Restaurants

Entice Your Taste Buds with Hawaii’s Cuisines

Hawaii is not only famous for its stunning white sandy beaches, but it also boasts of a wide array of savory and scrumptious dishes. Hawaiian food is a combination of Asian, American and European flavors. Tourists would surely find one that would captivate their taste buds.

Foreign visitors should experience tasting Hawaii’s famous Ahi, also known as yellowfin tuna. It is best served fresh and raw as poke, sashimi or sushi. This type of tuna has been a famous alternative to the decreasing number of bluefin tuna. Ahi is also a favorite entrée in Hawaiian Regional Cuisine.

Mahi Mahi is Hawaii’s most popular fish. It is best served as baked or sautéed with Teriyaki sauce. The fish meat is white and has a sweet taste. This excellent dish would surely tempt any visitor.

Tourists should never go back home without trying Haupia. It is an old-fashioned Hawaiian dessert often described by people as stiff pudding. Haupia is usually a 2-inch square bar with toasted coconut on top.

Travelers should not miss taking a bite of Kulolo, another pudding native to Hawaii. It is made of taro (also known as kalo), a touch of coconut milk, and a dash of brown sugar. It is best made when the taro is partially cooked and boiled.

Luau is another treat which is actually baked taro leaves with coconut cream and a choice of either chicken or octopus. The Chicken Luau is cooked perfectly with taro leaves wrapped around it in a splash of coconut milk. This gives an added delicate flavor for the chicken. Spinach could be substituted for the taro leaves but the taste would not be the same as what the locals have grown to love.

The term Luau is better known now as a Hawaiian celebration that a lot of locals and visitors take part in. Tourists should not forget to eat Luau and participate in a Luau feast to make the most out of their vacation in Hawaii.

A dish featured at every Luau celebration is the Kalua Pig. It is made out of pig’s butt meat, wrapped in banana leaves and cooked slowly for several hours in an imu, or better known as an underground oven. Locals could also cook Kalua Pig using a conventional oven if they do not have an imu. This dish has a juicy, smoky and salty taste.

Another favorite of locals and tourists alike is the Laulau. This tasty dish consists of butterfish or salmon and a choice of pork, beef or chicken also wrapped in taro leaves. Then Laulau is steamed for about 3 to 4 hours in an imu. Spinach and Ti leave could be alternatives if taro leaves are not available.

One of the staple foods in Hawaii is known as Poi. This is a purple-colored thick paste made from pounding boiled taro root. Travelers could buy it freshly made or a day old which would already acquire a slight sour taste. Most tourists who would try this paste for the first time end up tasting this for the last time as well.

A special thirst-quencher that tourists of all ages would definitely love is Hawaii’s famous Shave Ice. Flakier and finer than snow cone, it has a variety of flavors to choose from. Children and adults alike would enjoy its orange, strawberry, vanilla, coconut, lime, bubble gum, and rootbeer flavors. An added treat to this luscious delight is a choice of any tropical fruits or a scoop of ice cream on top. This is something that tourists would surely come back to.

The food of each country could tell its history. Since Hawaii has a rich heritage, expect that its food would offer variety as well. Come and bite into Hawaii’s delectable cuisines and taste for yourself what their dishes have to offer.