More often than we ever have the time to mention, little beautiful surprises land in our lap here in Hawaii. Sometimes it's a brilliant rainbow at the end of our street, or a ripe papaya on our tree, or even a bright "vanilla sky" sunrise as we head off to school. Yesterday our little surprise was an extremely rare Hawaiian delicacy - Opihi - that magically appeared at Tamura's (our local poke store).
Opihi are rare because they only live on the windward side of the Hawaiian islands where the huge waves crash onto the lava rocks. They are extremely dangerous to harvest and every year a handful of Opihi Pickers are killed picking the delicious little limpets. This is one of those special treats to be savored...if you can ever gets your hands on 'em.
Opihi are rare because they only live on the windward side of the Hawaiian islands where the huge waves crash onto the lava rocks. They are extremely dangerous to harvest and every year a handful of Opihi Pickers are killed picking the delicious little limpets. This is one of those special treats to be savored...if you can ever gets your hands on 'em.
Strictly speaking, opihi are "ocean snails" and different species live all over the world. We cooked up our special little Hawaiian variety with butter, rooster sauce and shoyu (soy sauce) in the toaster oven for about 3-4 minutes. They tasted soooooo good...like little bites of heaven. Besides their amazing taste, their shells are so pretty...perhaps a future craft project!?
Very exotic. We have never heard of opihi. Would love to have a taste of it.
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