A Delicious Day

Today we did the one main thing I wanted to do before we started school...we went to visit the Hawaiian Vanilla Company which is about 45 minutes north of Hilo.

HAWAIIAN VANILLA COMPANY IN PAAUILO

We took in their Hawaiian Vanilla Experience Luncheon. It started with a yummy vanilla lemonade or tea (I had the lemonade, Chris had the tea). Although I honestly didn't really notice the vanilla, the sweet, cool lemonade was still amazing.

I got the signature meal:


Orange-vanilla marinated breast and carmelized onions atop herb focaccia bread, with our vanilla-mango chutney aioli, way southwest roasted red potatoes, farm fresh organic greens with our best selling vanilla-balsamic vinaigrette, crumbled feta and vanilla-honey-peppered pecans. (Taken from the website)








Chris got vanilla-barbecued grass-fed beef ribs with a potato salad as well as the same organic greens with the vanilla-balsamic vinaigrette.










I think I lucked out and got the better meal. Although Chris' ribs tasted spectacular and I really liked the potato salad. (I wish I could do a blind test on food so I could tell if I like things more because someone tells me they are "locally grown," "organic," or "grass-fed," or because they really do taste better. But I'll tell you that I certainly thought the meat for Chris' ribs were just fresher tasting somehow.) We both loved the salad with the dressing. My sandwich was so moist and flavorful and the chutney-aioli was just a great accompaniment. All together it just was the perfect bite of flavor. Yum!

For dessert we had vanilla ice cream (of course!) with a topping of our choice: Vanilla-fudge, vanilla-toffee, or vanilla-lilikoi curd. I got the fudge which was really good, especially considering that I don't like fudge normally. And Chris being the lilikoi lover that he is obviously choice the curd and was rhapsodizing about it (and ended up buying a jar of that too!).

We learned about how to make vanilla extract. Apparently all it takes is a vanilla bean and a bit of alcohol! Then you just let it sit and flavor the alcohol for a bit (At least 2-3 months, but better after a few years).

Artificial vanilla - did you know that vanilla is one of the only flavors that scientists have been unable to reproduce chemically? It has so many different compounds they just can't figure it out. And some of the stories they told us about the artificial stuff makes me nervous (Liver cancer?!).

Then we got a tour of where they grow the vanilla and learned all about how to grow it! Vanilla grows on a vine and is an orchid - which I totally did not know.

VANILLA VINE (Hard to see but this one has pods)

The reason why vanilla is so expensive is because they are like American turkeys...evolved to the point where they can't exist without some human help in the reproductive process. The family that grows the vanilla has to hand pollinate at least 500 orchids which have a flowering window of only 3-4 hours! From seed to cured vanilla it takes at least 5 years!

SPEAKING OF TURKEYS - ONE SHOWED UP ON TOUR! :)

At the end of the tour we bought a few of the culinary items in the gift shop like the salad dressing and the lilikoi curd. All in all the tour was a really great way to spend a few hours. The food was awesome and I really enjoyed learning about growing vanilla. I can't wait until we get some visitors so I can eat there again :)