Ala Moana Farmers' Market debuts a Tuesday night market

Above: Wow Wow Waffle, a vendor at the new Ala Moana Tuesday night market

Do you go to the farmers' markets to eat or pick up groceries? I'm finding more and more it's the former, and no wonder, given that all the markets have more prepared food vendors than produce, making the designation "farmers' market" a little misleading. The Ala Moana Farmers' Market has added a Tuesday night market, which opened last night, and it's no exception: about 15 vendors, a little less than its Saturday market, and only a quarter of the stands offer produce. Nothing too exciting in the produce realm, though it appears starfruit and lilikoi are in season.

The prepared food side is another story. My bag is full of fruits and vegetables; I am eating anything but. I'm swayed by the smells of sweet, yeasted bread from Baker Dudes. Dudes pulling croissants out of a mobile oven? Yes, please. The croissants are more akin to crescent dough from a can (love that stuff) than a real, airy French croissant, but warm and buttery, rolled with ham and cheese or mushrooms or asparagus, they're fabulous.

Other Saturday market vendors are here, too: North Shore Farms with its famous tomato-topped pizzas, Onda Pasta, PacifiKool, OnoPops (you have to try its Rocky Road to Tokyo, which debuted at the Hawaii Food and Wine Festival), and Ono Seafood, which we named as Best Poke Bowl in our Best of Honolulu issue. 

New to the market is Wow Wow Waffle—this Tuesday night market is the only place in town you can get Wow Wow's yeasted, sweet Belgian Liege waffles, other than at Eat the Street. Smelling of butter, sugar and yeast (sense a theme to my weaknesses?), they're hard to pass up. Enjoy them plain, the edges caramelized with sugar, or you can even get them topped with bacon, cheddar and jalapeño for a perfect salty-sweet treat, though I wish the toppings were incorporated into the dough—they have a tendency to just fall off the waffle.

This Tuesday market is smaller, but at least it's cooler than its Saturday counterpart, on parking lot concrete under the blazing mid-day sun.

Ala Moana Tuesday Farmers' Market, Tuesdays, 4 to 7 p.m., Ala Moana Center, upper deck by Sears, haleiwafarmersmarket.com/ala-moana.html