the food of paradise

most people from hawaii are familiar with the origins of the plate lunch, but have you ever wondered just how all the other food you love came to be in the islands? rachel laudan's the food of paradise: exploring hawaii's culinary heritage traces the origins of local favorites like crack seed, malasadas, saimin & saloon pilot crackers (among other foodstuffs) and their journey to become part of hawaii's food culture.

laudan also devotes a section to the influence of native hawaiian foods and the agricultural bounty of the islands. the food of paradise has received many rave reviews and definitely deserves a place on every local cook's bookshelf.

tea time

my mom and aunties always enjoy a nice cup of tea so i was happy to discover hawaiian natural tea which is an organic tea company from the islands. this means their tea is not only good for your body (full of all of those healthy antioxidants) but it's good for the earth too. what's not to love?

midweek has a nice story about the owners & their journey to bring organic tea to the islands. longs & daiai are just a few of the shops that stock hawaiian natural tea in tropical flavors like mango peach, passionfruit orange & pineapple strawberry. now if i could only find the perfect pitcher for iced tea.

soda pop stop

okay, we're definitely going to need to bring home an extra suitcase when we go home this summer. it's really tricky to find soda made with cane sugar and not high fructose corn syrup (seriously, check the ingredient list next time you're at the grocery store. it's almost impossible to unless you're at whole foods or bevmo).

i can't wait to try waialua soda works since their flavors are definitely hawaiian style - lilikoi, mango, papaya & pineapple. root beer & vanilla flavors are also available for the soda traditionalist. waialua soda works is bottled on the north shore and can be found at various restaurants & shops around the islands. sweet. 

c is for cookie

honolulu cookie company + good kine cookie co.

if you have been craving chocolate dipped shortbread cookies from the honolulu cookie company you will be happy to know that online ordering is now available! these were included in the goodie bags that we gave to friends who flew in from the mainland for our wedding and everybody loved them.

with ono flavors like chocolate macadamia, white chocolate kona coffee & lilikoi mango . . . who can resist? even better, if you stop by their shop at ward warehouse you can sample all the different flavors (this is either a blessing or a curse since the more cookies you try, the more you end up buying).

and, in other cookie news, the good kine cookie co. recently opened to rave reviews of their handmade iced cookies in shapes reminiscent of the islands like aloha shirts, pineapples, leis, etc. they can even personalize the cookie to celebrate a special occasion.

one of their founders is pastry chef abigail langlas who made the very yummy & very beautiful cakes for our wedding so i'm pretty sure the cookies will be just as onolicious. good kine cookie co. has a shop at restaurant row, a kiosk at ala moana, and online ordering (yay!).

now if somebody would just open up a cupcake bakery so i could savor cupcake sized portions of dobash & guava chiffon cake the next time i'm home!

{update | dec 2009: please note good kine cookie co. officially became hokulani bake shop after this was posted}