Catch and Cook Fijian Style Food

In this video, before sun was even up, I headed out with Grey and Ben to explore some of Fiji's reefs. We ended up bringing back all kinds of reef fish, but this time the best part came after the dive. I wanted to turn our fresh catch into one of my favorite Fijian dishes, fish curry, or as they call it here, suruwa. You can really taste the coconut. And to make a proper suruwa, coconut milk is a big part of it. So if you want to husk a coconut, you have to start on the soft side. So Grey showed me how to husk and scrape a coconut, something I'd actually never done before. What I really love about suruwa is that almost nothing goes to waste. You can use pretty much every part of the fish. And with the dog tooth we caught, I tried making my own sashimi presentation for Ben's family to taste. And this is how we turn our fresh catch into one of my favorite Fijian meals. What's up guys? Welcome back to another episode. It is 5 a.m. It's dark, but we're gonna go to the secret reef. This is gonna be really exciting. I'm very stoked to go this. It's really far, so get ready. Good morning Ben. How are you? How's your sleep? Nice to meet you. Yeah, nice to meet you. Oh, you got a nice float too, huh? Oh yeah, yeah. Where's the mahi? Yeah, yeah. Oh, that's from Sam? Sam Wilde, yeah, yeah. Oh, you just left Big Gun back in New Zealand. This means lots of problems in Fijian. Yeah, we got how many? 40 horsepowers. It's been really bad condition, really windy, and the water was murky, you know? When you went to the reef, you can't see anything. My gun was further than the vis. Yeah, yeah. Like less than one meter vis. There's another boat. 1.6, 1.7, and then I leave. Yeah, conditions are a little bit rough, but nothing major. We're standing. We got dumpling here, Fijian style. Are you feeling great? I'm really excited, because I know today we'll get a big one. Yeah, big one. So currently, the ocean is a little bit rough, a little bit windy, so we're gonna check out this reef first, and if the condition is gonna be good, we'll send it to the other one. We'll catch some reef fish here. We need something, fresh fish. It's been like two weeks. It was a rough condition, and today is one of the best, calmest days of two weeks, but yeah, two weeks ago, it was like a lake. But at least the vis is good over here. It's not like out there, like one meter vis. Can't see. You cannot even see your spear tip. Let's go. Oh no. Oh, he hooked something. All right, now we're suited up and ready to go. Let's go. I'll see you guys in the water. Oh, that's a good boom, yeah? Really good boom. All right, I was super stoked to finally dive some nice clear water. There were bait fish all around, and I had a feeling there might be something bigger hanging down below, so I dropped my spoon. The flash from the spoon helps attract curious fish and bring them in. I grabbed it back and started checking out the bottom to see if anything was hiding around there. There wasn't much going on, so I moved over to the next cave to see if any GTs were hanging out inside. I checked another crack nearby too, but still nothing. So I decided to move on to the next bommie. As soon as I got there, I could tell from the surface that there were some fish down below. When I dropped down, I spotted a Latinidabeta. These fish are insanely good in soup, so I didn't hesitate and took a nice shot. I've actually never seen this fish diving anywhere else in the Pacific outside of Fiji. The first time I tried it, I wasn't even sure if it was gonna be good, but now it's honestly one of my favorites. After saying good morning to the shark, I moved on to the next reef. There was this channel running through the middle of the reef, and that's when I spotted a sweetlips. I slowly worked my way closer and took a shot on him. He wasn't massive, but these fish are really good for surua, Fijian fish curry, and honestly, around this size, the meat is even better, so I was stoked. Then I came across this really interesting looking jellyfish. I dropped my spoon again and started checking around this umbrella-shaped coral to see what might be hiding underneath. All right, maybe a couple hours or so. Just only two fish so far, Latinidabeta and then sweetlips, but we need a bigger fish, so we're gonna go to the other reef. I think the ocean is getting rougher, so I don't