April is a special time in Hawai‘i. Marking not only the early days of spring, April is also Native Hawaiian Plant Month, celebrating the rich biocultural diversity of our over 1,400 native plant species. This auspicious month also arrives in 2025, which has been declared the Year of Our Community Forests. The mission of this year is to promote caring for the trees in our wao kanaka, the communities where we live, learn, and play.

Yet there is a renewed urgency to this year’s Native Hawaiian Plant Month. At a time when both endangered species as well as public lands housing important ecosystems are at risk of exploitation and decimation, it’s vital now more than ever that we read, learn and actively engage in conservation efforts to protect and preserve native species.

To curate our recommended reading list, we spoke with Danya Weber. A conservation biologist and local artist, Weber is also founder of Laulima, a fashion and home goods brand that’s raised more than $50,000 for more than 20 Hawai‘i nonprofits and conservation efforts.

SEE ALSO: Celebrate Hawai‘i’s Trees During the Year of Our Community Forests

Photo: Courtesy of Da Shop: Books + Curiosities

Nā Lei Makamae: The Treasured Lei

by Marie A. McDonald and Paul R. Weissich

Selected by Danya

Containing some of the most beautiful photographs I have ever seen, Nā Lei Makamae showcases a plethora of lei made from an impressive diversity of native Hawaiian plants, many of which are quite difficult to find today given perils that native species have faced over the last few centuries. Not only does this book highlight incredible ephemeral artworks made from flowers, foliage, fruits, and seeds, but it also provides botanical information about plants’ natural ranges, historical uses, and significances in mo‘olelo. Altogether, Nā Lei Makamae inspires a deep appreciation for Hawai‘i’s unique and magnificent native flora.

SEE ALSO: Fashion Designer and Lei-Maker Meleana Estes Launches A New Book

Looking for more titles on native plants and nature conservancy? Check out our bookseller recommendations:

Photo: Courtesy of Da Shop: Books + Curiosities

Lā‘au Hawai‘i: Traditional Hawaiian Uses of Plants

by Isabella Aiona Abbott

Recently reissued by Bishop Museum Press, this vital work of ethnobotany by the great Isabella Aiona Abbott is a comprehensive guide of traditional Hawaiian plants used for food, clothing, shelter, transport, religion and recreation. Abbott’s goal is intentional and admirable: by studying the ways people of old Hawai‘i cultivated and depended on lā‘au Hawai‘i (Hawaiian plants) to meet their needs, Abbott wished to glean insight into their meaningful relationship to the natural environment we collectively call home. Over 30 years past printing, and Abbott’s words continue to ring true: “There is no time to lose in protecting these plants, upon which the authentic revival of many Hawaiian cultural elements depends.”

Photo: Courtesy of Da Shop: Books + Curiosities

Plants in Hawaiian Culture

by Beatrice H. Krauss

Plants in Hawaiian Culture is a fantastic introduction to the ethnobotany of Hawai‘i, which highlights the relationship between native plants and people. In this book, Krauss pays special attention to native plants, which include endemic species found only in Hawai‘i, Indigenous plants and Polynesian-introduced plants. Complete with photos of habitat views, beautiful line drawings, and detailed descriptions, Krauss shares information on early Hawai‘i and the native plants used in food, crafts, houses, instruments, games, medicine and more.

Photo: Courtesy of Da Shop: Books + Curiosities

Under the ‘Ōhi‘a Tree

by Erzsi Palko

We could not be more excited for Erzsi Palko’s thoughtful meditations on the beautiful ‘ōhi‘a tree and the diversity of native forest species it supports and sustains. From the pueo that invites the reader into the book to the endemic forest birds that subsist off the ‘ōhi‘a tree’s sweet nectar to the kāhuli dreaming under an ‘ōhi‘a leaf, this is a dazzling and informative picture book we simply can’t put down. Complete with detailed notes about Hawai‘i’s Native Species across the Hawaiian Islands and even an informal pronunciation guide, Under the ‘Ōhi‘a Tree is a beautiful love letter to native forest species and “those who love them and act on their behalf.” Keep your eye out for this stunning picture book forthcoming from Bess Press!

Da Shop: Books + Curiosities, 3565 Harding Ave., open Wednesday through Sunday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., (808) 421-9460, dashophnl.com, @dashophnl

Editor’s note: This is part two of a five-part story from HONOLULU’s April issue exploring Honolulu’s new wave of Latin restaurants.

