Fresh ahi poke, smoke pork w/guava jelly, Big Island beef burger, and $5 huge mugs of beer (happy hour). Meeeaan brah!

Hawaiian style Ahi poke ($9.95), more than half pound. Might be my favorite poke on the island! Perfectly seasoned and always fresh here.

Smoked pork w/guava jelly. Very addicting combination. Only $4.00 (half-off) during happy hour!

Big island beef burger on sweet bread roll. Good!

Service here is really friendly and family style. Definitely one of my fav places on the Big Island!

Pakini Grill
65-1144 Mamalahoa Hwy
Kamuela, HI 96743
(808) 885-3333
http://pakinigrill.com/

Love Island Natural’s ahi bento and poke! These guys make eating healthy taste good. Lightly breaded tender pieces of ahi over brown rice with a tasty teri sauce. The beauty is all of the little sides… juicy shitake mushroom, curry tofu salad, and even little pretty edible flowers!

The poke is from their amazing salad bar, which definitely requires a post on its own. Their produce section is also fantastic. We come here at least twice a week for lunch and their produce.

Island Naturals Hilo Market & Deli
http://www.islandnaturals.com
1221 Kilauea Avenue, Hilo, HI 96720
(808) 935-5533

To test, I’m attaching a photo of one of my favorite delicacies enjoyed on a recent camping trip. Hope it works.

Freshly picked opihi. Risked my life for these but it was so worth it! Love it straight off the rocks or grilled (as seen) with some shoyu and lemon. Perfect with beer.

Visiting this place today brought back my passion in food blogging, something I’ve missed for a long time. In fact, I was so excited to share with you guys about this place I couldn’t wait (even though I still have a backlist of places I still need to write about). Hawaiian Style Cafe is my new favorite place for SERIOUS GRINDZ.

Brah!!! Just look at my breakfast, “Da Tita Mok” ($8.25):

Huge thick flame-broiled hamburger patty, 2 thick slices of spam, moist and crunchy chicken cutlet, 1 egg, grilled onions, fried rice, and rich tasty brown gravy over everything.

It tasted just as good as it looked. The hamburger patty was great quality local beef and fresh. It was actually on the leaner side but still very moist and meaty. Kind of like Ken’s burger but thicker and more moist. The chicken cutlet was my favorite. So moist and crispy on the outside and perfect with the gravy, which was very rich and homemade-tasting. Fried rice was really good too… not too salty and it didn’t overpower the rest of the dish. Grilled onions was a good touch and the spam was cooked just right. My only complaint was that the egg was a little overcooked on the bottom, but it was still nice and yolky. Wow. Quantity and quality.

95%

Bev ordered two pancakes ($2.25/each pancake) but we actually shared everything.

HUGE HUGE HUGE. I liked these. Soft. Spongy. Moist. I do wish they had a bit more cake-like texture because it was a little too spongy/bouncy. I also wish that it was more crisp on the edges. I still would order these again. They were so soft and tasty.

Here’s the specials menu that was up (they even have “Stew Luau”! aka Beef Luau):

Here’s the Breakfast & Lunch Menu:

How was the service? Friendly, local-style, like walking into your favorite Aunty’s kitchen… but very slow and sometimes forgetful (they were really busy). If you are in a rush to go somewhere, don’t come here. This is somewhere to go when you have all morning to eat and digest and all afternoon to sleep. One thing we missed was that you need to sign-in to the right of the door then wait until there are free seats.

The food made it all worth it though. I can’t wait to go back! I wish they were in Hilo!

Hawaiian Style Cafe
65-1290 Kawaihae Rd, Kamuela, HI 96743 (map)
(808) 885-4295

Ahhhh beef luau. One of my favorite dishes ever! Beef, luau leaves, water, salt… maybe an onion… and that’s it. Aren’t the simplest dishes always the best?

This weekend I had a mean craving for this (it might’ve been because of all the Hilo rain). The problem was that I never really made this myself before and searching the google internet machine resulted in no success either.

Why is it so hard to find a recipe for this? Luckily, the helpful guys at the HawaiiThreads.com KauKau Corner were nice to help me out. *s*

I used some of the tips they gave me and adapted it for the pressure cooker. Normally this dish would take 3-4 hours, but with a pressure cooker, only 1-1.5 hours.

Ingredients:

- 1lb Luau Leaves
- 2lb Beef Brisket
- Water
- Good handful of Hawaiian Salt
- 1 Large Onion sliced thinly

First step is to prepare the luau leaves.

Just make sure to cut out the big vein section that connects to the stem. Some people take all the veins out, but it’s really not necessary.

Next, pressure cook the leaves in water for 5-10 minutes (boil ~15-20 minutes if no pressure cooker).  I’m not too sure how much this helps, but it is supposed to make the dish “cleaner tasting”.

Then drain out the brownish water which has all that itchy-mouth stuff.

For the beef I used bone-in brisket because it’s a great stewing meat with good fat content which enhances this dish. Having the bone still on creates a richer broth. Cost-U-Less in Hilo has good deals on this. If you don’t have brisket, any good stewing beef would work just as good. Note: You may want to trim some of the fat if your cut is very fatty.

