Market Fresh Bistro in Makawao, Upcountry Maui

Posted on March 1, 2014 by alohajournal

Makawao in Upcountry Maui feels laid-back and trendy at the same time. This is the town of cowboys, galleries, interesting shops. It’s a great place to wander for a morning or an afternoon. The people seemed genuine and friendly and when it was time to look for a lunch spot, we picked a place with a generic-sounding name—Market Fresh Bistro.

Located at 3620 Baldwin Avenue, tucked in an area behind the Viewpoints Gallery and a charming walkway and courtyard, this bistro was one of our favorite finds during a week in Maui.

The food here is organic, unbelievably fresh and prepared simply, ensuing that the ingredients shine. When we ordered a salad for our lunch, we sat in awe as we watched the kitchen staff carrying in the fresh greens and other produce for our meal. The freshness of the local produce and fish we enjoyed that day were unbelievable.

The soup was interesting and flavorful. With fresh fish as an option to top a salad, the lunch felt healthy, fresh and light. The presentation was beautiful. I only wish I could prepare a salad so beautiful at home.

Our service was friendly and casual. We enjoyed a glass of wine and a leisurely pace as we admired the creations being made before our eyes in the open kitchen.

Market Fresh Bistro’s garden-fresh ingredients left us longing for something similar in our neighborhood at home. If only we could get produce this fresh year-round.

This bistro is locavore heaven. Highly recommend. Next time we’ll try the dessert.

Monkeypod Kitchen – Wailea, Maui

Posted on January 24, 2014 by alohajournal

Since it’s almost Friday and much of the country is stuck in Polar Vortex 2, it seems like an appropriate time to profess my love for Monkeypod Kitchen on Maui. Oh, how I wish there was a Monkeypod Kitchen just down the street. And that it was 78 and sunny with a light tropical breeze.

Peter Merriman is one Hawaii’s most recognized, celebrated and well-known restaurateurs. Credited for developing the locavore concept in food, his work to elevate the farm to table concept is a big contribution to Hawaiian cuisine–and to locally grown, harvested and simply prepared foods all over the world.

After a tip from a server at Merriman’s in Kapalua, we made a beeline to Monkeypod Kitchen to burn off that awkward time when you have to check out of your hotel (weeping) and it’s much too early to sit at the airport in Hawaii when it’s so incredibly gorgeous everywhere you look.

So, off to Monkeypod Kitchen for happy hour we went. Wow. This place puts the happy into happy hour.

For starters, there is the Monkeypod Mai Tai. Old Lahaina light rum, Maui dark rum, lime, orgeat, orange curacao, honey-lilikoi foam. Did I mention honey-lilikoi foam? Unbelievable. Luckily, I wasn’t driving to the airport. The handcrafted culinary cocktails are imaginative, reflective of the Hawaiian setting and yummy. What’s not to like?

Then, there are the appetizers and salads. The pumpkin patch ravioli was delicious and more than enough to share.

The wood fired pizzas were hand tossed and with a variety to choose from such as Hamakua wild mushroom & truffle, roasted butternut squash, bourgeois with Big Island lobster, mushrooms, white sauce, parmesan, thyme. To top it off, they had live Hawaiian music and a beer list featuring high-quality brews from top breweries and microbreweries from around the world. Although I am not a beer expert or a beer drinker, I know quality and selection when I see it.

Gotta go! Time to search for some flights to Hawaii.

Surfing Goat Dairy in Maui’s Upcountry

Posted on October 13, 2013 by alohajournal

When we discovered that there was a dairy on the island of Maui, I could hardly believe our good fortune. After all, my favorite food groups are the three Cs: chocolate, cabernet and cheese. So, after a morning of watching the sunrise at Haleakala National Park, and a tour of a lavender farm, we drove to the Surfing Goat Dairy in Upcountry Maui.

Surfing Goat Dairy produces and sells award-winning cheeses and offers visitors on Maui a variety of tours. The people we met were welcoming and seemed to truly love their jobs.

