Grinds misc.

MCS Grill

The MCS Grill in Hanapepe is a new resurrection of Da Imu Hut.
The atmosphere and menu has suddenly been updated 40 or 50 years from old-style rural Hawaiian to modern. Da Imu Hut was one of my favorite really strong local feeling place, so I was skeptical of the new look at first, but from my first visit I am completely turned around and think this is all for the best. Especially because I learned that Da Imu Hut will be reopening before long up the hill in the Eleele shopping center (between the Big Save and the Kauai Credit Union) but doing on catering I understand, not as a restaurant.

"MCS" is the three initials of the new proprietors; I met one of them, a young lady who was my waitress. I wanted a quick light lunch and they had a special that was just right, a "Crabacado" (crab and avocado wrap, $10) that was very good. Fresh ingredients, the flavoring had a little kick to it, prepared quickly. The menu is very veggie-friendly, about half the fare is meatless (Da Imu Hut, not so much).

1-3529 Kaumualii Hwy, Hanapepe -- Closed Saturdays. Cash only.

 Lilikoi

A friend provided fresh lilikoi from his garden. It's an unfamiliar fruit not often seen on the mainland so it's worth explaining a bit about it. Lilikoi is round fruit roughly twice the size of a ping pong ball. It grows on a vine and ripe fruit simply falls off when ready. The fruit is said to be best when it is fairly wrinkly but I had some good ones that were smooth and firm.

The taste is wonderful: tropical sweet and very tart. You cut the fruit in half (a little juice will inevitably leak out) and then eat the pulp and seeds, discarding the white pithy outside. Use a fork to separate out the pulp, and save all the juice that you can in the process.

I like it straight but there are many ways to eat it, for example:

• with papaya, put lilikoi pulp in the hollow of a half of papaya (get a little of it in each bite)
• mixed with yogurt
• in salad dressing

The seeds are fine to eat, I just swallow them after savoring the flavor; with the pulp surrounding them you can't even feel them at all. If you don't like the idea of eating seeds I have heard that you can put the pulp and seeds into a blender and quickly pulse it to separate the seeds a bit, then filter out the seeds with a sieve if you want to go to the effort.