Favority local places on west side Maui

[DonJuanQuixote]

Wow, I'm diggin' these excellent behind-the-scenes tips!

[OpenD]

Originally Posted by MitchTempo

Note: Yes they use frozen poke cubes to get those prices.

That's not really an issue.

By federal law, ALL fish to be eaten raw, with the exception of tuna, must be frozen first, to kill any possible parasites. And much of the sushi-grade tuna is frozen, in order to preserve its quality.

That fancy $36.99 a pound ahi for New Years sashimi and poke, flown in from Tsukiji Fish Market in Tokyo? Probably frozen, because fresh catches have been down.

[MitchTempo]

Originally Posted by OpenD

That's not really an issue.

By federal law, ALL fish to be eaten raw, with the exception of tuna, must be frozen first, to kill any possible parasites. And much of the sushi-grade tuna is frozen, in order to preserve its quality.

That fancy $36.99 a pound ahi for New Years sashimi and poke, flown in from Tsukiji Fish Market in Tokyo? Probably frozen, because fresh catches have been down.

We don't fly in Ahi from Tsukiji, its the other way around. We ship it out to them, though they don't like our yellow fin ahi variety, and it doesn't stay red for long. They will take Big Eye tuna though. We can't afford to pay $140/lb +freight for fish from Tsukiji.

Most places in Hawaii will use fish straight off the Honolulu Auction block, or imported in from someplace in the south pacific. The higher up restaurants will most likely use farm raised (caught at sea and put into pens) blue fin tuna out of Mexico. The only frozen ahi you'll see them use is flash frozen blue fin toro, and white albacore. Some places will use frozen blocks, but only as a last resort once they run out of regular red ahi (usually big eye variety).

I used to supply most of Maui's sushi bars/safeways with tuna when I worked in the industry, and they wanted someone who was bilingual for the itamaes.

Besides asides from a few people who actually know what blue fin tuna tastes like, most locals don't like the taste of blue fin. Its too strong/metallic for them since they aren't used to it. We don't catch it in our waters. On the rare occasion we do, it goes straight to Japan, unless its fry grade.

And for those parasites? That's what the wasabi's for.