ALOHA HAWAIIAN COCONUT VODKA! Where have you been hiding all our lives? When we find something amazing, we love to share! The COCO-JITO is everything we love in a mixed drink…refreshing, light, fruity and stylish! We highly suggest drinking these out of a mason jar. They look better, taste better and it is easier to distinguish your glass among a bunch of red cups.

• Hawaiian Coconut Flavored Vodka
• Santa Cruz Organic Strawberry Lemonade (You can experiment with all types of juices. Ginger and peach lemonade are also a good choice)
• Blueberries
• Mint
• Ice
• Mason jar

There are many amazing things on Maui that us locals have never done. Tourists even seem to cram more ‘MAUI TO-DOs” in a week than I have done in my lifetime. So, my girlfriends and I developed a “MAUI BUCKET LIST.” It includes places, activities and all sorts of things we still have not experienced on this island we call home. We decided it was time to start checking some things off. So this past Saturday we ventured out of the Waiside and headed for the country. We rarely go to Haiku. We had to rely on Google maps to get us to our final destination, MAUI KOMBUCHA! We arrived hungry, thirsty and excited to experience something new. There was only standing room and we lingered on the side, a little unsure of how this whole place operated. We were greeted enthusiastically with four shots glasses of Palo Santo. We had no idea what it was, but that didn’t stop us from clinking our glasses and sampling the Kombucha goodness. Next up, Ginger Lime and Lychee Juniper Lime. The mmmmm’s and ohhhh’s coming from our mouths were a clear indication that we just stumbled into heaven. We ordered a round of Kombucha and finally managed to get a table and begin the eating. Pupu style is the way to go here. Everything looked too good that you couldn’t have one. We got the Quinoa salad and a Rainbow Roll Sushi to start. The mmmmm’s and ohhh’s couldn’t be contained. Next, Da Kine Chili and the Garden Veggie Pizza! AMAZING! AMAZING! AMAZING! This is not an understatement. Every bite got better and better. Then came dessert, and I only need to say two words, HAWAIIAN TOAST! Some cracker, jam, bananas and a whole lot of amazingness! Another round of Kombucha and we were definitely experiencing a strong sense of elation. The two guys running the front of the house made the entire experience more pleasurable. The service was superior, their sense of humor entertaining, and we hadn’t been called chicas that many times since…never. We were told to try the coffee. Mind you, 3 out of the 4 of us don’t drink coffee. If I did drink coffee, it definitely would be that one. We all shared one cup of coffee and passed it around the table like a sacred ceremony. At this point the only word to describe the moment is bliss. Happy stomachs, souls and minds. Just when we thought we had done it all, we heard the word HOT SHOT. It already sounds dangerous and intriguing. The women next to us were raving about it, so we ordered one. It looked scary good. The initial sip isn’t bad, but it’s a creeper. The best thing to compare it too is Hawaiian chili pepper water. We felt alive after that one! As our Maui Kombucha experience came to an end, we didn’t want to leave. Happy, happy is all we could say. Happy to be with friends, happy to eat good food, and happy to live on Maui.

To check out Maui Kombucha, click here!

I love baking…which means that I’m usually in charge of desserts for family parties and always looking for new recipes (there’s only so many times that you can make a chocolate bundt for the family before they start complaining). This is the my latest, easiest, yummiest dessert that has gotten rave reviews by everyone! Thanks to my gal, Lee (whose hubby is a “master baker”) for the ono recipe!

Ingredients:
- 24 cute cupcake cups (cute cupcake cups are a MUST;)
- 1 bag Oreo cookies
- 3/4 block melted butter
- 2 8oz. boxes cream cheese
- 1 tsp. vanilla
- 2 eggs
- 3/4 c. sugar
- 2 small boxes instant chocolate pudding
- 3 c. cold milk

Directions:
1. Crush Oreo cookies. I usually put all the cookies into a gallon zip lock bag and crumble them with a rolling pin. Mix oreo cookies with melted butter.
2. Layer Oreo cookie crust in cupcake cups.
3. Mix cream cheese, vanilla, eggs and sugar.
4. Layer cream cheese mixture over Oreo crust.
5. Bake at 375 degrees for 15 minutes.
6. Mix pudding mix with cold milk.
7. Once baked, top cupcakes with pudding.
8. Decorate!

