Gordon Ramsay's Unexpected Must-Try Food When Visiting Hawaii

Considering the fact that Gordon Ramsay owns nine restaurant chains ranging across three continents, we can trust the chef has had the opportunity to travel the globe, trying out all kinds of cuisines. Ramsay serves up everything from gourmet burgers and lobster risotto to trendy cocktails, ultimately creating a name that's synonymous with fine dining. Yet when in Hawaii, the Michelin-star chef hunts down none other than banana bread.

Hawaii's cuisine is anything but simplistic. Through the years, the Polynesian foods have intermingled with various Asian recipes, allowing the islands to boast dishes like juicy kalua pork and manapua or ahi tuna poke bowls and Spam musubi. However, it's banana bread that captures Ramsay's attention the most. Banana bread is a seemingly simple dessert, routinely made when the fruits become too ripe to eat alone. In a food guide for British Airway's High Life, Ramsay calls the dessert the "dark horse" from his trip to Maui.

The bread features a different kind of banana than what's common in the continental U.S., with Ramsay noting the Hawaiian variety is more flavorful. While he prefers to get his fix from a pit stop called Halfway to Hana, you can make your own — as long as you have apple bananas. Native to Southeast Asia and grown in Hawaii, the fruits are significantly smaller than what's on the mainland, but with a noticeably sweeter taste. They also have a slight tang from notes of strawberry and pineapple, as well as a creamy texture that creates a moist, decadent loaf of bread.

With its layered, fruity taste, heightened sweetness, and soft tang, you can use just apple bananas to whip up standard banana bread, foregoing all the add-ins bakers typically use to enhance the loaf. However, a number of recipes for Hawaiian banana bread make use of the other fruits that dot the islands, giving the treat a tropical flair.

Aside from bananas, Hawaii is known for its pineapples, and the fruit often shows up in banana bread recipes. It's tangy and juicy, lending to the moistness of the loaf while pulling out a zesty taste from the apple bananas. You can slice up the pineapples yourself, but canned diced pineapples fit perfectly into the batter, with the caramelized fruit delivering a bright burst of flavor in each tender bite.

Coconut is also a common accompaniment to Hawaiian banana bread. The flakes infuse the loaf with a sweet nuttiness and fit seamlessly into the batter. Alternatively, you can sprinkle them on top before baking. If you like your banana bread with chopped nuts, add macadamia nuts into the batter. Hawaii is a top producer of the smooth, buttery nuts, making them a fixture in banana bread. You can chop up the nuts and add them straight in, or roast them beforehand for a richer, sweeter flavor.