by Leah
( Big Island)
A touch of Class
We kicked off our romantic getaway day before New Years 2011 with a stop to Hilo to the Well-acclaimed Hilo Bay Cafe, utilizing mostly local & organic products. I call it Elegance in a Strip Mall. Besides the usual barrage of Hydrogenated Refined faire available at the foodcourt, this place offers High class fresh and healthy eating at a reasonable price.
With eclectic red glass decorating and a full-service bar, this place is no less than a breath-taker. I started my meal with Freshly baked pita chips and hummus/feta/cucumber dip. My only quip with the hummus was that I did not taste a generous helping of Tahini. Without Tahini, hummus is just mashed garbanzo paste. Fresh nonetheless, and took up space in my stomach by being healthy.
The Second course I ordered was the crab cake salad. A Fancy Japanese mayonnaise inspired sauce went over the panko-crusted cakes, including a sweet, delightful sesame seed/oil dressing to go on the fresh island greens, with pleasant clippings of wanton-chip throughout. I would definitely eat this again and again.
I ended the dinner with a Hamakua Mushroom pot-pie, a vegetarians delight. The crust was true-to-form pastry, you can tell that cold butter was incorporated in the blending, resulting in a forgiving flakiness. The mushrooms were thick meaty and bold, and the pie-filling wasn't too heavy or oily. The pie had the right proportion of crispy, savory and creamy.
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