Mom's in Hawaii, what should she bring me?

[Rachel Perlow]

My parents are on a cruise of the islands right now. She checked in with me the other day asking what we would like her to bring back for us. We are actually pretty well stocked on Kona coffee, so we requested good mac nuts and some of the pink Hawaiian sea salt (is there a specific name for that?).

What are we missing? Is there something else we should request (that's packable or shipable, obviously -- so no shave ice).

[ladyyoung98]

sugar cane?........fresh from the whatever pineapple?......fresh coconuts?

aside from the macadamia nuts..which u already mentioned...i wouldnt even know what to reccomend....ive ever even been to hawaii..and i think its way too late to ask for jack lord...cuz i think he died some time back? and tom selleck is out of the question too since magnum pi is no longer on tv anywhere other thna syndication sompelace and so is nto longer beign filmed there and hasnt been for a good many years now....ahhh well......

Edited December 7, 2004 by ladyyoung98 (log)

[reid]

Hi Rachel,

The pink sea salt that you speak of is actually called alae. Its color is actually more red than pink and the color comes from the salt being exposed to red clay. How long will it be before your parents return home? That would determine other items that I would recommend.

[Rachel Perlow]

Thanks for the info on the salt.

They're on a cruise, stopping at the varioius islands, for about another week (it's a 10 day cruise). I can contact her by email, and she'll probably call me from her cell a couple times, so keep the suggestions coming.

[Gastro888]

In Oahu (perhaps on other islands as well) there are flavored mac nuts - honey roasted, sour cream and onion. Granted, you don't want to mess with a perfect mac nut but it's interesting to try the flavored kinds since we only get the plain or chocolate covered ones here on the mainland.

Kona coffee is good. Maui sea salt is great on roasted chicken.

On the non-food tip, I would ask your mom to bring you some tuberose soap from Maui. The scent is heavenly.

[ludja]

A friend of mine raved about the 'white honey" found on the Big Island. Haven't had it myself but have been intrigued to try it after hearing her description. Maybe someone else has experience and an opinion on it... it may be hype for all I know!

link

Edited December 7, 2004 by ludja (log)

[Rachel Perlow]

Mmm, honey roasted mac nuts!

I'm forwarding her all the suggestions (even the non-food ones, that soap sounds delightful), since she's probably getting stuff for people other than us, like my brothers and their families, dontcha know.

[Gastro888]

A friend of mine raved about the 'white honey" found on the Big Island.  Haven't had it myself but have been intrigued to try it after hearing her description.  Maybe someone else has experience and an opinion on it... it may be hype for all I know! 

link

←

Ai ya!!! Thank you, ludja! I can't believe I FORGOT about this Hawaiian jewel. Oh, for sure your mom has to get you some of that. It's cheaper over there. You can get it at Whole Foods in Rockville, MD but it's hecka pricey. It's this thick, creamy, slightly grainy honey that is more like condensed milk than regular viscous honey. It is FANTASTIC on toast. It's sweet and has a slight floral note to it. If you like sweet things, you'll like this.

Although my friend who drinks Southern style iced tea said this white honey made her teeth rattle!

I will try and find out the name of the Maui soap company for you. That soap is so fragrant...man, you're making me want to head over there right now.

[glossyp]

If possible you should have her get some of the vanilla which is being grown on the Big Island by the Hawaiian Vanilla Company (link below). I grew up on Mexican vanilla (mother would make trips to Mexico just to purchase it) and more recently always used Tahitian vanilla. That was until I came to Hawaii and was introduced to the vanilla being grown here; it's truly exceptional.

http://www.hawaiivanilla.com/

[laniloa]

Some li hing mui for a nice snack. Some treats from the Maui Chocolate Company. Hawaiian Hurricane microwave popcorn (with mochi, arare, nori). Mamaki and Kokoolau teas. School Kine Cookies (recipes were developed by the local schools) in the cornflake crumble flavor.

[Rachel Perlow]

Some li hing mui for a nice snack.

←

What's that?

