Tin Roof
Maui’s popularity for magnificence is deserved: Strings of excellent crescent seashores give method to lush rainforests and rolling inexperienced ranchlands. Opulent resorts line the island’s leeward shore, every with a flashy restaurant providing entrance row seats for the nightly pyrotechnic sundown. However more and more, the island’s greatest cooks have migrated away from large inns to humbler kitchens. Excessive rents have pressured unbiased restaurateurs to maximise unconventional areas, so most of the most righteous meals on Maui can now be present in plain-faced strip malls, meals vehicles, and farms.
That is very true after the catastrophic August 2023 hearth in Lahaina, which disproportionately affected the island’s restaurant trade. In a single day, cooks and waitstaff become emergency responders. Many misplaced their properties and companies and have but to seek out steady replacements. Whereas some West Maui eating places have reopened, like Leoda’s and Fond, others nonetheless hope to rebuild or are merely gone. Regardless of these appreciable challenges, Maui’s sous cooks and shave ice makers proceed to indicate up, tie on aprons, and nourish their neighborhood.
Nourishment is required now greater than ever, and if the fireplace prompted any change, it’s a deeper dedication to “eat native.” The pattern, which predated the catastrophe, continues to blossom, leading to dynamic collaborations between cooks, fishermen, and farmers. Menus routinely characteristic Hawaiian flavors reminiscent of ‘ōpakapaka (pink snapper), pohole fern, līmu līpoa (Hawaiian seaweed), and haupia (coconut custard). At Tikehau Lounge and Esters Truthful Prospect, bartenders combine cocktails with native spirits and fruits. Farmers markets and grocery shops provide a plethora of Maui-grown merchandise — macadamia nut butter, chocolate, and occasional — which you can pack in your suitcase to savor again dwelling. Many native meals purveyors donate a proportion of their revenue to Lahaina aid companies, so indulging serves a double objective.
Shannon Wianecki writes about meals, tradition, and native ecosystems for publications together with BBC, Smithsonian, and Hana Hou — the Hawaiian Airways journal. Rising up in Hawai’i, her favourite snack was uncooked opihi (limpet) recent off the rocks.