Peruvian Corner  |  Guaiqueri  |  La Casita |  San Paolo Pizza & Wine |  Mercado de la Raza

Launched from Spain centuries ago, empanadas crossed oceans—to Italy and North Africa, the Philippines and Indonesia. In Central and South America, where they permeate virtually every country, countless variations evolved. The big half-moons at Guaiqueri, a roving pop-up on O‘ahu, are rich and subtly flavored—exactly as Omarlys Fernandez’s grandmother made them on Isla Margarita, 25 miles off the coast of Venezuela.

Jurian Rojas and Omarlys Fernandez at Guaiqueri Empanadas. Photo: Aaron K. Yoshino

Venezuelan empanadas are corn flour empanadas, mixed sometimes with a bit of wheat flour to tamp down oil absorption in the fryer. Beyond that, Fernandez adds dashes of sugar and salt to the corn flour she buys from Venezuela. Her fillings vary from traditional to ham and cream cheese; chorizo yields soft notes of cinnamon and paprika, the minced beef a robust garlic. When the menu veers from empanadas, it’s because Jurian Rojas, her husband, has a new idea—like poke on arepa chips—which he debuts at the weekly Sunday Aloha Home Market in Waikīkī.

Fourteen years ago, the couple traded Isla Margarita for O‘ahu, drawn to its beauty, and compared to Venezuela, its comforts and safety. For 10 years, Fernandez taught Montessori school, then she put on an apron and dove full-time into making empanadas.

Photo: Aaron K. Yoshino

The hand pies let her express a duality—her roots are Guaiqueri, the Indigenous people she named her business after, and Venezuelan. They come together in Guaiqueri’s pabellón criollos, Venezuela’s national dish of stewed beef, black beans and plantains wrapped in an empanada. The crispy-chewy crust hints at a fleeting sweetness—her grandmother’s pinch of sugar—then it’s gone like a ripple.

(808) 292-7666, guaiqueriempanadas.com, @guaiqueri_empanadas

Editor’s note: This is part three of a five-part story from HONOLULU’s April issue exploring Honolulu’s new wave of Latin restaurants.

Peruvian Corner  |  Guaiqueri  |  La Casita |  San Paolo Pizza & Wine |  Mercado de la Raza

Photo: Courtney Mau

Tucked between Arby’s and Elena’s Home of Finest Filipino Foods, La Casita is O‘ahu’s best gateway to Central America. The menu is an abbreviated tour of a region whose seven countries cram an isthmus of 1,140 miles, about the distance from Seattle to Los Angeles. Pupusas headline the menu, El Salvador’s griddle-cooked cornmeal cakes filled with permutations of pork, beans and cheese. Also from El Salvador are yuca con chicharron, chunks of deep-fried pork shoulder piled on thick-cut cassava fries with a side of sauerkrautlike curtido, while the baleadas—whisper-thin flour tortillas folded around beans, cheese and sour cream—are Honduran. The tacos, taquitos and quesadillas are Mexican.

“What about the pescado frito whole fried fish?” I ask. “Where’s that from?”

“Many countries,” chef Gladys Najera says with a shrug. Najera is from Honduras; her grandfather was Salvadoran. She cooked in Latin kitchens across the United States before arriving in Waipahu, where she and daughter Yosselyn de Abreu launched their pupuseria in 2019. “This food is from around Central America. If you’re from Guatemala, you eat similar. If you’re from Honduras, you eat similar,” she says. “We have the same language, same culture. We use the same seasonings. We’re very close in the way we live.”

SEE ALSO: Pupusas, Pastelitos And Other Salvadoran Eats Are in Waipahu

The same-same-but-different effect shows in La Casita’s tamales. “In most countries, they’re similar, but some places make it with pork, vegetables,” Najera says. “Some people put olives, green peppers, even peas, because it’s to enjoy at home.”

She boils her tamales Salvadoreños twice—first just the masa, then, wrapped in banana leaves and foil, masa with fillings inside. The steaming cornmeal comes out improbably fluffy and the potatoes, tucked inside with shredded chicken and rice tinged with salsa, take up the flavors and melt like a hug on the palate.

94-866 Moloalo St., D-11A, Waipahu, (808) 676-6987, @lacasitahawaii 

Editor’s note: This is part four of a five-part story from HONOLULU’s April issue exploring Honolulu’s new wave of Latin restaurants.

Peruvian Corner  |  Guaiqueri  |  La Casita |  San Paolo Pizza & Wine |  Mercado de la Raza

Portuguese pizza. Photo: Courtesy of San Paolo Pizza & Wine

“I’m all in,”Andre Alves de Moraes says. “If I’m not gonna do it the right way, it’s not worth doing at all.” He’s at San Paolo Pizza & Wine, the 170-seat restaurant he and two partners opened last year where Ala Moana Boulevard curves toward Waikīkī. San Paolo sells Brazilian-style pizzas, a thriving remnant of Italian immigration to South America in the early 20th century. Convincing diners about pizza’s place in Brazilian cuisine is easy because people understand the melding of tradition with local ingredients. Convincing them that they should pay $50 for his pizza is different.

