Grocery Shopping Gems in Hawaii

+ Tofu watercress salad recipe + Splendid Table

Hello there!

I hope you’re warm and or dry wherever you are. I have lots to report and couldn’t get it all organized and polished to send sooner. This grocery shopping travelogue should interest you whether or not you go to Hawaii.

Before I ever visited the islands, people told me about the price of groceries — how they are expensive but also wonderfully diverse, leaning toward Asia more than any other state in the nation. According to 2021 Census data, about 45 percent of Hawaii’s population identifies as Asian and/or Pacific Islander.

A video presentation at the Bishop Museum in Honolulu pointed out that historically, Hawaiian natives encouraged intermarriage as a way to grow islands’ population. Their strategy: invite outsiders to become more Hawaiian and thereby become thoughtful stewards of the environment. There were pros and cons to that but in terns of grocery shopping in Hawaii, the tactic birthed a unique transpacific blending of foodways.

I recently spent two weeks on Kauai and Oahu. We stayed with friends and mostly cooked our own food. On Kauai, our dear friend, Chan, grows lots of vegetables and fruit so that was an amazing luxury.

In Honolulu, our friends John and Mike were settling into a condo in a high-rise building. Our Hawaii Five-O week with them meant that we gloriously dined on paper plates and bowls and got to enjoy iconic views of Diamond Head (up top).

I made recipes from Ever-Green Vietnamese, including gingery beef and mushroom with bun rice noodles (page 254) and panfried tofu banh mi (page 128) with a side of pickled bean sprout salad (page 172). My vacationing tip: Set things up as a DIY situation to create less hassle and less work for the cook!

Because I love to cook and grocery shop, I walked plenty of aisles and explored a couple farmer’s markets during our time there. Here’s what I have to share!

A number of you live in Hawaii so do add your input!

National Chains

Let’s start with the familiar talk about prices. In the main, food prices at national chains are 5 to 10 percent higher in Hawaii than on the mainland. The selection is similar but not. If you want standard groceries at reasonable prices, national chains should figure into your shopping plans. They have buying and shipping power to move goods from all over so they have a comparative advantage.

• Costco — Interestingly, Costco outposts are often near airports because people tend to stop by after they land (or maybe before they depart). Locals know to stock up there, too so it’s always crowded. Many people gravitate toward mining Costco’s Hawaiian snack foods sold in bulk (macadamia nuts!!!) but I mostly noticed raw ingredients. Choi sum in bulk (a rarity elsewhere). Ripe pineapples(!), unlike the hit-and-miss green ones on the mainland. Lovely local butter lettuce (lettuce is pricey elsewhere in HI). When available, head-on, shell-on Kauai shrimp are a popular Costco purchase too.

• Safeway — In my fantasy world, all mainstream markets on the mainland would stock their Asian aisles like Safeway does in Hawaii. There’s an emphasis on Filipino and Japanese cuisines but there is much more real estate for Asian ingredients (kombu, wakame, decent dried shiitake, dried wood ear, etc.) — ingredients that you’d otherwise have to go to a specialty market for! Below is a sample of what is stocked at the mega 24/7 Safeway in Lihue, Kauai.

  

  

• Target — Yup, I shop for groceries at Target. Prices didn’t seem to be all that different than on the mainland. The best price on Bordens sweetened condensed milk is at Target, where it goes for about $3 a can. There’s a location in Honolulu’s massive Ala Moana Shopping Center so you can browse Neiman Marcus, Anthropologie, and Marshalls plus pick up condensed milk. Also, Foodland and Nijiya markets are nearby (see below!).

• H-Mart — There are three H-Mart outposts in Hawaii and they are all located in Honolulu. You’ll fine major pantry items for a variety of Asian cuisines. Unless you go to Chinatown in Honolulu, H-Mart is a fabulous source for Vietnamese ingredients. The produce prices are generally very good. My friend Chan said shallots in Kauai are about $10 a pound so I’d brought her some organic bulbs grown in Santa Cruz. At Honolulu’s H-Mart, the shallots were $2.99 a pound — same as what I paid. Potato prices are down to Earth too. Note that Thai basil is labeled Taiwan basil; it’s used in Taiwanese cooking too. H-Mart’s rice paper (below) selection was excellent.

• Whole Foods – There are 3 locations in and around Honolulu and I hear they are great. I didn’t set foot in one of them when I was visiting but you may.

