I love food

I do really, really love food. When I talked about my plans for Hawaii with my friends in Tillamook, I told them to imagine me frolicking through the pineapple fields picking my own fresh fruit.  We stayed in a house east of Honolulu for a few days when we got to the island as we waited for our apartment to open. The owner has tons of plants around her house and encouraged us to help ourselves. So I REALLY was frolicking in fruit fields picking my own and eating them right off the trees :)

Here is what I've learned about produce in Hawaii.

I was told these are mountain cherries. Very tart, not all that tasty.

Papaya- this is a pretty common tree here they grow off the trunk of the tree right below the branches. At first they taste like dirty feet but I promised that I was going to give up my mainland ways so we continue to eat them. Now they are not bad, not my favorite fruit but not stinky feet anymore. We eat them for breakfast by cutting them in half, scooping out the black slimy seeds, and then just eating the flesh out with a spoon. We've eaten ripe ones taken right off the tree and then others that ripen on the counter. Tastes the same to me either way.

One night I decided I really wanted to try coconut fresh from the tree. Trace is so good to me, he goes along with my silly whims and ideas. We got a long pole and spent 20 minutes or so knocking one loose. Then we had to get the husk off which is not an easy task. Trace told me that Todd and he took a coconut home from Hawaii years ago and spent 6 days getting it open.  I went into the tool shed and pulled out a pick axe. Once we got to the nut it was more like croquet with a pick axe. It took some time but voila... Trace is holding the final product. I have discovered that I do not like fresh coconut. :) The coconut water is ick and the meat really wasn't very good either, though I do love cooking with canned coconut. A Hawaiian told me the best coconut have a more yellow husk so now we have to try again.

Pineapple-WAY better here. They are juicy, sweet, full of flavor, and the best I have ever eaten. The entire plant is yellow and smells delicious. I was chastised by Trace for paying $4 for a pineapple in Kauai the day before we were leaving, but after he tasted it he forgave me. We ate half of the pineapple that night and the other half for breakfast. Though I was disappointed when I found they still cost $4-5 a pineapple or $2.79/green pineapple at Costco. I didn't fly all the way here to pay the same price for something grown a few miles from our apartment. There have to be some financial perks to moving to Hawaii. And then... I found out that a local grocery store sells the super ripe ones on discount- I got the pineapple above for $1.13 -woohooo!