[skchai]

Rachel - li hing mui is dried salted Chinese plum-apricot, a variety of what we call "crack seed" here (see schpiel below). Let me second a lot of the previous recommendations - here are a few more additions, elaborations, and weird thoughts on the many useful suggestions that the others have made in earlier posts:

In this age of rampant globalization, just about anything that is nonperishable and can be carried from one part of the world to another is available just about everywhere in the industrialized world, if not in specialty stores, then on the web. It make the business of seeking out local specialties and carrying them home a lot less romantic than it used to be. That being said, there are a number of distinctive local Hawai`i products that are portable and survive long plane flights, yet relatively hard to get elsewhere. So it might be worthwhile having your parents lug back some of the following:

Pure Kona coffee is certainly one of our best-known products, though you can buy it from many reputable specialty roasters on the mainland (as long as you're careful to specify 100% Kona instead of Kona Blend, which usually has on 10% Kona beans). One the other hand, one thing that is difficult to get on the mainland is single plantation-grown estate Kona coffees. These are beans that express the flavor of a single growing area and are registered to ensure that they are never blended. If your parents happen to be passing through the South Kona Coast, most of these are available from the plantations where they are grown, as well as local shops. A list of estate coffees can be found on the Kona Coffee Council website.

Local and traditional herbal tisanes are an excellent gift, as laniloa mentioned. The more popular ones include those made with mamaki (pipturus albidus) leaves, `ohelo (vaccinium reticulatum) berry, and ko`oko`olau (bidens amplectens). Not mention awa aka kava, which will give you a mild buzz, and noni, which is credited with all sorts of antioxidant qualities.

`Alaea (or more precisely pa`akai `alaea), rock salt mixed with red earth, is available from a wide variety of specialty retailers. However, be careful to avoid the ultimate globalization trick - be sure that you are getting `alaea made from locally collected rock salt and not rock salt that is imported from California and sold to tourists as Hawaiian. We had a thread about `alaea a while ago.

One local specialty that you're unlikely to find even at specialty food stores on the mainland is crack seed, the spiced preserved fruits that were originally from southern China but were later transformed into a local obsession. Thrill your friends with lip-puckeringly salty and sour li hing mui or mango seed. If they're in Honolulu, one convenient place to get it is at the Crack Seed Centers in Ala Moana. The fact that they have a website shows that even crack seed is not immune to the e-commerce trend, but it is still cheaper to get it locally. If you want to go somewhere even more out of the way, most neighborhoods have their own local crack seed stores. Waiola Shave Ice also carry a pretty good selection. Here is a link to an excellent article Rachel Laudan (caroline) wrote about them.

Local jams and jellies are a good bet. Particularly poha jam, made from the island gooseberry, which is widely available in local supermarkets. Poha jam has a kind of seedy tartness that is pretty addictive. Guava and lilikoi (passion fruit) jams and jellies are even more widely available, though not as special.

Yes, cookies are not unique to Hawai`i, but local-style cookies are really unique. Among other things, they are really small and come in very interesting flavors, but not so weird that the relatives will reject them if your parents bring some home. Here is a thread on local cookies, with a link to an obsessive essay I wrote about them.

If you are looking for the only-in-Hawai`i, somewhat bizarre, souvenir food products, here are a few possibilities:

Hurricane Mix: This is packaged popcorn with arare (rice crackers) and furikake (seasoned dried seaweed flakes). Somehow this has become a fad snack locally over the last few years. A very strange East-West blend.

Li Hing Gummy Worms: Another hard-to-explain local fad. This takes the sour anise-laden powder used to season li hing mui (see above) and sprinkles it on gummy worms. Enjoy!

Commemorative Musubi Spam: The love of Spam in Hawai`i is so deep and so true that a while ago the Hormel company released an incredibly kitchy special commemorative can featuring hula dancer dolls and the local favorite: Spam musubi. I posted a picture on the a previous thread. Anyway, there may be a few left on the shelves.

Canned Wahoo (ono): This has become a cult product - formerly available only in Samoa, now available on Oahu as well. Sort of like canned tuna but a lot better. Lee Cataluna of the Honolulu Advertiser has been spreading the religion about it; here is an article by her and here is another.

All of the last few products are fairly widely available at local grocery stores in Honolulu. Finally, although they were probably the single most popular consumable souvenirs from Hawai`i up until the early 1980s, I would not recommend that your parents try to get their hands on any "Kona Gold" or "Maui Wowie".

[melonpan]

thanks for the links. that canned wahoo sounds yummy!

i was going to add crack seed too. :D

i would like to add li hing mui powder. it is cheap (actually, i can find it easily in socal) and not a large investment of space. they are usually sold in tiny plastic packets. i would highly recommend trying to get some, just to try.

some things to do with li hing mui powder:

<ol><li>sprinkle over shave ice. (ive never used the li hing syrup...)