know if we can go further, but still, yeah. You see any here? Yeah, I saw a future valley, but maybe a bit small to shoot, and also I've been having a hard time, too many beers last night. Okay, we made it to the next bomi. This is pretty much how we dive out here, just checking each bomi one by one and seeing what's around. There were a few parrotfish here, but they were super skittish and wouldn't let me get anywhere near them. Then moved over and dropped my spoon on another part of the reef. This spot was loaded with a different kind of baitfish, these really cool blue and orange ones. There were actually a few decent-sized parrotfish hanging around this reef, too, but they were way too skittish. Are you finished? No, I'm just coming. From here, I wanted to try diving a little deeper, so I dropped down to around 15 to 18 meters. When I got to the bottom, there were baitfish all around, but nothing really worth shooting. Then I spotted what I think was a sturgeon fish out in front of me. Gray had actually asked me to get one of these aria when he was on the boat, so I decided to take the shot. As soon as I hit it, I started pulling on the line and keeping the pressure on the fish so it wouldn't tangle itself up in the coral. Then I made my way back up to the surface. While I was down there trying to get close to this parrotfish, Ben was up on the boat hooking into something. Oh, it's covered. Good sashimi, eh? Yeah, good sashimi. Yes! Let's go! I dropped back down on the reef where the shark has eaten that fish aria. I spotted a gray chub down there. In Hawaii, they call these nenue, and they are actually really good eating raw. As always, I bled and drained the fish straight away to keep it as fresh as possible. On the next drop, I was honestly kind of amazed by how many baitfish were around. Then I spotted a trevally coming through, but unfortunately, I missed the shot. I grabbed the spoon as it came dropping down from the surface and started looking around to see if there were anything good hanging nearby. Sometimes you just have to sit there and wait. Trevally or red bass can get curious and come in to check you out, so you've gotta be patient. I dropped the spoon again, but this time I stayed closer to the bottom and searched around the same reef from down there. It didn't show up on camera, but I could just barely make out a GT in a distance. Unfortunately, he was way too far out. All right, we moved to a little closer to shore and decided to dive somewhere with a bit less current. As you can see, the vis wasn't that great here, but when I dropped down to the bottom, I spotted this nice sweetlips. I waited for him to turn slightly side on, then took the shot. It was a nice holding shot, and he actually turned out to be a pretty decent size sweetlips, so I was stoked. At this point, I was already thinking about dinner. Sweetlips make such a good fish curry. For this next drop, I went down to around 20 meters. From a distance, I could see a big school of fish, so I started flashing the spoon and waited to see if anything would come closer. Then all of a sudden, a whole bunch of unicorn fish came in from the left, while a school of red bass started coming from the right. I honestly didn't know which one to go for, but there were some really nice red bass in the school, so I started closing the distance and took a long shot and missed. There were still heaps of bait fish hanging around the same reef, so I dropped the spoon again to see if those red bass were still around. And then out of nowhere, a school of skipjack came cruising by. I quickly tried to line up the shot, but my line got caught on the reef and made a bit of noise. That was enough to spook them. If I'd landed one of those, that definitely would have been the fish of the day. I tried to drop back down on the same spot again, but this nasty looking shark was still hanging around underneath me, so I decided it was probably time to move on to the next spot. I was almost blackout. Yeah, so I was about to blackout, but it's all good. Now we spotted some birds still there. Okay, so we're trying to go there. Hopefully get some trevally. That must have been some yellowfin or skipjack action, but by the time I got over there, they were already gone. All right, this is gonna be the last dive of the day. Let's get some reef fish. All right, this entire area honestly