A Little Cheese, A Crusty Baguette … on Maui?

What to do when you have nothing in the fridge, are windblown and chapped and thoroughly un-presentable for a meal out, out of food at home, and hungry at 4pm?

In our house, we cry. Because what we both crave at these times is a little picnic à la française. Cheese, wine, fruit, et baguette. The first items can be found on Maui. The last? Not easily. Our fresh air turns out to be bad for bread: not enough fungus, mold, bacteria, dirt. The crust just doesn’t CRUST.

James and I found ourselves in this exact situation not too long ago: pleasantly tired after a day out in the sun, sandy and dusty and windblown, and not-quite-hungry-yet-but-knowing-we-would-be-soon, and out of food at home.

Oh là là là là! 

It was also Bastille Day — and we had forgotten!! That settled it. We must have cheese, and the bottle of rosé in the chiller — or we could open Veuve Cliquot we’d been given a few months ago. The bread we would forgo. Crackers would have to do.

A quick u-turn brought us back to Wailea Gateway, where we stopped at Guava Gouda & Caviar (formerly located in Kihei and called Who Cut the Cheese?) to pick up our something stinky. There were several just-ripened-and-just-overly-ripened cheeses, and we took a little of each (plus a bunch of free samples — of course — just to help us decide). We found some country pate that was quite lovely. Oh, fine, a tiny bottle of St. Germain, too — a dollop of the elderflower liqueur in a glass of champagne is delish.

And — heavens! They offered a par-baked demi-baguette to bring home and bake off. It was lovely to look at, had a pleasant heft, and a sniff was promising. I smelled yeast!

The baguette, brought in from Tribeca Ovens in New Jersey, turned out to be just crusty enough for our otherwise delicate meal. No, the irony does not escape me: I paid $2.50 for a loaf of bread that started baking in NJ and had to take a plane to get to my plate. But it was a lovely Bastille Day surprise. If you’re in South Maui and crave a little cheese and bread, stop at Guava, Gouda & Caviar and pick some up.

They also have wine tastings most nights after 5pm — well worth stopping in. No reservations required, and you taste 20-30 wines.

For more Maui food recommendations and over a hundred actual, real, independent restaurant reviews of Maui restaurants, pick up a copy of our book now: Top Maui Restaurants. Don’t forget to register the book to get updates!

Guava, Gouda & Caviar

Wailea Gateway Center, 808-874-3930, M-Sat: 9a-8p, Sun: 10a-6p