Linkmeister

My inner gourmand surfaces

Get out the shoyu and wasabi! The sashimi (raw fish) catch looks good!

"I would say (tuna) prices are going to be lower than usual if you took an average of the holiday prices for the past few years," Fram said.

The Garden and Valley Isle shop has sashimi-grade 'ahi at a little over $15 a pound. "Normally, at New Year's that grade would be $18.95 but I don't think it's going to go up much," Fram said.

At the auction, Takenaka said, most of the fish sold for between $5 and $7 a pound, with smaller fish as low as $2 a pound. You can expect to pay twice or three times that at retail, depending on the seller and the quality of the fish.

I know, I know. "Raw fish? Eww!" Hey, oysters are a delicacy, aren't they? Believe me, there's nothing quite like the taste of fresh 'ahi (tuna) dipped in a nice mixture of soy sauce and wasabi (that's Japanese horseradish). Yum!