Kauai Garden Teas

I’ve mentioned that we like to do the tourist thing every now and then, and that includes stopping for some Lappert’s ice cream in Koloa when we come back from the beach in Poipu. The last few times we’ve gone, our 2-year old daughter wanted to wander around the shops nearby—they have so many colorful things to look at and some she can touch.

I forgot the name of the first shop, the one with clothes and world crafts, but the second shop to the left is Island Soap and Candleworks. While we made a few frivolous purchases there, at least the products are made on Kauai (I’ll give them a link because I like their solar electricity initiative, too). My wife is a green tea conaisseur, so one of the items we bought was a sachet of Kauai Garden Tea, a product we had never seen before.

At first glance, we thought it was tea grown on Kauai and were eager to try this new agricultural venture. But then I had a doubt because I’ve never heard of anyone growing tea, at least nobody credible. Upon rereading, the wording on the package only implies that the herbs blended with the tea were grown on Kauai. So then we were a bit skeptical and feeling misled.

But it turns out that the tea is quite good. The green tea that they use is not quite consistent with the price (about $20 if I remember right), but it was very drinkable. The blend of lemongrass and lavender gave this particular blend a hint of Earl Grey, which also has a citrus flavor from the bergamot. I liked the tea more than my wife, both because I like herb teas and she is more of green tea purist, but she admitted it had a pleasant, natural taste and the flavors went well with the green tea.

In the end, only the price is a bit steep (could not resist that pun), but maybe because we bought it in a tourist shop. There was a pineapple shaped tea ball that came with it, so that little gift made it seem worthwhile in the end. Unless we can find it retail somewhere else, we probably won’t buy it again for ourselves (how many tea balls can one use). However, we’ll definitely buy more as gifts for our tea-loving friends and family (if you’re reading and would prefer chocolate covered macademias again, just let me know :-).

They don’t have a website or any contact information, so if anyone knows how to reach the producers, let me know in the comments.

I Found Cheeses on Kauai

Kauai is a small place with limited choice in the grocery stores, so if you come from elsewhere and you’re hankering for what you used to eat “back home,” you’re going to be disapointed. Over time, you learn to live without. But sometimes, when you go looking, you just might find, you get what you need. I used to live in the French Alps, just south of Switzerland, and I learned to make and love cheese fondue.

My basic recipe for “real” fondue has 3 cheeses: one stringy one, one flavorful nutty one, and one rich one. In France, those correspond to French Emmental, Comté, and Beaufort; in Switzerland Swiss Emmental, Gruyère, and Appenzeller. I’ve always been on the lookout for good European cheese here, and quickly learned to be weary of the Président Brie and other brands made in Wisconsin. If you care about those things, European cheese is made from milk from cows that do not receive bovine growth hormone.

When Costco moved in, they brought a constant supply of Comté and Gruyère at a good price, which was a great improvement. And then just before Christmas, I saw real Swiss Appenzeller at Safeway. I’d seen some Emmental at various places, but one day we melted the much cheaper Norwegian Jarlsberg from Costco, and I knew it was the perfect stringy substitute.

So, eventhough spring is practically here with this great weather, the nights are still chilly and a fondue is still in season. Here is my Kauai fondue recipe:

• Jarlsberg from Costco, Comté from Costco, Appenzeller from Safeway

  in the ratio 2:2:1 for a total of 1/2 pound of cheese per person, rounding up for hungry people. So for 4 people, I think I had 1 lb each of Jarlsberg and Comté and 1/2 lb of Appenzeller. Always remove the rinds. For best results, shred the cheese if you have a food processor, otherwise just cut it up as small as you can, and mix it all together.

