More NZ fish and seafood

I had to do some research to find the name of this fish. (it wasn't labeled at the market) My ears aren't what they once were I guess and I misunderstood what a worker at the fish market told me was the name of this fish. I thought he said it was a mau mau.  

I know now that it is a blue maomao. I would love to see one just caught because it is apparently very blue. The colors, as with other fish, fade with time after they're caught.  

The guy at the market I spoke to also said that it was an even more delicious fish than the red snapper that was next to it in the ice tub. I disagree.  While it was good, it's flesh was not as firm as the snapper.  

Listen to this excerpt from Cannery Row, by J. Steinbeck, and tell me if it doesn't make you want to know more about these creatures...

"Western Biological deals in strange and beautiful wares. It sells the lovely animals of the sea, the sponges, tunicates, anemones, the stars and buttlestars, and sun stars, the bivalves, barnacles, the worms and shells, the fabulous and multiform little brothers, the living moving flowers of the sea, nudibranchs and tectibranchs, the spiked and nobbed and needly urchins, the crabs and demi-crabs, the little dragons, the snapping shrimps, and ghost shrimps so transparent that they hardly throw a shadow." 

When I first read that, I had no idea that i'd ever have the chance to wade around in tidal pools and see some of these creatures myself. Or to buy one of them at a local market.

The one critter that represented all the rest in my imagination was the sea urchin. The seafood market offers tubs of them every now and then and I usually buy a few, just because I can.  Here are some shots of how the edible bits are located and what they look like. 

The first time I tried them, I carefully washed the roe in fresh water, twice, and sprinkled a little lemon juice and salt on them. They tasted like salty, lemony nothings.  

Then, sometime later, when we were at the beach, some teen-aged Maori boys walked by me carrying a large bag of kina (sea urchins). They had harvested them from the rocks just offshore. I noticed that behind them in the sand were kina shells, emptied of their contents by the hungry boys having a quick snack before heading home with their treasure. 

I decided then and there that when I got more kina, I too would eat them right from the shell. I discovered when I did, that they have a very delicate, kind of salty, kind of sweet taste, that lingers.  

Maybe you can tell that this little guy, alphonsino, lives deep down. His habitat is 200 to 800 meters. I noticed that there is a fish and chips take-away place in Glen Eden, not far from our church, that uses an alphonsino on their sign. I'm sure that they, like every other fish and chip place in the area, actually serve red cod or rig shark (lemonfish), but the sign sure looks nice.

He was tasty.

Once a upon a time, there were two college kids who found some freshwater clams in Harlow Lake near Marquette Michigan. They took a few of them back to their dormitory and boiled them in salted water, for a good long time, just to make sure they were done. Then they rather gingerly nibbled them, unsure if clams were supposed to be as leathery as these were. Nothing serious happened within either of their digestive systems during the next 24 hours, so the pair called their foraging excursion a success and listed clams as one of their favorites from then on.  

Forty plus years later, that pair is still foraging, in a different way of course, for interesting edibles. These green-lipped mussels, or Kiwi-candy as they're sometimes called, are about four times the size of those original 'Harlow' clams the pair brought home, and they're a salt-water species. These also started out live, but were steamed only as long as it took to fully open the shells. They are chewy, but not tough. When slathered in garlic butter, they are both a new treat and already a 'comfort food.'

Compared to many fish, this ocean mullet tastes a bit blah. Well, sort of fishy blah, and his flesh is what I call grainy.  He's low on my list of yummy, but was at least easy to fillet

'Salmon nibbles' are a bit of belly meat with a finny handle attached. They look fun to eat, but I found them much too fatty for my taste. Still, they are always available at the market and sell like hotcakes. It appears to me that the Maoris and other islanders buy them more often than the Asians do, but that's just my impression.  

Loligo squid are the smallest species I've seen for sale at the fish market and not always available. To tell the truth, I can't tell any difference between their taste, or texture, and other squid species. Or even the processed and frozen squid tubes we buy now and then to make into deep-fried rings. 

Just one more.  Today started Lent and what better way than to try a new fish?  This one is a hapuka, also called hapuku. This species can also be found as deep as 800 meters, like the alphonsino, but this particular one was photographed at Kelly Tarlton's underground aquarium in Auckland. (Do you remember him, Dianne?)

This one was very good, but a layer of fatty stuff between muscle layers disappointed me a little.  For my money, the red snapper still reigns supreme as 'best fish in the water.' 

In the next post, we're headed for the beach; and not just any beach. It's a special one. Stay tuned. -djf