At the busy Maui Upcountry Farmers Market on a Saturday morning, a silver-haired man serenaded shoppers with his scratchy violin. At his stand, Fong’s Organic, there were lettuce leaves, spring onions and … what looked like the offspring of a heirloom tomato and an apricot?

“It’s an eggplant,” said the violinist, seeing my confusion. “It’ll be another week before it’s ripe.” I would be gone in a few days before this mango pudding-flavored fruit that has the texture of sweet potato cake was ready. And that was the dilemma at Maui’s oldest farmers market: a lot is not for the casual offender.

When visiting Maui – especially if you never leave the beaches, which are teeming with swaying palm trees and equally tipsy night owls – it’s easy to mistake the 727-square-mile island for a tourist playground. But before it became America’s most popular vacation destination, the Hawaiian archipelago was fine without visitors. These isolated land masses in the middle of the Pacific Ocean have been completely self-sufficient since the first Polynesian settlers landed laden with pigs and chickens as early as 400. The staple foods they brought with them, such as taro and breadfruit, immediately absorbed the fertile soil, creating abundance large enough to feed a thriving population.

Today about 90% of Hawaii’s food supply is imported. So I was happy to see this thriving farmers market where most of the goods were on Maui. cultivated, by the people of Maui, and for the people of Maui. There was a bunch Maui onions, golden and sweet. There were bunches of marigolds wrapped in sun-bleached pages of MauiTime. Vats of sauerkraut lined one stand while another was sold Moringa Pesto and mason jars chutney. But there was also a lot for intruders like me, no cooking or ripening necessary: ​​algae chips, vegan miso ramen and Poisson cru, the Tahitian ceviche made from raw fish, marinated in coconut milk and citrus fruits from Maui cone.

Hawaiian cuisine reflects the migration history of the islands and is now a wonderfully multilayered parfait of world cuisines, using techniques and flavors from Korea, Portugal, the Philippines, Japan and wherever else people came to join the native Hawaiians. And the arrivals haven’t stopped.

“As clichéd as it sounds, farming on Maui feels like a piece of heaven,” said Michael Marchand at Lapa’au farm, 15 minutes up a hairpin street from the farmers market. The 29-year-old transplant from California supplies the island’s famous restaurants such as Lineage with wild rocket and a variety of mushrooms such as lion’s mane. “I worked the land here and learned the value of pono,” he said, “that Hawaiian idea of ​​integrity, honesty and kindness.”

Curious to see what was still growing, I spent a week driving through Maui’s mountainous heart, collectively known as the Upcountry. Two-lane roads lined with purple jacarandas and sandalwood meander through farms and ranches. There was O’o Farm, where visitors can take a lunch farm tour on the slopes of Haleakal, the larger of the two massive volcanoes that make up the island. In the sprawling Ali’i Kula Lavender Farm, Paths winding through fields of flowers provided a calming, self-guided tour. at Surfing goat dairy, I patted a couple of baby goats before trying a platter of award-winning, flavorful goat cheese. Lookout points between the farm stops gave bicoastal panoramas of the country. As I rolled down the window, I was intoxicated by the sweet scent of plumeria. And don’t ask me how often I’ve got a sugar high from the fluffy shave ice flakes that have been doused with sour passion fruit syrup from our own production Ululanis. Okay, I might have stopped at their location in Kihei as I drove from the farmers market to West Maui and back into Lahaina after sipping ramen at Star Noodles. (See “Where to Eat” below).

I grabbed a reservation one evening Kiawe outdoors, a roaming pop-up al fresco dinner run by Maui-raised chef Yeshua Goodman. I sat down at a picnic table with a group of strangers on a green slope in front of a private house and enjoyed a multi-course feast that began with charred carrots and pea sprouts, accompanied by goat cheese from the dairy I had visited earlier the week and peaches from just down the hill. As the darkening sky merged with the sea, Goodman served smoky taro leaves mixed with candied saffron to create a rich coconut emulsion – his take on local Hawaiian cuisine with a touch of the Mediterranean. As the stars outshone the flickering lanterns, he poured yuzu broth into shallow bowls with freshly caught ono.

On my last day, I made my way to Kahului, the capital of Maui. As is customary for those in the know, I picked up my lunch on board Tin roof, an unpretentious diner by top chef alum Sheldon Simeon and his wife Janice. With fried chicken sandwiches, ocean-fresh poke, and wok-fried noodles, this one-counter establishment embodies the laid-back and mixed ethos of multicultural Hawaiian cuisine.

“Every island is different, but I would say Maui has a unique mix of more outside influences just from the sheer amount of tourism,” said Simeon on the sidewalk just outside his shop. He had recently learned more about the differences between the islands when researching his cookbook Cook Real Hawai’i. But lately he has been worried about his home island and its food. “We have to welcome travelers and guests,” he said. “But they also need to understand that we have limited resources that should go to the community first.”

