My Kauai: Local Grinds

"Grinds" is a local term for food, as in, "Want to get some grinds?" I have heard it used as a verb as well, "Go ahead and grind." (encouraging one to eat) In this piece, "Local" is a euphemism for "inexpensive" or the opposite of "fancy".

Nonetheless, these are places I really like for authentic food and good vibes - recommended no less than the fancy places I've listed, just don't expect white table cloths and shiny silverware. For most, don't expect table service at all.  You will get a unique Kauai experience and tasty food.

I'm omitting a couple of "standards" because I find them off-putting; you know those places that are institutions so while the food is indeed good, the staff doesn't try to be friendly, a little conceited by the fame of the place?

CLOSED: Hanalei Pizza (Hanalei) - good homemade pizza from the crust up, good combos, vaguely hippie-style ambiance, and they usually have ready-to-eat slices. The crust is tasty, containing a bunch of things like hemp meal and chia seeds (all written on the blackboard) and I learned from the chef that yesterday's unused dough goes into the mix recycled into tomorrows dough.

Tahiti Nui (Hanalei) - this bar restaurant has been around a long time and has live music several nights a week. I like to go from the music, sit at the bar, and have a Caesar Salad which is very good and a good sized portion. I haven't explored the menu much beyond that but it looks like the kitchen knows what they are doing. Also untried by myself but promising is their Wednesday night luau dinner.

Mermaids Cafe (Kapaa) - a little hole-in-the-wall next door to Java Kai consisting of just a kitchen, you eat on tables out front or on the counter along the side. Menu is mostly wraps: I like the Cilantro Ahi and the Ahi Nori Wrap. A little pricey considering how un-fancy the place looks, but its a good portion well prepared,

Pono Market (Kapaa) - not a restaurant but a fish market counter, I mention them for excellent poke in many varieties and an assortment of other local foods to go.

Tip Top (Lihue) - a new find I've only been there once for breakfast: the macadamia pancakes were excellent. The restaurant is in the middle of what looks like very inexpensive motel in downtown. It's a big place, and was full of mostly locals on a weekend morning. They have a sushi bar which I hear (from a Japanese person) is best on the island (which may not be saying much, haven't tried it). Recommending just on faith that it's worth further visits.

Koloa Fish Market (Koloa) - tiny place just beyond (going makai) the Koloa Old Town shops, it's hard to find -- look for it exactly opposite the Koloa Post Office. Fresh fish, poke, lunch plates, and some desserts. I like the ahi (or other fish, as available) wasabi (there are a few options for preparation) lunch plate: two good sized pieces of fish cooked just right, two scoops of rice, macaroni salad. The sweet potato haupia pie is excellent, too. Essentially no place to eat there (there was one small stool on the porch) so get it to go and head to the beach or a park to grind.

Little Fish Cafe (Hanapepe) - a new place for coffee and light food along the old town main street with a decidedly hippie style and really good coffee. I like the house coffee which they make fresh by the cup. For a great light breakfast I get their open-faced bagel sandwiches which come with a number of toppings; both the Hippie and the Veggie are very good. Menu covers a lot of blackboard space plus they have soups, banana bread, and more. Breakfast and lunch only.

Da Imu Hut (Hanapepe) - I don't think they have a sign: park in the Kauai Kookie parking lot and they are the place right alongside the highway. Hours can be variable, close early, possibly dinner only. The lau lau (pork, chicken) lunch plate is excellent and comes with lomi-lomi salmon. Very much not a fancy place but good food. Non-meat selection is extremely limited.

Obsessions (Waimea) - Another similar breakfast/lunch place in town that opens early so good to stop by on the way up to hike Koke'e. Surprisingly good Black Mountain brand (Hawaii) coffee for that kind of place where you get paper plates and plastic utensils.

Yumi's (Waimea) - Local home cooking by Yumi herself, breakfast and lunch (maybe some dinner hours). Outright the most friendly service on the island. Yumi also makes "goodies" - apple and coconut pies, pumpkin crunch bars, brownies - that a good size, delicious, and sell out quickly.

Island Tacos (Waimea) - I've become a regular here usually ordering Seared Wasabi Ahi fish tacos. The fish is raw but seared on the grill briefly, served with a wasabi mayonnaise sauce, purple and green cabbage, and white rice. They make their own tortilla for the soft fish tacos (and larger burritos) as well as fry them for chips. If you order just one taco you get chips on the side (two or more you have to buy the chips). I always get the hot sauce and in addition sprinkle some of the Hawaiian Habanero Heat really hot hot sauce they provide on as well for good measure. Limited hours are from lunchtime to five, seven days.