• 1/4 cup white wine per person, rounding up to match the cheese. I used 2006 Clos du Bois Chardonnay and it worked great, I think the 2006 Mirassou Chardonnay I just found at Safeway for $10 would work just as well. Get 1/2 bottle per person at least, because what you don’t cook in the fondue, you drink with it.
• 1/4 to 1/2 clove garlic per person, depending on taste.
• The bread is important too. I was going to buy it all at Costco because it looked just right, but fortunately my daughter wanted to eat some in the store, and I found it to be too dense. So I only bought the package of 5 little breads we had opened. Much as I hate to say it, Safeway makes the right kind of French baguette, crispy and crumbly on the outside, light and fluffy inside—regular or sourdough, depending on what you prefer (real French bread is in between). In the California, Acme Bread was the closest to French artisan bread I could find. Count on a half-baguette per person, at least.
• The choice of fondue pot is also important. We have had several fondue sets over the years, but my wife got rid of the pots because they had teflon or aluminum. In the end, we use our everyday stainless steel pots, and the thick bottom works great to spread the heat once we move it to the burner on the table.

Make the fondue just before you eat it. If you haven’t cut the bread beforehand, ask your guests to do it now. Cut the bread roughly into 1 inch cubes.

The original recipe I learned said to cut the garlic and just wipe the fondue pot with it, but we like garlic in our house, so we just press it and put it all in. Then add the wine and heat it over medium heat. Enjoy the fumes, because that’s where all the alcohol goes. Just as tiny bubbles start to form, add a handful of cheese and stir with a wooden spoon. As soon the cheese loses its shape, add another handful and stir again. Soon it looks like thin melted cheese, so just keep adding handfuls as soon as the previous softens into the mass. Turn the heat down and keep stirring to keep it from bubbling.

After all the cheese is melted, there is usually some separation of a thinner liquid on top of the mass of cheese, and you want to keep that to a minimum. Instead of stirring vertically around the pot, I use the flat of the spoon to lift the thicker cheese up and over the liquid part to increase the mixing. When you can’t get anymore of the thin liquid to mix in, move the pot to the burner at the center of the table and serve immediately.

You don’t need special prongs to dip the bread, just push the pieces onto forks and dip into the thicker cheese at the bottom to coat well. Stir occasionally, and keep the pot hot enough so the cheese stays liquid, but not so it bubbles and burns on the bottom—that’s where the thick pot really helps spread the heat. You may have to take a break and put the pot back on the stove to add heat and stir it again.

There is a theory that you must drink wine with fondue. The cheese is very greasy, and the alcohol helps keep it in suspension. Drinking water will cause the solids to separate in your stomach and make it hard to digest. That’s the theory at least, I haven’t tried to disprove it, and I ‘ve never been sick.

When you get to the bottom of the pot, there will be some thick cheese stuck to the bottom, the hotter your burner, the harder the crust will be. If you’re still hungry, put the pot back on the stove to get even heat, and crack an egg or two over the cheese. Stir in a little and then let it cook. Scoop out and serve with the remaining bread.

Finally, don’t try to clean out the fondue pot, just fill with water and let soak overnight.

PS: Costco and some of the grocery stores sell the pre-made fondue that comes in a pouch in a box. You just heat and serve, and it is usually made from authentic Swiss cheese, so it is fairly good if you don’t want to make the recipe from scratch.

PPS: I make no apologies for that cheesy pun in the title. The right combination of cheese, wine and bread in communion with good friends and maybe the right music can be nearly a religious experience for me.

Kalalau Logistics

I wanted to give some details about the food and equipment I took on my recent 2.2-day hike on the Kalalau trail. While a 2-day hike is different from a 5-day outing, this can give an idea of the minimum needed. Here I am all ready to go at the trailhead:

Food for 48 Hours

The advantage of going for only the weekend is that I didn’t need to carry much food. To reduce weight, I decided to eat cold so I could leave the campstove. I mixed some peanut butter and jelly into a plastic container, and I took 1 large tortilla for each big meal (4 in all). I couldn’t stand PB&J by the last day and didn’t finish it—next time I’ll take humus. For breakfasts I took granola bars and dried fruit, and for the rest of the day some trail snacks (salty nuts and crackers, dark chocolate, and hard candy). One of my favorite trail snacks are Iso Peanuts, sometimes called Mochi Balls: they’re Japanese and made of a peanut coated with rice-cracker and various flavorings–carbs, protein, fat, and salt in a convenient package.

