Maui Fish

The road on what fish to buy and where and when remains thoroughly and amazingly full of twists and turns. Even buying what you think is a local product is often confusing and a labeling nightmare.

On arriving in Maui we stopped at Costco to buy wine and beer for the week knowing that we would be getting our daily fruit and fish at local stores such as the Maui Farmers Market, Star Market and the Maui Fish co. in Honokowai. But there was a demo going on and I tasted a great what I thought was local snapper, the Hawaiian Pink Snapper known as Opakapaka.

Well it turns out that Opakapaka is under restrictions and in most cases hard to find if at all. (you can find more info about this species fish at: http://www.montereybayaquarium.org/cr/cr_seafoodwatch/content/media/MBA_SeafoodWatch_HiPakaReport.pdf). So what was I eating anyway? My good friend Byron thinks that they are importing the fish from Thailand. And it was very good by the way!  But on reflection I realized that the label read wild caught but there was no statement of origin…

The rest of the week’s “catch” came from Maui Fish Co., spearfish, Opa and Ahi for Poke. All wonderful and all a reminder of how precious this resource is becoming.  And kudos to Snorkel Bob for the excellent documentary on the state of the reefs that I caught on local access TV.  Who knew that stocking aquariums is such a nasty industry and a threat to the reef fish.

So here is the recipe. You can use any white meat fish or local snapper filets if you aren’t lucky enough to be on Maui right now.

2 pound onions (maui in this case)
1 pound fish
Juice of 1 lemon
baking dish
oven at 350

Slice the onions. Either saute them until brown or bake them 375 until brown. The pan is much faster, but the oven method allows you to start the dish early and then return.

Place the fish filets in the baking dish over a base of cooked onions and cover with the onions that are left. Bake 15 minutes or so until fish is firm to the touch.

Ridiculously simple and good.