Gluten-Free Hawaii: Oahu & Big Island

Long time no update - I blame law school.  The increased workload thoroughly consumed me in November and December and the only real gluten-free travel I did amounted to a staggering number of round-trips between my apartment and the library.  But with nearly a month-long winter vacation at hand I'm doing what I can to change that.

Waikiki Beach on Oahu

In the past I have been to some of the most exotic islands in the world, but until last week I had never even visited the best in my own country: Hawaii.  I'd read some accounts of travelers' experiences staying gluten-free on the islands and knew it was possible.  But during my vacation I spent time all over Oahu and Hawaii's Big Island and was amazed both by the level of gluten-awareness nearly everywhere I went as well as by the amount of gluten-free foods to be found in local Hawaiian cuisine.  And with the heavy Asian influence on the islands, safe options are readily available at numerous Thai and Vietnamese restaurants.

Eating Gluten-Free on Oahu:

My trip started and ended in Oahu.  The Waikiki area is tourist-friendly enough that the servers at most every restaurant I visited had knowledge of the gluten-containing foods within the menus and could make alterations as needed.  P.F. Chang’s may be the most gluten-free friendly chain restaurant on earth, and the Waikiki location is no exception.  Although my server did admit that I was the first person to ever order a gluten-free lunch special on his watch.  This had me thinking that Honolulu lacked celiacs…

Gluten-free vegetarian burrito

…until I discovered Ruffage Natural Foods.  Oddly enough I found this hole in the wall by yelping “sushi”, which as it turns out they don’t even sell.  But the Yelp gods clearly meant for me to discover Ruffage one way or another.  Ruffage is a vendor of many health food groceries and also freshly prepared vegetarian, vegan, and gluten-free lunches, dinners, and smoothies.  Extremely-knowledgeable-guy-behind-the-counter walked me through all of my options, which ranged from sandwiches on gluten-free bread, to Japanese fusion rice bowls, to Mexican inspired platters.  I immediately became a regular at Ruffage for the rest of my stay after I tried the veggie chili burrito on a gluten-free corn tortilla.  Another brilliant concept: at your request, Ruffage will even prepare sandwiches for flights by separately wrapping the bread and the fillings.  The turkey-avocado sandwich may have been the best meal I've ever had at 30,000 feet.  The owners have another location a few blocks away at Veggie Star Natural Foods with essentially the same menu.

Kalua Pig

Ono Hawaiian Foods near Waikiki also had great authentic local options. I'll cover Hawaiian cuisine more thoroughly below, but here I had a combination plate that included delicious Kalua Pig.  The gluten-free dish is prepared by smoking/steaming the salted meat over hot rocks and stuffed banana & ti leaves for hours before it is shredded and served.  I avoided the Pipikaula and the Chinese Long Rice because each was prepared in soy sauce, but the server willingly made substitutions as I requested them.

Oahu's North Shore is known for big waves, beautiful beaches, and shrimp trucks.  The Thai woman working the Famous Kahuku Shrimp Truck instantly understood my allergy and altered the garlic-butter shrimp preparation to avoid wheat flour.  She sauteed my dish in a separate, clean pan and even gave me a second scoop of rice to replace the glutenous mac-salad that is normally part of the plate.

Garlic-butter shrimp & rice

Alternatively I could have ordered cocktail style shrimp or a plate of steak and rice.  Even if you are like me and would get ripped into small pieces if you ever attempted to surf, these shrimp alone make a drive up to the North Shore worthwhile.

Eating Gluten-Free on Hawaii's Big Island:

The Famous One Pound Lau Lau

My first exposure to Hawaiian cuisine came on the Hilo side of the Big Island at Kuhio Grille, which is "Home of the Famous One Pound Lau Lau".  What is a Lau Lau, you ask?  Assuming some base knowledge, the menu offers "pork or chicken and beef with fish" wrapped in Taro leaves.  Hmmm.  The or/and/with thing killed me and I was boggled for a few minutes as I attempted to determine what the Lau Lau actually included.  But fortunately I didn't have to recall any of my LSAT logic as the server informed me the only option that day was "pork beef and fish".  Glad we got that cleared up.  Just like the Kalua Pig, the ingredients used in Lau Lau are fairly simple and all gluten-free.  As for the side-dishes, the Lomi Salmon and creamy Poi pudding were both safe, although I shied away from the Huapia coconut dessert because it was starchy and no one really seemed sure of the ingredients (I've now found it is usually cornstarch and may be safe after all).

Kilauea Volcano crater

When I visited Volcanoes National Park, I ate at Cafe Ono in Kilauea Volcano Village.  The cafe is kind of hard to find and is only open for lunch but has several gluten-free selections on their vegetarian menu, including chili, 4-cheese spinach quiche, Moroccan lentil soup, and various salads.  The cafe is part of an interesting art gallery and there's a goat roaming in the bizarre garden outside which only adds to the experience in my opinion.

Impromptu GF Menu

Also not too far from Volcano, in Pahoa, Ning's Thai Cuisine is a solid option.

The Kona side of the island was also well-equipped to handle the dietary needs of travelers, albeit in some unconventional ways.  For one, the server at Rapanui Island Cafe brought out the "gluten-free menu", which was conveniently handwritten out on the back of the restaurant's business card.  It is not exactly the most official authority (an item was crossed out - uhh, did they later realize it wasn't safe after some poor celiac ordered it?) but I appreciated the effort nonetheless.

Sesame Poke & Garlic Edamame

One of my favorite dishes was another Hawaiian specialty, Poke, which is kind of like a sashimi salad.  Da Poke Shack has great lunch bowls and plates with various safe options for seasonings and side dishes like edamame and seaweed.  All of the food on display is prepared beforehand so there may be some concern about cross-contamination.  But the servers were knowledgeable about which styles contained soy sauce and other gluten ingredients.

Now I'm back in the Massachusetts winter and missing both Hawaii's food and its 80-degree climate, but happy to report another successful gluten-free travel experience.  Aloha!