Hawaiians Were Gourmets When It Came to Fish

By CLARICE TAYLOR

The Hawaiian pitied the white man as an uncultivated person when he first saw the white man eating fish.

The white man discarded the portions of the fish which the Hawaiians considered delicacies—such as the head, the eyes, the entrails, the skin and the little dark portions next to the bone.

Then, too, the white man only ate cooked fish. He had no idea of the choice flavor of fresh fish eaten immediately after taking it from the water.

All this and much more is told in a new publication, Native Use of Fish in Hawaii by Margaret Titcomb, librarian, and Mary Kawena Pukui, associate in Hawaiian Culture at Bishop Museum.

Published in N. Z.

Native Uses of Fish in Hawaii is a supplement to the Journal of Polynesian Society and was published by the Society in New Zealand.

The books will soon be on sale at the Bishop Museum Bookshop.

Although Native Uses of Fish in Hawaii is a scientific publication, its text is easy to read for the layman and contains much fascinating material on how the Hawaiian at fish, his major source of protein. Continue reading →