Day 2 (Wednesday)
The day started with a leisurely morning as we were tired and needed the extra sleep. The house we were staying at is on a ranch near Honakaa, surrounded by pastures. We got a friendly visit by a mamma wild pig and her babies, and my daughter managed to capture this video. She couldn't get too close as she is very protective of her babies and will charge anybody who may be a threat. On another day, a curious mongoose came to observe us from outside a window but she left before I could take a snap.
At some point I mustered the energy to investigate the kitchen equipment – it wasn’t that complicated, but there is always a learning curve. I made coffee and thankfully the owner had made us cashew milk using his fancy Chefwave nut milk maker, so I didn’t have to figure that out while still half asleep. Nice machine by the way.
We finally go out of the house in the afternoon, and drove about 30 minutes west to the Waipi’o valley lookout to enjoy the views. It was fairly cloudy, but the good thing with the weather in Hawaii is that it never stays cloudy for very long.
The valley down below has been closed to non-residents for quite some time now due to the land erosion and unstable road conditions in that area. I hope to visit it some day.
Next we headed to the Honoka’a Country Market. It is a small store right outside of town which is packed full of local products, anything from bread (we grabbed a loaf of the turmeric bread fruit sourdough from Sundog bakery), chocolate from Honokaa chocolate company (we got a couple of bars), alcohol, and meat. The meat was very reasonably priced (about $15/lb) and looked great, so we got a few ribeye steaks for dinner.
We decided to eat there and had a simple lunch of trip tip sandwiches for some, homemade quiche for others, while a friendly goat was observing us. We liked the little library they had there, so we had reading material while we were enjoying our lunch.
Our next stop was Rebecca’s Farm Fresh market which is one of our favorite shops. This is really the place from produce, as everything is freshly picked and comes from the local farms. She also sells eggs and meats but we didn’t find out until later as it is in a fridge that is tucked in the back of the store. She also makes various little pastries, coconut rice steamed in banana leaves, etc. I find that place incredibly inspiring because I love cooking with seasonal produce and everything they have is top notch. We made a point to come almost every day to get more vegetables and fresh fruit. 😊
Lastly, we headed to Malama Market which is a supermarket. We got breakfast items and poke. This is a smaller supermarket so they sell poke that is prepackaged (larger supermarkets have giant poke counters). They have different varieties. We tried the octopus on a previous trip and weren’t fans (too chewy), so now I just stick with the ahi. This time I got the limu which is a type of seaweed.
We said hello to a friendly kitty before heading back to the house.
So for dinner that night, we started with snacks – limu poke with very tasty sesame garlic crackers from ‘Ulu & Kalo bakery, and a Big Wave golden ale from Kona Brewing (tasting notes: malty, lemon hay – 3.25/5).
Then I turned my attention to the steaks. I used a coffee rub from Aloha Spice Company and cooked the steaks on a stove in a cast iron pan. I had forgotten to buy butter so I made do with the vegan “milkadamia” buttery spread that was in the fridge as a finishing touch (delicious stuff by the way). For the veggies, we had local bok choy (delish) with scallions, soy + a touch of local sauerkraut as my source of ginger/garlic and for an extra punch of flavor.
