The best breakfast I ever had featured fresh pineapple and tap water outside on the patio at the Pioneer Hotel in Lahaina, Maui on my first trip to the islands.

Having grown up on the East Coast, I had never before tasted fresh pineapple that was fully ripened when picked. Everything I had tasted prior to that had been picked early and ripened (probably with ethylene) in transit. The real taste of freshly picked pineapple was like a Fourth of July celebration in my mouth.

I then took a sip of ice water, and the festivities continued. The water seemed as fresh as the pineapple, with no chemical taste. Don't know if they treat it, orwhether the sense of time and place heightened by appreciation.

The rest of the breakfast, I think, may have actually included fish, and was obviously not as memorable. But 35 years later, I can still celebrate that first taste of fresh pineapple.