17This is how it
goes in Hawaii,
little favors
and shares.in a small mixing bowl. Set aside at room
temperature (if refrigerated, the hot oil added
at the end won’t sizzle). In another small
bowl, mix the chung choi, ginger and cilantro
stems, and stuff ½ cup of the mixture inside
the fish cavity, including the head. Pat the
remaining few tablespoons over both sides of
the fish’s body.- Set a steamer rack or other metal rack
inside a wok or roasting pan large enough
to accommodate the fish, and set on
the stove, straddling two burners if needed.
Have ready the wok’s lid or sheets of foil
large enough to cover the roasting pan tightly.
Add enough water to come up to the rack
(1-1½ inches). Bring the water to a boil over
high heat. - While the water boils, stack 2 sheets
of heavy-duty aluminum foil large enough
to hold the fish. Turn up and crimp the foil
at the edges to create a boat just large
enough to fit the fish. The raised edges will
catch the drippings, which will make the
sauce. Put the foil boat on the rack over the
boiling water, then lay the stuffed fish on
the foil. Cover with a lid or tightly with foil, and
let steam for 15 to 18 minutes (6 minutes per
pound). Don’t lift the lid to check on the fish, as
this will cause the temperature to drop. Adjust
the temperature as needed if the lid begins
to clatter. Uncover, and check to see if the fish
is done: The eyes should be white and bulging,
the mouth slightly agape, and a chopstick
inserted into the flesh should slide in easily.
Turn off the heat. - Using two long spatulas, gently transfer the
fish to the somen platter, laying it on top of the
noodles. Lift the foil boat out of the steamer,
careful not to spill any drippings, and pour the
drippings into a small bowl. Add the oyster
sauce and scallop powder (or fish sauce), and
stir. Pour the sauce over the fish, then cover the
fish with the vegetable-and-herb garnish. - Pour the reserved garlic oil into a small
saucepan. Heat over high until the garlic
turns golden brown, 2-3 minutes. Turn off the
heat, and discard the garlic. Slosh the soy
sauce over the garnished fish, then carefully
pour on the hot garlic oil, letting it sizzle.
Serve immediately.
Tip 1: When buying a whole fish, make sure the
eyes are clear and the flesh is firm.Tip 2: Chung choi is salted preserved turnip,
dark brown in color and often wound into a
ball with its leaves. On the mainland, it is sold
in Asian markets. Salted preserved mustard
greens, also available at Asian markets and
online, can be substituted. You also can make
a fresh version by finely chopping mustard
greens, tossing with a very generous pinch of
salt and letting sit overnight in the refrigerator.
Squeeze dry before using.Yield: 4-6 servings.
Adapted from Glenn Yamashita.Uncle Glenn’s Onaga (Steamed Red
Snapper With Somen)
Time: 1 hour 15 minutes, plus soaking overnight2 garlic cloves, crushed
¼ cup peanut oil
1 whole red snapper or other whole mild
white fi sh (2½-3 pounds), gutted and
scaled, head and tail left on (see Tip 1)
2 bundles somen (about 7 ounces)
1 small celery rib, cut into very thin
matchsticks
1 small carrot, peeled and cut into very
thin matchsticks
3 scallions, cut into very thin matchsticks
½ of 1 small white onion, cut into very
thin matchsticks
1 small bunch cilantro, leaves coarsely
chopped, stems minced
1 ball (about 1¼ ounces) chung choi (salted
preserved turnip), rinsed, squeezed
dry and fi nely chopped (3 tablespoons;
see Tip 2)
1 (3-inch) piece fresh ginger, peeled and
minced (⅓ cup)
1 teaspoon oyster sauce
1 teaspoon scallop powder mixed with
water to make a thin paste, or 1 teaspoon
fi sh sauce
1 tablespoon soy sauce- The day before cooking, submerge the
garlic in the oil in a small container. Cover, and
refrigerate overnight. - Check the fish for any remaining scales,
and scrape off, paying special attention to the
head and tail. Rinse the fish, and pat dry. - Boil the somen according to the package
instructions, rinsing and draining well. While
the noodles are still damp, arrange them on a
serving platter, and cover with plastic wrap. - Loosely toss together the celery, carrot,
scallions, white onion and cilantro leaves
my mother’s neighbor of close to 50 years,
graciously invites me, the prodigal from
New York. The table is crowded, or as we
say, kapakahi (mixed up) — rice in a 10-cup
cooker, stuff ed cabbage, glossy lo mein,
a great ham under halos of pineapple,
king crab legs with a little hotpot of melt-
ed butter, pink-hearted roast beef to be
sluiced with jus — but onaga is the prize,
the whole fi sh buried under a thatch of
scallions, cilantro, carrots and celery, only
showing its frilly tail and one pearl eye.
The fl esh lifts straight off the bones.
Glenn Yamashita — Uncle Glenn to
the young people who wander the house,
regardless of actual relation — has been
making this dish for some 25 years. It’s
his variation on a local specialty, a Chi-
nese-style steamed fi sh, salty-sour from a
stuffi ng of preserved vegetable and faint-
ly sweet from the fl esh of the fi sh itself.
Skeins of Japanese somen noodles are
tucked beneath and hot oil poured over
at the end. Done right, it crackles.
Red fi sh are in demand as the new year
looms; they’re the color of luck. Local
TV anchors report ahi prices as breaking
news. Restaurants and hotels typically get
fi rst pick, so Uncle Glenn orders his onaga
a month ahead through a friend who owns
a sushi bar. (An unexpected blessing of the
2020 pandemic lockdown was that home
cooks suddenly had access to the islands’
best fi sh, with boats off ering drive-through
specials at the pier.) This is how it goes in
Hawaii, little favors and shares, a jar of
guava jam left at the front door, a sack of
mangoes hanging on the knob.
When I asked Uncle Glenn for his reci-
pe, he wrote it out by hand, as he does not
own a computer, and drove an hour to Mrs.
Chang’s house to drop it off for her daugh-
ter, who scanned and emailed it to me. Two
of the ingredients are readily available in
Hawaii but elsewhere may require more
of a search: chung choi, a salted turnip top
wrapped in its own long leaves — pickled
mustard greens are a fi ne substitute, bring-
ing a similar sourness and depth — and
scallop powder, a seasoning of pulverized
dried scallops whose intense brine can be
approximated with fi sh sauce.
Onaga is regal, but at Mrs. Chang’s, we
don’t stand on ceremony. The reverence
is in the gathering itself, in fi nding a way
to be together, despite everything. We
scrounge for spots on the couch and fl oor,
eat off paper plates and ready ourselves
for the scrum of holiday games: decoding
Christmas-carol titles from emoji, steal-
ing Secret Santa gifts. The rule is, no gift
can be stolen more than three times. The
most-fought-over in recent memory was
a bag of Hokkaido Nanatsuboshi rice — a
rice so coveted that when I told this story
to a friend, she gasped and reached into
her cabinet to show me she had it, too
— so this year, we thought we’d reprise
the skirmish by bringing another bag. But
there turned out to be too many gifts, and
no one chose our rice.
It was tempting to smuggle it back
home. Instead, we left it on the table at the
end of the night, our mahalo, and our hope
to be here again next year.