Hawaiian divers: how u eat Opihi?

[Huan]

All you Opihi pickers how do you eat em?
There is lots here and I want to try em.
any particular type/colour best?
all info gratefully received

Huan

 

[murdaINC]

Straight off da rocks. Broke da mouth. Thats a pretty good snack but takes an aquired taste. Another good way is to just grill them. Leave um in their shell and throw um on the grill with some soy sauce and chilipeper water. When they disconnect from their shell their done. Best served with a budwieser. Dam now Im getting hungry. To bad there are no opihi on Oahu. Guess I gota go back to Kauai to get some. How do you know what and Opihi is anyways?

 

[andyt808]

I have eaten opihi before and most of the times they are served raw. They taste pretty good, but the only thing is some of them are a bit crunchy.

ps: what kind of opihi do you have in Ireland?...I didn't think that opihi could live in water that cold.

 

[Huan]

I'll try and post some pictures the weather here is brutal so it won't be today.

 

[groats]

I didn't know these thing can be eaten! There's loads of them in the med and we only ever used them to as bait for fishing...

Are these the same species???

Joe

 

[fuzz]

I'm not sure if they're the same - we have tons here in Nor Cal too, but I haven't tried eating them. I did try some on a trip to Oregon & they tasted horrible so I've been skeptical.

Maybe I'll pick a few & try them next time I go out.

Similar to murdaINC:
Generally I eat the smaller ones whole(without shell of course) with a little chili pepper water(chili pepper, salt, water, sometimes a touch of vinegar). The bigger ones, I pop them out, scrape of the poop sack, then grill them in the shell with some variation of a soy sauce/ chili pepper mix. Still have places in Oahu that have them, but you won't hear where from me

Generally in Hawaii there are 2 types - the yellow & green/gray footed opihi. The yellow-footed ones(the yellow part sticks to the rocks) are the ones sought after.

Another real easy way to test them out is to fry some butter & garlic in a small pan & throw a few on there with the meat side down. Like murda said, when it's ready the meat will easily separate from the shell. Take off the poop chunk in the back(it's not bad, we eat it on all the smaller ones) & let us know how it went. A lot easier than firing up a grill to test them out!

 

[GilbertG.]

Hamakua coast on the Big Island!! That's opihi country my bruddahs. Big, yellow, and covered with limu (seaweed). Don't ever turn your back to the water! Mother ocean might pick you up and slam you on the rocks if you get greedy. Happened to my dad once. He's lucky to be alive.

Gil