A Taste of My Reality

I started this blog because there are a lot of friends out there that think I jet off to Maui and sit my bum in the sun sipping mai tai's and every once in a while bang out some food. NOT TRUE!
Case in point...
Wednesday....no, rewind to Tuesday evening. I had just finished dinner service, was cleaning up and looking forward to a relaxing evening when I was told I was going on the boat Wednesday to handle lunch for those that were going fishing. Sounds fine, right? Well, I can pretty much pull off lunch with a WITF (What's In The Fridge) approach. Issue becomes, what about dinner??
I need to make something that can be cooked very fast, appeal to all the various diets, allergies, etc.
I decide on stuffed shells with smoky marinara. Vegetarian..check, No Nuts...check, speedy...check
Problem....I have NONE of the ingredients and need to hit Safeway, then come back and cook everything, cool it and then pack for the fishing trip.

So, off I head at 8:30pm to the Safeway. If you have ever been to Maui or any island for that matter, they rarely stock shelves throughout the day as they do on the mainland. The delivery semi comes in the wee small hours of the morning, the store get stocked and looks good, then everything sells out. I am holding my breath as I drive to the store. Thankfully, I got the last quart of ricotta and last two boxes of jumbo shells. Oh yeah I forgot, pick up all the Foster's Beer and some Corona as well....Good luck finding beer at this hour!

I'm back at the condo and boiling water by 9pm, bust out a couple of 9x13 pans of stuffed shells, crack a cold beer while the pasta cools in an ice bath and finally think about some shut eye by 10:30pm. We meet the boat at 7am for fishing, that means I need to be up and ready-to-go, packed by 6:45!

Thankfully, the Captain's better half shuttles me to the boat in the car as all the beer and supplies are quite a load for the walk down the beach. All aboard, we cast off the mooring ball and head north towards Molokai. 40 minutes into the trip the seas start to build and the wind really picks up. We check the updated marine forecast and it doesn't look good for fishing. We bang into 15+ foot swells for another few minutes and then decide to head the other direction and fish off the back side of Lanai. Still pretty rough seas for the 3-hour trek at 7 knots. I started to get woozy. I am a sailor, and usually do not have problems with motion. But I could feel it coming on. Captain Mark said it best regarding seasickness, "Nothing worse than feeling hung-over when your not hung-over" Right about the time I'm realizing my condition, my other boat mates start asking when lunch is going to be ready! The LAST THING I can do right now is go below and try and balance enough to make lunch. It's going to have to wait an hour or so until the motion medication kicks in.

Did I mention we have been trolling the entire time and have not seen ONE fish!?

I regain my stability and make lunch. A protein-rich Mexican salad; romaine, cheese, grilled chicken, black beans, cucumber, tomato and salsa. Quite good, give it a try.

Mid-afternoon we are still bobbing and slamming off the coast of somewhere beautiful, the knife block is safely in a cabinet, coffee maker snug in the sink, everything that could 'fly' has been secured. Get the point? I mention all of this because the Captain has just requested popcorn as a snack. No problem, right? Just pop a bag in the microwave. Nope. He wants it the old fashioned way, with oil...yes HOT oil on the stove. In case you missed it, re-read the above conditions. I hated to do this, because as a private/personal chef 'No' is not something you ever say. I told the Captain I was not comfortable heating oil with the way the boat is rocking around. He was not happy. I hope he understood, but somehow I do not. I suggested pistachios as a stand in, and I think it did the trick.

Still no sign of fish.

Getting to be around that time where we need to start the 3-hour tour back to port before sundown. I text the Captain's Better Half with heating instructions for the stuffed shells because it's looking like we will not be in by 6pm, the usual dinner hour.

A STRIKE! Fish ON!

Click the above link for a video of Suze catching her fish and some commentary by Robin Leach of 'Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous'

Thanks if you read this far, more to come but this tropical gig is coming to a close soon.

Eat Well, Mahalo,
Chef Theo