September 24, 2025 • 48 mins
Ranked among the most popular vacation destinations in the U.S.A. the island of Maui dazzles with stunning natural beauty, sunny skies, turquoise ocean and Hawaiian culture. Melanie Young and David Ransom travel to Maui frequently and share their list of restaurants to try and tips to navigate the island. Though the historic town of Lahaina is still recovering from the devastating 2023 wildfires, Maui's resorts, restaurants and attractions are open and welcome visitors with their Aloha Spirit.
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The Connected Table is broadcast live Wednesdays at 2PM ET and Music on W4CY Radio (www.w4cy.com) part of Talk 4 Radio (www.talk4radio.com) on the Talk 4 Media Network (www.talk4media.com).
The Connected Table Podcast is also available on Talk 4 Media (www.talk4media.com), Talk 4 Podcasting (www.talk4podcasting.com), iHeartRadio, Amazon Music, Pandora, Spotify, Audible, and over 100 other podcast outlets.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
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(00:20):
for choosing W FOURCY Radio.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
Welcome to the Connected Table Live, where your hosts Melanie
Young and David Ransom your insay, She'll be curious culinary couple.
We love, love, love traveling the world to bring you
to the people, places, food, and drink that we experience,
hoping that you'll get out there and travel and see
the world and experienced life at its fullest and most delicious.
(01:04):
You are listening live and you can follow all our
shows anytime on YouTube over sixty five podcast channels. Check
out our site, Theconnected Table dot com, which is our blog,
and of course follow us on Instagram at the Connected Table.
As we travel the world. So it's just David and
today and we want to share with you our most
(01:26):
recent adventure, which was to the beautiful island of Maui.
I think we've been there what ten times?
Speaker 3 (01:31):
Oh, I'd say so, yeah.
Speaker 2 (01:33):
Yeah, it's a very special place. Hence the shirt, hence
the background. So just to let you know, the background
is overlooking the ocean at Conopoly Beach in the distances
the island of Lenai. And this was actually our view
from where we stay at the Western Connopoly Ocean Resort
(01:55):
and Villas. We actually bought into as an ownership many
many years ago, and we've used it regularly and have
enjoyed it tremendously. You know, Maui has consistently been ranked
among the nation and world's most popular vacation destination. It
(02:16):
dazzles with stunning scenery, turquoise waters as you can see,
blue skies, beautiful sun, great weather, and occasionally some rainbows.
I think if I go this way, there's a rainbow,
and there's somewhere constantly. Yes, it's also great for sports, dining, adventure.
The Haleakala Volcano is there, so you've got a volcano.
(02:39):
There's actually a wine and ava there. The Uhapalokua Vineyards
and Ava, which was established in twenty twenty one. So
they're making wine in Maui. It's a beautiful place. However, Yeah, however,
we all know that in twenty twenty three, the city
(02:59):
of Kino was tragically destroyed and burnt down due to
a terrible fire, and a lot of people are concerned
about going back. They're like, is it okay to go back? Well,
we're gonna emphactically say yes. First of all, lahaina Is
is being rebuilt. It remains the historic historic conary center
(03:21):
and spiritual center of Maui and much of Hawaii. It
is incredible and sadly a lot of historic buildings did
burn down, but the famous Banyan tree, which is the
symbol of spirit and growth, is growing. We actually saw
a satellite of it right now. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (03:35):
Actually it's come back with a vengeance.
Speaker 2 (03:37):
Actually.
Speaker 3 (03:38):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (03:38):
So the rebuilding is happening. But it is one area
of a very large island. It's not quite shaped like
a butterfly, is it not quite? No, But there's there's
there's many sections of maw It's a large island. It's
West Maui, South Maui, East Maui, different areas. So where
(04:02):
it may be raining in East Mallie, which is Hanah,
it could be dry as a bone where we stay
in West Malli, which is kind of poly And yes,
they have been experiencing dryness and drought, which is a
challenge with the fires. And we always wish our friends
out there, you know, good health and safety at all times.
(04:23):
But it is a good time to visit. It's always
a good time.
Speaker 3 (04:27):
It's always a good time to vision.
Speaker 2 (04:28):
You know.
Speaker 4 (04:28):
We've been there many, many different times of the year
and each one, which one's a little bit different, the
same scenery of course, but you know, different temperatures, different
types of weather patterns, et cetera. And it's really never
a bad time.
Speaker 2 (04:41):
Yeah, we've been there at January, February, March, April, May,
August most recently. What's consistent is the weather's always.
Speaker 3 (04:50):
Gorgeous, and then also November and December two.
Speaker 2 (04:52):
Yeah. Yeah, we've spent many happy Thanksgivings there, so we've
been there almost every month and the weather's consist beautiful, yea, consistently,
it's not too rainy. Occasionally you have a little bit
of rain, but it's mainly dry. It's a dryer island
compared to Kawhai, which is lush and green. It is
a little it's still lush in certain areas, but you're
(05:13):
also going to see the effects of the heat dryness.
We're going to focus on and share with you tips
some visiting based on where we go, which is West Maui.
There's also a layout which has got a lot of
swinky hotels and fancy restaurants and Hanna which we have
visited on East Mallie. But for the purpose of this show,
(05:34):
we're going to share with you where we like to
go and eat and drink in West Maui, and also
how to do it in the way we do it,
which is we don't go out and spend tons of
money every night. We're always on a budget. We know
where to go to get deals, we know where to
go shopping for good food. We also know where to
get you know, the fun food truck things, and we're
(05:55):
going to share it with you. Where should we start? Okay,
wes Maui. You're either going to stay in You're going
to land. When you land, you're going to land in
Ogg the airport in the town of Lahui Hallu ka
ha Louie sorry ka Halui, which is actually when you land,
it looks like anywhere in the United States. There's like
(06:17):
famous you know, there's a Costco. Everybody goes there. There's
what we call commerce.
Speaker 3 (06:23):
Yeah, it's the commercial center of the island.
Speaker 2 (06:26):
Yeah. So you're not going to land and be like,
oh wow, I'm in the middle of nowhere. You're in
the land the United States, which is actually a good
thing if you want those comfort creature comforts to get
to from Kahalui to Kandapalu. We highly recommend renting a car.
We have ben to Maui and not rented a car
and it was fine. However, you want to rent a car,
(06:49):
and every car rental company is out there, we recommend
and we get nothing for this. We just look for
deals either going with Costco if you're a MEMP Costco member,
or Maui car rental. And I have learned from experience
that you just keep calling these very nice people and
eventually you'll get better rates. And where you.
Speaker 3 (07:08):
Call, that's for sure.
Speaker 2 (07:09):
The closer you get to your stay, your rate may
go down. So we never just accept the first rate,
keep checking back, and we always purchase our rental insurance.
With a travel rental company like aliance saves you a
lot of money, like fifteen dollars a day versus thirty
dollars a day. So you're to rent a car, you're
to drive the most exquisite drive for what about forty
(07:31):
five minutes or so up to Kanopoly. Kanapoly is one
of the two main beach areas in West Malli with
every possible hotel, condo, you name it and you'll get
great value. You can just go on any one of
the travel sites that get good values. We do recommend
staying in an efficiency or a condo because you don't
(07:53):
want to just necessarily go out all the time.
Speaker 3 (07:56):
Very true. Yeah, although you can.
Speaker 4 (07:58):
There's plenty of restaurants, that's sure. Yeah, but you know
it's also nice to be able to make your own
cup of coffee and you know.
Speaker 2 (08:04):
Nag gets expensive when you go coffee every day.
Speaker 3 (08:07):
You know it, cooking egg if you feel like it.
Speaker 2 (08:09):
Yeah, So we stay in the Western kind of Polly,
which you can resort. They have a Western resort and
they have the western kind of gully billas. You can
actually rent them. You can go once sight and look
and we rend ours out occasionally. So often we cook
in the unit and where we'd like to go shopping
at the local grocery store. What do we like to buy?
Pokey and fresh fish and fruit and fruit, lots of fruit.
(08:33):
The best pineapple Maui pineapples, Maui gold pineapples is the
best ever.
Speaker 4 (08:37):
Yeah, because we've gone there so many times, we've tried
most of the restaurants at this point, we like the ones.
We like to go back to ones that we enjoy,
of course, but you know, they're all pretty good, I'll
be honest with you. And the food, of course is
you know, the fish is fresh, the vegetables are all fresh.
Everything's very fresh there and high quality food. So this
is so yeah, So it's fun to go at, but
every once in a while you want to stay home, right,
(08:58):
And because Pokey's like the national dish out there and
everybody eats it.
Speaker 3 (09:04):
It's fun to.
Speaker 4 (09:05):
Go to the local grocery store where they probably have
six or seven different types of poke on display every
day that they make fresh and you can just pick
up a pinch a court and take it home with you.
Speaker 3 (09:14):
So we should probably.
Speaker 2 (09:15):
Explain what poke is to anyone who doesn't know it.
How would you describe poky.
Speaker 3 (09:21):
At its most basic cubefish.
Speaker 2 (09:24):
Cubefish with lots of spices in kind of a soy sauce.
It is. It is fresh cube fish and the freshest
fish you'll ever have, usually mostly salmon, sometimes a little
culamary or octopus. And what's great is often the supermarkets
like Foodland, you name it, just the look, they'll do pokey,
(09:46):
they'll do Hawaiian plate lunches. So another deal at that's
a tradition throughout Hawaiian malays, the Hawaiian late lunch. There's
actually a little place in near Lahaina. And again I
want to understore that while La Hi main front street
has it's not open to the public right now, many
restaurants near there are and welcome people and need the business.
(10:09):
They need the business. So because tourism is the number
one industry in why so Aloha. Plate lunch is a
play lunch. So what is a plate lunch is like
a meat and three It's like a plaiform states. You
get a little usually some little protein, a macaroni and
cheese salad which seems to be very popular in Hawaii,
(10:30):
and white rice and maybe another kind of vegetable or
a little salad. Very simple very inexpensive and worth trying,
so poke. So we're going to talk a little bit
before we get into where to eat and go out
what you should be looking for to eat. So Maui, Yes,
you're gonna eat a lot of great fish. You're gonna
eat many kinds of fresh fish, ahi being probably the best.
(10:52):
But there's also dolphin mahi, there's opa hulu, there's one
we can't even pronounce. There's a lot of fish you
can't pronounce. Just go to a local fish up and
try them all and put them on the grill if
you if you're lucky to have the grill and see
which one do you like, and just a little bit oliver.
Speaker 4 (11:13):
Maybe they're also available at any restaurant that you go
out too. Yeah, Mahi and two and I are obviously
big sellers out there caught locally, as are all the
fish you're not gonna you're not gonna really find fish,
maybe except for salmon that's brought in to Maui or
any of the Hawaiian exactly, because there's such a plethora
of the of those fishes in the sea around the islands.
