At Maui’s bustling Upcountry Farmers Market one Saturday morning, a silver-haired man serenaded shoppers with his scratchy violin. At his stand, Fong’s Organic, there were salad greens, chives, and … what looked like the offspring of a traditional tomato and apricot?
“That is an egg fruit,” said the violinist, noticing my confusion. “It will take another week to mature.” I’d be gone in a few days, before this fruit that tastes like mango cream and has the texture of a sweet potato tart was ready. And that was the dilemma at Maui’s oldest farmers market – a lot of the stuff isn’t for casual blasts.
When visiting Maui, especially if you never leave the beaches, lined with swaying palm trees and equally drunken revelers, it’s easy to mistake the 727-square-mile island for a playground created for tourists. But before it became America’s favorite vacation destination, the Hawai’i archipelago had done well without visitors. These isolated landmasses in the middle of the Pacific Ocean had been completely self-sufficient since the first Polynesian settlers landed around 400, laden with pigs and chickens. The basic plants they brought, such as taro and breadfruit, immediately moved to the fertile soil and created an abundance abundant enough to support a thriving population.
Currently, approximately 90% of Hawaii’s food supplies are imported. That’s why I was encouraged to see this thriving farmers market where most of the produce is grown on Maui, by the people of Maui and for the people of Maui. There were plenty of Maui onions, golden and sweet. There were bunches of marigolds wrapped in pages of sun-bleached paper. MauiTime. Sauerkraut vats lined one stall, while another sold moringa pesto and jars of hot sauce. Still, there was plenty for intruders like me too, no cooking or ripening required: seaweed fries, vegan miso ramen, and poisson cru, Maui Cones’ raw fish marinated in coconut milk and citrus Tahitian ceviche.
Reflecting the history of island migrations, today’s Hawai’i cuisine is a wonderfully layered parfait of world cuisines, borrowing techniques and flavors from Korea, Portugal, the Philippines, Japan, and wherever else. people came to join the native Hawaiians. And the arrivals have not stopped.
“As clichéd as it may sound, farming on Maui feels like a piece of heaven,” said Michael Marchand at Lapa’au Farm, 15 minutes down a closed road from the farmers market. The 29-year-old transplant from California supplies famous island restaurants like Lineage with wild arugula, as well as a variety of mushrooms like lion’s mane. “By working the land here, I have learned the value of right“, he said,” that Hawaiian notion of integrity, honesty and kindness. “
Curious as to what else was growing, I spent a week driving through the mountainous heart of Maui, collectively called the Upcountry. Two-lane highways lined with purple jacarandas and sandalwood cut through farms and ranches. There was O’o Farm, where visitors can take a farm tour with lunch on the slopes of Haleakalā, the larger of the two massive volcanoes that make up the island. At the sprawling Ali’i Kula lavender farm, winding paths through flower fields made for a relaxing self-guided tour. At Surfing Goat Dairy, I petted some goats before sampling a platter of award-winning, spicy goat cheeses. The lookouts between the farm stops offered bicoastal views of the land. Rolling down the window, the sweet scent of plumeria buzzed me. And don’t ask me how often I spiked the sugar on the fluffy shaved ice flakes drizzled with homemade sour passion fruit syrup at Ululani’s. Okay so I could have stopped at their Kīhei location driving from the farmers market to West Maui and back to Lahaina after slurping ramen at Star Noodles. (See “Where to eat” below).
One night, I got a reservation at Kiawe Outdoor, a mobile outdoor dining pop-up run by Maui-raised chef Yeshua Goodman. On a green slope in front of a private home, I settled with a group of strangers at a picnic table and enjoyed a multi-course feast that began with charred carrots and pea sprouts accompanying the goat cheese from the dairy that had Visited earlier in the week and peaches from down the hill. As the sky darkened and he became one with the sea, Goodman served smoked taro leaves mixed in a rich coconut emulsion topped with candied saffron, his version of native Hawaiian food with a Mediterranean twist. By the time the stars overshadowed the flickering lanterns, he was pouring yuzu broth with a flourish into shallow bowls of freshly caught ono.
On my last day, I headed to Kahului, Maui’s main town. As is the routine for those in the know, I went to get my lunch on board at Tin Roof, a simple take-out restaurant. The best chef student Sheldon Simeon and his wife, Janice. With its fried chicken sandwiches, ocean-fresh poke, and wok-fried noodles, this one-counter operation embodies the laid-back, all-encompassing spirit of multicultural Hawai’i cuisine.
“Every island is different, but I would say that Maui has a unique combination of more external influences just from the sheer amount of tourism,” Simeon said on the sidewalk just outside his business. She had recently learned more about the differences between the islands while doing research for her cookbook, Cook real hawaiian. But lately, he had been worrying about his home island and his food. “We need to welcome travelers and guests,” he said. “But they also have to understand that we have limited resources, that they should go to the community first.”
