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 Entertainment | Restaurants & Dining | May 2007 
No Matter the Dish, Tuna is the Favored Fish
 Maria C. Hunt - ParamusPost.com
| | At The Oceanaire Seafood Room in San Diego, sous chef Sean Langlais prepares a sashimi plate featuring maguro (lean) and otoro (fatty) versions of Spanish tuna and Mexican bluefin tuna, served with wasabi and tamari soy sauce. (CNS/Earnie Grafton) |
In the minds of many, tuna is the most prized fish in all the world.
In Japan, buyers have paid as much as $200,000 for a single large bluefin tuna, one of the choicest varieties, that was hooked off the coast of that country.
On the West Coast, a visit to any restaurant with gourmet aspirations might offer the impression that everyone is eating nearly raw ahi tuna.
"Red ahi tuna is the most popular fish on the planet," said Matt Rimel, a fisherman who serves plenty of tuna at his San Diego sushi restaurant, Zenbu. "Every restaurant from Napa to Cabo to Costa Rica has some kind of a sashimi or a seared tuna."
As chic as sashimi is in large cities, nationwide canned tuna is preferred. Americans ate 3.1 pounds of canned tuna per capita in 2005, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, a division of the U.S. Department of Commerce.
First, there's not just one tuna; it actually can come from several species of fish, including the yellowfin, albacore, skipjack, bigeye, bonito and bluefin.
TALKING TUNA
The most desirable color for a fine piece of tuna is open to cultural interpretation as well. What people find appealing differs according to where they're from.
In Japan, the acceptable tuna color palette ranges from deep beet red, for lean bluefin tuna, to clear bright red ahi to creamy pinkish white, the color of toro, the fatty belly of a large tuna.
But in America, even among many chefs, our tastes can be more provincial.
"A lot of people judge tuna by color more than actual flavor," said Jeff Jackson, executive chef of The Lodge at Torrey Pines in San Diego. "Americans associate the color red with great tuna."
Color can be deceiving, though. That hot pink tuna we're used to seeing at places that sell bargain sushi? Most likely it has been treated with either tasteless smoke or carbon monoxide to make it look pink. Even when the fish ages, it doesn't lose that bright hue.
Dan Nattrass, who buys and sells fish for the wholesale seafood company Catalina Offshore, said he has been surprised at how much chefs stick to super-lean red ahi, when fatty tuna from the bluefin and bigeye has so much more flavor.
"The high-end people are definitely looking for some fattier, more nuanced tuna," Nattrass said. "I still grill fatty tuna because there's more flavor in it."
Roy Yamaguchi, founder of the upscale chain of Roy's Hawaiian Fusion restaurants, believes its color makes ahi tuna seem familiar, even to the fish-phobic.
"I look at it as another form of seafood steak," Yamaguchi said. "It's red in color, so it looks like meat, and you can sear it or grill it or broil it like a steak. And just about any type of sauce that goes on steak can go on ahi."
Tuna has been part of the everyday diet in Hawaii for generations, first as a simple dish called lomi lomi ahi, which means "massaged tuna." Meat was scraped from fish bones, placed in a bowl filled with ice and sprinkled with red Hawaiian salt and maybe Maui onion.
The next dish that became popular in the islands was ahi poke, chopped tuna seasoned with sweet Maui onion, green onions, limu seaweed, sesame oil and salt. With so many mainlanders visiting Hawaii, Yamaguchi isn't surprised ahi has become so popular.
"Hawaii is a mystical place in people's eyes," he said. "With that in mind, the popularity of ahi has been transformed over the years."
GROWING DEMAND
Today both the demand for tuna and the price are driven by Japan. The best tuna caught almost anywhere in the world is quickly shipped there, where it is auctioned at the Tsukiji Fish Market in Tokyo.
"It's a very tough market to get your hands on fish," said Sean Langlais, sous chef at The Oceanaire Seafood Room in San Diego. "The Japanese highly regard fresh fish; it's like us and beef."
