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Eating Parrotfish?

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Wavespin

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May 31, 2004
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I live in Puerto Rico. I caught a parrotfish on hook and line yestereday (which I've never heard of anyone doing). I haven't speared any because nobody here seems to eat parrotfish. I grew up in Florida where they were protected. I've always heard they were a real ciguatera risk around here. I know they are eaten in a lot of places. Are they any more dangerous to eat than any other reef fish?

I know they are supposed to be very good sashimi. Are they good cooked as well? How? I saw some references that said that the flesh is soft and spoils quickly.

Thanks,
Mike
 
they are one of my most favorite eating fish, the europeans thypes are extremly tasty, recommend deep-fry or BBQ;)
 
PARROT FISH ARE VERY GOOD.THE MEAT IS VERY SOFT ;JUST PUT SOME SALT GROUND PEPPER AND OREGANO AND YOU ARE GOOD TO GO..ALIK..DROP ME AN EMAIL WAVESPIN I LIVE IN CAYEY P.R MAYBE WE CAN GO SPEARFISHING SOME TIME.
 
The parrot fish (uhu) here in Hawaii is pretty good eats as well. Some choose to bake seasoned with sea salt, garlic, and coated with mayonaise. Add vegetables like tomato, onions, green onions, mushrooms, etc. You can even add meat like bacon or slices of sausage to add a little more flavor. Bake at 350 degrees till meat pulls off center bone. A good size fish may take 45-60 minutes.

You can also prepare chinese style by steaming or baking seasoned with sea salt, soy sauce, and oyster sauce. Cut slivers of fresh ginger and place on fish and in belly. When fish is done steaming, add more soy sauce and oyster sauce, throw on a handfull of green onions, then pour about a cup of hot cooking oil on the fish so that it sizzles and seals in the flavor.
 
ono!!

Uluapounder, Brah you making me hungry...

Hey, one tip about cleaning parrotfish. Use lots of salt to rub off all the slime on these fish and rinse clean. Some of the slime may make it into your mouth if not cleaned well enough. :D

Gil
 
They are supurb eating - I like mine on the BBQ. Bio guys once told me that I should "limit my consumption" of these critters as they can carry high levels of heavy metal. I only every shot a couple of them - but they were always yummy!
 
I used to eat the ones I speared and had no problems. This was in the BVI, but you have to ask the locals, the same species in one place may be safe and in another may be risky, depending on where and what they eat.

Adrian
 
Re: ono!!

Originally posted by GilbertG.
Uluapounder, Brah you making me hungry...

Hey, one tip about cleaning parrotfish. Use lots of salt to rub off all the slime on these fish and rinse clean. Some of the slime may make it into your mouth if not cleaned well enough. :D

Gil
If I'm not mistaking, I think that the mucus is there only if you hunt them at night. While they are asleep they cover themselves in mucus to prevent being discovered by other preditors. Ofcourse it doesn't work against men, which makes me abit hesitant to spearfish them at night, but since I don't have the option I don't need to think about it.
 
I think your right or at least the ones I've taken during day dives don't have as much slime. Yes, I do occasionally take them at night with a pole spear. The challenge at night is just finding them since you have to look into many holes to find just one.

Gil:)
 
The uhus do have slime, maybe not as much as when they sleep, but I do use Hawaiian salt (sea salt) to scrub any of my reef fish that feel slimey. There are many different types of parrot fish and do differ in flavor. They also differ depending on where they are feeding.

I hear of locals eating uhu raw, poke style and also cubed, deep fried, with sweet sour sauce.
 
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Originally posted by uluapoundr
I hear of locals eating uhu raw, poke style and also cubed, deep fried, with sweet sour sauce.

Smaller ones (like pananuhu) I eat the baked or steamed wayys you mentioned earlier(local staple) :p

The bigger ones I've tried poke style - just make sure you don't touch the guts at all! Fillet around stomach cavity, because once you touch it, :yack you won't want to eat it raw.

The cubed sweet sour sauce one I never tried until just 2 years ago. I always thought it was an odd combination, but one of my friends invited me to a dinner at a chinese restaurant. He caught a big uhu & brought it in. They cubed & cooked it that style & it was awesome!!! Oh man, a couple bowls of rice & I was in heaven... getting hungry just thinking about it. What restaurants do that in Oahu?
 
yum.... the first time i ate parrotfish was in Egypt. so juicy and tender... enjoy!
 
i cought two GOOD sized parrot fishes today and ate them:p still alive and still typing:D
 
parrot fish:
scale and gut
add lime and parsley and other vegies as you please
maybe if you get a big one shishkabab them
place 3 cm away from red coals, and you may want to wrap in tinfoil to retain juices. while they are on the coals, sprinkl eeither lime or beer. eat while hot. sleep like a baby.
 
Had one tonight for dinner. Baked it on the grill, in foil with Hawaiian salt, maui sweet onions, mayonaise, garlic salt, then topped with soy sauce when done, yum, yum. Here's a blurry pic of the catch. Left to right is a menpachi (soldier fish), tako (octopus), munu (barred goatfish), two kumu (saddle back goatfishes), and an uhu (flat tail parrot fish).
 

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Nice Kumu L!

Nice to see I'm not the only one that practices on menpachi ;)
 
i also shoot once a soldier fish to try the meat but it was very difficult to clean it.Armored scales and it also gots thorns on the gills:blackeye but the flesh is tasty too:D
 
Originally posted by Murat
i also shoot once a soldier fish to try the meat but it was very difficult to clean it.Armored scales and it also gots thorns on the gills:blackeye but the flesh is tasty too:D

I think I know which fish you are talking about, we call them alaihi and it has a huge spine on the gill plate. If you ever get poked by one of these, it shoots toxin and causes lots of pain. The bigger alaihi have really tough scales. I don't spear them because I don't want to scale them.

For scaling fish, I like the scalers from the orient, China or Japan. If I can't find a scaler, I may use a fork or a spoon. You can also make your own scaler by saving beer bottle caps, then nailing them upside down on a handheld size piece of wood. 5 or 6 caps spaced apart makes a good cheap scaler.
 
Uluapounder, nice stringer. I know what you mean about the Alaihi. A friend of mine ignorantly tried to wrestle with one while stringing it. Got poked in the hand and he had body aches and head aches for a couples days after.

Hey you guys hear of the spearoo who got tagged by a shark on Molokai? I hear he was swimming back to shore and was only in FOUR feet of water!! (sorry, off topic)

Gil :D
 
Yup, heard about him. His partners were already on shore:naughty . Must of been a tiger. Molokai like many of the neighbor islands has a lot of sharks. I hate to be paranoid, but I carry 4 disposable powerheads. I have friends who had to kick tigers in the head. I'll see if I can find yesterdays story and post it.
 
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