Fish Fry @ Fifield's

Dear Friends, Family, & Readers,

The other night Kara and I decided to hold a fish night potluck at our apartment on campus and had lots of great friends show up. It was a night full of feasting, talking, and of course sweating. It was a great way for people who have been on island for a few weeks to meet those who are now returning for their second or more year of teaching on Saipan. The only regret I have is that I couldn’t have invited anymore people because there was so little room in the first place! Kara and I have always loved playing host whether living in South Dakota where we would frequently have game nights with our friends and safe holiday parties. I think we enjoy doing it so much because I married a woman similar to my mother in how social she is, and I had two parents who often opened their home to friends. Perhaps when we have time we will do this again. So, you are probably wondering what kind of fish we ate that night and what can Grant tell me about fish from Saipan. The answer is not too much.
What I can tell you is that when I went looking for fish at about 1230pm that afternoon I walked to the local fish market on Beach Rd. and waited for the boat to return with their latest catch of tuna. The boat came in about ten minutes after I arrived and I picked up two five pound tuna for $30 bucks. I was able to weasel the price down the even price from $33. The type of Tuna I bought is called a Skipjack. The grilled tuna recipe I found online turned out really well and was very flavorful. The recipe was for Teriyaki Tuna, Grilled. I also bought a rather ugly looking five pound fish called locally by the name Matan Hagon, which is the Chamorro word for Snapper. If you look snapper up scientifically it is under Mortaxis Grandoculis (family lutjanidae). As for what type of snapper I bought I’m not sure, but the price was $18. The Tuna picture shows a fish with jagged triangles going down the tail and the Snapper picture has really large eyes. I chose the Snapper because I wanted a fish with white meat that might remind me of eating Northern Pike or Walleye back home. The fish fried well, but it seemed tougher than other fish meat. The fish I originally wanted to get was a Parrot Fish (white meat), but I didn’t know that you had to go to market at 8:30 A.M. to get one. The reason for this is that when the spear fisherman go out to get these fish they do so at night because the parrot fish sleeps in creepy coral rock crevices (how’s that for alliteration). At night, the Parrot Fish surrounds itself with a bubble of air in order to breathe and the fisherman literally bursts its bubble. Even though I feel like that is too easy, they would never make a living doing it during the day and in the end I like to do the same thing with ducks when they float my way in the water. It is an easy kill, but still a lot of fun for the hunter/fisherman. Next time, I will be sure to go early in the morning for parrot fish and later in the afternoon for tuna.
To all who came to our get together, I’m glad you had fun. I pray that you enjoyed time with friends. Altogether, I believe we had 17 people come! We also thank you all for bringing food and drinks to share that made the night flow smoothly. I think the funniest part of the evening for me was killing the mosquitoes that had come inside with both our front and back doors open. I found tons of them sitting on the ceiling and sitting still so I went around killing them with a broom. In the morning, I found that our miniature ants were going around and cleaning the dead mosquito carcasses off the wall (how’s that for a picture from Saipan). Needless to say the evening was fun and I enjoyed not being bitten by a single mosquito at night. haha Enjoy the pictures. Sincerely, Grant