My Kauai: Nice Grinds

Today I met a couple on a hike who mentioned that they hadn't found any food on the island yet that impressed them (they were happily subsisting on papaya instead). Here is my list of some nice places to eat that still make the demanding "My Kauai" criteria. Alternatively, if you prefer, this omits the transplanted fancy restaurants that I'm sure are fine but are just like one finds in the up-scale parts of almost any large American city.

Generally these places are pricey by any standard. It isn't hard to spend forty or fifty dollars per person (or more with drinks) for a full meal. Kauai is expensive overall, it's a tourism-driven economy, and at the upper end of the food chain prices go up quickly. But I've felt at these places that you get what you pay for: your mileage my vary. As at any restaurant, breakfast and lunch are considerably less money but proportionally on the high side.

Postcards (Hanalei) is a very nice dinner-only reservation-recommended (or be prepared to wait) place suitable for a special occasion. Wait staff is always great. Kitchen can be on the slow side. Plenty of local ingredients, largely vegetarian but including fish, with a creative changing menu. Dine in a converted house with a nice garden (no ocean view).

Common Ground Garden Cafe (Kilauea) is a very good very organic place to eat. Off the highway perhaps a mile on the mauka side, the restaurant is located in a large spread where they grow a lot of the ingredients right there. Formerly a guava farm, Common Ground has several ventures, seeking to integrate with the local community in a wide variety of activities, the restaurant being just one. Had a terrific breakfast with good service and will be back soon.

Kalaheo Cafe (Kalaheo) is a cut above, especially at dinner. I almost always have the fish special dinner which varies. Breakfast menu everything is good. If you like sweet rolls try the "Knuckles" and usually a good array of desserts. The coffee is good: usually "Kauai Estate" and a rotating selection.

That's my short list: I haven't spent a lot of time exploring the high end, but these three places I can solidly endorse for a nice meal which I like to get every once in a while.

Runners up are fairly nice places and good alternatives, but they don't quite have my unqualified recommendation for one reason or another, often nearly complete lack of local influence (i.e. the restaurant could be anywhere).

Kalaheo Steak & Ribs (Kalaheo) - had a good meal there, they do often have fish. Very popular most nights. Full bar adjacent.

Tortilla Republic (Poipu) - up-scale Mexican with full bar, quite popular evenings.

Dolphin (Hanalei) - good fish-centric restaurant with sushi bar (I haven't tried the sushi, am skeptical) and a bar, located on the right coming into town next to the Hanalei River. They have a fish market behind the restaurant selling fresh fish where I have had good poke.
 

My Kauai

I've been meaning to write about my Kauai - the island as I see it and as I like it. There will be a series of posts that is a mini travel guide but unapologetically one skewed to my personal taste. It may or may not align with your taste, so let me describe how I like to experience Kauai.

From the start, what intrigued me about Kauai was that the road does not go all the way around. My first trip was planned spending time near the two ends of the road and for the most part that's where I have stayed since and spent my time. (Last year I did stay in Anahola, but in a remote enough location that it was virtually "end of the road". I wanted to check out other areas just a bit, and this unit was available.)

My other major rule (which dovetails nicely with the end-of-the-road strategy) is to religiously avoid resorts and large hotels and the type of restaurants and stores they engender. This includes places like fancy restaurants, tourist traps of all kinds, "gift" and "souvenir" stores, and so forth.

From what remains, I prefer places that have been around a long time, are frequented by locals, or that embody authentic Hawaiian culture or spirit. Generally such businesses are friendly, have a flavor of Kauai and some history, and relatively few tourists ideally (but some have been popularized, and I guess that's OK). As a rule, there are no dress codes whatsoever That is, any place that would toss you out for not looking presentable enough I'd be happy to skip, generally speaking. (I think shirts and some kind of footwear are good manners inside any kind of place of business, but rarely will anyone say anything. Nonetheless, one should use discretion and not take advantage of the lenience of these establishments.)

Notably, so of these places have what might be called lackadaisical policies about business hours and available items and services, but that goes with the territory. A surprising number of these places have virtually no existence on the Internet, so searching often won't uncover them.

So without further ado, let me being the "My Kauai" series with a few following articles. Generally it should be easy to find these places or businesses by searching the web if the brief notes I provide are insufficient (and when I happen to know there is little web presence I will try to add detail from memory).

I hope this will be useful to any of you visiting or considering visiting Kauai - to the extent my taste coincides with yours. Please feel free to comment on these with feedback, to ask for more detail, etc. to make it useful. Mahalo! (Thank you)

One month left

My Kauai adventure continues going along splendidly, now well over two months, and my return date is looming on the horizon a month from now.

One thing I have learned is that a two or three week vacation is not early enough time to have any kind of really genuine connection to a place. It takes a lot of time to get to know local people and become familiar with the places and experiences here. Seeds, if you will, that I have been planting since the beginning are recently sprouting and those in turn open up further opportunities in a kind of snowball effect.

