Kona In-Unit Cuisine

[beejaybee]

Does any frequent Hawaii timeshare user have suggestions for tropical dinners that can easily be prepared in the kitchen or outdoor grill?
The only idea I have so far is chicken kebabs that include pineapple with rice as a side dish.
We plan on a Costco stop for adult beverages, maybe a rotisserie chicken and/or fresh fish, and Safeway for needed items such as milk, butter, cereal, etc. enroute to Wyndham Kona Hawaiian Resort with a 4pm check-in. Our flight into KOA arrives at 10:30ish so will probably have lunch before shopping. We'll be bringing a folding cooler bag that we'll add ice to along with our food purchases.
Thanks!

 

[SmithOp]

I was in Kona last month, the Safeway is closed, you might have to use Walmart for additional items or the KTA in Keahou shopping center.

Maybe @ScoopKona can recommend some local dishes to prepare, he lives near Capt Cook.

 

[DeniseM]

Buy a pork loin and marinate it overnight (or longer) in a Hawaiian brand teriyaki sauce. Roast in the oven. Then use it for multiple meals: sliced and served with local fruit salad, or local garden salad, and Kings Hawaiian rolls, sliced for sandwiches, shredded for tacos or wraps, stir fried with local fruit/veggies. ***Save the drippings/sauce to cook your stir fry in, or to make Dirty Rice.

*We do all of the above with chicken too. I also use chicken for a hearty chicken salad with shredded lettuce, and local vegetables and pineapple.

 

[1Kflyerguy]

I was in Kona last month, the Safeway is closed, you might have to use Walmart for additional items or the KTA in Keahou shopping center.

Maybe @ScoopKona can recommend some local dishes to prepare, he lives near Capt Cook.

Is the Safeway closed permanently? We usually hit that up, as we usually need Costco-level quantities.

The Safeway website still shows the location on Henry St as open.

 

[ScoopKona]

Is the Safeway closed permanently? We usually hit that up, as we usually need Costco-level quantities.

The Safeway website still shows the location on Henry St as open.

Maybe their freezers died or something. They're quite open, unfortunately. They're the absolute worst option on the island. Even Costco has a few local foods (frozen Kauai shrimp, for instance). However, the Costco mac nut treats came from China. They're packaged in Hawaii so they can say "made in Hawaii." But both Hawaiian Host and Mauna Loa stopped using Hawaiian mac nuts long ago. The local mac nut farms are collapsing left and right because of this.

We plan on a Costco stop for adult beverages, maybe a rotisserie chicken and/or fresh fish, and Safeway for needed items such as milk, butter, cereal, etc. enroute to Wyndham Kona Hawaiian Resort with a 4pm check-in.

I wouldn't get fish at Costco. Very little of it is local. And Safeway is even worse.

Here's my provisioning advice. This is how I shop for food.

1. Big Island Abalone. First on the list. The most interesting food source on the Big Island. Tourists fly here from Japan just to eat these ocean snails. The Japanese variety we're growing is nearly extinct off Japan's waters. So the price difference is several thousand dollars per pound. The only way you can get some is to go to the farm, which is just south of KOA airport. No restaurants have it on the menu. Just the little food truck at the farm. "What can I do to help Hawaii?" Ask for Big Island abalone at seafood restaurants state-wide. Demand it.
2. The two local grocery stores. That's Locavore in Hilo and Farm House in Kainaliu. Locavore has more stuff. They're also closer to the ranches so they have a meat department. But it's all about getting produce from nearby farms at both places. You're not going to find any Costco mangoes or Filipino pineapples. It's all Big Island, all the time. The only problem is that hyper-local means you never know what's going to be in stock. Most supermarkets only care about consistency. They want avocados ALL the time. Who cares what they taste like? This is the opposite. "Maybe we have avocados. Maybe not. But when we do, they're the best."
3. The good farmers markets. None of the "open every day" markets are good. That's where Costco fruit is sold at Hawaii prices. The Saturday markets in Keauhou and Waimea (three of them -- Waimea is best visited on Saturday for this reason). The Sunday markets in Captain Cook and Hamakua. Here's the full list. Just avoid the ones that are daily or nearly-every-day. https://www.lovebigisland.com/farmers-markets/
4. Choicemart for fish. They only sell local catch. Whole ahi is reliably $5/pound. Also the fish market in Kawaihae and Suisan market in Hilo (which sells the best inexpensive poke - but they close at 3 pm.)
5. Individual farms/ranches: Punachicks. Ancient Valley Farms. OK Farms. There are a lot of farms. You can google "[my favorite food] farm Big Island" and something is likely to turn up. If they welcome visitors, that puts your food dollar directly into the hands which grew it.
6. Roadside stands. If you see someone at the side of the road with a big sign reading, "Ahi" or "Smoke Meat" or "Kalua Pig" -- pull over. That's as good as it gets on the Big Island. There are a few which are semi-permanent. But I'm not going to list any (not even privately) because the State and county likes to run these people off. We had a fish guy in Keauhou who sold top quality at half the price of the supermarkets. And he was run off because the supermarkets couldn't compete. Now we don't have a fish guy in Keauhou. And that's a shame.
7. The other local supermarkets: KTA and Foodland/Sack-N-Save. They sell some local produce. And if you see "Da Bux" it means that item was grown/raised/caught somewhere in Hawaii.
8. The mainland markets. This is where you get the stuff that is either unavailable or ridiculously expensive elsewhere. Maple syrup, for instance. It's $50 a pint at KTA. It's $15 for a half-gallon at Costco. If you have a serious maple syrup addiction, head to Costco. They're also the best for alcohol.

