June 4, 2023 – mmm-yoso

After having an encore viewing of Halemaʻumaʻu the previous evening we were tempted to stop by again to check things out in the morning but decided to just keep the amazing visions of the previous night fresh in our memory instead and head on to our next stop of our trip.

The Missus had enjoyed the Geisha pour-over from Koana the previous day and wanted to have it one more time so we stopped there for our morning coffee.

On this morning a young lady was working. She was very friendly and the Missus got Her coffee.

I enjoyed sitting right outside the shop. The view of the plantation style houses reminded me of our trips to Honolua "small kid time" to see my grandparents.

I'm sure we'll stop by again whenever we're in the area.

Koana
18-1325 Old Volcano Rd.
Mountain View, HI 96771

As we headed up thru Hilo, we decided to stop by another very familiar place, Big Island Candies. Waaay back when, a stop here was mandatory during our visits to Hilo.

It was right before Lunar New Year, so we made sure to get some goodies for my MIL.

And a bunch of omiyage as well.

And even "stuffs" that well….I'm still not quite sure about

Good lord, we bought so much that we got a free tote bag and a discount! Like I said before, when you visit "make sure to bring lots of money!"

Big Island Candies
585 Hinano St.,
Hilo, HI 96720

From here we headed up the Hamakua Coast, a drive we've made many times, past Honokaa, and finally into Waimea, which we call Kamuela. We were a bit early to check in at our accommodation, so we headed over to the Parker Ranch Center to get some lunch.
If you've read our posts on the Big Island, you'll find that we really love revisiting favorites. And since we had enjoyed Village Burger so much the last time we were here we decided to grab lunch there.

We had enjoyed the fact that everything from the pasture raised beef, to the brioche buns, to the mushrooms in the mushroom burger is local. The Missus had really enjoyed the mushroom burger the last time and of course, this being Parker Ranch territory, I needed to have that Big Island Beef Burger.

Of course, a decade has passed since we last visited, so we expected some changes. And yes, the burgers were smaller than what we'd had before.

Still, while there seemed to be a bit more "binder" in the Missus's Hamakua Mushroom Burger ($11), it was still full of earthy-umami goodness.

It used to be served on a sort of ciabatta type roll, but I think the yeasty-fluffy-mildly sweet brioche type roll does quite well to balance out the mushrooms. The Missus didn't order any mayo or mustard, which was a good choice as one could really enjoy the mushroom flavor.

I ordered my Burger ($11) Medium.

This was cooked a bit past that, but the burger was so beefy! I requested just a touch of mustard, which combined with the wonderfully sweet and acidic tomato really helped to balance out the beefiness. The beef was a bit toothsome; but that's the deal with pasture raised beef made from cuts like chuck and brisket.