Since getting here I have slowly shifted from what at first was very much what I did on previous visits (i.e. tourism) to something now more akin to living here. I'm enjoying volunteer work in the National Tropical Botanical Garden and through that meeting people, learning things, and have a regular schedule of garden work. The "hale" construction project has in turn added a new dimension to that work and made more connections, including people off-island.

By now I know my way around the island, places visit or to eat (or to avoid) or where buy this or that. It isn't hard being a relatively small island mostly developed only around the periphery along the one main highway. It's easy to become familiar with such a place and quickly feel at home.

Most importantly, people here really do live the aloha spirit. Some many have been kind to me, teaching, welcoming, sharing without expecting anything in return. That they love it here themselves is a big part of why they are more than happy to share.

Over and over I hear from almost everyone I get to know that Kauai either embraces you, or it "spits you out". I'm not sure exactly what that last part entails but unquestionably my experience, thankfully, has been the other side of the coin.

Since I still do have another month the adventure continues.

Mango Chutney recipe

Here's the recipe for the wonderful mango chutney I learned from Puna. (See earlier post.)

Main ingredients:

• 25 small/medium mangoes, just barely ripe and still firm, peeled and sliced (yields 5 cups)
• 1½ cup vinegar
• 2 cup sugar
• 3 c seedless raisins

The spices go into a sealed (cheesecloth) bag:

• 1 t cinnamon
• 1 t cloves
• 1 t nutmeg
• ½ t allspice
• ½ t ginger (powder)
• pinch sea salt
• 4 large onions, chopped
• “lots of” garlic (“the more the merrier”)
• 3 cloves
• ½ c fresh ginger (grate & slice a large “finger” of ginger)
• 3 red hot Hawaiian chili peppers (deseeded, chopped)

Cook 2 to 3 hours until thick to desired consistency.
Put up in canning jars. Makes a dozen pints.

In addition to eating chutney as a garnish to dishes like curry, it's delicious as appetizer: spread a little cream cheese on a cracker and spoon on chutney.

Also, she mentioned it can be made into a dip.

Curry Mango Dip

1 cup Aletha’s Mango Chutney, chopped
1 quart Best Foods mayo
4 T curry powder
Let sit, chill, serve.

Po'omou Canyon Hike

Sunday we ventured further down Mohihi road for a nice hike with very accessible canyon overlooks. Accessible once you manage to drive the very rough and rutted dirt road, that is. Drive just past the Koke'e Lodge and take the next right onto a dirt road marked by a prominent "Camp Slogget" (named Waineke Road where signage is provided) - you will be slogging it alright: use your discretion as to road condition, weather outlook, and especially the off-road capability of your vehicle and your driving skills. If you don't have 4WD high clearance vehicle, fair weather, a Koke'e map, dry conditions, and experience for this you should do another hike - or park at the lodge and take the long walk in (adding over eight miles to your hike!).

Ohia in blossom

If all systems are go per above proceed down Waineke staying on the main road (there are various off shoots that are narrow and lead into side properties, usually gated or obviously dead end). Don't continue straight at 1/2 mile point into Camp Slogget but veer off left on Mohihi - Camp 10 Road and follow that. There are confusing turns so a map is best until you get familiar with the area. Continue over two bridges, through a stream (only if safe to do so, obviously, and beware a hidden pothole in the middle you can't see!), past Sugi Grove Campground (at 3.7 mile point), and pull off the road at the 4.2 mile point where the road forks into two.

We walked a loop on the two branches of the forked road. The fork to the left is the one to take if you drive further; the one to the right (closer to the canyon to the west) is much less used as becomes apparent further on. Should you go further the road ends 6 miles from the highway at a picnic area where the Mohihi-Wai'alae Trail begins (which I hope to do on the next foray out here).

Now to the hiking part: whichever branch of road you walk down you will see the two named trails mentioned. The loop (left road first, then back on the road nearer the canyon) was a nice mix of forest and canyon overlook. Within a few minutes you will see the Po'omau Canyon trail heading west. This goes out a short ridge and affords some good canyon views. But this is just the warm-up.

About a mile down the road you come to the Kohua Ridge Trail. You can take this over to the other road nearer the canyon), and it continues out into the canyon (but we didn't venture out this time). You can cut the loop short by crossing over a small stream (bridged) to the return road, or (according to the map: we did not do this option) walk nearly another mile to the end of the road and take the Mohihi-Wai'alae Trail a short distance to the end of the other road on the right and loop back from there.

