I was having lunch today with one of the state's top chefs, George Mavrothalassitis at his restaurant, Chef Mavro, in Honolulu. It was a wine tasting lunch with is staff, something Mavro does each quarter to allow a democratic vote on which which new wines to pair with which dishes for their tasting menu. Neat concept -- but not the main point here. Mavro said he was removing onaga, the wildly popular Hawaii grey snapper, from his menu due to the recently declared emergency five-month ban on harvesting bottom fish such as onaga, opakapaka, and hapuupuu.

Mavro approves of the ban and other restaurateurs cited in the article said it would make it harder to get the fish but the fish need a break in order for populations to rebound. Two questions immediately popped into my mind. First, wow, this will hammer Alan Wong's, where the top dish on the menu since opening has been the ginger-crusted onaga. (The dish is pictured here, courtesy of my friend at Maona, a Hawaii foodie blog I really like).This was a key dish that got Alan his James Beard Award in 1996. Second, would five months really do the trick? Rarely do piscine populations rebound so quickly. So could this be a prelude to the elimination of these fish from local menus? Mavro said restaurants could still buy these species but only from fisherman operating in the Northwest Hawaiian Islands (a problematic scenario not only due to environmental issues but also b/c fish from there have likely sat on ice for 10 days before they reach your plate) or from Tonga. In either case, its hardly the same fresh, day-catch fish that local diners have come to associate with these amazingly mild, soft-fleshed fish.

Related Posts: Da Perfect Poke, New Menu at Mavro

Image via Maona (a blog I love)

—Alex, 03/26/07