Hawaii In Contrasts: From Fancy Pacific Rim Cuisine to Local Grindz
Posted on Tue, Jun 9, 2009 by Sheila
Let’s continue our series of Hawaii in Contrasts with a contrast for the taste buds, by taking a look at an example of cuisine extremes.
If you enjoy haute cuisine, you’ll love Hawaii where you’ll find extremely talented chefs, amazing presentations, and of course incredible flavors. For example, the following photo shows a Sashimi Napoleon from Haliimaile General Store (restaurant) on Maui. This colorful, Pacific Rim dish is composed of layers of smoked salmon, Ahi tartare, sashimi Ahi, and crispy won tons with wasabi vinaigrette.
Now, let’s contrast that beautifully presented dish with one of Hawaii’s staple meals, the loco moco. The following photo shows a typical loco moco that includes a hamburger patty, two scoops of rice, a scoop of macaroni salad, eggs and brown gravy. This particular loco moco from Cafe 100 in Hilo also includes two more true Hawaii favorites –Spam and Portuguese sausages.
A visit to the Aloha state is a foodie’s dream. When you visit the Hawaii, you’ll find such a diverse offering of all sorts of ethnic foods along with Hawaii’s flavorful way of interweaving them together. Andy and I always look forward to is trying something new with each visit — whether it’s fancy or just good ol’ local grindz.
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I would be equally happy eating either of those ono dishes!
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Great contrast, Like day and night for your heart though!! My cousin had sushi for breakfast the other day, dunno if I can do that LMAO
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We ate at Chef Mavro’s (awesome) but while we were there, we got to talking about the C&C Diner in Honoka’a where we’d had really good plate lunch with our waiter, a Big Island guy. It was super funny to be eating this fine, elegant food and chatting about the chicken katsu at a totally local dive.
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I love these “Hawaii in contrasts” blog posts…keep them coming
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@ Andy As this day has progressed and I’ve thought about these two meals we’ve had on Hawaii, I’ve developed a craving. Sheesh – what do do? We don’t have restaurants around home like that.
@ Bruce Great point about the additional contrast in heart un/healthy meals. Now, sushi for breakfast? I don’t think that would be my first choice either.
@ pam@nerdseyeview Sounds like an unlikely conversation, but a memorable one.
@ Micheal Thanks for the feedback. I’m so glad you’re enjoying the contrast posts. They’ve been fun to write.
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That Sashimi Napoleon is, quite simply, the most gorgeous tower of fish I’ve ever seen! Thanks for sharing it and making me hungry…for Maui. This series rocks!
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@ Melanie – the Sashimi Napoleon was beautiful, indeed. I’m afraid the photo doesn’t really do it justice.
I’m so glad to hear you like this series. I appreciate the encouragement!
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