- You know for two guys who live in California you'd think
we know how to dress for the beach a little better.
- I got this.
- Fish!
- In Hawaii.
- Because if your gonna eat seafood
might as well go to the middle of the ocean to get it.
- [Steven] Today on-
- [Andrew] Worth It.
- [Steven] We're going to be trying three
fish dishes at three drastically different price points
to find out which fish dish
is the most worth it at its price.
- Fish dish bish.
Look at Hawaii.
That's actually the ocean.
That's Hawaii.
We are on the island of Oahu.
- Oh.
In the city of--
- Honolulu.
- This will be pretty much gonna be sticking
for this journey.
Maybe we'll come back some other day.
Check out the other islands.
- First off we're going to a place called Ahi Assassins.
- What are we going to be having there?
- Poke!
- Wish I brought my swim trunks.
I didn't pack for this really.
(band music)
- I'm Erika, I'm the co-owner of Ahi Assassins.
- I'm Josh, co-owner of Ahi Assassins.
- This is traditional poke here that we do.
- What is poke?
- [Erika] In Hawaiian just means to dice or cut.
Poke for us is fresh fish, lightly sauced.
We wanna bring through the taste of the fish.
Majority of the time if you come in here in our first hours
you'll see guys breaking down fish, right here.
- [Andrew] How long have you been fishing?
- I think I was made on a boat.
(laughing)
Possibly, born right off of a boat.
On my mom's side
I come from a long line of Hawaiian fisherman.
- So did you always think that you would
be a fisherman for work?
- It was my dream.
I read the "Old Man in the Sea".
I'm like, that's who I wanna be.
- [Erika] He was a construction worker.
He would never go to work
because he wanted to catch the ahi.
So we decided to give it a shot
and make it a business.
- [Josh] This is all that's left of our first boat.
- I was wondering, like it's kind of a weird looking door.
(laughing)
- This boat now rests at the bottom of the ocean.
We've still got the door ahis are still coming through it.
- Do you have a couple favorites
that you could recommend for us?
- Yeah so we are really popular for our Lunatic poke.
That's our version of spicy ahi.
I am not a mayonnaise eater
so we decided to take the mayonnaise out
and add a few other things in there.
- Could you give us a little snapshot
of what is in that sauce?
- If I tell you, I gotta kill you man.
(laughing)
- [Andrew] Talking to a couple of assassins
I don't want to rub them the wrong way.
- This is a miniature van that we're sitting in the trunk of
because Ahi Assassins does not have any sit down space
in their retail space.
- You take a bowl and you eat it anywhere.
- I feel like I'm channeling Josh's story right now.
I got sounds of construction.
All I wanna do is eat fish.
- [Steven] Let's do it.
So first.
- [Andrew] The Lunatic.
- [Steven] Yes.
- Looks like cartoon rubies, little sea jewels.
- [Steven] Look at how juicy they look.
- It looks extremely juicy
- I can't do much more talking
because I'm salivating so much.
- Cheers.
(upbeat music)
(chewing)
Oh, my god.
- Yeah.
- It's so tender.
It just like melts.
- This is the real tuna melt.
- Yes.
- This is the most luxurious texture
I've ever experienced with food.
I feel like a bear eating this.
It's like (growling).
- I've never had real--
- Oh my god.
- It's like when you watch sports
and your just watching it from your own couch.
Then when you go the game and your court side
you actually see and feel the vibes of the place.
- Courtside with the bad fish.
- No hesitation.
(laughing)
- [Erika] We're gonna do Hawaiian style,
which is our traditional poke.
- [Josh] Hawaiian salt, limu is the seaweed.
- [Erika] Throw white onions and inamona,
a little bit of Hawaiian chili peppers,
and then coat that with sesame oil.
Mix everything around,
get the rice in your bowl,
top it on top and then that's your final poke bowl.
(cash register ring)
- So here we have the Hawaiian style.
- Yes.
(band music)
- Oh...
God, what have you done?
- This tastes like your standing on a beach and just
grab the tuna out of the water.
You got all this seaweed stuck to it.
- [Steven] Oh my god.
- I want to try all of them.
- My mind is being re-wired right now,
like the things I knew about raw fish
and the taste that you could experience.
- Stupid good.
- I wish I didn't know about this.
- We flew too close to the sun on the wing
of a tuna.
- [Erika] We use every bit of the ahi in this shop.
- [Josh] Hawaiians are taught to use your resources
and store them well.
We catch only sizeable fish, one hook, one line at a time.
I'm not thinking about a paycheck for me.
I'm thinking about putting food on the table
for many generations.
- [Erika] So bones and collars
that's usually trash parts of the fish...
- Yeah. - You can say.
It's not trash to us that's gold.
Everyone's favorite is the bag of bones.
It's when we get a paper lunch bag
and we just fill it to the top.
- Do you just munch down on that?
- Yeah totally.
- Is the whole thing edible at that point?
- You would've sucked the meat off of those bones.
Yeah, it's exactly like a chicken wing.
- [Andrew] Okay.
- That bone meat.
- Bone meat.
- That's what I'm about.
- I had no idea this was gonna happen.
