aloha from aina

Right after I graduated college and went on my first cross country road trip the idea of vacationing in Hawaii or going on a cruise seemed very distant and pretty unappealing. I knew that I had to backpack and sleep in hostels and fly on discount carriers for as long as I could before I got accustomed to creature comforts that would make budget travel disagreeable. 

I resisted going to Hawaii for as long as possible but a wedding invite to Oahu meant that I couldn't defer what I dreaded much longer. I was funemployed but couldn't miss the wedding so I got a plane ticket and made it work by car camping and using beach showers, much like I had on my first road trip. It wasn't the ordinary Hawaiian escape that I had always been afraid of and that made all the difference. 

The beaches were amazing and the food was nice but it wasn't as great as I hoped it would be. My main reason for scrimping on accommodations is so that I can splurge on food but the most compelling thing I had, Dole Whips, were something I could already get on the mainland. As far as I was concerned, I came, I saw and I didn't need to return anytime soon. 

Three years later, another wedding to Oahu meant I had to go back. This time my wedding date was adamant about not car camping so we compromised on an apartment in Kihei. It happened to be down the street from Ululani's shave ice and that was when I began to realize how special Hawaiian food could be. I had tried the best shaved ice stands on Oahu but the sugary syrups were cloying. They had those flavors if you wanted them at Ululani's but they also had Calamansi lime that was sublime.

The garlic shrimp at Giovanni's on the North Shore in Oahu didn't stand a chance when compared to the plate I got from Geste's shrimp truck. It was so good that we have tried to recreate it again and again in our home kitchen. 

Maui opened up my eyes to how amazing Hawaiian food could be. There had been some Hawaiian restaurants in SF but they were only capable of doing what Oahu had done. If you want to get the Maui version of Hawaii then head over to Aina for brunch and avoid dinner (Liloliho Yatch club is a better dinner option). 

I never liked spam until I tasted their housemade version. Like Oahu, Aina completely reset my expectations for how good something could be. Best of all they have half orders of some items like their taro french toast, which means you have room for their off menu items like banana bread with fresh honeycomb, which was a total revelation considering my benchmark was Post's Honeycomb cereal.