We took a casual tour, which for a fee of $10 included a personalized tour of the entire operation. We were able to see the goats, feed them, view the milking and cheese-making areas and taste a variety of the gourmet goat cheeses.

The first impression of this dairy is how well these animals are lovingly cared for. The dairy is Certified Humane Raised & Handled, which means that they don’t use any pesticides or herbicides and the goats have resting areas, shelter and sufficient space to engage in natural goat behaviors. They also name each goat in the herd after birth. Plus, as a bonus these goats get to live on Maui. German expatriates Thomas and Eva Kafsack own and operate the dairy. We learned that they moved to Maui more than a decade ago after leaving their previous professions. He led a software company and she taught high-school German in Germany. They brought with them the knowledge gained from visiting dairies throughout Germany, Austria and France.

The goats are milked twice a day, and then the milk is immediately pasteurized at a temperature designed to ensure that the vitamins are not harmed. It is then cooled down quickly for the cheese making. After adding organic cheese cultures and a vegetable rennet, they produce three types of cheeses: soft cheese, fresh chevre and quark, which is a European-style cheese also known as fromage blanc and has a consistency between yogurt and cream cheese.

The chevre cheeses were delicious and we found these cheeses frequently on the menus of many Maui restaurants. The list of hotel customers is impressive and includes the Ritz Carlton Kapalua and the Four Seasons in Wailea on Maui, the Four Seasons Resort Hualalai on the Big Island and a number of mainland hotels such as the Peninsula Beverly Hills and the Arizona Biltmore Hotel. The best surprise was a gourmet chevre called Men’s Challenge, which won a second place National Award in 2004 and would be a perfect substitute for horseradish for a holiday meal. The fruit quark was made with fresh organic fruits such as Kula strawberries, lilikoi and apple bananas. The aged Maui gourmet goat cheese comes in tempting flavors such as Napa Wrap (fresh chevre wrapped in grape leaves), MacGoatNut, Swedish Heart (caraway seeds in black cheese wax) and French Dream (herbes de Provence, in white wax). Their feta, plain and ripened five months in brine and olive oil, won a first place National Award in 2006.

Oh, and did I mention that they also make gourmet goat cheese truffles in flavors like toasted coconut, lychee, lilikoi, Hawaiian chili pepper and lavender?

From Kula, Surfing Goat Dairy is located 3.6 miles down Highway 37.

Go bananas

Posted on October 4, 2013 by alohajournal

Bananas don’t grow on trees. They actually grow on the world’s largest herbaceous flowering plant and what appears to be the trunk is actually called a corm. So, it is actually a large perennial herb. This was news to me. This was a banana plant we admired in Maui last month.

My favorite bananas are the apple bananas, which are often found in the farmers’ markets in Hawaii. They are tiny, sweet and the perfect snack. We learned that the Big Island is actually the largest domestic producer of bananas in the United States.

Here’s a sample of what we might find at a visit to one of the wonderful farmers’ markets on the Big Island, including the candy-like apple bananas.

Earlier this year, I wrote about what is perhaps the best use of bananas I have ever witnessed: A bananarama smoothie from What’s Shakin’ on the Hilo side of the Big Island.

Hawaiian-style brunch and Sundays

Posted on September 29, 2013 by alohajournal

Some things are just meant to be together–the perfect combination. Like Sundays and a tropical brunch. Why not start it out with a glass of passionfruit, orange and guava juice, or POG as it’s called in Maui where the combination was created in the 1970s?

Followed by another perfect combination of Kona coffee and malasadas.

Or, perhaps refreshing papaya and lime juice?

Topped off with one of the best tropical combinations ever: a pancake with macadamia nuts, bananas and coconut syrup.

Then, it might be time to hit the hiking trails. Or, since it’s Sunday another perfect combination might be calling you? A hammock between two palm trees with an ocean view.

Aloha Friday

Posted on August 30, 2013 by alohajournal

It’s Friday and the start of a holiday weekend. Time for a Mai Tai? The Mai Tais at the Mauna Lani on the Big Island are impossible to replicate. Perhaps it’s the setting? Still, one can try, right?

