Garden Fresh, Asian-Style Cuisine with a Masterful Touch

By Fern Gavelek

The enticing aroma of kaffir lime and ginger wafts through the entrance to Lotus Café and floats in the air like the expanse of silk that drapes from the ceiling. Water trickles down a lava-like fountain and beckons diners with a feeling of peace and tranquility.

Once inside, you wouldn’t know you are in a converted warehouse within view of Kona’s Costco.

An ornate gong, like those traditionally used in Indonesian homes to announce the arrival of guests, sits along one wall. It is truly symbolic of the effort, sincerity and hospitality owners Howie and Ladda Simon put into their restaurant—their home away from home, often 12 hours a day, six days a week.

The Simons’ business philosophy is to prepare and serve customers with the same attention to detail and congeniality they offers guests at home. That means preparing food from scratch and using the finest ingredients “to create healthy, nutritious food that tastes good.”

And the Simons do it while faithfully using mostly local and organic ingredients, many from their own garden, cooked with 100-percent solar power. No dish is cooked in bulk or prepared in advance. Ladda fashions every order individually and her masterful creations are the same meals the couple enjoys at home with their two sons.

“I cook from the heart, the foods that we love to eat,” shares Ladda, who is the restaurant’s culinary guru. Billed as “Hawai‘i’s only Asian-Style Natural Foods Café,” Lotus Café focuses on the dishes of Thailand, Indonesia, Burma and India.

For example there’s the Teram Balado, which hints of Sumatra (one of the 10,000 islands of Indonesia), composed of organic eggplant in a spicy ginger tomato sauce. Ever so delicious is the Ginger Lilikoi Mahimahi that features grilled island fish served with purple Molokai sweet potatoes in a sweet coconut-cinnamon sauce.

The large lunch and dinner menu contains satés; summer rolls; savory soups; fresh cold salads; a host of vegetarian, chicken and seafood entrees; and curries using just-picked and hand-roasted, ground herbs and spices.

“Ladda has a good palate to mix flavors,” claims Howie, who does double duty waiting on tables and growing the café’s veggies, herbs and fruit. “All her sauces are simple blends of complementary ingredients, but it’s not easy to do what she does.”

The couple’s sprawling garden is at their home above Kona Vistas. Imagine looking out the window to see a canopy laden with mango, tangelos, passionfruit, lemons and limes—plus four varieties of sugar cane, each standing sentinel over the numerous cultivars of eggplant. There are also string beans, pumpkins and peppers.

“We grow three varieties of Thai eggplant because the Thai types don’t have the bitter skins,” notes Howie, who obtains seeds from eggplant grown in Thailand, Laos and China. “You can eat some Thai eggplant raw, like an apple, they are so good.”

In addition, the Simons farm a wealth of herbs to concoct Ladda’s unique and authentic sauces and curries. Utilizing the just-picked herbs—which include lemongrass, cilantro, turmeric, ginger and three varieties of Thai basil—Ladda whets the appetite with a cornucopia of fragrant and full-bodied flavors.

“Most restaurants decide first what to offer and then search for food sources,” details Howie. “That can be frustrating, so we do the opposite, looking at what grows well for us and then formulating a menu around those ingredients.”

Opened in 2007, The Lotus Café is the result of enterprising entrepreneurship.

The idea for the restaurant came unexpectedly, while Howie was working at his Koloko furniture store, Island Lifestyle. He saw the flow of eager eaters frequenting Costco and figured it was time to open a nearby restaurant with “high quality food” in Island Lifestyle’s existing warehouse space.

According to the Simons, their restaurant—from the décor to food—is the result of their travels and personal backgrounds. For Ladda, that’s growing up in Northern Thailand and eating the foods of her homeland. Howie, on the other hand, hails from Brooklyn and has a penchant for Italian-spiced food. He also has a background in natural and organic foods that includes an apprenticeship in bio-dynamic farming.

The couple met more than 20 years ago in Thailand, when Howie was on a buying trip to purchase silk. After becoming friends, he hired Ladda to do quality control for his importing business in Hawai‘i. They later married and made Kona their home.

Ladda describes her cooking style as “Thai village,” pointing out that it’s not the “Americanized version of Thai food.” True to the tenets of Thai cooking, Ladda believes that food should have “the proper balance of flavors” to taste all its nuances. “You should be able to taste sweet, salty, sour, bitter and hot in a dish,” when it’s properly prepared.

“I have to give Ladda credit as she’s open to eating and using non-traditional ingredients in Thai food,” adds Howie. “Her interest in making food more nutritional and healthy also benefits our customers.”

The couple employs a selective scrutiny for all the café’s ingredients—whether it’s purchasing organic chicken or traveling annually to Indonesia to make their own fried shallot and garlic garnish. In fact, Howie says Lotus is the only restaurant in the state he knows of to use palm sugar. Imported in a powdery form or in blocks shaped like the bamboo it’s dried in, palm sugar is ubiquitous to Thai and Asian cuisine. It offers a rich and more complex sweetness to the restaurant’s many dishes, desserts and refreshing drinks. Harvested from the sugar palm, it has flavor akin to maple syrup and a beneficially low glycemic index.

“Using palm sugar and our carefully harvested ingredients definitely makes our flavors stand apart from other restaurants,” details Howie.

The Lotus Café boasts numerous standout menu items, starting with beverages like the Fresh Naked Sugar Cane Juice, pressed from their own organic sugarcane. There’s also fresh gelato and sorbets made on site from fresh fruits, organic soy and coconut milk.

“Organic coconut milk is the only canned food we use in the restaurant,” divulges Howie. “We have too much fun making our sauces from our fresh herbs to ever used bottled curry pastes and sauces.”

For many cooks, the secret is in the sauce, and Ladda prepares a whopping 17 different sauces at Lotus Café. One is Red Ginger Sauce, tomato-based with coconut milk. Howie describes it as “Thaitalian—a marrying of her Thai and my Jewish-Italian tastes.”

Another unique offering is the Lemongrass Lime Sauce, starring the couple’s freshly-cut and tender lemongrass, which yields a better flavor than woody, mature lemongrass.

“Our 11-Spice Indian curry comes from the southwest coast of India, Malabar,” shares Howie. “We took an Indian recipe and we cook it Thai style.” He explains the Indian influences are the use of cardamom, cinnamon, ginger and star anise. “The way Ladda blends them with veggies results in a special curry that isn’t available elsewhere on the island.”

The “way” Ladda does things is so special it’s taught during Saturday cooking classes. For a $65 fee, students learn the principles of healthy Thai cooking and are introduced to the 15 main ingredients used. Ladda also shares her methods of cooking—she mostly grills, steams or lightly sautés all her dishes. Nothing is deep-fried.

In class, Ladda stresses the importance of preserving the flavor of ingredients while avoiding the use of preservatives and artificial coloring. She tells students she never uses MSG or genetically modified foods. Participants prepare a complete meal from pupu to dessert and enjoy it there in the convivial setting.

“We also give students tips on growing and sourcing ingredients, and we just started selling palm sugar and some other specialty items,” notes Howie. He says the idea is to get students thinking “Thai style.” Then they can cook authentically—just like Ladda. ❖

Located at 73-5617 Maiau St., The Lotus Café is open Monday-Saturday with lunch available 10 a.m.-4 p.m. and dinner from 4-9 p.m. Custom catering services are available and gift certificates. For more info, including a complete menu, visit their website or phone 327-3270.