Aha...Ahi! Japanese style seafood in Hawaii – Sansei

Visiting Hawaii is a great opportunity to eat great fish. Although a lot of the classic seafood about which I usually write comes from cold waters (and so lobster, crab and oysters are not very present on the menu) there is always fantastically fresh 'ahi' – Yellowfin Tuna. The flesh of the ahi is wonderfully delicious served as raw as sashimi or seared, and is a regular feature on Hawaiian menus. And it's not endangered either – rated as 'least conern' by the World Conservation Union.

Having arrived on the big island of Hawaii (also called Hawaii, confusingly – the capital Honolulu is on the small island of Oahu) for a conference, we've had a little time to explore and found a great spot for Japanese oriented seafood at reasonable prices. The Sansei Restaurant and Sushi Bar is located in the Queens Market Place at Waikoloa Beach Resort, about 45 minutes north of the town of Kona and close to many of the top resorts. The atmosphere is very nice – a combination of Japanese and American family style diner with a sushi bar at one end (lots of top-grade raw fish on display) and a very well-stocked bar to one side.

Jenny and I went for the tasting menu at $80 for two – very reasonable in Hawaii terms, where the fact that most food is imported means that prices are high at best and exorbitant at worst. Miso soup comes with the meal – and a choice of whether to have it western-style (at the start) or Japanese-style (and finish with it). We went Japanese. First up was a bowl of edamame beans (soy beans) in their shells, a tradition Japanese nibble, along with out drinks. Jenny went for their new 'sake flight' – three different cold sakes to sample, which was very interesting indeed. The Masuni 'Okuden Kantsukeri' was smooth and tasty, the Dewazakura 'Dewesansan' delicate and feminine and the Tedorigawa 'Iki na Onno' (my favourite) tasty and long. I was driving and so limited myself (tiny sips of sake aside) to one beer, a local Kona Red Ale (served very cold in a 20 oz pint as opposed to the usual US 16 oz abomination).

The main food items commenced with Sansei's Mango Crab Salad Hand Roll (best eaten with the fingers to pick up the chilli dipping sauce) and Sansei Special Roll (crab, cucumber and avocado) eaten sushi-style with ginger, wasabi and soy sauce). The best of the sushi came next – delicious panko-encrusted ahi sashimi sushi roll – basically a top-quality cylindier of ahi coated in spinach, arugula (rocket) and light Japanese breadcrumbs, served with a mild soy wasabi butter sauce – wow! The ahi just melts in the mouth. Mmmmm. In the picture we had already eaten some of it, hence the messy plate!

On with the seafood! Next up was Japanese calamari salad – fried in Kochujang vinaigrette over local greens in a won ton basket (delicious sauce, slightly tangy, pictured), and Asian shrimp cake crusted with crispy chinese noodles (very thin) with ginger-lime chilli butter and cilantro (coriander) pesto (also pictured). The crispy noodles added some very nice crunch to this dish.

We finished with two fish dishes, Matsuhisa style miso butterfish (black cod) marinated and smeared in sake and sweet miso was very rich, the fish cooked just to perfection so it was soft and melting, and (just in case you were still not quite satisfied) lobster and blue crab ravioli with truffled shiitake mushroom and maderia cream sauce (perhaps the richest thing I have eaten in the last 12 months, and that's saying something!). And then, of course, the Miso soup as a palate cleanser and digestif. Ending with the soup seemed to make good sense to me – back to reality after the exceptional and tasty dishes we had enjoyed. Service was exceptionally friendly and helpful.

Sansei, under the direction of owner and chef DK Kodama, also has restaurants at Kapalua and Kihei on Maui and Waikiki Beach on Oahu. Well worth tracking down. Maholo and Aloha! Sansei Seafood Restaurnant and Sushi Bar, Waikoloa Beach Resort, Queen's Marketplace, 201 Waikoloa Beach Drive Suite 801, Waikoloa, HI 96738, (808) 886-6286, dinner only 5.30 – 10.00pm. www.dkrestaurants.com.

