Hawaii’s Kona Coast Beckons with a Growing Folksy & Fun Food Scene to Savor
Chocolate, macadamia nuts, honey, tropical fruits, lau lau, butterfish, poke, poi, and other traditional foods — plus yummy ice cream — pull visitors into an unintentional food tour on the western coast of Hawaii Island.
story and photos by April Orcutt
KAILUA-KONA, Hawaii — “Don’t dip your head into the dark chocolate,” a male voice behind me said. Dark melted chocolate swirled in 2-foot-wide pots, filling the air with the heavenly scent of cocoa as our group toured the Original Hawaiian Chocolate Factory in Kailua-Kona on Hawaii Island (formerly called the Big Island). But chocolate’s for dessert so I’ll save this tale for later.
During a weeklong trip to Hawaii Island, my husband, Michael, and I had decided that when we weren’t snorkeling, we would explore its back roads, an investigation that soon turned into a do-it-yourself foodie tour of the Kona Coast.
We had sampled the area’s coffees on previous visits, but because the food scene here has grown so much in the last couple decades, this time we were searching for more substantial cuisine.
Our first stop was a 90-minute tour of the Amy B.H. Greenwell Ethnobotanical Garden in the town of Captain Cook, about nine miles south of Kailua-Kona. Peter Van Dyke, the 12-acre garden’s manager and tour guide, introduced us to traditional Hawaiian staples such as taro, sweet potatoes and breadfruit as well as coconuts, bananas and other plants Polynesians brought to the islands.
Van Dyke also shared that the most authentic lau lau, a traditional dish in which butterfish and pork are wrapped in taro leaves and steamed, was served at Kaaloa’s Super J’s, two miles south.
We almost missed the unassuming building with red benches out front. Janice Ka’aloa and her husband, John, and six children (all with names starting with J) run the casual café where neatly hand-printed signs list the menu: “Kalua pig and cabbage” and “lau lau.” The traditional lau-lau plate lunch was served with pork or chicken, macaroni-potato salad and a choice of rice or poi. When Michael ordered poi — a bland, purplish, pudding-like concoction made from taro — Janice squinched her face in disbelief. Michael ate every bit of his lau lau and complimented Janice on it and her poi. “Other places make bad poi,” she said. “Like the hotel buffets. I told them it’s bad. I said, ‘By making bad poi, you’re insulting our people.’”
The bill was certainly affordable for a plate lunch plus a drink. “We keep prices low so the locals can afford to eat here and remember the traditional foods,” Janice said. “We want our grandchildren to know our culture. We do it for the locals, and it’s a bonus for the tourists.”
We wandered south a couple of miles, then headed north on Keala O Keawe Road and along densely jungled Painted Church Road, winding past coffee bushes, papaya trees and banana plants. When we got out of the car to listen to the many bird calls in the otherwise quiet area, we noticed a sign for Joe’s Nuts, with the invitation to “Visit the nut farm.”
Owner Diane Hein gave us a mini-tour of the 22-year-old macadamia-nut trees, which grow more than 30 feet tall. She sells Maui-onion-, coconut-curry- and ginger-lime-flavored mac nuts, but we stuck with unsalted and Kona coffee-flavored ones.
The next morning we headed to Kailua-Kona’s colorful downtown farmers’ market to buy local pineapples, mangoes, bananas, star fruit, “scaly” dragon fruits, “hairy” rambutans, several varieties of papayas (seven for $2) as well as fresh local peppers, carrots, broccoli, cauliflower and four types of actually green lettuce. In the 1990s, I don’t recall seeing lettuce on Hawaii Island that looked like anything other than a wrinkled brown paper bag. We loaded up so we could fill our rented condominium’s refrigerator before we headed out to snorkel.
We also stopped in town at Da Poke Shack for poke (poh-kay), a local specialty and Hawaii’s seasoned, chunky, raw-fish version of sashimi. Sauce choices included sweet, sesame, avocado or “Pele’s Kiss,” a spicy homage to Hawaii’s goddess of fire and volcanoes. “Always fresh. Never frozen” is Da Poke Shack’s motto. Also on the menu were lau lau, kalua pork and huli huli (barbecued) chicken, a favorite of mine. Alas, no poi — instead, we could get quinoa.
