Some cheese, some wine, some really good food

Today, we indulged our foodie side. We set off in the morning to check out Surfing Goat Dairy Farm in Kula. You can visit with the cute little goat kids, running up and down a couple surf boards in the pens. And if you're lucky, you get there at feeding time and watch the frenzy of all the kids just fighting and squeezing together to eat as fast as they can. It's a fun place to bring children and get up close with the goats. You can also to cheese tastings! You can choose what flight you would like (we opted for a set of 6) and choose which goat cheeses you would like to try. They have all kinds of flavors, from lavender to chive or garlic and they serve it with a basket of wheat thins. All delicious! Should you particularly favor one or a few, you can buy some to take home with you. They also have other goodies there but because we were at a dairy farm, we felt the need to have the goat cheese.

So after our appetizer at the dairy, we made our way to the Hailima'ile General Store in Makawao. It is a restaurant owned by Bev Gannon, serving American food with Hawaiian Asian twists. To start, we had drinks: lilikoi iced tea, pinapple and guava lemonades, all tasty.

Our dishes: Kalua pork enchilada - tender, flavorful meat with a delicious sauce swirled with guacamole.






Duck Confit with an Asian pear salad and hoisin sauce - duck was tender and cooked perfectly. It paired well with the sweet pear and sauce.






Needless to say, I recommend making a reservation and coming here for a meal. You will not be disappointed. There were other dishes at the table but honestly, we were enjoying the food so much I forgot to take other pictures.

Next stop was the Tedeschi Winery set in the 'Ulupalakua Ranch. It's up in the hills and has some delicious wine as well as some amazing plants/ flowers I have never seen. The crazy thing is I've been to the islands since I was a kid. Maui is where I visited most growing up so I was stunned when walking around the property, we saw what looks like a teal blue and purple orchid growing in garlands upside down, like wisteria on a vine. As far as we knew, it was completely natural and there were garlands of this flower all over the place. It looked like something out of the movie Avatar.

They there's the wine. They have everything from dry to sweet but they're known for the Pineapple Wine. A lot of them are perfect for a summer get together, light and fruity. But isn't that every day in Hawai'i?

To complete our day of awesome food, we stopped at Hula Cookies and Ice Cream in Wailuku. The place is located within a little mall next to the Maui Ocean Center. There is also a second location in Lahaina. But here in Wailuku, there's less of the traffic and tourists. This place is known for making enormous ice cream cookie sandwiches. The beauty is, you pick the cookies as well as the ice cream flavors and they make the sandwich specifically for you. Their best cookie, hands down, is their Hula's Delight (pinapple, coconut, mango, macadamia nut). The cookie is slightly chewy with the dried fruit and it's out of this world. The greatest (and smartest) thing is that they've made cookie mix you can take home or even order online. All you need to add is vanilla, egg and butter.

Needless to say, our tummies were very satisfied at the end of the day. We cracked open one of the bottles of wine we purchased at Tedeschi and enjoyed it with our homemade dinner that night. Perfect way to end the day.