Finding a Gem...

We recently did some island hopping, and of course with travel, comes lots of food. :)

When we landed in Kauai, the hubby directed me to find somewhere for us to grab breakfast. I usually delight in finding a small cafe or restaurant to discover something new.

However, this particular morning, I was starving and pointed to the McDonald's. Shocking, I know. The reason being, we had awoke at 5:00am that day to catch our first of two flights to Kauai and didn't have time to eat. Being that it was now 10am, I was hungry and needed to eat. No food does not make me a happy girl.

Fortunately, my husband was smarter than that. He reminded me that we wouldn't be on Kauai for a long time and that finding new food was my joy and it would only take a few minutes to find somewhere unique. He was right. He handed me his iphone and thanks to Yelp, within minutes I had chosen Pono Market as our destination.
What a find! Not only was the staff exceptionally nice, but the food was the best local food we have ever had! We delighted in spicy tuna poke (sorry, no pic for this one - I was starving and dug right in).

And following that, devoured shoyu tuna poke (top left) , lomi lomi salmon (top right), and chicken lau lau (hubby had the pork lau lau).
If these names are unfamiliar to you, allow me to explain a little further but in a loose definition as exact recipes for these dishes vary greatly. Lau lau is a dish that consists of a meat, usually pork, wrapped in a banana leaf and steamed for about five hours. Can we say tender?

Lomi lomi salmon is diced salmon which is salted and mixed with chopped tomatoes and onions. And poke is made up of sliced pieces of raw ahi with onion, green onion, sesame seeds and shoyu (soy sauce).
The food was amazing and I can't believe I almost missed it for a McDonald's meal. If you're headed to Kauai, do not miss this place!