By Lee Cataluna
Advertiser Columnist

If you're coming back from Kaua'i, it's Tip Top cookies or Kilauea Bakery breadsticks.

If it's Maui, it's Home Made Bakery manju (brief moment of silence for the demise of Shishido mochi).

For Hilo, it's Atebara's taro chips and Mountain View stone cookies. (Moment of silence for Hilo Macaroni Factory saloon pilots, too. Sad, yeah?)

Vegas, it's beef jerky. Go figure.

But when traveling on the Mainland, particularly in the Western United States, the place Hawai'i people target for omiyage is Trader Joe's.

The store carries unusual and exotic food (Tasmanian Goat's Milk Feta is new to their list) and household products — stuff like earth-friendly laundry detergent. There are also bakery items, deli stuff and specialty foods like fat-free products, no-sugar-added products, and gluten-free products. The things that get picked up for omiyage are more of the trail-mix, pistachio, imported-cookie ilk.

It has been said that often, the wanting is better than the getting. According to fans of Trader Joe's, the getting totally justifies the wanting, though the wanting is certainly part of the mystique.

When Honolulu Advertiser business reporter Andrew Gomes wrote about Hawai'i's long-distance romance with Trader Joe's, he struck a chord. He wrote about how Hawai'i people flock to Trader Joe's for omiyage when they travel to the Mainland, how Trader Joe's was one of Hawai'i's "most wanted" in terms of Mainland stores that don't have a presence in the Islands, and about how people get effusive when they describe their devotion to the store. Readers apparently felt validated, and wrote to offer their own testimony:

"I recently came home with a suitcase full of 'goodies' which you just don't find here in Hawai'i (and I do that every time I fly to CA)."

"I've also been a fan of TJ's for years and generally take one or two hard-shell suitcases on trips to the Mainland to fill up."

"It never fails — each time we go to California we always meet Hawai'i people in the check out line. ... We meet in the line and point at each others' baskets and have a good laugh."

But alas, the wanting will continue as no plans are in the works for Hawai'i to be getting a Trader Joe's in the foreseeable future. There are close to 200 Trader Joe's stores in 17 Mainland states, though. And if there was a Trader Joe's here, what in the world would we bring back from trips? The whole point of omiyage, as the tradition has evolved in the Islands, is to bring back something that is unique to the place you visited. If you can get the same stuff at home, it doesn't count. So be careful what you wish for. If we got it, maybe we wouldn't want it quite as much. Too easy. Although the garlic pistachio nuts sound pretty 'ono.

Lee Cataluna's column runs Tuesdays, Fridays and Sundays. Reach her at 535-8172 or lcataluna@honoluluadvertiser.com.