I am gonna say it, it's the most authentic, Hawaiian fare I've had off the island so far. We were…read morestationed on Oahu for three years, and there are two things that once you leave the island, you'll be scarred forever, like pineapple and poke (pronounced poe-kay). Since moving off the island, we have tried the so called "poke" shops in our next duty stations in Savannah and now here in Coastal VA, in the hopes of finding the real thing, but no. Every time, just end up sad. Until now....I first came across Piha Aloha at the Mabuhay Fest at Farmhouse Brewing Co. last November. Then, I saw them again at the Ube Fest last weekend and made my entire crew make a sharp turn into the area they were set up in.
- Ono grinds (delicious eats in Hawaiian pigeon English) -
Mabuhay Fest:
Poke - the tuna is cut in the more traditional size (poke tends to have bigger chunks of tuna, rather than the mince cut that most poke/sushi places use). The fish was fresh, seasoned well and just delicious with the simplicity of ingredients.
Poke nachos - The poke is the same from previous description, just on top of nacho chips and topped with their creamy sauce. Also delicious!
Kalua nachos - Their kalua pig on top of nacho chips and also topped with their creamy sauce. Delicious.
Ginutan (sp?) - This is, I believe, Filipino, it's in a warm sweet and creamy "broth" with chunks of plantain and I think it was tapioca? I can't remember all the components that was in the "soup", but it's a dessert and I really liked it.
Ube Fest
Ube ginutan - I want to start with this dish in this section, since I don't want to end an awesome review on a not-so-good note. This was supposed to be their feature ube dish since it was an ube fest, but I'm not sure what happened, but the "broth/soup" coagulated and it was not really that pleasant to eat. The mochi was super soggy in it and there wasn't much of an ube taste. The color was just really a bright purple and for $8, I thought it was a bit pricey. I definitely prefer their OG ginutan flavor as described previously.
Combo poke, kalua pig and lomi salmon plate - this is a generous helping of the three. My crew loved the kalua pork especially! It was cooked really well, with that nice smokey flavor. The lomi salmon was the only one that was just ok, but I think I wasn't too crazy about this dish when I was in Hawaii anyway. I'm pretty sure it was raw salmon in Hawaii, but Piha Aloha cooks theirs.
Chicken BBQ plate - This is the typical Hawaiian plate lunch: BBQ chicken, mac salad and rice, sprinkled with some furikake. Just great!
Spam musubis - My kids devoured these. The musubis transported us back to our island days when we would buy a bunch of musubis from the corner store and bring them on hikes or to eat on the beach.
Melon drink - My oldest inhaled this one AND my friend's drink. This reminds me of an agua fresca, but Filipino-style. It's basically cantaloupe juice, diluted with water and sugar and they added shreds of cantaloupe in it. It's super refreshing!
Overall, if you want real Hawaiian food, chase down this truck! They are so friendly and the food is amazing!
Mahalo, Piha Aloha Ohana! I appreciate you sharing your aloha through your ono grinds throughout CoVA!
Enjoy, Friends and never stop exploring!