San Paolo pizzas are craft pies unlike any we know. Alves de Moraes, who launched O‘ahu’s three Tropical Tribe açaí cafés, is from (did you guess?) São Paolo. To a large degree, so are the pizzas: The forno oven, one of two chefs, and ingredients like soft catupiry cheese and smoky Calabresa sausages are from Brazil. Much of the rest is from Italy, including the other chef (who Alves de Moraes says placed third in a global Neapolitan pizza competition), pizza flour, pepperoni and specialty cheeses.

The dough, left to rest for two to three days, produces a light, chewy crust whose edges balloon with crispy air pockets. It’s excellent—all in, with live Brazilian music on weekends, double-stitched faux leather place mats, and water served in stemware driving home the point that pizza can be upscale.

There are 27 pizzas now, large, loaded and big enough for two: traditional Italian pies, others with filet mignon or truffle cream, and a Portuguese pizza with ham and eggs and olives. For $40, you can try mini slices of all 27.

“It’s always hard when you’re the first one to do something. I want to break the barrier of what people think of pizza,” Alves de Moraes says. “Ours take days to make—we import high-quality ingredients, use long fermentation and prep handcrafted meats and sauces. Pizza can be just as elevated, just as complex in flavors and prep, as any other kind of food.”

Honolulu’s Latin foodscape has long belonged to its Mexican restaurants, reliable go-tos for burritos, fajitas and free-flowing margaritas. Change here was inevitable—craft taquerias started proliferating more than a decade ago, followed lately by regional Mexican food specialists.

Throughout, an even bigger sea change has gone largely unnoticed: Roughly two dozen South and Central American eateries have set up around O‘ahu, the vast majority without fixed storefronts. From food trucks, trailers and farmers markets, they’re serving up Peruvian ceviches, Colombian cookies and all kinds of empanadas.

The reason? Latinos are the fastest-growing ethnic group in Hawai‘i—comprising 11% of the population in 2022, according to the U.S. Census Bureau—so it’s natural their food cultures would follow. “Before, everyone was from Mexico,” says Sandy Tsukiyama, a Spanish-language interpreter who hosts The Brazilian Experience on KHPR. “Now they’re from Honduras, El Salvador, Venezuela and Colombia, and some are from Nicaragua.”

It’s not just a growing population. Peruvian cuisine has been trending globally—three of the 2024 World’s 50 Best Restaurants are in Lima (and just one in New York City)—arguably one reason this is the most popular of Honolulu’s new Latin offerings. Here’s a look at players in the nuevo mundo Latino.

Peruvian Corner  |  Guaiqueri  |  La Casita |  San Paolo Pizza & Wine |  Mercado de la Raza

Dishes at Peruvian Corner, clockwise from top left: lomo saltado, aji de gallina, purple corn, flaming scallops, ceviche. Photo: Oliver Koning

There’s a wonderland quality to Peruvian Corner, as if fairies touched this cocoon of a space in the backyard of The Smoking Boar and the Coconut in Waialua. A smiley face sun beams from a mural and fresh flowers adorn white picnic tables under matching red umbrellas—the same colors that decorate Miguel and Fanny Torres’ food trailer. Lomo saltado, aji de gallina chicken stew, salchipapa sausage-topped fries, Cheesecake Lilicoy: The hands that make and serve these dishes are the ones that painted the tables and set out the flowers. If you eat in, real plates appear—my yuca fries arrive on a sheen of black glass.

Miguel and Fanny Torres, center, with their children. Photo: Oliver Koning

“My husband, I love my husband’s food,” co-owner Fanny Torres says. The ceviche clasico, a simplicity of hamachi under red onion shavings, is perfect in its fresh tang and heat. More mysterious is the other ceviche: mixed fish set off by tobiko and jewel-like cuts of yam. Before he found a job in the U.S. secure enough to bring Fanny and their two children, Miguel Torres cooked in trendy Peruvian Nikkei restaurants around South America. He’s working his way back up.

Photos: Oliver Koning

I ask to snap a photo. Next to her husband, Fanny beams and lifts her chin with pride. She shows me a phrase she’s typed into a translator app on her phone: “Nosotros pensamos más adelante tener un restaurante o espacio major,” it reads. “We plan to have a restaurant or a better space in the future.” Secretly, I hope they’ll stay awhile in this happy corner.

