As I mentioned in Genki Sushi on Maui, I was recently in Maui and had a few happy sushi belly experiences, but also tried a lot of other food there too. Although it’s not directly related to the overall theme of Happy Sushi Belly, I thought that I’d share them here nonetheless.
Aloha Mixed Plate
Really strong Mai Tai!
When we were planning our trip to Maui, my mum mentioned that she wanted to go to a luau. While we were trying to decide which kind we wanted to go to and where, I also looked up places that might serve the same kind of food, and found the Aloha Mixed Plate (which just happens to be right beside and owned by the same company as the Luau we did finally decide on).
This post is a little bit out of order, since we went to Aloha Mixed Plate before the Luau… but I’m an out-of-order blogger!
We started off lunch with a Mai Tai (I wasn’t able to drink all of it – way too strong for me!) and water, and an appetizer of four coconut prawns. The prawns are very much like Red Lobster’s coconut prawns, but the sauce was really spicy instead of the creamy-sweet pineapple sauce that I had been expecting.
- Coconut prawns with spicy sauce
We were both going to get the Hawaiian Mixed Plate – which their menu lists as the most popular plate – with Kalua Pig with cabbage, Lomi Lomi Salmon, Poi, and Haupia.
Hawaiian plate
Since we thought it might be interesting to try other things, we also got a Lau Lau Plate, which has the Poi, Lomi Lomi Salmon (salmon with tomatoes and onions – kind of like a salmon salsa…) and Haupia (coconut pudding) but instead of the Kalua Pig & Cabbage, it has Lau Lau (pork wrapped in a taro leaf) instead. These were both regular plates instead of the minis – and both included two scoops of rice and a scoop of macaroni salad.
Lau Lau Plate
So mum had the Lau Lau plate while I had the Hawaiian, and we shared the two meat dishes, but the pork was really the same from one to the other – so it was more just the presentation that was really different. The pork was somewhat spiced or something – a little bit was ok, but I got kind of tired of it quickly. I don’t like cabbage, so I only tried a tiny bit, and didn’t like it (mostly just because it was cabbage…).
The rice was…well… rice, and the macaroni salad was 50% mayo I think, with a little bit of celery and carrot. I couldn’t eat too much of it because of the high amount of mayo actually. I think even if I wasn’t trying to be more aware of what I’m eating, the high amount of mayo would have grossed me out.
Close up of the Lomi Lomi Salmon and the Coconut pudding.
So, next up – the poi. Poi is made by mashing up baked or steamed Taro, and mixing it with a little bit of water to get sort of a gravy-like consistency. (Though it can be thicker or thinner.) It’s supposed to be eaten with the pork (to tame the saltiness) or rice. I found the taste to be pretty bland – nothing objectionable, but nothing interesting or special either. The colour would be pretty in a dress – sort of a brownish pink-purple.. but it’s kind of strange in a food…..
The Lomi Lomi Salmon was my favorite part of the meal (which I guess isn’t saying a lot because I didn’t like most of it). It’s chopped up cooked salmon with chopped onions and tomatoes. It’s kind of like salmon salsa.
To finish off the meal there was Haupia (coconut pudding) which tasted pretty good too, but I got kind of tired of it. As you can see from the photo, I had to eat it with the fork (there wasn’t a spoon) and it’s very… ‘thick’.
There was so much food, I couldn't finish it all!
So, this was my plate when I was done. I did eat all of the Lomi Lomi Salmon, but didn’t make too big of an impact on the meat! I really should have ordered the mini plate – but had NO idea how much food would be involved.
My recommendation – order the mini plate instead of the full plate, unless you know that you’ll love the food and are really hungry! The price was really good though – you definitely get your money’s worth!
Aloha Mixed Plate
(808) 661-3322
Lahaina
1285 Front St Map.b313d61
Lahaina, HI 96761
Happy Sushi Belly 