Jessie and I helped Amy move to Kauai during the July 4th weekend. After many hours of delays and flight re-bookings, we made it to Kauai and our Airbnb listing in Kapa’a by midnight. For weeks, I pinned over 100 places covering food spots, beaches, farmer markets, etc. I wanted to visit. It was a collaborative effort with my sisters to build out that exhaustive list. My host also provided a comprehensive list of places to visit nearby the listing.I decided to have at least one nice restaurant to try out so I booked JO2 ahead of time knowing that places get booked out early. JO2 also has an early prix fixe dinner special between 5-6 PM, $35 for 3 dishes. I wanted to take advantage of that!
I also set up a shared Note to outline rough itineraries, which I planned on the fly besides the 1 dinner reservation and 1 coffee tour. The rest was more or less impromptu. I split Kauai into imaginary quadrants. Since I was there for 5 days (with half a day lost due to flight delays), each day we’d explore one quadrant with 1 extra day for “overflow” places we didn’t make it to earlier in the week. The host reminded me on July 4 that fireworks were canceled and that we may need to check if places were open for dining due to the holiday. I saw in the host’s guidebook that she recommended an organic noni farm tour and I saw they offered them for free on Mondays. I called and they had openings. The tour was 2 hours long and a beautiful farm to explore on our first full day. It was an eye opening experience to see, smell, and walk the grounds and learn more about their farming practices. The owner cut up samples of the noni fruit for each guest. He did give us a heads up that the taste resembled bleu cheese and wasn’t well liked. Noni is considered a superfood and is revered for its many healing properties. It was usually consumed in juice form or fruit leather. They also made skincare products to remedy skin conditions and achy muscles. I took my first bite of the fruit and it was a savory oddly pungent taste with a mushy texture. No one finished their sample and the owner said we could feed the birds with it because they enjoyed it. I did buy some of their skincare products.
Next, I found a fish market 10 minutes away. We stopped by Kilauea Fish Market for lunch. I knew I wanted all the poke possible during my stay in Kauai. The host also provided a tip that Kauai Shrimp is local and delicious. So, I ordered a garlic shrimp plate, fish tacos, and a poke bowl to share with my sisters. We also chanced upon Kauai Juice and saw they offered an amazing wide selection of different kombuchas with all of my favorite fruits: lilikoi (passion fruit), mango, lychee, guava etc. My sisters and I spent a small fortune ($8 a bottle) consuming all the Kauai Juice kombucha that week and we should have done a growler!
Many folks recommended Hamura Saimin as a must-go. We went there for dinner on July 4. It was open relatively late for Kauai. Hamura Saimin is a no-frills destination. My sisters and I each ordered a different type of saimin noodle bowl. I greedily ordered the largest bowl with all the fixings. The huge bowl contained slices of fish cake, wontons, char siu, and some veggies. My sister got the tempura shrimp saimin. I also ordered some meat sticks.The charming staff quickly served us piping hot bowls of saimin. The best part was the lilikoi chiffon pie. We went back to just get lilikoi chiffon cake on our last day as well. It was worth going just to get the local experience and to dine at this beloved institution. I enjoyed my unconventional July 4 holiday and in my next post, I’ll continue sharing my food journey through Kauai.
Travelogue 