Imagine the size of this thing.
You know that's like that on you.
- Oh.
- How should we attack this?
- People just like to stick their finger in it.
- Oh geez.
- Dip it in and you eat it.
- Okay, alright I can't wait.
- Oh yeah...
look at that.
I just ripped meat off of a fish's neck head.
Oh dude, it's so fatty and soft inside.
- This is where the flavor lives.
- Yeah.
- Right off the bone.
- Now I feel like a bear.
- Can you imagine if bears knew how to deep fry fish?
(laughing)
Last thing I want to talk about is the aloha spirit.
It's about the family, it's about the neighbors
- Can I eat the outside of this?
- I'm trying to have sentimental moment with you bro.
- Sorry, I gotta find out if I can eat it.
(chewing)
- [Steven] We got Leonard's Bakery.
My roommate is from Hawaii and he said we should eat here.
Oh man.
Boom.
(soft rock music)
- Oh.
- Oh no.
I feel like eating a thick cloud.
- It's delicious.
- I need to live here.
- [Andrew & Steve] Fish fact.
- [Andrew] The mucus-producing hagfish
can fill a two gallon bucket with mucus
in minutes when disturbed.
- What?
- Yeah.
- How big is this fish?
- We'll try to find a picture and put it here.
- Can you imagine producing gallons of liquid
from your body?
- Okay.
- Just when your annoyed.
I guess that's kinda like what crying is,
but if you cry gallons.
- And it was thick in viscous.
- Yes, great usage of viscous.
- Now we're going to a place called MW Restaurant.
It is a husband-wife duo.
- I wonder if they consider each other
a catch.
(serene music)
- I'm Michelle Karr-Ueoka,
pastry chef, owner of MW Restaurant.
- My name is Wade Ueoka, chef and co-owner of MW Restaurant.
- I love the fork MW, it's awesome.
- [Wade] Her cousin actually designed it for us.
- That was one of the very few things we agreed on.
(laughing)
- What kind of restaurant is MW Restaurant?
- [Wade] We do Hawaii Regional Cuisine.
Hawaii is made up of so many ethnic backgrounds
so we try to put that all together on a plate.
- Do you mainly focus on the dessert
or do you cover other areas in the restaurant?
- No no, only dessert
and I think that makes it a happy marriage too.
The front is his side, the back is my side.
- [Wade] Today we're making the dish
for this beautiful naga that just came in today.
It's a long tail red snapper.
We take the filet, season with salt,
and we take blocks of kiri mochi,
and then we grate it, looks like shredded coconut.
Coat the fish and then sear it a medium to hot pan
with about 3-4 minutes on each side.
We place the fish right on top several minutes
and then three small piles of bonchon vegetables,
kimchi, bok choy, and then some pickled namasu.
My mom used to make deep friend mochi,
growing up is one of my favorite things.
That's kind of the inspiration of this dish.
- [Steven] Do you serve the dish now
when you mom comes to the restaurant?
- [Wade] Yes.
(laughing)
What does she think about that?
- [Wade] She loves it.
- [Andrew] This is delightful.
Do you ever thing you'd mochi as a crust for a fish?
- No, but...
now I'm thinking
what else can we crust with mochi?
- Probably anything.
- This is a unnamed cocktail by the way.
- Yeah.
- There's still development it's uzu, ginger.
- Some kind of Japanese whiskey highball
- And a local honey.
- Local honey, that's what they called me in high school.
- Cheers. - Cheers.
- Okay that's delicious.
In the world of crunchy stuff
there are all types of different kinds of crunch.
You've got your potato chip crunch, your carrot crunch.
I would most relate this crunch to the crunch of popcorn.
Initially a crunch and then super soft all the way
through on the inside.
I'm gonna dip this in the sauce.
(soft rock music)
- Slightly sweet, slightly salty.
This is just like very slight.
- Yeah, this is delightful.
The snapper flesh itself is like pats of butter
with flakes apart.
Yeah, fish butter.
- I think fish is the perfect meat.
- Yes.
It's so tender and light.
- Also did you see the raw snapper?
- Yes.
- [Andrew] It's a beautiful creature.
People think horses are beautiful
that is a red ocean dragon.
- I'm not gonna to forget this moment.
I'm gonna be telling my kids and my grandkids
about this mochi crusted fish.
I'm going home tomorrow
and I'm gonna try to make this myself.
Pop this whole thing in your mouth.
You want some sauce, here.
Take a little bit of sauce.
- Drizzle, yeah.
His minds gonna be blown.
Yeah.
Time for dessert.
- For dessert you'll be having tropical creamsicle brulee.
Coconut tapioca on the bottom,
which is a play of of the Filipino dish halo-halo.
And then we top it off with tropical fruits,
lilikoi custard, my version of a gummy bear.
I loved gummy bears growing up.
I take the lilikoi
and there's a french dessert called petit four,
it's a little bit softer not as chewy and gummy
so I combined the two together
to make the texture of a gummy bear.
Lilikoi sorbet, lilikoi custard,
and we burn it like a thin sugar cookie.
It all comes together.
- [Andrew] Creme brulee might be my favorite dessert.
