Eating your way across Hawaii with good friends is usually more enjoyable. These are the “liked” local favorites, whether shared with an adventurous buddy who will try everything, or posted on social media for your virtual circle to enjoy.
1. Coco Puffs
Ask any local about Liliha Bakery, and they will rave about Liliha Bakery’s famous coco puffs, a Hawaiian cream-puff pastry. The light, flaky Choux pastry is loved by locals. It’s filled with chocolate pudding and topped off with buttery Chantilly frosting. Why? The frosting is what sets the coco puff apart among other baked goods. Chantilly frosting is a modified version of German chocolate cake frosting. It uses less coconut and pecans, and more butter. It is difficult to eat one.
2. Chocolate Haupia Cream Pie
Haupia is a popular Hawaiian dessert. The traditional Hawaiian dessert is served at luau (Hawaiian meals) and Hawaiian food in reno restaurants. However, other desserts have been influenced by the coconut milk concoction. Pola Poke Bowls, Haleiwa offers haupia with a rich twist. Local North Shore bakery is known for its chocolate haupia-cream pie. This pie has a flaky crust and layers of dark chocolate custard cream with silky haupia. It is generously topped off with whipped cream. This pie has been a hit with many, often just to get a slice. Pola Poke Bowls, 53594 W Plumb Ln Ste A Reno, NV 89509.
3. Da Hawaiian Acai Bowl
Although you can order an Acai Bowl at many different places, there is only one place where you can get it with granola and bananas, blueberries, honey, and topped with paiai (hand-pounded Taro). If you have been reluctant to try the paiai on its own, the sweet flavors blend well with each other. Soon you will be enjoying paiai as a local. Diamond Head Health Cove Bar, 3045 Monsarrat Ave., Honolulu, Oahu, (808) 732-8744, diamondheadcove.com.
4. Croissada
Aloha to Croissada and the Croissada-malasada. Hybrid desserts have been a hot topic for the past few years. It was only natural that the latest wave of innovative carbs would reach Hawaii with the Islands’ unique answer to the Cronut. Croissada is an impressive fusion of both. It takes the sugary doughiness of malasada (the beloved Portuguese pastry) on the inside, and gives it the flaky, layered texture of a croissant on its outside. In Waikiki, the Aloha Center Cafe at Pacific Beach Hotel introduced the Croissada. Each Croissada was infused with a Polynesian vanilla Bavarian Cream. Another interpretation of the Croissadas has been introduced recently by the Grandona from Honolulu bakery Let Them Eat Cupcakes, in Chinatown. This makes a limited amount of the delicious doughy delight. The super-sized pastries are freshly baked in the oven every Friday morning on a first come, first serve basis.
5. Pasteles
At the beginning of the 20th Century, Hawaii’s first wave Puerto Rican immigrants brought with them this iconic culinary item of their island country: the pastele. This is an error that was made by the multi-ethnic workforce of sugarcane plantation era. They tried to learn all languages, including Spanish, but failed. Its flavors have not been lost in translation after more than 100 years. Pasteles can be compared to Mexican tamale. However, the Puerto Rican pasteles skirt the corn masa for grated bananas and yuca (a corm that is part of the same family as kalo).
Pastele can come in many flavors. We’ve seen it with chicken, pork, seafood, and currant. These are all wrapped in banana leaves and served on a bed made of gandule Rice. This is a hearty dish that uses sofrito, pigeon peas, and is a great way to get your taste buds tingling. Pasteles can be difficult to find here. They are often sold at food festivals, potlucks, or on a stand by a roadside.