Kauai Food Adventures

Kauai, Hawaii was such a dream way to celebrate finishing my medical training. It was my first time here, and Kauai is less touristy, more adventurous compared to the other islands – highly recommend it.

We spent a week here with my family. Big highlights was sailing the Napali Coast and hiking the Kalalau trail. While we were not able to eat a luau dinner (we wanted Smith’s luau but the dinner was sold out), we had plenty of amazing food.

Hawaii food is not cheap, so the first stop was heading to the famous Hawaii Costco to stock up for the week, which had so many speciality Hawaii items. Favorites include the Kona coffee macadamias, May’s Kalbi short ribs, Hawaiian sausages, Hawaiian pulled pork, and the dragon fruit blend. Our hotel had a kitchenette, and Costco is def the most economic way to feed a large group. Fun fact: the busiest Costco in the world is in Hawaii (Iwelei Costco in Oahu).

We wanted to eat shaved ice, and stopped by JoJo’s on Hanalai. We had the Haupia Special (Coconut
with Mac Nut Ice Cream & Haupia Cream) and the Colada Special (Pina Colada, Banana Colada, Strawberry Colada, Vanilla Colada with Mac Nut Ice Cream & Haupia Cream). We also ate Pink’s Ice Cream in Hanalai – Haupia, Kona Mud Pie, and Chocolate Macadamia.

One of our lunches, we ate at Chicken in a Barrel – we had chicken BBQ plates, sampler plates, and fries (the wild chickens were surrounding us and eyeing our chicken platter). Kauai is famous for having wild chickens all over the island. In the 1980s and 90s, hurricanes severely hit Kauai which destroyed most of the island’s coops and blew countless chickens out of farms, scattering them. These chickens multiplied all over the island, and Kauai state law prohibits harming them in any way.

We had to eat poke on Hawaii – we picked up a variety from the local grocery Foodlands (known as Hawaii’s Home for Poke) and enjoyed it at our hotel. There was a large variety of poke fish types (ahi, salmon, shrimp, octopus, baby scallop, crab) and flavors (spicy, wasabi, shoyu) but the classic shoyu ahi tuna is my favorite one.

We trekked to the south part of Kauai and stopped by Old Koloa town. We had Dark Horse Coffee (Haupia Foam Cold Brew, The Champ Honey + Cinnamon Latte, and Salted Maple) to start our day. We bought some souvenirs at Kauai Gourmet Nuts and had a “snack” lunch at Koloa Pizza Kitchen (Garlicky White Devil).

We also enjoyed the other famous shaved ice of Kauai, Wailua Shave Ice at Kapaa. It’s a nondescript food truck. I personally liked this since the fruit flavor is milder and more natural. You also get to keep the coconut bowl and spoon.

One of my favorite Costco items was the dragonfruit mix, which I blended into a smoothie. It was so good that on the last day we went back to Costco and I bought this frozen mix to put into our check in luggage. We also had a cute grocery guava cake for Alanna’s 1st birthday (which I used as the theme for her guava cake smash at home).

On our last day we went to Poipu to see the turtles on the beach during sunset. We had to try the Puka Hawaiian dog – there’s quite a line but it was worth it. We did polish dogs with different relishes (papaya, starfruit, pineapple, banana, and coconut). Seeing five Hawaiian green sea turtle slowly crawl on the sand was one of the most magical moments of the trip.