We had a wonderful first day and evening on the Big Island. Man, it's hard to believe that it had been a decade since we last visited.
And since we were staying in Volcano Village, we wanted to resurrect an old tradition we had. But first, the Missus wanted a nice cup o' joe. I had done a bit of research and found a place in Mountain View, about a 15 minute drive from Volcano Village that just seemed perfect for the "coffee snob" in the family. A place named Koana.
This specialty coffee shop only did pour over….like I said, this place would be perfect for the Missus, right?
The bright, rustic space was quite welcoming.
As was the owner; who kindly took time to explain everything they had for the day.
In addition to the local coffees the place sold….
There were other local kine stuffs as well.
The Missus immediately homed in on the Paradise Coffee Kona Geisha Champagne Natural. The owner of Koana, Brian, told us that this coffee won the 2022 Hawaiian Coffee Association competition. Oh-kay…..
While we waited for our coffee we took a quick look around…the place has a real "old time" feel to it and reminds me of Honolua, way back in the 60's and 70's.
Meanwhile, I felt a bit peckish, so I walked on over to Mountain View Bakery. Man, the last time I was here was back in 90's, before I met the Missus.
This place is famous for their Stone Cookies and has been around since 1936! It's got a real old time, small town feel to it.
I got a taro mochi donut and a Spam Musubi. Breakfast of champions!
The mochi donut is made from glutinous rice and has a bit of a chew to it. It wasn't overly sweet. I liked it, but the Missus did not.
My musubi was perfect!
The Missus loved Her coffee and wanted to buy a bag. So, we went in and took a look around and could not find the coffee. So we asked Brian who told us he had two bags left behind the counter. He sold us one. It was $95! The Missus just absolutely loved this coffee.
Thus is life in the mmm-yoso household. The Missus gets Her $95 Kona Geisha coffee and I get a……Spam Musubi! Sounds like a fair deal, right?
We also bought some other stuffs as well.
Koana
18-1325 Old Volcano Rd.
Mountain View, HI 96771
Mountain Vewi Bakery
18-1319 Old Volcano Rd.
Mountain View, HI 96771
From here we headed back into Volcanoes National Park and proceeded to do what has become sort a tradition for us; a drive down Chain of Craters Road.
It's something we've done on every visit to the Big Island since we got married years ago.
It all seems familiar, and yet, different on every visit.
It's a reminder of how amazing this "Blue Marble" we live on is. We make stops along the way. At familiar places, like the Hōlei Sea Arch.
And there's another tradition we have or at least had, which I mentioned in my post from all those years ago:
" We always drive to the end of Chain of Craters Road, park, it used to be that you'd park just a couple of yards from the flow, but now you walk about a half mile or so. I always take a photo of the Missus at the point where the lava is covering the road.
When we look back at the older photos, we've noticed that the flow has moved and even though things might seem the same when the picture is taken; looking at the photos all lined up reveals that nature never stays still. For us, this is a nice timeline of sorts….the Missus on the lava flow, moving, maybe at an imperceptible speed, but nevertheless, still slowly moving."
Well, with time comes change. What used to be this:
In 2012, is now this in 2023. Though it's chained off.
Of course soon enough the question of "what's for lunch" came up. Well, the Missus had Her heart set on Suisan, which has long been a favorite of Hers. We'd arrived in Hilo on a day when Suisan was closed. So off we went on an hours drive into Hilo!
We were interested to see what effect the "time of Covid" had on Suisan and it was soon evident. Gone are the tables out front. You wait in line in front of the shop, there's a limit to the amount of folks they let into a shop at any one time.
Gone are the cold cases and the selection of poke is much smaller now.
We got a poke bowl with the Ahi Hawaiian and Shoyu Ahi ($15.50), a quarter pound Ahi Mango Habanero, and even went and tried the Scallop Lemon Shoyu and the Butter Garlic Prawns. We took our stuffs to the former location of the restaurant outside Suisan which is now closed and went for it.
In terms of fish quality the ahi in the Ahi Limu and the Mango Habanero was excellent, tender and almost buttery. Some of the pieces in the Shoyu Ahi had "sugi" that made it chewy. I wish there was more limu in the Ahi Hawaiian, though the flavoring for all three poke was spot on, not too salty, but well prepped and seasoned. The Mango Habanero was a nice surprise, fruity spice, perfect salt, without being too sweet.
