Add some passion to your life!

The star of this annual festival is passion fruit—an egg-shaped, pulpy fruit that grows on a vine that’s also known as lilikoi in Hawaii. Mixologists favor the tangy-sweet juice from this yellow orb for tropical cocktails and beverages while chefs and home cooks can’t enough of it to concoct marinades, salad dressings, desserts, jellies and butters. The bright, orange-colored juice has a wonderful flavor all its own.

The fruity fun offers a recipe contest where contestants vie in desserts, entrees, sauces and sides; sweet and savory food booths; arts and crafts fair with 60 vendors; sales of lilikoi vines and the event’s “The Lilikoilicious Cookbook;” continuous live entertainment and a demonstration on how to extract juice from the fruit.

After the recipe contest judging and awards, entries are available for tasting…treats like lilikoi crème brulee, scallops with lilikoi sauce, lilikoi salsa, passion-marinated shrimp, lilikoi curd and the ever-popular lilikoi bars. The entries are as different as the contestants and all showcase the exotic flavor of passion fruit.

In its fourth year, the festival is presented by and as a fundraiser for The Center for Spiritual Living East Hawaii, an intra-denominational, new thought church that was founded in 1986.

Photo: Big Island Visitors Bureau