Aloha from the Mom at the Meat Counter

Our family recently returned from a trip to Hawaii. That’s right, Hawaii, the Big Island. I want to go back so bad that I dream about flowers and lava rocks. In fact, I’d really like to just move there. We loved it!

My sister married a guy from Hilo, HI, and we went over for a reception with his family and friends. Then, we stayed for 10 days.

Ask anyone in the meat business and they will probably tell you that one of our favorite things to explore on vacation is local food. We head to markets or grocery stores, take pictures of meals, and ask anyone that will answer us about their food. I love to check out what people eat, especially meat, and where they buy it, and how they prepare it, and what they eat with it. Anything about local food interests me.

So, needless to say, that’s what I did in Hawaii. I thought I would share some of my Hawaiian food adventures on my blog.

At the wedding reception, my new brother-in-law wanted us to experience authentic Hawaiian cuisine. We were served octopus, a tomato and raw salmon salad, and poke, which contained slightly-cooked tuna. I wasn’t very brave that day, I only tried the poke, but the pork on the main dish was very good. I became braver later and even tried Sashimi, which is uncooked Tuna. It was very good!

As a side we had these Hawaiian sweet potatoes. They are white until you cook them, and they turn purple.

 

After church in Arkansas, we have refreshments of banana bread or cookies. After church in Hawaii, they served sushi. I had never had sushi, but felt it would be rude to refuse, so I tried it and I was so glad I did. I really liked it!

Asian culture is very strong in Hawaii. Mark’s family is Japanese and Korean. We had many meals with them. Such wonderful people! At my parents’ house, we have silverware in a little canister like this. My new brother-in-law’s parents also had chop sticks.

Ed had coconut pancakes with Portuguese sausage at the World Famous Ken’s Pancake House. They even had coconut syrup (the white one). I tried the Guava syrup, but it was not for me.

 

We had L&L Hawaiian barbeque in Honolulu the day we went to Pearl Harbor. Hawaiian barbeque is not slow cooked like on the mainland. It was heavily seasoned, thin sliced and cooked in a skillet. We had chicken, beef ribs and beef steak. It was served with a heaping helping of rice and either garden salad or macaroni salad. So much food!

 

We went to a Noni fruit and cattle farm. I’ve done research with Noni fruit in ground beef. I took more pictures of Noni fruit and Noni trees than anything. More about that in another blog post.

 

Mixed-breed cattle in Hawaii, like these, are called Poi dogs

 

These cattle eat  grass and the Noni fruit from the trees. The Noni farmer loves it because the cows keep the trees pruned so it’s easier to harvest the fruit.

 

At the Noni farm, we also learned about Korean Natural Farming. I am going to do some more research on the subject. It was very intriguing.

I am not normally a big grass-fed beef gal, but this was delicious!

 

Our new friends from the Noni farm shared home-grown avocados, papaya, and tangelos (a cross of an orange and a tangerine). And, of course, a Noni fruit.

 

We always visit the grocery store when we travel. We head right to the meat case and see how things look.

Paniolo’s are Hawaiian cowboys. This store was up in the cattle-ranching area of the Big Island, near the Parker Ranch which is the fifth largest ranch in the US.

Hawaiian meat counters look a lot like those on the mainland, but remember that most of the red meat has traveled thousands of miles.

A more local choice was Big Island Beef that is raised right on the island.

Chicken feet are very popular in Asian cultures. I had never seen them in the meat case, though.

Beef casing. I guess for making sausage.

 

Pigs feet. I have seen these on the mainland.



Chop Sui!

Beef tongue. I’ve seen this one on the mainland, too.

Pork tails.

 

Pork intestine. I had never seen it quite like this before.

Of course, loads and loads of fish.

 

 

It's not a great picture, but, yes, that is an octopus… in the grocery store.

 

 

 We went fishing and Dad caught a Mahi Mahi. We gave most of the meat to the boat crew, but we tried some.  It was really good!

This is the captain cleaning our fish. He and the other crew members were taking little bites of the raw fish right there. We were not that brave.

 

 

I know this post has been quite different from most my previous posts, but I really enjoyed our trip. We learned so much and had such a wonderful time. I am planning a trip to Florida in a few weeks. I’m sure I’ll have some pictures of food from that trip, too.