Call it an addiction. Call it comfort food. I call it the best sandwich on Maui. You may think, “What’s so special about Tiffany’s Spam and fried egg sandwich?” I tell you, perfection is not that simple. It takes patience, understanding and experience. The type of bread you select, the amount of butter on the grilled bread, just the right amount of mayo… not to mention the right length of time to fry the egg. Tiffany’s fried egg is just slightly raw so there’s just enough silkiness to the yolk yet cooked just enough so that the yolk doesn’t ooze and make the grilled bread soggy. Another fine detail is Spam width. The proportion from Spam to egg to bread is critical and if you cut the Spam too wide or too thin it’s all over. It’s a delicate balance of firm meat like substance, followed by the tender egg white, finished with a buttery crunchy toast. Perfection.

The ice cream aisles at our local markets are lined with many choices. Dreyer’s, Ben & Jerry’s, Breyers and Haagen- Dazs are just a few of the ice cream brands that attempt to entice our sweet tooth. Among the international brands are cartons of ice cream proudly displaying Maui’s official flower, the Lokelani. For those of us who know ice cream, the choice is pretty easy and will always be Roselani Ice Cream.

In 1932, Manuel Nobriga began making ice cream just a couple blocks down from our store on Market Street at Maui Soda & Ice Works. From then on, the Nobriga family has become the island’s ice cream innovators. From Hasegawa General Store in Hana to The Fish Hut in Kapa’a, Kaua’i, Roselani Ice Cream is spreading its ono flavors across the islands.

Speaking of flavors, lets get to the reason why we love Roselani Ice Cream. From Chocolate Macadamia Nut to Pauwela Sunrise, each flavor of ice cream embodies everything good about Hawai’i. It’s the flavors we all remember from the hanabata days. There really is a flavor for everyone: Hawaiian Vanilla Bean, Classic Macadamia Nut, Mango ‘n Cream, Haupia, Kona Mud Pie, Menehune Mint and Poppa’s Classic Chocolate. Just writing the flavors makes me tempted to jump out of bed and go buy a carton. It really is that good.

We love fashion at Maui Thing, but we also love great food. So it made complete sense for us to sell Rosleani Ice Cream in our store. Whether it is an afternoon treat for Iao School students walking home, or a cool down from the humid weather, there is always a reason to eat ice cream. Come stop by for a small cup! Rosleani Ice Cream is a Maui Thing!

For every kid growing up in central Maui, Tom’s Mini Mart in Paukukalo holds a special place in their heart. It’s where you go as a kid on a hot day, it’s where you take your college friends when they come to visit you during summers on Maui, it’s where, on very special days, our soccer coach would end practice early and treat the whole team to shave ice, it’s the stop on the way home from surfing. I’d always order the bowl, and it would always be too big to finish. Like every other local clan of kids, my friends and I would order our shave ice and sit on the rock wall to eat it. (You know…the rock wall that everyone sits on to eat their Tom’s shave ice while friends and family drive past and honk their horns.)

Tom’s was the shave ice champion on the island. No other place came close. No question. And then Ululani’s opened in Kahului…

It’s a small place, just 2 gals working the counter. I had heard amazing reviews from friends and had seen stellar, and I mean STELLAR reviews on yelp. Their ice was supposedly very fine and their syrup not too sweet. I was skeptical as I stood in line. Could something be better than Tom’s? I glanced at the flavor menu, and nothing popped out at me. They didn’t have the usual dreamsicle and cream soda flavors I would get at Tom’s. Hhhhmmm. Strike 1. I look on and I see that they have free li hing mui powder. Interesting. But I’m still not sold on the idea. As I step to the counter, I decide on melona and lilikoi with ice cream and mochi balls (I figured I have to try everything to get the feel for this place). I watch the gals make it and they recognize me from Maui Thing…they’re sweet and rave about our cute clothes. Of course, this gets me. Their customer service is unreal :) Then as they make my shave ice, they don’t put any cheap ice cream at the bottom, they use Roselani, my favorite. After the actual ice shaving occurs, they proceed to poke holes in the mound of ice for the syrup to seep into! Simply genius! I’m officially impressed and haven’t even tasted it yet. I get my shave ice, already in a pretty good mood, and I like it. The ice is fine, maybe too fine, almost slushy status. But their syrup…oh it’s good. It isn’t too sweet and they don’t over, or under-do it. Ululani’s doesn’t even give you a straw. This is how confident they are in their syrup rationing.