<li>add to gummi candies. its really good with the sour cola bottles, i promise!

<li>sprinkle on popcorn.

<li><a href="http://starbulletin.com/97/04/02/features/story1.html">some cakes i only found out about today</a> (the <a href="http://starbulletin.com/97/04/02/features/story2.html">accompanying recipes</a>).

<li>li hing sprite.</ol>

actually, instead of powder, drop an actual li hing mui into your sprite. the red dye colors the sprite heavily at the bottom, less at the top. tastes good too. and eat the li hing mui at the end! goodness.

i get kind of tired of the saccharine taste though. i havent had li hing anything in a while... once i get started again, though, it is hard to stop sucking and chewing on crack seed...

Edited December 8, 2004 by melonpan (log)

[Carlovski]

Spam?

[birder53]

How about coconut syrup? We first had it on "Plantation Pancakes" in a restaurant in Honolulu. They added chopped macadamia nuts and chopped bananas to the pancake batter. They were served with warm coconut syrup. We made sure to come back from that trip with several bottles of the syrup and cans of the unsalted nuts. Mmmmm...

[jupiter]

Something from http://www.bigislandcandies.com/ ?

[tanabutler]

My vote is for imu pig! If she plays her cards right, it will fit into a flexible carry-on. And you can feed leftovers to the fat squirrel!

[herbacidal]

Spam?

←

Well, we know that'll survive the trip back, at least.

[kokimotonyc]

On the topic of perishable items, what I typically bring back from Hawaii is a duffel bag full of fresh saimin from Sun Noodle (you can go to the factory in Kalihi and get close to the wholesale price) and Portuguese sausage. Last month when I was there I forgot all of what I bought in my sister's refrigerator. Saimin is a local flour-based noodle soup that is similar, but entirely different from ramen, BTW. You can send the bag through checked baggage, which allows you to take advantage of the low temperature of the baggage hold. Do not freeze as it affects the texture of the noodles when you refreeze when you get home. Incidentally, each package comes with dried soup base, so it is easy to make a satisfying saimin meal on the cold winter days on the mainland.

You can also get saimin from Zippys.com, but it's rather expensive, and the noodles you get are not as good as Sun.

[Jason Perlow]

BTW on the subject of Mac nuts, I am a bit spoiled on the nuts from Bay View Farm, ( http://www.bayviewfarmcoffees.com ) who is the second largest processor of 100 Percent Kona on the Big Island (the largest is Captain Cook) and they buy from a lot of small farms and have very good single estate coffees. We visited their plantation, which overlooks Kealakekua Bay, during our honeymoon in 1995. The Bay View Farm mac nuts have the distinction of being dry roasted instead of being roasted in oil and they are unsalted. The macs themselves are also HUGE in comparison to the ones you get from the larger mac producers like Mauna Loa:

http://nisbet.net/mivastore/merchant.mv?Sc...Category_Code=F

We have since ordered from Bay View Farm several times since we visited them in '95 and given their coffee and macs as gifts -- everyone we have sent it to has been really impressed with their stuff.

[Rachel Perlow]

OK, the 'rents are back. We got some alae salt, maui onion flavored and honey roasted mac nuts, poha jam (we had a little tasting of it at their house and couldn't decide what it tasted like, which is a good thing to me, as it tastes like a poha!), and tuberose soap (very strong scent).

Thanks for all your suggestions everyone!

[Rachel Perlow]

OK, I've got the alae salt. So what should I do with it?

[laniloa]

I love the flavor alae salt adds to simple vegetable sautes and sprinkled over fresh tomato in summer. Rather then add salt to a vinaigrette, I'll sprinkle the alae over the dressed salad so that I get the flavor and crunch. Rub it with cracked pepper over a nice cut of meat and roast.

[Raoul Duke]

Aloha, I've used the Maui alae salt on roasts of all sorts. It is especially nice on Weke Ula (large, up to 6 # deepwater goatfish) but can be used on whole salmon. Sam Choy scores the whole cleaned, scaled fish w/diaganol cuts and sprinkles on the salt, ginger cut into fine matchstick sizes and steamed in a basket. Oh so ono, I like grind. Enjoy

[Paula Jonvik]

Vintage Hawaiian Chocolate... 60% and up...... mmm!!!

Open wide and say ALOHA!!! :)