For drinking, I took only one 1.5L bottle of water and the water filter with purifier drops. Seeing how I probably sufferend from low electrolytes, next time I will try to take some powdered sport drinks (PDF and others).

Minimal Equipment

On this trip, I tried out a light-weight travel hammock which I cover with a plastic tarp against the rain (I hear there are all-in-one hammock “tubes” that would be perfect). My bedroll is a fleece sleeping-bag, light-weight but sufficient (almost, as seen above). I hike in shorts and a shirt that are not cotton, because they dry faster and carry moisture away. The shorts are actually a bathing suit, so I don’t have to deal with underwear and so I can jump in the water anytime. I wore one change of clothes and carried another for sleeping and for the hike out. Only take clothes that you don’t mind getting dirty, the mud or dust can stain even synthetic fabrics.

Along with the minimum saftety equipement (hat, sunscreen, knife, whistle, lighter, and emergency mylar blanket) and some accessories (camera and GPS), I could fit all this in a day pack, which probably weighed around 20 lbs (10 kg). Even without the hip support of a full pack, this was by far the most comfortable pack I’ve carried into Kalalau. Because of the heat, I really recommend carrying as little as you possibly can, it only adds up to extra strain, effort, and fatigue.

For shoes, I usually go with full height hiking boots when I have a full pack. I have weak ankles and need the extra support. With the lighter pack, I was comfortable with the running/trail shoes I have. Trail shoes have the advantage of being lighter and breathing better, but make sure they have plenty of big tread, anything else will slip too much. I do not recommend hiking sandals (Tevas or Keen) unless you’ve hiked extensively in them before–same goes for flip-flops that the Kalalau “hippies” wear on the trail.

Finally, you can see in the first picture that I hike with poles. I always take them for backpacking and almost never for day-hiking. Since they mainly help me balance a heavy pack and take some strain off my knees, I considered not taking them. They can get in the way in the overgrown sections, and they do cause a bit more erosion. But they also allow me use my arm strength for walking faster, and they are useful for stream crossings, so I took them. If you have poles and are used to them, I recommend you use them on the Kalalau trail.

More on Parking

Hikers can understandably be worried about leaving their car several days unattended at the trailhead parking at Kee Beach. I have an old island car that I’ve left parked there up to 5 day without incident. I do lock it (on principle), but mostly I leave nothing valuable in the car, even out of sight. I do leave a towel, a change of clothes, some water, and other worthless car junk, but always in the open, not in a closed bag. Obviously, rental cars are more conspicuous, so never leave anything you can’t loose, even if you are just going to the beach. That way the worst thing that happens is that you have to deal with insurance, should anything happen.

I actually haven’t heard of break-ins at Kee Beach, but I’m sure they occur, it’s one of the most remote places and there are no people around at night. There is a ranger stationed there as part of the Haena State Park, but I don’t know if they patrol at night. Leaving your car at the campground at Haena beach should be safer because there are people around, but that’s no guarantee, and you then have to walk or get a ride 1 mile (1.6 km) to and from the trailhead. The surest thing is to be dropped off if you can arrange it, though you need to set a pick-up time and ask your driver to be willing to wait an hour or two for you, in case you’re late hiking out. Needless to say that catching a plane the same day you hike out of Kalalau is tempting fate.