67-456 Goodale Ave., Waialua, (808) 367-7669, @peruviancornerhawaii

Editor’s note: This is part five of a five-part story from HONOLULU’s April issue exploring Honolulu’s new wave of Latin restaurants.

Peruvian Corner  |  Guaiqueri  |  La Casita |  San Paolo Pizza & Wine |  Mercado de la Raza

Things you’ll find at Mercado de la Raza:

• $1 bottles of Tajín 
• Paçoquitas Brazilian peanut candy 
• Colombiana La Nuestra sodas 
• Piñatas 
• Prayer candles 
• Vitacilina ointment 

Mercado de la Raza is where you go when a recipe calls for fresh nopales, gandules or Colombian sour cream. If you are Latino, it’s a nexus. Martha Sanchez Romero opened the Makiki store in 1995 and estimated that 90% of her customers were local. Two years ago, Megahn Chun and her husband, Alex Villarino, bought it; now two-thirds of customers are Latino. 

Megahn Chun and Alex Villarino at Mercado de la Raza. Photo: Olivier Koning

“We have a lot of Latinos who come in, maybe they just moved here, maybe they’re just searching for their own people. So a lot of what we do is referral. Sometimes it’s ‘Do you know somebody that has a truck’ or ‘Do you know a lawyer?’” Chun says. “Part of our mission is to empower local Latino entrepreneurs to have the tools that they need.” 

Chun, from Kaimukī, had worked in fashion and marketing. Villarino, from Mexico, is a principal in a management consultancy with Fortune 500 clients. Chun brushed up on Spanish after meeting Villarino in New York; since then, with the store and a toddler son to teach about Latino culture, she’s made herself fluent. Neither had run a store, but the couple jumped into the center of a fractured and growing Latin scene. Mercado’s Instagram shouts out other Latino businesses; in-store events connect vendors with customers.

Here’s what else you’ll find, all of it made on O‘ahu: 

• Argentinian empanadas by Tango Empanadas
• Aloha Alfajores’ Colombian dulce de leche cookies 
• Raíz heirloom corn tortillas 
• Conchas sweet breads from Sabor a la Mexicana 

“It goes beyond the food and ingredients; it’s about the community. The value of a small business like us is you don’t need to prove that you’re gonna order $500,000 of a product. You can say, ‘Hey, I’m really trying to do this thing, can you help me?’ And we’ll be like, ‘Yeah, we’ll bring in a case of this and keep it for you,’” Villarino says. “That’s why this place is such an anchor of the community. It’s much more than just a store.” 

1315 S. Beretania St., (808) 593-2226, @mercadodelaraza

Photos: Sam Feyen

Just as one’s style evolves over time, so too do designers’ influences. Such is the case with Yuko Palazzo, whom you may know for her boho resortwear line, Marina & Co., which hit shelves in 2018.

Since then, the Diamond Head-based designer has found herself drawn more and more to sustainable practices. “I realized that fashion is not only an art form, but also a means to give back to the earth,” Palazzo says.

SEE ALSO: Ease Into Small-Batch Fashions at Kepola Design House

Photos: Sam Feyen

Thus, in 2021, she launched Sage Imber, her new womenswear label crafted with natural fabrics, eco-friendly dyes and traditional dyeing techniques that reduce chemical waste. Aesthetically, the line leans more minimal-modern. Its latest collection, Symbol, is inspired by our relationship with nature. Slip on a rose-hued day dress or fern-colored linen blazer, or channel wabi-sabi vibes in a checked hemp jumper or an abstract-print kimono top.

sageimber.com, @sageimber.thelabel

At the end of Hilu Street in Waimānalo, Hui Mahi‘ai ‘Āina’s residents welcome us to a vast green space behind Aunty Blanche McMillan’s home. She zooms over on a golf cart, greeting those she hasn’t seen since returning from New Zealand, where she taught people how to implement concepts of kauhale, or communities of tiny homes, to house the homeless.

Everyone is happy to see her, though she jokes that some work didn’t get done without her.

Photo: James Nakamura

McMillan grew up in a family of 17. The Hui Mahi‘ai ‘Āina residences sit on her great-great-tūtū’s land, unused for years before 2020. When pandemic rules prohibited access to the beach, her heart sank for the homeless folks nearby. “I asked God, ‘What can I do to bring people home?’” she says.

She started Hui Mahi‘ai ‘Āina in 2014 as a food bank, having spent 15 years as a program coordinator for the Catholic Church. It soon expanded into an outreach program offering other services. The next logical thing was to make sure those who needed it had a roof over their head.

McMillan gathered 14 people who were previously living on the beach. They just needed to be loved, she says, to get back on their feet. In fact, love is at the heart of everything she does, and you can tell it’s genuine. “God is my boss,” she says, adding that this is what she was called to do.

