We finally did it. Several months ago I saw an article in Popular Science about an entrepreneur who started a fish farm in the pacific ocean. Specifically, in a large cage off the Hawaiian Kona coast. There he raised some Yellowtail tuna and sold it over the internet.
At first I thought it was a inexpensive and clever way to farm fish. That was until I went to the website (www.kona-blue.com) and I found that the fish was selling for $17.50/lb. Ca-ching. Either this was much more costly than traditional farm fishing or they were exploiting the charm. I then found that the mercury levels were much lower than other fish, both ocean caught and traditionally farmed fish. Much lower. It seems that there is no detectable mercury found in these fish. No pesticides either as typically found in the traditional farm raised fish.
On an aside, I think it tragic that the long-lived fish population is slowly becomming contaminated with mercury. So much so, that the FDA recommends only one 12-ounce serving of such fish per week for adults, and none for pregnant women and small children. As a kid I ate quite a bit of tuna. Now, I think twice about serving a tuna fish sandwich to my kids. As a matter of fact, I don’t; neither serving it, nor eating. I save my mercury laden fish for when I go for sushi, and even then I go only once a month. When I learned of the mercury content in the fish at Kona-Blue.com I knew I had to try it.
Two weeks ago I saw a stack of tuna cans in a friends office, and mentioned that you can get mercury free tuna. His face became animated and told me that he too is no longer eating canned tuna because of the high mercury content. The cans on his desk were from his pantry and for anyone who wanted to take them. He then Googled Kona-Blue and came to the webpage. I left him there bathing his face in Kona-Blue photons.
A couple of days later he called excitedly and asked if I wanted to order some. I thought about the $17.50/lb., but decided what the heck. Lets try it at least once. I gave him my carte blanche and waited for the report.
The next day he came by my office an informed me that $17.50/lb. was just the starting point. Apparently, there are two halves of every fish, and you must order at least two *whole* fillets. Each fillet weighs about a pound and a quarter, bringing each order to about 2 * 1.25 * $17.50 = ~$40. That was still acceptable. However, shipping for the fish came to be $40 as well. They mush ship the fish in gold plated boxes. After the bones were cut from the fillets, the final price for the fish came to be $40/lb. I wonder that if my brain were not so filled with mercury from all the previous tuna I consumed, would I have scoffed at the price and asked him to cancel the order. Alas, the mercurial embalming overrode my outrage and the gold-plated tuna was shipped.
We ordered the tuna on Wednesday, Kona-Blue harvests only on Sunday, fillets are shipped on Tuesday (Whole fish are shipped on Monday), and on Thursday a three cubic foot box arrived. It took only one week to have had four-day fresh Mercury-free Yellowtail tuna fillets in my office.
Stopping at Bev-Mo for some Sayuri sake and Gekkeikan Black and Gold sake, Trader Joe’s for baby zucchini and snap peas, and the local Ken-po for sushi rice and rice vinegar, I was excited for all the way home.
The rice was cooked and a rice-vinegar mixture was added to to make sushi rice, the zucchini sliced thin and cooked with the snap peas in sesame oil and three Thai dragon chilies, the Gekkeikan sake heated to 140 degrees, and the Sayuri chilled to 38 degrees. I next turned my attention to the three cubic foot box in the middle of my kitchen.
The box was white and scuffed with typical shipping abuse. The packing tape parted readily and the two sets of opposing cardboard flaps blossomed like tropical petals in the morning sun. A plastic lining lay coiled like the top of a jiffy-pop tray, and yielded with a simple tug revealing a chaotic array of partially frozen cooler packs nestling together like snow white doves all cooperatively trying to mature an over-sized egg. I pushed the doves aside looking for the treasure below.
There, lying in the nest with the score of snow white gel packs was the twisted transparent plastic furled skin containing the white-tan flesh of Kona-Blue Yellowtail tuna. We baptized the fillets in free flowing Tucson tap water and placed them reverently on the immaculate white cutting board, carefully placing the Sanatu sushi knife parallel to the left edge. Flecks of fish scale seasoned the outside of the Yellowtail twinning the gleam of the Sanatu’s stainless steel.
We used the scalloped blade to slice free the linear array of bones and section the sashimi into eight pieces. A skillet was heated and a thin coat of sesame oil applied. The tuna screamed as each facet of each portion was seared for three seconds and placed ritualistically upon white rectangular plates. The wasabi was mixed with soy and the whole cast paired with the sake lay arrayed on the dinner table.
Was it good? You’ll have to try it for yourself, but Scott G., Scott S., and I are already looking ahead for available date. Several others have asked to be included in the next ichthyological Bacchusian frenzy.