To give you an idea: while there are 167,417 people who call Maui home, nearly 1 million visitors landed on Maui in the first half of 2021 alone. At that rate, each year, a dozen tourists come to Maui for every resident of full time. However, tourism is also a lifesaver for the locals, as it directly and indirectly accounts for 80% of the island’s economy.
When I originally set out to take the best culinary road trip on Maui, I imagined I could just write odes to the island’s multicultural flavors, open pastures, and a few food trucks. But the tensions stemming from overcrowding – tensions intensified by the pandemic – have shown that tourism cannot continue as before.
At the same time, Maui cannot exist in a vacuum. Perhaps, then, it is more crucial than ever that visitors learn where food comes from and support more local producers and businesses, strengthening the local ecosystem in a sustainable way. All it takes is a meal on the Maui table to tell you that we are living in a connected world after all.
Maui takes gas station food, or grinding, as the food is called locally, very seriously. Here are some highlights.
After cutting his teeth on the Relais & Châteaux Hotel Wailea property, Zach Sato opened his first solo project at a modest gas station in Kihei in December 2020. Havens Serves greasy enough burgers crushed and seared on the grill and saimin dipped in bone broth boiled for three days.
Housed within an original mid-century building, Uptown Kitchen & Food Mart It’s no ordinary gas station, with its own retro restaurant-style grill serving daily specials ranging from yakitori chicken to grilled salmon salad.
With her cult on the island of Hawai’i, Manuela Malasada (243 Lahainaluna Road, Lahaina) He arrived in Maui and settled in the parking lot of a Lahaina gas station, frying and filling fist-sized donuts on request. Get them rolled in li hing mui (salty sour plum powder) and filled with iconic Hawaiian liliko’i (passion fruit) or ube (purple yam) butter.
Minit Stop, now a local chain, has been a hometown favorite since its opening in 1982, and stands out for its fried chicken and potato wedges breaded in the same secret spice blend.
Here’s how to get a taste of Maui and support its growers, without the need for a plane ticket.
Maui Ku’ia Estate Chocolate makes delicate dark and milk chocolate squares using the fruits of its 8,000 trees on a barren hillside near Lahaina. You can also take a virtual farm tour that includes tasting boxes (starting at $ 70) or mail-order flavored chocolate gift sets featuring locally grown fruits like mango and calamansi.
Home bakers can get creative with Voyaging Foods, which ships flour made from original canoe plants like taro and sweet potatoes.
Since its humble beginning as a family operation in 1981, Kumu Farms has grown to over 200 acres of farmland, from where you can order fresh papayas and pineapples.
A staple in the Polynesian diet, breadfruit adds a smooth richness to the Maui Breadfruit Company’s Pono Pies fridge, shipped frozen in four.
The Maui government encourages the hunting of the axis deer, an invasive species that is currently devastating endemic flora. Maui Nui Deer offers subscription boxes of wild meat, processed in accordance with FDA and USDA regulations. The company also ships venison bone broth, meat sticks, and dog treats.
Left: Credit: Bailey Rebecca Roberts
Center: Credit: Bailey Rebecca Roberts
Correct: Credit: Bailey Rebecca Roberts
The creator of dry mein, Maui’s soup-free interpretation of saimin, is now in the third generation of family ownership. The fine noodles are simply mixed with sweet char siu (roast pork), chives, and a sweet and salty secret sauce, and are well worth the detour to an industrial part of Wailuku, the non-touristy county seat of colorful wooden shop windows. 1750 Wili Pa Loop, Wailuku
The other end of the Maui noodle evolution serves up handcrafted noodles in creative combinations like lime and chili dashi with smoked prosciutto and Thai basil dressings. The open-air beachfront restaurant also excels at made-to-share dishes inspired by all corners of Asia, like crisp Vietnamese crêpes and shrimp tempura.
Enjoy a great brunch from Chef Lee Anne Wong tucked away on a patio under a giant baobab tree in historic Lahaina. The menu includes Macadamia Nut Pancakes, Corn Flake Crusted French Toast, Striped Marlin Benedict with Miso Hollandaise Sauce and Ramen, made for breakfast with poached egg and bacon.
Dishes like perfectly crispy twice fried chicken with sweet gochujang glaze and Wagyu kalbi served with finadene, a Guam chili sauce, draw on former Lineage chef MiJin Kang Toride’s Korean-Guamanian heritage.
Despite its location in a strip mall in Lahaina, this is a decidedly hipster spot with creative vegan dishes. Grab the Taro Burger or Reuben Pickled Aubergine to go; They come wrapped in the island’s abundant (and highly compostable) ti leaves.
At press time, proof of vaccination or a negative COVID-19 test was required prior to departure to Hawai’i. While travel is not restricted, there are still some capacity restrictions at restaurants, rental cars can be hard to come by, and the island’s hospitals are overloaded due to the delta variant. Consider visiting when cases go down; visit gohawaii.com for updates.
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