Bravo to the Kaanapali Beach Hotel for the low-salt, employee-tested Native Hawaiian Diet served in its Tiki Terrace, 2525 Kaanapali Pkwy. (tel. 808/667-0124). Titled Kulaiwi Cuisine, the menu features the healthy, traditional Hawaiian diet of fresh fish and taro greens, flavored with herbs and spices. Salt is kept to a minimum, but you can always add your own. The Kulaiwi menu consists of pohole fern shoots from Keanae Valley (on the way to Hana), marinated with onions and seaweed and served with ginger-tomato dressing. (We think that with their freshness, pleasing crunch, and mild flavor, fern shoots are one of the most underused greens of Hawaii.)
Entree choices might be oven-poached chicken breast or fresh catch, served with pureed taro tops (like spinach, but better), grilled bananas, steamed sweet potato, taro, and fresh poi made on the premises (the poi is well known on Maui, and sells out regularly). Entrees run from $17 to $39, and include chilled Hana papaya with lemon.
The use of taro greens is a noteworthy touch in the a la carte menu as well, where baked crab and taro leaf dip, spiced up with Maui onions, artichoke hearts, shallots, garlic, Parmesan cheese, and homemade mayonnaise, is served with focaccia bread. The pohole ferns with smoked salmon and fresh poke with roasted kukui nut are special Hawaiian touches. If this is too tame for you, the a la carte menu offers everything from steak and lobster to tiger shrimp basted in Hawaiian chili pepper and seaweed sauce, served in a laulau pouch. The dining room is old-fashioned Hawaii, not fancy, with tables on a terrace ringed with plumeria and palm trees and a nightly Hawaiian trio (6-9pm in the courtyard, visible from the Tiki Terrace).
The regular Tiki Terrace breakfast menu presents a good opportunity to sample Hawaiian food in a familiar context: taro hash browns; three-egg lomi salmon omelet with sweet-potato home fries; a fruit plate of banana baked in ti leaf with lehua honey and macadamia nuts, served with yogurt; and French toast made with taro bread. There are even Hawaiian taro pancakes, and they're wonderful. The Hawaiian Sunday Champagne Brunch ($29) features Hawaiian music to go with the Hawaiian food, along with Belgian waffles and great desserts.
At the buffet-style Mixed Plate on the same property, the Hawaiian Friday lunch is widely touted among residents, who voted this the best Hawaiian food in the Maui News: fresh poi, lomi salmon, laulau, kalua pig, ahi poke, and pohole fern salad for $9.50. Dinner includes all of the above and prime rib (early bird, $11 from 4-6pm). The hotel also sponsors Aunty Aloha's Breakfast Luau at 8am weekdays, with live music, hula, breakfast (scrambled eggs, Portuguese sausage, and rice), and the inimitable and hilarious Aunty Aloha, who does a fire-knife dance with cigarette lighters and will tell you how to save money on your Maui vacation. Her slide show of Maui activities lasts about 1 1/2 hours.
The emphasis on Hawaiian food is only one part of a pervasive spirit of aloha that distinguishes this hotel. Reservations are recommended for dining in the Tiki Terrace. American Express, Discover, MasterCard, and Visa are accepted. Dinner is served daily from 5:30 to 9pm.
