Fresh is Hawaii

Where I came from, Indonesia, it is easy to find fresh fish with affordable price... or cheaper (comparing to Berlin), happy miracle. Sadly, in Berlin is not that easy to find it. "Maybe I have to fly to somewhere else", my thought. But tight schedule makes it impossible and rearrange an appoinment is sometimes harder than I thought.

That Thursday my bae and I had a day off. It is for us a luxurious chance, since due to my work and his work we are not always be able to spend our day together. So I am just going to appreciate this chance with eating out. We are going to go eat "bowl", a kind of food that is trendy this time in Berlin. Thanks to the hipster community!

We spent our day wandering the market near S-Bahn station Hackescher Markt, uncovering their unique multi cultural street food. After spending our time observating the market, we have appetite to eat something fresh. We like eating fish fresh, that has glorious texture and worshipful taste. So we went to Ma'Loa, Hawaiian Poke Bowl. As we saw it online, Ma'Loa has 4,4  stars rating from 5. Sounds good.

Ma'Loa can be found not far from S-Bahnhof Hackescher Markt. Bae ordered Big Island Bowl as he loves tuna and I ordered O'ahu Bowl because I love Salmon. You can order your personalised bowl with the ingredients that you can choose directly at the bar but we were just too lazy and just ordered things from their Ma'Loa Favorites bowl. After then they made our bowl fresh in front of us at the bar so you can see how they prepare your food - plus experience! :D

The interior of the restaurant is unique. As i entered the restaurant I saw their menu written on a wooden surf board, it feels like I am in surf shop like Quiksilver or Roxy in Bali. However the Theme is Hawaii. They have a big shelf full of plants to separate the room to a part where the customer can order and another part with table and chairs so that the customers can eat in. So cozy!

 Wooden surf board

 The shelf full of plant used to separate the room

For my O'ahu Bowl, I chose sushi rice as base then they add salmon, sweet shoyu flavour, spring onion, cucumber, Edamame, cashew nuts and seaweed salad. I usualy don't eat spring onion but surprisingly I love the bowl and I enjoyed eating the spring onion from my bowl. I think it is because of the combination with the salmon and sweet shoyu flavour. If you don't know what shoyu is, no worry I can share a bit about it. In Indonesia, sweet shoyu sauce is called "kecap manis" it has darker colour comparing with the "normal" soy sauce. It is made from fermented soy beans mixed with wheat so it has round sweet flavour. You can normally find it on your sushi, especially when you order fried sushi or fried roll in Japanese restaurant.

O'ahu Bowl

My bae ate one spoon of his Big Island bowl and didn't looked happy so I asked him why. He said that the bowl he's having doesn't meet his taste so I asked politely either I am allowed to try and have a small spoon of it. After tasted, I asked him either he wanted to switch our bowl since the Big Island bowl is also fine for me and he agreed. It has sushi rice as based, tuna, Ma'Loa Flavour (which I can taste that it is a soy sauce - the salty one), spring onion, onion, cucumber, avocado and peanut. I love the combination of tuna with soy sauce, avocado and peanut! Spring onion + onion was for me too much but it was still in the level of  "okay" for me :D. It is also nice to learn that the next time we come, it is better to have our own bowl.

 Big Island bowl

Savvy loves... how you can have your own bowl!

Savvy tips... they also have Hawaiian beer too. Try have one!

If you want to eat something affordable and fresh in Berlin, you can try their Poke Bowl adapted from Hawaii - because fresh is Hawaii.

You can NOT reserve before you come here. Since it is near Hackesher Markt and also counted to be trendy, it can be crowded anytime. But it is worth the wait!