Speaker 2 (11:35):
But I think it's also to point out that even
though we're talking fish because we love the fish. This
one called munchong. It's free. We try them all. There's
also a very strong Maloy's also cattle country Hawaii, there
are a lot of ranches. The meat and the beef
is outstanding. And also the Kalua pork. It's a special
dish like a suckling pig. It's it's a specialty of
(11:57):
the islands. You're gonna have very good meat and pork
dishes as well. And if you're vegetarian, there are some
amazing locally grown mushrooms and kobocha squash, and ulu which
means breadfruit, and taro which is a starchy kind of substance,
but it's made a lot of things, a lot of
(12:17):
fresh greens. In Maui during strawberry season. There's a town
up Country, so you've got the coast and you've got
what they call upcountry, which is a completely cooler climate place,
and then further up into volcano country and that's where
all the farms are, which.
Speaker 4 (12:33):
Is when the main volcano there's the island was formed
from two volcanoes. And then there's a little bit of
a saddle in the middle that connects the saddle of Land,
which is where the airports and the commercial center is.
But the two mountainous regions West Maui and then Haliakolo,
which is the big volcano. So upcountry is on the
slopes of Kiliakola up to about two or three thousand feet.
Speaker 2 (12:54):
It's where lips. It's called cowboy country cowboys in Hwayer
kalkani Olas. Most people just go to bowing and the
hangout the beach and they line on the beach and
they line by the pool. Go up country, adventurous.
Speaker 3 (13:07):
That's why you're running a car.
Speaker 2 (13:08):
Beautiful, So we'll talk about that, but just to finish
on what you can eat, amazing vegetables and so upcountry
there's a town called Kola, and they're known for Kola
strawberries and when they're in season, they are amazing, and
that's almost.
Speaker 3 (13:23):
Like having a really fresh wild strawberry here in the
United States.
Speaker 2 (13:27):
Yes, the best strawberries, and and then papayas, the best
Papayas limes, and the Maui gold pineapple that is so
good that people actually pack them up a ship them
back to the United States and they're reasonable, you know,
that's what we live on. Pineapple papaya, fish, mushrooms, greens
and poky You.
Speaker 4 (13:46):
Know, it's interesting about the payas papaya and the pineapples.
Is that a lot of times if you're driving along
the road, you'll see a little stand on the side
of the road with a with a with a give
and take. You put a couple of dollars in the
box and take your and take your papaya with you
and they just sit out there. It's all very it's
kind of the honor system, right, But you find that
all over the island. We found it on the west side,
all the way over in Hana. We've done that just
(14:06):
as we're driving along.
Speaker 3 (14:07):
A great way to get.
Speaker 4 (14:09):
The local fruit because people grow all this stuff in
their backyard as well as professionally farming, but there's a
lot of people that just have pa pietrees and whatnot
in their backyards and they have access from them, of course,
and so they just they put them out for sale.
Speaker 2 (14:25):
And we did that a lot, and you're helping the
local commedy. You know, we forgot bananas, bananas, coconut and
Macedamian nuts on everything, so you know, amazing produce. This
is farming area, fishing area, you're going to have an
abundance of produce so you can eat healthy when you
travel or not if you choose not. We do recommend
(14:46):
if you've never been to Mali for first timers, things
you should definitely do. Go to a luau. That's a
traditional Hawaiian celebratory meal with dancing and singing and special
foods and some of the ones like the a pig,
and there's a lot of tradition. And you know Maui
is it's got a lot of history. The Hawaiian history
(15:07):
is so important. It's Polynesia. You're in Polynesia, so you're
getting Asian, Filipino, South Pacific influences as well as British
and Spanish because there were people who came over and sailed.
So it's it's a lot of history. So do try
a luau. As we said, rent a car and go
(15:27):
up country because you'll find amazing dancing girl goat cheese,
the cool of strawberries, a lavender farm. There's distilleries in Mauwa,
a very good vodka distillery and I think we've discovered
a tequila distillery run one, and of course there's a
winery Maui Wind. It used to be Tadeshi Winery. You
(15:48):
will discover all sorts of interesting farms and artists and crafts,
a lot of art galleries. A lot of people settle
in there and you'll see beautiful art. But you've got
to go inland and upline up country to see this.
But if if it's your first time.
Speaker 3 (16:04):
Do that.
Speaker 2 (16:05):
If you're into sports, snorkeling, some great little base or snorking, hiking,
which we'll share. We go hiking because we eat a
lot and then we go hiking. Swimming of course, the
Molokai Molokai no, what's the name, Molikini Molikini crater is
like this little volcanic crater. You can go snorkeling too.
We actually haven't done that because we just snorkel right
out on the beach right in front of our hotel. Right,
(16:28):
So these are some things. Work with your hotel concierge.
We get out, don't just lie at the beach, get
out and explore. We do that. We tend to go
and hike. We took a pick a ball. Yeah, so
it's a lot of fun.
Speaker 3 (16:42):
You know, there's some great hikes. If you like to hike,
there's some great hikes.
Speaker 4 (16:45):
I do suggest that you take hiking sticks with you
or purchase them while you're there if you want to,
if you don't want to schlep them all with you,
but we took ours out.
Speaker 3 (16:53):
We do that when we go to Kawai as well.
Speaker 4 (16:55):
Because there's some great hikes on Maui really all over
the place. And then of course if you go up
to haliaka a crater which is about eleven thousand feet
or ten thousand feet to the top, you can drive
all the way up.
Speaker 3 (17:06):
It's a national park.
Speaker 4 (17:08):
And if you go to Hollyakolo, there's some wonderful hiking
trails that go through the crater, which is next thing
Bulgano now, so.
Speaker 3 (17:14):
It's just getting hit by lava while you're there.
Speaker 2 (17:17):
Yeah, it's just incredible. And David's right, And we actually
travel with our own snorkel gear and that we go
out there enough where we just have a gear bag
and we bring all our gear to save money. Again,
you know, we want everyone to also know that when
we travel, we don't go extravagly. We also try to
be frugal and save money when we travel and spend
it the right way. So we'll bring our own snorkel gear,
(17:38):
we'll bring our own little toys for the pool, or
pickaball rackets and walking six. We highly recommend good shoes
and walking six. So some of the trails can be
steep and they're on the edge of the water and
you don't want to fall in, and it also can
get windy and you don't want to be knocked over,
so it is important. But there's such beautiful trails and
(17:58):
so different. We went to one that was just pure
forest up on a ridge in Macawow. Macawow is like
the heart of Cowboy Country and we went to a
forest preserve. We've also hiked along the coastal trail, which
is gorgeous. We've gone up to windmills and a very
steep trail. We've driven all around the island, even to
the areas where the rental car people say don't go.
(18:20):
We went, and it's incredible. You'll find some amazing discoveries.
But if you do, it's not that bad. It's not
that bad. But if you do do it, make sure
you have a lot of water, full ticket gas, and
check your tires and snacks because there's nothing along the
way for a long way. But it is a lot
of fun to do and it is probably of we've
been to almost every home one in island. Now, I
(18:41):
think Maui offers the most versatility and versatility in terms
of geography, topography, food activities, but consistent really great weather.
So if you're looking for a couple's vacation or a
family vacation, you're gonna love it. But let's talk about
food and dining, because that's what the show we as,
we have the Connected Table and we put together a
(19:05):
list of our favorite places to go and why now
we focus mainly on West Maui because of time and
because it's interesting wal Lea. While you'll find the very
famous resorts, you'll also find some very famous chef driven
restaurants like Morimoto has a place there, a wolfingg Puck
has Aspago there. So you're gonna get some very famous
(19:25):
chef driven restaurants. What we like to recommend are locally owned,
little local places that maybe you don't know as much
about or maybe you do. So we kind of divided
it into certain areas and we're gonna start with Lehina now,
as we underscored, while the center of Lahina is still
(19:45):
not walkable or visible because where there's doing a lot
of you know, there's a lot of rebuilding and also
still excavating going on. The fires were devastating. On Front Street,
just north of well Heina, you can find some really
terrific places, and we've been to all of these. The
(20:06):
first is Mala Ocean Tavern. I can't tell you how
happy we were to read that these restaurants are not destroyed.
It's really really good mala Is if you want waterfront dining,
super casual, really good food, Mala Ocean Tavern on Front Street.
You'll see sea turtles during the day because honu is
(20:26):
the word for sea turtles. At night, you'll see spectacular sunsets.
Speaker 4 (20:30):
Beautiful sunsets, yeah, right off, right off, right off the deck.
Yeah yeah, just gorgeous, super casual and wonderful food to
a little bit of of an Italian inflection to it.
But it's also classic local cuisine as well, so it's
got a little bit of both going on and really
just very fresh, beautifully presented food.
Speaker 2 (20:47):
So an example, the barata with peaches, grilled peaches and
pistachio crumble knocked my socks off this last visit. And
we always get at the Ahi Bruscatta with flea seat
toast just made locally. You can sell it. You can
buy it in this grocery stores. The local flaxy toes
with balsamic and local tomatoes, also very good local tomatoes.
(21:07):
We had a green coconut curry and did not add
any fish or meat. It was vegan. It was fantastic.
People across from us ordered the whole flight Hawaiian fish.
It was some fish I never heard of. It's amazing,
and five people, yeah, yeah. And then they have something
A couple of these waterfront restaurants have something called I
(21:28):
Caught the Fish. You can bring in your own fish
scaled and prepped in the cheff will cook it for you,
because I doubt you're great fishing, but if you do,
that's a fun thing to do. Right next door is
Ho New Ocean sign on front street. The two Malon
Honu used to be related. Now they're not. Also great fused,
probably a little more finer dining atmosphere, great craft costsails
(21:49):
the same. I Hebrew scotta is at Ho New. But
other things that I loved when we go, and this
used to be like our grand finale dinner when we went.
This time we did it at Mala Love the kale
salad with dates, pomegranates, walnuts, pecorino and preserve lemon vinaigrette.
So much we try to recreate that here where we live.
(22:10):
And they do a great mushroom soup as we mentioned
Mami's Great Mushrooms with the Ali mushrooms which are local
dried porcini button mushrooms and cream and of course the
Hebrew's got it really fantastic. The other very popular place
in town which you have got to go off hours
or good luck getting a reservation is Star Noodle and
(22:30):
our tip is go off hour. Like a lot of
these places have happy hours and poopoos and discount drinks
from two to five, and if you want to go,
maybe not spend a lot of money, go for poopoos
or happy hours and you'll get some great nipples. Stardools
is a good example of the time to go fresh
Asian noodle dishes, sushi, sushimi, share places, sake cocktails. We
(22:54):
haven't been in a bit, but it is consistently fantastic
and always booked so and it's lunch and dinner. But
we were happy to see that it survived as well
because it used to be a little further out and
then to move closer in. It's terrific. And as we noted,
if you want a good old fashioned Hawaii lunch plate,
a Loha plate lunch, it's really fun lunch only. Then
(23:18):
we're going to take you up to Kindakapalli. Before we do,
we're going to recommend a place where we actually did
our Thanksgiving. When you're in Melilayola's Pie Plate, Leyoa's Pie House,
and they are known for their savory and sweet pie.
So we did a Thanksgiving where we did take out
pop pies, right, it was so much fun, and then
(23:38):
we had the turkey pot pie and the chicken pop
pie and then they're Lillokoi pie. Lilcoy is an important.
