Cooking with Farmer Bob: Hawaiian French Toast on the Isle of Maui

Hibiscus in a pond at Hotel Wailea.

Although Hotel Wailea on Maui offers a complimentary breakfast, it's pretty lackluster. Saturday morning I arrived 15 minutes before "closing" and found the remnants of cantaloupe, pineapple, poppy seed bread and bagels, along with juices and coffee. All to be piled onto teeny-tiny paper plates with plastic forks and knives. Not very tantalizing.

Since our suite has a kitchen, plus a lanai with table and chairs, we decided to do breakfast in for the remainder of our stay. So on Saturday afternoon, Farmer Bob made a run for the closest grocery store in nearby Kihei. He returned from Foodland with three bags full: breakfast fixin's, fresh fruit, fizzy water, plus ample appetizers and libations for the week.

Later that evening, after dining at Sansei in Kihei, I noticed Foodland was in the same complex. So I popped over after a delicious sushi and tempura dinner and picked up bottled still water, coconut syrup for French Toast the next morning and Hawaiian Sweet Onion Maui Chips (made in New Jersey!) for Super Bowl snacks.

A view from our lanai to the isle of Lana'i with Molokini in the foreground.

Our renovated suite had a pretty cool kitchen, including all new appliances. But when Bob went to turn on the burners of the Wolf induction stovetop, it was a no-go. The little "key" icon on the stovetop was in the locked position, and none of the burners would turn on. And how do we "unlock" it? With bacon strips lined up in one pan, and French bread awaiting the other other, we were in a techno-pickle. No wonder we love cooking with gas! 

Since there was no manual for the cooktop, I called the front desk, who sent a maintenance man right over. He was friendly but clueless about these new stovetops, and understandably so. While he went to the breaker box and flicked some switches, I decided to go to Google with my problem and typed in: "How to turn key off on Wolf induction stovetop." To my delight, the first response from fixya.com had the answer. I read the instructions aloud to Bob and the maintenance man and voila! Our cooking conundrum was solved. 

The table is set.

Our Sunday breakfast was wonderful: Hawaiian French Toast with Coconut Syrup; Bacon; Mango; Orange-Peach-Mango Juice; Kona Coffee. And for the cook, a couple of soft boiled eggs. Off to the beach we go, followed by something called the Super Bowl. Aloha!

Breakfast is served! Photos by Sue Frause.