Wanted: trade winds and a cool breeze

Posted on August 28, 2013 by alohajournal

Make your own bouquet of tropical flowers

Always a great selection of island fruits and vegetables

Colorful flowers always seem to be plentiful in Kona

In the Midwest, land of temperature extremes, we are dealing with record-breaking heat and humidity this week. Yesterday, the relative humidity hit 79 percent, which we were told made the temperature outside feel like 108 to 111 degrees. As the saying goes: It’s not the heat, it’s the humidity.

This dry and hot late August weather wreaks havoc on the flowers, trees, vegetable gardens and lawns unless they are watered regularly. Although it’s steamy hot, we desperately need rain. Most of the blooming flowers look exhausted and ready to be replaced with mums or other autumn plants and flowers once the heat subsides.

Yes, we have color everywhere and the farmers’ markets in our region are bursting with vegetables, herbs and plenty from the harvest season. It’s here, and then—poof. It’s gone. So, we enjoy it.

Hawaii residents and visitors are so fortunate to experience color, flowers, nearly perfect weather year-round. I’ll take the high temperatures any day over the cold and snow of January, February, March and sometimes even April. (Yes, it sometimes snows in April, the cruelest month.) One weather newscaster told us yesterday that the temperature was 140 degrees warmer than our coldest day last winter. Yet, today I dream of the next visit to Hawaii. This time it’s to cool off from the heat.

Kona Farmers Market

Dining al fresco, Hawaiian style

Posted on August 11, 2013 by alohajournal

It doesn’t get much better than outdoor dining in Hawaii, especially when you know it’s snowing at home. Or, anytime really. This was a special anniversary meal at Hualalai on the Big Island. As close to dining on the beach as you ever will find with the perfect view of the sunset. Somehow, a great meal turns unforgettable with the sound of waves and a beachside setting. Aloha.

Kona coffee is the real deal

Posted on August 1, 2013 by alohajournal

For most coffee lovers, a cup of 100 percent Kona coffee will be love at first sip. The smell of Kona coffee brewing is enough to get you hooked.

Kona coffee is the official name for coffee grown in the North and South Kona districts on the Big Island. The weather in this region is apparently ideal for growing the coffee, with the volcanic soil and sunny days with a mix of light clouds in the afternoon. Other islands grow and produce coffee, but the Big Island is the home of pure Kona coffee.

A fun way to spend an afternoon is to go coffee tasting, sort of like wine tasting in Napa or Sonoma except you don’t need a designated driver. On our first trip to the Big Island, we discovered Greenwell Farms. We have since been back to visit and our tour guide was once from our home state. We were hooked and have been members of the Greenwell Farms coffee club since—sort of like a wine club, except you don’t need to worry about your shipment freezing in our frigid winters.

We get a quarterly shipment of chocolate macadamia nut coffee. In the middle of January, it’s heaven in a cup.

There are many wonderful coffee farms to visit. Many of them are located on the Mamalahoa Highway 11, south of Kona and hear the Holualoa area. Many of the farms will offer tours, which are well worth the time, often provide a scenic view of the ocean in the distance, and will make you want to sit and sip and stay a while.

Sunday brunch, Hawaiian style

Posted on June 9, 2013 by alohajournal

In March 2012, we biked for 10 miles plus so that we could enjoy the delicious breakfast and brunch at the Bay Terrace at the Mauna Lani Hotel on the Big Island. With its outdoor tables overlooking the gorgeous grounds, pool and ocean, you can’t go wrong. We get the sense that many of the waiters and waitresses have worked at the Mauna Lani for years. Since this is the type of place that people seem to return to year after year, it wouldn’t surprise me if they eventually learned your name and waited for your return.

We enjoyed the Hawaiian-inspired eggs benedict and coconut French toast with bananas. So tropical and so delicious. Paired with a freshly brewed cup of Kona coffee, it’s perfect for a Sunday brunch. Or Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday or Saturday. Good morning, paradise.

Aloha Journal

Celebrating the Islands of Hawaii

Category Archives: Hawaiian food