Speaker 3 (23:43):
Fruit, local fruit, which is I think starfruit.
Speaker 2 (23:45):
Yeah yeah, So it's called Loyola's Pie House and you
can eat in or take out, and they also have
really good sandwiches and you could pick up things. So
that's a really fun place. Then we're gonna so this
is interesting. There's a board wall. Okay, you can walk
the entire beach.
Speaker 3 (24:03):
Passion fruit, passion fruit, poloquois, passion fruit.
Speaker 2 (24:06):
Yeah, that's right, passion fruit. So you can walk a
board walk from where we're talking about, all the way
up charge it's a.
Speaker 4 (24:14):
Couple it's a couple of miles from Lehina up to
up to the Connopoly area. But but it's a fairly
short it's a fairly short walk that's really to the middle.
But you but the hotel section starts maybe half a
mile up from the top of Leahina right, so you
can walk there.
Speaker 2 (24:33):
You'll see row and row of hotels. We've walked into beautiful.
Speaker 4 (24:37):
And a lot of those hotels are really beautiful hotels
with lots to do and a number of restaurants in each,
which is where we're going to talk about now. Some
of the restaurants in the in the Connopoly hotels that
we went to, a lot of them are privately managed
by by chefs that are not just part of that hotel,
(24:59):
which which is kind of nice. So you get some
famous names there, et cetera, famous local names especially, and.
Speaker 2 (25:04):
These are locally owned and Pacific rim most Pacific RIM,
so Pacific RIM is Asian Polynesian influences, Japanese Filipino, a
lot of Filipino influences. So the first one is actually
Peter Merriman has been called the pied Piper of New
(25:27):
Pacific Cuisine, and we hope to have him on the show.
We've reached out and hoped to have him. He has
owned several restaurants, of which we've been to one on
the Big Island. We've been to three in Maui. I
think he has one in Kawhi. We're going to try
it visit next This original one was on the Big Island,
right and we did it. Thanks. We did in New
Year's there. Yeah. So Peter Merriman, he is very famous,
(25:47):
probably one of the Hawaii's celebrity chef originals. Monkey Pod
Kitchen is one of his. He's got a couple of locations.
This one's at Whaler's Village, which is a really fun place.
There's a lot of shopping. A couple of restaurants, Hula Grill,
Leilani's are also there. We like Monkey Pie. Everybody goes
(26:10):
and it's got a great happy hour lunch into a
great happy hour.
Speaker 3 (26:14):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (26:14):
They're known for the my Tie with the lilloquoy foam topping.
You can also get it with no alcohol, the my tithes.
It's a signature drink and you can it's a little
less expensive. A happy hour. Notable dishes that we've had
the kawhi shrimp and mushroom sliders. You've also had the
pork sliders, I believe David, the lobster deviled eggs.
Speaker 5 (26:37):
Oh delicious, unbelievable, pokey tacos mmm, and I love this one.
The hamakua another mushroom, wild mushroom and truffle oil pizza
with white sauce. I've also had a really good mohi
sandwich there, grilled mahi sandwich, totally fresh.
Speaker 3 (26:54):
And it's an outdoor atmosphere too. There's no walls, although
it is covered.
Speaker 2 (26:58):
Yeah, there's music, the music and happy.
Speaker 3 (27:00):
Music and happier from happy hour on, and it's it's
really just a fun place.
Speaker 2 (27:04):
Yeah, really great gathering place, definitely top of it. They
don't take reservations, right, no reservation. So we walked down,
toodle around, put her name on the list, tootle around,
look at all the shops as even in Louis Vuitton there,
and we go back and hang. It's really great. But
we're really excited this recent trip to learn that there
(27:24):
was another Peter Meravan restaurant that we had not tried
yet called Ula Kitchen at the Weston Resort, which is
the sister so we're at the Western kind of poly villas,
which are all mainly owned by people who rent the
mount like us. And then the Weston is a hotel.
It's where we first stay before bought into the Western.
It's a beautiful resort. I was stunned how beautiful it is.
(27:46):
There's actually you can find flamingos and water lilies, this
beautiful pond. This restaurant was fabulous. Ula kitchen is on
the water. We were there for at dinner at night.
It's so beautiful and romantic. Fire pits, incredible. We tried
knock out dishes, the grilled tarotes cargo, so the tarots
(28:09):
it's like an octopus instead of s cargo. It's octopus
in taco. Sorry sorry, sorry type out. I'm looking at
my notes.
Speaker 3 (28:17):
Taco taco taro root vegetable, which was not part of
that dish.
Speaker 2 (28:24):
It was It was like anes cargo, but with a
little octopus inside with garlic, and it was traditional.
Speaker 3 (28:30):
It was a traditional presentation of escargo without the escargo.
Speaker 2 (28:34):
You love the coconut shrimp, which normally coconut chips fried.
I don't like fry. This one is like sut in
this amazing coconut cream sauce. It was so good we
have We had the Rosemary sea salt fries. They were
to die for. I forgot what else we had. It's
Ula Kitchen at the Western Resort. Definitely check that one out.
(28:55):
It's it opened in the past, I think since the fires.
Speaker 3 (28:58):
They've been open for about a year.
Speaker 2 (29:00):
Yeah, yeah, it's just incredible. Also owned by Peter Merriman.
Then further up the way, we've not been to Japenga,
which is a fine dining Japanese restaurant at the Hyatt.
We'd like to go sometime, but you got to stop
by the Hyatt because they have penguins. Penguins and Maui.
They literally have a penguin pond at this beautiful hotel,
(29:22):
the Hyatt. Maui incredibly stunning, a lot of art just
walking around. It's in a gallery in the landscape. But
they have penguins, so we just always go to see
the penguins. But we hear the restaurant there, Japanga, is
very very good. We didn't have chance, but you can
get some really good Japanese food and that's good because
one of the ones we love sunsay clothes and we
love Japanese food. Further on up up, there is a
(29:49):
little place that we like for banana Macadamian pancakes, super
casual breakfast lunch. It's on our walk that we do
on that board walk we were talking to, and it's
called Castaway's Cafe. Tiny little place, tiny beach front, right
on the beach, totally.
Speaker 4 (30:07):
Beach front then there for a long time and kind
of a little kind of a little unsung local spot
that those people in the no flock too.
Speaker 2 (30:16):
It's actually at the Maui count poly Villas Resort. They're
tiny little villas. I mean there are a lot of
little villas they call them, but they're not villas. They're
the little cottages you can rent and really adorable. So
we go for the Macadamian banana pancakes. But they also
have a crabcake. Benedict, I think you have that lunch
Pinaola Cowboy breakfast. The typical one is eggs, bacon, sausage, potatoes,
(30:41):
rice or toast, very hearty, lots and lots of coffee.
But it is actually it is breakfast, lush and dinner
and very reasonably priced, which is I think important because
I think everybody's worrying about flying to Hawaii and the
costs you can eat inexpensive.
Speaker 3 (30:56):
And costs, and now we have gone up, that's for sure.
They have.
Speaker 2 (30:59):
They have and there are taxes that they have added,
and that's been in the news. So to address it, Yes,
there are additional expenses and taxes and visitors charges when
you go because Maui just suffered a fire and it's rebuilding.
And so rather than complain about additional taxes, visitors, taxes,
know that your money is going to help with the
rebuilding effort. And a lot of people lost their jobs
(31:21):
and this is helping a lot of people get past
a difficult time. Further on up Duke's Kitchen, who in
Duke was a surfer.
Speaker 4 (31:32):
Yeah, and it's part of a it's part of a
restaurant group which also includes Leilani and what was the
other one, Hula Grille. Yeah, So that's all part of
the Duke's, the Duke's family of restaurants, and they they
have a number of restaurants along the Connopoly coast and
they're all good, you know, great place for live music
(31:53):
because they usually have a guitarist out front. Good place
to go to happy hour, but also very nice lunches
and dinners.
Speaker 2 (31:59):
And family friends. Yeah, they all these persons have kids menus.
I think we want to really, you know, particularly this group.
So the Hula Girl was up at Waler's village which
he reached referenced, and Leilani's also at Whaler's Village. We've
been to both and our many travels. Dukes is right
up the road from literally right up the walkway from
our hotel for from the West and kinda Polly, So
(32:20):
it's really easy to just podle over there and grab
a bite and have some uh some dishes like mac
nut or crusted fresh fish. Uh, nachos. I he for
a khaki. I loove for a kaki, a steak with
chile Olan treffles, sliders. Really good from casual to not
(32:42):
and one of the it's named for the surfer Duke
Kinda Kanda namaku h.
Speaker 3 (32:49):
Thank you, very famous surfer Beckham.
Speaker 2 (32:51):
I think the nineteenth need We say that David's been
studying Hawaiian on due lingo that his pronunciation is better
than mine.
Speaker 3 (33:00):
So we like to Dukes is a great place that
we like to go to for lunch.
Speaker 2 (33:03):
Yeah, really fine, casual. So if you go at least
once either at Hula Grill or at Dukes, you got
to try something that was invented here called the hula pie.
So it is a huge pile of this is shareup.
Of course Macadamian nut ice cream, which is like the
ice cream to have when you're there at top with
(33:24):
cooled like a little layer of cool chocolate fudge. You
get the little crunch and then it's on a chocolate
chip cookie crust and then it's drizzled with warm chocolate
fudge syrup and top with flop cream.
Speaker 3 (33:39):
Don't feed it to the little children late in the
day because they'll be all night filled with sugar. But delicious.
Speaker 2 (33:45):
Yeah, there's some pretty good dessert say, I'll say everybody.
There's also if you really like desserts, anything with Macadamian
nut pie, pies, coconut pies really great in Hawaiian, especially
in Mali. You won't go hungry. Is there anywhere else
in kind of Polly, I think we covered a lot
of them.
Speaker 3 (34:02):
We kind of covered that beach area.
Speaker 2 (34:05):
Yeah, so now we're going to talk about our little
special place we like to go, which is less touristy
called Napili n A p I l I. This is
like where we go grocery shopping, and it's a little independent,
small hotels and cottages to rent. But we stumbled upon
it because we were driving around a car and we
(34:26):
found some grocery stores that we like there that are
very local and they have really amazing, reasonably priced pokey
and spam, masubi and other local dishes. And in this
really it's a strip mall. Okay, it's not even the all.
It's just the strip of a shopping center. You'll find
(34:48):
for breakfast or lunch, we recommend a AH Roots Kitchen.
This is vegan, great stuff, vegan, vegetarian, wonderful owner. Go
for the asa e bowls and the pattaya. My favorite
is the Tropical bowl of as e banana, pineapple, coconut
and crushed mac nuts and share able. Or the Dragon Bowl,
(35:09):
which is pataya, pineapple, banana, strawberry, blueberries. I say, eat
just so good.
Speaker 4 (35:14):
Yeah, it's basically health food driven, so you're gonna you're
not gonna find meat or fish there. They do have
sandwiches and burritos and things like that, but it's but
it's all vegan, so it's just what the food is delicious,
all totally fresh local ingredients there there, it's just a
great spot a roots and we.