Updated Feb 18, 2008: I gave some more details in a comment reply on another post. Also, I have heard that you can sometimes park your car at the YMCA Camp Naue in Haena. They will charge a fee, but it’s probably the option that is most safe. Depending on who else is using the camp, you may also be able to camp or bunk there before and after hiking the Kalalau trail. Their phone number is (808) 246-9090, and I found more information at the Frommer’s travel site (even the official YMCA website links there). Thanks to Mary Jo in the comment below for finding out that the YMCA camp is not an option. I had heard about the camp from several sources, including the link above, but I failed to confirm my information directly with the YMCA poeple.

Share the Abundance!

There’s a new website in town with a great idea: share the abundance of fruits and vegetables from your backyard.

A neighbor of mine with a big yard and lots of fruit trees had the idea. He had so much fruit that he couldn’t give it all away and some inevitably went to waste. Plus I imagine he got tired of eating the same fruit day in and day out, not to mention offering the fruit to everybody again and again.

There’s always been informal sharing of produce with family, friends and neighbors on Kaua’i, but this is the age of Web 2.0, and it was time to make a website. The idea is simple and easy to use: anybody on the island can post a short message offering what they have, and anybody can search by produce type or location. Send an email, give them a call, stop by on your next errand, and soon you’ll be enjoying home-grown fruits and vegetables. It’s all free and based on goodwill, so go ahead and try it.

And it works! We already traded lilikoi for avocados and lilikoi juice for coconut water. A lot of people are looking to trade for something else, but I’m sure people are willing to give away small amounts, too. Or this can be your incentive to plant a garden and some fruit trees, so you can join in the trading.

What I really like about the concept is not just keeping all the fruits and veggies from going to waste, but also the sharing of healthy food within the community and creating new connections based on sustainability.

Disclaimer: my wife made the website, and the neighbor who owns it has given me free fruit in the past.

PS: I heard the newspaper is going to run a story about the website (sorry for the scoop), so I predict this is going to become very popular soon. [Update: here’s the article, with a really good tie-in to the whole issue of eating locally and sustainably. Keya Keita is the new features writer at the Garden Island, and she’s been writing some really insightful articles about interesting people and places several times a week–she raises the bar for local bloggers like me.]

Blossoming Lotus Mini-Review

Ariane from the previous post also asked:

have you ever tried the blossoming lotus? heard it is amazing…

The Blossoming Lotus restaurant is indeed excellent, it was selected as the best restaurant on Kauai in 2006 by the Honolulu Advertiser newspaper. They serve “vegan world fusion” which means you’ll discover new foods and flavors that mainstream restaurants never bother to explore. My vegetarian wife loves to go there because she knows she can order anything off the menu without having to ask or worry about meat products. And I know they use fresh, local and often organic ingredients because I’ve seen the staff do their shopping at Kapaa’s Wednesday afternoon farmer’s market.

At almost $20 per entree, it is pricier than most Kapaa restaurants but on par with the resorts and not overpriced like some trendy restaurants in other cities. I wouldn’t call their food “amazing” because superlatives give people overly-high expectations, and then they blame the reviewer when they are unjustifiably disappointed. But their food is delicious, and we have always enjoyed whatever we order. As a matter of fact, we liked their food so much that we had the Blossoming Lotus cater the hot dishes and the cake for our wedding reception. We also bought their cookbook, which not only contains recipes for most of their menu items, but also beautiful pictures of the cultures from which they draw their culinary inspiration.

Last year, the Blossoming Lotus moved into a larger space on the ground floor of the “Dragon Building” at the stoplight in downtown Kapaa, across from the ABC convenience store. In their old location is the Lotus Root, a juice bar serving their vegan pastries, smoothies, and a great selection of teas. I find it to be more expensive than standard coffee house fare, but everything is the same quality as their restaurant.

Browsing on their website, I see they have opened a café in Portland. It looks like they have a less fancy and cheaper menu, a format I wish they’d offer somewhere here on Kauai.

Pledge: I have not received nor intend to receive any compensation from the businesses I mention. I have no connection to the Blossoming Lotus restaurant or its staff, other than being a satisfied customer.