So for straight up shave ice, I was rather impressed with the new guys in town. It was a great experience, fabulous customer service, quality shave ice. I’m sure to be a return customer! But that’s not to say I won’t return to Tom’s. Tom’s is much more than just shave ice. It’s memories, it’s fun and it’s tradition. It’s an entire place full of great food…musubi, ono hot dogs, and the best boiled peanuts!

A note to Ululani’s: your mannequins need bottoms!

My grandma has THE BEST mango tree on Earth. No, that was not a superlative, or an exaggeration at all. I really, truly mean that. In the middle of Kahului, is a little piece of heaven. She has one Hayden tree and one Mapulehu mango tree in her massive backyard, behind my grandpa’s old putting green. The Mapulehu is my favorite..you can tell the difference because the Mapulehu isn’t as round as the rest, it has a distinctive point on its bottom. These mangoes aren’t stringy, they’re a deep orange, not that yellowish hue like most mangoes. They’re juicy to the max, it’s flesh almost melting in your mouth. And when refrigerated, they’re the most refreshing, healthiest snack you could ever imagine.

To make this magical fruit even better, Grandma turns her mangoes into ice cream bowls! Genius!!! She’s been making these for me since I was a little girl, and they’re still my favorite dessert ever. It’s the easiest, yummiest thing ever…please try this at home!
1. Cut the mango in half horizontally.

2. Take out the seed and you’re done! You have 2 mango bowls! Scoop in some ice cream (vanilla is the best) and enjoy for dessert!

I’m lying in bed with a major case of the stomach flu. You name it, I got it…fever, chills, nausea… everything going in is coming out. You get the picture. Ok now erase it from your head, because even though I can’t keep anything down in my tummy, I am saddened by the closing of Kaohu Store. It was bad enough when Ma‘alaea Store closed down, who’s hot dog was quite similar if not the same, but now Kaohu Store? This is my homage to the perfect hot dog.

I’m not a huge fan of processed meat but this goes back to small kid time, when your parents thought that Spam was healthy and basically as long as you were eating, whatever it may be, was good for you. I grew up with Kimberly Tengan (granddaughter of the owner’s of Kaohu Store, which is on Kaohu Street, hence the name “Kaohu Store” just in case you were wondering) and Denise, a good friend across the street of the store. I lived only a few yards away from the store. I would walk across this big iron pipe to the other side of the Wailuku ditch which fronted my house, get on a path towards Iao School, jump a wall and Iao School was at 12:00, Kaohu Store at 3:00. I learned to describe locations through hand positions on a clock from my husband who was trying to help me find our car in the garage. Only problem was the car was at 2:00 not 3:00 thus much frustration and almost a fight. I digress. Back to KS. Ooh that rhymes!

At kindergarten and first grade our weekend playground was the back storage room of Kaohu Store. We would climb towers of cardboard boxes filled with beer and canned goods, hide, play house, fight over who’s boss, typical kid stuff. Not only was it a fun place to hang out but Aunty Misao, Kimberly’s Grandma, would always treat us to a small Icee and the best hot dog ever! For those new to Maui, let me describe the magic behind this classic snack. First of all, the buns and the red hot dogs are steamed. Most purists will order their hot dog with everything. One line of ketchup and one line of…here’s where the magic happens…a genius mixture of mayo, yellow mustard and relish. The combination of the warm red hot dog which is tender but not mushy, gently laid in a pillow of a soft steamed bun, with ketchup and the magic dressing complimenting though not overpowering the basic protein and carb makes for the ultimate hot dog. It’s so good that when your order one, you actually want two. If you order two, you actually want three. And if you order three….