Speaker 2 (35:32):
Could eat there every day. They've got wrapped juices, smoothies,
just a wonderful place.
Speaker 4 (35:37):
And then the other place, literally three doors down is
one of our favorites, Joey's Kitchen, which is a Filipino
restaurant kind of semi takeout. You can order it the
counter and then you go sit down and then they
bring you the food. Joey Mceadang Dang, who has been
a former guest on our show a few years ago,
is the owner. And Joey's Kitchen is just a great
(35:59):
spot Filipino food, really delicious.
Speaker 2 (36:02):
Examples what we had. And this was our last meal
this time because we were like doing the last mill
because we didn't have anywhere groceries. Shrimp Panchit which was
soft crown egg noodles with this big beautiful local shrimp, carrots, cabbage,
beautiful dish. And then I had something called the Singapore Synagogue,
which is a clear broth with so many beautiful pieces
(36:26):
of fish and shellfish.
Speaker 3 (36:28):
And it was infused with tamarind, which was just delicious,
just delicious.
Speaker 2 (36:33):
This is a terrific place to go for honest Filipino
Asian inspired food. That's his roots's he I think he did.
He grow up his his Filipino roots, but was born
and raised in Hawaii or was raised in Hawaii. He
used to have a few more restaurants. I think he's
pared down since the pandemic. But Joey's Kitchen is where
(36:54):
locals goat and it's just fantastic. And that's in the Peely.
Speaker 4 (36:59):
We tried to go to those two places in Napili
every time we get every time we go to maley
h They're just good.
Speaker 2 (37:05):
These are regular places. Yeah, we're sharing you where we go.
And this is after years of ryalan era, which gets
us to our one of our favorite happy hours, and
we always go for happy hours because we like doing
that and happy hours like a late lunch early dinner
and one of our favorites is at the Napi Lei
Kai Resort, another one of those smaller resorts that are
(37:28):
really pretty that you have to know about. Also in
Napile en route to Kappolua, it's called Seahouse Restaurant right
on a little bay water beach and bay, just gorgeous.
We go and have you had the pork sliders, which
you said were really terrific. I get the Ahi nachos
(37:49):
that we go for happy hour, but you can have
a full meal. But it's just wonderful. And it's outdoor,
indoor outdoor as well. All these places we're talking about it,
well not Joey's Kitchen that's indoor, but everything's indoor outdoor,
and this.
Speaker 3 (38:00):
One is literally if you walk down the steps, you're
on the beach.
Speaker 2 (38:04):
Literally.
Speaker 3 (38:05):
It is just a great spot.
Speaker 4 (38:06):
And it's a cute little resort that it's in, the
Nepilei Kai Resort. It seems to me like it's a
one off resort. It's not part of a chain of
hotels or anything like that, so it's an independently owned
resort and just a lovely beach and a nice atmosphere,
relaxed atmosphere.
Speaker 2 (38:23):
I like Nippile. There's some other places we haven't been,
like Miso Fat Sushi, which people recommend. We got a
great somebody turned us onto. There's a farmer's market also
into Pile. On certain days the week can go. We
always go and get local greens and talk with the
different farmers and there we learned about Coconut Glen, which
(38:47):
is vegan ice cream food truck. There's four flavors. When
was the surprise that you got with the Lilo Koi
your yeah, passion fruit and you got the one that
was the purple sweep potat you know, it was really
good and he it's called Coconut g One. Actually he
was originated in Hannah, which is on the east side
(39:08):
of Man right, which you've been to. Totally different atmosphere, uh,
and it was delicious and next to it was another
food truck that was closed at the time, but the
daughter of the owner of our roots is doing some
food truck food there. There's actually a couple of areas,
including one not far from our hotel. For where we
say at the West Konta Pali, that's a food truck
(39:30):
park and every couple of nights that'll open and you
can just wander around and check out the food trucks.
Food trucks are very popular in Hawaii, very much and
really also a great value. Uh. Further on up past
the Appelia gets swankier. Uh. There you're going to find
the Ritz Carlton.
Speaker 4 (39:49):
That's it up in Capellua, which is the next town.
Should we say up the talk out of one town. Yeah,
but and that's really the last that's the last mrcially
developed section on West Maui. As you go north on
the west coast is Capelloua, which is where the resort is.
And they also played the big golf tournament out.
Speaker 2 (40:09):
There and the Waife Food and Wine the Wayfe Food and.
Speaker 4 (40:11):
Wine Classic is held there as well, and more male
food and wine is held there as one restaurants up
there too.
Speaker 2 (40:18):
Yeah, the main one is Merriman's Point. So Merriman's Point
is high end, farm to table. Uh. This is a
golfing area. There's also the Montage hotel and multimillion dollar homes.
There's a beautiful golf course with the plantation house. Also
another nice restaurant at the golf resort. We've been a
couple of years ago, very nice. Merriman's Point is going
(40:39):
to be the most high end of Peter Merriman's different restaurants.
And but you can go for happy hour and have
the same experience, right and have a little special price
food poo poos. But it's also a beautiful one, very
farm to table, so you're gonna have all the wonderful
things you have everywhere else, but it's going to be
(40:59):
all elevated there. Also, we haven't done it, but there's
also when you should ask your hotel concierge. Just pop
up dinners at some of the local farms, the real
farm to table. There's a chocolate farm, there's a you
can do farm tours, and there are a couple of
farms from chocolate to vegetable that do moonlight dinners sunset
(41:22):
or moonlight dinners. You just have to be in the
know about these things. You can join the Maui Life
Facebook group or ask your concierge and they'll tell you.
But those are really fun as well. Further up past
that there's a big surfer area and then some good hiking.
We a blowhole and we did a beautiful hike up
(41:44):
north of Kappolua and some really good snorkeling as well. Yeah,
so also looking at I don't remember the name. It
wasn't the Wahaia Riche Trail or Twin Falls. It was
I don't remember the name of it. There was some
beautiful hiking. We tried to at least three or four
hikes when we're there. So that's West Maui and you
(42:05):
never have to leave West Maui. You can go to
Kaapali Kappelua front Street, and a lot of.
Speaker 4 (42:11):
People don't, Yeah, when they come to West Malui, they
don't because West Maui and Kihi, which is the other
developed touristy area, are you know, a good hour from
each other across the island. So a lot of people
either go to one place or the other and they
don't travel out. But that's why you're in.
Speaker 2 (42:28):
A car, right, Yeah, And it's not easy you can do.
So that's another reason we've been to keih we've stayed
down there. The beaches are pretty, the sunsets are amazing.
But for us, Kappelua and kind of poli are it.
There's just more to do. However, before we wrap up
the show, we want to tell you about Paia because
what we like to do when we check out to
go back to La Hui. I mean, so I keep
(42:50):
Sayingla Hui because I've got Kawai in my mind, also
to Kaha Louie. To Kaha Louie is we go a
little further past it to a kind of a little
cottage town called Paii.
Speaker 3 (43:00):
It's the hippie surfer town.
Speaker 2 (43:01):
On the hippie surfer town. There's what's the name of
that famous surfer beach.
Speaker 4 (43:04):
There, Jaws Jaws, So that's where that's where the fifty
foot waves are off of now Jaws and that you
can access that a little bit east of Paia, right
And uh so pay is it's basically an old surfer town.
I'm kind of a hippie town. They've got a got
a couple of restaurants there. They've got great ice cream. There,
some nice shops as well for.
Speaker 2 (43:27):
If you want to buy hippi tippy stuff well or
little boutiques to the things are to you. Yeah, it's nice.
So I'll tell you where we ate, because what we
did is before we went to the airport, we we
actually have a friend who's an artists who lives there.
We spent some time with her, Casey, and we hung
out and thankfully it was not a weekend because Paya
can get really crowded on the weekends and the parking
is an issue. So we were week Our flight was
(43:49):
in the evening. So what we recommend doing is have
a great meal before you leave to go to the
airport because you will not have any food that you
want at the airport and you're going to be hungry.
We ate a the Paiya Seafood Market. It was fantastic.
I had the best I hey tuna burger. Yeah, I
forgot what you had that looked good? You had a burger?
Speaker 3 (44:08):
I did, No, I had a.
Speaker 2 (44:11):
You did? It was great. We had that.
Speaker 3 (44:13):
Oh no, no had had.
Speaker 2 (44:17):
And I had the ah tuna burger fries because we
loaded up and then we went across the street to Rosalani,
the Maui ice cream shop since nineteen thirty two. We
had lacoy ice cream and macadamia nuts crunchy ice cream.
It's delicious to let you try everything. You can also
buy this ice cream in the supermarkets and containers. It's
called Rosilani. And we did that and then we drove
(44:39):
on to the airport. Another thing to do which we
have done in the past. There's two other restaurants so
you can stop and do before you get to the airport.
You know they're open like at five, some do happy hour.
One is one is the Halamali General Store. It used
to be owned by Beverly Gannon. It used to be
on a show. It's also farm to table great way
(45:01):
to stop, have a meal and go to the airport.
And finally, the last one is Mama's Kitchen. This is
a fan favorite. You'll see it all over trip Advisor.
It's on the beach. It's past pay. Yes, you can
Moms Fish House, Mama's Fish House, right, Mama's Fish House. Sorry,
thank you, David, Mama's Fish House. It's on the beach.
It's past pay on the road to Hanna, so allow
(45:22):
extra time, but you're literally eating on the beach. You
could actually rent cottages to stay there as well, so
it's also funding to do if you want another night
or two before you go to the airport, or maybe
you land and your week stay wherever you booked it
is it ready? You can go stay there and enjoy
that area and pay.
Speaker 3 (45:42):
Yam fish Mama's Fish Houses.
Speaker 4 (45:44):
It's the setting is incredible, it's and it's it's that
it's that destination place where a lot of people that
live on island go for a special occasion as well.
Speaker 2 (45:54):
It's pricey, yeah, it's.
Speaker 4 (45:55):
Not not inexpensive, but the food is delicious. The cocktails
are also very good from what we've had, and our
friends tell us the same that live on the island
as well.
Speaker 2 (46:05):
This is a great there's some great cocktails in Hawaii.
I mean the wine is okay, the cocktails are really great.
In the beer, so try to try all the local things,
try the cough, try everything, and savor it because you know,
it's probably a really big trip for you. From wherever
you're coming. It's not easy to get to it's a
long flight, so savor it. Get out and explore and
(46:28):
see as much. But also don't try to do too much.
There's your own vacation, so don't overschedule. Take time to
just relax and enjoy and always be ready for a
spectacular sunset, absolute most beautiful sunsets ever. Every day it's
an occasion to watch the sunset. And Maui so you
can go to the Mali Tourism website. You get discounts there.
(46:51):
There's a costco so you can look up on the centrals.
There's discount car rentals. There's really a lot to do
to make your Maui vacation exciting, also affordable, pleasurable. Whether
you're young, you've got kids, no matter what, there's something
for everybody. So what you always say when you go
(47:12):
to Hawaii is Aloha. And mahalo Aloha is how you
greet people, and mahalow is how you say, have a
great day, thank you, yes, And so we would like
to say mahalo to you for joining us on this
special edition of the Connected Table, and we encourage you
to book a trip and see for yourself how enjoyable
(47:36):
and beautiful Maui in the Loha spirit is.
