The Hanalei Center patio provided amazing views of cloud-capped mountains lined with multiple waterfalls. Ama could have served me a pail of gruel, and I still would have been pretty content in this setting. Char siu mazemen was several steps up from gruel.

Chef Jim Moffat and business partner Jondy Malone built on the considerable success of tapas mainstay Bar Acuda. Ama is their adjacent Japanese restaurant, which doesn’t fit with their backgrounds, but has still proven to be a hit in Hanalei. They take sourcing seriously, buying produce from local farms. It must help that the Hanalei Farmers Market takes place just one block away on Saturdays. They buy noodles from Sun Noodle, a Honolulu business that services many top ramen shops on the islands. My Char Siu Mazemen ($18) bowl featured springy alkaline noodles topped with minced pork belly, pickled red onion, cilantro, jalapeño, Fresno chiles, and garlic chips. The “dry” ramen was fairly well balanced, though my wife found the dish too sweet. I added a soft egg ($2) that they sliced in half, which touted a gooey medium-cooked yolk that melded seamlessly with the sauce.

Dose of Vitamin P spotlights my favorite pork dish from the previous week.