A couple of months ago I stopped by Kaohu Store to pick up a couple of hot dogs for my children, to pass on the tradition but I noticed the shelves weren’t stocked with the normal candies and chips. I asked Aunty Misao if they were closing soon and she wistfully said at the end of the year. Immediately, I thought of all of my childhood memories…making play dough pots and trying to sell them to the tenants upstairs for money to buy a hot dog, racing barefoot down the driveway and the kindness of Aunty Misao. I will miss the perfect hot dog, but more so I will miss the memory of growing up at Kaohu Store.

You crave it. It makes you smile. It cools you on a hot summer’s day and at the same time warms your heart. It’s Guri Guri! You’re probably thinking “why write a blog on Guri Guri? Everyone knows what it is!” Well that’s what I thought until one of our designers who has been living on the island for a good 6 years, had embarrassingly never heard of one of Maui’s most pristine and honored treasures. So this is for those of you who recently moved to Maui, our welcomed visitors and for the locals who can never get enough.

What is Guri Guri?
Well rumor has it that there’s a mixture of condensed milk and strawberry syrup (for the strawberry flavor, can’t quite figure out the pineapple flavor). How it’s made? No one knows but the Tasaka family. Cindy Tasaka did not learn of the recipe until she was well out of college and had to pass rigorous training and spy torturing stuff. We harass her constantly for any hints of the secret concoction but she’s one tough cookie. To describe it is quite simple. It’s not as creamy and sweet as ice cream, yet not as icy and tart as sorbet. It’s the perfect happy medium. I have a friend Craig, who’s 6 ft. tall but eats it as daintily as a ballerina. With wooden spoon and pinky out, he gingerly scrapes the top of each scoop and savors each tiny morsel. No lie.

And by the way there are only two flavors for “public” consumption. Strawberry and pineapple. Yes, we’ve harassed Cindy about expanding their product line but though she’s a Tasaka, she has no yank. Actually, we love the simplicity.

What’s the scoops?
You have a choice of 1 to 5 scoops in various combinations. 1 scoop strawberry, 1 scoop pineapple, alternating (which I don’t suggest ordering, your scoops may get smaller) strawberry on the top, pineapple on the bottom… your options are almost limitness. Rumor has it that some hardcore Guri Guri lovers even go up to 10 scoops. They eat it from the large soda cup. My husband has a manly 5 scoop mix while my six year old son has developed his own preference after growing up on a balanced 2 scoop mix. He has now matured to a 3 scoop strawberry. A purist.

Who invented Guri Guri?
The story goes back 4 generations to Great Grandpa Jokichi who started “Tasaka Candy Shop” initially on Oahu then in Kahului Town. It was a small Japanese snack shop that sold home made senbei, mochi and manju. Grandpa Gunji actually invented “Goody Goody,” yup, that was its original name. Over time, the Tasaka family kept hearing the old folk calling it “Guri Guri,” so they eventually gave in and changed their sign. So if you’re living in 2010, its pronounced “Guri Guri,” just like its spelled. It’s not “Goody Goody” anymore. No one really knows how the recipe about but somehow he hand mushed homemade frozen ice cream and Guri Guri (back then, “Goody Goody”) was born. Today Grandson Henry runs the store with daughters Gayle, Cindy and niece, Kelly.

What’s with the beans?
Ok, forget about asking for beans because they are not coming back. Grandma Yoshino and sons used to make them daily and it was super humbug. I believe you have to boil the beans for 3 days, add sugar cane and boil for another 4 days constantly. Super hard work, so for those who were so fortunate to try those homemade black beans appreciate and remember every morsel. Unfortunately Grandma got old and stopped making the beans in 1990 and she eventually passed away in 2001. No one else wanted to stir beans for 7 days straight. Some novice bean eaters suggest “ah, just open da can!”, but that would be an insult to Grandma Yoshino. So for anyone that’s looking for a new business to start, I suggest making your own black beans and open up shop next to Tasaka’s.

Guri Guri is truly a Maui Thing. Original, home grown and super affordable (cheaper than any scoop of ice scream or 6 oz cup of yogurt). We admire the family’s tenacity and strength in not selling out to the corporate big boys. Yes they could have gone to Vegas, opened a franchise and become the next Dip and Dots, but who needs trillions when you’ve got Maui? You can only get Guri Guri on Maui and that’s the way we like it!