Spirit of Aloha | Articles | Adventures in Dining | November/December 2005

Adventures in Dining
By: Joan Conrow

Unfamiliar Territory

While it’s a well-known fact of life in Hawai‘i that not all plate lunches are created equal, the wide disparities in local food become immediately apparent at Café ‘Āina, a homey little diner in the east Kaua‘i town of Hanamā‘ulu.

Nalani Kaneakua, the Kaua‘i-born owner-chef, has elevated simple Island cuisine to a place devoid of Spam and mayonnaise-drenched macaroni salad—without deviating too far from the zone of comfortable familiarity.

The short menu—Café ‘Āina is open for breakfast and lunch only—features such standards as eggs, waffles, salads, sandwiches and soups. But the presentation and preparation reflect Kaneakua’s Pacific Rim training and commitment to quality ingredients and healthy eating.

Real maple syrup and seasonal fruit accompany the whole- grain waffles. The bagel and cream cheese are topped with a house-cured gravlax, luscious red tomatoes not long off the vine and the requisite red onion and capers. A roasted nori dressing moistens the cashew cole slaw and oven-roasted poultry assembled into a dynamite Oriental chicken salad. The “nokan” (as in not canned) tuna sandwich is made from fresh ‘ahi. Thin, curly ribbons of carrot and beet garnish each paper plate.

Those aren’t the only surprises. In the Kaua‘i Bowl—Café ‘Āina’s version of the famous “loco moco”—a taro burger replaces the usual ground beef patty and a tangy ginger sesame sauce eliminates the need for catsup or shoyu. Strips of smoky tempeh, meanwhile, sub for the bacon in the triple-decker VLT. And the ubiquitous two scoops rice is brown, not white.

What’s more surprising is that folks who previously couldn’t imagine a breakfast without fried pork or a lunch without teri beef are not only coming in to eat, they’re returning. Part of it is the setting: a small-town, main-street locale that couldn’t hide its plantation-era roots if it tried. Café ‘Āina occupies the front quarter of the Hanamā‘ulu Post Office, a wooden, false-front building tucked up next to the ever-popular Hanamā‘ulu Café, directly across from a Shell station that has some of Kaua‘i’s cheapest gas—and attendants who pump it for you.

It also shares a kitchen and ordering counter with Big Wheel donuts, run by Kaneakua’s kids. Neighborhood regulars drop by even before the restaurant’s 6 a.m. opening to drink coffee, talk story and enjoy a warm turnover or fresh blazed twist. “I don’t mind,” she says. “It’s nice to have some company at 5 a.m.” As the morning wears on, Līhu‘e-bound commuters stop in for tropical fruit smoothes and coffee drinks from the espresso bar.

Café ‘Āina is as thoroughly unpretentious as its name, which makes it a nonthreatening place to try turkey bacon, breakfast wraps and frittatas, spanikopita, samosas, chocolate tofu pie and other items unfamiliar to many an Islander’s palate.

But it’s Kaneakua’s flair for cooking that accounts for most of the café’s appeal. Even while introducing her diners to low-fat, meatless meals or exotic new textures and flavors, she has not forgotten the basic rules of good local-style food: quantity, taste and price.

Fresh fish tacos, served with salsa whipped up from scratch, are the most expensive item on the menu at $8.25. The Tower of Power salad, a hefty mound of fresh greens, bell peppers, tomatoes, onions, corn, beans, eggs, gorgonzola and turkey, is just $6.25. The Eggyveggy, a satisfying compilation of grilled red peppers and eggplant, warm goat cheese and organic greens, is a mere $5.75. Sandwiches—turkey, ham, pastrami, falafel, hummus and grilled tofu—are less than five bucks.

“The prices are in line with my food costs,” says Kaneakua with a shrug. “I’m not trying to be one millionaire.”

What she is trying to do is carve out her own culinary turf. After a dozen years of cooking in other commercial kitchens on Kaua‘i, she’s earned the right to tamper with local food if she wants to. So sit down and eat, and what do you mean you don’t like beets and you gotta have meat?

Café ‘Āina is open from 6 a.m. to 2 p.m. daily except

Tuesdays, as well as for catering and special orders. 3-4251 Kūhiō Highway,
Hanamā‘ulu. 245-2536.                                                                                                                                   

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