didn't even feel real. The coral was so alive and there were just so many fish life everywhere. On my first drop on this reef, I speared a trevally. All the commotion brought in a shark and this reef shark came charging straight at my fish. Luckily, Ben was right there and gave the shark a poke, so I managed to keep my trevally. Shark, shark, shark go like this to the fish. And then to finish off the dive, I spotted another sweetlips. Honestly, before I even pulled the trigger, I was already picturing fish thrower for dinner. Once I landed this sweetlips, that pretty much confirmed it. No fish meeting tonight. We were having suruwa. And that was pretty much the end of my dive. My camera ended up dying, so I couldn't record the rest, but there were still so many good fish cruising around this reef in really shallow water. Honestly, the whole place felt like a dream. Holy. Bro, this is massive. Like a big red fish. It's like the most beautiful reef I've ever seen. That was sick. Yeah, I've got a video of you shooting over your shoulder. Trevally. That was like right behind you. That was sick. You know the bigger emperor? Yeah, what is that, the big red one? The big school? It's called Mu. That thing is like crazy, like unbelievable kind like a hawaiian. Yeah. People die for those fish. Go like a 20 meter, you have to stay on the bottom like two minutes, one minute. But like over here, like maybe five meter, big pile of Mu. That's insane. I was like, oh, I dove down on one, and I was like, we couldn't choose which one to shoot. And I was like, oh ----, whoa, that was a sick dive. That was so fun. What do you reckon? Lotte will be surprised. Really surprised. Really surprised. Sweet lips. Not bad, eh? Okay, jump. What? I just made a sashimi for Ben, and this is for you, for your family. Thank you very much. Enjoy. Thank you. This was actually a dog tooth. We thought like rainbow runner, but got the teeth here. Yeah. Deliver this sashimi to Ben's family. Some, you know, small sashimi plate. I never have a dog tooth before. Pretty good wine. From New Zealand, eh? Oh my gosh. Creamy, beautiful. Truly, that's probably, what is that? Tuna? Yeah. Yeah, a dog tooth. It is amazing. It's delicious. This is delicious. I think the big dog tooth doesn't taste like this. Because since it's a small dog tooth, it tastes amazing. Thank you, Ben. Cheers, bro. You got it. This wine is so good, though. Thank you, guys. Thank you. Thank you so much. What is up, guys? Wow, I had a really great sleep last night, and it's already past lunch, but we're gonna have a fish suruwa. Suruwa is like a fish curry in Fiji, and we're gonna make, Elote gonna make a fish suruwa. Okay, now I'm gonna husk the coconut. Actually, I never done this before, but Greg told me some tips. This is the red side of coconut, eh? The red side, this is the soft part, this is the hard one. So, if you want to husk a coconut, you have to start on the soft side, here. So, you have to put one hole here, like, like this. That's a hole. And the other one, put it here. Don't move it further, eh? Don't move it here, because this is the hard part, only here. So, you'll go like this. One hole, this hand, push down. This one, see? Once you push it down, this one hold this, then go. So, once you get one hole, push it down, and rotate straight. And then, left hand, like, you kind of, like, hold it, and then the right, right hand, just push it down. Oh, yeah. Okay, first part, uh, husking the coconut is done. And now, second part, we're gonna scraping the coconut. So, here's the coconut, and they got their face. So, this is the eyes and the mouth. We're gonna cut just right on the head. Yeah, there you go. Got thick coconut and some coconut water. It's good, but not as sweet as a young one. Second part, uh, scraping the coconut. Yeah, I've been traveling to all the Fijian village, but I've never done this before. Just learn from by watching. You want to rotate the coconut while you're scraping. Okay, I'll switch to Mr. Coconut Boy, Greg. Okay, Mbula everyone, when you start scraping a coconut, you have to start on the edge, right on the edge. So, if you start inside, it will be very hard. Hold it like this. The other one here, my hand on top. So, I'll go. And you go around. Wow, so fast. Yeah. So, when you finish the edge. It's easy, like, compared to my one, it's just like