Fish Wednesday: On the Dock

“What happens when you actually catch something?” I ask the sailor. He’s tall and tan in shorts and a polo neck shirt with the snorkel boat line logo on it. He’s good looking in that Magnum PI kind of way, which is funny, because we’re in Hawaii. “Well, it depends on what we catch. We ask if there’s anyone on board that wants to bring it in. Then we send everyone up front. It’s dangerous and the fish are fast, really fast. Once it’s on deck, we whack it on the head – after we warn everyone about what a bloody mess it is. Then we toss the fish in the hold. It goes to the crew or if they don’t want it, sometimes we sell the catch to the restaurants in town.”

 A few days later we were on the docks in Lahaina and there was a spectacular catch of mahi mahi laid out on the walkway, a few big fish hanging from the scales, too. “Amazing catch,” the sport fishing gal says to me. Again, I ask what happens to it. The sportfishers don’t typically keep the catch – again, it goes to the crew or they sell it to the chefs. “This is going to be tough, though,” she says, “because it’s such a big catch.”

Mahi mahi sells for about 18 bucks a pound at my Seattle supermarket. We got halibut instead, it costs a lot less, but I wish we’d gone with the mahi mahi. The halibut was frozen, the mahi mahi fresh. Don’t get me wrong, the halibut was fine, but fresh fish wins out every time.

 J. made a big batch of mashed potatoes while I cooked the fish. It was simple, tossed in a little olive oil and topped with black pepper and some fancy Hawaiian salt. We ate it with oven roasted Brussels sprouts and black olives. Next time, we’ll make a little paste with the olives, some oil, and maybe some herbs if we’ve got them, coat the fish with it, and then bake it. Black olives and halibut are a surprisingly delicious combination, fresh fish or no.

[tags]Fish Wednesday, halibut[/tags]