G'day for fish

Hawaii chefs experiment with some odd-looking, tasty Australian seafood

SEAFOOD of the likes of barramundi, hussars and Moreton Bay bugs are swimming up from Down Under, but before you get all giggly about those names, imagine what "opakapaka" sounds like to Australians.

HONOLULU WINE FESTIVAL Benefit for the Lupus Foundation of America, Hawaii Chapter: Featuring: Australian seafood, cheeses and wines; live wine auction and silent auction Benefit event: 6 to 9:30 p.m. July 29 Place: Dole Cannery ballrooms Tickets: $95 in advance; $120 at door. Reserved tables $1,500; corporate tables $2,500 and $3,500. Call: 538-1522 or visit the Web site, www.lupushawaii.org.

That the words are catchy adds appeal as these unfamiliar fish and crustaceans start making their way into the supermarket and onto restaurant menus.

Guy Tomita, seafood buyer and merchandiser for Times Super Market, put an initial batch of several types of whole and filleted Australian fish into the 12 Times stores late last week.

Tomita said he's counting on the new imports to make up for falling supplies of Hawaiian fish. He's especially looking to supplement his stock of smaller fish such as akule and weke.

"Hawaii is very limited in the amount of what they call in Australia 'plate fish' -- reef fish of 1- to 2-pound size."

If you're not of the cook-it-yourself persuasion, the Honolulu Wine Festival on July 29 -- theme: "From the Vineyard to the Sea Down Under" -- will feature Australian seafood prepared by an all-star selection of Oahu chefs. Organizer Lyle Fujioka has been taking samples to the chefs so they can develop new dishes for the event, an annual benefit for the local Lupus Foundation.

What are we talking about exactly? Besides barramundi (giant perch), hussar (a type of snapper) and Moreton Bay bugs (slipper lobster), the Australian émigrés include blue swimmer crab, gigantic king prawns, pearl perch, western rock lobster and snapper species with names like flame, ruby and tropical.

Specifically, consider barramundi, a fish able to live in fresh, brackish or salt water -- and singularly unattractive. "It's like a primitive fish," said chef Russell Siu, of 3660 on the Rise, who is preparing a crispy-skinned, pan-seared barramundi for the Lupus event.

But when it comes to taste, Siu said, "it's good-eating." He describes it as mild and soft, close to mullet in texture. "It's not a fishy-fish."

IT HASN'T been love at first sight for everyone, though.

"When you first meet someone, you're not going to ask them out on a date unless they're halfway good-looking," Tomita said.

And these fish, well, some of them are "strange-looking" -- mostly gray, some with oversized eyes (pearl perch), others with undersized heads (barramundi). Not to mention those Moreton Bay bugs, 6 inches of roach-like armor encasing a nice chunk of sweet tail meat.

Tomita said shoppers are looking and asking questions, but when they buy it's usually the more attractive snappers, so pretty-in-pink.

Many fish in the initial shipment were bigger than the plate-size Tomita had hoped for, and because the numbers were small, prices had to be close to $9 per pound to cover shipping costs. His aim is prices of about $6.99 per pound, comparable to local and New Zealand fish.

Chef Hiroshi Fukui of Hiroshi Eurasion Tapas, one of the guest chefs at the Lupus event, had trouble with the first fish he was given to cook, the barramundi. He said it reminded him of catfish, with a muddy flavor emphasized by steaming or frying.

Fukui was much happier with the pearl perch, which he said has a subtle, clean taste, "closer to sea bass -- a little flakey, but not dry, kinda sweet."

He'll serve it filleted, coated in diced jalapeño and cilantro, then steamed, and finished with sizzling peanut oil. Asian flavors fit the fish, he said.

Tomita said he realizes the Times stores will have to work at winning acceptance for the products, through cooking demonstrations, sampling and fliers explaining how to use the items.

And think about it, he said: That tiny head on the beady-eyed barramundi means a whole fish has proportionately more meat. "Big yield."

SEAFOOD BROKER Thomas Calvert, who is importing the Australian products for Times and the Lupus event, said he was bringing in tuna from Down Under three or four years ago, but the supply dwindled.

"Trade died off, and then the exchange rate was a problem."

The exchange rate remains less than favorable, Calvert said, but as local fish supplies have fallen, restaurants and markets are willing to pay more. "When bottom-fishing here looked to be in trouble, interest grew."

He's now able to fly in fresh fish (crustaceans are frozen, as they travel better that way) and place them in stores within days of when they were caught. Another shipment is due tomorrow, also headed for Times.

CHEF ERIC LETERC of the Pacific Club is preparing an Australian grouper for the Lupus event, a fish he finds close in texture to local snappers. Leterc said he'd consider buying Australian seafood for his restaurant, as local supplies have grown expensive and elusive. Prices for mahimahi, he said, have topped $10 a pound for the last two weeks.

"It's very difficult now to deal with the fish market because of the prices -- or there's no fish. We have to look to the other options."

Tomita said Hawaii customers have accepted fish from Australia's neighbor, New Zealand. Those snappers, groupers and flounders have become familiar in the seafood aisle, and he's optimistic about the Australian imports, ugly though they may be.

"I'm pretty determined. This is not a short-term deal," he said.

"If we stick it out and give it a really good shot, the customer will start to learn. ... We have to get people to say, 'It might have looked funny, but it tasted good.' "