(ABOVE) The whole tuna: At Maguro-ya in Kaimukī, chef Goro Obara ensures that no part of an ahi goes to waste—not even the skin. Above, Obara’s signature Maguro Zukushi Teishoku with three different ahi preparations: raw, grilled and deep-fried.
Goro Obara was already a dedicated ahi enthusiast when he opened Maguro-ya restaurant in Kaimuki in 1999. His first menu featured Hawaii's bigeye tuna in more than ten dishes; now there are more than twenty.
For Obara the question has never been why ahi, but rather, why anything else? When he arrived in Hawaii in 1988 after apprenticing at sushi bars and restaurants in Osaka and his native Hiroshima, he saw immediately that this tuna was the locals' fish of choice. Ahi was and remains the most popular selection for poke and sashimi, both widely consumed as everyday snacks and potluck offerings. On New Year's Eve, when platters of ahi sashimi are de rigueur at Island feasts, demand soars. In Japan, maguro, or bluefin tuna, is the iconic fish; in Hawaii it's ahi. This is why Obara, whose English is limited, chose the name Maguro-ya-what he serves is almost always locally sourced 'ahi (unless scarce supplies force him to fly in cuts of fatty maguro toro belly from Tokyo), but he uses the Japanese word for both bigeye and bluefin.
Sushi offerings include his signature Maguro Iro Iro, roughly translated as "tuna different ways"-eight pieces of nigiri sushi topped with cuts from the fish's collar to its belly, including nakaochi (flesh scraped with spoons from between its ribs) and the lean, ruby akami of its back. Appetizers include minced tuna meatballs, strips of 'ahi skin simmered in a citrusy soy broth and skewers of grilled ahi and leeks. Ahi belly is served as steak; ribs are presented grilled, simmered or panko-battered and deep-fried. There's even an offering of the massive collar, grilled and salted.
Alone among Hawaii sushi chefs in his extreme focus on one species, Obara honors ahi's dwindling Pacific stocks by using every edible part. Still, he wishes he could do more. "It's interesting to use all parts of a maguro, from tail to collar. But there are even more parts that I could be using," he says. Once in a while he finds sacs of roe. The sacs are large-ahi can weigh well over a hundred pounds-but the eggs are smaller than ikura, or salmon roe, and easier to handle because they're sturdier. Obara says they're delicious fried with soy sauce.
