Today's Special: Invasives

How exactly they chose these fish for introduction, I'm not sure.  But they couldn't have picked easier fish to spear.

Ono Recipes

I'm trying to get more kinetic on posting on here.  I'm already falling slightly behind on my roi diet, but I'm diving tomorrow, so I'm sure I can grab one and catch up.  I want to make ceviche with it.  I think it will be the perfect texture for that.

The reason I haven't eaten roi this week, is because I have so many other fish to go through already- most notably some ono.

I mentioned to Mikey the other day that ono is one of my favorite fish.  "For what?" he asked.  "To shoot, to eat, to see?"  The answer is: all of the above.

The ono looks like a good sports car, sleek and refined but still somehow mean and dangerous.  It moves nonchalantly, like a master predator should.  You'll never see one having a panic attack like an uhu, or hovering about brainlessly like a roi.  They're so cool, but most of all, I just like to eat them.  I really like eating them.

I have some steaks to cook this evening.  I haven't thought about how I'll cook them yet.  You don't have to think about it.  If you've arrived at this article to learn an ono recipe, quit wasting time.  Just put it in a pan and shake some pepper on it.  Or don't even do that; just go raw.  Anyway, we should both get going... every second we spend here is a second of ono hunting lost.

Roi Diet

I've always thought that the hysteria around roi was a witch hunt.  I've read studies claiming that half the roi population is ciguatoxic.  Yet, not only do they continue to show up in markets and restaurants, people continue to buy and eat them.  Granted, someone could get sick from roi and we wouldn't necessarily hear about it.  But literally thousands are eaten, and we never read of an episode like this: http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/2009/Nov/09/ln/hawaii911090324.html  And even if ciguatera hits don't make mainstream news, word gets around among divers.  I know of several people who have had ciguatera.  I can think of two cases from tableboss, one from uku, several from knifejaws (don't eat them), but only one possible case of cig from roi, despite the fact that I believe many more roi are consumed than the previously mentioned fish (maybe not uku).
To my knowledge, the studies done on ciguatera in roi have all used tests that have proven faulty (i.e. the discontinued product "Cigua-Check").  In an effort to conduct an experiment of my own, I'm going to eat a roi every week in 2012.  If only 2% of roi are hot, I'm statistically likely to get hit from my 52 roi at some point during the year.  So far I've eaten one from the south shore and one from the east side.  Out of laziness I baked both with only garlic salt.  I also ate the head of one (reputedly the most toxic part).  One was slightly overcooked, but still far superior to uhu.  Stay tuned for 50 more roi recipe reviews.