As for the "pupus", well, the Butter Garlic Prawns were really tough, not much garlic flavor.
The Lemon Shoyu Scallops were also really chewy and there was an amount of "grit" in it that we didn't enjoy.
Still, that poke did "hit the spot". We'd return one more time before leaving the Big Island; though we'd stay with just poke on that visit.
Suisan Company Limited
93 Lihiwai St
Hilo, HI 96720
And to be perfectly honest, I was interested to see what the price of the Gyro Combo was these days. And the sign said the combo was now $15. In case you’re keeping score, in 
Upon opening up the Gyro, I quickly noticed that things had changed. This was no longer marinated pork cut from a spit into thin slices. This was more like chunks of marinated grilled pork shoulder. Along with being chunks of pork, the meat was a lot darker in color than what I’d had previously. It was also tough and dry. In terms of flavor, this was on the salty side.
On this morning the parking lot was empty. I walked on over and took a look at the posted menu and noticed the opening time was noon. I also noted that there were donburi and ramen lunch specials going for as low as ten bucks! In these days that's a bargain. I decided that I'd return on another day and check the place out. As I started walking away the "open" sign came on and the really friendly gentleman who runs the front of house waved me in. My lucky day I guess.
I would go on record to say this was more sausage than tsukune. It was hard, rubbery, tough…..I'm sure there are more synonyms I could come up with given time. Not much flavor at all….I guess that's why salt was provided.
And my worries were well placed. Ok, so since the ownership is under Olleh, my expectations were low, but this was even below that!
The chashu wasn't bad, nicely marinated, tender, decent porkiness. The noodles were standard issue, curly, a bit overcooked and mushy…which did nothing to enhance the dish. It had me thinking….at ten bucks what should I have expected?
I loved the presentation. And overall, I enjoyed this dish the most. Nothing fancy, just a by the book beef bowl. The beef was on the chewy side, flavors were quite typical, soy sauce – mirin – sake, which is not bad at all. A generous portion of rice….I wish there was more egg, but this was a decent donburi.
Nothing fancy mind you; but for a ten buck for lunch…I wouldn't pay $15 to have this for dinner, this might work out fine for you. After all, how much is a bento from Nijiya these days?
I was surprised to see construction going on and the note to the right. Well, I just 
I'm sure if you ordered online things would work out fine. And that guanciale looked really good.
So, the wings usually come tossed in sauce, be it buffalo, BBQ (what was recommended here), or mango habanero. Well, I just wasn't a fan of these. While the wings were of decent quality and prepped well, it was kinda soggy when it arrived. I prefer my wings to have some textural contrast that doesn't include mushy. Plus, it was over sauced for my taste as well.
And I guess I take direction fairly well. The wings not being drenched in sauce was much better. There was still some crispness to them and I got to determine which sauce I enjoyed the best. The habanero edges on a bit too sweet, but there's a bit of spice. The ranch will quell that. So, I will order my wings simply "salt and pepper" with habanero and ranch on the side.
The wings looked lightly battered and fried. In fact, it had a decent light crispness. Until I really bit into them. Man, these wings were seriously freezer burnt. The wings were so gross and bitter. I mentioned this to the folks behind the bar and was told, "it looks perfectly fine to me….."
First off, the bread was as I recalled from the "old school" location, crusty and fairly dense, with some yeastiness.
I did find the ratio of Bi (pork skin) to be kind of small compared to the amount of pickled veggies and even cilantro. And of course, I think that it's all about ratios when it comes to these sandwiches. Strangely, I found that the Bi had an almost sweet-sour flavor? Though those jalapenos did a good job of clearing my sinuses.
Much like the Dac Biet, this version had quite a bit more meat than what I've had from Paris Bakery. In terms of consistency, Paris scored well as the bread was crusty and yeasty, those jalapenos nice and spicy, and the pickled veggies nice and refreshing.
We came across what looked like a hotel….it turned out to be the Splendor Hotel, with a bunch of vendors selling all sorts of plants and crafts. The Missus read one of the signs and noticed that the building is called "Park Lane" and on the third floor was something called "Taichung Sixth Market". Since it was still early and Dawncake didn't open until 10 we decided to check the place out.
