and fond memories of my last trip to The Big Island in early March 2020 and some of the great food we ate.
Pine Tree Cafe is conveniently close to the Kona-Kailua Airport in a small shopping center. I knew we’d be hungry when we arrived, so we headed straight there. The menu is massive and it was a little difficult to decide what to eat, but the Korean Chicken, which was essentially crispy chicken wings, was a great choice and it came with a very nice green salad.
The Hawi Farmers Market on Saturday morning is a small market, but a great place to pick up some fresh island fruit and I was very happy to find some papaya and bananas for my breakfast. There was also some tasty food including crispy lumpia and noodles.
Teshima’s Restaurant in Kealakekua, serves Japanese and Hawaiian food and we were really hungry when we arrived. The bento meal, which came with fried pork or fish, sashimi, sukiyaki, sunomono, miso soup, and rice, really hit the spot after our day of snorkeling and swimming at Kealakekua Bay.
KTA Superstore in Hilo has an amazing selection of poke, we had a terrible time deciding which to select, but in the end we went with Hawaiian ahi, salt and onion ahi, and miso tako. I’d never had octopus poke and I really enjoyed it. It was perfect for a car picnic at the park on a rainy day.
A co-worker recommended Napua Restaurant at Mauna Lani Beach Club to me, so that was our fancy meal for this trip. The setting is beautiful, completely open air and right on the water. There was a shave ice martini on the menu and I knew that I had to try it. I have to say it was everything I expected from a shave ice martini. We also had poke, much fancier than the KTA Superstore version, with cuttle fish and greens. I had a terrible time deciding on my entree and finally went with the pork with mashed potatoes. And there was a warm and gooey pineapple, apple, and papaya cobbler for dessert.
Our final meal, before returning to the airport was at Kohala Burger and Taco. I love fish tacos and their island taco really hit the spot with fish, guacamole, and fresh salsa.