With donations, she got materials and had everyone build their own homes. In just a month, 11 structures and the beginnings of a community farm were constructed. Now, five years later, 82 people live here, including families, older adults, and those with advanced illnesses. Adult residents pay $200 a month as “program fees”; for each kid, it’s $50 more.

Photos: James Nakamura

Everyone in the community works together like a family, cooking dinner, cleaning and taking care of the land. Residents also help at monthly food distributions at a nearby gymnasium. Right now, the garden has ti (for lei and lau lau), ginger, avocado, lychee, kalo, mountain apple, banana, papaya, aloe, sweet potato, ‘ulu, eggplant, mango, guava, citrus and more. When residents tend the garden, they get to thinking they can grow and flourish just like the plants, McMillan says.

These are “beautiful, important people” who fell on hard times or went down the wrong path and ended up on the street, McMillan says. At Hui Mahi‘ai ‘Āina, drugs are not tolerated, and church every Sunday is mandatory. Some residents come through the kauhale for transitional housing, but there’s no pressure to leave.

Photos: James Nakamura

To act fast, McMillan didn’t obtain proper approval from the state Department of Land and Natural Resources before building. Turns out the housing lies in a flood zone. She’s now working with the state and aio Foundation (which has experience with developing housing at Kahauiki Village near Sand Island) to secure a lease for a nearby parcel. There, 58 units with shared kitchens and bathrooms will be constructed on land that’s at a slightly higher elevation.

Until now, the kauhale ran off a generator and a water line from McMillan’s property, with portable toilets available for use. The new space will be linked to sewage and electrical lines and will include a large hall, kitchen, bathrooms and area for medical care. Everything the community has is by donation—no government funds are used.

McMillan hopes the homes at the new space will be ready by the end of the year; she already has more than 100 people on the waitlist. Originally, McMillan says she wanted to help house 300 people. Now, she’s aiming for thousands.

Aunty Blanche McMillan, right, and her daughter, Wayleen McMillan, at the new housing site. Photo: James Nakamura

Classes will also be offered to help residents get their GEDs. The area where the existing homes are now will be used for agriculture, and the structures will be donated to homeless communities on Maui and Moloka‘i and in Hilo and Wai‘anae.

“The department is in full support of this project. Under the collaboration with aio Foundation, DLNR was reassured that our concerns were addressed. More importantly, when I visited Aunty Blanche’s Hui Mahi‘ai ‘Āina in Waimānalo, I was moved by the sense of community the residents felt for each other, for the place and for themselves,” DLNR Chair Dawn Chang said in a news release last October.

Photo: James Nakamura

Recently, McMillan served as an adviser to former director of the Statewide Office of Homelessness and Housing Solutions, John Mizuno, who is now a special adviser on homelessness. McMillan is grateful to have the state on her side and plans to tell the Legislature, in no uncertain terms, that there is a solution to homelessness. “If only people could love people, they would never live a miserable life,”she says.

huimahiaiaina.org

* * *

Proceeds from this month’s Hawai‘i Pacific Health and ESPN Honolulu Open pickleball tournament presented by HMSA will go to Hui Mahi‘ai ‘Āina. The aio Foundation is the nonprofit arm of HONOLULU’s parent company, aio, which is also the event producer of the Honolulu Open.

Textured like smooth lava, thick and caramelly, the star of Niu Soft Serve’s hot kūlolo sundae pools around a creamy swirl like a warm, luxuriant lagoon. It’s a boon and a bane. ‘Aiku‘e and Kekahu Napoleon​-​Ahn, brothers who co-founded the tiny vegan dessert shop in Mō‘ili‘ili, wanted a signature item that would speak to their Hawaiian heritage and draw locals to their coconut-based swirls. They debuted their kūlolo creation in 2021, never dreaming that the several dozen pounds of kalo they went through in a month would turn into several hundred pounds. Warm and cold, chewy and crunchy (from toasted macadamia nuts), hot kūlolo sundaes are by far Niu’s top seller.

Photo: James Nakamura

Why a bane? The glistening sauce of kalo, coconut milk, brown sugar and salt takes 24 hours to cook. Both brothers and their parents take turns nursing fresh batches four to six days a week.

“I have customers tell me, ‘I’ve been coming here for two years and I’ve been thinking of trying something else, but every time I have to get a kūlolo sundae,’” says ‘Aiku‘e Napoleon-Ahn. “We are an ice cream shop, first and foremost, but I swear we spend more time making kūlolo than anything else.”

2320 S. King St., niusoftserve.com, @niusoftserve