Wild tuna are caught off the coast of Boston, Spain and other parts of the world, but there isn't enough tuna caught in the wild to meet the growing demand.
Tuna are raised in pens in the ocean off the coast of Spain, Turkey, Italy, Croatia and Mexico. One of the largest bluefin tuna ranching operations in the world is off the coast of Ensenada, Mexico, run by a company called Maricultura del Norte.
For years, no one had concentrated on the northern bluefin that swims off the coast of Mexico, because the skipjack and yellowfin are so much easier to catch. But noticing the high prices that a fine bluefin could command at auction in Japan, businessman and tuna industry veteran Philippe Charat decided to take on the challenge.
"We became aware of what the price could fetch by farming it. We realized that you didn't have to catch that much to have a business," said Charat.
Young northern bluefin tuna are caught in the ocean in purseiner boats with nets on the front. The net full of tuna is dragged slowly, to keep from upsetting the fish too much, to a pen in the ocean. The fish are released into the pen and raised on a diet of sardines for four to eight months, until they are harvested.
The first few years, Charat's business lost money, but now it is profitable. Last season, the operation raised 1,700 tons of bluefin tuna, proving it's possible to ranch bluefin tuna successfully off the coast of Mexico.
Kenji Aoshima runs Blue Star, a wholesale fish company based in Southern California. He said that the tuna raised off the coast of Mexico is getting more attention.
"The shift is to Mexican bluefin because it's cheaper than the European," Aojima said. "And they are getting better in terms of size and quality."
TALKING TUNA
- Ahi (AH-hee): tuna, mainly yellowfin tuna
- Ahi poke (AH-hee PO-kay): chopped seasoned raw tuna
- Chu-toro (CHEW-tore-oh): half fat
- Lomi lomi ahi (low-me, low-me AH-hee): raw tuna scraps served with salt
- Maguro (mah-GOO-row): lean tuna
- Toro (TORE-oh): fat
SERVING TUNA AT HOME
- Seared: Best to use albacore or skipjack
- Grilled: Use fattier cuts like bluefin or bigeye
- Sashimi: Use yellowfin, bluefin or bigeye
SMOKED AHI SALAD WITH CILANTRO VINAIGRETTE AND RED BELL PEPPER COULIS
12 ounces ahi tuna
1 tablespoon canola oil
Salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste
1 large Maui onion, finely diced
2 tomatoes, finely diced
4 to 5 cups washed and torn mixed greens, such as radicchio
Cilantro Vinaigrette:
2/3 cup pineapple juice
Juice of 4 or 5 limes
3/4 cup olive oil
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
1/2 cup roughly chopped fresh cilantro
Red Bell Pepper Coulis:
3 red bell peppers, roasted, peeled and seeded
1/2 tablespoon olive oil
1 teaspoon balsamic vinegar
1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
Yields 4 servings.
If you're using a smoker, cold-smoke tuna for about 40 minutes over mesquite wood.
To smoke tuna on a grill, you need a covered grill, soaked wood chips and means of controlling the temperature, as temperature should be no hotter than 65 to 75 F.
For regular grilling, simply cook tuna to medium rare or rare.
To prepare Cilantro Vinaigrette: Whisk together pineapple juice, lime juice, olive oil and vinegar in a bowl until mixture no longer separates when allowed to stand for several minutes. Add cilantro and season to taste with salt and pepper.
To prepare Coulis: Puree all ingredients in blender or food processor. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Set aside.
Just before serving, coat smoked tuna with canola oil and season to taste with salt and pepper. Heat a saute pan or skillet until hot, and sear tuna for 15 seconds per side over high heat. Dice tuna, transfer to mixing bowl, and combine with onion and tomatoes.
In mixing bowl, toss greens with vinaigrette and divide among 4 serving plates. Place tuna mixture on top of greens and drizzle with coulis.
- "Roy's Feasts From Hawaii" by Roy Yamaguchi and John Harrisson (Ten Speed Press, $26). |
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