Speaker 3 (47:42):
And as we sign off, we're going to say a
huiho we meet again.
Speaker 2 (47:47):
I love that huiho, A julio to our friends in Hawaii,
to especially Casey, a huiho, and to all of you
a huio. We'll talk next week on the Connected Table.
And is always stay and say should be curious
The topics and opinions expressed in the following show are
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(00:20):
for choosing W FOURCY Radio.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
Welcome to the Connected Table Live, where your hosts Melanie
Young and David Ransom your insay, She'll be curious culinary couple.
We love, love, love traveling the world to bring you
to the people, places, food, and drink that we experience,
hoping that you'll get out there and travel and see
the world and experienced life at its fullest and most delicious.
(01:04):
You are listening live and you can follow all our
shows anytime on YouTube over sixty five podcast channels. Check
out our site, Theconnected Table dot com, which is our blog,
and of course follow us on Instagram at the Connected Table.
As we travel the world. So it's just David and
today and we want to share with you our most
(01:26):
recent adventure, which was to the beautiful island of Maui.
I think we've been there what ten times?
Speaker 3 (01:31):
Oh, I'd say so, yeah.
Speaker 2 (01:33):
Yeah, it's a very special place. Hence the shirt, hence
the background. So just to let you know, the background
is overlooking the ocean at Conopoly Beach in the distances
the island of Lenai. And this was actually our view
from where we stay at the Western Connopoly Ocean Resort
(01:55):
and Villas. We actually bought into as an ownership many
many years ago, and we've used it regularly and have
enjoyed it tremendously. You know, Maui has consistently been ranked
among the nation and world's most popular vacation destination. It
(02:16):
dazzles with stunning scenery, turquoise waters as you can see,
blue skies, beautiful sun, great weather, and occasionally some rainbows.
I think if I go this way, there's a rainbow,
and there's somewhere constantly. Yes, it's also great for sports, dining, adventure.
The Haleakala Volcano is there, so you've got a volcano.
(02:39):
There's actually a wine and ava there. The Uhapalokua Vineyards
and Ava, which was established in twenty twenty one. So
they're making wine in Maui. It's a beautiful place. However, Yeah, however,
we all know that in twenty twenty three, the city
(02:59):
of Kino was tragically destroyed and burnt down due to
a terrible fire, and a lot of people are concerned
about going back. They're like, is it okay to go back? Well,
we're gonna emphactically say yes. First of all, lahaina Is
is being rebuilt. It remains the historic historic conary center
(03:21):
and spiritual center of Maui and much of Hawaii. It
is incredible and sadly a lot of historic buildings did
burn down, but the famous Banyan tree, which is the
symbol of spirit and growth, is growing. We actually saw
a satellite of it right now. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (03:35):
Actually it's come back with a vengeance.
Speaker 2 (03:37):
Actually.
Speaker 3 (03:38):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (03:38):
So the rebuilding is happening. But it is one area
of a very large island. It's not quite shaped like
a butterfly, is it not quite? No, But there's there's
there's many sections of maw It's a large island. It's
West Maui, South Maui, East Maui, different areas. So where
(04:02):
it may be raining in East Mallie, which is Hanah,
it could be dry as a bone where we stay
in West Malli, which is kind of poly And yes,
they have been experiencing dryness and drought, which is a
challenge with the fires. And we always wish our friends
out there, you know, good health and safety at all times.
(04:23):
But it is a good time to visit. It's always
a good time.
Speaker 3 (04:27):
It's always a good time to vision.
Speaker 2 (04:28):
You know.
Speaker 4 (04:28):
We've been there many, many different times of the year
and each one, which one's a little bit different, the
same scenery of course, but you know, different temperatures, different
types of weather patterns, et cetera. And it's really never
a bad time.
Speaker 2 (04:41):
Yeah, we've been there at January, February, March, April, May,
August most recently. What's consistent is the weather's always.
Speaker 3 (04:50):
Gorgeous, and then also November and December two.
Speaker 2 (04:52):
Yeah. Yeah, we've spent many happy Thanksgivings there, so we've
been there almost every month and the weather's consist beautiful, yea, consistently,
it's not too rainy. Occasionally you have a little bit
of rain, but it's mainly dry. It's a dryer island
compared to Kawhai, which is lush and green. It is
a little it's still lush in certain areas, but you're
(05:13):
also going to see the effects of the heat dryness.
We're going to focus on and share with you tips
some visiting based on where we go, which is West Maui.
There's also a layout which has got a lot of
swinky hotels and fancy restaurants and Hanna which we have
visited on East Mallie. But for the purpose of this show,
(05:34):
we're going to share with you where we like to
go and eat and drink in West Maui, and also
how to do it in the way we do it,
which is we don't go out and spend tons of
money every night. We're always on a budget. We know
where to go to get deals, we know where to
go shopping for good food. We also know where to
get you know, the fun food truck things, and we're
(05:55):
going to share it with you. Where should we start? Okay,
wes Maui. You're either going to stay in You're going
to land. When you land, you're going to land in
Ogg the airport in the town of Lahui Hallu ka
ha Louie sorry ka Halui, which is actually when you land,
it looks like anywhere in the United States. There's like
(06:17):
famous you know, there's a Costco. Everybody goes there. There's
what we call commerce.
Speaker 3 (06:23):
Yeah, it's the commercial center of the island.
Speaker 2 (06:26):
Yeah. So you're not going to land and be like,
oh wow, I'm in the middle of nowhere. You're in
the land the United States, which is actually a good
thing if you want those comfort creature comforts to get
to from Kahalui to Kandapalu. We highly recommend renting a car.
We have ben to Maui and not rented a car
and it was fine. However, you want to rent a car,
(06:49):
and every car rental company is out there, we recommend
and we get nothing for this. We just look for
deals either going with Costco if you're a MEMP Costco member,
or Maui car rental. And I have learned from experience
that you just keep calling these very nice people and
eventually you'll get better rates. And where you.
Speaker 3 (07:08):
Call, that's for sure.
Speaker 2 (07:09):
The closer you get to your stay, your rate may
go down. So we never just accept the first rate,
keep checking back, and we always purchase our rental insurance.
With a travel rental company like aliance saves you a
lot of money, like fifteen dollars a day versus thirty
dollars a day. So you're to rent a car, you're
to drive the most exquisite drive for what about forty
(07:31):
five minutes or so up to Kanopoly. Kanapoly is one
of the two main beach areas in West Malli with
every possible hotel, condo, you name it and you'll get
great value. You can just go on any one of
the travel sites that get good values. We do recommend
staying in an efficiency or a condo because you don't
(07:53):
want to just necessarily go out all the time.
Speaker 3 (07:56):
Very true. Yeah, although you can.
Speaker 4 (07:58):
There's plenty of restaurants, that's sure. Yeah, but you know
it's also nice to be able to make your own
cup of coffee and you know.
Speaker 2 (08:04):
Nag gets expensive when you go coffee every day.
Speaker 3 (08:07):
You know it, cooking egg if you feel like it.
Speaker 2 (08:09):
Yeah, So we stay in the Western kind of Polly,
which you can resort. They have a Western resort and
they have the western kind of gully billas. You can
actually rent them. You can go once sight and look
and we rend ours out occasionally. So often we cook
in the unit and where we'd like to go shopping
at the local grocery store. What do we like to buy?
Pokey and fresh fish and fruit and fruit, lots of fruit.
(08:33):
The best pineapple Maui pineapples, Maui gold pineapples is the
best ever.
Speaker 4 (08:37):
Yeah, because we've gone there so many times, we've tried
most of the restaurants at this point, we like the ones.
We like to go back to ones that we enjoy,
of course, but you know, they're all pretty good, I'll
be honest with you. And the food, of course is
you know, the fish is fresh, the vegetables are all fresh.
Everything's very fresh there and high quality food. So this
is so yeah, So it's fun to go at, but
every once in a while you want to stay home, right,
(08:58):
And because Pokey's like the national dish out there and
everybody eats it.
Speaker 3 (09:04):
It's fun to.
Speaker 4 (09:05):
Go to the local grocery store where they probably have
six or seven different types of poke on display every
day that they make fresh and you can just pick
up a pinch a court and take it home with you.
Speaker 3 (09:14):
So we should probably.
Speaker 2 (09:15):
Explain what poke is to anyone who doesn't know it.
How would you describe poky.
Speaker 3 (09:21):
At its most basic cubefish.
Speaker 2 (09:24):
Cubefish with lots of spices in kind of a soy sauce.
It is. It is fresh cube fish and the freshest
fish you'll ever have, usually mostly salmon, sometimes a little
culamary or octopus. And what's great is often the supermarkets
like Foodland, you name it, just the look, they'll do pokey,
(09:46):
they'll do Hawaiian plate lunches. So another deal at that's
a tradition throughout Hawaiian malays, the Hawaiian late lunch. There's
actually a little place in near Lahaina. And again I
want to understore that while La Hi main front street
has it's not open to the public right now, many
restaurants near there are and welcome people and need the business.
(10:09):
They need the business. So because tourism is the number
one industry in why so Aloha. Plate lunch is a
play lunch. So what is a plate lunch is like
a meat and three It's like a plaiform states. You
get a little usually some little protein, a macaroni and
cheese salad which seems to be very popular in Hawaii,
(10:30):
and white rice and maybe another kind of vegetable or
a little salad. Very simple very inexpensive and worth trying,
so poke. So we're going to talk a little bit
before we get into where to eat and go out
what you should be looking for to eat. So Maui, Yes,
you're gonna eat a lot of great fish. You're gonna
eat many kinds of fresh fish, ahi being probably the best.
(10:52):
But there's also dolphin mahi, there's opa hulu, there's one
we can't even pronounce. There's a lot of fish you
can't pronounce. Just go to a local fish up and
try them all and put them on the grill if
you if you're lucky to have the grill and see
which one do you like, and just a little bit oliver.
Speaker 4 (11:13):
Maybe they're also available at any restaurant that you go
out too. Yeah, Mahi and two and I are obviously
big sellers out there caught locally, as are all the
fish you're not gonna you're not gonna really find fish,
maybe except for salmon that's brought in to Maui or
any of the Hawaiian exactly, because there's such a plethora
of the of those fishes in the sea around the islands.
Speaker 2 (11:35):
But I think it's also to point out that even
though we're talking fish because we love the fish. This
one called munchong. It's free. We try them all. There's
also a very strong Maloy's also cattle country Hawaii, there
are a lot of ranches. The meat and the beef
is outstanding. And also the Kalua pork. It's a special
dish like a suckling pig. It's it's a specialty of
(11:57):
the islands. You're gonna have very good meat and pork
dishes as well. And if you're vegetarian, there are some
amazing locally grown mushrooms and kobocha squash, and ulu which
means breadfruit, and taro which is a starchy kind of substance,
but it's made a lot of things, a lot of
(12:17):
fresh greens. In Maui during strawberry season. There's a town
up Country, so you've got the coast and you've got
what they call upcountry, which is a completely cooler climate place,
and then further up into volcano country and that's where
all the farms are, which.