The highlight of the hike was an unmarked ridge trail about halfway between the Po'omau Canyon Trail and the Kohua on the canyon side, clearly visible from that road closer to the canyon. A narrow but definite trail leads down a moderate embankment with plenty of handholds for the most part and then out on a not-too-scary ridge to a knob affording good views overlooking Po'omau Canyon and back toward the Ditch Trail side of the canyon to the north. There is some vegetation that blocks a clean 360 degree view but it's still impressive and many of the surrounding canyon walls are sheer and steep, with some of the faces dusted with green giving a lush effect, others quite dry and desolate. Everywhere the ground is crumbly and while there are no highly exposed portions of the trail, it is mostly covered with fine quite rounded brittle gravel that probably could act like ball bearings if you aren't very careful out there. Back to the trail it's just a few hundred yards back to your car.

Hale construction 4

Let me add some additional notes on the hale project summarizing as best I can. The design and construction are informed by traditional practice but modernized for various reasons.

• Chainsaw is much faster and easier than cutting by hand.
• Traditional materials have become endangered or rare or not locally available.
• Nylon cord is easier to work with and last longer.
• Some building code requirements apply.

There is a recognized exam to become certified to build a hale which includes knowledge of Hawaiian, suitable materials, construction techniques, and so forth. The modern methodology is based on research into extant old hale - one from Kauai was dismantled in the 1970's and reconstructed in the Bishop Museum on Oahu, providing much of the details. Many newer innovations were developed - better lashings, adapting techniques to modern materials and tools - with an eye to maintaining the original intentions.

The hale construction began in December (had I known about I would have been there). The structure is 30 feet long and 20 feet wide and over 20 feet high at the roof peak I would estimate.

The base is made of igneous stones collected in the Lawai valley where the hale is located. At this stage is surface is quite uneven. Exactly how the floor will be finished is still to be determined - they may put in some cement to afford handicapped access, or it may be finished with gravel to make it easier to walk on a safe.

All the wood is ironwood also from the valley. I helped de-bark it which can be done by scraping it with a garden scythe or (my preference) beaten with a hammer, splitting the bark and separating it from the hard light-colored wood and peeling it back.

Roughly, here is the sequence of building:

1. Rock foundation, rough
2. Vertical pillars (with notched joints cut) are planted and secured
3. Scaffolding is secured to central pillars and braced forming a 45 degree pyramid
4. Scaffolding rungs are tied at "knee hight" interfaces with a few vertical purlins
5. Roof framing with jointed ends are lifted and lashed onto the pillars
6. A top piece is joined running lengthwise along the roof ridge line
7. Roof subframe and purlins are lashed to form a lattice
8. Long ends jutting out are cut and ground smooth, extra lashings are cut off at one inch
9. Dried fan palm leaves are laced onto the purlins overlapping 50%, bottom row working up
10. A special horizontal cross piece is lashed across the end near the roof peak
11. Two long wood poles are tied on top of this running just below the ridge line on either side
12. Green fan palm leaves are folded in half widthwise and tucked under the two poles to cap roof
13. Scaffolding is dismantled in opposite order of its construction
14. After a few days the roof tightens up and needs some patching to make it watertight
15. Rock foundation finish

Currently we have the scaffolding dismantled on one side (step 13) and I suspect there are more steps yet to come. Work continues on Thursday and should be done within a day.

Lashings are mostly "U-joint" securing poles together, with a pueo (owl) variation that has an aesthetic chevron design in the cord, and combinations of half-hitch knots for tying. Most lashing is done with nylon cord tied into shakas (I learned how to tie shakas but won't attempt to describe it in words.) In Hawaii you see the shaka hand-sign -- closed fist with thumb and little finger extended -- as a visual "aloha" exchanged for example, when someone pulls aside to let you pass on a narrow road. Lashing shakas are cord tied "figure eight" on your hand making the sign, finished up by winding around the middle of the "eight". You leave the starting end long so the lasher knows to start there and then as they work they can tug cord out one loop at a time making it easy to pass the cord through when needed (without having to deal with long pieces to repeatedly pull through). Roofing is lashed with cheaper plastic twisted cord.

Messing up the shaka is a dreaded error - making it too tight, tangling, or knotting up - as it breaks the flow of work. For instance, building the roof you have people on the ground sorting and checking the leaves, passing them "bucket brigade style" up for a holder to pre-position and a lasher to tie them in. Obviously, holding up the process idles a lot of people and slows things down considerably.

There is much more to it of course, but this gives an idea of the steps in the process.

You can see the hale now on the NTBG McBryde Garden tour beyond the Canoe Garden to the back of the valley away from the ocean on the east side of the stream.

Hale construction 3

Friday we completed (97%) the hale after five days work. The construction process included many processes and stages, more than I can begin to detail here. The following are just a few photos from throughout the day.

Rough ends before trimming

Tommy trimming & grinding ends

Attaching subframe to the purlins on the end