We flew to Hawaii on Alaska Airlines and we noted last time that they offer a Vegan/Vegetarian Pack which is pretty good and includes these yummy olives, hummus pack, corn chips, dark chocolate piece in a 100% recycled cardboard box pack. For a short flight this works well and costs $6 paid by CC (no cash). NOTE: Alaska Airlines does separate waste in flight for recycling and I found out they gathered enough last year for 3 more jets or plenty of upgrades which they appear to be always doing – so that’s kinda cool and a two thumbs up for their initiatives in this area.
Ruffage Natural Foods in Waikiki area offers good options for Vegans/Vegetarians – here is the Acai Banana Bowl we had for breakfast with Acai, Blueberries, Banana and Granola – we took out the honey but that is usually on this item. Cost $6.99 for small (picture shows the small) and $8.99 for large and could share.
Pictured above is the Super Antioxidant Smoothy which was Banana, Papaya, Acai, Goji, Pomegranate, Noni and Mangosteen. It’s pretty good. We also had the Organic Peanut Butter with Banana Smoothy which is excellent for a good protein starter of the day. Cost $5.99 and could share.
Tofu Scrambler with Toast from Ruffage which had Earth Balance Butter. Note the toast is nothing special no grains just a plain brown bread but it did the trick and we don’t eat much bread so that was different and wished they offered better bread but hey travel as Vegan is often an interesting challenge. Cost $8.99 and could share.
Ruffage sells the Kombucha Drinks with a good selection – I tried this one for the first time the Grape and Chia Kombucha – its AWESOME!
Ruffage Natural Foods offers what the Vegan / Vegetarian traveler wants. You can expect the food to be pretty good for the most part however the customer service experience is lacking from the owner and her staff. Don’t expect a big smile and warm welcome with conversation. To be honest we have been there enough to know that we only only certain items and have low expectations from a customer service experience. They offer a health food store style with vitamins and bags of nuts, chips, assortment of drinks, chocolates, etc. This not exclusive Vegan so know that animal products are on the menu which could pose a challenge to some.
I recommend the Smoothies, The Tofu Scramble, The Veggie Burrito and that’s about it.
All in all Hawaii can be difficult if you want more than fruit and basic salads for Vegan travelers so you do have to make some efforts to look around and ask questions (the shops offering smoothies or acai bowls are made with yogurts so DO ASK QUESTIONS) or go to the supermarket which we do and get some items that suit you. Restaurants are big on seafood and meats. Perhaps changes are slowly coming so look for it, ask for it and give feedback for it.
We didn’t starve nor did we spend alot of cash on food. We were wanting to eat well on a budget and we did with some effort and work it was all good and of course mainly we were there for beach sun fun and the food was secondary but still important.
Always have fun and make the experience a good one.
All photos by Suzanne expect for the image below which is a postcard I found.
So You Want To Be A Vegan 