It's neck and neck with tiramisu
and carrot cake, and gelato.
(laughing)
I'm ready to break the crust.
(jazz music)
- It's over.
- Yeah.
- One fish, two fish.
- Screw fish eat dessert.
(laughing)
Oh my god.
The sorbet inside is so good.
I like how you double every texture.
You have something chewy
and something slightly different chewy.
The gummy bear cube and the tapioca balls.
It's like a gummy bear,
but it doesn't have the part of a gummy bear
that sticks your teeth together.
- I used to be-head gummy bears as a kid.
- Oh yeah, you gotta be-head the gummy bear.
- And then you swap the heads with the different colors.
- I didn't do that.
- [Andrew] Chef Michelle's mother hand bakes
her grandmother's recipe.
Cookie cheers.
- That's what I'm talking about.
Cheers.
- That's really good.
Got a fish fact for me?
- Fish fact
(symbol clash)
Actually its more like fish trivia.
Although, many species have not been discovered yet
right now how many fish species do you think there are?
- Fifty thousand.
- Your in the right ball park.
- The answer is 27,300.
- That's a lot of fish species.
I mean the ocean is giant.
It's like the rest of the world
is living on a one story building
and the ocean is a thousand story building.
Fish on every floor.
Now we're on our way to Chef Mavro
- What are we eating there?
- Fish.
(soothing music)
- [Andrew] What type of cuisine do you
here at Chef Mavro?
- Really, why?
- Tell us about the onaga that you used in this.
- [Andrew] Is the tea leaf a local ingredient as well?
- [Andrew] That's the leaf.
- [Andrew] Okay.
- [Andrew] Oh.
- [Andrew] Is there a recommended beverage
that we should have along with it?
- [Steven] Thank you.
Cheers.
- Divine. - Smooth.
- Ready to have this fish?
- [Andrew] Do you always serve the fish?
- When I can.
Sometimes we get too busy, I cannot escape.
- So this guy...
- Alright.
- You cannot eat that with all this salt.
Even you want I'm not going to give to you.
- Enjoy it.
- Thank you. - Thank you so much.
I did not expect any of this.
You literally create a shell to cook the fish in.
(smelling)
- I honestly don't know what's happening here
with my nose.
Fish is in there, but there's so much more happening.
Cheers.
- What?
- What.
- More unexpected things that are happening right now.
I need to take another bite.
Okay, I have to say it's extremely delicious.
- I've never had a more perfectly cooked fish.
- I don't understand what is happening.
My expectation going in, I was like okay,
I know something tastes like a tomato, with leaf and fish.
For my mouth it is not at all that.
- Here's my impression of it
and this is gonna sound ridiculous
because I know that we just interviewed
a french man who moved to Hawaii,
but when I eat this fish
the first thing I think of is
a french man who moved to Hawaii
(laughing)
and made the most delicious fish he could.
That's what it tastes like.
I don't know.
The seaweed inside the sauce is blowing my mind.
- It all feels like one delicious,
mind melting, in heart warming texture.
- It kind of just tastes like
that's how this fish always tasted.
- Yeah, I'm trying to think of
what could be just perfectly come together?
- I would also never guess spinach was gonna end up in here.
- No.
- Oh.
- That looks like a delicious biscuit
that's covered in sugar right now.
- I want to eat it, but I know chef told us
not to let our taste buds near that.
- Just makes sense.
- [Andrew] The movie with Robert De Niro?
- I know this is the end of the fish video,
but we're here where the fish get made.
(laughing)
- [Steven] One of my favorite episodes
that we've never done.
- Yeah, me too.
- Aye oh!
Who's your worth it winner?
- [Andrew] MW Restaurant,
they just do such a good job there.
Everything is delicious, but my worth it winner
Chef Mavro.
- [Steven] No way.
- Chef Mavro's dish is the story of a man
who moved to Hawaii, fell in love with the island,
and then created a masterpiece on a plate.
- Wow.
- I think you just want to move here.
- I just want to be Chef Mavro.
What was your worth it winner?
- [Steven] The poke at Assassins.
- [Andrew] Whoa.
- [Steven] Yeah.
- They killed it.
(laughing)
Literally.
(laughing)
- Poke in general doesn't really make sense to me
other than here.
If your in Ohio eating poke the cost of freight
is not sustainable.
- Did you say fright?
- Freight.
- Oh, freight.
- Freight. - Freight.
- Is it not freight?
- You said fright.
The cost of scaring the fish today.
(laughing)
Adam who's your worth it winner?
- The creme brulee?
- Michelle's creme brulee.
- I actually haven't touched the ocean yet
since I've been here.
- I'm going first.
- Is it warm?
(waves crashing)
Oh it's nice.
- See you on the next episode.
What are we doing next?
- Bye. - Bye.
Bye guys.
- Bye.
- [Steven] I want to be a fisherman.
You ever fish?
- [Andrew] Couple times as a kid.
A lot more crabbing now.
I don't know if that counts as fish or not.
- [Steven] Are crab fish?
- [Andrew] No, they're not.
You catch a fish, you capture a crab.
- [Steven] Oh, yes!