Banana Bread To Die For

One of my favorite places in the world is Maui – like I could live here! Tim and I have been numerous times, but there was always one thing I wanted to do and that was to get some of the “world’s best banana bread” on West Maui.

I understand “world’s best” may be disputed – one of our servers told us the best to be had was on the Road to Hana. 🤷🏻‍♀️

And as a bonus our Thursday travel buddies Sharon and Randy are with us!

One of Tim’s favorite places is the Nakalele Blow Hole – usually not very crowded and can be very stunning. We are staying at Kaanapali Beach, so it really isn’t far. The farther north you get the landscape gets more rugged, and the road less traveled. No signage pointing “Blow Hole Here” either – you just kind of know where it is through either guide books or Google Maps. There are a couple of parking areas and walks to get down to the blow hole, or you can view it from a higher vantage point without risking a limb.

The “world’s best banana bread” is supposedly a little food truck past the blow hole. I had a guide book about 25 years ago that told you exactly where it was, but of course I didn’t bring it. We kept driving and made it to the Olivine Pools … very pretty to look at from above but beware if you want to hike down and swim – can be dangerous! We met a couple from San Diego who had also stopped at the Olivine Pools – very happy and friendly and a little older than us. They were looking for the blow hole, and I was looking for banana bread, so we happily exchanged information. Yes indeedy, they had seen the cute little food truck selling banana bread in a cute little town only about a mile from where we were. Since we had come this far of course we were going to go one more mile!

Not too much farther and the road became a little rough, and then turned into a very small one lane road along the side of a cliff – or maybe it is a mountain – but regardless there is a very steep scary drop off. So I proceed to keep going and of course I meet a truck – and there is no where to go! The truck driver backed up until he got to a place we could pass each other – very much appreciated by me! We proceeded into this small village and found a pink food truck that was selling banana bread. By this time I’m not even sure if this is the “world’s best banana bread” or not – and I did not care! We got some banana bread – yee haw!

So … we could keep going on this treacherous one lane road for another 12 miles or turn around and go back the way we came – and we chose the latter of course! I did meet a couple of cars on the one lane portion but was able to white knuckle it through.

Was it the “world’s best banana bread”? I’m not sure … I have also had some from the Old Lahaina Luau and from a food truck on the Road to Hana. The consensus from our group was that the banana bread from the Old Lahaina Luau was THE BEST – it had a cinnamon crunchy top that was just delicious.

I will say that ALL THREE of the banana breads I have eaten have been very good – but not worth dying over. And I think the couple from San Diego may have been smoking something 😜