The End of the World at Hanalei Pizza

Tomorrow is the infamous Mayan End of the World Day but I trust you will have time to read this. When I dropped by Hanalei Pizza today for a late lunch, the pizza chef Shawn remembered me (from last visit when we discussed the finer points of pizza preparation) and told me that tomorrow they were featuring a special end-of-the-world menu, including: Sun Spots (pineapple on cheese pizza), Asteroid collision (I can't recall), and a few more themed special pizzas. I suggested they list their business hours as "from 11am until the world ends" and consider Alien Invasion (peperoni UFOs) and Nuclear Winter (mushrooms with feta cheese "snow") additions to the menu.

I also had a seriously good pizza for lunch, the Veg-Head Deluxe = Mozzarella cheese, Olives, Maui Sweet Onions, Tomatoes, Bell Peppers & Mushrooms, Caramelized onions, Roasted Garlic, Artichoke Hearts, Sun-dried Tomatoes, Pesto, Feta Cheese (and after its cooked they offer garlic butter brushed on the crush and chopped basil sprinkled on top, both of which I recommend). The pizza dough is very good: made with coconut water and including hemp seed, flax seed, chia seed, and a bunch of such additives (see the blackboard in the restaurant which also mentions they are not known for being speedy).

The full menu (except for tomorrow's special) is at hanaleipizza.com and with any luck the world will continue to exist and you can check it out next time you are in Hanalei.


For pizza cooks: a few little tricks Shawn shared with me about pizza-making.

• use a dough docker before rolling out pizza dough
• every day they make a new batch of dough and add the leftover dough from the previous day into the mix (so a tiny amount of today's dough is from years ago, hypothetically)
• use a flat-bottomed measuring cup to scoop pizza sauce onto the dough and then use the bottom to spread it out