Top of the class at The Seafood Restaurant, Padstow

Rick Stein has become the face of British fish and seafood over the past ten years or so. He seems to be continuously on our TVs, seeking out producers of all kinds and showing his own compelling (to me anyway) cuisine, stressing simplicity, quality and attention to detail over elaborate and bizarre combinations. Actually, he’s been in the fish game a very long time – the building housing the restaurant was originally bought by Stein in 1972 as a nightclub (which failed) and The Seafood Restaurant opened its doors in 1975. His big break came when Keith Floyd, making his Floyd On Fish series for BBC TV, suggested to his producer that they go and see when Stein was doing. The producer agreed, and the rest is history.

As seafood geek I have obviously wanted to visit his own Seafood Restaurant for some time. The current downturn means that the Steins (Rick and his ex-wife Jill who now actually runs the restaurant) are offering some excellent bargain deals. We took advantage of a two-night break for £190 per person, including meals in the St Petrocs Bistro (more next time) and the Seafood Restaurant itself. The Almora room was very nice indeed, funky bathroom with TV, modern and light.

After a warm-up pint at the Old Customs House pub along the quay, we were shown to our table in the busy and buzzing Saturday night atmosphere. Even though this was the first weekend after New Year, the place was almost full. The menu is (of course) dominated by all manner of fish and seafood, though there is a veggie starter (pumpkin open ravioli) and a meat main (char-grilled cotes de boeuf). What a tremendously difficult choice… The starters were particularly hard to choose between – oysters from various places including native flats from Clarinbridge in Ireland, fruits-de-mer platters, proper provencal fish soup with rouille, sashimi of sea bass, scallop, brill and salmon, mussels, lobster and fennel risotto… Aaargh!

In the end I was toying with hot shellfish with parsley, chilli, olive oil, garlic and lemon juice but plumped in the end for Cornish crab with wakame salad and wasabi mayonnaise. The crab meat was delicious and delicate, the wakame (green seaweed) salad a perfect foil and the wasabi mayo had a nice spiciness about it. My companions were all well pleased with their sashimi, ragout of turbot and scallops and grilled scallops with pumpkin seeds, Serrano chilli and coriander sauce. A bottle of one of the extensive wine list’s more outlandish options, a Brazilian Ovaja Negra pinot grigio-riesling washed it all down very well – the wine was very crisp, just the job.

The main course choice was somewhat easier, even though there were many tempting options including whole dover sole (a classic), monkfish vindaloo, Singapore chilli crab and a full fruits-de-mer platter (one of which arrived at the next table looking amazing, uncompromising and fully monster-of-the-deep laden). Padstow lobster had my name on it – it’s not something one sees very often, and I had to try it here. I went for the grilled with fines herbes option as opposed to boiled with salad leaves and mayo, and it was sensational. Beautifully buttery, herby, tasty, cooked to perfection, with some work to do to get the meat from the claws and legs but totally manageable. Fantastic. A little dish of buttered and peppery neeps (swede or turnip?) was a nice accompanying touch.

Again my companions were well pleased – the troncon of turbot (does anything else over come in troncons??) with hollandaise sauce was particularly good, and the two plates of brill with pancetta and beurre noisette appeared to have been fashioned to look identical – an example of the attention to detail visible here. Bottles of Allende Blanco 2005 white rioja went very will with all this butter and richness – the wine definitely oaky and yet with a good edge, not something I would have at home but a splendid treat.

After all that the desserts might have been something of a come-down, but the Stein simplicity and attention to detail saw us through to the end. My blackberry and quince cobbler (cooked to order) with clotted cream ice cream was delicious, piping hot from the oven. Very strong coffees brought the evening to a close. The Seafood Restaurant seems to be a real beacon for British seafood well cooked and exquisitely served – a must for any serious seafood enthusiast or indeed anyone who likes their fish. The Seafood Restaurant, Riverside, Padstow, Cornwall, Reservations: 01841 532700, www.rickstein.com.