one, two, three. So, this is very easy for you to scrape inside, not the edge. All right, here's the fish that I caught yesterday. Uh, this is a sweet lips. Uh, I don't know this Fijian name. It's called Ninue in Hawaii. It's a really good eating fish. That's the head part. Sweet lips. Yeah, this is one of the best fish for making suruwa. Seems like not that hard fish to catch. Once you find it, it's really easy. They're just hoveling. So, you just kind of like a shish kebab shot or it's easy to spear, but hard to find. Okay, now I'm gonna fillet this, uh, sweet lips, the suruwa, which is curry. So, pretty much all the part of fish we're gonna use. So, last night, this fish were in the chiller bin with, uh, some ice. So, it must be good. Done. Nice fillet. Okay, just, just down to just a rough cut, rough fillet. So, here's the 100% coconut cream straight from the coconut meat. This one, he added some water. Why, why do you guys make two coconut cream? We'll add this one first, add the light one first, and then once the food is boiling, then we'll put the creamy one. So, our food, it's, uh, nice and creamy, you know. You just love to eat when it's nice and creamy. So, for this suruwa, we'll fry our fish. So, we don't stick our fish on the pan. Oh, does it help? Yeah. Really, I didn't know that. When you cook suruwa last time, did you fry it? No, we didn't fry it. It's just a raw fish. We just put it straight away in the pot with our curry spices, and then we add the lolo. But this is different. We are frying our fish, then we'll put a strong smell of the fish. Yeah, I think if you fry it first, uh, I think it tastes a little bit better. Yeah. Here's the deep-fried swillips. Let's try it. Let's give it a bite. Oh, oh, it tastes good. This is gonna be really great suruwa. The fish is really good. Flaky meat. Wow, this is a stomach. We're gonna fry a stomach liver. This is actually really good eating. Use the whole head. So, pretty much when you make suruwa, you can eat whole fish. You don't waste any. So, this is dog tooth tuna. Then, this part is bit by shark. That's why we didn't use it as a sashimi. I think it should be good if you cook it. Yeah, last night, the dog tooth tuna sashimi was really good. Like, that was like better than water, actually. The Spanish mackerel. I was really surprised. Dog tooth was that good. We're gonna use the entire head of the fish. Get some more flesh. This is the color. It's the best part. Cherry tomatoes. Curry spices. Got some nice flavor from this fish head. So, this is the light coconut cream. Coconut milk. A light one. So, we're gonna wait until this coconut cream is boiling. Then, we just add a lid. Smells already so good. I'm super hungry. Okay, looks like it's boiling. Wow, this looks so good already. So, since it's boiling, I'm gonna add this 100% pure coconut cream. Check this out. Oh, yeah, this is a winner. Oh, school kids came back. Hello, hello. Wow, something smells good. Yeah, what do you think? Fish. You hungry already? Smells so good. This is gonna be my first meal of the day. I'm so hungry. Wow, rice. We need rice for suruwa. School kids are cleaning the yard. He'll be really happy. He's always happy. Look at the size of that rice. This is for great smile. It's like a Nandari Batu. This is a hill from here. Oh, yeah, yeah. All right, let's give it a try. Fish suruwa. Just put it in here. All right, here we go. Can't wait to try this. That is so good. The curry is so rich. That's the one. This is the stomach. My favorite part. Try this stomach. Oh, wow, full of flavor. Nice and like, I like, I really like this texture. Nice and chewy. I forgot this chili. Chili is finished. Really good. Number one. Miku said don't talk. Let us enjoy our food. Need to add some broth. You can really taste the coconut. This is so rich and creamy. Thank you so much for the food, for the fish. Now, whenever we want to go to eat suruwa, we can go. Same reef. We found the honey holes. So, yeah, they got plenty fish. These three lips are nice and flaky. The meat is... I am so full. That was a really good dinner. And my stomach is almost exploded. But I think this is gonna be the last episode in Fiji because I'm going to Kiribati. But thank you guys so much for watching for this two months. I will definitely come back to Fiji, so please stay tuned. But thank you guys for watching and I'll see you in Kiribati.