Hawaiian Local Chains

Things get more interesting at the local markets. I became familiar with two chains on the islands:

• Foodland (31 locations in HI) — On Kauai, there is only one Foodland, located in Princeville on the North Shore. That store is pricey ($10 for a so-so loaf of bread) but in Honolulu, there are many more outposts. The Foodland at the Ala Moana Shopping Center is spectacular, like a Disneyland for food. My notes from that particular store:

  

  

  • About 20 percent of the store is dedicated to prepared foods — Bento boxes, plate lunches, salads, sushi, fried chicken skin, karaage (Japanese fried chicken) by the pound, butter mochi, plus party trays! Prices are decent and many items are marked 20% off after 7pm or if they’re day-old. (🙏 John and Lori for the local tip 🤟 ).

  • The poke options, from raw tuna and cooked octopus to seared steak and tender tofu, prove that you can poke practically anything.

  • Reasonably priced meat and seafood department. I scored local marlin for $5.99 per pound, local pork chops for $5.99 per pound, and Kauai shrimp for $13.99 per pound. There were local beef soup bones, too.

  • A well-stocked wine section that’s not outrageously priced. A number of European bottles are imported by Berkeley-based Kermit Lynch, which is renowned and reliable.

  • Foodland’s pantry ingredients (apple cider vinegar, baking soda, salt, etc.) tend to be pricey so you may want to go to Costco, Target, Safeway, or Times 👇.

• Times (24 locations in HI) — An affordable, working class kind of market. They have a wide range of East and Southeast Asian ingredients, including fermented shrimp sauce (mắm tôm), Thai rice flour, fish sauce, rice paper and dried rice noodles. The one in Lihue on Kauai is near Costco and Safeway!

Honolulu and Vicinity Only

Certain markets are only on Oahu. I didn’t get to all of these but want to flag them for you:

• Nijiya (2 Honolulu locations) — On the mainland, Nijiya markets are only in California but in Honolulu, you have a couple of options. One is at the Ala Moana Shopping Center, near the Foodland. Head there for Japanese import ingredients, such as fresh wasabi, as well as freshly made soba and ramen noodles. Their prepared sushi and bento look fresh tasty too. Nijiya’s fresh soymilk is rich and excellent for making tofu. (Nijiya locations in California.)

• Marukai (1 location) — Marukai is like the Costco for Japanese and Japanese-American goods. I used to go to one in Southern California. I didn’t set foot in the Honolulu store but we did drive by. It’s on my list for my next visit. (Marukai and Tokyo Central locations in California.)

• Kekaulike Market (Chinatown) — My Vietnamese-American friend Mike says that shopping at this market is akin to going to Ben Thanh market in Saigon (HCMC). There are vendors selling lots of fresh, local ingredients. They are open only till 3pm daily. I ran out of time and didn’t get to go, so it’s also on my future hit list. Put it on yours too!

Farmer’s Markets

I cook so I’m always looking for farmer’s markets that sell more ingredients than prepared foods. People highly recommend Honolulu’s Saturday market at Kapiolani Community College (KCC) but it was 75% food vendors. I did score fresh hot chiles and superb eggplant from the Thai Farmer’s Association, delicious ice cream bananas, and banh mi rolls from Viet-owned La Tour, which also distributes to Foodland, Safeway, Times and others.

I asked the KCC market manager where cooks shop and he suggested the Kaka’ako Farmer’s Market, which is conveniently near an H-Mart. Alex and Andrew Le of The Pig and the Lady endorsed the Kaka’ako market too. They also suggested Farmlink Oahu for ordering ingredients.

Kauai Farmer’s Markets are plentiful. When I’m on the island, most of the produce we eat comes from Chan’s garden. Farmers do bring super ripe tropical fruit and fresh vegetables to the farmer’s markets.

Tofu Watercress Salad

Among my souvenirs from Hawaii was a taste for tofu watercress salad, called lauʻai tōfū lēkō according to the Kamehameha Schools. It’s incredibly refreshing and satisfying, due to the tofu, which picks up the gingery sesame soy dressing well and turns creamy.

I adore watercress. In Vietnamese, the spicy greens are called rau cải xoong; “xoong” halfway mimics cresson, French for watercress.

Say watercress in Vietnamese!

Once home, I found a tofu watercress salad recipe for in chef Sheldon Simeon’s cookbook, Cook Real Hawai’i (2021, Clarkson Potter). His rendition was good but cheffy so I tweaked it to make it less fussy, more versatile, seasonal, and vegan.

To keep this dispatch shortish, I published the recipe at Viet World Kitchen. Head to the website for the tofu watercress salad recipe plus a bunch of suggestions for ingredient swaps and add-ins!

🌱 One more thing — Viet herb totes are shipping again. Breaking with normal schedules, I’ll send a separate note to you on Tuesday about it.

👂 And, another thing — when you have a moment, give a listen to this week’s Splendid Table episode. Host Francis Lam talks to me, the Leung family of the Woks of Life, and chef Yoon Hee Kim! I adore the Leungs and Yoon Hee.

You’ve read enough of me for today. Time to make that salad and ponder tropical warmth!