Speaker 4 (12:33):
Is when the main volcano there's the island was formed
from two volcanoes. And then there's a little bit of
a saddle in the middle that connects the saddle of Land,
which is where the airports and the commercial center is.
But the two mountainous regions West Maui and then Haliakolo,
which is the big volcano. So upcountry is on the
slopes of Kiliakola up to about two or three thousand feet.
Speaker 2 (12:54):
It's where lips. It's called cowboy country cowboys in Hwayer
kalkani Olas. Most people just go to bowing and the
hangout the beach and they line on the beach and
they line by the pool. Go up country, adventurous.
Speaker 3 (13:07):
That's why you're running a car.
Speaker 2 (13:08):
Beautiful, So we'll talk about that, but just to finish
on what you can eat, amazing vegetables and so upcountry
there's a town called Kola, and they're known for Kola
strawberries and when they're in season, they are amazing, and
that's almost.
Speaker 3 (13:23):
Like having a really fresh wild strawberry here in the
United States.
Speaker 2 (13:27):
Yes, the best strawberries, and and then papayas, the best
Papayas limes, and the Maui gold pineapple that is so
good that people actually pack them up a ship them
back to the United States and they're reasonable, you know,
that's what we live on. Pineapple papaya, fish, mushrooms, greens
and poky You.
Speaker 4 (13:46):
Know, it's interesting about the payas papaya and the pineapples.
Is that a lot of times if you're driving along
the road, you'll see a little stand on the side
of the road with a with a with a give
and take. You put a couple of dollars in the
box and take your and take your papaya with you
and they just sit out there. It's all very it's
kind of the honor system, right, But you find that
all over the island. We found it on the west side,
all the way over in Hana. We've done that just
(14:06):
as we're driving along.
Speaker 3 (14:07):
A great way to get.
Speaker 4 (14:09):
The local fruit because people grow all this stuff in
their backyard as well as professionally farming, but there's a
lot of people that just have pa pietrees and whatnot
in their backyards and they have access from them, of course,
and so they just they put them out for sale.
Speaker 2 (14:25):
And we did that a lot, and you're helping the
local commedy. You know, we forgot bananas, bananas, coconut and
Macedamian nuts on everything, so you know, amazing produce. This
is farming area, fishing area, you're going to have an
abundance of produce so you can eat healthy when you
travel or not if you choose not. We do recommend
(14:46):
if you've never been to Mali for first timers, things
you should definitely do. Go to a luau. That's a
traditional Hawaiian celebratory meal with dancing and singing and special
foods and some of the ones like the a pig,
and there's a lot of tradition. And you know Maui
is it's got a lot of history. The Hawaiian history
(15:07):
is so important. It's Polynesia. You're in Polynesia, so you're
getting Asian, Filipino, South Pacific influences as well as British
and Spanish because there were people who came over and sailed.
So it's it's a lot of history. So do try
a luau. As we said, rent a car and go
(15:27):
up country because you'll find amazing dancing girl goat cheese,
the cool of strawberries, a lavender farm. There's distilleries in Mauwa,
a very good vodka distillery and I think we've discovered
a tequila distillery run one, and of course there's a
winery Maui Wind. It used to be Tadeshi Winery. You
(15:48):
will discover all sorts of interesting farms and artists and crafts,
a lot of art galleries. A lot of people settle
in there and you'll see beautiful art. But you've got
to go inland and upline up country to see this.
But if if it's your first time.
Speaker 3 (16:04):
Do that.
Speaker 2 (16:05):
If you're into sports, snorkeling, some great little base or snorking, hiking,
which we'll share. We go hiking because we eat a
lot and then we go hiking. Swimming of course, the
Molokai Molokai no, what's the name, Molikini Molikini crater is
like this little volcanic crater. You can go snorkeling too.
We actually haven't done that because we just snorkel right
out on the beach right in front of our hotel. Right,
(16:28):
So these are some things. Work with your hotel concierge.
We get out, don't just lie at the beach, get
out and explore. We do that. We tend to go
and hike. We took a pick a ball. Yeah, so
it's a lot of fun.
Speaker 3 (16:42):
You know, there's some great hikes. If you like to hike,
there's some great hikes.
Speaker 4 (16:45):
I do suggest that you take hiking sticks with you
or purchase them while you're there if you want to,
if you don't want to schlep them all with you,
but we took ours out.
Speaker 3 (16:53):
We do that when we go to Kawai as well.
Speaker 4 (16:55):
Because there's some great hikes on Maui really all over
the place. And then of course if you go up
to haliaka a crater which is about eleven thousand feet
or ten thousand feet to the top, you can drive
all the way up.
Speaker 3 (17:06):
It's a national park.
Speaker 4 (17:08):
And if you go to Hollyakolo, there's some wonderful hiking
trails that go through the crater, which is next thing
Bulgano now, so.
Speaker 3 (17:14):
It's just getting hit by lava while you're there.
Speaker 2 (17:17):
Yeah, it's just incredible. And David's right, And we actually
travel with our own snorkel gear and that we go
out there enough where we just have a gear bag
and we bring all our gear to save money. Again,
you know, we want everyone to also know that when
we travel, we don't go extravagly. We also try to
be frugal and save money when we travel and spend
it the right way. So we'll bring our own snorkel gear,
(17:38):
we'll bring our own little toys for the pool, or
pickaball rackets and walking six. We highly recommend good shoes
and walking six. So some of the trails can be
steep and they're on the edge of the water and
you don't want to fall in, and it also can
get windy and you don't want to be knocked over,
so it is important. But there's such beautiful trails and
(17:58):
so different. We went to one that was just pure
forest up on a ridge in Macawow. Macawow is like
the heart of Cowboy Country and we went to a
forest preserve. We've also hiked along the coastal trail, which
is gorgeous. We've gone up to windmills and a very
steep trail. We've driven all around the island, even to
the areas where the rental car people say don't go.
(18:20):
We went, and it's incredible. You'll find some amazing discoveries.
But if you do, it's not that bad. It's not
that bad. But if you do do it, make sure
you have a lot of water, full ticket gas, and
check your tires and snacks because there's nothing along the
way for a long way. But it is a lot
of fun to do and it is probably of we've
been to almost every home one in island. Now, I
(18:41):
think Maui offers the most versatility and versatility in terms
of geography, topography, food activities, but consistent really great weather.
So if you're looking for a couple's vacation or a
family vacation, you're gonna love it. But let's talk about
food and dining, because that's what the show we as,
we have the Connected Table and we put together a
(19:05):
list of our favorite places to go and why now
we focus mainly on West Maui because of time and
because it's interesting wal Lea. While you'll find the very
famous resorts, you'll also find some very famous chef driven
restaurants like Morimoto has a place there, a wolfingg Puck
has Aspago there. So you're gonna get some very famous
(19:25):
chef driven restaurants. What we like to recommend are locally owned,
little local places that maybe you don't know as much
about or maybe you do. So we kind of divided
it into certain areas and we're gonna start with Lehina now,
as we underscored, while the center of Lahina is still
(19:45):
not walkable or visible because where there's doing a lot
of you know, there's a lot of rebuilding and also
still excavating going on. The fires were devastating. On Front Street,
just north of well Heina, you can find some really
terrific places, and we've been to all of these. The
(20:06):
first is Mala Ocean Tavern. I can't tell you how
happy we were to read that these restaurants are not destroyed.
It's really really good mala Is if you want waterfront dining,
super casual, really good food, Mala Ocean Tavern on Front Street.
You'll see sea turtles during the day because honu is
(20:26):
the word for sea turtles. At night, you'll see spectacular sunsets.
Speaker 4 (20:30):
Beautiful sunsets, yeah, right off, right off, right off the deck.
Yeah yeah, just gorgeous, super casual and wonderful food to
a little bit of of an Italian inflection to it.
But it's also classic local cuisine as well, so it's
got a little bit of both going on and really
just very fresh, beautifully presented food.
Speaker 2 (20:47):
So an example, the barata with peaches, grilled peaches and
pistachio crumble knocked my socks off this last visit. And
we always get at the Ahi Bruscatta with flea seat
toast just made locally. You can sell it. You can
buy it in this grocery stores. The local flaxy toes
with balsamic and local tomatoes, also very good local tomatoes.
(21:07):
We had a green coconut curry and did not add
any fish or meat. It was vegan. It was fantastic.
People across from us ordered the whole flight Hawaiian fish.
It was some fish I never heard of. It's amazing,
and five people, yeah, yeah. And then they have something
A couple of these waterfront restaurants have something called I
(21:28):
Caught the Fish. You can bring in your own fish
scaled and prepped in the cheff will cook it for you,
because I doubt you're great fishing, but if you do,
that's a fun thing to do. Right next door is
Ho New Ocean sign on front street. The two Malon
Honu used to be related. Now they're not. Also great fused,
probably a little more finer dining atmosphere, great craft costsails
(21:49):
the same. I Hebrew scotta is at Ho New. But
other things that I loved when we go, and this
used to be like our grand finale dinner when we went.
This time we did it at Mala Love the kale
salad with dates, pomegranates, walnuts, pecorino and preserve lemon vinaigrette.
So much we try to recreate that here where we live.
(22:10):
And they do a great mushroom soup as we mentioned
Mami's Great Mushrooms with the Ali mushrooms which are local
dried porcini button mushrooms and cream and of course the
Hebrew's got it really fantastic. The other very popular place
in town which you have got to go off hours
or good luck getting a reservation is Star Noodle and
(22:30):
our tip is go off hour. Like a lot of
these places have happy hours and poopoos and discount drinks
from two to five, and if you want to go,
maybe not spend a lot of money, go for poopoos
or happy hours and you'll get some great nipples. Stardools
is a good example of the time to go fresh
Asian noodle dishes, sushi, sushimi, share places, sake cocktails. We
(22:54):
haven't been in a bit, but it is consistently fantastic
and always booked so and it's lunch and dinner. But
we were happy to see that it survived as well
because it used to be a little further out and
then to move closer in. It's terrific. And as we noted,
if you want a good old fashioned Hawaii lunch plate,
a Loha plate lunch, it's really fun lunch only. Then
(23:18):
we're going to take you up to Kindakapalli. Before we do,
we're going to recommend a place where we actually did
our Thanksgiving. When you're in Melilayola's Pie Plate, Leyoa's Pie House,
and they are known for their savory and sweet pie.
So we did a Thanksgiving where we did take out
pop pies, right, it was so much fun, and then
(23:38):
we had the turkey pot pie and the chicken pop
pie and then they're Lillokoi pie. Lilcoy is an important.
Speaker 3 (23:43):
Fruit, local fruit, which is I think starfruit.
Speaker 2 (23:45):
Yeah yeah, So it's called Loyola's Pie House and you
can eat in or take out, and they also have
really good sandwiches and you could pick up things. So
that's a really fun place. Then we're gonna so this
is interesting. There's a board wall. Okay, you can walk
the entire beach.
Speaker 3 (24:03):
Passion fruit, passion fruit, poloquois, passion fruit.