Finally, timing matters. Mangos are a summer thing. So are white pineapples. Guava is four times a year. But there aren't any available right now. My guava trees are just starting to flower. Coffee is harvested from summer through January. With most of it happening Aug-Nov. Lychee and rambutan are spring and early summer. Papayas, avocados and citrus is basically all-year. But there can be some weeks in between avocado harvests (none of the species ripen at the same time.)

 

[ScoopKona]

As for "what do I make in Hawaii."

• Mac-nut or coconut crusted Mahi Mahi. Standard breading procedure. Mix a lot of chopped mac nuts or coconut flakes in with the panko. Refrigerate to set the coating. Bake. Broil to toast the top. Serve over rice with a dollop of mac-nut basil pesto as a garnish. Or serve with ube (which is superior in every way to a russet potato. Anything you can do with a russet potato, you can do with ube. It will just be purple.)
• Coconut-crusted Kauai ama-ebi shrimp. Same deal as the Mahi. This is on the menu at half the fine-dining restaurants on the island. Can be baked or fried.
• Spicy ahi tuna temaki with local avocado slices. (Malama avocado if you can find them.) Cone-shaped rolls Dead simple to make. And fast. I can slam out temaki faster than people can eat it.
• Grilled Big Island beef. Even Target sells Parker Ranch beef. Grill some and serve with ube.
• Char sui pork/chicken. Go to Long's or KTA and grab a jar of Lum's Char Sui sauce. They should put me on the payroll I recommend it so often. Marinate cubed pork/chicken overnight. Bake/grill/broil. Serve with rice and fresh white pineapple slices (summer only).
• Kauai shrimp summer rolls with mac-nut dipping sauce. Every local supermarket has 3 Ladies rice wrappers. Soak for 30 seconds and roll a salad made of cooked shrimp (bias slice), greens, and rice stick noodles (also in every local grocery).
• Kampachi meuniere. Kampachi may be a young tuna. But it cooks up just like Dover sole. My wife demands this dish every week.

Don't make rice on vacation, obviously. Go to one of the local supermarkets and buy a quart of white rice or sushi rice. They sell both for pennies. Also, just buy supermarket poke instead of making it from scratch. I stopped making scratch poke because after all that work, it tastes about the same as what the supermarkets sell -- for less money. Just not Costco or Safeway poke (or sushi).

You will spend about the same as Costco and Safeway buying local produce at Farm House/KTA/ChoiceMart/farmers markets. You're just getting actual value for your money this way.

EDIT -- Costco rotisserie chicken is $5. Randy's or GJ's huli huli chicken is $20. And worth the extra $15. Seasoned and smoked over kiawe. There's always a better local option. Local takeaway bento boxes are better than road sandwiches. (Now you don't need to buy bread at Costco. If you have to have bread for avocado toast or similar, Sundog sourdough is worth the additional spend.) Musubi is better than Denny's. And bowls of in-season fruit makes the best breakfast. Eating like this isn't going to blow up the food budget. (Eating at waterfront tourist traps is the best way to blow up the food budget.) But it will improve quality of life by an order of magnitude. We moved here in part because of how much better the tomatoes taste. And we can have them all the time, free. Having the best tomatoes also means we have the best salsa, guacamole, marinara, BLTs and caprese salad.