After snorkeling near Puuhonua o Honaunau National Historical Park — also called Place of Refuge — we stopped in Kealakekua at our favorite quirky store, Discovery Antiques. On previous trips I bought an alien-head cookie jar and a Star Trek Barbie & Ken set there. This time we just got ice cream cones made with local Tropical Dreams ice cream, which comes in mango, macadamia nut, passion fruit, toasted coconut and Kona coffee.
The next day, after a slow morning gazing at the sea and savoring the local fruits, we moseyed south to Captain Cook and drove west to snorkel near Kealakekua Bay.
After snorkeling, we headed to Big Island Bees, a honey-and-beekeeping museum, factory and shop. Inside the museum were a natural beehive-shaped hive, beekeepers equipment, framed historic photographs and drawings of the area — and samples of its three single-flower honeys: wilelaiki (Christmas berry); dark macadamia-nut blossom; and mild, indigenous ohia lehua. (Its website said, “Each 9.5 oz. jar of Big Island Bees honey is the result of 683 bees flying 32,550 miles to visit 1,185,000 flowers to collect 5.93 lbs. of nectar.” I’d love to see the little GPS units on each bee.)
Heading north back to Kailua-Kona, we stopped for dinner at Annie’s Island Fresh Burgers, which opened in 2010. Although the menu is more Californian than Hawaiian, Annie’s emphasizes local organic produce such as vine-ripened tomatoes from a co-op, lettuce from its own garden, Big Island Hamakua Heritage Farm mushrooms, grass-fed island-raised beef and fresh, locally caught fish. My Good Karma Burger and Michael’s barbecue burger with “island-style BBQ sauce” were delicious, but Annie’s prices really weren’t geared to locals.
The next day was finally time for the tour of the Original Hawaiian Chocolate Factory in Kailua-Kona, which has been making chocolate for 22 years. As he passed out samples, owner Bob Cooper said the Original Hawaiian Chocolate Factory was the only confectioner in the U.S. that uses chocolate from the only cacao-tree orchard in the country.
After an hour of looking at multicolored cacao pods, drying racks, seeds and processing equipment, I couldn’t blame visitors for being ready to submerge their heads in chocolate. We indulged by buying some dark and milk chocolate plumeria flowers in the gift shop. It was a sweet — and fitting — conclusion to our foodie tour along Hawaii Island’s twisting and verdant back roads.
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If You Go:
Where to Eat
Da Poke Shack, 76–6246 Alii Dr. Suite 101, Kailua-Kona; 808–329-POKE (7653), dapokeshack.com
Ka’aloa’s Super J’s, 83–5409A Mamalahoa Highway, Captain Cook; 808-328–9566, facebook.com/SuperJsLaulau?ref=stream
Annie’s Island Fresh Burgers, 79–7460 Mamalahoa Highway, Suite 105, Kealakekua; anniesislandfreshburgers.com
Where to Go
Amy B.H. Greenwell Ethnobotanical Garden, 82–6160 Mamalahoa Highway, Captain Cook; 808-323–3318, amygreenwell.garden.
Big Island Bees, 82–5780 Napoopoo Rd., Captain Cook; 808-328–7318, bigislandbees.com/pages/visit-us-in-hawaii.
Discovery Antiques, 81–6953 Mamalahoa Highway, Kealakekua; 808-323–2239.
Joe’s Nuts, 84–5180 Painted Church Rd., Captain Cook; 808-315–8432, joesnuts.com.
Kona Farmers Market, 75–5767 Alii Dr. at Hualalai Rd., Kailua-Kona; 7 a.m.-4 p.m. Wednesdays-Sundays.
Original Hawaiian Chocolate Factory, 78–6772 Makenawai St., Kailua-Kona; 888-447–2626 or 808-322–2626, ohcf.us. Tour reservations required.
An earlier version of this story, “Hawaii’s Kona Coast Beckons with a Growing Food Scene to Savor,” was published in the Los Angeles Times.
Find more of April Orcutt’s stories at Medium.com/BATW-Travel-Stories, Medium.com/Travel-Insights-And-Outtakes, AprilOrcutt.Medium.com, and AprilOrcutt.com.