Speaker 2 (24:06):
Yeah, that's right, passion fruit. So you can walk a
board walk from where we're talking about, all the way
up charge it's a.
Speaker 4 (24:14):
Couple it's a couple of miles from Lehina up to
up to the Connopoly area. But but it's a fairly
short it's a fairly short walk that's really to the middle.
But you but the hotel section starts maybe half a
mile up from the top of Leahina right, so you
can walk there.
Speaker 2 (24:33):
You'll see row and row of hotels. We've walked into beautiful.
Speaker 4 (24:37):
And a lot of those hotels are really beautiful hotels
with lots to do and a number of restaurants in each,
which is where we're going to talk about now. Some
of the restaurants in the in the Connopoly hotels that
we went to, a lot of them are privately managed
by by chefs that are not just part of that hotel,
(24:59):
which which is kind of nice. So you get some
famous names there, et cetera, famous local names especially, and.
Speaker 2 (25:04):
These are locally owned and Pacific rim most Pacific RIM,
so Pacific RIM is Asian Polynesian influences, Japanese Filipino, a
lot of Filipino influences. So the first one is actually
Peter Merriman has been called the pied Piper of New
(25:27):
Pacific Cuisine, and we hope to have him on the show.
We've reached out and hoped to have him. He has
owned several restaurants, of which we've been to one on
the Big Island. We've been to three in Maui. I
think he has one in Kawhi. We're going to try
it visit next This original one was on the Big Island,
right and we did it. Thanks. We did in New
Year's there. Yeah. So Peter Merriman, he is very famous,
(25:47):
probably one of the Hawaii's celebrity chef originals. Monkey Pod
Kitchen is one of his. He's got a couple of locations.
This one's at Whaler's Village, which is a really fun place.
There's a lot of shopping. A couple of restaurants, Hula Grill,
Leilani's are also there. We like Monkey Pie. Everybody goes
(26:10):
and it's got a great happy hour lunch into a
great happy hour.
Speaker 3 (26:14):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (26:14):
They're known for the my Tie with the lilloquoy foam topping.
You can also get it with no alcohol, the my tithes.
It's a signature drink and you can it's a little
less expensive. A happy hour. Notable dishes that we've had
the kawhi shrimp and mushroom sliders. You've also had the
pork sliders, I believe David, the lobster deviled eggs.
Speaker 5 (26:37):
Oh delicious, unbelievable, pokey tacos mmm, and I love this one.
The hamakua another mushroom, wild mushroom and truffle oil pizza
with white sauce. I've also had a really good mohi
sandwich there, grilled mahi sandwich, totally fresh.
Speaker 3 (26:54):
And it's an outdoor atmosphere too. There's no walls, although
it is covered.
Speaker 2 (26:58):
Yeah, there's music, the music and happy.
Speaker 3 (27:00):
Music and happier from happy hour on, and it's it's
really just a fun place.
Speaker 2 (27:04):
Yeah, really great gathering place, definitely top of it. They
don't take reservations, right, no reservation. So we walked down,
toodle around, put her name on the list, tootle around,
look at all the shops as even in Louis Vuitton there,
and we go back and hang. It's really great. But
we're really excited this recent trip to learn that there
(27:24):
was another Peter Meravan restaurant that we had not tried
yet called Ula Kitchen at the Weston Resort, which is
the sister so we're at the Western kind of poly villas,
which are all mainly owned by people who rent the
mount like us. And then the Weston is a hotel.
It's where we first stay before bought into the Western.
It's a beautiful resort. I was stunned how beautiful it is.
(27:46):
There's actually you can find flamingos and water lilies, this
beautiful pond. This restaurant was fabulous. Ula kitchen is on
the water. We were there for at dinner at night.
It's so beautiful and romantic. Fire pits, incredible. We tried
knock out dishes, the grilled tarotes cargo, so the tarots
(28:09):
it's like an octopus instead of s cargo. It's octopus
in taco. Sorry sorry, sorry type out. I'm looking at
my notes.
Speaker 3 (28:17):
Taco taco taro root vegetable, which was not part of
that dish.
Speaker 2 (28:24):
It was It was like anes cargo, but with a
little octopus inside with garlic, and it was traditional.
Speaker 3 (28:30):
It was a traditional presentation of escargo without the escargo.
Speaker 2 (28:34):
You love the coconut shrimp, which normally coconut chips fried.
I don't like fry. This one is like sut in
this amazing coconut cream sauce. It was so good we
have We had the Rosemary sea salt fries. They were
to die for. I forgot what else we had. It's
Ula Kitchen at the Western Resort. Definitely check that one out.
(28:55):
It's it opened in the past, I think since the fires.
Speaker 3 (28:58):
They've been open for about a year.
Speaker 2 (29:00):
Yeah, yeah, it's just incredible. Also owned by Peter Merriman.
Then further up the way, we've not been to Japenga,
which is a fine dining Japanese restaurant at the Hyatt.
We'd like to go sometime, but you got to stop
by the Hyatt because they have penguins. Penguins and Maui.
They literally have a penguin pond at this beautiful hotel,
(29:22):
the Hyatt. Maui incredibly stunning, a lot of art just
walking around. It's in a gallery in the landscape. But
they have penguins, so we just always go to see
the penguins. But we hear the restaurant there, Japanga, is
very very good. We didn't have chance, but you can
get some really good Japanese food and that's good because
one of the ones we love sunsay clothes and we
love Japanese food. Further on up up, there is a
(29:49):
little place that we like for banana Macadamian pancakes, super
casual breakfast lunch. It's on our walk that we do
on that board walk we were talking to, and it's
called Castaway's Cafe. Tiny little place, tiny beach front, right
on the beach, totally.
Speaker 4 (30:07):
Beach front then there for a long time and kind
of a little kind of a little unsung local spot
that those people in the no flock too.
Speaker 2 (30:16):
It's actually at the Maui count poly Villas Resort. They're
tiny little villas. I mean there are a lot of
little villas they call them, but they're not villas. They're
the little cottages you can rent and really adorable. So
we go for the Macadamian banana pancakes. But they also
have a crabcake. Benedict, I think you have that lunch
Pinaola Cowboy breakfast. The typical one is eggs, bacon, sausage, potatoes,
(30:41):
rice or toast, very hearty, lots and lots of coffee.
But it is actually it is breakfast, lush and dinner
and very reasonably priced, which is I think important because
I think everybody's worrying about flying to Hawaii and the
costs you can eat inexpensive.
Speaker 3 (30:56):
And costs, and now we have gone up, that's for sure.
They have.
Speaker 2 (30:59):
They have and there are taxes that they have added,
and that's been in the news. So to address it, Yes,
there are additional expenses and taxes and visitors charges when
you go because Maui just suffered a fire and it's rebuilding.
And so rather than complain about additional taxes, visitors, taxes,
know that your money is going to help with the
rebuilding effort. And a lot of people lost their jobs
(31:21):
and this is helping a lot of people get past
a difficult time. Further on up Duke's Kitchen, who in
Duke was a surfer.
Speaker 4 (31:32):
Yeah, and it's part of a it's part of a
restaurant group which also includes Leilani and what was the
other one, Hula Grille. Yeah, So that's all part of
the Duke's, the Duke's family of restaurants, and they they
have a number of restaurants along the Connopoly coast and
they're all good, you know, great place for live music
(31:53):
because they usually have a guitarist out front. Good place
to go to happy hour, but also very nice lunches
and dinners.
Speaker 2 (31:59):
And family friends. Yeah, they all these persons have kids menus.
I think we want to really, you know, particularly this group.
So the Hula Girl was up at Waler's village which
he reached referenced, and Leilani's also at Whaler's Village. We've
been to both and our many travels. Dukes is right
up the road from literally right up the walkway from
our hotel for from the West and kinda Polly, So
(32:20):
it's really easy to just podle over there and grab
a bite and have some uh some dishes like mac
nut or crusted fresh fish. Uh, nachos. I he for
a khaki. I loove for a kaki, a steak with
chile Olan treffles, sliders. Really good from casual to not
(32:42):
and one of the it's named for the surfer Duke
Kinda Kanda namaku h.
Speaker 3 (32:49):
Thank you, very famous surfer Beckham.
Speaker 2 (32:51):
I think the nineteenth need We say that David's been
studying Hawaiian on due lingo that his pronunciation is better
than mine.
Speaker 3 (33:00):
So we like to Dukes is a great place that
we like to go to for lunch.
Speaker 2 (33:03):
Yeah, really fine, casual. So if you go at least
once either at Hula Grill or at Dukes, you got
to try something that was invented here called the hula pie.
So it is a huge pile of this is shareup.
Of course Macadamian nut ice cream, which is like the
ice cream to have when you're there at top with
(33:24):
cooled like a little layer of cool chocolate fudge. You
get the little crunch and then it's on a chocolate
chip cookie crust and then it's drizzled with warm chocolate
fudge syrup and top with flop cream.
Speaker 3 (33:39):
Don't feed it to the little children late in the
day because they'll be all night filled with sugar. But delicious.
Speaker 2 (33:45):
Yeah, there's some pretty good dessert say, I'll say everybody.
There's also if you really like desserts, anything with Macadamian
nut pie, pies, coconut pies really great in Hawaiian, especially
in Mali. You won't go hungry. Is there anywhere else
in kind of Polly, I think we covered a lot
of them.
Speaker 3 (34:02):
We kind of covered that beach area.
Speaker 2 (34:05):
Yeah, so now we're going to talk about our little
special place we like to go, which is less touristy
called Napili n A p I l I. This is
like where we go grocery shopping, and it's a little independent,
small hotels and cottages to rent. But we stumbled upon
it because we were driving around a car and we
(34:26):
found some grocery stores that we like there that are
very local and they have really amazing, reasonably priced pokey
and spam, masubi and other local dishes. And in this
really it's a strip mall. Okay, it's not even the all.
It's just the strip of a shopping center. You'll find
(34:48):
for breakfast or lunch, we recommend a AH Roots Kitchen.
This is vegan, great stuff, vegan, vegetarian, wonderful owner. Go
for the asa e bowls and the pattaya. My favorite
is the Tropical bowl of as e banana, pineapple, coconut
and crushed mac nuts and share able. Or the Dragon Bowl,
(35:09):
which is pataya, pineapple, banana, strawberry, blueberries. I say, eat
just so good.
Speaker 4 (35:14):
Yeah, it's basically health food driven, so you're gonna you're
not gonna find meat or fish there. They do have
sandwiches and burritos and things like that, but it's but
it's all vegan, so it's just what the food is delicious,
all totally fresh local ingredients there there, it's just a
great spot a roots and we.
Speaker 2 (35:32):
Could eat there every day. They've got wrapped juices, smoothies,
just a wonderful place.
Speaker 4 (35:37):
And then the other place, literally three doors down is
one of our favorites, Joey's Kitchen, which is a Filipino
restaurant kind of semi takeout. You can order it the
counter and then you go sit down and then they
bring you the food. Joey Mceadang Dang, who has been
a former guest on our show a few years ago,
is the owner. And Joey's Kitchen is just a great
(35:59):
spot Filipino food, really delicious.