To give you an idea, while there are 167,417 people who call Maui home, almost 1 million visitors landed on Maui in the first half of 2021 alone. At this rate, a dozen tourists come to Maui every year for every full-time resident. However, tourism is also a lifeline for the locals and directly and indirectly accounts for 80% of the island’s economy.

When I originally set out on the ultimate culinary road trip in Maui, I imagined I could just write odes to the island’s multicultural flavors, open pastures, and a few food trucks. But the tensions arising from overcrowding – tensions exacerbated by the pandemic – have shown that tourism cannot continue as it has before.

At the same time, Maui cannot exist in a vacuum. Perhaps it is more important than ever for visitors to learn where the food is coming from and to support more local producers and businesses to strengthen the local ecosystem in a sustainable way. One meal at Maui’s table is enough to tell you that we live in a networked world.

Maui takes its gas station food – or grind, as the local food is called – very seriously. Here are some specifics.

After gritting his teeth at the Relais & Châteaux Hotel Wailea, Zach Sato opened his first solo project at a modest gas station in Kihei in December 2020. Ports serves greasy burgers that are mashed and seared on the grill and saimin soaked in three days of cooked bone broth.

Housed in an original mid-century building, Uptown Kitchen & Food Mart is no ordinary gas station, with its own retro dinner-style grill serving daily specials from yakitori chicken to grilled salmon salad.

Manuela Malasada (243 Lahainaluna Road, Lahaina) with her iconic entourage on the island of Hawai’i arrived on Maui and sat down in the parking lot of a Lahaina gas station, fried and filled fist-sized donuts to order. Roll them in Li Hing Mui (salty and tart plum powder) and fill them with typical Hawaiian Liliko’i (passion fruit) butter or Ube (purple yam).

Now a local chain, Mini stop has been a hometown favorite since opening in 1982, and is known for its fried chicken and chunky potato wedges that are breaded in the same secret spice mix.

Here’s how you can get to know Maui and support its producers – no plane ticket required.

Maui Ku’ia Estate chocolate turns the fruits of its over 8,000 trees on a dry hillside near Lahaina into delicate squares of dark and milk chocolate. You can also take a virtual farm tour that comes with tasting boxes (starting at $ 70) or chocolate-flavored gift sets flavored with locally harvested fruits like mango and calamansi.

Home bakers can get creative with Travel food, which ships flour made from original canoe plants such as taro and sweet potatoes.

Has been a family business since its humble beginnings in 1981 Kumu farms has grown to over 200 acres of farmland from where you can order fresh papayas and pineapples.

Breadfruit is a staple in the Polynesian diet and is what gives the pono pies of Maui Breadfruit Company, shipped frozen in groups of four.

The Maui government encourages the hunting of axis deer, an invasive species that is currently destroying endemic flora. Maui Nui Wild offers game meat subscription boxes that are processed in accordance with FDA and USDA regulations. The company also supplies game bone broth, meat sticks, and dog snacks.

Left: Photo credit: Bailey Rebecca Roberts

Center: Photo credit: Bailey Rebecca Roberts

To the right: Photo credit: Bailey Rebecca Roberts

The founder of Dry Mein, Maui’s soupless take on Saimin, is now in the third generation of the family. The thin noodles are simply thrown with sweet char siu (roast pork), spring onions and a sweet and salty secret sauce and are worth a detour to an industrial part of Wailuku, the non-touristy district town with colorful wooden facades. 1750 Wili-Pa loop, Wailuku

The other end of Maui’s noodle evolution is serving hand-pulled noodles in creative combinations, like chilli and lime dashi with smoked prosciutto and Thai basil toppings. The open-air seaside restaurant also features homemade dishes inspired by all corners of Asia, such as crispy Vietnamese crepes and shrimp tempura.

Enjoy an excellent brunch from Chef Lee Anne Wong tucked away in a courtyard under a giant baobab tree in historic Lahaina. The menu includes macadamia nut pancakes, French toast with a cornflake crust, striped marlin benedict with miso hollandaise and ramen, which are prepared for breakfast with a poached egg and bacon.

Dishes like perfectly crispy, twice-fried chicken in a sweet Gochujang glaze and Wagyu Kalbi, served with Finadene, a chili sauce from Guam, are based on the Korean-Guaman heritage of former Lineage chef MiJin Kang Toride.

Despite its location in the shopping center in Lahaina, this is a decidedly mismatched place with creative vegan dishes. Take the taro burger or the pickled eggplant Reuben to take away; they come wrapped in the island’s abundant (and very compostable) ti leaves.

At the time of going to press, proof of vaccination or a negative COVID-19 test was required prior to leaving for Hawaii. While travel is not restricted, restaurants still have some capacity restrictions, rental cars can be difficult to come by, and the island’s hospitals are congested due to the Delta variant. Consider visiting when the falls decline; visit gohawaii.com for updates.