I love sushi, I love Japanese food, I love Hawaiian food—I love food in general. But when I get down to specifics, these are the 10 things I’d have the hardest time giving up.
1. ORGANIC, FREE-RANGE BEEF Meat’s at the top of the list. I’d last about a week (maybe) as a vegetarian. Everyone’s biochemistry is different; some people thrive on a high-carbohydrate diet. I’m not one of them. Free-range meat is among the most nutritious of all foods and a huge source of vitamin B. Venison’s also great; so is elk. The closer to the wild, the better.
2. LOCALLY CAUGHT OPAH Opah, also known as moonfish, is a whitefish found in Hawaiian waters. It lives at depths between 50 and 400 meters down, often in the company of tuna and billfish. Opahs don’t travel in schools, which means they aren’t easily overfished. They’re great for sashimi, as well as broiling or grilling. You may or may not be able to find opah where you live, but it’s worth finding out whether there’s a local catch of some kind in your area. Frozen fish, while it may be convenient, is nothing like fresh.
3. PAPAYA A perfectly ripe papaya is a beautiful thing. Along with its delicious taste, it contains papain, an enzyme that helps digest proteins and acts as a natural anti-inflammatory in your system. Papaya’s also rich in antioxidants (a special class of vitamins that help repair cell damage), including vitamin C and folic acid.
4. PINEAPPLE Pineapple is another awesome fruit. Like papaya, it contains a powerful digestive enzyme, this one called bromelain (which helps heal bruising). Pineapple’s loaded with antioxidants, too, as well as a trace mineral called manganese, which is essential to build bone and connective tissue. The riper the pineapple, the more nutrients it contains.
5. MUSTARD I love the old-fashioned stone-ground stuff. It’s a flavor that really appeals to me, so this fact is a bonus: Mustard is so dense with minerals, phytonutrients, and omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids that up until the 20th century, it was considered a medicine rather than a food.
6. RAW BUTTER Real, unprocessed butter is amazing. Before homogenization and pasteurization blunt its nutrients, butter contains nearly 500 essential fatty acids. When you heat real butter, it turns clear. When you heat homogenized butter, it turns black.
7. CASHEWS Cashews are my favorites (with macadamias as a close runner-up), but I like all nuts. They get a bad rap for being high in fat and calories, but the fats they contain are beneficial ones like oleic acid, which promotes cardiovascular health. And though they’re not low calorie, those fats combined with the nuts’ protein mean a handful of cashews or almonds will keep you going for a long time. Try that instead of an energy bar sometime, and you’ll see what I mean.
8. POI In Kauai I grew up eating poi, a traditional food made from the taro plant. In Hawaiian culture, both taro and poi have spiritual significance. Growing the plant, harvesting it, and then roasting it and pounding it into a thick paste—all of this is a sacred ritual. Not everyone likes poi’s subtle, unusual taste, and you’re not likely to run into it on the mainland, but if you have a chance to try it, I recommend that you keep an open mind.
9. ALEA SEA SALT This salt is a combination of pure sea salt and alea, a medicinal red clay; both are mined in Hawaii. The clay gives the salt a beautiful red tint. I happen to like this one, but there are dozens of unique sea salts that you can add to your diet. Each one has a slightly different taste, color, and mix of trace elements. This is something that comes straight from the earth—the composition of minerals in unprocessed sea salt is so intricate that it can’t be reproduced in a lab. Your typical table salt has been stripped of its trace minerals but does have additives, including aluminum. And besides that, compared to sea salt, it tastes awful.
10. POISSON CRU I discovered poisson cru, a kind of ceviche in coconut milk and lime juice, when I went to Tahiti in 2001 to surf the wave called Teahupoo. Since then I’ve been back several times, and I’ve put away my share of this local dish. If you like sashimi, this stuff is over the top (see the recipe on page 134).