Brown the brisket.

Throw in a large chopped onion sliced thinly.

Saute for a few minutes.

Next, add some water and scrape all the brown yum-yums off the bottom of the pot. Then mix in the luau leaves and add enough water to cover. Yeah, my pressure cooker was too small for this.

Pressure cook for about 50 minutes. 3 hours if no pressure cooker.

The kitchen should now smell onolicious! Open up the pressure cooker and taste test the luau leaves. Are they still a little tough? Do they make your mouth itchy? If so, you need to cook it some more until it’s tender, moist and clean-tasting.

Once the leaves are all tender, add hawaiian salt to taste.

I added more water since I wanted it a more soupy consistency…

Grindage time!!!

Serve with rice or poi, raw maui onions and chili peppa water on da side. I think I going eat some more now…

Much mahalos to da guys at HawaiiThreads.com!

The rain was on schedule…

John Cruz…

Donna’s Smokin BBQ Shack…

Baby Back Ribs, 5-Meat Chili, Mac Salad, Rice ($10)

Juicy juicy, tasty and slightly tangy. Great ribs! Chili was really good too — very thick and hearty with a slight kick. I need to check Donna’s Smokin BBQ Shack later. It is located in the Keaau Village Market.

And of course, because this is Big Island Grinds, the Merrie Monarch Hawaiian Plate ($8.50):

Kalua Pig & Cabbage, chicken long rice, poi, lomi salmon, white rice and haupia w/taro. Time to grind. Everything was delicious! Poi could’ve been moa sour, but that’s just my preference. Other than that, I really enjoyed it, especially while watching the beautiful hula dancers.

You can also see the entire photo set here.

Our first meal was at my brother’s house, with a take-out meal prepared by Poke Stop at the Waipahu Town Center. At first, I was a bit disappointed because I love turkey and gravy, but Poke Stop changed my mind at the first bite.

For $75, serving 4-6 people (generous servings) you get:

• Crab & Corn Chowder
• Fresh Green Salad w/dressing
• Fresh Ahi Poke
• Dinner Rolls
• Whole Tai Snapper w/black bean sauce
• Pumpkin Cheesecake

The only preparation needed is to warm up the chowder and bake the snapper! A chef’s hotline # is even listed on the instructions for emergency.

Even with five of us, there were a lot of leftovers. Everything tasted so good and fresh. Poke was so fresh that it melts in the mouth. Snapper was tender and moist, with a tasty black bean sauce. Salad was fresh and crisp with a sweet vinaigrette dressing. Crab & Corn chowder was thick and tasty, with fresh crab. Pumpkin cheesecake was fluffy and soooo rich… a small slice is all you need. Even with the rich cheesecake, this has got to be the most healthy Thanksgiving meal I’ve ever had… and a very tasty one!

For a different twist of the traditional Thanksgiving meal, be sure to check out Poke Stop in the Waipahu Town Center!

Also, be sure to check out Reid’s (onokinegrindz.com) Poke Stop visit.

Poke Stop
Waipahu Town Center
94-050 Farrington Highway Space E-4
Waipahu, Hawaii 96797
Telephone: 808.676.8100

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!

Last night I went to an open-to-all graduation party way down in Kalapana right before the lava flow took over the road, near Kalapana’s black sand beach. It was a beautiful place. The owner of the house is a very friendly pure Hawaiian man, and he fully represented with the food!

Hundreds of people were there, with great live local bands. I didn’t even know who graduated, but everyone was welcome. The vibe and the food was wonderful. Everyone was welcome to eat. This is why I love the Big Island; parties that are open to anyone with positive energy, amazing food, and great music. There was even an Awa bar!

I so wanted to take pictures of the awesome spread, but my camera still didn’t come in yet, so I took a plate home to take a picture of with a borrowed camera (well, I would’ve took a take-home plate in any case!). There was so much food. This plate was made at almost 3am and still had trays and trays of fresh poke, opihi, poi and so much other grinds left.

Here’s da onoz!

Clockwise from top left: Poke (raw fish seasoned with Hawaiian salt, seaweed and inamona), raw a`ama crab, opihi (a Hawaiian limpet), ake (raw bull liver seasoned with alaea), small piece of kulolo (sweet taro pudding), mac salad, some kind of spicy fried rice, steamed sweet potato, pork guisantes (pork and peas), some kind of grilled fish, and kalua pig!

The poke was so fresh and tasty. The opihi was so fresh and ono. One thing I tried for the first time was the ake, which I was told was raw bull liver. I never ate any kind of raw liver before, so I was glad I was told only after I tried it, because it tasted so good! The liver had a very different rich and creamy taste/texture and it was seasoned really well. Little bits of the alaea gave a lot of crunchy salty bits. The kalua pig melted in my mouth and had a wonderful smoky flavor. Everything else was so ono too.

On the side was a sour `ulu (breadfruit) poi.

This poi was delightful. I think poi is always the best a bit fermented, and this one was, which gave it a great sour taste. It was thick too. One finga kine brah! So good with da poke, opihi and crab!

For your viewing pleasure…

Broke da mout’ yea!!?? It’s good to live in Hawaii.