Speaker 2 (36:02):
Examples what we had. And this was our last meal
this time because we were like doing the last mill
because we didn't have anywhere groceries. Shrimp Panchit which was
soft crown egg noodles with this big beautiful local shrimp, carrots, cabbage,
beautiful dish. And then I had something called the Singapore Synagogue,
which is a clear broth with so many beautiful pieces
(36:26):
of fish and shellfish.
Speaker 3 (36:28):
And it was infused with tamarind, which was just delicious,
just delicious.
Speaker 2 (36:33):
This is a terrific place to go for honest Filipino
Asian inspired food. That's his roots's he I think he did.
He grow up his his Filipino roots, but was born
and raised in Hawaii or was raised in Hawaii. He
used to have a few more restaurants. I think he's
pared down since the pandemic. But Joey's Kitchen is where
(36:54):
locals goat and it's just fantastic. And that's in the Peely.
Speaker 4 (36:59):
We tried to go to those two places in Napili
every time we get every time we go to maley
h They're just good.
Speaker 2 (37:05):
These are regular places. Yeah, we're sharing you where we go.
And this is after years of ryalan era, which gets
us to our one of our favorite happy hours, and
we always go for happy hours because we like doing
that and happy hours like a late lunch early dinner
and one of our favorites is at the Napi Lei
Kai Resort, another one of those smaller resorts that are
(37:28):
really pretty that you have to know about. Also in
Napile en route to Kappolua, it's called Seahouse Restaurant right
on a little bay water beach and bay, just gorgeous.
We go and have you had the pork sliders, which
you said were really terrific. I get the Ahi nachos
(37:49):
that we go for happy hour, but you can have
a full meal. But it's just wonderful. And it's outdoor,
indoor outdoor as well. All these places we're talking about it,
well not Joey's Kitchen that's indoor, but everything's indoor outdoor,
and this.
Speaker 3 (38:00):
One is literally if you walk down the steps, you're
on the beach.
Speaker 2 (38:04):
Literally.
Speaker 3 (38:05):
It is just a great spot.
Speaker 4 (38:06):
And it's a cute little resort that it's in, the
Nepilei Kai Resort. It seems to me like it's a
one off resort. It's not part of a chain of
hotels or anything like that, so it's an independently owned
resort and just a lovely beach and a nice atmosphere,
relaxed atmosphere.
Speaker 2 (38:23):
I like Nippile. There's some other places we haven't been,
like Miso Fat Sushi, which people recommend. We got a
great somebody turned us onto. There's a farmer's market also
into Pile. On certain days the week can go. We
always go and get local greens and talk with the
different farmers and there we learned about Coconut Glen, which
(38:47):
is vegan ice cream food truck. There's four flavors. When
was the surprise that you got with the Lilo Koi
your yeah, passion fruit and you got the one that
was the purple sweep potat you know, it was really
good and he it's called Coconut g One. Actually he
was originated in Hannah, which is on the east side
(39:08):
of Man right, which you've been to. Totally different atmosphere, uh,
and it was delicious and next to it was another
food truck that was closed at the time, but the
daughter of the owner of our roots is doing some
food truck food there. There's actually a couple of areas,
including one not far from our hotel. For where we
say at the West Konta Pali, that's a food truck
(39:30):
park and every couple of nights that'll open and you
can just wander around and check out the food trucks.
Food trucks are very popular in Hawaii, very much and
really also a great value. Uh. Further on up past
the Appelia gets swankier. Uh. There you're going to find
the Ritz Carlton.
Speaker 4 (39:49):
That's it up in Capellua, which is the next town.
Should we say up the talk out of one town. Yeah,
but and that's really the last that's the last mrcially
developed section on West Maui. As you go north on
the west coast is Capelloua, which is where the resort is.
And they also played the big golf tournament out.
Speaker 2 (40:09):
There and the Waife Food and Wine the Wayfe Food and.
Speaker 4 (40:11):
Wine Classic is held there as well, and more male
food and wine is held there as one restaurants up
there too.
Speaker 2 (40:18):
Yeah, the main one is Merriman's Point. So Merriman's Point
is high end, farm to table. Uh. This is a
golfing area. There's also the Montage hotel and multimillion dollar homes.
There's a beautiful golf course with the plantation house. Also
another nice restaurant at the golf resort. We've been a
couple of years ago, very nice. Merriman's Point is going
(40:39):
to be the most high end of Peter Merriman's different restaurants.
And but you can go for happy hour and have
the same experience, right and have a little special price
food poo poos. But it's also a beautiful one, very
farm to table, so you're gonna have all the wonderful
things you have everywhere else, but it's going to be
(40:59):
all elevated there. Also, we haven't done it, but there's
also when you should ask your hotel concierge. Just pop
up dinners at some of the local farms, the real
farm to table. There's a chocolate farm, there's a you
can do farm tours, and there are a couple of
farms from chocolate to vegetable that do moonlight dinners sunset
(41:22):
or moonlight dinners. You just have to be in the
know about these things. You can join the Maui Life
Facebook group or ask your concierge and they'll tell you.
But those are really fun as well. Further up past
that there's a big surfer area and then some good hiking.
We a blowhole and we did a beautiful hike up
(41:44):
north of Kappolua and some really good snorkeling as well. Yeah,
so also looking at I don't remember the name. It
wasn't the Wahaia Riche Trail or Twin Falls. It was
I don't remember the name of it. There was some
beautiful hiking. We tried to at least three or four
hikes when we're there. So that's West Maui and you
(42:05):
never have to leave West Maui. You can go to
Kaapali Kappelua front Street, and a lot of.
Speaker 4 (42:11):
People don't, Yeah, when they come to West Malui, they
don't because West Maui and Kihi, which is the other
developed touristy area, are you know, a good hour from
each other across the island. So a lot of people
either go to one place or the other and they
don't travel out. But that's why you're in.
Speaker 2 (42:28):
A car, right, Yeah, And it's not easy you can do.
So that's another reason we've been to keih we've stayed
down there. The beaches are pretty, the sunsets are amazing.
But for us, Kappelua and kind of poli are it.
There's just more to do. However, before we wrap up
the show, we want to tell you about Paia because
what we like to do when we check out to
go back to La Hui. I mean, so I keep
(42:50):
Sayingla Hui because I've got Kawai in my mind, also
to Kaha Louie. To Kaha Louie is we go a
little further past it to a kind of a little
cottage town called Paii.
Speaker 3 (43:00):
It's the hippie surfer town.
Speaker 2 (43:01):
On the hippie surfer town. There's what's the name of
that famous surfer beach.
Speaker 4 (43:04):
There, Jaws Jaws, So that's where that's where the fifty
foot waves are off of now Jaws and that you
can access that a little bit east of Paia, right
And uh so pay is it's basically an old surfer town.
I'm kind of a hippie town. They've got a got
a couple of restaurants there. They've got great ice cream. There,
some nice shops as well for.
Speaker 2 (43:27):
If you want to buy hippi tippy stuff well or
little boutiques to the things are to you. Yeah, it's nice.
So I'll tell you where we ate, because what we
did is before we went to the airport, we we
actually have a friend who's an artists who lives there.
We spent some time with her, Casey, and we hung
out and thankfully it was not a weekend because Paya
can get really crowded on the weekends and the parking
is an issue. So we were week Our flight was
(43:49):
in the evening. So what we recommend doing is have
a great meal before you leave to go to the
airport because you will not have any food that you
want at the airport and you're going to be hungry.
We ate a the Paiya Seafood Market. It was fantastic.
I had the best I hey tuna burger. Yeah, I
forgot what you had that looked good? You had a burger?
Speaker 3 (44:08):
I did, No, I had a.
Speaker 2 (44:11):
You did? It was great. We had that.
Speaker 3 (44:13):
Oh no, no had had.
Speaker 2 (44:17):
And I had the ah tuna burger fries because we
loaded up and then we went across the street to Rosalani,
the Maui ice cream shop since nineteen thirty two. We
had lacoy ice cream and macadamia nuts crunchy ice cream.
It's delicious to let you try everything. You can also
buy this ice cream in the supermarkets and containers. It's
called Rosilani. And we did that and then we drove
(44:39):
on to the airport. Another thing to do which we
have done in the past. There's two other restaurants so
you can stop and do before you get to the airport.
You know they're open like at five, some do happy hour.
One is one is the Halamali General Store. It used
to be owned by Beverly Gannon. It used to be
on a show. It's also farm to table great way
(45:01):
to stop, have a meal and go to the airport.
And finally, the last one is Mama's Kitchen. This is
a fan favorite. You'll see it all over trip Advisor.
It's on the beach. It's past pay. Yes, you can
Moms Fish House, Mama's Fish House, right, Mama's Fish House. Sorry,
thank you, David, Mama's Fish House. It's on the beach.
It's past pay on the road to Hanna, so allow
(45:22):
extra time, but you're literally eating on the beach. You
could actually rent cottages to stay there as well, so
it's also funding to do if you want another night
or two before you go to the airport, or maybe
you land and your week stay wherever you booked it
is it ready? You can go stay there and enjoy
that area and pay.
Speaker 3 (45:42):
Yam fish Mama's Fish Houses.
Speaker 4 (45:44):
It's the setting is incredible, it's and it's it's that
it's that destination place where a lot of people that
live on island go for a special occasion as well.
Speaker 2 (45:54):
It's pricey, yeah, it's.
Speaker 4 (45:55):
Not not inexpensive, but the food is delicious. The cocktails
are also very good from what we've had, and our
friends tell us the same that live on the island
as well.
Speaker 2 (46:05):
This is a great there's some great cocktails in Hawaii.
I mean the wine is okay, the cocktails are really great.
In the beer, so try to try all the local things,
try the cough, try everything, and savor it because you know,
it's probably a really big trip for you. From wherever
you're coming. It's not easy to get to it's a
long flight, so savor it. Get out and explore and
(46:28):
see as much. But also don't try to do too much.
There's your own vacation, so don't overschedule. Take time to
just relax and enjoy and always be ready for a
spectacular sunset, absolute most beautiful sunsets ever. Every day it's
an occasion to watch the sunset. And Maui so you
can go to the Mali Tourism website. You get discounts there.
(46:51):
There's a costco so you can look up on the centrals.
There's discount car rentals. There's really a lot to do
to make your Maui vacation exciting, also affordable, pleasurable. Whether
you're young, you've got kids, no matter what, there's something
for everybody. So what you always say when you go
(47:12):
to Hawaii is Aloha. And mahalo Aloha is how you
greet people, and mahalow is how you say, have a
great day, thank you, yes, And so we would like
to say mahalo to you for joining us on this
special edition of the Connected Table, and we encourage you
to book a trip and see for yourself how enjoyable
(47:36):
and beautiful Maui in the Loha spirit is.
Speaker 3 (47:42):
And as we sign off, we're going to say a
huiho we meet again.
Speaker 2 (47:47):
I love that huiho, A julio to our friends in Hawaii,
to especially Casey, a huiho, and to all of you
a huio. We'll talk next week on the Connected Table.
And is always stay and say should be curious
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