Learning about fish the Rick Stein way – Padstow Seafood School

I’m keen on eating fish and seafood – and, from time to time, cooking it. So when news came through that TV food hero and fish guru Rick Stein was offering credit-crunch beating deals at his Padstow establishments, I was on the phone like a shot. The Stein name runs through Padstow like the word Padstow through a piece of, well, Padstow rock, and the family Stein now have a multitude of eating and accommodation options. Our weekend trip took in several eateries (of which more later in the week), as well as the Padstow Seafood School.

I managed to book a place on the School’s most popular course, the one-day Original Fish and Shellfish course. And so at just before 9am on a chilly Sunday morning, still enjoying the memory of the previous evening’s grilled lobster at the Seafood Restaurant, I found myself donning a smart chef’s jacket and apron and sitting down for a coffee with fifteen other cooks-in-the-making. The school is in a relatively new building just a hundred yards or so along the front from the Seafood Restaurant itself – the building also houses Stein’s Fish & Chips (report coming), Stein’s Deli (lots of yummy things) and other seafaring outlets. The school is on the first floor, and commands a cracking view of the estuary from the long refectory table at one end.

Chief instructor Mark took us through a few words about safety and then took us to the demonstration station at the other end of the kitchen. We sat on stools and looked on while he tackled one of the day’s knottier problems – despatching a large stone crab. Ceiling-mounted video cameras helped everyone see the drama on the chopping board. That done, we went back to the cooking stations (two people to a stove), crabs and screwdrivers were produced and off we went! My partner-in-fish for the day John from Truro got us off the mark, and we put the crab on to boil – just 10 minutes is enough. Once the crab was out and cooling we were back with Mark learning about preparing a squid from scratch (including pulling out the amazingly transparent and flexible bone). Back to the kitchens to put everything into practice, this time cooking the squid in a very interesting slow way in a pan inside the oven set to a low 120C with star anise and cinnamon for about 25 minutes.

Now to disembowel the crab! Again, full guidance from Mark, then back to our places where more ingredients had appeared as if by magic (actually down to Bill and the other helpers) where we went from boiled crab to crab cakes in just a few moments. (Crushed cream crackers are the key ingredient, rather to my surprise!). Into the fridge and then back to the squid which was now cooked, so prepare a salad with vermicelli noodles, mushrooms, ginger and other things. And at last – time to eat something! We sat round the table to eat the salad and enjoy the first of what would be (if you wanted) several glasses of sauvignon.

The day was very impressive in the way it all fitted together, with alternating demonstration and practice sessions keeping the variety and allowing the various ingredients time to reach the optimum conditions. We went on to fillet fish (red mullet as a round fish, and plaice as a flat fish) and prepare the fillets en papillotte (in a bag) and grilled with various accompaniments. Now it was getting on for 2.30pm, and we all sat back around for a well-earned lunch of plaice and another glass or two. Cheers!

The final part of the day was watching Mark and Bill prepare another kind of dish – a prawn and monkfish caldine (wet curry) with flatbreads and pilao rice. The guys worked splendidly as a double act, inviting people to help with various aspects and chatting away answering whatever questions came up, as well as sharing their thoughts on many aspects of the life of the chef. For some reason we ended up talking a lot about salt (Mark says to use plenty of it – the food tastes of more!). Then finally the curry, rice and everything was served all at once, with enough for some of each all round. Certificates, handshakes, a chance to buy an apron or a knife at the school’s shop and we were done. It’s a grand day out, and you certainly don’t go home hungry. I bought a filleting knife and will definitely be starting to buy whole fish from time to time now – I have enough confidence to give it a try. Well done to Mark, Bill and the boys. Padstow Seafood School,Riverside, Padstow
PL28 8BY, Tel: 01841 532700.