Quests- Maui,Hawaii/The Food

During Christmastime, I was in Maui. I had never been to Hawaii before (or on a plane), so it was pretty interesting. I have lots to share, so I'll be breaking it down into a couple of posts. The first post I wanted to do is on the food, because it was very good! (I'll also share a few that were meh and womp womp, just to be fair.)

One of the first things we did when we got there was go grocery shopping. Besides the price of food being way higher than here in CA, the variety of foods in the store were very different than what I'd expect to see at a grocery store here. One of the first foods I saw was this hot dog musubi. I didn't try it, but I was intrigued.

         

Spam is another huge deal over there. It goes back to WWII, and I have nothing against Spam. It was just strange to see it offered in restaurants and to have such huge end caps dedicated to the stuff. Here at home, its usually just shoved at one end of a dusty shelf, and nobody admits to eating it because its considered a poor man's food.

While we did cook in our timeshare sometimes, we also ate at a few restaurants. We ate at L & L Hawaiian BBQ twice because it was very good. They gave generous portions and the prices were so reasonable. I didn't take a picture of my food there, I think its one of the only places I didn't. I was just so hungry I forgot! They also have locations scattered throughout the mainland US and some overseas, check their website and see if they have a location near you. 

We also ate breakfast at a place called Slappy Cakes three times. Their food was soooooo good. I'm not usually a pancake person, but I really tore into theirs! I tried the Blueberry Tart pancakes that was served with house-made lemon curd and the Hawaiian pancakes. I also had the lavender lemonade and the hibiscus lemonade. All of it was tasty, but the lavender lemonade and Hawaiian pancakes were my favorites. There are also griddles in the middle of each table in case you choose the DIY pancake option. I thought about trying that, but I was also feeling lazy since I was on vacation, so that didn't happen. Slappy Cakes also has a restaurant in Portland, and a few overseas as well.

The first meh place we ate at was Sansei. My in-laws loved the food there, but my husband and I were left a little underwhelmed (and no, we're not foodies or anything). The food was really expensive, the portions were small, and it tasted like food we could get at home for half the price. I will say though, that the first thing I tried (which was a mango crab salad handroll), was really good.

There is a great little bakery called Sugar Beach Bake Shop that made the best macarons! I even brought some home with me!

The womp, womp place we ate at was Moose McGillycuddy's. The place was overcrowded, so we were put at a table that was too small for the five of us. The food was comparable to things you can buy premade at a grocery store, and the rest was just flavorless and blah. Not to mention that it made all of us sick. I don't recommend that place at all. 

Genki Sushi was a really fun place to eat. There are conveyor belts that have plates of variously priced sushi travel all through the restaurant. We ordered everything straight from the kitchen (because we don't trust people lol) and it was delicious. The plates are color coated and the waitress just counts up how many of each color you have and that's how they figure our your bill. It was really affordable and tasty. I also had to try some tamago Spam nigiri. You can't go to Hawaii and not eat Spam at least once :)

And to finish up this post (I know, its a long one!), I leave you with a Dole Whip. I never get these at Disneyland, so I figured I would try one where the pineapples are very fresh. It was delicious!

Tomorrow, I'll talk all about the alcohol related tours we took on the island!

**All photos (Except the L&L BBQ and Moose McGillycuddy's logos) were taken by me. If you use them, please credit. Thank you!**