Keto Hawaiian Style....

     While we're in Hawaii, we try to frequent several excellent restaurants. My favorite is behind our house on Po'Kai Bay called The Beach House. It has beautiful sweeping Bay views and a menu filled with savory main course meals, appetizers along with fresh salads that are Keto friendly. While the presentation is lovely, the dining is casual, so the diners are comfortable in casual attire. Local bands perform live music on weekends, usually playing Hawaiian favorites and songs from the sixties and seventies. We're comfortable having wine with our meals because we only need to walk less than half a block home rather than drive. However, we don't often go because, as you might imagine, it's pricy. Last year our son took us to a Korean BBQ that we thoroughly enjoyed. For a moderate price per person, they provide "all you can eat" meats that we barbequed over a cooking apparatus in the center of the table. My only disappointment was that they didn't offer any delicious Korean soups that I enjoy, but I survived. We also like to go to a dim sum restaurant located downtown in Chinatown called Mei Sum Dim Sum.  I can eat several menu choices but avoid those wrapped in carbs. Sometimes, I simply remove the covering and eat the insides. There is a Pho restaurant in Kapolei that serves terrific chicken curry, but Steve is unhappy with it because he thinks it uses flavor enhancers that cause him to feel bad, so we rarely eat there. I've also mentioned that we like to eat at Spinners, a café located at the marina down the street from us. It is very nice for breakfast, but most menu items are carb-loaded, so it is a big treat for everyone but me. However, I can order the various available proteins and always enjoy my meals there. Mostly, though, we enjoy our meals at home. To begin with, we have a fabulous view of the mountains from our lanai. They are part of the Waianae Kai Forest and Mokulaie Forest Reserves.  These two mountains differ tremendously, as one is part of a desert-like climate and the other, a rainforest. We sit at our outdoor dining table, enjoying the gentle breezes blowing off the mountains while eating homecooked meals that, of course, are keto-friendly. I'm thinking about creating recipes similar to those popular on the islands, excluding poke. Steve loves poke and can walk next door to the store to buy it fresh anytime he wishes. I'm not interested in raw fish, and never will be, but I'm thinking of trying to make lomi salmon just to see how it works out. I'm also going to try a few Hawaiian recipes where pork is center stage. While pork is not a meat that I commonly use, I'm going to try a few things with it. The first one I intend to try is laulau, pork wrapped inside leaves and slow-cooked. Then, we'll try kalua pig. Sounds awful, right? But I understand that it's another Island favorite. Finally, we'll try to make a carb-friendly loco moco. That means I've got to figure out how to create brown gravy and a good substitute for rice. I'm really looking forward to getting some of these items going. I'll let you know how it works out!