Places to Eat in Maui and Big Island
What's your first reaction when you land on an island or see clear blue water? Ahh FREEDOM and island hair is all I think of, well besides the endless juicy fruits and refreshing coconut water. I am a food junkie. I am always eating almost every hour and I love trying new delights. If you have ever been to any of the Hawaiian islands, I would LOVE to hear all your stories and places you have ate at!
Maui-licious Food
What's better than a hotel? A beautiful condo overlooking the ocean where you and your family can cook breakfast and eat out in the balcony. We stayed at this beautiful condo resort called LuanaKai, that overlooked the salty waters of Hawaii. It was a perfect location to stay if you are on a family vacation or traveling with a loved one. It's very personal and the kitchen was lovely. We saved money by making breakfast and sometimes dinner at the condo. Here's one of the many meals I made for breakfast.
You can never have enough bananas! I always recommend buying extra snacks and lots of water, especially if you are going on an all day adventure filled with extraneous hikes or swimming at the beach under the hot sun, you are bound to be tired and hungry. You don't want to get that HANGRY (hungry and angry) side out since you are on a vacation!
On those long days when we made it back home extremely late, we went to our go-to spot near LuanaKai called Coconut's Fish Cafe. Believe me when I say everything there is AMAZING! I went there 3 times out of the 4 days we were there. We got fish tacos, seafood pasta, fish and chips, seafood chowder, etc. So delicious! After touring around Lahaina in a submarine and admiring the banyan trees, we took a mini break and devoured pineapple mango ice cream at this cute little spot called, BanyanTreats. We headed to this lovely Pioneer Inn Grill and Bar that had a welcoming parrot and wonderful people. The Pioneer Inn Grill and Bar is also a great place to stay if anyone is interested in finding accommodations in Lahaina. I ate more fish tacos at The Pioneer Inn Grill and Bar, cause why not! Where else can you enjoy fresh fish tacos in Hawaii? For the last meal of the day, we headed to Maui Brick Oven, where we ordered mushroom garlic roasted pizza. The people who work at Maui Brick Oven are extremely kind and sociable! Definitely check out those places.
GO COCO FOR COCONUTS
What's island life without sipping on a fresh coconut on the beach. Coconuts have so many benefits such as increasing burning of fat, cooling your body during hot summer days, raising good HDL cholesterol, and killing harmful microorganisms. It's more of a reason why people should drink or eat coconut, and it is "ono okina" (delicious).
Coconut oil will add a glow to your skin and help maintain healthy hair. If you want me to talk more about how I incorporate coconut oil into my daily routine, comment below! : )
Before leaving Maui, don't forget to grab a nice cold smoothie and some famous shaved ice! Bye Maui.
Big Island Eats
Leaving Maui was so difficult, but we knew there were more new and exciting things to experience on our journey. When we flew Hawaiian Airlines to head to Big Island, the flight attendants provided the passengers with their well-known drink called POG (Passionfruit, Orange, and Guava nectar juice). This has to be my all time favorite drink!
The juice was so refreshing and so unique. Once we arrived, we headed to Grand Naniloa Hotel Hilo Hilton Double Tree Hotel. My sister and I stayed in for the night because we were exhausted and our parents ordered Japanese food for us. Unfortunately, I didn't take any pictures of the meal, because we were so hungry. We made waffles in the morning and headed out on our long adventure for the day! We went to Asian House and got our famous bento boxes. Long story short, My family and I lived in Japan and my sister and I grew up eating bento boxes, so this meal was very special to us. We ordered two Japanese, one Mongolian and one Thai bento box. I highly recommend this place if you want a mix of Japanese or Chinese food.
Have you ever gone ziplining through a Hawaiian jungle? It was one of the most incredible experiences during my stay at Hilo. While we were on our zipline tour, our instructors gave us applebananas (smaller versions of a banana) to try, some guava, ice cream bean and sugar cane right from the jungle. Check out my Big Island blog to find out more on the Big Island zipline tour and what we learned!
I scream, you scream, we all scream for GUAVA! What?! We drank guava juice every single day and ate leftovers, because all the restaurants packed a lot of food in our meals. Having an abundance of food was great, however when we wanted to try something new, we knew we had leftovers to finish. We went back to Asian House and ordered unagi (eel), sushi and miso soup before heading to the airport. That was the last meal on the island and it was perfect! Overall, the food experience on both islands were exquisite and I would love to go back to try more authentic food trucks. If you have any recommendations on where to go, I would love to hear it!
I'll leave it at this and say, "Island Life is the Best Life." Aloha!