Grilled Local Fish

Grilled local fish is served Chinese-style with a black bean sauce, choy sum, and green onions.      

Some of the main elements in this dish are a result of the Chinese immigration to Hawai‘i during the plantation era.  The first Chinese was said to have arrived in in 1789, with thousands more arriving for several decades beginning in 1852 to work on the sugar plantations.

Like the Hawaiians, the Chinese used food preservation in times of food scarcity, and two common preserved Chinese ingredients - lup cheong and fermented black beans, which are staples in many homes in Hawai‘i, are used in this dish.