Big Island Grinds

Kama’aina Backroads is a new show premiering this Saturday at 9pm on OC16 featuring Hawaii from a local perspective. There should be a short segment featuring Big Island Grinds where I check out Itsu’s with the producer of the show. Be sure to check it out… looks like a great show.

I’m really the camera shy type of person, but I couldn’t pass this opportunity up… and had to share with all of you one of my favorite places to grind!

See http://www.kamaainabackroads.com/ for more information about the show.

UPDATE:

Here is the complete show times for this week (there might be more times late at night/early mornings… check schedule listings).

Sunday @ 2:30am
Wednesday @ 2:30pm
Thursday @ 9:30am, 11:30pm
Friday @ 5am
Saturday @ 9pm

After trying a slice of pepperoni from these guys at the recent Ho’olaulea, we had to come back for more at their restaurant location at the Puainako Town Center (across Mc Donalds). Plus, Bev found one of these coupons…

What a deal! (not my cow clip holder)

It smelled so good inside. There were some guys in the back slicing pizzas while a girl was tossing and spinning pizza dough. Another cool thing about this place is that they have a bunch of board games you can pick up and play with at the table.

These two guys were playing Connect Four as they ate their pizza and enjoyed some beer (I assume this place is BYOB since they don’t offer any liquor).

We ordered 2 pepperoni slices ($0.96 + $0.55topping x 2 = $3.02), an additional “New Yorker” slice ($3.45), and a side salad ($2.95) for take out.

This is New York style pizza with beautiful thin bubbly crusty crust. Unfortunately, I’ve never tried a “real” New York style pizza, but if the pizza here is any representation of what’s in NY, I already know I love it! The crust is what makes a pizza, and it was fantastic with great texture and bite, especially on the outer ends. In the middle, the crust is very thin, which really brings out the sauce (really rich and tasty), generous layering of cheese and pepperoni. The salad was also very good and fresh. The ranch dressing also tasted really nice… homemade maybe? It tasted really creamy… almost yogurty.

I gotta say that this was some of the best pizza I’ve ever had… very likely the best on the Big Island! My other favorite is Cafe Pesto, which is excellent pizza… but it’s just not the same. Big Island Pizza is also good, with a variety of gourmet toppings, but the crust just doesn’t have the same kind of crusty texture as Pizza Hawaii.

I’m so glad Hilo has this place.

Pizza Hawaii
Puainako Town Centre
Hilo, HI 96720
Phone: (808) 959-9932
Fax: (808) 959-9566

Hoo wow lau lau, dat was one mean alarm clock dis morning!

Hope all you guys is ok…

Hilo town was rockin’ with the best Hawaiian music and sooo much food! It’s amazing how much people gather for this… I’m sure this is the largest event every year on the Big Island. See my last post for an aerial shot from last year. It felt like this year was even huger!

Last year, I had a sad experience: I was so indecisive about what to eat that I ended getting a generic BBQ chicken plate, and after, I had a very empty feeling deep down inside. This year, my strategy changed: walk around and just try a little bit of everything… plus, now that I have a wonderful wife, it’s easy to share portions… quality not quantity, right?

So here is our Ho’olaule’a food adventures!

First, we started off with some pupus.

1/4lb poke ($3.00) from Poke Your Way. What was really cool is that after you order your poke, you can add on what you like to your own poke from a nice tray of condiments (no additional cost). We added in some ogo seaweed, inamona (kukui nuts), green onions, and a chili pepper (this guy is hot!). The ahi was very fresh and nicely seasoned with crunchy hawaiian salt. It was good poke… melt in da mouth kine!

Next, we moved on to Nori’s tent for a bowl of…

Saimin! ($3.00) Man, Nori’s makes a really good bowl of saimin. Their noodles are so fresh tasting — they have a nice chewy texture to them. Their broth is also very flavorful and rich.

How about some lau lau ($4.00)? This was from Ka ‘Uhane Hemolele Ka Malamalama Church… some long da church name. These guys have a lunch wagon right off bayfront. I always wondered how their food is. So how was the lau lau? ONO BRAH! Everything was so moist and there was a nice piece of fat (very important). Nice size too… and good balance of luau leaf and pork. Recommended.

Pizza Hawaii had a stand, but I didn’t get to take a photo. We ordered a slice of pepperoni pizza ($4.00), and it was so yummy! I love thin crust pizzas and this one was very thin crust NY style. The crust at the end had a nice bubbly crust too. Excellent… best in Hilo maybe?

We wanted to get some malasadas from that place in Papaikou called Baker Tom’s since I’ve heard they have good malasadas, but they were out!

So we got some ice shave from Higa’s instead.

Vanilla and Strawberry ($3.00). This was almost a great ice shave… the ice was very light, fine shaved, and the syrup was really tasty. But the guy pouring the syrup didn’t put enough syrup and the middle was just ice.

Ok, we are pretty satisfied.

We didn’t have room to try Aunty Peaches “Onolicious Poi Balls”. There was a huge line for this.

That’s ok. We were so happy that we got to try a lot of different Hilo foods all in one place. So much better than just a BBQ chicken plate lunch!

This is how packed it gets where the food is.

Oh yeah, and the music was awesome!

Kapena and Ho’onua! They were both really fun.

Can’t wait for next year!