California Food and Wine Blog

Archive for the ‘Kauai’ Category

Today after another 3 hours at the beach boogie boarding and snorkeling we got hungry and decided to go to a local hot dog joint recommended by one of my sister’s friends. We headed down to the Poipu Village shopping center and stopped at Puka Dog for lunch. This place really makes you feel like its a great local joint. Its basically a cash register, a kenmore outdoor BBQ, and a bunch of relish pumps operated by two local kids.

I ordered a polish dog with spicy jalepeno garlic lemon sauce, mango relish, and the lilokai mustard. The polish sausage was a good size, nice and thick and well cooked. The sauces was quite good, though far from spicy. The mango relish is something I would like to get my hands on, it was delicious. The lilokai mustard was also a bit sweet, not something I would really think of as a mustard for a polish sausage, more for a salad dressing. All of them come in something that is not so much a hot dog bun as a hoagie roll with a hole in it instead of being sliced. An interesting package, though far too much bread or too little polish sausage. The extra bread came in handy for feeding the local birds though. You get the dog prepared how you like for $6.25. This place would have been great had the portion been larger or the price been 50% less.

Overall Rating:

A Puka Dog

The Hanalei Gourmet is a cute little deli/bar/restaurant in the town of Hanalei on the north shore of Kauai. We stopped here on our way back to Poipu to grab a bite to eat to hold us over after 3 hours at the beach. I ordered a passion margarita and a N’Orleans Po’Boy sandwich. The margarita had strong flavors of passionfruit and was quite good. The margarita flavor was very subtle and light on the tequila, probably good in such a warm climate. The poor boy was a bit different than a traditional poor boy, they describe as: Deep fried, fresh catch on a french baguette, with coleslaw, sliced tomatoes, cajun remoulade and french fries on the side.

The fish of the day happend to be ahi tuna and the breading used had some herbs in it. Quite a good batter and the fish was just right, not too dry and not too greasy. The cajun remoulade was a bit spicy and didn’t over power the flavor of the fish. The baguette was fresh baked and soft. The coleslaw was really what I must say that I enjoyed the most however. It had dried cranberries, walnuts, and onion in addition to the traditional cabbage. The additions makes for a delicious mixture and was very enjoyable, I would definitely recommend it.

Overall Rating:

N'Orleans Po'Boy sandwich