Sea House Restaurant, Maui

Sea House Restaurant (Napili Bay, HI, USA)
Website: seahousemaui.com
Last Visited: March 2012

Kai could be one of the first Hawaiian words you learn on a visit to Maui.  Ocean.  Locals giving you directions might say makai (towards the sea) or mauka (inland).  On a menu, kai means fresh catch.  When you're eating at a West Maui restaurant, the fish on your plate was probably unloaded mere hours ago at the Lahaina wharf.  If you're really lucky, that restaurant is Sea House Restaurant at the Napili Kai Beach Resort.

My dishes of choice:
Kai Trio of scallops, shrimp and mahimahi
Mango Berry Cobbler

Sea House's Kai Trio (photo taken mid-course)

Seared sea scallops, sugarcane-skewered shrimp and fire-grilled mahimahi were the centerpieces of the Kai Trio.  The sugarcane was a thoughtful local touch--its sweetness permeated the grilled shrimp.  The mild, meaty mahimahi picked up the smokiness of the grill.   The scallops were beautifully caramelized and tender.  But the big surprise was the purple sweet potato ravioli on the side.  The deep colour of Hawaiian sweet potatoes is deliciously exotic to me: sweet potatoes are orange where I come from.  Picture a delicately thin pasta surrounding a plump sweet filling topped with a smooth lemon cream.  I bet you're not thinking about fish anymore!   A bed of lightly-wilted spinach gave a freshness and acidity to this generous plate of seafood.

Kai was the theme of my dinner at Sea House.  I dined on seafood, seated outside on a small patio overlooking Napili Bay.   Many diners opted to eat inside because the evening was a bit damp and breezy.  Happily, my boyfriend and I ended up sharing the patio with just two other tables of guests.  The expanse of golden sand and aquamarine water at sunset was well worth the jacket I had to wear to ward off the chill.  Despite the inclement weather our servers came out frequently to check on us and to chat between courses.  This was a testament not only to the quality of service at Sea House, but also to the spirit of Aloha we encountered all over Maui. 

Mango Berry Cobbler

 For dessert I chose a cobbler that highlighted local produce.   The mangoes, strawberries and raspberries were all grown on Maui.  We had driven around the farms of Kula a couple of days before, and Sea House deftly delivered those farms back to us on a spoon.  Topped with a lightly-spiced crumbly crust, served with ice cream and two kinds of coulis, this cobbler was built for two.  The Tahitian vanilla ice cream was intended to be an exotic touch, I guess.  But I would have loved to see a macadamia nut ice cream, which is so plentiful all over Maui, to pack more local flavours into the dish.

If you're like me you might have some reservations about resort restaurants.  They sometimes bring to mind an aura of convenience and clubbiness that does not appeal to me.  During our stay in Maui we visited another resort restaurant in the Lahaina area which failed to live up to its reputation.  (Since my goal is to promote great food and great chefs, that restaurant won't be named here.)  Sea House Restaurant put all those reservations right out of my mind.  Partly, it is the fact that the restaurant is set apart from the main resort so that a stroll through the grounds is not required to access it.  Partly, we were lucky to have a secluded table away from the loud chatter inside the restaurant.
  
A TASTE OF HAWAII AT HOME: In the days following this dinner purple sweet potatoes became part of our repertoire in our Maui condo.  We oven-baked them topped with butter and brown sugar, with some fresh green onions thrown in just before serving.  For a Canadian twist, you can use orange sweet potatoes with maple syrup instead of brown sugar. Another staple Hawaiian food we adopted was poke (pronounced po-kay): a simple mix of fresh Ahi tuna, oyster sauce, soy sauce, wasabi, sweet and green onions.  The mix can be eaten raw after marinating for a few minutes or quickly pan-seared.  Isn't it great how the green onions tie the two dishes together?  If you can't find fresh Ahi, you can replace it with steak and still experience poke.  Just don't tell your Hawaiian friends.