 

[Luanne]

Not tropical but we do hamburgers and spaghetti when we are on Maui. We will also check the market to see what kind of prepared meats they have and pair it with rice or noodles. We also buy a box of lettuce and salad dressing to add a salad to our meals.

 

[bizaro86]

Big Island supermarket Poke is a legit world class delicacy. We go to the Big Island at least every other year, and eat it every other day when we are there. My son regularly asks when we are going back so he can have it again. There isn't anything like it on the mainland (and I've tried a depressingly large number of Poke restaurants elsewhere, all of which were depressing in comparison)

 

[SmithOp]

Is the Safeway closed permanently? We usually hit that up, as we usually need Costco-level quantities.

The Safeway website still shows the location on Henry St as open.

Maybe we were there at a bad time, it was definitely closed so we went to KTA.

 

[lynne]

Maybe we were there at a bad time, it was definitely closed so we went to KTA.

You are aware that the moved from their original location an built a brand new Safeway south of the highway on Henry Street.

Grocery Store Near Me - Local Supermarket - Safeway in Kailua Kona, HI

Looking for a grocery store near you that accepts SNAP and EBT payments in Kailua Kona, HI? Safeway is your local Supermarket located at 75-971 Henry St where you can shop in store, order groceries online or shop groceries through our grocery app.

local.safeway.com

 

[ScoopKona]

Maybe we were there at a bad time, it was definitely closed so we went to KTA.

You were lucky, then. There are three things worth buying at Safeway: 1) Gasoline. It's even less than Costco. 2) Wine. 3) SOME Mainland junk food. (EDIT: If Costco carries the junk food/alcohol, it definitely costs less. If WalMart does, it probably costs less.)

Literally everything else they sell has better alternatives somewhere else on the island.

 

[beejaybee]

@ScoopKona
If you are at the tastings on June 6 or 10 we'd love to meet you!
The 6th is a big day with the floral parade and celebration for King Kamehameha in Kona. We arrive the day before and what better way to kick off our week than enjoying the festivities!

 

[ScoopKona]

@ScoopKona
If you are at the tastings on June 6 or 10 we'd love to meet you!
The 6th is a big day with the floral parade and celebration for King Kamehameha in Kona. We arrive the day before and what better way to kick off our week than enjoying the festivities!

If I'm not at the Kainaliu grocery on a Wed. or Sat., I'm in a hospital. My wife and I haven't missed a day in two years. It's better to visit that store early in the trip because that's where the good stuff is sourced. Right now, there are julie mangos, purple and yellow mangosteen, mamey sapote, mountain apple, star apple, soursop and the best tomatoes on the entire planet. If you're lucky there will be white pineapples early June.

I've got about 20 white pineapples growing here on the farm. (Propagating is such a chore. It takes FOREVER.) One of them is almost there.

Ideally, land; get some poke or whatever for your first night; and then head to Farm House the next day. There's plenty in Kainaliu anyway. Hale Cocoa has turned into a star attraction. Rebel Kitchen is across the street. There are two thrift/antique stores that specialize in Hawaiiana. And the hyper-local grocery. Donkey Balls may or may not be open. They keep weird, seemingly random hours. And then Shaka Tacos, Kona Chips and Super J's Cafe is just down the road. As is the Painted Church, City of Refuge and Two Step.

The Most Criminally Overlooked Town In Hawaii And Why You Need To Visit | Sea Paradise

Things to do in Captain Cook, Hawaii including snorkeling in Kealakekua Bay on the Hoku Nui with Sea Paradise.

seaparadise.com

EDIT -- If you don't want to hike to the bay to snorkel, go kayaking with Kona Boys. And take the early morning trip. It is almost guaranteed you'll be kayaking with spinner dolphins. And you'll snorkel before the motorboats show up and scare all the big fish and turtles away.

Kainaliu

A wide variety of food, art, crafts, music.

www.kainaliu.us