Blog

April talk at Pu'uhonua

Aloha from Pu’uhonua National Park (City of Refuge)!

On April 25th, at 6:00pm., we have invited Mr. Nakoa Goo to be our speaker at our once-a-month Wednesday Evening Program.....Nakoa is a scientist, a diver, and the cultural resources researcher for the National Oceans and Atmospheric Administration and the Program Coodinator at the Mokupapapa Discovery Center in Hilo. He is gonig to give us an introduction to and a power point presentation about the Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument www.papahanaumokuakea.gov.

The program will be held in the amphitheater at the park. For more information, please contact Ranger: Charles T. Hua, at 808.328.2326 Ext. 1241.

Malama pono,

Charles T. Hua, Park Ranger
Pu'uhonua o Honaunau National Historical Park
P. O. Box 129
Honaunau, Hawai'i 96726
808.328.2326 x1241
808.328.8251 Fax

Coffee

The other morning I ran out of the beans I use for my morning espresso (sorry, I don’t serve espresso for breakfast, it’s just my own personal pre-cooking fix) and was forced to use our pure Kona beans – which we DO use every morning for breakfast. I don’t like using our precious Kona beans for espresso because the flavor gets lost. I was reminded how much there is to know about coffee and how much you can learn here in coffee-country.

Kona beans are a luxury item, some of the most delicious and highly-regarded in the world. They are normally hand-picked and sun-dried, which makes the final product fairly expensive. However, the low acidity of the volcanic soil makes for a final product that is mellow and dreamy – everything coffee should be. In fact, it is so smooth and delicious that some of our guests who normally can’t drink coffee (due to acid reflux, for example) can enjoy a cup or two.

Here are some things to keep in mind when shopping for coffee here: first, because of its beautiful mellowness, Kona beans shouldn’t be dark roasted, look for medium roast only. Dark roast is great for strongly flavored beans destined for espresso drinks, but not for pure Kona coffee. Many of the farmers around here don’t offer dark roast beans, or decaffeinated beans, for that matter.

Also, like wine grapes, beans from the same plant can result in wildly different final products depending on where they were raised (remember Hawaii’s diverse microclimates – beans from Hamakua and Kau will taste very different from Kona, and Kona beans from one small farm will taste very different from another) and how the beans were processed.

There are MANY small local coffee growers around, and the final product all tastes different. In fact, there are tasting contests during the Kona coffee festival in the fall during harvest season.

For guests interested in visiting a large farm, the two South Kona favorites are Greenwell Farms and the Kona Living History Museum (both of which can be accessed through the Kona Historical Society's website: www.konahistorical.org. The Inn is just around the corner from Kona Pacific Farmers Cooperative www.kpfc.com too, a roasting cooperative that is also very fun to visit (they process both beans and macadamia nuts).  

Whatever you do, make sure to purchase only coffee marked 100% Kona, not Kona-blend, and please help support our hard-working local coffee farmers.

Cooking at the Inn

One of the activities we strongly suggest Luana guests take part in is taking one night to BBQ here at the Inn. We have the most gorgeous pool lanai with a huge view of the ocean and sky. It’s an overwhelming, view, actually. I’ve stared at it for six years and am still in awe. We’re up on a cliff facing the water, about three hundred feet above sea level and less than a mile up from the bottom of the road, so you can feel the strong Kona breezes rolling up off the ocean, watch and hear the waves at Keei Beach, see whales if they’re nearby, and watch the sun and the clouds shift and move as the day passes. We’re high enough to see everything yet be out of the traffic at the bottom of the road, high enough to see misty rain edging down the hill behind us, yet close enough to the ocean that we never forget its presence.

The lanai is a fantastic place to relax and enjoy a meal. We have a BBQ just for guests, lots of seating, and outdoor lighting. We have a nice local supermarket up the hill that always has fresh local fish and local beef, local vegetables including greens and purple potatoes. There’s salt and pepper and oil in each room, along with basic dishes, so it’s easy to put together a wonderful lanai BBQ.

Each Luana guest room is equipped with a bar sink, mini refrigerator, and basic dishes and utensils. (The Alihi lani Suite has a full kitchen.) Please note, however, that as of August 19, 2012, the guest rooms (except for the Alihi lani Suite) will no longer have microwaves in them, due to new Hawaii County requirements. There will, however, still be a microwave available for guest use on the property.

Granola

Over the years we’ve received lots of compliments on the homemade granola we serve at breakfast. Really, we should be passing all words of thanks to Alton Brown, scientist-chef extraordinaire, whose recipe this actually is. We’ve adapted it over the years to suit our guests’ tastes, so here it is, with hints and tips, the much-loved Alton Brown-Luana granola recipe – thanks, Alton!

Preheat oven to 275 degrees F

Mix dry ingredients in a big mixing bowl:

3 cups rolled oats
2 cups chopped nuts (plus any seeds you like, if you like seeds)
¾ cup coconut

Mix wet ingredients in a small bowl:

¼ cup + 2 Tablespoons brown sugar
¼ cup + 2 Tablespoons maple syrup (or blend, see below)
¼ cup vegetable oil
¾ teaspoon Kosher salt

Pour wet mixture over dry and mix well by hand (keep the bowl and put it aside later for the second mixing). Pour onto two dry sheet pans and bake – without touching – for about an hour, or until golden brown. Remove from oven and let cool. After cool, add about 1 cup of the dried fruit (or fruits) of your choice, mix by hand again, and store.

Some notes: We have discovered over the years that out guests really like the textural effect of adding puffed grains to the dry mix, like puffed kamut, rice, and/or millet. Just mix it in with the oats before baking. After experimenting with many different sweeteners like pure maple syrup and honey and combinations of the two, we have found that using at least half fake maple syrup (i.e. the kind made with corn syrup) significantly lightens up the texture of the final product, and gives it an even lighter, crunchier, more golden look.