Monday, August 2, 2010

Choice Mart Rocks

Last month our local supermarket, Choice Mart, celebrated it’s tenth anniversary.  Choice Mart is a fantastic little neighborhood market and I can’t imagine South Kona life without it.  Although not a huge market – like Times or KTA or Safeway – it has just about everything a guest could need.  If you’re arriving in Kona midday, don’t be tempted to stop at Safeway or Wallmart on the way down from the airport (Costco is the only exception because of it’s stellar cheap-wine selection and mega-portions of local fish and pre-packed sashimi plates).  Wait for Choice Mart.

Choice Mart is located in South Kona right off the highway, less than one mile south of the turnoff for Napoopo’o Road (in other words, about fifteen minutes from the Inn).  They always have local produce, including lettuces – commercial and organic, cucumbers, tomatoes (including new local-grown heirloom), potatoes, papayas, bananas, and other exotic fruit, as well as fresh fish and local grass-fed beef.  One of our guests’ consistently favorite meals is local beef and/or fish and sweet potatoes from Choice Mart, grilled simply with salt and oil out on the lanai BBQ for a sunset dinner.  Choice Mart also has wine, beer, and liquor, as well as a small natural-foods section and a deli.  They have poke – raw tuna salad with soy sauce, red pepper, sesame oil – in both the seafood section and the deli, and laulau (meat steamed in taro or ti leaves) in the deli, if you’re in the mood for some local eats.  They also usually have one or two varieties of the local beers (there are two breweries on the island, Mehana in Hilo and Kona on this side).  If you see Kona Brewery’s kona-coffee brew, try it!  Choice Mart also sometimes has tuberose leis (amazing), exotic fruit posters, sunblock, and sand buckets and tools for kids.  Here’s to little, local supermarkets.

 

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