Wednesday 6 August 2014

Snack Attacks In Maui: Banana Bread, Coconut Glen's & Ululani's Shave Ice

My family of four and my parents had the privilege of going on a trip to the beautiful island of Maui for eight days in July.  Having endured a cold, rainy spring in Alberta, I'd looked forward to finally having warm toes.  The climate was warm and breezy in the area of Ka'anapali on the northwest where we were stationed - we didn't even need a jacket in the evenings.  I would definitely recommend this part of the island if you like a little more space and less intense heat!

In preparation for the trip, I'd researched some food spots which had great reviews.  Tripadvisor and my bible for the trip, Maui Revealed (6th edition) by Andrew Doughty and Leona Boyd were my primary sources. Let me tell you, I read a LOT of reviews to try my best to arrange eight days of fun, relaxation, a bit of adventure, and good eats.

Aunty Sandy's
On our fourth day, the six of us took a tour with guide Alicia from Awapuhi Adventures along the Road to Hana, a tiny town on an eastern point, then around to the southern part of the island, and finally back up to Kahului.  It was an 11-hour journey with lots of wonderful stops such as walking through a bamboo forest, visiting and swimming under waterfalls, having a picnic of tasty and nutritious gourmet goodies, dipping in the ocean at different beaches, as well as learning about historical sites, the flora and fauna of the different micro-ecosystems, and current island life and politics.  Alicia treated us to banana bread at Aunty Sandy's fruit stand; you can see her by the OPEN sign.  Many of the roadside stands offer banana bread, and most claim that theirs is the best of all.  I'd say Aunty Sandy did a great job as the cake was very flavourful and moist.  Yummy!  There were banana trees nearby so that made the experience even more special.

       

  


Coconut Glen's
After some more driving, we stopped at Coconut Glen's vegan ice cream shack.  You can read more about him and his business here.  Glen wasn't there that afternoon, disappointingly.  He sounds like quite a character who, Alicia says, has a special connection with Willy Wonka.  You'll definitely get a sense of this if you read his story...written in rhyming verse!  

  
          I love his little parking sign!

Glen's ice cream is made of 100% coconut milk with natural flavourings.  It was very hard to decide which kind to choose and we had a lot more road left to travel at that point so I couldn't a) take forever to pick or b) sample every variety so I tried the coconut.  When in Maui...  :-)  Check out the presentation and the "spoon"!  Animal-loving Miriam made friends with the resident kitten (Alicia mentioned that there are many feral cats on the island!).  

I'll have to set my camera to take higher resolution photos for the blog.  I had to enlarge this so you could see his commitment to the environment, which I appreciate and practice faithfully.  I thought you would also like the machete!  Recycle or else?
 


  
                                                    Future vet?                         I got photobombed by that plant which
                                                                                                  appears to be a hair decoration!

Ululani's Shave Ice
Sno(w) cones are something we Canadians are familiar with - ground-up ice with sugary syrup squirted on the top, most often found at exhibitions.  My friend, Dana, whom I called regarding our school division's travel insurance, said that we had to go to Ululani's Shave Ice when we went to Maui.  During my research, I discovered that there were four locations.  Passing through Kihei one afternoon on a southbound journey to Big Beach, I saw one of the stands!  While waiting to order (there was a 10-person long line every time we passed one of the locations), Miriam and I were trying to figure out what size to pick.  Looking at the other customers' dishes, we figured that the small size was fairly small, perhaps a baseball-sized amount piled on a saucer.  What we didn't notice was that the serving containers were actually cone-shaped and there were holes in the picnic tables in which to set them!  We had a good chuckle at ourselves when we figured it out.  The staff were really friendly and patient with us newbies, and the natural syrups and suggested combinations sounded delicious.  We were not disappointed!  The servers totally saturated the shave ice and told us to come back up to the counter if we found a non-flavoured spot.  Miriam choose grape, mango, and cherry, and I picked coconut, mango, and passion fruit (a.k.a. lillikoi).

Check out the napkin-leaf!  (completely unplanned)
 
 
So cool and refreshing! 


I'm glad you came to see me get inspired at/on a different island.  Maui is a delicious destination indeed!  I sure hope I'll get to return there some time...

Jennifer
    

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